The Supremacy of Peculiar Dolls

Chapter 2: The Earth

Yeomso could almost do nothing but to wander aimlessly with the twins. Both twins did not say much since Yeomso never touched or harmed them in any ways. They tailed him without a word and witnessed every mimic Yeomso expressed. The longer they walked through the trees and bushes, the deeper they subconsciously went. The Earth’s Forest of Eve was far different than The Dimension’s. The forest there had lesser bushes and more shady trees, therefore the view was clearer. As for The Earth’s, it had taller trees, and less brilliant colours.

            The sun was about to rise, judging from the changing colour of sky. The moon has disappeared from the sight, and glittering morning sunshine emerged from one course. Yeomso saw the blinding light, immediately got the idea to follow the direction.

            “We used to appear as The Zodiac on the sky,” To break the awkward silence, Yeomso started storytelling. “From The Earth, we’re supposed to appear as clusters of stars. One of the stars will point towards the north, so travellers could use that as compasses.”

            Yeomso paused to glance at the reaction of Kouki and Hiroki. Kouki was looking at him, while Hiroki lowered his gaze to the ground. Yeomso has not familiarized himself to differentiate Kouki and Hiroki. Both had physically identical features, plus they were too quiet to talk. He could not detect whether Kouki or Hiroki as the matured type.

            “Since I’ve come down to The Earth, I doubt Earthlings could see The Capricorn up there,” Yeomso pointed towards the sky, “Well, we still can rely on other Zodiacs like The Scorpio or The Aries. I was supposed to refer those Zodiacs as well, but I don’t know why I couldn’t see even one star there.”

            “The sky was mourning for us.”

            Finally, one of the twins spoke. Yeomso exhaled at ease, yet his relief instantaneously flipped into curiosity. “Mourning?”

            “Our father has passed away. That’s why.”

            Yeomso slowed his own pace to match with them. One of them still stared at him, while the other one stepped cautiously with eyes fixed on the ground. “You must be Kouki.”

            “Yes, I am.”

            The twins were holding hand. The younger brother Hiroki gripped tighter than Kouki, estimating from the visible fine veins on the back of hand. It was predictable since he barged into the house and found them instantly without hesitation, Hiroki must have felt scared of the large stature before his eyes. Yeomso was fully aware how inhuman he was, hence he would not force anything on the twins.

            “Kouki, don’t you feel sad upon your father’s passing?”

            He just noticed that. Neither of the twins shed tears after he informed them regarding the man’s death. The twins even taught him to bury dead body so that its soul could rest peacefully. Hours of literally spending time with them, Yeomso never witnessed Hiroki hiccupping, or Kouki’s watery eyes.

            “We do feel sad. It was devastating,” Kouki shifted his gaze towards somewhere, averting from Yeomso, “Father was the only adult we could love. We don’t have a Mother, so Father was the one who took care of us.”

            Yeomso covertly ogled to no one, “What happened to your Mother?”

            “She died after giving birth to us.”

            Why is this kid so mature…ly sensationless? Kouki was divulging basically a dark past, but he still never cried upon that. Yeomso frowned in moderate shock because he, at the same time, imagined how Yagi would cope with such history. Yagi was raised by strict parents, so he became a very gentle young man. Compared to other Zodiac inheritors, Yagi was far more kind-hearted than them. Nevertheless, the little Humans before his eyes was beyond his expectancy. He could not even correlate them to those young Zodiac inheritors and Yagi. These twins surely had something up their sleeves.

            “My son would cry if I died.”

            “He is lucky then.”

            A brow raised. Yeomso blinked in confusion, yet Kouki did not really budge from appearing emotionless. The awaiting view was much interested him than the conversation. Yeomso averted. “What do you mean?”

            Kouki seemed hesitated before answering. “We always wanted to cry. But we can’t.”

            Yeomso gradually shifted from the trees along the lane to the expressionless Kouki. Hiroki at his side was doubtfully listening to the chat because he kept on lowering his eyes. Yeomso thought that he could obtain some information from Kouki with a bit persuasion.

