Silence Is Golden

"There is no running from your duty."

I wondered what he meant.

"Our duty?!" A voice exclaimed. It seemed to come from the far side of the village. I couldn't yet recognise it. 

The leader jerked his head in the direction, like a panther stalking it's prey. Creeping in it's direction.

"Yes. Your duty. Seems you gremlins speak English after all." 

"Our duty is not to be your slaves!" the voice barked. "Your people have already exiled us from your lands, and now you would have us back? For what? To be worked like horses and locked away like hounds!"

The leader fell silent. Still. No visible reaction. The kind of silence that comes with contemplating murder. My eyes stuck to him like leeches. Sucking away all information. 

"Oh?" he chortled. "In that case, answer me this. What exactly is your duty? Your purpose?" 

The Gimen voice, which was now speaking for all of us, could only let out a grunt of confusion. The leader carried on. 

"Well, it's just... you and your people don't benefit the world as you are. You don't protect it, you don't advance it, in this place, you don't contribute at all."

Gimen blood boiled, the fumes coated the air. For the first time, I felt it a sliver of it too. Connected by newfound hatred. The leader chattered on. 

"So what do you do instead? You hide. You selfishly cower behind your desire to survive, ignoring your duty to this world. And on every one of these excursions I'm met with the same sob story. How you're equal to us. How you deserve the same rights as us. You regard yourselves as humans, you don't sound like humans to me."

The leader turned. Hands in the air. Begging the attention of the whole village. As if it were theatre. 

"You sound more akin to animals."

My skin flared, hot and itchy. I envisioned scratching that itch. Not upon my own face, but his. I sighed, deep and bitter. Hatred was unpleasant. 

The Gimen voice must've felt the same. For it did not stop speaking while silence was golden. 

"How dare you!" he snarled. "Your kind has made certain that we can bear no power in this world, even if we wanted to! We run because you chase us! We hide because you mean to kill us! You have not even allowed us the time for anything else!"

"You're not capable of anything else!" The leader snapped back. "You don't have the power to survive. Yet alone to make a difference. Not without us to make use of you."

His words severed through reason, tore through logic. Snuffing out any hint of the truth, replacing it with his. At this moment, we were left drowning in loathing. The disgust lodged in our throats. This man was simply too stupid to be spoken to. 

That didn't stop the voice from trying. 

"That is not your place, you damned arrogant fool! We have our own land, our own priorities, our own goals! Keeping our wives and children safe from the likes of you! That is our choice to make and ours alone!" With the last word came a thump. He slammed his fist into something. 

The leader let his words linger. Not with impact, but with realisation. We had said our piece, and he no longer had reason to listen.

Chuckling, he turned away from the hut, stomping back down to the other humans. 

He was no longer whining, so I couldn't hear him as clearly. I pressed my ears against the window rather than my eyes.

"Yes. Bring her out here. She needs to see this. Far too coddled up there in Stratoshire."

I turned back, peering through once again. 

With that command, two soldiers jogged down into the forest on the far-left of the village. 

The leader tapped his feet impatiently. Hands at his waist. Staring at where the soldiers had vanished to. As was I. As was everyone in the village, I imagine. Mother had gathered the courage to look too. Staring through the boarded window along with me. Clutching her necklace like it were a pendant to ward of evil spirits. Mickey and Damien remained sat on the floor. Staring at nothing. Questioning everything. I scarcely inched my gaze toward them. In this kind of situation, any walls between us should have come crashing down. Rendered inconsequential. But they hadn't. I had nothing to say that I believed they wanted to hear. Giving up, I turned back to the window. 

What I saw would make me question everything too. 

The two soldiers had emerged. Marching towards the village. But it was what stood behind them that caught my eye. Or rather, who. 

Out stepped a girl who looked like she didn't belong here. 

Wrapped in a golden fur cloak like a delicate gift. It was far too big for her small frame. It slipped off her shoulders awkwardly as she walked. Her dark brown hair fell around her freckled face in soft waves, slightly tousled by the wind. Underneath her cloak, a white linen dress, cluttered by necklaces and bracelets. They looked important, symbolic-- but not to her. To whoever had dressed her up. Soft ivory skin. Like her beauty had been shielded from the roughage all her life. 

She didn't carry herself like a soldier. She looked like someone who had never seen a battlefield in her life. Rather, no. 

She didn't even understand that she was walking into one. 

Allowing me to gaze upon this girl was the first smart thing he had done all day. 

'But why bring her here?'

Before I knew it, the human leader was marching down towards her, arms outstretched for a hug. 

He slung his arm around her like a prize he'd won. Dragging her back toward the village, whispering into her ear. His demeanour shifted-- sickly sweet like rotten fruit. The girl's body tensed as he handled her. The sight infuriated me and I had no idea why. 

"See? The gremlins aren't listening to us, are they milady?" the leader said. 

The girl's gaze stayed locked awkwardly ahead. "No..."

"Do you know what we do when they don't listen...?" 

The girl remained silent for a moment. Not that she was looking for the answer... 

But that she did. And it scared her. 

"We... use our power on them...?"

The leader grinned like his child had learned to walk. 

"Yes! Correct, Lady Pandora!"

'Pandora. Wait, lady?!'

It seemed what stood before me, was none other than royalty. Human royalty. I had only ever heard stories. Stories I didn't even believe. One being to rule over all the others? What sense did that make? 

"Are you... really going to do it?" her voice rocked. 

The leader turned, meeting her eyes. 

"We have no choice."