Rwoth

A stone knife was stuck in Pimer's right arm. She was an earth magus who could shape anything from stone. She had made the knife herself the previous year at the oracular. On it was a name; Rabesahala

I knew very well the trouble she had gone through to get this knife made, and how much she had treasured it. If I am to die, I will be holding this knife, she had said most of the times. But I didn't expect it to happen any sooner.

I held her closer to his chest, hands over her cold check.

A desperate cry was heard all around, in this cave full of death and silence, a little cry.It was of a child.I turned around like mad and started combing around searching where it was coming from.

It was from the entrance to the cave. I stumbled all the way back to where I had come from, jumping over bodies, dead bodies until finally, some familiar face stared up at me.Oketh, it was Pimer's brother. He had been severely wounded. He was shot but my people called this red magic. His face was pale with all his blood vessels out on skin.

One of his arms was spread out and just below it was my son, protected from the floor by a backcloth and from the intruders by Oketh's body. As he stared at me in amazement, he gave another whelping cry.I woke up in trance shaking with relief as I bent down to pick him up. He looked at me and made another agonizing cry. I didn't know why until the blanket fell.

That's when I saw that his arm was twisted in a weird position.I tried to master up some magic to heal him but couldn't. so, I just reduced a bit of his pain. I wrapped my baby again in the blanket and made my way back to his mother. Holding our baby like she could see us, I knelt beside her.

"Pimer," I whispered, with tears stuck at my throat.

"I promise to tell him how you died protecting him. Ill raise him to be the boy you always wanted him to be, a brave boy.Her eyes stared blankly back at me. Afterall, she could never get what I was saying. I held Rwoth closer and reached out to take the knife from her hand. But as I got closer, I realized there were some words marked on the floor using the knife. Words my wife probably left for a reason_ maybe for me to see with the last of her dying breath.As I read them, they felt like blows to my stomach.

KILL THE CHILD

.........................…..

Rwoth was a legend in his village, Okollo, but not in the best way. He was famous for terrorizing teachers at school, annoying headteachers. Some teachers at school who felt pity for him considering the fact that he didn't have a mom ended up hoping they had never gotten into contact with him.

Nothing was more embarrassing than not being able to discipline a naughty angry ten-year-old.Rwoth's 'evil' face (as they called it) unkempt black hair that would coil up to countable dots on his head were very well known by all the neighbors around.The only person who wasn't afraid of him was me, his father. I kept on teaching him values, but it was hard. I mostly emphasized on not stealing.Because as far as I was concerned, stealing was almost as bad as being a magus in this kind of community.

Rwoth sat in the plastic chair Infront of the headteacher's office wondering if he would be back to school the following day or if any one at this particular school was to miss him even a single bit.He went over what I had told him that morning over and over in his head. He was supposed to mess up on the magi test and I had given him various ways of how to do that. I had listed the options for failure again and again.

Make your mind totally and I mean totally blank.

Concentrate on something else that's not about what they are asking.

Or focus on somebody else's test and answer those instead of your own.

Rwoth rubbed his arm that felt a bit stiff and painful since that morning. It had been that way since he remembered. The more he grew, the more it seemed to pain more. At least, this would make the magi physical test easier to fail.Just out the window, he saw other kids playing games, running around with their voices raised so high as they shouted at one another. He wished if he also could one day play with them.

He might have not been efficient or even skilled like most of them but he was full of disturbing energy, and he could feel it within him. Ever since he was young, no one would let him paly around because of his arm; they feared he might hurt himself.He was always mad at this, because to him, he believed he could handle a few bruises. He didn't believe that his arm could get any worse just because of some playing around with others.Rwoth sighed hard and stared the other side through the window I was to come from. I had a car that was a bit unique in the area. I owned an art shop. Nothing made me happier than putting together what other's call waste and make them more beautiful.

Rwoth was putting on a hoddie, with it on, no one could tell that there was something wrong with his arm. Only if he didn't have a long-sleeved cloth would one tell since it was turned at a really weird position.Ever since he was young, he would play all lone games. But not once, not even once was he allowed to play any game that involved magic.

Never ever.