FARHAYVEN: VENGEANCE (110 page)

     The two chefs that Ray and Clover had beaten up earlier were busy cutting and chopping away at the corpses of barbequed dogs in the inn’s kitchen. The tremor sent pots and pans flying to the ground. One of the chefs tripped and fell onto the tip of his knife. He screamed out in pain. The other chef tried to drag his injured comrade out the back door. Although he stumbled a few times, he managed to do it. He laid his injured comrade flat out on the backstreet and collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion. The ground shook violently. He became nauseated and vomited all over himself. The third chef came running out of the kitchen door a few moments later and stumbled into his vomiting comrade. He too fell onto the ground exhausted and covered in vomit.

     On the streets outside, there was utter chaos. Pedestrians tried their best to keep their footing. Some of the horses became un-tethered and ran wildly up and down the streets, trampling any pedestrian unfortunate enough to be in their path. Carriages rolled free of their chocks and came smashing into people and buildings alike. One of the pedestrians, a clerk, who was walking home after work fell into a ditch and broke his neck. Street-side stands which held fruits, clothes and other items collapsed, causing the streets to be littered with items. Smashed watermelons and squashed tomatoes stained rolls of fine fabric while kitchenware items such as knives impaled the few unfortunate pedestrians who fell on them. Shards of glass were everywhere. Buildings began to crack. A few had collapsed. Fires were spreading fast from house to house and shop to shop. The desperate occupants of these buildings ran out to the streets only to be killed by stampeding horses that had broken loose from their barns.

     Tears were now streaming from Sky’s eyes. His face was one of pure desperation. His fellow townsfolk were getting killed right before his eyes.

     “Stop this now
!
” shouted Sky to Ray.

     Ray just looked silently at Sky. The expression on Ray’s face was unbelievable. It was one of pure satisfaction.

     “Stop _ he cannot do of this and neither can I,” explained Clover.

     “You can. You have powers. Use them now to stop this
!
Please, I beg you
!
” pleaded Sky as he got on his knees.

     “Understand _ you do not of this, for we Elementhars are trained to channel our soul energy in the form of natural elements and although we do have some limited capabilities in manipulating these elements, we are not the masters of Nature itself; on the contrary, it is Nature who is the master of us
!
” explained Clover.

     Ray just kept silent.

     “All right
!
Fine
!
But please do something to help them
!
They are my people. I need
you
to help them
!
Minvian Genox
!
You… you are not like Minvian Iddell. You are not
heartless
like him. I
know
you are
not
. Please help
!
Please make this earthquake stop
!
” pleaded Sky desperately as he turned from Ray to Clover.

     Clover shook her head. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. She knew that there was nothing that anyone could do about the situation. Nature will balance itself out. They just had to wait and see to find out what the final outcome was going to be.

     “I am going to untie the Channeller
!
Maybe he can help
!
” said Sky.

     “Fraudster _ he of him cannot help you and you know it, so leave him be
!
” insisted Ray.

     “But… but… I have to… I...,” mumbled Sky to himself, finally accepting the fact that the situation was hopeless.

     Moments later, the rumbling stopped. The ground stopped shaking. Ray sat down silently. So did Clover. But Sky was up on his feet. Tears were welling up in his reddish eyes. His family was dying down there in Southgust Town. So were his friends and neighbours. Sky untied the rein of his horse and mounted up. He galloped down towards Southgust.

     Meanwhile, in the backstreet behind Gusthaven Inn, the two vomit-covered chefs sat up from the ground. They looked over to their wounded comrade. He lay motionless in a pool of blood. His eyes bulged and his skin was pale. They felt pity for him. It was unfortunate that he fell onto his own knife. After all, the tremor was no more serious than the ones before and they had managed to survive those all this while. What a pity, they thought, since their dead comrade had just bought a new house and had just moved into the place for only a few months. His widow would be burdened with the debt that came with the house. Life would be tough for her. They had two children who were about to start school this year. How was she going to manage
?
Maybe she could sell the house, move into a smaller one and get a job. They could recommend her to the inn keeper. Maybe he could give her a job. She was really going to need it. They would like to help her out in other ways as well, but their own finances were quite strained.

     But enough was enough. The two chefs had stalled long enough with all these pretences. The truth was that they dreaded the moment they had to walk over and touch the wrist or neck of their dead comrade to confirm that he was dead. They never really liked him when he was alive and he looked totally repulsive now that he was dead. His wife, on the other hand, was whom they had fantasised about every night. Perhaps now there was an opportunity for one of them, or maybe the both of them to…

     There was a low growl. Then another harmonised with it. And another. The growling became louder and was intertwined with a few sharp and ferocious barks. The two chefs turned around to see a pack of stray dogs baring their fangs at them. They hurried to their feet and tried to run. All thoughts of their dead comrade disappeared from their minds. Even the vision of his beautiful wife faded instantly. They just ran and ran and ran.

