34.17 Hate not hunger, because it be what make a person move.
"Who are you?" asked a tall muscular man that had many scars.
Jake had entered the fighter's guild grounds and found a building that was simply called "Main." When he entered, he had walked up to a man who was standing behind a counter. The man looked down at him reluctantly.
"My name is Jake Tunnis. I'm here for a job." said Jake.
"How old are you?" asked the man as he looked at Jake as though he were some sort of a sideshow attraction.
"I'm fourteen." Jake responded.
All about Jake were monsters of men. Some were so tall that Jake simply could not even guess their height. Some of the men were so muscular that Jake wondered how they could even move. Jake had no business being in this building.
"What's your gift?" the man asked again.
Jake knew that this question was coming. He knew it and he dreaded it. He knew that he was going to have to say the words "I don't have one." again, and in all honesty, he simply did not want to. Jake was angry. He was angry about a lot of things. And so Jake responded in a way that pleasantly surprised him.
"Nahli is a disease. I'm not interested in their gifts. I do have this though." said Jake as he handed the man Zeb and Adam's note.
The man blinked. He was impressed with Jake's bravery and audacity. He opened his note and began looking at it.
Jake then felt a huge hand on his shoulder that whirled him around. Jake looked up to see two tremendously large men. One of them picked him up and held his body four feet above the floor with but one hand. The other man had large horns protruding from his shoulders. He also had spikes that extended forward from his wrists. The man that held Jake with one hand raised the other hand and began to point it at Jake's nose. This man's other hand though happened to be on fire and the man didn't seem to mind.
"We kill things. It's how we make our living." said the horned man.
"Say that thing you said about Nahli again. I dare you." said the man who was on fire.
Jake looked at them. He did not shake. He did not tremble. He wearily looked them straight in the eyes as if to say "enough is enough."
"DO IT NOW!" said the fiery man again.
Jake was tired. He had experienced every type of fear imaginable at some point within the last week and he was tired of it. He was tired.
Jake had never felt real rage in his entire life. He thought he had. But, in fact he hadn't. Today though, Jake felt rage, for the very first time in his life. His life was in very real danger, again, just as it had been on and off all week long, and Jake didn't seem to care anymore. There is a point where there is finally no more fear, and this is the point where Jake finally was.
Words began to shoot out of Jake's mouth as though they were propelled by gun powder. Each word or group of words, as they left Jake's mouth, made Jake's head recoil from the blast. Jake felt, as the rage burned within him, as though there was no longer any part of his conscious self that controlled his speech. He felt as though his emotions, his emotions of rage alone, were in complete control of his mouth.
Jake began to scream.
"I SAID 'NAHLI IS A DISEASE.' THIS ENTIRE CITY IS INSANE BECAUSE OF IT. IT IS NOT A RELIGION, IT IS A PLAGUE. AND IF YOU ARE A MEMBER OF IT, THEN YOU GO TO HELL."
Jake then spit in the face of the fiery man that held him.
Jake's mouth tingled from the fury.
The fiery man screamed at Jake and raised him high in the air as the flames which emanated from his other hand grew in intensity. The horned man drew both of his arms back and began to thrust them towards Jake's thin chest. Jake began to scream at them even louder still in a rage.
"Guys. I wouldn't do that if I were you. He's a friend of Zeb and Adam's." said the tall muscular scarred man.
The horned man pulled his punch at the mere mention of their names. The fiery man stopped only briefly but then began to scream at Jake out of frustration. Jake screamed right back at him. They stood for what seemed like an eternity screaming back and forth at each other until the fiery man finally gave up and threw Jake to the ground.
Jake stood up though, still burning with rage, and ran at the man attacking him with his thin legs and small fists. His screams continued. Jake had finally snapped under the pressure of his misery. He kicked the fiery man repeatedly. The fiery man just stood there looking down at Jake with a puzzled look on his face. Jake's attacks were not painful to the man whatsoever. He was wearing his leather armor. He was carrying his shield and sword. He was fine. He was simply amazed at the rage that this tiny boy was generating and wondered where it had come from.
Just then Adam walked in. He stood there with his never changing "Beware of Me" look. Adam was crazy or at the very least was trying to prove to the world that he was. He was immense. He was just as big, if not bigger, than Zeb. He dwarfed every other man in the room.
