Sun Stealer. Hidden Anomaly.

by A. Mani

  “I am also the girl, who said she had wished humans were blind colors.” I whispered.

  Kujo lifted my face gently with his hand, trying to recognize the innocent girl I once was.

  “You said you wish, you had seen her one last time… your wish just came true” I smiled at him.

  “The little girl with the crying tiger…” he whispered to himself.

  “Kujo, you have to trust me. I am not a mole. I am not a traitor. The wild ones were family to me more than my own blood. You have to believe me. You have to release me so I would finish what I have started.”

  I this point the dark beast arrived at the square. He saw kujo holding me and it got him even more angry. As if he was jealous of our close. I could see the rage in his eyes again. The same rage and evil I saw in his eyes, when I first got to the wild zone.

  “We will fight our own battle! You will not be apart of it!” he said to me.

  “You can not fight without your demons!” I answered “I control your cats! They will act only upon my command!“

  “Really?” he laughed hard so the entire square could hear him “And what makes you think that?” he asked.

  “I am the Sun stealer!” I said with my neck up high.

  Dark beast laughed even harder at my words.

  “Well if you are the Sun stealer, you will have no problem passing the test.” he said.

  “What test?” I asked

  “The Sun stealer would never be killed by a demon nor by a civilized cat. Not even if she is bleeding to death…” he said with that devilish smile, I knew so well.

  “Lets do it!” he shouted and released me from my stripes. He carried me to the top of the hill, outside Shab square, while Kujo was trying to talk him out of it. All the wild ones were following us. Then he put me to the ground and stood in front of me.

  “Call the demons!’ he shouted to his people “all of them!’

  Wild calls were made all around the wild zone. Dark demons were heading the hill, they were all there, waiting for their sign. The dark beast took a sharp stone in his hand, the one I taught him how to make. He lifted it to the sky and then threw it to my feet as an act of contempt.

  “I don’t need that” he said to me with a cruel smile and then brutally scratched the sides of my arms together with his nails. I did not move. I did not make a sound. I was feeling nothing.

  “You know what?!” he asked, as I was bleeding to the soil. “I will give you a head first” he said and untied my arms and legs. I was free.

  As he was getting ready to make his sign to the dark demons, I picked up the sharp stone, he had thrown at my feet and stubbed his wide neck with it.

  A big stream of blood came out of his neck, down my hand, all the way down the ground. As he looked into my eyes, trying to bear the pain, I whispered to him with my dead yellow eyes;

  “blood is blood…”

  I gave a sign to the dark demons and they all started chasing him to the sounds of horror, made by the wild crowd.

  Suddenly, their strong leader was no longer in control. The dark beast was now a wounded prey, running for it’s life.

  I turned over to the wild ones and started walking without saying a word. Sapron and Narnegi were by my side.

  “Now what?” Kujo asked me with fear.

  “Now we fight!” I answered

  “How do we know we can trust you?” Daria joined Kujo.

  “You don’t!” I said “You have no other choice but to trust me! I have your demons!”

  I turned my back to them and started walking toward Ko-Ey-Nor’s kingdom. Kujo and Daria looked at each other and understood, there was no other way. They were all going to join me to the final battle.

  “She was here!” Emedi whispered to Sag “My sister was here! She is alive!”

  “What? What are you talking about Emerdi?” he looked at her with half a smile.

  “Last night she was here, you can ask my mother and father, they met her too. Sag, she is going to take back our kingdom! She is going to fight us!”

  “Emerdi…maybe it is time to give back what we took?” he asked her.

  “Are you out of your mind or you are just poisoned again, as always…” she yelled at him. “I know what to do Sag!… I have the perfect solution to our problem!” she said with a big smile.

  As we were heading to the civilized zone, the wild ones, the dark demons and I. I knew the civilized ones were waiting for us. I knew they could see us marching to our last bloody battle. There was a little hill on our zone, we could watch any danger, that was coming our way. I knew all of that but the knowing had not stopped me. Nothing could have stopped me. Not at that time.

  We passed Didam valley, the most painful landmark of my journey and got into the neutral zone. It was a plane ground surrounded by little sand hills and some trees.

  They were there, waiting for us. The civilized people, the civilized cats, the kingdom’s army, Sag, my sister. Everything that was once safe appeared in front of me, with a big scent of danger.