            “Why can’t you cry?”

            “We were lab rats – Tests were done on us, so we have various complication nowadays. One of them is that we can’t cry. The tear duct doesn’t produce anything.”

            Yeomso gaped in disbelief. So these kids were not able to cry due to their defective body function. Probably the tear duct has malfunctioned, but it was too pitiful to bear. Yeomso felt bad for asking – Damages on Human was one of the thing he could not restore as a Dimensional while being on The Earth. If only the three of them were in The Dimension, he would call The Pisces to help.

            “Who performed those lab tests you’ve mentioned?” Since Kouki has brought the matter up, Yeomso decided to ask about it.

            “Father and his nine friends.”

            “What?!”

            So that Human was considering his sons as lab rats? Yeomso, again, gawked in huge dubiety. Kouki and Hiroki were only five years old, thus it might be impracticable for both of them to deceive him. He acknowledged this because Yagi could not lie or even pretend at that age. “Why did your Father do such cruel things on you?”

            “They weren’t cruel!” Suddenly, Hiroki butted in, half screaming, “They were helping us, rescuing us so that those bad people wouldn’t harm us!”

            “Hiroki, calm down,” Kouki swept Hiroki in his arms, hushing him and his anxiety. “Yeomso won’t lay a hand on us. He’s a good person we can trust.”

            Kouki’s gentle coax gradually soothed Hiroki from throwing tantrum. Hiroki did seem to almost burst to tears, but he could only frown. Yeomso shuddered in sympathy as he could do nothing regarding their inability to cry.

            Yeomso pursed his lips. Kouki never seemed to be fearful of him despite the long horns on his head. The same with Hiroki, but he was more timid than Kouki. He did not even waver when the kids could perceive him, based on the late Father’s ability of doing the same. Are Humans acknowledging the presence of The Dimension and its community? Is that why Hebi the Ophiuchus could stay here as a Human? The mystery did not end just from one track of trace – There must be something else happening along with the arrival of Hebi on The Earth, to the point that even these little Human seemed unafraid.

            “What was the purpose of the tests you’ve said just now?” Yeomso calmly asked, but his eyes were fixated affront. He could smell water which meant they were getting near to a river bank.

            “We don’t really know,” Kouki was looking forward to whatever came to his view. Possibly he, too, smelled the water. “All those scientist did were taking our blood samples and injecting us liquids.”

            The early prediction was correct – There was indeed a flowing clear river with fishes swimming beneath the surface. Hiroki was delighted to see such beautiful scenery with his own eyes that he released Kouki’s hand and dashed to the riverside.

“Watch out!” Yeomso yelled and leapt to the riverside leaving the perplexed Kouki.

            Yeomso knew there was a river, almost looked alike this river, in The Dimension’s Forest of Eve. As far as he has learnt in his lifetime, its named was The River of Adam. It was said that whoever with ill intention would get burn once the skin got contacted with the water. He was to block Hiroki from touching the surface of water, but the little Human was already dipping his hand into it.

            “Kouki, look! The water is so clear! I can see my hand in it!” Hiroki announced while his another arm flailing to lure Kouki.

            Yeomso blinked in amazement. Hiroki did not get hurt from touching the water? He even splashed the water to Kouki, and Kouki, too, was all right. He did not meant to accuse them having bad intention, but he would never encouraged Yagi to get near to any river even in his own valley. His overthinking led him to be overprotective to his son. No matter how long he consumed to observe Kouki and Hiroki, none of them showed sign of hissing in pain or weeping miserably. In fact, they have already plunged themselves into the water. The river was really safe and secured.

            “So this is how a river on The Earth looks like,” he muttered while crossing his arms. He inhaled the aroma of fresh water. The gentle breeze blew against his face, bringing along the refreshing scent further from its origin.

            Does this mean The Earth is safer than The Dimension?

            Maybe that’s one of the reason Hebi was so eager to stay here rather than his valley, Yeomso assumed. He chose a spot, sit down, and watched Kouki and Hiroki splashing water to each other.

