You would imagine a five year old has no reason to be that developed mentally. And I agree, but maybe I'm just different than other kids? I heard the children babbling and cooing out on the street. I never did that. As soon as I picked up a book, I just taught myself the words and I spoke.
I knew that I needed the knowledge. Was this why my family decided to throw me aside like garbage? Were they afraid? No, I doubt it they ever knew. That servant boy who was forced to live with me to keep an eye out was probably too lazy to even worry about me. Does this mean that this scar was the only reason they did this to me?
What a bunch of lunatics. Imagine doing something like that to a person only because they look different, let alone a child! Psh! The night I turned five, it was time to finally escape. The guy living with me was always sleeping all throughout the night. This time, it wasn't different.
Sen grabbed what he had prepared beforehand; a wooden sword he carved out himself... if you could even call it a sword, a few pieces of already dried out fruit and a piece of long, tattered cloth - his blanket. He flattened it on the ground, put the food in the middle and wrapped the material around it, then tied it to the edge of his sword. With that, he was ready to go.
Quietly, on his toes, Sen made his way throughout the squeaky house. Out the door, forward, down the stairs, turn to the left and bolt. The plan was easy! Well, the execution was too. The servant boy was passed out at the much more comfortable mattress near the opened, wide door. The night was warm, almost as if prepared for Sen to make his escape.
There weren't any people near the old house, but it was still not a bad idea to be careful. I stepped onto the dirt road leading towards the main court of the Han family, then took a sharp turn and sprinted into the woods. He didn't worry it was this scary forest. His socked feet, because of course he didn't have any shoes, barely made any sound as he ran.
He ran and ran, feeling freedom for the first time, not having to worry about being scolded by that "guard" who was supposed to watch over him. Despite still being on the Han family's land, he felt like never before. A smile spread on his face and he jumped across a small creek, grinning so wide if someone saw him now, they would think him a mad child...
...but then, instead of meeting solid ground, Sen began to descend and descend, speed picking up and air sending his unkept brownish hair behind him. Not even a scream came out before he landed face first into a pile of... of... something?
It smelled horrible, but was mushy enough to soften the fall. Quickly digging out of it, Sen tossed himself onto the stone flooring. Beside an occassional chirp of a bird, the only other sound was the dripping water. He looked left and right, not seeing a whole lot.
The light coming down past the trees soon disappeared, blocked away by the ground somehow reappearing to where the sinkhole was that Sen fell in through. It took him a couple of minutes to get used to the pitch black darkness, but when he stepped forward, lights started to appear, seemingly out of nowhere. On the ground, in the water, around him.
Sen only gulped, something clawing at him inside to not take another step... but he did, this time closer to where the light seemed to manifest the brightest. Before reaching it, he stopped by the small creek and the waterfall coming out of the crudely made hole in the wall of this cave to wash his face off. The smell was more clearer now without a steady flow of air. It was dung. Crap. Why was there a pile of feces just there for him to fall into?
One could say shit was not as bad as cracking your skull open. Sen took off his robe and gave it a quick wash in the water. Thinking the wet clothes would just be a burden, he laid them near the water for them to dry. Standing completely butt naked, he crossed his arms and thought.
Just what is this place? The cave seems to be natural in some places and man-made in others. I have no idea how large this place is. And that hole just covered itself? I don't hear even a single person... wouldn't the sound carry throughout this open place? Even someone sleeping makes sound. Maybe someone was here... but a long time ago.
The forest was known to be dangerous, right? I wouldn't be surprised if the Han clan just left it alone all this time, thinking if the creatures from the forest weren't going to spread to the main part of the family they didn't have to do anything about them. I mean, I walked a bit through the forest and I didn't see a single animal... just bamboo.
This is definitely weird. I mean, I never had a teacher. But this is common sense, right?
