For the most part, he was left undisturbed, the large numbers of brothers gathered together and the drunken high of the feast keeping them preoccupied and forgetting he was not there to enjoy it all with them. So, while the sounds of animal orgasms and violence continued to emanate from below, Cade stayed in his corner and quietly read the book he'd borrowed, drowning out the endless orgy that racked the house on it's foundation.
Most, if not all, Gamatoms had a rudimentary knowledge of words and literature, at least enough to get by reading old signs, maps and such left over from when the humans ruled. And Cade was no different, realizing right away that the book in his hands possessed something above his level of expertise from the first page onwards. But he pressed forward, struggling through it, each page inching by as he sought out the meanings and hidden contexts in words he was unfamiliar with, gathering them together in a bin in his mind and slowly becoming accustomed to them as each new page was conquered. Slowly but surely, he had enough of an understanding to flow by at a quicker pace and found himself getting lost in the hidden world within these pages.
At one point, his absence was noticed by the brethren as two from his pack wandered upstairs -either curious in their drunken ecstasy or actively looking for him - either way, when they came upon his solitary spot, they did not leave but approached him with friendly and cajoling laughter.
"Heyyy, there you are!" Bast cried in exaggerated hilarity, taking his arm from around his fellow, a thin and pale Gamatom from the south pack, named Goren. Bast came into the room wobbling on uneven feet as he side-stepped rubble and broken furniture to plop himself down next to Cade, nudging him roughly as he did so.
Doing his best to ignore them, Cade tried to bury himself further into the book, hoping that if he did so, they'd get bored and leave him be. This appeared not to be the case as Goren leaned his naked body against the arm chair and leered over it at the two of them sitting in the corner.
"You're missing one hell of a good time, eh!" Bast said loudly, laughing with Goren as they recounted a moment of brutality when one of the women downstairs had still been alive and attempted to escape after her "pretending to be dead" ruse had failed to work. Bast leaned in close over Cade, the blood still sticking all over his body getting on Cade's own form, the smell of death on his breath causing the Gamatom to shove him away in disgust.
"Fuck off!" Cade ordered, giving each of his brethren direct glares before shaking his head and returning to his book, his brow still creased in concentration. Bast, taken aback by this behavior but clearly amused, shared a look with Goren before looking back at Cade with a mischievous grin spreading over his features.
"Eh...what ya got there?" Bast asked slyly, peering at the book in his comrade's hands.
Before Cade could utter another warning or even offer an explanation, the book was yanked from between his fingertips with Bast carrying it away, jumping and screeching in maniacal delight. Anger darkening his features, Cade was instantly on his feet and chasing after the other, Goren stepping in between them and acting as an obstacle while Bast skipped from the room, waving the old pages at him tauntingly before disappearing.
Drop kicking the Gamatom in his way, Cade pursued the other only pausing when he reached the empty hallway, coming upon freshly torn pages littering the floorboards. Feeling like his heart had been ripped from his chest, he gaped for a few seconds at the discarded pages, crinkled at the edges from where a rough hand had carelessly shredded them from their bed in the book, the urge to scream tearing through his whole body. Red seeped into the edges of his vision as further in the house, down the stairway, he could hear Bast's annoying voice still hollering cheerfully and he gave chase, jumping the banister and landing heavily on his feet in the middle of the main hall.
Bast saw him coming and laughed like a naughty toddler, weaving to avoid him as more pages were discarded from his fingertips to land rustling to the marble floor. But the anger bristling in Cade's hackles and filling his muscles propelled him forward, faster than the intoxicated Gamatom, his fist lashing out and slamming heavily into Bast's face, knocking his head back and stunning him. Instantly, the hilarity in the brother's face disappeared as a ribbon of red dribbled from a burst lip, but Cade did not stop, landing more and more blows, breaking bones and bruising organs indiscriminately in a frenzied flow.
Unknown to him, a crowd of brethren had gathered at the edges of the hall, standing in the doorways to the rooms as Cade screamed in rage and uttered an endless stream of obscenities, pounding home with fists and the bottoms of his feet. Quin stood near the opening to the common room where the others had been feeding, smoking languidly and leaning on the doorframe as he watched the beating. Eventually, it was clear that Bast wasn't fighting back and wasn't going to get up to do so.
"Cade," the dominant Gamatom said, the word ringing clear and forcefully through the hall, amidst the wet, fleshy sounds of the other's attacks. When Cade refused to stop, intent on killing the bastard for destroying the one special thing given to him by his new friend - he'd fucking
promised her he'd take care of it! Now the fool would pay with his life for what he'd done! - Quin's voice came again, practically a growl, echoing harshly. "
Cade!"
Hearing the tone the other used, Cade halted the rush of blows he'd been savagely dealing and stood straight, staring down at the other and breathing heavily before turning to look at Quin. And his eyes took in the rest of them with a sneer, their faces blank as they watched apathetically, not understanding the reason for the fight, but enjoying the "show" nonetheless. And Quin, emotionless as ever, regarded him with an intolerant look that warned him to back off. With a grimace, Cade turned back to Bast and gave him a swift kick to the gut before bending down and picking up what was left of his precious book, grabbing up the pages as he stalked angrily away.
Alone once more upstairs, he shut out the sounds and talking from below, not caring what they thought or what they assumed had happened - sometimes the brothers had their individual squabbles, so it wasn't unheard of, what he had done. Still, for the moment, he was not worried if they started asking more questions about him, gingerly cradling the book and attempting to find all the parts of it that had been torn away to correct what that idiot had done. Looking down at the cover, it was torn diagonally across so the knight in the story was nothing but legs anymore but leaving the maiden and the dragon whole. In this version of the cover, it almost looked like the beast was winning the fight.
***
Cade stayed far away from the others for the rest of the night and he was not bothered again, sleeping soundly in a corner by himself with his patched up book hugged tightly against his chest. When dawn arrived on the backs of chirping birds outside, he dressed himself and went hunting for the library, finding it on the east side of the house where the brethren hardly frequented. The door had been blocked off by debris piled in front of it, but Cade moved everything out of the way like a treasure hunter searching through a mine or tramping through a jungle to reach a hidden temple.
The room itself was filled with a musty smell and left much as he remembered, shelves that had been positioned along the walls torn down and ripped apart, books piled in the middle of the floor carelessly, but otherwise seemingly unharmed. Like a pirate coming upon buried treasure, his face brightened as he approached the pile, eyes licking over the different volumes with a voraciousness that bordered on obsessive. Books! So many books for Ishu!
The moment of pleasure was only halted with disappointment when one of the first books he picked up appeared to be covered in cum, it's pages slathered and stained with dried and crusted layers of semen and urine. Tossing it aside uselessly - Ishu couldn't read the book, tainted as it was like that - he found several others had been similarly vandalized, the brethren apparently rebelling against the system by rendering the material unreadable by their seed and urine one joyous evening. Searching through the pile, he was relieved to find a few tokens untouched and gathered them together in a neat stack beside himself as he made his way to the bottom of the pile.
One book, full of old paintings, caught his attention as it lay open, the pages revealing a particular piece depicting Renaissance-esque women dancing in a forest setting while a man with goat legs and horns played some kind of flute nearby.
"Dancing Nymphs" the caption read and reminded of Ishu's interest in fantasy things, he closed it up and added it to his pile, hoping to have something to show her to make her smile again today.
Loading the books in a duffel bag and hauling them to one of the trucks parked outside, he used a pair of keys he'd found and pulled away from the old house, heading towards the library, his new sanctuary of sanity.
Your support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)
