Nicholas and Ethan entered their hut while Jenny also went to the hut where she lived. The two lay down on their beds while Nicholas scratched his head, and silence filled the place. Nicholas closed his eyes while Ethan kept looking at the ceiling with a slight smile, lost in thought, thinking about how wonderful it was to play with those children. While hanging out with them, he felt a strange sensation, one he had never experienced before. A mixture of fatigue, happiness, and challenge. A feeling that still made him feel good. He began to yawn while closing his eyes, the smile still lingering on his face. Since waking up in the middle of the mountains, he had been facing dangers and challenges daily and could have died at any moment. But from the first moment he entered the village, he felt safe for the first time since awakening, and at the same time it brought him happy times, like the joy of playing without fearing for his life from death, or seeing the flower garden, meeting new friends, and getting a comfortable bed. He covered himself and fell asleep.
After several minutes of silence had passed, Jesse entered the hut with a bag containing their wages for the mission they had completed. Jesse threw the bag then lay down on his bed to relax a little. After several minutes passed, Nicholas slowly opened his eyes and raised his head to look toward the window, only to find that the scorching sun's rays had not yet diminished. He dropped his head on his pillow while looking at the ceiling tiredly. He closed his eyes to sleep, but with quiet taking over the place, his mind began to take him back to memories of the past, returning him to his childhood days.
Nicholas remembered one of the days when he was 10 years old, he was fighting with one of his friends in a large circular arena, while a group of Katorians surrounded them screaming while watching the fight. The males of his people were used either in hard labor like digging or farming, or in entertainment shows that consisted of two of their people fighting in a medium-sized circular arena, and whoever left the arena or fell for 5 seconds was the loser. The two were evenly matched. Nicholas was covered in sweat while breathing heavily from exhaustion, and the same for the other but he was in a slightly worse condition than him. Nicholas was looking at him with tension and fatigue and said to himself: "He seems to be in bad shape. I can land several punches on him and get him out of the arena and win, but... he will be whipped by his owner if he loses, and the same goes for me..."
The other boy began moving toward him with expressions of fatigue clear on his face. He was a child of the same age and height as him, with a bald head and a somewhat fat body. Then he began trying to throw punches at Nicholas but he was dodging them easily. The boy was exhausted and unable to continue. One of the Katorians approached forward and screamed loudly: "Don't you dare lose, you fat one. If you lose I will whip you 30 lashes." Expressions of terror appeared on the boy's face. He began hitting with all the strength he had left toward Nicholas, but he couldn't hurt him. Nicholas took a deep breath while thinking: "His situation is pitiful... I want him to win, but I'm not ready to receive 30 more lashes for today." Nicholas took an offensive stance and quickly pulled his fist back, and before delivering the blow he said in a sad tone with expressions of pity dominating his face: "Sorry," then delivered a direct blow to the boy's face which made him fall to the ground unconscious. Mixed screams of joy and anger rose in the area while Nicholas left the arena with a scowling face. The man who had screamed at the boy earlier headed toward the arena with expressions of anger dominating his face. Then he grabbed the boy by his leg and dragged him out of the arena. After Nicholas left the arena, he stopped in front of one of the men. A man between white and black, with dark eyes, wearing a blood-red shirt and white pants, and wearing a necklace with a small skull at its end. He looked at Nicholas with a big smile and said to him: "Well done, you won 100 Noro from your victory. I hope you continue at the same pace." Nicholas replied while looking at the ground: "May I go to my mother?" The other replied: "Since my mood is good today, you can go to her, and on top of that I'll give you a small gift." He pulled out from his pocket a medium-sized loaf of bread and offered it to him. Nicholas thanked him for the gift and headed quickly toward the place where his mother lived.
He arrived at a stone hut full of cracks all around it. He opened the door and entered, to find his mother cleaning their owners' clothes with a scowling face empty of emotions. Nicholas headed toward her and extended the bread to her. The mother looked at him, showing expressions of sadness on her face upon seeing him. She opened her arms and hugged him while saying: "Oh my little Nicholas, I'm sorry for making you tire yourself for my sake." Nicholas hugged his mother and kissed her on the head and said to her with a slight smile: "You always repeat this talk, mother, no need to worry about me. You are my mother, and I must take care of you. Come on, stop being sad and eat the bread I brought you." Tears began coming out of the mother's eyes but she wiped them with her hands. She took the bread from Nicholas's hand, divided it into two halves, and distributed it between them. The mother began eating slowly with a scowling face, while Nicholas was eating greedily and quickly until he finished his bread in one minute. He took a deep breath then grabbed a glass of water and drank it. He sat in front of his mother and began helping her with the washing.
