The Twins of Sloth Chapter 2

The Twins of Sloth

Chapter 2

As dawn came and the sun’s rays came over the horizon I stirred, turning over to shield my eyes from the illumination. I heard my brother stirring lightly beside me, reassuring me as I drifted off to sleep again. Not soon after a sharp pain in my side awoke me, I quickly rolled over onto the sand to avoid whatever had caused it. Opening my shining blue eyes, silhouetted sharply against the bright sun stood mother, keeping her eye on my figure as she pulled Nassam up beside her. Turning her attention fully to my brother she harshly whispered to him,
“What do you think you are doing Nassam? What did I tell you?” Still lying in the sand, not daring to stand lest I incur mother’s wrath, I watched as my brother tried to pull away from her, a little frightened unsurprisingly.

Holding Nassam behind her, she turned back to me.
“Get up!” she sharply commanded, “Get up Eimosu! Don’t make me repeat myself!” Hesitantly, I got to my feet before her, not looking up at her in case I get into more trouble. “Just what did you think you were doing? Didn’t I tell you last night to go back to your bed? Did I say go sleep with Nassam?” She grabbed both my shoulders and shook me hard, “Answer me you deformed creature!”

Before I could even think of getting my head together and answering her, Nassam came over, pulling me backward from mother’s grasp.
“Mother please! Leave him alone! Stop being bad to him, he’s my brother!” Mother seemed outraged by such a reaction from him, so much so that he tore Nassam away from me and held him to her face by his golden hair.
“And you really think I care about that? You want to know how much I care? This is all I care for that rat!” So saying, she dropped Nassam and came over to me, turning me violently around and, with her sandaled foot at the small of my back, kicked me forward. I fell over, scraping against the harsh sand before rolling to a stop. Mother looked pleased, not caring when Nassam ran over to me to help me up, shocked and horrified.
“Eimosu, are you alright?” my brother kindly whispered to me as he helped me to stand. The bottom of my already ripped robe now had a larger hole in it, my nose was bleeding due to my falling forward and the left side of my face was quite badly scraped.

“Mother!” Nassam shouted at her. I held up my hand to stall what my brother was going to say next, taking his hands from my arms and turning away. Nassam touched me on the shoulder lightly but I really didn’t feel it, as if he and mother no longer existed. I swept my left arm outward, pushing Nassam away from me and I ran. Ran away from mother, away from Nassam, I just wanted to get out of there. Running between two nearby tents, I jumped upon the raised perimeter of the camp and soon disappeared from sight.

****

~Note: This section of the story will be told from Nassam’s point of view otherwise the story will not connect properly~

It was that day that the hunters came home: the men of the tribe who were sent go gather food and water for the rest of us. Their coming back also signalled the day of my father returning, as it was he who leads the hunters, making him a very important man in our tribe. As they came through the gates of the camp from the wilderness of the open desert, a large crowd gathered around them to welcome them home. I was glad I was young, being as small as I was, I could easily fit between the crowds so I could find father quicker. He stood near the back of the group, talking to another of his hunters, tallying the amount of food that they had brought back. Spotting me out of the corner of his eye he ran over, scooping me up in his powerful arms and kissing me lightly on the head.
“Nassam my special little boy!” he spoke to me as I played with a few loose hairs from his thick beard, “and how are you this fine morning?” I smiled up to him, watching him as he started looking around, “Nassam my boy, where is Eimosu? Normally he’d be clinging to my leg by now. Is he hiding from your mother again?” I gave my father a slightly troubled look,
“That’s why I came over to you so quickly father. Mother hurt Eimosu again.”
“Again?” father shook his head, unsurprised by this, “So he is hiding then?”
“Not exactly,” I spoke a little nervously, “Mother hurt him bad. He got scared I think. He ran off behind some tents and hopped the perimeter.”
“What!” now father was surprised; he seemed also a little scared, “ are you saying that he is out there, in the open desert?” I nodded sorrowfully. At that point he put me lightly down onto the sand and called over ten of his colleagues.
“Alright look, all of you. My son has gone missing in the open desert. Now I want you all to scan the region around here, he probably hasn’t gone far. He isn’t hard to spot; bright blue eyes, almost bald but he has some hair, light skin, probably is hurt and scared. Now go!” Mother came over just as father and his small pack of hunters left.
“Where is your father going now Nassam?” I looked up at her, a little angry.
“Going to sort out what mess you started mother.”

