Slow and surely, he woke up, his tiny fingers stretched and contracted, he felt the skin of the palms and closed and opened the hands many times, instinctively he rotated his wrists, and the elbows also woke up, the muscle impulse made his hands touch his long face and feel his baby pointy teeth and the wetness of his saliva.
The torso also moved, the tiny little legs seeking to find ground, his long tail slapped down, and the hands finally touched the limit of his space, the thick shell. Oh! He heard his own hoarse voice and opened his eyes, the milky beige and dark gray stains were the limit of his existence, yet he felt the urge to knock it down, tear it apart.
First he pushed with his hands, and then hit it, but the gooey insides made his fists slide, the second idea however, was smarter, he would bite his way out, he bit above his head and the light from the outside shone inside his egg and continued to bite as he heard others like him making similar throat sounds.
He finally peeked out after biting the egg around his head, he realized he his siblings were all together struggling to come out just like him, they felt determined to all be out of their eggs and mingle. His hands helped his teeth, and he was the first hatching out! He felt pride in himself and smiled at his siblings.
One by one, he helped his brothers out, he watched his brothers, just like him, covered with goo cleaning their eyes and his stomach made a noise, he felt a pressure in his belly and cried, his brothers cried, twenty-five Zags cried hungry.
A giant appeared and threw tiny soft rocks towards them, he was the first one to sniff, squeeze, and bite, soon all others were munching on the white bread. As the eldest, he felt responsible and he noticed his itchy skin drying up and screamed, perhaps the giant would have a solution.
He observed the giant’s arrival, same two legs, same two arms, however the face was round and the teeth were not pointy and missing a tail. He wondered if the giant was related to them, one with a defect. But the giant arrived, looked at them, scoffed, threw a bucket with dirty water at them and closed the tiny Zags inside the reproduction cell.
They roamed in their tiny basket with humid hay and searched for the crumbs of bread until it was all gone, they vocalized few sounds, sadly, as their stomachs were not happy with only little bread, he cried again for the giant. As expected, a giant arrived, another one, with a bucket filled with rests of fish, which the tiny Zags appreciated even more.
The time was spent playing with his siblings and the occasional arrival of giants, that he learned soon it was called person and that each person had a name and they were dirty Zags, cursed and nasty creatures, he wondered if cursed and nasty meant something bad.
“Do they speak?” A distinct giant person arrived together with the usual giant and got into their cell, looked around at the dirty walls, the stinky hay filled with water and excrement with few torches around making the environment humid and reeking of animals, and spoke, with a handkerchief covering his nose and mouth.
“Sir, they began muttering some human words, I believe they will be ready soon.” The man that fed them tried to stretch their infancy and postpone the forced labor on the poor cursed souls. “I guess…”
“It is enough they can understand speech, say yes and no, don’t waste our resources.”
The distinct man left and the person closed the door behind him and squatted looking at the tiny Zags. “I know you can understand me, you will start working soon, be diligent and careful, if you get hurt, they will throw you away. Complete your tasks, never ask anything and keep your head down, if humans attack you, you must not raise your hand or talk back, they will hurt and throw you away, you will grow taller than any human and be stronger, but it does not matter, they own you.”
Only he understood, the others were busy playing, pulling each other’s tails and laughing, but he approached the person and looked at him. “Th… thank y… you, when we get names?”
“Little one, only people, cats and dogs get names, you and they are just Zag”. The person patted him in the face, the first and only touch he would ever know for a long time and left.
Inside the cell, Zag could not understand the passage of time, but not long after the distinct man asked if they could speak, people entered taking each small Zag by hand, he was taken by a dirty man, smelling like the torch and who took him downstairs into a chamber with flames and smoke.
“Bring the coal to me, that’s your job.” The man barely looked at him, but his eyes lit up when he saw a big shadow with his own shape that belonged to an adult Zag, impulsively, he ran and hugged his leg. The adult Zag was holding a huge shovel filled with coal shook his leg trying to untangle the kid from himself.
“Go back to your duty!” The adult Zag pleaded with the tiny one. But it was too late, the grumpy man walked with heavy steps and slapped tiny Zag in the face and when he released his big brother from his hug, the man kicked him to the pile of coal. “Do your job.”
He got up, his body was hurting, his eyes filled with tears, the man threw his tiny shovel in his direction and screamed again while he sobbed holding it, struggling to fill it with coal. He looked at the adult Zag, easily towering the other men, with his head down avoiding eye contact with his tiny brother. He placed seven pieces of coal on his shovel and threw to the man that kicked him.
The hours passed, his skin was dry and flaky, his hands had calluses and his flanks were sore from the kicking. He watched the men and the adult Zags leaving, he put his shovel aside and prepared to leave, but the humans blocked him.
“Your feeder will come and pick you up, wait here, if you disobey, we will throw you away.” He nodded and found a corner to sit down, he curled himself and held his tail, and the tears running from his eyes naturally choked him, he shivered and closed his eyes, picturing his siblings, but he was hungry, dry and alone. Nobody came for him.
He woke up with a piece of wood poking his head, they had a bucket with water and couple fish for him, he drank and splashed it on his whole body. He ate the fish in one big bite and held his shovel, ready for many other hours of ungrateful work.
When his shovel became too small for him, he changed jobs. He was taken upstairs to work inside in the prison, different from the furnace, that was warm and dry, the prison was cold and humid, and even the job consisting of dishing grub to the prisoners, that had mostly gone mad, he felt drained, his energy was low and his body weak.
“Have you ever gone outside?” An adult Zag asked him while they placed the disgusting grub from the big pots to small bowls.
“What is outside?” He asked, placing the filled bowls on a tray and stuffing the carts.
“You will see.” The shift ended and he went upstairs, many stairs up and the door was opened to the outside, he closed his eyes, it was day, he placed his hands on his tiny round black eyes and opened it again, this was ‘the outside’, he wished to cry, it was his first time walking out, feeling the heat, wetting his feet in the pond, laying down with his brothers.
“Can we stay in the outside forever?” He asked another adult Zag, that was using his little free time to sleep and recharge in the sun.
“Little one, we are slaves, which means we will work in this place until we die, and we can’t do anything we want, only what the people want, head down, do as you are told and then come lay down in the sun, we are not free”. He extended himself because he knew tiny Zags had the ability to ask multiple whys.
He sat among the Zags and cried, he was property of the people, he cried and cried some more, he promised himself it would be the last time he would feel sorry for himself. He laid down and enjoyed the heating ball called sun and the company of his brothers.
He would never know another life. Not for the next twenty-three years.