"What's going on?" asked Adam in his rough, low and scratchy voice.
Adam then looked at Jake and saw that he was trying to kill another fighter. He immediately walked up to Jake, put one arm on his shoulder and pulled him away. Jake stood there heaving his chest in and out. His eyes looked as though they wished to see blood.
"What happened?" said Adam.
No one would speak.
Adam then looked at the fiery man and said "Why was he attacking you?"
The fiery man looked at the horned man and then back at Adam and said "He said that Nahli was a disease."
"Nahli is a disease. If you don't believe me then just go look at the town. Pay close attention." said Adam.
"THIS BOY IS NOT TO BE TOUCHED. HE WORKS HERE NOW. ANYONE THAT HARMS HIM WILL BE DEALT WITH BY ME AND ZEB PERSONALLY. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" shouted Adam at the top of his lungs.
Adam then, with a punch that was faster than anyone could see, hit the fiery man and knocked him through the wall and into the street. The man lay there motionless.
With his other hand and with another punch that was also faster than anyone could see, Adam punched the horned man who flew back thirty feet knocking over two other fighters that had stopped to watch the spectacle.
"I MEAN IT! HE'S NOT TO BE TOUCHED." Adam said and walked away angrily.
As Adam walked away though, he looked at the tall muscular man that was holding Jake's note and said "Those two don't study here anymore. If they give you any problems, just call Security."
He then looked at Jake, said "Hang in there kid." and walked away.
The tall muscular scarred man told Jake to follow him. They walked out of the building through a back entrance and across a courtyard. Within the courtyard, there was a class being held. Thirty men stood together arranged in five rows with six men to each row. In front of them, another man, speaking in a strange accent, performed various kicks, punches and blocks. And with each kick, punch or block, all the thirty students that stood behind him mimicked the moves with near perfection. Once though, one of the students made a mistake, and another man that stood behind the entire class came up from behind him and began to swear at him in a foreign language. After the swearing was complete, the man then punched the erroneous student knocking him to the ground. It was almost as if the teacher was ending his spoken sentence of profanity with a symbolic exclamation point planted on the jaw of a foolish novice. The novice then stood up and went back to practicing seemingly unaffected by the punch.
Jake then followed his guide into another building. The sign on the building said: Old Town Fighter's Guild Terrain Training Building
Jake walked down a corridor behind the man that he followed and admired this building. It was like none other that he had ever seen. As they walked, they passed one huge open area called "Desert." Within which, Jake saw acres and acres of nothing but sand. As they walked past the area, Jake felt the warmth of it and knew that somehow it was heated, but how, he did not know. Far off in the distance, Jake watched a man and a lion as they tumbled down a dune. On top of the dune, twenty other men looked on.
On the other side of the corridor, there was a sign that said "Fresh Water." Inside of it, far in the distance, there were twenty men all standing on a dock watching another man who was rolling in the water with an alligator. Jake could clearly hear one of the men, apparently the teacher, saying, "Time your breaths better. Breathe with each roll. And if you make me come in there and save you, there'll be hell to pay."
"Air" was all that was written on the next sign. Jake and the guide had turned a corner to the left and all Jake could see was a big empty room. The stone floor of it was stained red and the room was huge. He knew that something was inside of it though, so, Jake walked closer to the area, looked up, and was surprised to see thirty men all flying hundreds of feet off of the ground, with one man farther away from the group battling an enormous bird. The bird's wingspan alone must have been over thirty feet. Jake walked away when he saw the bird and the man both go into a dive straight towards him.
Jake and the tall man then came to a door. On it was a sign that read "Custodian."
"Congratulations. You're our new custodian. Here's your supplies and here's a key to the building. If you lose the key, I doubt Zeb and Adam will be as friendly with you as they have been so far. You really have no idea how lucky you are." said the tall man as he handed the key to Jake and began to walk away.
"Wait. How much do I get paid? What time do you want me here? What time do I go home? Do I get any help?"
"Keep the building clean. That's it. When you're done, you can go home. If you're not done, you can't. Come and talk to me on Fridays around noon and you'll get paid. You'll start at "1, 10, anunanun a day." If you last, we'll bump you to 2 gold in six months. You don't have to come in on Sundays just so long as its clean for Monday morning. And, you can have as much help as you personally pay for." said the man.
