Marked

Summary: Zuid was young, he started to care about his enemies. He wanted them to live, he wanted them to be able to continue living. Little did he realize that a much younger warrior, Uoldo, would betray him to his own father. Zuid knows that what he's done has dire consequences, but he wasn't ready for the hot iron that was forced onto his back. His life started to change right before him.

***

            The forest surrounded young Zuid, his dagger and sword clenched in his hands that were dripping with wet, sticky, blood. Yet, wherever the young chimera went, no bodies ever trailed behind him. That’s because he didn’t leave any, Zuid didn’t want to kill anyone. He was tired of how his people always told him to “leave no survivors,” or, “they were the enemy,” he didn’t understand any of it. Those that he fought in battle must have had living parents, a family . . . children waiting for them to come home and tell tales of what they had seen in battle.

            Did Zuid pity his opponents? He couldn’t say, Zuid wasn’t taught to feel anything for the enemy. Except when a couple of days ago one pleaded for their life, telling him of the family that they had, that his little girl was waiting for him back home. That was what stayed the blades of young Zuid. This opponent had a family. It seemed rather silly that he had never thought of it before. Of course his opponents would have family, how else did they appear on this world?

            As he let his opponents go, they gave him blessings. Telling him that maybe his tribe wasn’t as bad as it seemed since Zuid was from it. How wrong they were. Zuid’s tribe is all about upholding the traditions and culture. Every race holds it dear and hopes that it doesn’t fade with each generation.

            However, Zuid’s family never really seemed to care for any traditions other than the ones that dealt with what the warriors did. It was all because every single male in the family have always been a warrior, fought and died for the tribe. Zuid’s own father was the lead warrior, the general of the warriors. Every single general before his father was always from his family.

            “Why haven’t you killed anyone Zuid?” asked a small voice. Zuid turned around to see who it was. The boy had just become of age to be a warrior. Naturally Zuid’s father made Zuid take the boy under his wing. Staring intently at the boy, he remembered that he told the boy to stay put and to not follow him.

            “You were supposed to stay at camp, Uoldo.” Zuid murmured. The look on the boy’s face said it all. Of course he was young and wanted to see adventure. It just meant that Zuid would have to be extra careful . . . or maybe he should just kill the boy right now—except if he did kill the boy and no one else, that would show badly. He would become a traitor and he would never be able to start a family or even be able to live with his own tribe.

            Patting young Uoldo on the head Zuid whispered, “This is going to be our little secret okay?” with a wink Zuid continued to walk on.

***

            It has been days since he returned from his duty. It was nice to be able to smell the food that his mother cooked, the warmth of his home along with the warmth of his bed. Zuid still hasn’t regretted leaving his opponents alive. It didn’t matter. They would be able to live another day to be with their families.

            As young Zuid walked into the kitchen the only face he saw was that of his mother’s. It was rather confusing; normally his father would be here as well to eat with the family. Looking at his mother, Zuid took notice that she wouldn’t even meet his eyes, or even look in his direction, she only spoke, “Zuid, your father wants you at town square. Now.”

            Heart beginning to race, Zuid knew what his father wanted. Uoldo had told the general of what happened. Clenching his fist, Zuid walked out of the door, knowing that he would never walk into this house again or even see his mother again. As he walked, he heard the clicks and the clacks that sounded beneath him as his hooves hit the cobblestone. It was a familiar sound, but the sound didn’t show any sympathy or even comfort to Zuid.

            As he saw his father, Zuid couldn’t meet the man’s eyes. He could already tell that he was disgusted in his own son. His father grabbed him by the arm and dragged him up onto the stage. Zuid knew he wouldn’t be able to break his father’s grip.

            Once Zuid was on stage, he noticed how many people had shown up. There were so many. How was he going to show his face ever again? He had to choke down his feelings, what he did was right. There wasn’t a need to kill all of their enemies. They had a family, people who loved them too. They were like them, just a different race.

            Zuid couldn’t even pay attention to his father’s words. They were all just noises to him. Everything became blurry from the tears that he was fighting back. He could feel the heat from the fire that was near him. How long had that been there?

            Suddenly, he heard the iron that was removed from the fire. Zuid knew what was going to happen to him. He was going to be branded. Fear rose up into his throat as vomit, he had never felt such a pain before.

