Bloodred Legeica
Ilyawhere Kasimir wasn't sent to Afghanistan and crossed path with Ubica earlier in their life hence the reason Dragan knew him.
In the still of the night, in some place where houses were scattering rather far apart from one's another - an ordinary scene in a rural area that barely got back on their feet after the Yugoslav War. A couple of hours ago, the silence was temporary broken by the chaotic of rescue-turn-crime-investigating scene...a car was driven off the cliff, killing the sole human in it.
He was called to the scene, as a representative of NATO Force, to acknowledge and be a witness that the victim's death was purely accident...insufficiently awareness of the route's surrounding and the darkness had caused him to drive his car straight down the cliff.
...Another person with a history of ethnic crimes committed during the Yugoslav War that failed to make it to the international court to receive his proper punishment.
The German refused to be lifted back into town along with the paramedic and police, mentioned since it was near morning, in a little more than a couple of hours, he preferred to stick around and be lifted back into town by morning when the tow truck arrived to get the car from 45 feet below. He would need to check what evidences could be found from the car in broad daylight.
Never ones to be persuasive, especially with foreigners, the local workers soon left him alone and the swarm of villagers who got abruptly woken up with this little excitement all retreated back to their homes...and ultimately, beds.
Alone, in the still darkness, the German NATO officer seemingly let out his thought to no one in particular.
"Lousy as always, haven't I told you to give it up before, Dragan?"
"Then you may as well inform me when you're going to be in this region." A complaint in accented English shot back. With a low noise of footsteps, emerged a younger man with messy dark hair who earlier had posed along as one of the villagers who gathered to survey the 'accident' that happened in their peaceful neighborhood.
"Sorry kid, can not do. Even though I do refer to others in the force that I have a 'snitch' in this region to help locating the criminals with history of ethnic crimes during the war, it will be my damn ass if they knew that you're not just a snitch but instead also took the matter in your hands to 'punish' them yourself if you feel us international justice deal with them too slow to your liking."
The 'friendly' bickering went on for a few more minutes, with the younger Yugoslav man moaned about the bad luck he had to encounter 'Kasimir XVIII' of German Army in the first place which prompted the response that 'it's all because you're so lousy in an attempt to cover the murder so it would seem more like suicide/accident I couldn't help but caught you' from the older and taller mixed blood German. When asked about what he did to cause the car to be driven off the cliff, Dragan said, 'got into the old fool's car at 10 PM, crouched down to let the darkness hide him behind the backseat then when the car was well away from town, showed up with a knife right up the guy's neck and the stupid fool was freaked out enough to drive straight to the cliff'.
"If so, are you here with me as corporeal human being or non-corporeal as a ghost with your corporeal piece down there? Well, I'm a type that wouldn't be able to tell the difference between humans and ghosts because I have never been one to be spooked before."
The attempt to lighten the mood was met with a glare from the 'ubica'.
"Did the rescue workers brought more than one body up from the cliff? No? Sorry, I don't die that easily. While the bastard was nut and headed straight to the cliff, I unlocked the back passenger door and threw myself out...nearly fucking broke my spine when I slammed into a tree trunk. It's hurting a bit when I breathe...maybe I cracked my ribs or something."
The gravely description of how his informant survived got 'De' to become solemn. "Seriously Dragan, as soon as the daybreak, go to check up in a hospital. To have your back, in particularly spine, collided forcefully like that is never something to neglect. You have enough money?"
As much as he was touched by the NATO officer's concern, the younger man's mood quickly went sour with the next speech. "Good grief, you should really have believed me when I said you're lousy. You nearly got yourself killed along with the target this time so from now on, stick with report the location to me so I can coordinate to the international organizations to have them arrested and taken to the court."
"I'm SORRY that I'm LOUSY. Apparently, you're right, to be capable for an assassin I'd need a proper training like you instead of some 'training' by surviving and killed some half-professional soldiers during the Yugoslav War."
Immediately the taller man's hand went to squeeze the shorter man's shoulder.