"Can I ask you one more question?" asked Jake.
"Yup. You can ask as many as you want." answered the man indifferently.
"Are Zeb and Adam important or something?" asked Jake.
"Yeah. A little. They teach here." answered the man.
The man then waited for a second, saw that Jake had no more questions, turned, and walked away.
Jake stood still and sighed. He then sat on the floor, put his head between his legs and rested. He looked at the key carefully. It was tied to an old scarred leather thong. The key itself looked as though it was a thousand years old.
"Five, four, three, two, one." muttered Jake wearily to himself.
His break was over. It was time to work and earn his keep. Jake stood. He began his job right there and then.
He walked to the door and opened it. Behind the door was a huge room. In it was a furnace and rows and rows of every sort of tool or garden implement one could think of. Next to the furnace was a longsword and an enormous saw that rested atop an overly sturdy black, stained and scarred table.
Jake walked back out and locked the door. He decided that he should first get to know the building. And so, Jake began to walk. He eventually found that the entire building had sixteen different terrain rooms aside from his own custodial room.
Jake was from William's Peace. It was a large, wide and flat part of the country. It was beautiful for farming. There were lakes and such everywhere, but aside from that, it was relatively featureless. When he walked into the "Farmland" and "Grassland" rooms, he was reminded of home.
Walking into the other rooms though was like walking into someone else's world. When he walked into the "Rocky Mountainside" room to see that someone had actually crafted a mountainside indoors, he was amazed. He was even more amazed when he saw the fighters as they practiced their sword play on such a disadvantageous surface. The men would leap from rock to rock, and then down to the shale-like slippery surface, only to once again leap onto the more secure rocks as their feet began to slide. They were actually quite beautiful to watch. Their grace and poise were tremendous. Jake had never seen this type of mountainside before. It was far too eerie for his tastes.
Jake was probably the most repulsed when he walked into the "Jungle" room. It was a world completely different than his own. The denseness of the trees and leaves made him claustrophobic. The smelly dampness of the air made him feel like throwing up. And the noise, the immense noise of the insects made him constantly look all over his own body to make sure that nothing was creeping on him. He hated this room worst of all, by far.
He was most fond of the "Snowy Plain" room. He loved walking by it. Jake was from a warmer climate and hadn't really ever seen real snow. He had seen some, but just not as much as this. Occasionally in winter, in William's Peace, there would be a small scattering of snowflakes that would fall onto his home and farm, but they would usually melt not long after they came into contact with the naturally warm earth. Here, the drifts of snow piled up sometimes as high as twenty feet. He enjoyed walking in it and listening to the dead silent wail of the wind as it blew through the room. The sound reminded him of death, but for some reason it was a death that Jake did not mind hearing.
He was especially happy to see fighters practicing against snow giants there. The huge scandinavian looking mountains of men would pick up large boulders or large chunks of ice and hurl them at the tiny fighters, swearing the entire time. Jake actually even memorized one line of their beautiful neanderthal meaty profanity. For some reason, the giants enjoyed repeating this one often. It went something like "Und Ooorsten Flal Veren Farfen CHITZAH!" And always after the last "CHITZAH!" which was always pronounced much louder than the rest of the sentence, the speaking giant would begin to laugh in a loud diabolic dramatic way. And then, of course, this laughter would egg on his other three companions, who would join in his laugher with their own. It was a truly dramatic thing to see.
Jake later repeated the verse of profanity to Isaac hoping to understand what it meant. When he did though, Isaac's face went red. He stood up, walked out of the room and never spoke to Jake again about it.
Jake returned to his custodial room, found a broom, a dustpan, and a garbage pail. He then walked to the "Desert" room to begin cleaning.
He walked in just as a group of fighters were leaving. Each of them looked at him as they passed by. Jake wished that he could disappear. He simply did not want to attract any attention from these types of men. But, nonetheless, he stood there unashamed and waited for them to leave. He then entered.
The room was huge, hot and dry. He hated being there. The complete lack of humidity in the air hurt his eyes. The blowing sand flew into his nose and mouth making it unpleasant to breathe. He unhappily walked on the unsteady flowing sand surface of the room.
