"The people of the Gods"
🌿
Two days ago.
Upon arriving on this island I thought it was one. Turns out it's two islands, separated by a storming river called the "snake tongue", whatever that means. Those tall women kept repeating the words, I picked it up at some point. And truthfully, the syllables they pronounced matched the river. Harsh and unforgiving, the way the water floats down an endless amount of waterfalls and sharp rocks. And yeah, I was scared to cross it.
The river is there for a reason.
Unlike where I am from, the women and men are separate here, and they don't speak to each other. The women simply threw a long, heavy plank over the river and pushed me on, pointing with their fingers. I don't really know what they were saying, but their serious and repeated shouts of, "get over there!" Sounded like I should go. With my hands sweaty and tears running down my cheeks, out of fear, which I will not repeat because it's embarrassing, I slowly walked over the river on that d*mmed wooden plank. The river made awful and loud splashing sounds underneath me, and I know that I can't understand anyone here, but their voices drowned out and I didn't like it.
When I finally reached the other side, they crushed the plank with a heavy hammer and I might have screamed, but once again I will not repeat that because it was embarrassing. More tears dropped down my face but at that point I was too scared to notice. I didn't like this place, I still don't like this place, and at the time I missed my sister more than ever.
In front of me stood a similar forest to the one I traveled through before, and to my side, a big mountain of beige rocks. I turned to the women on the other side of the river, pleading with my eyes for them to tell me anything. Where should I go? What will I do? And it seemed like what my sister always says, my cute appearance really did me a favor. They took pity on me and pointed towards the forest, shooing with their hands, and I got the memo. Go, walk, get over there. Sometimes you don't have to speak the language to understand basic things.
I didn't want to leave them behind me. I would be alone on an unfamiliar island, and who knows why they sent me across the river? But I was also scared of what they would do if I didn't obey, so with tears still running down my cheeks I began to head down the hill, towards the forest. The leaves are sharp, a dark green kind, the type that grows on trees made for hot weather. It looked similar to home, similar to the forest I had arrived in too. Colorful flowers, birds singing in the distance, I might have shooed away some bees. Honestly there is not much of the walk I remember, being scared to the point of shivering despite the heat.
After walking, slowly, and unsurely, for about thirty minutes, the forest started clearing up. Above me the morning I had awoken to was beginning to turn into evening. The sky turned into a colorful mix of orange and pink, the clouds looked softer and despite the women healing most of my wounds, I was still dead tired from the storm that had brought me here. They were kind to me, I realized, but that didn't stop the fear once I saw the second city of the day.
I came to the conclusion that this must be the city of men. And yes, I was very, very scared. More scared than I am willing to admit openly. This city was of course different from the city of women. The farmlands and acres that I had first seen upon arriving here, existed on the opposite side of the city here, and instead a field of training soldiers stood in front of me. Their screams and grunts of battle were heard all the way to the edge of the forest, where I stood with my sweaty hands and tear stained cheeks. Just as I was about to turn around, run and hide into the forest, my arm was grabbed for the second time that day.
This time, not by a tall lady with black hair and angry eyes. This time it was a taller man, with brown hair and slightly kinder, yet confused eyes. He wasn't dressed like the others, I saw that immediately. The warriors fighting in the fields had golden armor on, or leather surrounding their white clothing, much like the guards back at the women's city. But this man wore only his white gown, going all the way to the ground, tied together by a leather rope. His calm and calculating expression was quite the only thing keeping me sane.
"Who are you boy?"
If only I knew what he was saying at the time. But his words were scrambled just like the women's, and I could only frown. According to my sister, I have always been a bit of a cry baby, so can you really blame me for crying in that moment? It's practically apart of my DNA. And who wouldn't cry in such an unfamiliar situation, a small eighteen year old boy from a poor fishing village far from society, barely graduated from elementary school, suddenly surrounded by this mythical fantasy world only found in fairytales. I would certainly cry. So I did.
"It's a boy?"
