Ashtium: City of Sun

GRETA

I wake up, shivering in the morning cold. My stomach aches and I turn my head to the side feeling the cold wall of the cave rest against my face. Naturally, I look to the entrance of my cave seeing the usual black space expanding out. No bugs in sight, unfortunately. Rarely do they bother crawling to the surface. I don’t blame them.

Suddenly, I hear a strange noise come from the other side of the cave wall I rest against. The sand hisses outside as the wind picks up, but something moves against it making the sand hiss louder than it normally does.

Clomp, clomp

An animal? I’ve never heard such a large creature wandering around out here. From the rhythm of the noise, it sounds like it has four feet. I pull out my stone knife from a crevice in the cave wall behind me and grip it tightly in my hand as I stand up with caution.

My fire pit is still glowing steadily, but if I run to diffuse it the creature may hear me. So I back into the shadows of my cave knowing the darkness will conceal me well. I quietly walk all the way back until my back hits the wall of the very back of the cave.

A giant silver beast trots out in front of my home. My heart races and I slump to the ground in terror seeing a human perched on top of it as if in control of the animal. I do not know how the animal obeys them. It remains still when the human hops off of it approaching my fire with a long dark grey item in their hand. It is sharp like my knife, but much bigger in size.

They carry it like it weighs nothing.

“Hello? Come out. You are trespassing on empirical territory,” a masculine voice echoes. A male? “Is anyone here?”

I soak in the noise, not having heard a human in over a decade. He sounds younger than my father did, but I cannot see his skin; only the shape of his silver body that my fractured vision allows me to see. My sight is too far gone o pick out age anymore. When I was younger, I could see the wrinkles forming at the corners of my parents’ eyes even though back then I saw in silver as I do now. All I can see is the outline of his body. The rest is a smudged blur of silver and greys like the creature behind him.

The man carries a torch with him like my parents did when we traveled.

I keep silent preferring to watch them underestimate my intelligence and strength as they come close enough to make out my form.

I see his figure step back quickly when his torch lights up the area of the cave I’m in. I’m unable to form words having not spoken so long. I resort to snarling showing him my teeth while waving my stone knife at him in warning.

“Y-you’re teeth. They are...black! Are you a Krexbin?”

Black? How should I have known? I can’t see them. It must be from my diet. I don’t know what he means by the word he uses for me “krexbin”. I just shake my head “no” hoping it will make him leave me alone. However, he steps even closer and I hold my blade out ready to jab him if he tries to get an inch nearer.

I have not forgotten his weapon in his hand.

“Are you alone? I won’t hurt you.”

I keep shaking my head “no” not understanding why he cares. If he didn’t plan on hurting me he wouldn’t have come in here with such a big weapon and corner me.

In a panic, I swipe my blade at him. However, he catches it in his hand and manages to pry it from my weak grip. I have not eaten enough bugs to supplement my energy. I crawl away like my food tries to do from me, but I have already been spotted. Something yanks my hair and I scream seeing the man having caught up to me in my attempt to flee.

“You are mute, defenseless. Do not run from me. I know what you are. It’s a miracle you’ve survived out here. Where is the rest of your group? I know only one reason why you could be alone. You ate them.”

I thrash in his hold. The unwanted warmth from his skin contact sends my mind reeling. I have already been outpowered.

Suddenly, he lets go of me and I stumble away landing against the cave wall. I can feel his gaze on me, even though I can’t make out his face at all. I tremble seeing him return to the giant creature blocking my escape from the cave. While his back is turned, I dash to the firepit and kick sand in it shrouding the cave in darkness.

His reaction is almost immediate. He turns around with the torch and I smile knowing I have gained the advantage.

He abandons the beast and also his weapon as if ready to face the dark I have created alone. I hear a shrill high-pitched noise and jump seeing several more beasts approach with humans sitting on top of them at the mouth of the cave.

“What are you doing here, Enoch?”

A bigger blur of a man approaches the man who cornered me and stole my knife.

“Where is my father? He was to meet me a mile from here.”

“He will not be arriving tonight. He will return in the afternoon tomorrow.”

The two men turn around as if to peer into the cave.

“There’s a woman!” the one named Enoch sounds excited, but then his voice quietens down. “In the back of the cave,” he finishes off.

Of course, I have prepared for a situation in case I was trapped in here. I have dug a tunnel underneath the back of the cave to be able to escape out onto the other side in case of emergency.

Laughter filters around my cave as I move the slate near my feet. “Well, Enoch. That is something. Doubtful, but let’s have a look at her. Go on, bring her out here!”

I get on my hands and knees hearing the men’s voices fade away as I enter the crawl space to make my leave.

When I make it out of the cave, I stand up hearing the men’s muffled voices behind me in the cave. There is another human sitting on one of the creatures out here, but they can’t see out here like me. They hold two ropes in their hands that are attached to the two other big creatures on either side of their own beast. I’ve never seen such large, tame animals.

I have a feeling I won’t be able to outrun them either. I snag one of the ropes from the human using my adrenaline rush. The human looks around blindly. Something long, like another rope, is coiled around their arm. They rapidly unwind it, alert to my presence.

“Hey!” the man shouts in a deep, angry tone while thrusting their sharp rope at me.

The end of it hits my collarbone and I hiss in pain while managing to swipe his blade from him.

He grabs onto my arm, but I use his weapon and stab him in the chest with it. He grunts then falls to the ground off his own beast. I tug the rope in my other hand and the animal approaches me. Clumsily, I crawl up onto it and sit on the cushioned seating.

I don’t know where the creature will take me, but anywhere is better than here.

“You idiots! Over here! There’s someone getting away! Get them,” the same man screams from the ground and I lean forward as the animal lurches forward.

Sand blows against me harder than I’ve ever felt and so I hide my face in the mane of the animal’s strange long neck as it carries me away.