  They were quiet. We were quiet. Nobody made a sound. Until, my sister, Sag, my kingdom’s people, they were all walking to the sides of the neutral zone. Revealing what was hidden from my eyes.

  There she was, lying on the bare soil. My beautiful Shadea. She was alive. She was chained by her neck to the ground. She looked old, exhausted, hopeless. Her light, blue eyes were faced to the ground, trying to hide its sea of despair.

  “Shadea…?” I whispered “Shadea!” I yelled.

  She did not look up. She did not move. She gave up. And for a moment, I thought I saw a little tear, making its way from her left eye to the burning ground.

  ‘Could it be?’ I thought to my self. Everybody knew tigers never cry.

  I looked at the tear on the ground, as it was threatening to vanish by the hit of the sun. I could see my reflection. I could see my image of what had become of me. I could see my image of what I used to be. I could see me and Shadea dancing in our kingdom with no care in our hearts. I could see me trapped inside Didam valley- Weak, helpless.

  I fell to the burning ground. My hands and knees lying on the soil. I kept thinking, this was what they wanted. They got what they wanted. Once again. I am down to the ground. As I was lying there, I could hear a distance voice crying:

  “Get up!…Get up!” it was kujo. He did not understand my reaction, he just knew, we had to fight.

  I started repeating kujo’s words to myself:

  ‘Get up…Get up..’ I whispered.

  Then I looked at Shadea and yelled “Get up! … Get up Shadea!…” I cried and screamed my heart out, pounding my fists on the ground:

  “GET UP!”

  Suddenly, a Roar was made. The most beautiful roar, I had ever heard in my life. Shadea heard me. She recognized me. She got up from the ground and started fighting her chain. She started moving side to side in order to release herself from the chain. I walked with her. Like she was my reflection. Like we were back in childhood, dancing in front of a cheering crowd. My demons joined her roars and bit by bit every cat of Anomaly, wild and civilized, joined the melody of rage.

  Finally, she got free and ran to me. I ran to her and be both lied to the ground. Hugging, facing our foreheads towards each other, as a sign of honoring. All the other cats were making a circle around us, as their big roar tore up the sky. We were making the mark from Didam valley’s walls. The one I was so drawn to.

  I could feel the looks on everybody’s faces. The civilized ones, the wild ones, kujo, Daria, Sag, my sister- they could not believe it. The civilized zone could not believe its lie had become the truth. The wild zone could not believe its story from the past had become the present. And for a moment, nothing really mattered, The world had paused.

  I can not tell what caused the events that came afterwards. Next thing, I found myself lying on the ground. Bleeding to death. A sharp tool hit me. A tool I had never saw before. Must be from the civilized zone. And as I was lying on the ground, fac
ing the sky, hearing the sounds of hunting and fighting of the finale battle. I thought to myself: This was what I wanted. This was what I was missing all that time. I could hear my cats roaring as a sign of rage. They were raged about the hurt of their leader by humans. I was their leader. I was the Sun Stealer. They were fighting my battles. They were playing my voice. And even though, I was lying there, helpless, waiting for my end, I knew it- I never felt so safe before. Never in my life.

  I know you are looking at the pages, thinking this must be the end. But it is not. I told you in the beginning, I have found my voice and now that I have found it, nothing would stop me. Before I leave you, I intend to keep my promise. I promised I would do my best to explain, why the land of Anomaly was hidden.

  When you can not handle something, you do everything in your power to hide it. You do the best job you can, until you think it is gone. Anomaly’s people could not handle their deeds but they were willing to deal with them and admit their mistakes. It were the generations, that came afterwards, that were ashamed of the past. Till this day I am not sure whether, they were ashamed of their past Or ashamed of the fact that their past is the reflection of their present. You don’t know what I am talking about?

  Tell me this, in your era:

  you don’t see colors?

  You don’t judge people by appearance?

  You don’t betray your own family?

  You don’t determine one’s life by a word? By a lie?

  You don’t feel sometimes, ones happiness comes on your expense?

  You don’t get envy?

  You don’t steal?

  I guess we have not changed much, have we?

  Till next time, promise me this. If you see a tiger, don’t look into its eyes. You might not be able to bear, what you are about to see.

  Not the end.