Once one of the other men there spoke, I realized that some of the warriors had joined his side. They all looked at me with confused, worried expressions. I could only stand there and cry. In other circumstances it would be quite humiliating, but out of fear I didn't quite care. Whatever the soldier said, it made the calm guy scowl and turn his head.
"Yes it's a boy, a smaller one that's all. He's an outsider, and judging by where he came from, the Goddess people found him and sent him here. Use your brain Zack"
And as they continued talking, I could only think about how much I missed the familiar, and understandable, voice of my sister.
Please let this be a dream.
Present time.
Leeches.
These girls are leeching on her.
Irene tries to keep her breathing calm and walking stable, but these women make it harder for her than it should be. They are very close to her, and very close to each other. Something a girl like her, from a small conservative village far from society, can't accept. They can barely keep their hands to themselves, and Irene has felt their fingers over her shoulder, holding onto her hand, their arms brushing against hers, more than once. And yes, it's not anything extreme, but judging by the way they are to each other, it's going to get extreme.
And that's weird.
And she's not going to get into why that's weird, it just is.
The girls stop at a big house with a big opening in the wall instead of a door. Girls walk in and out of the opening, the curtain in front opening and closing. The ones coming in have bruises or wounds, some are sick and coughing, and the ones coming out have bottles of medicine or bandages around them. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this is some sort of hospital, an ancient version anyway. But Irene has never seen a hospital before, or any kind of health center, so she can't compare this one to anything else. They don't have fancy things like this in her village.
Normally Irene would be hesitant and skeptical of going inside, but her bruises and wounds are aching, so she doesn't care when they lead her in. It's darker inside and Irene has to squint, trying to see anything at all. It smells strongly of herbal medicine and different plants, and coughs echo through the open space. As her eyes grow used to the little light in the room, Irene sees hospital beds around, and a table in front of them, presumably the check in desk. Ariadne is walking ahead of everyone, and she stops in front of the desk.
"We have an injured outsider here, need some stuff on her wounds and bruises"
The nurse, or healer, behind the desk, understands the words that Irene doesn't, and she nods. She walks around the desk and leads the way, going further into the house. Irene stays frozen on her spot until the leeching girls around her drag her along. She ignores the curious eyes of the nurses and the patients around the hallway of beds. Irene feels vulnerable, scared and lonely in a world of people she can't understand. Hopefully she won't have to stay here long, she'll learn a way to communicate, find her brother and leave. Nothing can keep her here.
The nurse stops by an empty bed and gestures for her to sit down. Irene doesn't do it until the girls, lightly, force her to. Irene has never been in a hospital, no matter what it looks like, and she is honestly quite scared.
The nurse doesn't speak, instead she examines Irene with her hands, looking around to find all the bruises with her face stoic and calm. Irene is frozen on the spot, like usual, and doesn't dare to move. The first thing the nurse does is wash each and every bruise that she finds. A few on her arms, a few on her stomach, a few on her legs. None of them are big or bleeding profusely, so she isn't worried. Then she applies something green, a mixture of plants and water Irene guesses, onto all of her bruises. Irene can't help but hiss once in awhile, and tears fill in her eyes. For once she is thankful that the girls are touchy, because they offer their hands for her to hold onto.
Once everything is bandaged Irene feels more dry and comfortable, but there is one problem left. She sees that the nurse is about to finish, but the several cuts and wounds on the underside of her feet are still there. Irene knows that she has to tell them about it, because they might get infected, and she doesn't want to die. She needs to find Isaac, she can't die. Despite knowing that they can't understand, Irene still tries.
"My feet are still wounded!"
Everyone turns to look at her once she speaks. Irene blushes once she realizes that they have never heard her voice before, maybe they even thought that she couldn't speak. Ariadne smirks. Her voice is soft and cute, matching her perfectly. She can think of dirtier ways to ruin it. The girls will definitely, absolutely, love her back at the temple. Even though they can't understand what she is saying, her fingers are pointed at her feet, so the nurse gets the picture. She bends down to check on the outsiders feet, and to her surprise finds that they are completely cut up and wounded.