~Normal point of view resumes~

****

I had never been into the open desert before, not even with another person, so it did seem quite scary as I hid behind a sand dune at first. Now I had made myself quite comfortable out here – I had dug a small hole out from a dune and had settled myself inside it, my head poked out of the hole since it was too small to fit all of me inside. Mother will never find me in here, I thought to myself, she wouldn’t even care to look. She won’t ever see me ever again, I won’t see me ever again. For I had quickly planned not just to hide from her, oh no, I had planned much more than that. No one would ever see me, no one would have to come anywhere near the freak that I am ever again.

Not long after I had managed to dig a hole large enough to fit me inside I heard voices echoing around the dunes. There was a voice that I recognised, that of my father. He was calling out to me, calling my name, searching for me. I wasn’t surprised, I had figured that Nassam would tell father what I had done anyway, that I had gone past the perimeter of the camp. I lodged myself further into the hole, hoping that I wouldn’t be found, that I could do what I wanted without someone finding me first. That want seemed shattered as I saw my father come into my field of view, I knew then that he would soon spot me in the dune and will probably try and take me back, which I did not want.

I could tell when he noticed me, as he came running over to me, kneeling down before my little dune hole and gently lifting my head up so I looked to him.
“Eimosu my dear son, what are you doing hiding in a dune?” I didn’t answer him, and that really concerned him, “Eimosu look, its dangerous out here. When Nassam told me what happened, do you know how worried I was?” again, all he got from me was stony silence, “Oh please, Eimosu, come out of that hole and lets go back. You could easily be injured worse out here than by your mother’s hands.”
“No.” was all I spoke in reply before wedging myself deeper into the hole. When father next spoke it was worry rather than surprise that tinged his voice.
“What is it Eimosu? I’ll help you Eimosu, just please say.”
“Just look at me father, “ I spoke defiantly, “Just look. I’m a monster. I am different from you, from mother, from Nassam. What is the point, why am I here? Why am I still here?”
“Yes, you are different Eimosu, but there is no problem in that. What are you trying to tell me? That you want to…what? Commit suicide? Kill yourself? Is that what you are trying to tell me Eimosu?”
“That is exactly what I am saying,” At this point father, who was sitting on his haunches, basically fell backward, unbelieving of what I had just said, “and nothing father, nothing, is going to sway me otherwise!” At that point I pulled myself completely under the dune, the entrance to the hole sealed itself in and, after I gave it a kick,  the whole dune collapsed in on the hole I’d made. The weight of the sand and also the lack of a hole leading outside made it impossible to breathe. I was slowly suffocating.

Through the haze brought on by the lack of air I could hear a shout, my father simply screaming in shock at what I had done. After that I heard a scratching noise and soon after a rush of air hit me before I was lifted out. My father had dug me out and he now had me in his sturdy grip. I began coughing, I had inhaled some sand when trying to breathe, my father’s colleagues soon came over as he lifted me up against his shoulder after I had finished coughing up sand particles.
“What happened? Is he alright?” was what I could just about hear above the incessant ringing in my ears. My father removed his cloak and wrapped me up in it as I held close to him, walking away from the scene in the direction of the camp.

I was still a little dazed after the event as we entered through the gates to the camp. My father and his group were met with cheers and festivity at my safe return. The elder of our tribe, the great Qasim, came forward to my father to speak with him about what had happened. My father sorrowfully recalled the tale to him as the whole tribe sat down to hear. Ignoring the cry of ‘almost good riddance’ from my mother, Qasim came over to my father and plucked me from his arms. Saying a few words of prayer for my recovery from the incident, he slipped two healing bracelets on my wrist and set me down by the burned out fire, asking Nassam to stand guard over me so that insect nor mother could come down to harm me.

As darkness fell on the camp and everyone had long since fallen into slumber, I lay awake, not wanting to sleep. I just lay and listened to the sounds around me. I heard a shuffling of feet through sand within the camp, one of the guards with their Lupes I believed, but it was getting closer, coming for me. I felt two strong arms wrap around me, a familiar scent drifted to my nostrils, one of the bracelets upon my wrist slipped off and landed in the sand.
“Sleep Eimosu, just sleep.” A familiar voice whispered, the owner holding me close before moving, stepping around the sleeping members of the tribe and out of the gates. Soon after, my tired eyes closed and I drifted off to sleep.