'Till We Meet Again (4/5)
And so, Anna'ri talks about the events following her return from the mountain.
At first, when her parents found her, they thought that the 8 slaves didn't deliver her properly, so all 8 of them were beheaded.
Anna'ri, of course, tried telling them the truth of what happened, but when she got to the part where their mountain god was slain by another god, they immediately stopped listening to her.
"Lord Talran is invincible!" they'd said. "There's no way he could've been defeated!"
If they didn't need their lord's bride to look unmarred, they'd have probably slapped her face for telling such a terrible lie.
Then, her parents personally brought an escort and marched her back up the mountain – intent on making sure she doesn't "run away again".
However, when they arrive a few hours later, they found a flock of wild beasts devouring what was left of Lord Talran's corpse. As it turns out, a god's blood has quite an attractive scent to wild beasts.
Thus, the shocking truth became evident. Lord Talran really was dead.
Feeling terrified now, Anna'ri and her parents made a stealthy return home. Then, they immediately stuffed her in the cellar and locked the door.
"As far as everyone knows, you've gone up the mountain and become Lord Talran's bride," they told her. "No one must know of this!"
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Perhaps understandably, Anna'ri's parents knew very well that things would go very, very wrong with the whole village if it became known that the mountain god is dead.
The "Tiger spirit" was the only obstacle keeping the other invading tribes from invading their village, killing all the men, and capturing all the women.
With their guardian gone, they suddenly found themselves in a very dangerous situation.
So, the best thing they can do is pretend that their deity is still alive.
As for their daughter? Everyone knows what happens to Lord Talran's brides; nobody can see young Anna'ri alive again in this village, or else their deception would be exposed.
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Once Anna'ri is done narrating her story to this pointy-eared man, she then points up at him. "What about you? Who are you, anyway?"
She can see the pale man's heavy breathing, and she can FEEL him trying to restrain his anger. Her intuition is practically screaming at her that this man knows her very well and that his appearance along the roadside wasn't a coincidence.
Suddenly, a sheepish look crosses the pale man's face, and he extends a hand to her. "I'm sorry. My mind was so occupied with other matters that I didn't really think of how rude I was being. I should've introduced myself the first time we met."
Anna'ri doesn't know why this man is extending a hand to her… but her gut instinct tells her that this is a greeting custom of his.
Once she takes his hand, the pointy-eared man shakes her hand and bows his head respectfully, "My name is Haalfrin."
Seeing how excited this man is acting, Anna'ri can't help but think he's a little silly. Letting out a small laugh, she points out, "A name isn't good enough to know a person. WHO are you? WHAT are you? Your occupation? Your reason for being here?"
"Eh…," Haalfrin mumbles while looking up in thought. "I guess I work for the gods over in the Death Realm. I handle most of the Death King's business in the mortal realm."
He adds, "The gods of the Mortal Realm have an agreement with my lord to never practice necromancy, it involves abusing the spirits of the Dead. The Dead belong to my lord, and he doesn't tolerate outsiders touching his citizens. That's why I showed up to kill that Tiger demon from earlier."
"So," he offers again with an extended hand, "now that you know who I am, will you come with me?"
"Wait, come with you? I'm just a mortal. There's nothing you can gain from me," Anna'ri remarks cynically.
Hearing her words, Haalfrin laughs light-heartedly, "Haha! Do you think I would randomly show up and meet you twice if you weren't special? I have many worlds to visit, yet I took time out of my schedule to drop by this world to check up on you."
Anna'ri gets a complicated look on her face. Despite her instincts telling her to trust this man, her logic says that it's not a good idea to run off with strangers.
"What's your motive, then?" she asks. "It can't be just because of 'kindness'."
Surprisingly, Haalfrin nods his head vigorously, "You're right. You're actually someone I know very well." He looks down and scratches his head – not sure how to say this next part. "Eh… you may not believe me, but you're actually a Death goddess that's undergoing punishment from my king right now."
"…What?"
"Yeah… Well, it looks like you're human now, but you used to be a member of the Crow tribe. You got into a lot of trouble with my king and broke a few rules, so he exiled you to a mortal life for a set number of lifetimes."
Haalfrin puts a hand over his heart, "You got in trouble because you were helping me out, so the least I can do is make sure you live well until your punishment is over."
Haalfrin looks down again and says, "I know it's a little hard to believe. In fact, it's ok if you don't believe me. It's so hard to explain, so I was planning on keeping quiet. However, you DID ask, and I hate lying to people I care about."
Unexpectedly, Anna'ri asks, "You said I was a Crow spirit, right?"
"Right."
The young lady then remembers all the apparitions she's seen in the mirror all her life… She nods her head, "All right. I believe your story."
