Chapter 3: The Savage Beast

  Dorothy held my tattooed hand in hers. She smiled warmly at me, like she always does. Then she looked down in my hand. Suddenly, it was as if a thought struck her, then her countenance changed to that of puzzlement. I could tell from her searching eyes that something was really wrong.

  “Is something wrong?” I finally asked.

  She raised her eyes and looked into my face, then back at my tattoo.

  “Stephanie, I've never seen anything like this. How come you have your Arerat symbol inscribed on your palm?”

  “Huhn?”

  Could things be any more eccentric? Here I am trying to understand why I have this on my hand, and here you are asking me the same question.

  I quickly had an idea, so I said, “That reminds me. Let's ask Uncle Ramsey. He should be able to explain this right? His chariot is just right in front of ours.”

  She nodded.

  “I'm sure my father can explain it, however, we can't ask him here. It should be by tomorrow morning.”

  “What's the difference, Dorothy?”

  She shook her head.

  “This is Arerat, Cousin. You cannot step your feet on the ground if you're not an animal. You'd die. That's why we can't call my father for questioning. He can't come over for inspection till we're finally away from this region.”

  I nodded my head slowly, in comprehension. Then I recalled something.

  “Hey, I thought you said we were home, what do you mean by ‘till we're finally away from this region’?”

  Dorothy chuckled.

  “Arerat is the bridge between the outside world and our home. It's as good as saying home, already.”

  I nodded, once again.

  “So Stephanie, tell me,” said she, “for the Arerat to give you your symbol for finally entering into this world, that means you have already undergone mutation. What's your gift?”

  “Gift,” I repeated. I couldn't think of having any gift so far except for that curse I had where I could not sleep because I could hear the frog orchestra playing through my window at home every night, where I could hear the dog in the house beside ours crying about his wife which got separated from him, where I could hear rats talking about how yummy the sole of my feet tasted. No, she couldn't possibly have been referring to that. “What gift?”

  She sighed, looking at me as though I wasn't willing to tell her the truth or something.

   “Something like this,” she said, bending her arm back to unzip her gown. She loosed her bra, letting her full breast fall delicately. Different thoughts passed through my head at this moment. I was wondering what she meant by this–this act.

  She turned around and made me see her back. There was a form of tattoo there. But it was much bigger than mine. It covered the whole of her back. It was shaped like a joined piece of heart (the love-heart kind). As I watched, I couldn't see anything happening. And just when I thought her acts were all rubbish, I saw the tattoo protruding from her back slowly.

  I gasped back in shock and couldn't believe my eyes. It was a. . .

  “You're a fairy,” I said, pointing at her wings.

  As she turned around, I saw that a kind of wing scale (or something) had covered her breast in a way one could never tell she was naked.

  “This is. . .”

  “I know, I know; it's horrible,” said Dorothy with a smile.

  However, she was wrong.

  “No, not at all. It's beautiful!”

  She stared at me, surprised and satisfied.

  “Can you actually fly with those?” I asked, pointing to her wings.

  “Definitely! But the chariot is too small for me to show you what I can do.”

  I watched my cousin in awe. I just imagined what it would feel like flying. Roy had told me thousands of stories and given me billions of descriptions on how flying felt like. It was wonderful. I quickly snapped out from my trance due to Dorothy's interruption as she waved a hand in my face and said “hello!” severally, which I'd been oblivious to.

  “Oh, I'm sorry.” I smiled, shyly.

  “Now that you've had a peek of my ability, tell me, or show me, that one weird thing you can do.”

  Now that Dorothy put the question this way, it sounded better. However, I'm not as awesome as her, I can only talk with animals.

  “Umm. . .” I began.

  “Come on, don't be shy. It's just you and I here.”

  “I can communicate with. . .” I hesitated.

  “With what? The universe? Can you stop time? Can you understand the flow of the wind? Or. . .” she gasped back. I was thinking she'd figured it out until I heard, “You can communicate with spirits!”

  I slapped my head then rushed to speak before she'd spurt some more nonsense.

  “I can communicate with animals.”

  I watched as her expression suddenly changed, slowly. Her cheeks began to rise, and I was expecting her favorite smile, until. . .

  Buha-haha-hahaha!

  She burst into fits of laughter.

  I felt so embarrassed that I was crestfallen. My eyes began to cloud in embarrassment. When she looked at me as she laughed, she seemed to have realised this then stopped laughing. She put both hands to her mouth, in guilt.

  “I'm sorry, Stephanie, I didn't mean to laugh. I'm very sorry, I thought you were cracking a joke. Please forgive me.”

  She quickly brought out an handkerchief and wiped my eyes.

  “It's a curse, you see,” I said, finally. “I've always hated it since the moment I discovered it when I was only seven. Although I've learnt to live with this curse; all alone. I've never told a single soul about it.”

  She didn't know what else to say, so she turned the lantern off and whispered, “Let's sleep, tomorrow is a long day.”

  Since my eyes felt heavy, I gave in to sleep, easily.

* * *

“All halt!”

