MUJANG (The Red Seekers)

-Five

Silence fell over the place as the people watched the sword that had landed on the girl's neck.

Cromwell stood on his spot for a moment, not moving. Then slowly, his expression changed to that of anger.

"Bennett!!" He yelled out and turned around.

His face was red with fury as he stared daggers at the old, very old Mujang elder, Bennett.

"You didn't expect me to just stand here and watch you display your stupidity, did you?" Bennett shot back at him.

He, himself, was shaking in anger as well.

Back on the cubic steel, Karen breathed out continuously as she closed her eyes, then opened them again.

Mujang Bennett had saved her.

She could feel the metal that was now around her neck. That was what the guard's sword had hit.

The metal, not her neck directly.

Someone had used sorcery to make the metal appear around her neck just when the sword had almost touched her neck and the sword had landed on the metal.

She knew who had done it.

Mujang Bennet.

And from the look of things, Cromwell very well knew whose handwork it was as well.

She heard the sound of a sword being drawn out and she moved her eyes to the direction.

Cromwell had just drawn out a sword which he raised to strike Bennett but the sword flew out from his hands.

"You know better than to use swords at this moment!" Bennett spoke in a strong voice, then raised his chained hands and the chains suddenly broke loose in an instant.

He sped towards Cromwell in a flash and before anyone could even process anything, his foot collided with Cromwell's face in a high kick. Cromwell shot backwards and immediately Bennett landed, a long flaming sword appeared in his hand.

"You don't dare Mujangs!" Bennett roared and slashed the long sword across the air, creating a lightening bolt.

The people who were gathered were already screaming and running for their safety.

Cromwell stood from the floor just then and rushed towards Bennett with outstretched hands. Two swords covered in green fire appeared in his hands as he ran,and there was a mighty clash as the swords connected with Bennett's long sword.

There were more screams by people as they scampered for safety.

The four other mujang elders tried to break loose from their own chains but all to no avail.

The chains were made with strong and strange magic that they couldn't break away from. They had no idea how Bennett had been able to break loose from his own chains. But the one thing they knew was that Bennett was the oldest, and had secret abilities lying within him so it wasn't really surprising that he'd easily broken loose from the chains.

Some Shenon guards immediately started to lead those four remaining elders away as the fight between Bennett and Cromwell escalated.

Karen was still kneeling on her spot with her head still on the cubic steel.

The metal around her neck was,in a way, holding her head down on the steel.

It was sort of heavy on her neck.

The fight was going on near her and her eyes watched the several people running.

She grunted as she struggled to loosen the rope that was used to tie her hands to her back, but the rope was tight and wouldn't loosen.

She kept trying to slip her hands out of the rope but it wasn't working. She was still breathing hard as she observed the fierce fight going on before her.

It felt like she was back in that war that'd happened in Eldon. Only this time, she wasn't in the safety of a house with her mother. Rather, she was tied down to the centre of the battlefield.

The sound of the clashing swords resounded in her ear and green plus red fire swung across the air continuously. The green one from Cromwell's swords and the red one from Bennett.

"Karen!" A voice rang out from behind her but she couldn't turn her head to see who it was due to the heavy metal around her neck that was holding her down.

Her face was tomato red from all the struggling to raise her head. Sweat was trickling down her entire body and the amount of uneasiness she was feeling was too high to the extent that she burst into tears again as she kept trying to slip her hands out of the rope.

Hardly anyone could hear her loud cries due to the amount of people running and screaming, coupled with the yells from Bennett and Cromwell as they clashed.

"Karen!" The voice rang out again.

She suddenly felt the presence of someone behind her that instant.

"Karen," the voice came again, obviously out of breath.

She recognized the voice then.

Elena.

She felt Elena's hands begin to work on the rope that her hands were tied to and soon, she felt the rope loosen bit by bit as Elena's fingers worked on them.

She finally felt the rope loosen completely and it fell to the floor.

She was no longer crying loudly but her face was still heated up and soaked in tears.

She brought her hands forward and placed them on either sides of the steel her head was on.

"Karen..."

"I can't move."

Her voice was strained.

Elena felt around her neck but there was no way she could remove the heavy metal.

Karen, herself, was feeling around her neck too for any clasp or lock or whatever on the metal, but she couldn't find any.

There was another mighty clash from the two fighting men and then a yell of pain from one of them.

The clashing of swords stopped and everything seemed to still for a moment.

