”Chomp; Chomp; Chomp…”
Smooth and lean meat, so soft that it melts on my palate with just one bite, creating an explosion of flavors in which the rock salt with which it has been seasoned stands out. In addition, the water with which it has been prepared, one that flows from who knows where since I have not joined the group in charge of bringing it, feels so pure, so sweet, as if it came from the cleanest spring on the planet.
An umami so strong that it detaches itself from the muscles, bones, and organs of the specimen with each mouthful, one so strong that, for instants, it turns off all my senses, except for taste, allowing my brain to enjoy the maximum the tasting of this delicacy…
‘A s*** that could be like this’
I am currently in a place that could only be called paradise by my uncles, who loved to cook roasted meat every weekend, that is, a room where a buffet of meat of all sizes and shapes is placed like mountains on large rock tables.
Yes, that may sound appetizing to some, but not to me anymore.
‘F***, f***. I’m fed up. Fed up, I have said’
Every damn day it’s the same. It’s always boiled meat in water and salt that we have to eat. To top it off, the cooks don’t even bother to divide it into parts. No, since everything is prepared in a strange reddish stew where they throw in the muscles, livers, intestines, brains, and I don’t know what other parts more, of the hunted beasts.
Even baby food tasted better than this stuff, since at least that, which was nothing more than ground beef, the girls added seasonings other than salt, which changed the taste. Yeah, maybe that extra was some drug that accelerated the growth of our bodies, but no matter, I’d put up with it again to stop eating this.
Dammit, I really don’t crave anything that’s in here.
”Chomp; Chomp; Chomp…”
Of course, just because I don’t want to doesn’t mean I’ll stop, for I don’t want to starve to death at such a young age. There are still many things waiting for me in this world.
Moreover, one of those things awaits me right now outside the cave. I must hurry to finish this meal so that I can return to the clearing where the visitors are, who, due to hunger and the fact that I had to take advantage of the distraction to get the best pieces prepared by the cooks without being killed in the process, I could not see them well.
Well, the fact that I didn’t get a good look at them was not only due to lack of time but also lack of height. After all, I’m not even half the size of an adult.
‘Disadvantages of being young, I guess’
Hurry up, my stomach. Satiate yourself quickly so that we can calm this curiosity that is killing us.
”Chomp!; Chomp!; Chomp…!”
‘So, who are the visitors? Why have they come to this godforsaken place?’
A woman, I don’t think it is, as considering how savage these barbarians are with such delicate creatures, another misfortune would have occurred long ago. Then, surely it is a man, one whom these guys must respect, for only that would explain why they behaved so orderly.
‘Did the creator of this place come here?’
On second thought, that can’t be right either, as someone had to take care of the experiment performed on us, so, in theory, such a guy should not count as a visitor but as another inhabitant of the cave. Although I may be wrong to think so since the one who operated on us could be just another henchman of the true black hand that controls this place.
‘It all seems so f****** complicated’
Heh. The more I think about it, the more I realize how little I know.
There are still many secrets I don’t know. Which is understandable considering the short time I’ve been here. Understandable, yes, but not pleasant, since the less knowledge I have, the greater the danger I find myself in.
‘I should not be so pessimistic because at least one of these doubts will be resolved today, or so I hope’
”Chomp!; Chomp!; Glug!; Glug…!”
‘No, no, f***… How disgusting’
Okay, I kind of understand that, as there was a time when I preferred to drink soda while eating. However, in this case, I wish there was clean water with the food, and not that I had to drink the slimy soup in order to quench my thirst since the salty taste of it makes my throat sting after ingesting it in large quantities.
Anyway, with a bad taste in my mouth, literally speaking, I got up from where I was eating and stretched a little, getting ready to see what was going on out there.
After that, driven by curiosity, I ran out of the room, leaving behind me the mountains of flesh piled one on top of the other. Then, in less than a minute’s running, I reached the outskirts of the cave, where I stopped for a few moments, thinking about what I should do next.
From a distance, I observed the barbarians, who were still in an orderly formation. I watched them, but I wasn’t crazy enough to go towards them since, although I wanted to know what was happening there, such a late approach would look too unusual. It would make me stand out. So, after some thought, I decided that the best way to satisfy my curiosity would be to climb one of the nearby trees, which would give me the necessary angle to see perfectly what was going on there.
Once I made up my mind, I acted immediately.
As tall as these are, it was not difficult. In fact, as time goes by, I am more and more sure that my body has monkey genes implanted in it, or else it makes no sense that I would have been able to climb them so smoothly in the first place. Besides, aside from my natural talent, the experience of doing it daily, when it comes to sleeping, also helped me.
Every night, we all sleep at the top of the trees for comfort or safety, I don’t know. The point is that being so used to it, it didn’t take me long to get to one of the branches located several meters high, where, being all of them connected, I moved from side to side until I found the best place to see.
When I found it, I sat down on the spot to observe the visitors, and immediately after doing so, three subjects caught my attention.
The first was a lone man who was clearly the visitor, as he stood on the opposite side of the barbarians while facing the other two individuals.
His appearance denoted total neatness. With his black hair and beard well groomed, he wore a long-sleeved shirt with several ornaments on it, along with a pair of trousers of soft fabric, both brown. In addition, his clothing featured emblems woven into them, which indicated that his manner of dress was due to the use of formal attire imposed by his job.
The subject was busily moving his hands, covered by black gloves, as he spoke, as if performing a play.
”I made a mistake”
He was not alone, for as he spoke, he pointed to his back, causing my eyes to wander to some guys hiding behind the thick trees. Dressed more oriented for combat, they carried a sword at their waists and leather garments at their joints. Also, under his feet were large wooden boxes, which were covered so that what they contained was something I could not know.
That was enough. I didn’t need to see any more to know who he was.
”A corrupt trader, apparently”
With that said, all that was left was to find out who the hell the other two men were.
One was a tall guy, even taller than the barbarians next to him, who was completely covered with metal armor, in which its enormous weight was evident. Like the men behind the merchant, this one also had a sword, but unlike the others, his was on his back because its size made it impossible to keep it at his waist. After all, the thing was about two meters long.
His face was not visible, but just by looking at his corpulence and how his armor was so rustically armed, it was clear that such a man was just another one of the barbarians, only this one looked a little different from the others. Perhaps he was their leader.
Now, with him, there are two, only the last one is missing, the strangest one, I guess.
”A king? I don’t think so. A madman is what he must be”
He’s probably that crazy bastard who created this place. A psychopath who dresses in fancy clothes that drag on the dirt floor while wearing a crown on his head that slides down the side of it, threatening to fall off.
He, a decrepit old man, stands with a hunched back while leaning on one hand on a wooden cane with a big red jewel on the handle.
”Besides being old, he is also quite ugly, almost as much as his creations, for it seems that the wounds of his youth have left him scarred and-… oh, commerce has begun”
After saying that, the men behind the merchant began to move, carrying on their shoulders the large wooden crates that, until recently, had been lying on the ground.