            There was no warning as to when his father was going to burn Zuid’s flesh. The young warrior had no time to prepare for the pain. As the white-hot iron touched his back, he screamed, tried to get away from the iron. Except, his father had him pinned. There was no escape. Zuid had no sense of time; it felt like years, no, it felt like a decade. The metal still wouldn’t leave his flesh; he could feel it going in deeper than just his skin. He knew that his father wanted this. Wanted this to be his punishment, this way Zuid would remember what he did every single day for the rest of his life.

            Zuid wanted to black out, except every time he was close to losing consciousness, Uoldo was there to splash freezing cold water on his face. Eventually, he felt the iron leave the hole it made on his body. “It lost its heat. Give me the other one,” his father stated.

            Zuid’s eyes widened in horror, “No! No more Father! I beg of you to stop this, please!” he cried out. Fearing that this one would last longer than the first.

            His father only laughed and grabbed Zuid by his jaw, “Is that what our enemies asked you? Did they beg to live?” before he was even able to answer, Zuid was back to being pinned on the ground and continued to scream as the other white-hot iron went back into the hole the first one made. He screamed more, and eventually threw up from shock. There was a quick release from the metal, and young Zuid was left on the ground in his own vomit. He didn’t even try to move, his body shook from the pain and the shock. It wasn’t long after when his father walked toward him, and said, “You are no longer my son. Never speak to us again.”

            Tears were running down the young warrior’s face. His whole life just disappeared underneath his hooves in a second. No one would want to date him, much less marry him and have children. It hurt knowing that he would never have a family of his own now. The tears continued until he lost consciousness.

***

            It was a very comfy place to sleep; it felt like he had a blanket on him, a pillow, and warmth. This wasn’t the place where Zuid passed out. Quickly his eyes flew open, and he jolted upward, only to find a woman’s hands on his chest, ushering him to lie back down unless he didn’t want his back to heal. He did what he was told, and went back down.

            The girl blushed, “M-my name is Esthale. I couldn’t just let you stay there. Your wounds needed to be tended to.”

            Zuid studied her; she looked a few years younger than he. She had the cutest deer nose, and when she blushed her ears flicked back and forth. Perhaps trying to calm herself down. He didn’t know. He couldn’t help but smile at her. Maybe his life wasn’t going to end after all.

            “My name’s Zuid,” he said. However, she probably knew his name if she was there for the entire ceremony. Except, it was good manners to introduce oneself after someone else has already done so. Out of curiosity, he looked to see if someone had changed his clothes, when he looked, he noticed that these robes weren’t his. He looked at Esthale and asked, “What happened to my clothes?”

            The girl shook her head, “Your father took your robes. Saying that you were not worthy of their status to wear them anymore.” then, Esthale did the strangest thing, and looked away, “I-I carried you here . . . by myself . . . washed you . . . and dressed you . . .”

            That was when Zuid turned bright red, his ears pricked upwards, so high that it would have hurt him to do so normally. “You saw?” even if their people had the legs of a goat, that didn’t mean that the males were allowed to let their genitalia hang out in the open, it was the same for women. The other thing that really shocked Zuid was the fact that this small woman had carried him back. “You actually carried me?” he said in disbelief.

            Esthale nodded with a straight face, and then busted out laughing, “No of course not! My father was the one who carried you back to our small home. He was the one who bathed you and dressed you as well!”

            In normal circumstances Zuid would have laughed, except the pain that he was afraid to feel restrained him from laughing. The least he could do was smile at her. The two talked for a while, getting to know one another. Esthale didn’t care about what he had done to deserve the brand. She thought that he had virtues that some people in their tribe didn’t have. That he was brave enough to stand up against the laws.

            After he ate dinner, Esthale said something that he wasn’t expecting, “You’re welcome to live here.”

            Zuid didn’t know how to react to this. It was true that he had no home to return to, but to just take a random stranger in like this? None of it made any sense. However, Esthale continued to explain, “I like you a lot! I wouldn’t mind . . . dating you. You see I was worried that you would leave the tribe. You seem like a wonderful man, I want to get to know you,” she put her hand on his, and squeezed it gently.

            His face turned red. He didn’t know what to say to her. It was quite brave of her to say that to someone who had just gotten branded in front of the whole tribe, she saw him beg for mercy, pleading to his own father to make the pain go away. Except that didn’t happen. Whoever was in the heavens was looking out for him. Zuid smiled and said, “I would love to stay here. Thank you for everything that you’ve done for me,” he then lifted her hand to his lips and gently placed a kiss on the back of her hand.