"I wouldn't wish any of the then-Yugolavian people your age to be 'trained' like that, really, especially if it would produce such poor souls like you." The pain in the heir of ex-nazi family' face was evident. "The 'sin' you committed in hoping that it would make the sinners suffered for their crimes...in turn it makes you suffer as well. You have to move from place to place every few days to avoid law enforcement to catch up with you. You only go back to your family for a short time once a year and have to lie to them to keep their innocence and keep your safety. Do you even know how long it will be before you can eventually drop this 'duty'? Ethnic biases are born everyday, even to the people who weren't even born to this earth while the war was still going on."
As much as he might want to continue his 'tantrum', he knew what the German just said was the truth based on their mutual 'idealism'...that people of all countries that used to make up the Yugoslavia forget about the difference in ethnicity and live in harmony.
'I used to play sport professionally, you know." Said Kasimir in one of their early encounters, "Whenever there were teammates from different countries that used to be parts of the former Yugoslavia, I had to pose as the 'NATO of the team' and made sure they wouldn't bring the conflict from their home countries into the team. Some of them actually proved me wrong, that not only they didn't bring the ethnical difference issue up, they even said 'They're brothers from the same country' even when one is Croatian and another is Serbian. At one time there were each of Bosniak, Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian in the team and they all were good friends."
'I just...wish that someday maybe the people would realize what a mistake it was for them to shun their Yugoslav family only because their ethnic are not the same...maybe one day they could reunify themselves together just like Germany?'
'Yes, I want nothing more than to have Yugoslavia back' ...but Dragan's reverie was interrupted when the same voice from the back of his head spoke in front of him now.
"As much as I don't want to agree with your doing, I have to admit I like your sense of fairness, Dragan." 'De' pulled out a piece of torn paper he had ripped from a police's notebook earlier. "The victim is a Croatian, known for harming Serbs during the attempt the drive them off the Croatian-occupied areas. Consider the region you're originated from during the war, ones would expect you to hunt down only Serbs instead you're also willing to go after Croats which is your f..."
"Doesn't matter, lots of people just wouldn't want to believe it that there are 'innocent' Serbian people suffering, being driven from their homes as well during the war - just because Serbs seemed to be 'the biggest villain in the play'." The 'Yugoslav ethnic' man cut him off.
Suddenly, in the still of the night...there was a 'thud'.
Both men startlingly positioned themselves to the direction which they thought the sound was coming from...the sound that was like some heavy and slimy just hit the ground.
Next, it was a sound of something wiggled on the ground, slowly getting closer and closer....
"Dragan, stay back. Try to hide yourself in a shadow or something." The German NATO officer whispered while grabbing his gun under his shirt. He inched forward to confront whatever approaching them, thinking with him being a NATO, whoever it was should think twice before attacking him.
Just then, the hand that was under his shirt grabbing the gun a few seconds ago wiped out with a small emergency flash light, exposing whoever was threatening them.
The sight made Dragan forgot about erasing his presence when he gasped, "A foal?!".
In front of them, wiggling on the ground with the trail of blood indicating which direction the tiny horse was coming from, was indeed a black foal. Its big eye looked up at the two full grown lifeforms of different species, all the while was struggling to stand up on its four leg, just like any foal would do.
"Lord, did anybody hit this foal while they rushed back to the town or something?"
However, the blond man who was way too familiar with the creature before them suggested other while. "No...if so this foal would have been death right on the spot where it was hit. It's too tiny to withstand such force...also if that was true, even if it survived, its leg bones should all be shattered. See how it's trying to stand up? That's the usual behavior of a newborn foal. And we heard the 'thud'...."
"You're suggesting that this foal is just born...?" For some reason, the whole occurrence seemed too freaky in the native man's logic. "...but then, where's the mare?"
"That..." Kasimir knelt down close to the foal. "is what I'm wondering myself."
The next movement of his supposedly 'superior' caused the informant to flinch. "What are you doing?!"
Right in front of his gray-green eyes, the NATO officer scooped the tiny foal into his arms while remained crouching on the ground.
