Konomachi

Chapter 1 - Tommies

I often remembered a familiar melody. A silent humming in a small town, a flute following along a rhythm, and a simpler time of peace.

The humming would eventually turn to singing in my mother's soft voice.
"There's a place, far from the world,
Where flowers bloom on hills unturned,
It's that place, where I'd like you to take me,
Love me like you own the Earth.
What's this place; I hear you asking:
It's this town of Konomachi..."

"Why are you crying?" My mother asked me after she stopped singing.

"Nothing. I just feel like I had a really bad dream."

• • • | Konomachi - Chapter 1 | • • •
several years later

It was quiet. It was always so damn quiet; it never ceased to piss me off. Outside, in broad daylight, among dozens of villagers in a small town, with hundreds of tasks carried out daily. Just how was it so quiet?

Every move people made was delivered with the utmost care. Every pond-washed plate was put gently on freshly-cut grass. Every use of a shovel or hoe was deliberate and light. Each strike of an axe on wood was executed with so little force it barely made a scratch on the trunk. Even each footstep of a person carrying food or clothing was done on the purest, silkiest grass.

Only the sound of muffled breaths and soft wind ever disturbed the picture-like nature of that village. Even whispers, spoken not farther than within kissing-range of each other's ear were hushed in the stillness of the never-ending play this place's marionette's known as people seemed to helplessly perform.

And their faces while they were doing all of it. Oh, their faces. They were always tense; always shaking. Eyes wide open, cheeks pulled together tight, with saliva gathering in their mouths for over minutes without swallowing. That was when they gently spat it out, leaning a pinkie-finger's reach from the ground, for they deemed it too loud to swallow.

Everyone in that town looked like they took death for granted, and life a waiting line.

It was disgusting, despicable, dreadful. It was the life I'd grown to, yet it felt so wrong. So revolting. 

I had seen animals. A few of them, before they were taken by the tommies. They never held back, they never lingered. Their hoofs crashed against tall grass and small rocks. Their movements were flexible, their body reeked of power. Their vocal organs cried out loud. 

They were held in camps, captive by us humans. Yet, they felt much freer than us. It all felt so backwards to me.

"Hello!" I yelled out in the middle of that town. People working in front of their makeshift huts all snapped in my direction. They stared at me with utter terror like the tommies themselves would. Not a word said, not an attempt to stop me; just stares.

"Anoko!" A whispering sound came from behind me exerted with such force, it felt like shouting. The source of the noise grabbed my arm with so much power it was almost torn off. "What did I tell you about making noise, Anoko?"

It was my mother. "You're almost twelve, you should be able to grasp the danger by now!" She pulled me closer by my arm, then slapped me on the face, caring little about the noise herself.

The villagers stared us down with killer eyes. Their movements stopped completely, as they occasionally glanced around into the distance.

"What danger, mom?" I asked, as I pulled my arm away. "It's broad daylight. The tommies don't come until sunset."

"They could come at any moment!" she whispered slightly quieter, noticing the gaze of the townsfolk. "You remember how they took your father?" Her voice turned painful. I gasped; my gaze shaken slightly.