Once they are finished with everything, Irene is given sandals to walk with, so she won't ruin her bandages. They are going to give her new clothes at the temple anyway, although she doesn't know that, but Ariadne insisted to give the shoes immediately. The poor little girl had been walking with those bruises on small rocks, roots and sharp leaves laying on the ground. No wonder she was limping and frowning as they walked.
They thank the nurse and exit the building, walking down the street again. Irene thinks that the girls leeching on her is less bothering now that she can walk comfortably. She unconsciously leans into their warm touches on the way, and of course, the extremely experienced girls don't miss it. But who can blame her? She has never really gotten such attention or love before, despite being nineteen years old. It's all very new, and even though her mind is screaming at her that it's wrong and weird, Irene ignores it. She misses their sly smiles and lustful eyes.
Irene thinks that she has, once again, never seen anything like it. The building in front of her is tall, taller than anything in her village or around. Much like the other temples, this one is made out of marble, with tall poles in the front. But it's also much more different than the rest. It's surrounded by a tall white wall, and green vines with pink flowers hang around the wall as decoration. Ariadne and the rest stop by a big gate, where two guards stand. They bow down to the leader and let them inside, not even sparing them a second glance. Irene thinks it's admirable how disciplined they are, much like in the ancient legends and stories.
The rumble from the outside fades out as the gate closes. They stand in the middle of a hallway, stretching to the left and the right. In front of them, another white wall filled with vines. Ariadne stops there.
"Take her to get cleaned and clothed, then send her to my office. I leave Denise in charge"
Irene has no idea what she is saying to the other girls, but she frowns when the taller blond leaves them, walking off to the left. Once her steps stop echoing in the hallway, a girl with red hair turns to the rest.
"To the bathhouse then"
Irene feels them tug on her arms, and this time she barely resists when they drag her off to the right. The hallway seems quite empty, other than the occasional curious girl eyeing her up and down, before walking off. Irene is completely oblivious to the world she is just about to encounter. The wall to their left soon stops, and instead they are met by a more open hallway, this time held up by the same marble poles that exist everywhere else. This allows Irene to look to her left, and see what's further inside the temple. The sight shocks her.
It shocks her more than someone should shock a girl from a small conservative village, far from society.
Girls are everywhere, literally.
They are walking through the mess of small marble bridges and paths, holding hands and whispering to each other. They are swimming inside big pools of water, the ones that the bridges cross over, playing around or even worse, kissing. They are seated by the pools, kissing, making out, staring at the other girls and laughing. Vines grow along the walls, some stray plants lay as decoration here and there, but most of the inner court consists of pools and the marble bridges across them.
And worst of all, their clothes are even more revealing than the girls walking beside her are wearing. She can practically see everything, and if it wasn't for the extremely sexual atmosphere, Irene wouldn't have found it so bad. But there is a very sexual atmosphere, and Irene finds it very bad. Very very, very bad. She stops dead in her tracks, eyes wide as she stares at the sight in front of her. To her left, smaller houses and more pools and walls open up to her, and to her right lays the first wall of the temple. The girls around her don't really care about her shock. Instead they simply push her forwards, into the big space of pools and kissing girls, and Irene practically squeaks.
"We have to get you washed up"
Denise explains despite knowing that she can't understand, continuing to push her through. Of course, they could've chosen a different route to the bathhouse, but seeing her scandalized and shocked expression is worth it. They smile and secretly chuckle amongst themselves, while Irene tries and fails to resist their pushing.
"Oh my f*cking God"
Irene has no choice but to swear and cover her eyes, shielding herself from the curious eyes of the girls around her.
Please let this be just a dream.
🌿
Quick info:
Those reading in August 2021, the current updating schedule of "Wednesday's and Sundays" is only temporary. When I finish "the silverdemon" in a week or two, the updates will be three times a week.
Thank you for reading so far!