Finally we reach the second chapter. About time.
In the last part, Ren formed a contract with Kutho (by accident) and explained Munera to him, and then they both went to sleep.
Follow Munera here: page.php?id=737
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Chapter Two: Plans
It took Kutho several minutes to figure out where he was. When he opened his eyes, he saw not the spreading bowl of the sky, but a low, pale surface that he could touch if he stood up. Beneath him he felt not tickling grass, but something rough and scratchy. He looked down. Cloth…? Blankets, plain and ragged, strewn across a rectangular platform lifted from the ground by four legs…
A human bed.
Kutho sprang to his feet and landed on the unnaturally hard ground. He spun on the spot, struggling to keep his breathing even. The four walls squeezed him like the narrows of a river. Nowhere to go, nowhere to run. His breath hissed in his ears. All Icim hated being confined. Even during hail and thunderstorms, they never sought shelter in caves or under overhangs if they could help it. Icim lived for the rush of a spring breeze, the smell of green growing things in the summer, and the cold bite of snow in the winter. He almost gagged on the stale, sweat-laced air.
Calm down. Close your eyes. Breathe. That’s right, Kutho. Slow down, breathe…
It wasn’t his own voice he heard, but Sazuk’s. Sazuk’s calm whisper. Unlike Kutho, Sazuk had always been good at restraining his temper; Kutho couldn’t remember ever hearing the older makhorre raise his voice. He slid his eyes shut and imagined that he wasn’t standing in a four-walled trap, but on the slick rocks that jutted in crazy angles from the riverbanks. Young Icim delighted in leaping from rock to rock, vying to reach the highest point before their fellows. Kutho and Sazuk had played that game often in their youths. Sazuk always won.
As far as Kutho could remember, Sazuk had been ahead of him. Kutho didn’t mind. It seemed natural—Sazuk was two years older than him, and he was faster, stronger, a sneakier hunter, a more desirable man when the time came for him to pick a woman. Behind his shut eyes Kutho pictured Sazuk perfectly. Tall and dark-skinned, with hair the color of night and a panther’s grace. He bounded from rock to glistening rock like he was flying. Hair spread around him like wings.
He had leapt far in the distance, unreachable. But his words remained, whispering in Kutho’s ears, grounding him.
When you’re in an unfamiliar situation, the first thing you must do is get your bearings. Any second you waste on being disoriented is just that—a waste.
He opened his eyes.
The room hadn’t changed. It was as gray and dingy and box-like as ever, but it no longer threatened to smother Kutho. He breathed, as deeply as he dared when the air was heavy with human stench, but at least he could still breathe, and in a regular rhythm too. Then he set about following Sazuk’s advice.
He had to admit, he was a little curious. Everything he knew about humans he’d heard from the elders and tribesmen who had encountered humans, so he knew the basics, at least. Humans liked to shut themselves into tiny dwellings and they lived in family units, not tribes. And their sense of smell wasn’t as developed, judging by how they ignored their ever-present reek of sweat, metal and machine oil. Perhaps humans liked those smells, though.
As Kutho gingerly pushed open the bedroom’s ajar door—he wasn’t sure how much force he needed to open it—he couldn’t help but feel like he was stuck inside an anthill. Everything here was so small. The space he entered (no, not space, but room) was probably the biggest in the dwelling. Even then, Kutho could cross it in three paces, which he did, taking care to avoid bumping into the girl sprawled on the floor, and the boys lying atop some unnatural plushy shape. Nothing in this human dwelling was natural. The lines were too straight, the angles too sharp, the roundness too spherical. The few lumps, bumps and imperfections did little to soften its overall harshness; if anything, they added to it. Cracks running down walls, stains on floors, the humans’ fragile little bodies.
Kutho circled around the dwelling a few times, but he found nothing interesting. He couldn’t believe anybody could spend their entire lives enclosed in three chambers. He’d go mad from boredom. But perhaps this was the natural state of humanity.
Though he couldn’t see the sky, he could still—dimly—sense the movements of the sun and moon, and he knew that it would be at least another two hours until the sun rose. Until then, he had nothing to do. So he hopped upon the wooden table, a rectangle on stilts, and crouched there, watching the sleeping humans.
When Ren awoke, her neck and arm muscles ached. She wasn’t surprised, because she spent sixteen hours every day bent over a table, stitching hems on tunics. But this morning, the aches were worse than usual: she could barely lift her head.
The apartment was cool and dark with night. Outside, the sky would be grayish-pink, the cat-spittle color of predawn. Even on weekends, Ren awoke before the sun rose. She’d discovered that if she slept in, she would have trouble waking up on work days. The punishment for showing up late to work was a docking of three days’ pay. It’d happened before and Ren had no desire to repeat those nightmarish weeks, during which she couldn’t even afford moldy beans from the corner store.
She sat up with a groan. As she did, she realized why she ached so badly—because she’d been sleeping atop a threadbare comforter spread on the concrete living room floor. When she turned, she saw that Rau and Lepo were curled up on the couch, their breaths rising and falling in irregular harmony.
What were they doing here? What was she? They only slept in the living room when they had guests, which had happened only once after she’d started working for Demman. That had been when Delk had visited, about a year ago…
Wait. She did have a guest. Memories tugged free of the morass of sleep clogging her mind. Memories of a tall, golden-haired young man who’d attacked her and then had glowed with white light as black marks formed over his wrists and neck. The macor…her macor.