'A lot of my life wouldn't make sense otherwise…,' she thinks. 'The question is, do I actually go with this man? Can I trust him?'
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With these complex thoughts running through her head, Anna'ri looks up at her childhood home.
She then looks down the mountain in the direction of her family's house, and complicated emotions run through her heart. "Fine. I'll come with you," she finally says.
"Perfect!" the man grins.
Suddenly, his grin disappears as he notices where she's looking up at. "What about them? Should I kill them?"
Anna'ri shakes her head. "No. I don't really care about them."
Hearing her answer, Haalfrin actually looks down – disappointed. "Oh…"
"Wait…," Haalfrin slowly asks, "What do you want to take with you?"
"Nothing," comes her short reply.
"What about those clothes you were wearing before?" Haalfrin asks. "You're wearing rags right now, and I don't have any women's clothes with me."
Seeing the young woman cross her arms and stare at him silently, Haalfrin realizes that he's not going to get an answer out of her.
More than likely, she has nothing to bring. Considering the way she's being treated here, it would be strange if she still had any belongings.
"Very well…," Haalfrin concedes. "Get on my back. You're too hungry to really walk anywhere."
Without protesting any further, Anna'ri gets on the pointy-eared man's back and wraps her arms around his neck to hang on.
It's only when the Death King's servant stands up that she realizes how freakishly tall he is; he's even taller than the Tiger god!
(To be fair, Rehkin are, on average, shorter than humans. Plus, humans tend to evolve to be taller when their people live in colder climates. Haalfrin's homeworld certainly sees a lot more snow that this world of perpetual jungles.)
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Several well-dressed young boys and girls are all kneeling in front of a wooden table, and they're all taking their turns filling their plates with food – starting from the parents, then the eldest children, down to the youngest ones.
Of course, the logic among their people is that the eldest children need more food, since they're the ones doing the majority of the hard labor.
This noon meal is usually lighter and a lot more casual than dinner is, so they're all enjoying a bit of light conversation instead of the typical ceremonial silence associated with the most important meal of the day.
"Mom! Why aren't there any honeycombs anymore!?" the youngest child whines. She's only a 3-year-old little girl, so the mother and father aren't nearly as quick to pinch her ear for her disrespectful tone.
"Because," the mother replies patiently, "we're saving up for Hera'ri's wedding. We can't shame the family by not providing anything for the feast."
"What about Anna'ri's wedding!?" the child asks curiously, "we sent biggest sister off, but I never got to eat any honeycombs then."
The mother subtly clenches her grip on her cup, and she furrows her eyebrows. Not wanting to tell her children the truth about what happened to their eldest sister, she quickly changes the subject.
"Don't worry about the honeycombs. Big sister Hera'ri is getting married in 3 days, so you'll just have to wait till then."
Hearing this conversation, the eldest son – a 15-year-old boy with brown skin and features roughly resembling his father's, suddenly quips with a sarcastic edge to his tone, "What? So quick to change the subject whenever Anna'ri comes up? You just don't want to admit that you-"
"ENOUGH!" the matron of the house slams her spoon on the table. "When did you become bold enough to talk back to your mother!?"
"Nalan'rem," the father says sternly to his son, "don't talk to your mother that way." He then turns to the mother and whispers, "Did you go down to the cellar again?"
The older woman avoids eye contact with him and refuses to answer.
Realizing what just happened, the father's face hardens, and he whispers in her ear, "We'll talk about this later. Privately."
Truth be told, the only reason Anna'ri hasn't been killed yet is because her father couldn't bear to kill his own blood. However, he was also the one to suggest locking her up, since he really does feel that it's dangerous for her survival to be known by the other villagers.
As for Nalan'rem, he's the only one of their children who knows about Anna'ri being locked up in the basement, and he's been petitioning his father to get the girl released since the beginning.
However, every time he brings it up to his parents, they always ignored his wishes – always saying that it's for the good of the family.
In fact, the only time the father has ever gotten violent with his eldest son is when the boy threatened to tell their neighbors the truth just the other day. The bruise on his eye is still visible.
"It's not going to be any different, even if we talk about it," the matron says to her husband. "Don't bother. Just eat your-"
*BANG!*
Before she can even finish saying "eat your food", a loud crash comes from the cellar, and a sickening, stuffy feeling of dread overcomes the entire house.
They haven't even seen any invaders yet, yet they can all feel the heavy Pressure oppressing their spirits. Due to them having a culture of worshipping the Rehkin as "animal spirits", all the adults in the room recognize what a strong Spiritual Aura feels like.
Did the mountain god rise from the dead and come to claim his bride?