  A loud cry woke me up. It just seemed like I'd closed my eyes only for a minute only to see the day bright already. Both carriages had stopped moving, I could see. I turned to the bench opposite me, but Dorothy was not there. Looking outside, I recognised her and her father. There was a huge man with arms folded and... as I looked down at where his feet ought to have been, I was surprised by what I saw. He had no feet at all, not even legs. In place of his waist was a spinning tornado. I had to rub my eyes to verify this.

  On the one hand, Dorothy was in her fairy form, while on the other hand, her father just looked the same, standing in an awkward posture and turning to look at the carriage once in a while. They seemed to have been staring at the chariot's top. My eyes widened. Roy!

  I quickly made for the ground. I had to alight now and speak for him. I don't know if normal birds weren't allowed here, but I'd blame myself if anything happened to my buddy. As I stood up, I noticed the roof of the chariot pressed in, as if something humongous sat on it.

  I rushed to come outside, only to have my eyes widened to the point that my eyeballs threatened to fall off, and my mouth as wide as could contain a duck's egg.

  This was unbelievable!

  Ignoring the others, I saw that Roy, a million size bigger than before, was tied with ropes against the top of the chariot. He felt so distressed. I was utterly amazed.

  “Roy... is that you?”

  A hand to my mouth, I pointed to the green-winged bird. His wings stretched to both sides of the chariot and was roped to the ground in some fashion I could not decipher.

  “Steph, oh Steph, please save me! And how have you become all so tiny?”

  Me, becoming tiny? It was you who had grown humongous, overnight.

  “You know that savage beast?”

  A testosterone-like voice sounded behind me which made my shoulders bob, unexpectedly.

  When I turned around, it was the man who floated in a little tornado, or whatever that was. I was more than baffled just by looking at the spinning currents around his waist.

  “Ye-yes,” I stuttered. Then slowly looking at Roy, I said, “He's my... savage beast.”

  My uncle and cousins both stared at me in bewilderment, but I didn't give a damn. No one was going to hurt my buddy.

  The huge man replied with a nod then turned to my uncle, saying, “Twenty box for savage beasts, pay up.”

  Uncle Ramsey turned around and asked me, “How did you get a savage beast?”

  I began, “I...”

  The huge man was running out of patience and shouted that my uncle should pay up or prepare to get it slaughtered.

  “No!” I screamed.

  My uncle immediately brought out the amount requested and dropped it into the man's wide palm, making a jingling sound of coins. The man snapped his fingers and the hold against Roy let loose. Roy rolled down to the ground with a big boom, causing dust to rise from his falling point which covered the air.

  I ran to go and meet him.

  Meanwhile, just as my uncle wanted to give a helping hand, he got stopped by the man.

  “Entrance fee, five box... each.”

  That made it ten box, since there were two carriages.

  “Thirty box spent in just one day?!” screamed Uncle Ramsey. “This is insane!”

  The man didn't budge but just stared down at Uncle Ramsey with folded arms.

  “You know what, I won't allow this. I'm going to have to use my gift against you if you don't let us pass while you still have my twenty box.”

  The man frowned.

  “How dare you threaten me?! You know the rules! If everyone uses their gifts to bypass, how could Travelers' Taxes be moderated?”

  My uncle put a hand behind him and spread the other under his beards as though he was contemplating. But I guess that was not the case. The hand behind him was making a form of black gas which rolled around his fingers. He suddenly stretched it quickly before the man could react and placed two fingers of that hand on the latter's forehead.

  After placing the fingers, he began speaking to the man: “You'll give me back my money—”

  “I'll give you back your money.”

  “You'd remember we payed completely and even gave you some extra change—”

  “I'll remember you've payed completely and gave me some extra change.”

  “You'll forget about the arguments—”

  “I'll forget about the arguments.”

  “Now!” then my uncle snapped his fingers and the man brought out the money as if under control. The huge man made a snap with his fingers and Roy got revitalised. It seemed his sudden weakness was not because he had been bond under the rope, it was because of the tax collector's “gift” on Roy.

  “He has been... hypnotised,” I said under my breath.

  Roy spread out his wings and swooshed into the air, screaming, “Woo-hoo! I've never felt any better! I'm a savage beast, mademoiselle!”

  Everything felt more confusing than the way Alice had felt in Wonderland.

  What was all this? First I got myself a tattoo (which I'm sure Mum and Dad wouldn't want to see), then I found out that my cousin was a fairy, or looked like one, then we met this humongous man with tornado from his waist down. As if that was not enough, my uncle was able to hypnotise him just so he wouldn't have to spend so much. My own best friend, Roy, is a what? Savage beast?! Somebody punch me in the face, I'm not sure I can still bleed.

  “I'm glad your savage beast has not been hurt, let's hurry before he wonders why we're still here,” said Uncle Ramsey, pointing to the tax collector.

  I nodded without saying a word, and together, Dorothy and I walked into our chariot.

  Seated, Dorothy let her wings go back in, uncovering her breasts from the scales that'd covered it with her bra, as quickly as possible.

  “You just might want to tell your savage beast to stay low so others can tell he's with us,” she said.

  I closed my eyes to make him feel my presence. When I noticed he'd lowered himself and was now right above us, I raised my head outside the window and repeated what Dorothy had said about staying low.

  He nodded and later sat down where he'd been seated. Had not the top been made of strong metal, it would surely have burst open. It should have burst open, nevertheless, but the reason why it didn't, I could not fathom.