Ja Lia, Stabbed To Death?

      "Please ask him again, he sure doesn't know what he is doing."

    Ja's voice broke into confetti as tears swelled in his throat. He would be so glad if he was woken up and told that all was just a dream. Because that was all it seemed to him. He couldn't make a sane meaning out of it. 

    He was tied to a pillar outside the palace. Two warriors were standing before him. He had been beaten to pulp firstly and one of the warriors with a spear in hand was wearing him out with an odd ogle. 

    "I know deep down, you do not want to do this. I'm as helpless as you are."

   He paused. He was panting, there were shots of blood in the swells all around his face. There were tracks of blood all over his body too. The robe he was putting did less in holding the pain back. 

    He continued,

      "Come to think of it."

    He was struggling with the words. Not because he didn't know what to say, but he was watching his life dwindle gradually in front of him. 

     "He isn't even your ruler, how could you be so foolish to act after his orders? You shouldn't be ordered around, you should be the one who gives the orders."

    He was sure that the fellow he was addressing wasn't anything close to being convinced. 

    The warrior's face was long but his expression was pretty ambiguous. 

    He began to walk towards Ja. The spear in his left hand freaked Ja out. But luckily enough, the fellow switched the edge of the spear, from the sharp edge to the base. 

     As soon as he got to Ja, he swung the handle of the spear at Ja's jaw. Thick blood was puked as his face was turned to the direction of the blow. 

     Ja wasn't sure if he would be able to say a thing anymore. 

    The warrior chuckled and reached for Ja's head. He pulled it up and spat in his face,

     "Whether or not I become the ruler later, you'll eventually die. If not by his hand, by mine."

    He let Ja's head drop. Ja didn't know what exactly to think. Why was the man so mean to him. What had he done wrongly. He didn't know the man from Adam. He wasn't only frustrated but sad. Was that how he was going to die? Because of Lailah?

    How about his brother, what would they think. That he was still a cleaner in Havila. Wouldn't he set his eyes on them ever again?

    His brothers too were cleaners like him. In other regions. He quit thinking. So came the end of his life. 

    But he could take his death with a light hope. Probably a thread of hope which would be set on flames by pain sooner or later. 

    A hope of the fact that he was the cause. Probably he was having his share of the misfortune he caused, starting from stealing the helmet of Jin. 

    Probably twas even the helmet that brought Lailah or something. He quit thinking as soon as he heard the warrior say again,

     "Godforsaken stranger. You didn't think fate would catch up with you? Come to Rome and see what is made of strangers. Retarded infidel."

     The warrior kicked Ja in the chest again. Ja puked blood. His countenance had fallen. All the life you could think he had was canvassed by the face he wore. Death seemed to be having a bargain on his life. 

     "Go hold his head, Tia."

    That warrior ordered the other one who had been indifferent all along. Twas hard to judge if Tia was supportive of what the other warrior had been doing. 

   But he seemed more like Ja. Between the both of them, twas quite hard to judge who was  more helpless. 

    Tia got to Ja and pulled up his head. Tia bent immediately on Ja and whispered into his ear. 

    The other warrior noticed and approached the two. Then he scoffed,

    "Oh, no! Not now, Tia! Don't tell me you're all piteous of this crackpot."

    Tia didn't say a word. His heavy hands holding Ja's head firmly. 

     Ja could see his death few steps away from him. 

      The ruthless warrior with spear poised (the sharp edge pointed at Ja) walked to Ja. 

    He put the sharp edge of the spear on Ja's chest, to the left. 

     "Did he lie to you in the name of hope? Puke it, it's a mere illusion."

     He began to press the spear with force, squeezing it through Ja's robe as the sharp edge drove through Ja's skin and ruined the veins, cruising above the heart till twas poking out at his back. 

     Ja screamed and groaned. 

    "Please."

    He begged but it fell on deaf ears. 

     "Stop him."

    Ja muttered to Tia but he had his head up. It seemed as though there was little he could do. 

      "Oh, shoot, I miss the heart. But not again. "

    The warrior pulled out the sword immediately and stabbed him in the stomach several times. Ja's robe was soaked in his own blood. 

    Ja dropped his head as he breathed his last? 

   The ruthless warrior began to scream in joy. He seemed to be a pyscho. 

     "What have you done, Rukhi?"

    Tia seemed to had manned up, as he challenged the ruthless warrior. 

    Rukhi dropped the spear in his hand, tossed his head aside and held Tia in a choke. 

    "Untie that corpse and take him with me to the sea. If you think you still have the guts when we come back, then let's settle the challenge over a fight."

    Rukhi let Tia go and  walked towards the stable to the East of the palace. 

     He returned after few minutes with two horses. Tia had untied Ja. 

     "Help him on the horse and sit next to him. Since you earned yourself a dead bestie."

    Rukhi chuckled as he climbed on the brown and sturdy horse. 

    Tia after fumbling put the Ja's corpse on the black horse and sat behind it. 

   They rode to the sea. 

   No sooner, they got to the sea. Rukhi climbed off his nickering horse and walked to Tia's. 

    He pushed the corpse down and said. 

     "Grab the legs, I'll help with the head."

      He ordered. Tia did as he was told and they walked towards the lapping waves of the sea. 

      "You think you're right?"

   Tia shot, looking at the waves crashing against the sand. 

      "Thought we had an agreement, sucker?"

    Rukhi shot back. Tia remained silent. 

    They got to the waves soon and at the call of Rukhi, they hurled the corpse into the sea. 

     Rukhi stood for a while and watched as the waves contend over the corpse, kicking it to and fro. What a view. 

     "You probably should join him."

    Tia shot resentfully. Rukhi turned at him and began to pursue him. 

    "You're a dead meat."

   He threatened. Tia got to the horse firstly, climbed on it and began to rode off. The horse kicking against the eerie earth. 

    Rukhi had gotten on his too and was behind Tia, bent on catching him. 

    As they rode by in rage and threat respectively, a raven flew past them headed to the sea. 

     "Cursed bird."

     Rukhi said but had a pressing matter up ahead. 

      As the raven flew nearer to the sea, the larger it grew. It grew till he was big enough to carry a fallen baobab tree. 

     The huge bird got to the sea and hovered over the waves screeching. 

   In no time, it spotted the corpse and went for it. 

   With the corpse in its claws, it flew towards the land. To the West. 

    For a feast?