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The Jinzhi Mountains were a forbidden place. Not only because there was no vegetation, nor because of the harsh, freezing cold, snowy climate that could freeze your limbs immediately. Nobody wanted to stay there for a long time anyway, which was fine with some people. Those people were a troop of rhinos. Nobody knew those mountains as well as they did. But it wasn't because they wanted to go on vacation there. They had no families to look after. Because of this, 'serving' in this job didn't hurt them. Only the protection of society determined their life and actions. However, their job was not to protect the mountains, but to prevent that someone escapes from the mountains. They didn't have to spread out over the whole mountain range. Instead, the isolated source of calamity, as some jokingly called it, remained hidden in a cave.
Like so many holes in the ground, it was once used to dig for mineral resources. Today it was empty, or at least it had lost its original purpose. Apart from air and a few rhinos, nothing came in or out. Not even a single ray of sun penetrated through the mighty iron gate, which was opened only once a day, and then was quickly closed again. Not even really fresh air came through, which was why it smelled a little musty inside. But the rhinoceros soldiers stationed there didn't mind. On the contrary, they really enjoyed the privacy, especially since they could pass the time with all sorts of things.
The soldiers' living quarters were in the uppermost part of the cave. There they had everything they needed: warmth, food and all kinds of games. And of course, someone to tell one story after another. Sometimes even stories about women they were glad not to have with them. There was a humorous atmosphere in the barracks almost every evening. They were always in a good mood to be far away from the worries of the world.
The mood in the basement of the cave system was different. The further someone went down the corridor, the colder and narrower the path became, until they came to a cul-de-sac where construction workers had once given up digging when they hadn't come across anything valuable. All that the miners had left behind at the time was a cauldron-shaped dead end made of rocks, deeply hidden and destined never to be seen by the outside world.
For all these years it stood empty. Until today.
The bare walls remained, but some things had been "renovated" in this cul-de-sac. Instead of a permeable tunnel, a wall made of thick iron now sealed off the cavity. In the farthest corner of the cordoned-off room, unbreakable chains adorned the rock wall. In the blackness of the blackest darkness that prevailed in the room, nobody could ever have recognized the figure there.
He was motionless, unable to move in his chains. But he was breathing.
Breathing.
A being that breathed and was locked away like an object that anybody didn't want to destroy, but also no longer wanted to see. Not even the guards felt like looking at him. Still, every few days someone had to go down to the deepest, most remote part of the dungeon. Even a breathing object needed food and water from time to time, as well as some movement. Otherwise, his heart would stop beating. Although everyone would only laugh about it. A heart was made of muscles. Strictly speaking, it was a moving object. Everyone said he had a heart made of stone, as hard as the rocks around him, which only let him breathe.
What should he breathe for? For his life? He didn't have one anymore. Was he only meant to waste the air in the stuffy rooms for doing nothing? Or just to think about his atrocities? Was that his destiny? Was that his future?
So many questions, and yet none of the rhino guards wanted to answer them. They would rather argue about who was putting the menu together for the next week than think deeply about his thought process. Nobody wanted to waste a thought on him. He had ruined enough lives in the world already. Nobody wanted to use his time to descend the long corridor, open the heavy iron door, and go into the dark room. The light from a torch lit the walls, and it continued shining until it reached the end of the chamber. The creature on the wall was denied any contact or having no access to materials to the outside world. This light was the only thing from the upper world that he saw.
The guardian approached the creature, the creature that everyone loathed.
Banished, sorted out, cut off from society.
The rhinoceros raised the torch higher, and light shone on the condemned peacock. "Hey! Wake up!"
He launched a blow at his face. It took a while until the prisoner reacted and raise his head, as if it were an act of strength to tense the neck muscles. His eyes reflected the light, and his feathers, once pure white, had long since ceased to be well-groomed as he had been known for. His feet were covered with dirt and dust. His matted feathers and especially his long peacock tail looked as if they had been used for dusting. There was no trace of royal nobility left. All they saw was a monster, a monster in the dark.
The rhinoceros snorted and pulled out a couple of keys to open all the chain locks. Then he grabbed the filthy peacock by the neck. An iron manacle wrapped his larynx, which kept connected with the wall. The guard flung him on the ground.
"Move!"