     But their efforts were all in vain. The pack of thirty dogs easily outran the duo and pounced at their necks, waist, arms and feet. A multitude of pain signals were sent to their brains as sharp, saliva covered fangs and incisors pierced their soft skins and sunk deep into the tender flesh below. The two chefs were forced down hard. Chunks of flesh were ripped off from their bodies. They tried to struggle but to no avail. Their bodies and limbs were pulled on like a rope in a ‘tug of war’ game. They screamed and they shouted and they cried for help, but deep down inside, they knew that there would be no help for them. That irritating Truthkeeper fellow had told them so. For years they had ridiculed him, but tonight, his words were proven true
!
And so finally the two chefs let go of life and resisted the dogs no more. And in the pain and chaos, they managed to find a short moment of peace before everything went dark, cold, silent and still.

     Meanwhile, on the main streets of Southgust, there was total chaos. Countless numbers of survivors were walking around in a dazed manner. Horses ran around wildly, trampling anyone in their paths. Calls for help were drowned in cries of sorrow, punctuated by the occasional rumble from a collapsing building.

     Sky could see smoke billowing from the town that was his birthplace. He saw his home and his community in ruins. He could see the people whom he called his own, suffer in loss and agony. He wanted to help them. He
needed
to help them. He had no idea how to help them though, but he knew that he had to get there fast. He forced his horse to full gallop. A part of him was dying in that town and he had to save it.

     The ground shook again. This time it was sharper and more violent. The survivors lost their footing and all of them fell. Numerous buildings crumbled into piles of dust and debris. Cracks and fissures developed in the paved streets. There were screams of desperation as a few of the townsfolk fell into these fissures.

    
BOOM!
There was a loud explosion and a huge spray of hot, molten lava shot out from the middle of the town. The lava spray was so intense and powerful that it reached up to the heavens. Then a most horrible form of death befell the survivors in Southgust. Droplets of hot, molten lava began raining down on them. Everywhere, people were screaming in pain from the burns they received as droplets of molten lava melt away their flesh. But their pain was short and brief, for the dead were not capable of feeling pain.

     Sky was so shocked at what was happening that he had let go of his reins. He was flung off his horse as a result. As he fell onto the grassy ground he felt no pain as his heart was too saturated with grief and sadness.

     As Sky struggled to get up on his knees, streams of tears flowed down his cheeks. He knew that they were all dead by now, all those whom he loved and cherished in that town, but there was a part of him that just could not accept it
!
How could he swallow the fact that his father and mother were either crushed by a tonne of rubble, or fell into giant cracks in the earth or worse, scorched to death in a shower of molten lava
?
Or that his uncle and cousins were trampled by runaway horses or burnt to death as a raging fire consumed their homes. Who could ever swallow such a fact
!

     So there he was, Minvian Sky Proest, humbled and helpless; kneeling halfway down a hill looking at his birthplace being slowly consumed by rivers of molten lava. And slowly as Sky watched, a mountain of hot, smouldering earth began to form where the town square of Southgust once was. The town was no more. In its place stood a brand new volcanic mountain which was freshly created by Nature itself. The mountain no doubt would be named Mount Southgust; and forever would be known as the volcano that had burst out in the heart of a town and wiped away its entire population. The mountain, in truth, was a giant tombstone
!

     Sky walked uphill, trying to get back to where Ray and Clover were. His mind was blank. He just could not think.

     “Why
!?
Why
!? WHY!?
” yelled Sky at the heavens when he reached to where Ray and Clover were.

     Ray and Clover kept silent. All their anger had subsided. But they could not feel sad for Sky and his community, who were cruel and selfish, after all. And what had just happened was Nature’s way of delivering justice. And who is to argue with Nature
?

     “You know why
!
” said an unexpected voice.

     All of them turned around. Higher Recipient Truthkeeper had just appeared with a handful of children, the only survivors of the incident. The children were all black, covered in soot and ash, and so was the Receiver. But the children were not crying. Like Sky, they were too devastated to cry. They just held on to the Receiver and to each other as tightly as they could.

     Anger welled up in Sky. It was an unjustified anger. It was an unjustified, blind anger born of guilt and helplessness.

     “Your fault
!
This was all your fault
!
You cursed us, did you not
!?
Yes, you cursed us, Truthkeeper
!
” he said accusingly.

     “If
only
I had the power to curse, hah
!
” said Higher Recipient Truthkeeper sarcastically.

     Sky rushed towards the Receiver with his dagger drawn. A kill with the sword would endanger the children that Higher Recipient Truthkeeper had with him. Besides, a dagger made for a slower, more tormenting death. But Clover immediately executed a Horizontal Tornado Spell, which blew Sky off balance and sent him sprawling to the ground.

     “Fault _ of this, it was not his, nor anyone else’s; but your own, Minvian Proest
!
” stressed Clover.

     “It cannot be
!
It cannot be
!
I did not ask for this
!
How could this be my fault
!
” screamed Sky as he got to his feet.

     “Nature will never give you what you ask for. That is just
not
how it works
!
Nature will always give you what you deserve
!
” explained Higher Recipient Truthkeeper.

     “And so you, all of you, are saying that my parents, my uncle, my cousins and my friends are dead, and they are all dead because we
deserved
this
!?
Are you telling me that their parents and their loved ones are dead because they
deserved
this
!?
” asked Sky, while pointing to the soot-covered children.