After several minutes passed, Nicholas heard the sound of the door opening so he turned to see who entered. He found Narcissa entering the house with her usual angry face. The mother got up toward her and removed her shoes from her feet, while Narcissa looked at her with contempt. After the mother finished, Narcissa headed toward the kitchen saying: "I hope to find the food ready, you b****." Nicholas became furious upon hearing that but remained in his place without doing anything for fear they would do something to his mother. Narcissa entered the kitchen and the mother followed her. She sat on the chair while the mother brought her a piece of meat and placed it on the table. Narcissa grabbed the plate and began eating greedily while Nicholas was looking at her with disgust. When she finished the plate, she said to the mother quietly: "You servant, come closer to me." The mother approached her with tension clear on her face. She grabbed her hand and placed it on the table while the mother kept looking at her with a tense face, and feelings of anxiety dominated her. Narcissa grabbed a knife that was in front of her and quickly stabbed the mother's arm. The mother quickly pulled her hand back and began screaming and crying hysterically from pain, while blood gushed from her arm. Narcissa got up from the chair and screamed at her with a face full of anger: "Didn't I tell you not to put too much salt? Can't you just add a moderate amount of salt? Are you this much of a failure, you stupid slave?" The mother fell to the ground while gripping her arm tightly from the intensity of pain, while tears poured from her eyes and the floor was filled with her blood. Narcissa headed toward her and began kicking her repeatedly with a face full of anger: "You failed b****, on top of you taking my husband from me, you still can't even do something simple, you stupid foolish b****."
All this was happening in front of Nicholas's eyes, who was trying to calm the anger inside him and not do anything to avoid any additional problems. But he couldn't bear it. He couldn't just keep watching his mother being humiliated by that b****. He had reached his limits of endurance. He looked out of the corner of his eye to the right to glimpse a small box full of knives and spoons. He headed toward it quickly and pulled a knife from it. Then he looked at Narcissa while on the verge of exploding from anger. Then he ran toward her and in one moment, he stabbed her in the foot. Narcissa fell to the ground while screaming from pain. Nicholas looked at her with looks full of anger and contempt and began delivering punches to her face, releasing all his anger on her, while her screaming increased with each punch. Nicholas raised his arm to the air and with all his strength delivered a blow to her mouth which caused some of her teeth to break. Then he said in a voice full of hatred: "Stop screaming like a b****." She stopped screaming and blood began coming out of her mouth and nose profusely. Then she began closing her eyes slowly. Nicholas kept breathing heavily from exhaustion then headed toward his mother who had fallen on the ground. He grabbed part of his clothes and began tearing it. Then he removed the knife from her hand and covered it with that part of the clothes. He said to her with a worried voice: "Mother, are you okay? Answer me." The mother began opening her eyes slowly to find Nicholas in front of her. A slight smile appeared on Nicholas's face then he hugged her. "Don't worry, mother, you're fine." While Nicholas was hugging his mother, the mother noticed Narcissa's body fallen on the ground, showing expressions of shock on her face. The mother pushed Nicholas away from her then placed her hand on his shoulder and said to him in a terrified tone: "Nicholas... what have you done?" Nicholas replied: "Don't worry, mother, I beat her up badly, she won't touch you again." The mother placed her hand on her head with a face terrified to the extreme. Expressions of surprise and worry appeared on Nicholas's face, wondering about the mistake he had made. The mother slapped Nicholas hard and said to him with a mixture of terror and anger: "You fool, what have you done? If others find out you hurt her, they will execute both of us."
The mother grabbed Nicholas's hand then left the kitchen. Nicholas looked at her with a frightened face and said: "Where are we going?" The mother asked him to be quiet then they continued walking until they reached the room where they slept. The mother quickly headed toward one of the boxes then removed it, revealing a large hole in the wall closed from the outside with a wooden piece. Nicholas was surprised by what he saw then said: "Since when is there a hole in our room?" The mother remained silent and gestured for him to come. The mother entered the hole and pushed the wood so that sunlight leaked from the room. The mother came out of the hole and Nicholas followed her from behind, finding himself in one of the empty alleys. The mother grabbed his hand and began going toward somewhere, until she stopped in front of one of the huts that appeared to be old, and knocked on the wall five times. After several minutes passed, part of the wall began moving backward to create an opening into the hut. The two entered inside then the opening closed behind them. Nicholas couldn't see anything because the place was completely dark. He felt uncomfortable and said with a worried voice: "What is this place?"
After several seconds passed, a lit candle suddenly appeared in the corner of the room, then another candle in the middle of the room, and candles kept appearing suddenly until darkness disappeared from the place. With the spread of light, a group of women, men, and elderly from their people appeared throughout the room looking at them with surprise. The mother approached one of the elderly and said to him with a voice full of sadness: "My son has hurt Narcissa and you know if they discover us both of us will be executed." The old man took a deep breath and said: "Didn't you warn him not to cause problems with Katorians?" Nicholas replied with a sad tone: "Yes, she warned me but she was hitting her and humiliating her so I couldn't control myself, I'm sorry." A slight smile appeared on the old man's face then he placed his hand on his shoulder and said to him: "No need to apologize, this is normal, anyone would get angry if they found their mother being assaulted. Be proud of yourself, you are a real man."
(Continues)