The guard kicked him in the back. The peacock croaked briefly. He had 10 minutes to go around in circles. It was difficult for him to stand on his feet.
The prison air made him sicker every month. Since childhood, his immune system had improved throughout the years thanks to training. But here, he couldn't do anything. Any kind of movement was forbidden. Expect for a short walk.
He coughed. His knees were trembling.
"Go on!" The jailer pushed him in front of him.
At first the peacock had resisted, but with every further reduction in food he had to give in sooner.
With an effort, he took one step after another, but he had to lean against the rock wall. Why was his health failing him now of all times? He felt sicker than on the day when he took his first breath. He was born weak, and weak he would leave the world again.
"Time's up!"
He was grabbed again and pressed against the wall, the wall that he already knew inside out. He was never allowed to go anywhere else, nor would he ever be allowed to go anywhere ever again. He envied the guard who got to leave the cell again. He would never be able to step foot over that doorstep again. He wasn't even allowed to receive any visitors. Nobody came to see him anyway. All he was allowed to do was breathe. Just breathe.
Who would have thought life could be so torturous? His beating heart forced him to breathe, to continue his existence in this world. The prison cape brought little shelter from the cold, but it was better than nothing. Freezing to death was not his condemnation. No, his punishment was to be locked away forever.
He coughed again. Perhaps he would die of lung disease before he reached old age.
Old age. He had always wanted that. But not under these circumstances. He had spent his whole life being someone. He'd lived a life everyone would remember, even after he died. But now he was here, and this place had become his permanent home. For eternity.
Nobody would ever see him again, just as he would never see anything or anyone again. Not even the sun. Not even a free sky. He was like a caged animal, wanting to be free. He longed for freedom like someone dying of thirst.
Universe! (or whatever exists behind the world) Can't you see my misery?
No. Nobody cared about him. Nobody wanted to hear him again. Why would they? He had even turned his own people against him with his madness. Nobody would care about his death. Even his parents weren't there to pity him. He was just the dirt under someone's shoes, the dregs in the garbage can. He had spent his whole life being someone. Now he was a nobody. A nothing.
All the cannons he had fired now hit him back 100 times.
Darkness was his companion now, a confidant. The silence was his second breath.
He cried out, hoping someone would answer him, hoping that voices would comfort him. But all that remained was silence.
"Child... My little child..."
Again, he thought he heard voices. These types of hallucinations came to him more and more often. Had the disease now attacked his brain? He was going crazy. He was losing his sanity. He had lost track of time. How long had he been locked up here? One year? Or less? Longer?
First, he had resisted, tried to distract himself with self-talk. But those voices kept eating their way through his head. And then...
Then he thought he saw them.
Images flashed before him in the darkness, the image of a blue and a purple peacock. A peahen.
Her eyes looked at him, her wings touched his face. He really thought she was touching his face with the same wings that once wrapped around him in his childhood. These thoughts warmed him for a moment. Her feather fingers studied his face like a blind woman tried to see him. Didn't she recognize him?
It lanced his heart.
He was once a baby that his parents put to bed. He had once received good night kisses from his mother. And she had worried about his health when he was ill.
Now there was no one left to worry about his ill condition. He was nothing. Even to his family, he was no longer important. Even the old goat didn't care.
Why didn't she visit him to see her chick? Did he disappoint her so much that she didn't want to look at him in the eyes anymore?
"It's okay, baby, it's fine."
His mother's voice echoed through his head.
"It's fine…"
Fine… fine…
Take me... take me in your arms! I beg you, mother... Mother!
"MOTHER!"
A peacock's scream pierced the darkness. A peacock screaming, searching for attention. But he was met with only silence. Merciless, lifeless silence. Everything around him was silent, like a grave in whose belly he lay.
He would stay here. Until his last day.
Tears welled up in his eyes. At first lightly, then more and more until they ran down his cheeks. If he had a heart of stone, why didn't his tears turn to ice?
Mother! I can't stand it anymore!
He looked up, hoping to see a light, but it was all black.
He drew in a sharp breath, threw his head back, and let out an even louder cry, hoping it would be heard in the farthest reaches of the universe. Whether someone heard his call, be it someone in the upper world, the universe, or his parents, he couldn't tell. He would probably never find out.
Not until the day he died.
- The End -
[Sequel: "Fading Punishment"]