Carmotjingal

> *"A little boy was lost here many years ago. He was always smiling but never looked truly happy. He was a scruffy little thing of dubious lineage, but he was a good boy. He just went off and disappeared one night, not a trace left of him in the morning. His mother thought he must have been alive, she hoped for the longest time, but he never came home. It seems so far away and long ago now. I hope wherever he is, he's found peace."*
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Carmot was born at high noon, where his drabby locks and brown skin caused some trepidation amongst his townsfolk*.* His three siblings all had fair skin and vibrant auburn hair; always displayed proudly and groomed meticulously.

Carmot was young, he didn't understand the murmurs of the adults. He emulated his siblings and learnt to play the games he often saw them playing, but he would always be snubbed away when he tried to approach.

The children knew little of the world, but they understood enough to know that he was different from the rest, he didn't have the bright orange hair that mother had, that the adults would praise. Whenever he went to the adults and beseeched them for help, but they would smile and look away awkwardly, and turn a blind eye to the vicious jibing of his siblings.

One night, the indigo sky was lit up with streaks of burning white as a meteor shower fell above the town. Carmot gaped at the stars with reverence, and on shaky legs and weak steps, the little boy strayed away from his house.

Young, but vital and curious, he followed those marvellous streaks as they traced a path through the heavens, and when dawn broke, he found a shower of pebbles along a cracked stone path. There was a sign on the path, but young as he was he could not read it. The scribbles meaningless and uninteresting to his wandering eyes. But the shiny pebbles that fell from the sky, they gleamed like starlight in the early morning sun. Carmot held one of those stones in his hands and felt at peace.

The day came and went, and he still made no move towards home, happily occupied by the pebbles and the little mice he would find scurrying between the cracks in the dirt. And so it was, with every passing day he grew bigger and stronger, and still, he wandered alone.

The plains are a wide and lonely expanse, and away from the oppressive bullying of his siblings and the chatter of his townsfolk, he had no use for speech. The scant words he had picked up were lost like a duck shedding water from its feathers. Instead, he learnt to mimic the sounds of the wild critters around him. A wolf's howl, crow's caw, a rat's squeak, anything that called to him, he would call back.

Half-wild, he spent his days prowling around the shattered ruins and temples, living on hopping mice, moles and sparrows and other little mammals he can snag in his hands.

He became somewhat feral, having never received the education or socialising most children go through. His memory of those days is practically nonexistent, having only spent the very early days of his youth in a proper home. Occasionally, he dreams of a woman with rich brown eyes and a mane of bright orange, like a burning sunrise.

With his dirty brown mop and dark skin, he blended in well with the mottled shadows between the rocks and crevices. On good days, he has the chance to spend time basking in the sun atop the crumbled stone hills, he rearranges the rocks and settles down comfortably, rolling around and stretching out, content.

There, passersby can catch a glimpse of him lazing about under the high noon sun. From afar, they admire what appears to be a mirage, all the sharp grace of a predator, concealed amongst the rocky shapes. Out in the distance, they see a shift of stones, and they whisper. In an ironic twist that is perhaps lost to both parties, he became a good luck charm to superstitious travellers of the well-worn paths.

There is a legend in these parts. Of a man that fell from the skies in a hail of starlight, who could turn iron to gold. They say he can't speak, but merely repeats the words he hears, and that should this strange man echo your wishes back you, those deepest desires would be fulfilled.