***

            It was a month later, and the two young chimeras were already madly in love with each other. Some were confused why they wouldn’t marry already. However, they wanted to make sure that everything would turn out all right. To make sure that they truly were soul mates, of course they did have arguments, which Esthale left in tears. A minute later, Zuid would always be begging her for forgiveness, and she always did forgive him.

            Naturally, when the two decided to get married, Esthale’s family was all for it. Even her father, who was crying, but he was proud that he had even picked Zuid up long ago. Except, Zuid didn’t have any family to receive blessings from. It had become awkward; it almost felt wrong to get married without telling his family, despite the fact that they had disowned him.

            “I think you should go see your father. . .” Esthale said the following day. Zuid looked at her, knowing that she was right. Sooner or later his father would realize that he actually had a good life.

***

            Zuid stood in front of his old house. It was nerve racking to be back here. He hadn’t even been in this part of town since he had been branded. As he touched the wooden door, he had flashbacks; he could feel the pain of the iron digging into his skin. Biting his lip down, he knocked on the door, loud enough so that he couldn’t be ignored.

            The door opened, his father stood there in front of him. “What are you doing back here you shit?” his father growled.

            Zuid could feel his body freeze as his father spoke. He wanted to walk away, no; he wanted to run away from him. Tell him that it was a mistake to even knock on the door. Except, he knew that would be cowardice of him. He couldn’t let down Esthale; he didn’t want to be a disappointment. So, he cleared out his throat and said, “I want your blessing. I am going to be getting married within the month.”

            He looked his father in the eye, and the man just laughed, “You’re getting married? This soon? Come on in son . . .”

            The young warrior was nervous, except he followed his father into the room where the hearth was. It was a sudden strike. A cheap shot, blood spattered the floor, and maybe part of the wall. Zuid, clenched his right eye, his own father tried to slash out his son’s eye. He stood there in a stupor, not believing that his father would do this. Except, again, his father came at him, and stabbed him in the torso and twisted the blade that was inside of him.

            Falling to his knees, Zuid coughed up blood. He looked up at his father asking, “Why?”

            His father laughed at him, “You showed your face to me. I told you—no, I ordered you to never even speak to me again. Now you show up on my door? How ignorant are you?” Then, his father grabbed Zuid’s hair and tossed him outside, “Now try to get back before you bleed out.”

            Before his father closed the door on him. He grabbed the knife inside of Zuid and pulled it out. Zuid thought fast, and moved as little as possible. He knew that Esthale would be coming here soon. Hoping that everything went well. How naïve he was, to even think his father would actually give them his blessing. Well, they got it . . . in a way that none of them even expected. It wasn’t long until he heard her worried voice, trying not to scream. Quickly she wrapped out the wounds, making him talk to her, making sure that he wouldn’t bleed to death.

            Once she wrapped the wounds in the lower part of her robe, she became his crutch to get back to their house. Once again, she saved him. This woman had given him another chance at life, another chance even though their society would hate him. It didn’t matter; the only thing that really mattered was that he had Esthale.

            As she helped Zuid into bed, Zuid said, “Screw the wedding, and let’s just elope. Exchange rings, say our vows, kiss, and be over with it. I won’t heal in time for the wedding. Let’s just do it now.”

            The look on Esthale’s face said that she would be all right with that. She ran to go get her parents. They already had the rings; the two exchanged vows, and kissed each other, despite the fact that one of them was bedridden.

***

            It wasn’t long after the wedding Esthale became pregnant. Zuid was worried that his father would target their child once it was born. There was no way Zuid was going to let that happen.

***

            Little Sair was a handful when he was little, he liked to run around and hop beside Esthale. The little one was full of smiles, it brought joy to Zuid, he was happy that he was able to give his son this kind of life. A life where there weren’t many expectations, just simply be himself and live life to the fullest.

            There were some points in little Sair’s life when his father would hide him from sight. As if there were someone glaring at them. Of course, little Sair would cling to his father’s tunic, and whimper, always wondering why he was being hidden. Zuid simply did it to protect his son from his own grandfather. Zuid wasn’t going to let the man hurt the things he cared about—not anymore.