…and there they were, looking through tall reeds that were split just far enough apart to allow one eye to peek through. Jalar was on all fours and Kep was squeezed tight underneath him so they looked like a small elf totem.
Do you think that rat is dead, asked Kep?
Don’t know, replied the bigger of the two.
It had been three days now that the two were hiding out in the tall reeds and their stomachs were past the growling stages. In fact, Kep had summed their hunger up quite nicely by saying, I could eat a rat. That is when they smelt it first. They didn’t want to look out but their bodies took on a natural urge to do so.
Before these past few days began the two boys were living happily as brothers on their father’s farm, but for now they were only two little specs hiding away out of sight. This is what would make the entire dead rat ordeal so strange, if they had the energy to think about it. Prior to this moment food had smells. Apples smelt like apples and porridge smelt like porridge, but this was blood. To the two boys it was life!
So there they sat. Peeking through the reeds with the days light being absorbed into the mountain like a hand covering their eyes. The necessity to eat grew stronger.
We should wait until after dark, commented Jalar, but his brother was already zoned in on the left over rat just lying there like a roasted boar on a skewer. With out even realizing what he was doing, Kep started out towards his evening feast as if he were a lion on a hunt. One foot in front of the other and without a single sound.
Kep! What do you think you are doing, whispered his older brother with a firm urgency. The man could still be out there!
Even though he had always been taught to listen to his older sibling, Kep could not stop. His body was being pulled toward the rat as if there were a spell cast. Closer and closer he crept with each step the sound of his heart grew louder. Thumping in a scrawny, under fed chest so hard that it’s motion could be seen through his clothes.
Kep, said his bother. Now in almost his normal voice, but Kep just kept right on going.
Now only five paces away and enough light left to only make out the outline of the rat, Kep lunged forward and was instantly snared by the foot. There he hung upside down under a tree and with this action Jalar also rose only to feel a sharp pain in the left side of his head. Then only to fall to his knees, fallowed by a hard thump as his head touched the ground in what seemed to be gravity pulling on him with three times it’s normal force.
Kep, hanging by his ankle, saw the entire ordeal but in small sprits do to his twisting around in circles. First, he heard the sound of breaking wind then the darkened outline of his brother standing with what looked like a stick in his head. Next, Jalarthe round top of his head and two sharp points where his ears were seemed to float on top of the reeds only to sink like a boat that had been jerked under the water by a huge fish. Finally with one last slow and tortuous spin he didn’t see any thing else but the reeds which were his cover for the last three days.
Finally got em, a deep voice said from behind Kep with a hard accent. Yus and yus brother there been hidden for quite some time me little fig top. Either way, it’s off to the slave market wit yus and da buzzards fur dat-un. And if ye grows up enough sense in yus head mate, I wouldn’t be leavin any unpaid debts like yur vater. Then once more the sound of breaking wind could be heard accompanied by darkness.