Karen felt the metal slowly begin to disappear from her neck till it disappeared completely.

Her head felt light again and she slowly raised it, rubbing her neck gently.

Elena raised her up to her feet and both of their eyes moved to the spot where the fighters stood.

Karen's lips parted and she blinked just to make sure she was seeing right.

Bennett was on his knees, with his two arms cut off. The two swords with green fire were stuck in his chest, while his own sword was lying on the floor.

Karen's eyes started to pool with tears again and she kept blinking slowly.

"Come on. Let's get out of here," Elena spoke and took her hand, but her gaze remained on the old Mujang as Cromwell prepared to finish him off.

Elena was already pulling her along and she watched as Cromwell formed white fire between his palms and rained the fire on Bennett.

One of the tears escaped her eye and slid down her cheek.

She finally turned as Elena kept leading her back to the special home.

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"Come on, get in the bath." Elena nudged her forward while hanging a white towel over the bathroom's hamper.

"I already had a bath minutes ago," she wanted to say, but kept mute. At that moment, she was simply tongue-tied and had no strength to utter any word.

"You need cold water at this moment," Elena spoke again as Karen removed the plain grey gown.

She slowly got into the tub and truly, the water was cold. Just like the first.

Elena knelt beside the tub and scooped some of the cold water onto Karen's head.

She closed her eyes involuntarily as the water came in contact with her scalp.

Elena repeated the action a few more times before standing and leaving her alone in the bathroom to continue with the bath.

Karen spent close to five minutes just sitting there in the tub and staring at the bubbles in it. When she finally began to wash her skin, it didn't take long for her to finish.

Soon, she was dressed and she used the towel to dry her hair.

Elena hadn't returned yet so she walked to the door, opened it and stepped out.

She walked down the corridor and came out to a small hall with kids scattered all around.

Some were playing games, some were with the nannies, some were simply discussing with signs.

She walked gently through their midst as she looked around.

"Karen! Come sit here!" A voice called out.

She followed the direction of the voice.

It was Elena. She was sitting at one of the tables with few of the children.

She walked over to them and sat down, then looked over to the girl sitting beside her who looked like her agemate.

The girl smiled at her and waved a little. She waved back at her, but didn't return the smile.

The girl moved her hands continuously. It was obvious that she was saying something to her but she couldn't understand.

The girl repeated the hand motion.

"Demelza. You can speak to her. She hears," Elena spoke and the girl—Demelza—looked at Elena and then nodded with a look that said 'Oh.'

"My name is Demelza," The girl spoke out, turning back to Karen.

Karen simply stared at her for a moment, then started to reply her when she remembered that the girl was a deaf one.

"I can't...sign."

Demelza seemed to understand what she'd said, because she nodded after Karen spoke.

"Demelza can lip-read. Same with every other child here. We teach them to sign as well as lip-read for more effective communication skills," Elena explained.

Karen nodded.

Elena reached out and gently took Karen's two hands, staring down at the deep red marks around her wrists caused by the ropes.

One of the nannies joined them just then and Karen recognized her as the woman that had told Neville that she's a girl.

For a split second, she looked around for Neville but couldn't find him anywhere around there.

"The ropes must have been tight," The nanny spoke.

"Yes." Elena nodded, still examining the red marks.

"Do you feel any pain on your wrists?"

"No."

Elena gently released her hands. "I think she'll be fine."

"You think she's safe here?" Demelza's quiet voice asked and their eyes returned to her.

"No," Elena replied her, making sure to say it in a way that she would be able to lip-read.

"Why did they want her dead?" The nanny asked.

"Something related to her eyes," Elena answered, staring at Karen's eyes. "Cromwell thinks the child's evil."

The nanny looked at Karen.

"I can't really blame him for his thoughts," she said. Her voice sounded scornful. She stared at Karen one more time, then walked away.

Elena moved her gaze away from Karen's eyes and faced the table before them squarely.

"I don't see anything wrong with your eyes," Demelza spoke and Karen gave her a small smile

"They're unusual, but they don't scare me," she added.

There was silence for a while before Demelza spoke again.

"Where are your parents? Are they among the adult captives outside?"

Karen shook her head in the negative.

"Dead?"

Karen looked away from her, then turned back to her again.

"Yes."

Elena provided a book and feathered ink for Karen just then, So she could communicate effectively with Demelza.

While Demelza spoke, Karen wrote down her responses due to the fact that Demelza wouldn't hear her if she voiced out her response.

