So Hide Your Eyes

Chapter FIVE - Likah

Chapter FIVE

______

My Mama told me when I was young, "so hide your eyes when they come."

______

______

I CRAWLED UP THE shimmery shore and pushed myself up.

Then I walked till I saw a jetty where people were fishing, and stopped. I remembered what Mama and Demon had said. Patches of skin could be seen through the holes in my shirt.

A bit more wouldn't matter, so I tore a long strip and tied it around my eyes like I'd seen Mama do to one of her customers once. The lump in my throat bobbed and swelled and I nearly choked. But I wasn't safe just yet so I suppressed the urge to cry. Just like I'd always swallowed the meat of octopi which Mama always likes, even though it tasted rubbery and horrid, because I'd go hungry otherwise.

  'Liked,' I reminded myself blinking mildly. 'Liked.'

  I felt an uncontrollable impulse to commit suicide - what a satisfying word - and approached the fishermen on the jetty.

  "Hello s-strong men. H-have you seen Demon?" I stumbled in front of them. These were Demon's killers. They'd kill me too if they knew. My pulse stuttered in fright.

  "Ye. Sid he get your eyes too?" A tall man with black skin asked. His eyebrows furrowed in sympathy.

  "Yes."          

  One of the men shouted. He reeled in his rod and deftly unhooked the fish, then dropped it into a large ceramic pot beside him.

  The fish waved its tail as it splashed into the pot. The man spat on the wooden jetty flooring. "The Demon does that sometimes."

  "He took a knife to carve out my son's eyes!"

  "He did worse to my niece – gouged out her eyes with her husband's fishing hook. And laughed! He laughed!" Another man neglected his fishing to turn and crow.

  My stomach did a funny somersault.

  "If you're going to puke, don't do it here. The smell will scare off the fishes, and where will we be then?"

  "OK," I said. "Do you know where he is?"

  "The Demon Watch says he's in the garden," the first man piped up. "Thank goodness for TDW, or no one'd be able to avoid him."

  "You're not going to try at him are you?" Spitting Man said warningly and cast his line. "Revenge is always the answer, except with him."

  "Oh. Then I won't," I said, feeling relief bubbling in my throat. "Thank you. Thank you."

I went off to find the garden.

_______________

It was surprisingly easy to find, considering how much larger Likah was than Khoel. But maybe it was just that Khoel was so impossibly small, that Likah seemed huge when compared, and both were just really tiny when thought of objectively.

The garden was brimming with frightening plants, all bizarre in shape. Different from the plants in Khoel. None of them fluid or rubbery at all, and all of them sharp.

I passed by a prickly plant that was tube-like and had dozens of needle things poked into it. Beside the pavement, countless other sprawling ones poked my feet with their thorns.

I followed the spiralling stone pavement and reached the centre of the garden. Demon was angling his knife, and it shone especially bright because the sun was scorching in Likah. He swung and loped off the top half of a tube-like plant with needles poked into it.

I shifted uncomfortably and waited.

" 'Ello," he said.

"Hello."

"I didn't expect you so soon." Demon said. He was standing very still.

Maybe it was because of my eyes. I didn't want him to worry that they'd been gouged out or something equally frightening like the fishermen had believed. I unwrapped the blindfold and let it hang on my fingers.

"The Khoel villagers came after me. I had to run," I explained.

Demon shrugged. "Yeah. Those without our eyes don't do well with people like us." He grinned. "I'm glad you're fine and outta that village though, because you're the first immortal I've met who isn't already a soldier."

I scuffed a foot. "But I liked my village..." I trailed off. The villagers were cruel and mostly subdued until they decided against sparing me, but Khoel itself had been peaceful.

Demon frowned and placed an arm on his hip. "Then why didn't you fight for your right to stay there?"

The cobblestones felt hot beneath my toes, and I wanted a deep hole to hide myself in. I wished I'd avoided contradicting him. "Because Mama told me to run before she died," I whispered.

  "Do you listen to her all the time?" he huffed.

I thought back to the days she was still alive. I had almost never obeyed her. From the first instruction she'd ever given to hide my eyes, to her last.

Majority of the time, I'd done the exact opposite of in order to avenge my attempted murder. "No," I said finally.

"So...?" he prompted.

I didn't understand why he was acting so mean. "I killed her, even though she tried to save me. So I had to listen to her. I had to." I threaded the coarse blindfold through my fingers in anxiety.

"So it was for honour," he said knowingly, eyes lighting up.

I wanted to disagree, but I let it go because I couldn't explain that ungraspable feeling myself. Honour was petty. It wasn't honour, but something else, something significant which I didn't think Demon would ever learn.

Gods were motherless, after all.

  Suddenly, I pitied him. I patted his back. "Sure," I said. "Sure it was for honour."

It was sarcastic this time.

________

A/N:

TDW reminds of TWG for some reason. Favourite tea? I'm partial to chamomile with milk. And Starbucks coffee, though that's not a tea. :)

Votes and comments are very very appreciated.

IMPT: Thanks to everyone who voted and commented! >.<

_______

Yes, of course I don't know the true usage of the word sarcastic and I'm not purposely bungling the word.

(Note that that had been sarcastic.)

________