            Humans were not bad creatures. Yes, they were powerless. They did not possess any ability like The Zodiacs. The relied solely on their intelligence, leadership, and bonds. They had races, short lives, and illnesses which sometimes killed them. Basically, they were full of flaws. Nevertheless, Earthlings were blessed with natural environment. Those intelligentsias, leaders, and families or friends would create a better Earth from time to time.

            The Dimension was existed because of the Earthlings. These Humans and Animals believed in them. Their strength, numbers, and availability were because of the Earthlings too. Fundamentally, The Dimension counted on the Earthlings to stay alive. As a token of gratitude, The Dimensionals would have to contribute in protecting The Earth as the home of the Earthlings.

            Wait.

            Yeomso groaned quietly to avoid the twins from hearing it. If The Earth was that safe, how did the man got injured? Did he commit suicide? Then, was he really one of the scientists that performed lab tests on Kouki and Hiroki? An unbounded uncertainty grew in Yeomso. Was it true that The Earth was this safe? He could not confirm it as he was just approximately six hours of turning up on The Earth.

            “Mister Yeomso.”

            Kouki’s small voice interrupted him from getting swayed by his mind. Yeomso looked towards the twins when he saw Kouki was waving at him.

            “Let’s bathe together!” Hiroki jumped in the water. “The water is cool, and we can catch the fishes for food!”

            “Food?”

            So Humans do feel hungry, Yeomso whispered to himself. His stomach growled like crazy, pleading to be fed. But eating fishes?

            He would never did that! Pisces was one of The Zodiacs. Despite being the mightiest Zodiac among them, he never thought of eating the others! The Capricorn only had fruits and vegetables for living – Hunting was not really their specialty after all.

            Yeomso was still contemplating to accept or reject the offer when Kouki seized a fish out of the water. He was stunned to see the fish in such physical appearance – Flat, fins, gills, scales, and small? Where were its Zodiacal features? Pisces in their transformation was supposed to have a head, a pair of arms, and a large tail without legs.

            “Let’s cook this!” Hiroki shrieked happily.

            “Wait, Hiroki. We must catch more. Mister Yeomso is an adult, so he needs more food than us,” Kouki carefully put the fish on the ground. Hiroki nodded agreeing and helped Kouki finding for one more fish.

            Yeomso stared at the restless fish on the ground. Theoretically fishes needed water to breath, so it must be died out soon. It would be a problem if another killing occurred while he still stuck in the unknown mess. He fetched the fish and decided to throw it back to the river.

            “Mister Yeomso, no!” Hiroki suddenly cried. He must have witnessed Yeomso’s simple minded action. “It’s our food!”

            “B- B- But the fish will die,” Yeomso was purely startled by Hiroki’s loudness. He presumed Hiroki was the timid and shy type, but he never thought he would get stammered because of that little Human.

            Hiroki came out of the water to get the fish back from Yeomso. “Fish is a good source of protein other than chicken. It will die, yes. Then, we will be able to eat it.”

            Yeomso was puzzled by Hiroki’s explanation. Was he this clever? Hiroki put the fish back onto the ground, letting it flapping crazily. He saw Yeomso’s pitied expression.

            “Do you not eat fish, Mister Yeomso?” Hiroki asked, naively.

            Yeomso slowly shifted to Hiroki. “No, I don’t.”

            “Ah, no wonder!” Hiroki scratched his chin and skimmed around them. “I wasn’t paying attention earlier, but we’re in a forest, so I think they’re fruits on the trees. We will eat fruits then.”

            Kouki came out from the water as well. He wondered what Hiroki was telling to Yeomso that they seemed so serious in the conversation. He noticed the feeble fish on the ground, then shifted to those two.

            “Kouki, let’s fruit hunt!”

            Kouki was taken aback. It has been a while since he witnessed the happy side of Hiroki. He beamed at his twin brother, and went into the woods to look for eatable fruits. Yeomso must be a vegetarian like that person.