Chapter 7

"Now, he will take forever to have him here."

He looked. The view was plain aside for the beaten sepulchres washed by the rage of rain and insane sun. The strength was odd and if he had no idea of the fact that the tombs were carved from rocks, he probably would had said that the sepulchres would collapse the next day.

He had been waiting for Ja Lia. He had looked and tiptoed for all he cared. There was nothing to show for. He wasn't even in the spotlight. Probably he had even forgotten that they would be meeting or he might be hanging out with some ladies. He of course was so given to ladies.

The tongue of the sun was latching on him. He wished he could hide somewhere. He was afraid of entering one of the sepulchres. He could never cope with the fear of a ghost appearing to him. He believed in the concept of ghosts and he did believe strongly that they do exist and could visit who they wish to.

He had heard the stories of people visited by ghosts. Though most of them seemed to be pleasant as they get acquainted and get blessed by the ghosts. But some of them were haunted too. Since having a ghost visit you is two-sided, he would never settle for it. He didn't need it. The wrong coin always fall to him.

He decided to seat on one of the tomb stones. At the edge of the craft. Almost all the tombs there had an epitaph etched in them. He wishes that when he did die that he would have some people write some super pleasant in his remembrance.

He hadn't been the evil one all day. He had his odd sides and the good one too. Well, as the case may be, the good side was one and the remaining many. He could never get a good review like a bad book.

He tried to read one of the epitaphs written on one of the gravestones. He couldn't make an apt meaning of it. The message had been mixed up by the washing of the rains. The craftsman who had etched the epitaph was some bad luck. He hoped that such wouldn't be the one to write his too if ever he would be lucky enough to have one. He turned to the next one and read from it.

"So, he live ere life leaved

and taught death to grief."

What crazy couplet was that. He couldn't even make meaning of it. He read it the second time. He wasn't so good at the reading business. Ja Lia was better than he was.

He read the text again, he couldn't decode. He looked at the name above the the epitaph, he couldn't even pronounce it. The person who was buried was definitely one of the Greek men who came to Rome for some businesses. Such things were not scars in their dealings.

Many Greek were good with the English language. They loved to learn by heart and did have several scholars who had helped himself and Vulcan learn so much about the gods and goddesses of several lands and how they work.

Majority of the people who were living at Rome at that moment were immigrants. Including himself and his two brothers. They were Mandarins but left China because of the curse sucked by the rage of their father, Lao Tzu.

They had learnt to survive all by themselves and most times they had done it illicitly. Though none of them was as skilled and diversified as Ja Lia.

He remembered when he talked him into doing the odd businesses. He helped him trained his fingers to be light and he could even lift a mountain without the consent and without stirring the earth. Ja Lia was literally the best amongst them at the moment.

Yung hou, the last child amongst them had been away for awhile. He probably was learning. All of them loved that but that was not enough. Education was not what twas. Twas just some stereotype which had been painted too real. It only mimick, doesn't create. He had lived to let time teach him that.

If twere Education, he should have a seeming stance and should be able to get whatever he wanted, regarding the value of informations he did have stocked up in his mental ken. Even if he would have his way, he would had loved to talk his youngest brother out studying. He could give his time to so many other things and by time he would Iive to reap it while those who worshiped education would come to him to seek to be employed. But he could never do that. He was way too deep into the mess. Time should teach him too.

Ja Lia was the only one who had chosen the other path. His education was rather different. While he had studied the relationship between plants and the rocks, Vulcan had studied the lives of Gladiators and how build a large fort without breaking. That is, how to lose a Gladiator and win a thousand in exchange.

When the fellow had picked that up, it had seemed like more a mirage but he knew that he probably had a reason for it. There were only few people in Rome at that moment who loved the concept of gladiating. He could never be patient to sit a match through.

A bird flew past him. He traced it with his eyes as it was swallowed by the drooling clouds. Birds were super ridiculous over there. They seemed to be what they were not. A sane person might be considered insane owed to what a bird had made of such. Imagine who would not sleep in his house anymore because at a specific time in the night, multitudinous Ravens would make for his house and fight their ways into the room. But before the morning, before the lark of the morn would be heard, they would had left.

He quit thinking. He could see Ja Lia coming. He was bare. Like empty. His head was dancing on his neck as though twas going to fall. He was kinda skeptical if they would or not.

He let his worries eat up the thought as the fellow dragged by. His robe was dirty. Didn't he check out before sliding himself through it? Seemed more like some voodoo had recently been worked on him because he wasn't looking Lia. He was looking like some specimen which had been marred by eerie experiments.

"Where is the helmet?"

Lia sighed. He didn't know what to say to him. He wanted to ask him a question but he didn't have the helmet. He knew that his brother wouldn't want to hear any other thing immediately he realized that the helmet was not present.

He thought of what to say. He thought for naught. His brain seemed not to be working. Twas more like some strays of instinct. He got to where he was sitting. He smiled firstly. Nope! Since when did he start smiling while dealing with his brother. Twas more like frowning throughout the whole deal.