Ren sat back on her heels, lightheaded. Trying to distract herself from the crush of sudden emotion, she watched her brothers. Rau’s head dangled over the edge of the couch; that couldn’t be comfortable, but he didn’t seem to mind since he was still fast asleep. Lepo’s hair was getting long in the back; she ought to trim it soon. Both bore fading pen lines from their playing yesterday. Ren sighed. How she longed for the day when her brothers would finally figure out how to take care of themselves. The day when they’d give up their unhealthy Munera obsession.
A shiver ran down her spine, though she didn’t know why. It felt like someone was watching her. Holding her breath, Ren turned around—and stared straight into a pair of gleaming, cat-like eyes.
She screamed and leapt back. The macor, perched atop the coffee table, gazed at her dispassionately, before turning away with a snort. In the half-light, his pale hair gleamed like a beacon.
A blush painted Ren’s cheeks when she found her eyes wandering over his naked, perfectly muscled body. Yet again. She should find something for him to wear, though none of hers, Lepo’s, or Rau’s clothes would fit him. He didn’t seem uncomfortable with his nudity. A wild-born macor living in the forest wouldn’t have much use for clothes, anyhow.
He was hers now. Hers. Ren had never wanted anything to do with Munera, but somehow she’d become an unwilling macor master. Master to a macor who clearly hated her. A macor whose name she didn’t even know.
Did they have names, or did humans name them? Ren realized that despite the Munera ads all over Arxia, as well as her brothers’ obsession, she knew almost nothing about the game. It didn’t matter, because she wasn’t going to keep him for long. She’d already planned to bring him to the local Munera office and have somebody break the contract and take him off her hands. Ren’s stomach squirmed at that thought; she knew that the macor would be sent to the marketplace, which was probably the last thing he wanted.
Ren’s head started to hurt. Why did she care about what happened to a macor, anyway? She had her own worries. Her own family to feed, her own reputation to maintain.
“Um…good morning,” Ren said.
“Human,” the macor said, glaring at her. His voice was deep, yet it held a harsh, youthful edge.
“That’s not my name.” The more she spoke, the sillier Ren felt. There must be proper ways for a master to address her macor, but she didn’t know them. Would she have to ask her brothers for pointers?
The macor’s eyes slid half shut. “You think I care what you humans are called?”
“Well, you should know,” Ren said. “I mean, since I’m the one who made the contract with you…and everything… Whatever, I’d just like to know your name. I can’t call you ‘macor’ all the time, can I?”
The macor growled, a low rumble from the back of his throat. Despite herself, Ren jumped a step back. Satisfaction flickered in the macor’s eyes, but it was soon replaced by annoyance.
“Don’t you dare call me that, human,” he hissed. “That word, that’s some human invention, that’s not what we call ourselves.”
“Then what should I call you?” Ren said.
A long pause, and then, “…Kutho.”
“Kutho,” Ren repeated. “So you do have names.”
“What do you mean?” Kutho whipped his head in her direction. The movement was fast and sharp, inhumanly so. It reminded Ren of a lion stalking through grass. “What, you think we’re too savage to have names? Like animals?”
“No, no, not like that,” Ren said. “I just thought—I mean—everyone says that without humans, macor—Icim, whatever—would be…would be…”
She trailed off, realizing that the word she’d wanted to say was indeed “animals.” Wasn’t that true? Everyone always said that if humans hadn’t taken macor in and given them a purpose in Munera, they’d have lived and died in squalor, quarreling amongst themselves like rabid animals. Munera gave macor a reason to fight, and limits on when and where they could fight. Limits were the first step of civilization, weren’t they?
“You humans really don’t know anything, do you?” Kutho spat. “Can’t believe I’m bound to someone like you.”
Ren swallowed hard. “I have a name, you know.”
“I don’t care what your name is.”
“Well, I care. I’m Ren. My brothers are Rau and Lepo—Rau’s the tall one, Lepo the short one. Nice to…um, nice to meet you, Kutho.”
Kutho made a sound between a laugh and snarl. “You don’t mean that.”
“I’m just trying to be polite,” Ren said.
“Polite? All the politeness in the world isn’t going to fix this, human.” Kutho jabbed his forefinger into the band around his opposite wrist.
“I know!” Ren shouted. “I know, I know! I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to undo a contract, okay? The least we can do is make the best of a bad situation.”
“The best,” Kutho said. “What’s that mean?”
“Well…” Ren twisted her fingers together. She wondered if Kutho would approve of her plan, but she didn’t need his opinion. Still, it would work out better if he agreed. “You want to find your friend, don’t you?”
“Yeah? Surprised you’d use that word. Animals don’t form friendships, do they?”
Ren ignored the jab. “So I was thinking…umm, I could take you to this district’s Munera Center. They have people there who would know how to break the contract. So they’d break it and they’d take you away from me and then…umm…send you to the Macor Market.”
“Market? You mean they sell us?” Kutho growled. “Like slaves?”
“Well—I figured you could get information there,” Ren said. “Maybe you could find your friend, too. He might not have been sold yet…I mean, since he got taken into the city and all, he’s probably been put to sale for Munera. I’m just saying…”
“Unacceptable,” Kutho’s nostrils flared. “I came here to save him as a free man. I won’t become a slave.”
“Too bad,” Ren said. “You’ll have no chance of doing anything if you’re not bound to a master. You’re lucky I found you! If a policer or Munera officer had found you it’d have been over. There’s no such thing as a free macor in Arxia. That’s why I was so shocked to see you were. If you go running around the city without any sign of a contract, people way more powerful and way more dangerous than me are going to nab you. And who knows what they’ll do to you!”
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This isn't a scene break, by the way.
As always, I welcome all reviews.
So, I like the way the scene was done.