There, up on the side of a dune were three lions that the previous class had butchered during their practice. Somehow it seemed like a terrible waste to kill something as wonderful as a lion simply for the sake of "education." But, Jake was in no position to argue with anyone about anything here. So, he did his job without complaint.
He spent the rest of the day cleaning out the dead and dying animals and monsters from the rooms. At the end of the day, he was concerned. He had done nothing that day but clear out carcasses. He had done no real cleaning whatsoever. None of the floors were swept. None of the windows were washed. Was he going to have to stay here all night as well?
He walked back out of the building and across the courtyard. It was now dusk and there were several small circles of fighters sitting here and there talking about previous battles and, in general, just getting drunk.
In one of the groups though, one of the fighters stood up and very unceremoniously began to change shape. Jake could hear a very small "see ya" as his friends drunkenly waved good bye to their friend, and then the man who had changed into a small blue dragon took off into the sky and drunkenly tried flying home. Jake watched the dragon bounce off of several buildings before he finally gained enough altitude to clear them.
One of the fighters from one of the other circles then waved a huge arm and called Jake over. Jake walked over to see a group of six men all sitting around eating some kind of meat and passing around a bottle of some kind of ale.
"Howdy. I just thought I'd introduce myself. I'm kind of a friend of Zeb and Adam's too. My name is Mann. We heard about your town and stuff. We were sorry to hear about it. I passed through it once and it seemed like a pretty decent place." said Mann.
"Thanks. I appreciate it." responded Jake. He was very happy to meet someone that was friendly.
Jake then stood up and saw another group of fighters sitting a small distance away. Three of them were dressed like kings. The others were all dressed ridiculously. Jake recognized them immediately. They were the fighters that Jake and Marie had met several hours earlier in front of the main gates.
"Hey Mann. Can you tell me what's up with those guys?" Jake said as he pointed to the circle of peacocks.
"Oh. Those guys. Yeah, rumor has it that they killed a dragon. I don't know how much I believe it. They definitely have money though." said Mann.
"I could pay my rent for six months just for that stupid hat that guy's wearing." said Jake.
Everyone began to laugh. Jake then stood up and excused himself. He entered the main building and went to the front desk to speak with the tall muscular scarred man.
Jake cleared his throat and the tall man turned to look at him.
"Yeah. Hello. I've been working all day now and all I've managed to do was to clear out the corpses and stuff. What else do you expect from me? Can you clarify my duties a little?" asked Jake.
"You cleared out all the bodies?" asked the man with a minor look of concern on his face.
"Well, almost. The giants were way too much for me to tackle alone. I can do it, but it's going to take me a while yet. I need a cart or something too." said Jake.
"What did you do with the bodies?" asked the man.
"I just cut them up and put them in the furnace." answered Jake.
"Why didn't you use the bugs?" asked the man.
"What bugs? What do you mean 'bugs'?" asked Jake.
The tall man looked down and sighed heavily.
"Follow me. It's my fault. I can't believe I forgot to explain that part to you." said the man.
Wearily, Jake followed the tall man back into the Terrain Training Building and then back to his custodian's room.
With a movement so fast Jake was not sure he even saw it, the tall man grabbed something off of one of the shelves and then left the room. Jake tried his best to catch up to him. Jake then noticed the small box that the tall man dangled from one of his hands. It seemed to be some sort of a cage.
The tall and seemingly tireless man then continued to walk down the hallway at an amazing pace. Eventually, they arrived at the "Snowy Plain" room. The tall man then opened the door and looked disgustedly at the immense corpses of the four huge snow giants.
"Geez, I am always amazed at how ugly these guys are." he then said, at which Jake began to laugh slightly.
"Ok. Be careful with these guys. They don't eat stuff that's alive, but sometimes they make mistakes. So, like I said y'know, be careful." said the tall man.
He then opened the small box and pulled a pair of tweezers out of it. He then carefully used the tweezers to pull out a bug. He was very obviously showing the bug the same amount of respect as one would show a bottle of nitroglycerine.
"So, y'know, just put him on top, and then stand back." said the tall man who then did just that.
The tall man placed the bug carefully on top of one of the fallen giant's shoulders and stepped back.
