The black-robbed man held me by the throat. The woman tried to remove his hand, but he roughly shoved her aside as he tightened his grip. 

Strangely, it wasn’t like that night. The pressure on my neck didn’t feel like it came from anger and wasn’t very painful. Just uncomfortable. I could feel his fingers moving around my neck as if looking for something. The sensation tickled me, but not in a good way. It made my stomach churn and made me scared. Scared that if those fingers found something, ANYTHING, it didn’t like, the pressure around my neck would begin to hurt.

The woman tried to move his arm and a few of the people around the campfire walked up to the man and  tried to help me, but the black-robed man dismissed them with some unknown words.

After a few sickening seconds, he finally  released my throat.

Scared I stepped back toward the campfire while gripping Darkie strongly. My eyes darted around the place. I wanted to flee, but was surrounded.

Strangely though no one was approaching me. They all kept their distance while looking at me with worried eyes. The half bald man approached the hooded man and lifted him up by the collar before screaming at him. 

Seemingly, everyone in the camp were upset with the robed man, but it didn’t make me feel much better.

The black-robbed man  looked apologetic and didn’t fight back. Seemingly feeling guilty for what he had done, but that didn’t seem to calm the half-baldie. It wasn’t until the woman with the bandage running around her head came forward to talk to the two of them that the robed man was finally released.

The attention finally turned to me.

The black robed man, sat back down and turned his head toward me.

-Are you ᐊ~sc~ltr Solomon?-

Immediately, I recognised the secret language, but the word he used was foreign to me. I was hesitant, but seeing the apprehensive eyes from the people around me. I simply shook my head at his question.

-But you can understand my hands?-

I nodded.

He seemed hesitant for a moment.

-Then to whom do you owe your ᐊllģncc?-

A weird word I’d never seen before… 

-I don’t know that word.-

The tall woman looked at me and then told him something. He looked perplexed for a moment before continuing.

-Can you show me?-

He simply asked.

I  looked at him strangely. What does he mean ‘show him’? I don’t even know what the word means!

-Are you dumb? I just told you I don’t know what the word means.-

 The robbed man started talking to the leatherbound woman again. There was a lengthy back and forth until he finally turned to me again.

-Can you repeat?-

I felt as though I was about to explode. First he almost strangled me. Then he doesn’t even try to understand what I’m saying? What’s wrong with him?

-You. Are. Stupid.-

I signed spitefully.

The two started talking to each other again. I was starting to wonder if he actually knew the secret language or not. Maybe he just knows  how to do the signs. After a few moments, he repeated the signs to the woman who nodded. His head sunk as he sighed and made a defeated expression.

He turned back to me.

-Sorry, I should explain.-

He pulled back his hood revealing pale, almost pearl-like, skin. There was a bit of hair on his head, but it was little more than the duvet that grew on my arms and was completely colourless., but most importantly was what was around his head. A leather strap was running across his face, covering his eyes.

-That’s how they punish ᐊ~sc~ltr Solomon around here.-

So he can’t see and he’s… Whatever he thought I was before? Why did that make him want to kill me though? Wouldn’t that mean we’re friends? 

Confused, I simply let out a grunt.

-So let’s assume you’re really not you’re not a ᐊ~sc~ltr Solomon for a minute…-

I grunted in approval and let him continue.

-What were you… Ah let’s stick to yes and no questions for now. Did you get separated from your friends.-

I nodded.

-From my dad.-

The woman seemingly tried to describe the symbols to the man who seemed to somewhat understand.

-From your dad?-

I nodded.

-I see. How old are you?-

I showed him 6 fingers.

-Is that so? You’re pretty brave trying to fight a feral at 6 years old.-

His comment made my chest tightened. It might have been brave, but it was more stupid than anything. It felt almost as if he was mocking me.

Seeing my lack of answers he continued.

-Did your father teach you ᐊ~sc~ltr Solomon tongue?-

I shook my head.

-From a book.-

The woman relayed the word and he nodded.

-I see. Did the book have a split sphere on it?-

I thought back on the book and did remember something similar on the cover, so I nodded.

-Okay, I’m starting to see the picture here. So you use ᐊ~sc~ltr Solomon tongue to speak with you family?-

I was hesitant to nod since I also used it to talk to my friends, but since it was somewhat true, I approved.

He crossed his arms for a moment and seemed hesitant. He then nodded and put his hood back up.

-I’m sorry for scaring you earlier. I thought you might be someone I know.-

Did he try to strangle everyone he knows?

-They’re not very good people.-

He added.

Not very good people?

-ᐊ~sc~ltr Solomon?-

I asked.

-That’s right. ᐊ~sc~ltr Solomon. Do you know them?-

I shook my head.

-Okay I’ll tell you a bit about them then, but first…-

He turned to his compagnons and seemingly explained the situation to them. Although they didn’t look very happy with them, they looked at me and tried their best to ask me if I was alright. Although I wasn’t very happy about being treated that way either, I could tell the man in front of me looked legitimately sorry for his action. So I nodded.

Most of them then returned to their seat while I stayed with the strange man.