Demelza told her a lot of things.

She told her the reason for her deafness.

She wasn't born deaf. She'd had an ear infection when she was five and it'd led to her inability to hear.

She was nine now.

Karen also got to know that Demelza isn't a citizen of Shenon.

"Most of the kids in this home aren't from here," She'd said. "Shenon is the only town around here that has a special home for children with inabilities to hear."

"How did it come about?" Karen wrote and Demelza read it before looking up at her.

"From the story we were told, it was our teacher, Elena's idea. She's from here, you know. She saw how several people abandoned children like us. Seeing us as different, unwanted. And Cromwell himself, he doesn't let kids like us come near him. Elena went to him and made a request for him to get workers to construct a home for those children with inabilities that were abandoned. Cromwell never paid attention to her at first but when he started to bump into children like that here and there, he accepted Elena's request and sent a few men to construct a home for them. Which later turned out to be this place. Parents who didn't want deaf or blind children, sent them here to stay." Demelza paused and watched some of the children, then looked back at Karen.

"There were just a few deaf children here in Shenon but word spread, and soon, more people from different nations around started to send their 'unwanted' children here, but Cromwell only accepted the deaf ones. No cripple or blind. In a way, this Shenon Special Home helped Shenon grow wide and famous as several people were coming here frequently for their children. Shenon's level of trade with other towns increased as well."

"Where are you from?" Karen wrote down.

"Arundel."

"How far is it?" Karen wrote

"Very far. My relatives brought me here. I guess they got too frustrated with having a deaf kid," she said, then sighed.

They watched each other for a while before Demelza spoke again.

"I won't stay here forever, though. I'll be sent back to Arundel when I turn 15."

"Why?" Karen voiced out, and Demelza lip-read.

"Cromwell had agreed for people to bring their deaf children here but with a firm condition that each of the kids will leave once they turn fifteen. He doesn't want Shenon to be filled up with deaf children." Demelza gave a sad chuckle.

"Where will you go when you turn fifteen?" Karen wrote.

"Nowhere. I don't think any of my family members will come here to take me back to Arundel when it's time. I'll be homeless. I'll probably die."

Karen watched Demelza's face for a while. In that way she always watches people or things, As if scrutinizing every single detail.

The silence stretched for a while as Karen kept watching Demelza.

"Neville is blind...and he's here. Why?" She finally broke the silence.

"What?"

Obviously, Demelza didn't succeed in lip-reading that so she wrote it down for her to read.

"Oh. Neville is one lucky boy. Elena found him abandoned somewhere near Shenon. When he was three years old. He was crying...and she took him and returned to Shenon. Cromwell had ordered for the blind child, Neville, to be thrown out...but Elena had been fierce...refusing to let go of the child. It took days before Cromwell finally agreed for Elena to keep the boy...but that day, he stamped that that'd be the only blind child in the Shenon Special Home."

"He's really lucky. Neville," Karen wrote and Demelza nodded.

"Do you have powers?" Demelza's asked.

Karen gently looked at her, then looked at the book as she wrote down her response.

"Every Mujang has powers."

"Is everyone in Eldon a mujang?"

"Our citizens are not much, so Yes," Karen wrote, then looked at Melza before writing again.

"Do you have powers?"

"No." Demelza shook her head with a smile. "But half the people here in Shenon do. Those that are born with magic are known as the Siraks, here in Shenon. The rest are ordinary people."

"I know. I know all that," Karen wrote down. "The siraks are identified by their uniform. Black and green."

"Or white and green. As long as there's a green," Demelza spoke with a bright face and Karen smiled.

That night, Elena transferred Karen to another room.

It had two bunk beds and she was to share the room with Demelza and two other girls.

That was how the others slept. In bunk beds.

The new room was just as spacious as her former room and she took a liking to it. Especially, as she wouldn't be alone.

When the others were asleep and the Shenon Special Home was quiet, Elena sat with Karen at a corner.

A lamp hung on the wall above them to give light.

Elena taught Karen signs for easier communication with the rest of the kids.

They practiced for a few hours and Karen, who was a fast learner, grabbed everything she was taught.

By the time she climbed up to her bunk bed and slid under the blankets, all she could think of was Mujang Bennett.

All she could see was her terrible near-death experience earlier that day.

She could feel the goosebumps as they washed over her skin at that moment.

She turned to lie on her side as she pulled the blanket up to her neck and shut her eyes tightly, hoping she wouldn't get terrible nightmares.