Sen rubbed his chin and sighed out. He didn't have to worry, something in his gut said so. He grabbed the robe—made from material similar to potato sacks—which was already dry and put it back on. The scratching on the skin... he was used to it. Walking next to the creek, he soon reached the point where the lights seemed to gather. It was a way further into the cave, and this was the part that looked made by someone.
The cave was rough and seemed natural enough, but this hallway was cut into it. Smooth edges, beautiful symbols carved into the walls. Those became more and more rough as he kept walking. Sen didn't even know how long he walked. At first it seemed like a couple of years had already gone by, then it felt like mere seconds. This disorienting feeling gave him a headache. He slumped to one knee and gripped his head.
After heavily breathing for a couple of seconds, the pain subsided and disappeared in a flash. Weirded out, Sen looked up and found himself in a bamboo forest. The sun was high in the sky and shining. The small leaves were bending against the wind. The quiet chirping of an insect were heard in the distance, but it sounded so far away.
He gulped and looked around his surroundings. There was only one path: forward. Gripping onto his... oh, the sword broke in half. Well, it was made of wood and it more resembled a stick than any actual weapon. He at least wrapped his small fingers around the hilt and walked forward. Despite being in a cave just seconds ago, this didn't seem to surprise Sen all that much.
The world outside was wide and vast. If something like this was going to make him lose his mind, how was he going to enact his revenge? He gulped, feeling dryness in his throat increase. He should have had a drink of that water in the cave. The slow and steady steps took him far enough to see the end of the road. There, he was three people.
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A beautiful woman with hair so long it wrapped around her, the table, fell down the small stairs to reach where she was seated and the nearby cherrybloom tree. She was sitting on the left side.
A man with rugged appearance, hundreds of swords stuck in the ground that looked almost as if they grew alongside the cut down bamboos. He was sitting on the right side.
An older man, with saggy skin and deep, incredibly deep eyes that sparkled brightly as much as the starry sky behind him which stretched out endlessly. He was sitting in the middle.
Wrapped around the building, which looked like a wooden gazebo-type outside seating, or more specifically around the roof of it was a massive, colorful snake... no. It wasn't just a snake. It was a dragon. Sen... didn't know what to do at first.
Despite hearing sounds of laughter and talking, these... beings? They didn't move. They didn't interact. They didn't look. Maybe because of Sen's very young age, this didn't shock him as much as it would to an older person. The tension of such powress in this place was so thick the sand-dusted stone tile pavement kept vibrating every few seconds.
Sen hid at first. He ducked almost immediately behind a patch of bamboo, observing what was before him. He spent ten minutes... twenty... thirty, just to see if they were going to make a single movement. But nothing happened. Literally, nothing. Sen didn't know what he was even looking at, but his heart was beating with such intesity it sounded like a drum in his ears.
He couldn't stop it. He took a very careful step forward and everything stayed the same. Random, indescribible chatter still could be heard, their laughter with so much emotion echoed throughout the forest, the soft thumping of the dragon's tail against the wooden frame.
Another step, then another. In what maybe was an hour, he was close enough to the gazebo to slowly start ascending the stairs where the characters were sat motionless. The sound of their partying didn't stop and the volume didn't increase. Once his foot touched the first stair, the sound immediately stopped. Nothing could be heard. Even Sen's still furiously beating heart, it was quiet too.
The three sitting inside the gazebo haven't moved at all... but it was when Sen looked up at what resembled a feathered snake with multi-colored scales, his eye met with the dragon's wide stare. This incredibly intense stare was drilling holes into him. It felt like an eternity... Sen, in that instant, grew up to be a teenager, then an adult, an old man, he died, he decayed, he became bones and dust, and only when the sweat dripping from his forehead hit his lip, all of that stopped. Screaming, now audibly, Sen fell back onto his ass. Hyperventilating, he looked up and saw... nothing. The dragon was back in his usual spot, motionless like the rest of the group.
His heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to come out of him through his chest. He couldn't breathe, having to hold onto his throat in case it was gone. That was... the worst thing yet happened to him. This power that came from the stare alone was something out of this world. Sen didn't know a whole lot, but if there were things out there that rivaled this, maybe this plan for revenge wasn't made for him. Smelling something rancid, he looked down and saw a yellow puddle form at his feet. Of course he peed himself. Who wouldn't?
Sen swiftly got up, turning around and attempting to run away, but he just slipped on his own secretion and fell face first into the dusted pathway. A groan escaped him and tears welled up in his eyes. His face hurt, his feet were sore, he just peed himself, the robe was itching him like crazy... he rolled onto his back and just looked at the blue sky, wondering what was the point.
Honestly, there was no plan from the beginning. Sen was five years old. He was just a kid. Knowing nothing but what he could read in those useless books in that damn prison of a shack and what he heard from people through the wall, this was obviously going to be a failure. He moved his hand and touched the scarred eye, running a hand across it. Was there a reason why he was born like this?
I mean, if I wasn't bored with this... thing... I would've been just a normal kid. I know the Han clan was huge. Rich. With history. I have siblings. They probably learned everything from the young age. I also want to learn math, I also want to know how to write... I can barely speak words. Aren't five year olds supposed to be parts of the society already? And here I am on the ground, lying in my piss because a snake scared me.
I don't even know how I'm forming these thoughts... I just knew things from the beginning. I can't write some of the words I think, I can't even speak them, but they just pop into my head. No one would care if I died. I bet they aren't even looking for me. Why would they? I escaped into the fearsome forest of doom or whatever it was, they probably think I'm gone. If the legens are anything to go by, not even bones would be left.
He sat up and looked at the scene before him. These beings... Gods? What are even Gods? There was a small part about myths in that book I read. Gods were supposed to be beings of such magnitude it wasn't possible to call them humans anymore. Sen took off his robe and felt the air tickle his skin. He put the robe where the made the mess as a way to clean it, or maybe hide it.
If these beings before him were Gods, he wanted their help. If you pray to Gods, they are meant to help you. Sen stopped after remembering what the dragon's stare did to him. It shook his whole body. It made him freeze. Gritting his teeth, he looked with his one health eye at them. Then, he fell to his knees and spoke. His voice was rough, words barely sounded correct.
— If... if you Gods... help my... revenge. I... I... Sen. Please... help. — It was kind of his first time speaking. Even if his brain could piece the words together and give him the ability to think, talking was a whole different story. Like this, he stayed until his knees gave out and he almost fell prone on the ground. If it weren't for his arms that stopped his body from falling over, that is. Sen huffed and puffed, sweat dripping from his body. Kneeling like this was more tiring than one could think. It had to have been hours, but no words came back from the beings.
He wanted to swear, he wanted to yell, but what was the use? Are these beings just... a mirage? Maybe he was already dead and this was his brain imagining something to soothe the passing? Or maybe the sinkhole was an entrance to some sort of Hell. He gritted his teeth again, hard enough to hear the scraping when they rubbed against one another. He wanted to hear something, even a refusal, THAT would have been enough. But no, there was nothing.
His breathing began to fasten, nostrils flared, a vein popped out on his forehead. If this is how they were going to play... Sen looked at the motionless dragon, then at the first step of the stairs. There were four steps to reach where the table was. If the first step was going to awaken the dragon, the next ones would probably do the same for the others. That was the hypothesis. So, if he wasn't going to touch the steps...
He moved a few steps back and closed his eye. This was his first and last chance, anyway. He wasn't going to get out of the cave. It was either this, or just dying from hunger. In his full naked glory, Sen started to run and with all of his miniscule amount of strength, he jumped just before the first step. He got high enough to basically skip the stairs, but... the landing... yeah, that far he didn't think through. Smashing into the table and making it fall over onto the ground, Sen rubbed his head and slowly opened his eyes, dizziness casting over him. When he did—
—yeah. All four beings were looking straight at him, this time fully animated and moving. Their gazes weren't frightening or intense, more so... confused? Sen gulped and let out a very quiet, nervous laugh.