It took some time, but through trial and error we got around to getting somewhat of a conversation.

From what he explained ᐊ~sc~ltr Solomon, or Eyes of Solomons as they were known, were men and women trained to use their blessings of Solomon to do things that were ‘not so good’. I had managed to ask him if he was an Eye of Solomon, which he had answered that he once was when he was younger, but after losing his eyes he had left that life behind. 

Something was bothering me though…

I looked toward the woman and pointed at my neck and then at him. Understanding what I wanted to ask, she turned to the man.

-Oh, sorry. I guess you wouldn’t know…-

The man once more pulled back his hood and started unfolding the large scarf around his neck… Only for me to realise that he had no neck at all. 

His head was simply floating a neck length above his shoulders. I was scared for a moment, thinking that he was a ghost or that his head might tumble forward, but then curiosity hit me.

I approached my hand toward his neck, but then stopped.

He smiled knowingly.

-Go ahead, I don’t mind.-

My fingers reached the space where his neck should be. I was expecting it to shock me or to feel some kind of tickling, but it was just– Empty. It now made sense that he had checked my neck so intently. Maybe he was trying to figure out if it was really there to start with?

Is that also why he didn’t eat?

I got the woman’s attention and pointed at the bowl and then at the man. She nodded and carried my question to him.

-That’s right. I’m one of Solomon’s kin and as such must observe intermittent fasting.-

Intermittent fasting? I had definitely seen those words before, but…What did they mean? And more importantly why did he do that?

I looked at the woman with a confused expression.

-I see… Since you’re not actually of Solomon’s you might not actually know this, but all Solomonkins share one stomach of sort. Everything we eat gets redistributed to everyone of our kins across the world. And so, to not get bloated, we must observe regular fasting… Well most of the time that is. Once the Solomonkins start getting hungry, it can become quite chaotic.-

He explained.

I wonder what he means by ‘quite chaotic’. There must be interesting stories to tell, but asking him that sounded too complicated…

-And, if I may,  whose kin are you, young girl? You used some sort of blessing to break the wall earlier, but I couldn’t really tell how you did it.-

Ah true! The wall! It did go down in the end, so it wasn’t a completely failure I guess. I started patting myself down to show him the cube, but…

Oh no…

I started patting all my pockets and even looked inside my boot but couldn’t find it anywhere.

-What’s wrong?-

He asked after being made to notice my disarray.

-Cube.-

I simply signed as I continued looking through my clothes

-You lost a cube?-

I grunted once and he made a sympathetic expression.

-We all lose things sometimes, don’t worry.-

He said, but I still felt a bit annoyed. Thinking it was the second best thing, I pulled out the Scorn medallion  from my pocket and showed it to them.

-Oh, so you’re a follower of Scorn? That’s unusual…-

I felt a slight tinge in my chest. 

Unusual was just another way of saying weird. I don’t know why everyone think it’s strange to be a follower of Scorn. Maybe they  misunderstand what her ‘hatred’ actually means? I was pretty confused at first myself.

Still feeling a bit hurt, I simply shrugged.

Seeing as I had been standing for a while, the woman invited me to take a seat between them. I hesitated for a moment, but feeling a bit exhausted, I sat down. Soon after, one of the twins passed by and distributed fuming cups to everyone. As the sun slowly set, I could feel the wind biting at the tip of my fingers and so the warm mug felt soothing to my finger. I took a sip and enjoyed a soothing sensation down my throat. It didn’t have much of a taste, but it also didn’t have the usual bitter after taste of tea.

Feeling refreshed, I took a deep breath of the evening air and closed my eyes. What would I normally be doing around this time? 

Well since the sun is coming down, we would probably be set for the night, sitting around a campfire similar to this. I would be sitting on dad’s lap as he signed to me the story Uncle Cook was telling to everyone. Laughing every time he made a silly expression with his otherwise morose face. Once my eyes would grow heavy dad would pick me up and carry me to my bedding in a nearby tent. He would then sit just by the flaps for the rest of the night until he went to bed just in case I got scared or had another nightmare…

 I felt a prickle in my eye.

-Do you miss your parent.-

I nodded.

-My dad.-

After the woman communicated the word which she was probably still familiar from earlier he nodded seriously.

-Not your mother?-

I felt my brow furrow.

I felt a moment of anger at his words. What did he mean by that? Why did my mother matter right now? But then I questioned my own emotion. Why was I so angry? Wouldn’t it be normal for other kids to want to see their mom when they’re sad?

I did have a mother in the past, but now her very face had become little more than a muddled memory somewhere at the back of my mind. I only remembered her hair… And her eyes. Such dreadful blue eyes… But she’s not my mother anymore. That woman is nothing more than a stranger. I doubt I would even recognise her if I passed her in the street. I couldn’t even remember her name anymore, maybe she had never had one to begin with?

I simply shook my head.

Probably noticing my reaction, or perhaps the lack thereof, he quickly changed topic.

As we continued talking and the evening stretched on, the day’s exhaustion finally caught up to me and my eyes shut by themselves.