Jake took a small step closer to see the bug which, as near as he could tell, was nothing more than a slightly largish looking brown tick. He then watched the tick as it began to walk around on top of the giant's shoulder somewhat like a dog who walks in circles trying to find the absolute best position in which to sleep. Within a second or two though, the bug began to shiver and then to shake. And, then the bug exploded all over the giant.
"Get back kid!" said the tall man.
Jake immediately backed up. The tiny shards of the bug that had exploded over the corpse now somehow clung all about the giant's flesh. And then Jake watched the shards closer to see that they were more than just shards. They were each actually tiny bugs, tiny bugs that began to climb and eat everything they came in contact with. As they ate, from time to time, some of the smaller bugs would also explode, raining down a cloud of even smaller bugs over portions of the corpse that were not yet consumed.
Slowly the huge body of the giant began to disappear and the room was filled with an overpoweringly thick odor of something Jake had never smelled before. It seemed to be half an odor of soap and half an odor of grease with another thing that also scented it that Jake could not define.
"Boy...these things poop so conveniently. Nothing to clean up afterwards and the scent isn't that bad either. Still kind of disgusting when you think about it though." said the tall man.
Jake continued to watch. The corpse of the giant was now gone. All that remained were the now thousands of tiny bugs. Jake then watched in wonder as the bugs began to consume one another.
"He's almost finished with this one. Here. I'll let you do the next one. Just be sure to grab him after he's back in one piece. He'll sleep for a few seconds, and that's the best time to grab him. Be gentle. Be way gentle." said the tall man handing the tweezers over to Jake.
Jake continued to watch as the bugs consumed each other. With each consumption, the bugs that remained grew in size until at last there were only two bugs. And then, one of the remaining bugs consumed the other and then afterwards stopped moving as if asleep.
"Grab him now Jake...but be careful." said the tall man.
Jake was intrigued. He picked the bug up carefully with the tweezers and began to look at it as he turned his hand in every direction. It was amazing. It looked like absolutely nothing more than a largish brown tick. But, it wasn't. It wasn't that at all.
"Jake. Be careful. They look pretty docile, but they aren't, you know?" said the tall man.
Jake then walked over to the next snow giant corpse and placed the bug carefully on his shoulder and stepped back. Within one minute, the bug, who had once again awoken, once again began to explode and consume.
Within ten minutes, all the corpses were gone and all that remained was a very peaceful looking largish brown tick and a somewhat sickening odor of soap and grease.
Jake carefully placed the bug back into it's cage and gave the box back to the tall man.
"Wow. That was amazing." said Jake.
"Yeah it was, wasn't it?"
"Would you mind if I go home now?"
"Yeah, ok. See you tomorrow."
"Can I ask you your name before I go?"
"Yup. My name is Shane. Nice to meet you." he said in a very businesslike manner.
Jake began the long walk home. He was tired. He bobbled as he walked. He was happy that he had a job, but his body was worn because of it. Nevertheless, his bed was not here, therefore there was nothing else to do but to walk to the place where it was.
He passed the Dealer's Exchange, the chandler, the rope store, the hatter, and then he finally found himself once again near his own home. He took a left on Edward's Way and followed it until he came to Blue Street.
Happily, he did not see Gale. So, he assumed that Hank also was not nearby. He continued to walk until he got to his own apartment where he saw his wagon, Gideon and Quick. There were new traces of blood on the seat. Jake shakily raised his hand once again, petted Quick and said "Good Boy." He then wearily walked up to the third floor where he found Isaac, Hannah, and Marie waiting for him.
"I work at the Fighter's Guild as a custodian. I make 1, 10, anunanun a day. In six months, if I do a good enough job, they'll bump me up to 2 gold. Can I have some food please?" Jake said as his body teetered back and forth from fatigue.
Isaac smiled. Hannah was smiling too. Jake sat down and began to eat his fish dinner. About a third of the way through though, Jake began to doze off as he was eating. After many attempts, Jake gave up and went to his bed.
"Isaac, one more thing. Some guy gave me these today. Here, you take them." said Jake as he fished his hand into his pocket and pulled out the two platinum pieces and handed them to Isaac.
Isaac looked down at them. Had Jake known what they were worth, he might have not given them away so freely.
"Go to bed kid. You deserve a good night's rest." said Isaac.