"I need to check...if this foal is truly a newborn, there should be some trace of umbilical cord still present on its belly. While it's rare but there is a chance that a mare may reject her own offspring."
'Yes, I'm actually a newborn but there is no mare giving birth to me...Vati, Otac.'
A 'voice', that went right into their heads without even having to penetrate through the air, froze both humans right on the spot.
"W...what?" Dragan unconsciously took a step backward, unaware that what he just heard wasn't heard through his ears. "Whom did that voice call 'Father'??"
'Vati' referred by the non-existence 'voice' stared down to the 'baby' next to him, whom met his stare with an intense gaze.
'I am here in Vati's arm, Otac. I'm talking to both of you through telepathic ability...it's nauseously inconvenient to have a mouth of a horse in order to communicate by talking in human language.'
The chill was running through the entire body of the man whose eyes fixed on the wiggling flesh resembling the shape of a foal...in his sense of awareness, the 'thing' right before his eyes WASN'T a foal ANYMORE. His belief, was confirmed by the next wave of communication made by the said 'foal'. 'That man down there...was the last amount of blood I needed to complete my development for a corporeal body.'
A raw emotion such as fear can make humans do unexpected things and that was exactly what hit the assassin/informant Slavic man. He yelled in horror and tore through the wood, escaping the delusion he was forcing to take in without even consciously knew where he would escape to.
The other man was left alone, freezing on the ground where he was...but not because of horror like it just struck the fleeing man. Instead he was...puzzling, maybe even a bit fascinating yet no any emotion related to fear at all.
'Funny...for someone who actively killed humans for some years, I wouldn't expected Otac to be so scared of me...his own visible mass of sin.'
"I don't know, kid...but by my own guessing, it's the fact that you're 'supposed' to be a foal yet you can use telepathic ability to communicate right into our head that scared the living hell out of him. Most humans just don't expect animals to talk back to them, you know, not to mention exactly how many humans are there that ever encountered a real experience with telepathic ability other than in novel or movie."
'Oh...'
"Give him some time, he may begin to come around...he's not such a heartless person."
'I knew...that's why I was born mainly due to the sins you two have committed. You're both rather a high moral person yet you committed the most severe sin..."
It was just getting more and more interesting for Kasimir.
He gently ruffled the foal's mane, surprised even its owner. "I might be able to convince Dragan to get acquaint with you, if you'd explain me something...why is it a body of a horse that you 'chose' to appear before us?"
'Because...the incidences that happened which led both of you to this direction, they happened in 1990. A year of the Horse by Chinese zodiac, you remember that?'
Sure, how could he ever forget it... "Right, the year I got my first gun from my uncle and, pretty much learned the reason of my existence. But...what's with Dragan? I thought the Yugoslav War didn't start until 1991?"
Again, the 'foal' surprised him with its unexpected vast of knowledge.
'True but it doesn't mean the rift of ethnic tension hadn't started before that...one of the main signals of Yugoslavia falling apart occurred in that year. If you ask Otac, you'll know...something about politicians breaking off their alliance commitment.'
And it turned out the information he got from 'Guilt' was right....
. . .
Kasimir reclines on a recliner in an 'underground penthouse' in the heart of Moscow where he now calls it 'home'. So much had happened...since fifteen years ago of the memory he is reflecting of his first meeting with his 'child'.
Yes, eventually he came to a term and considered 'Guilt' his child, while Dragan also did come around and accepted 'Guilt' - maybe as an acquaintance but surely not his child, unlike him. The entire fifteen years that passed, they had numerous reoccurring encounters with 'Guilt' both individually and together.
Their first encounter concluded with a local villager approached to them with a flashlight, thank to Dragan's scream, who was wondering about the source of the terror sound. Kasimir, with the 'evidence' of 'Guilt' still unable to stand with blood all over him, quickly came up with a lie that it was his own exclamation when he first noticed the 'injured foal'. Being a good samaritan, the villager offered to drive the foal to a veterinarian in the town. However, while the two men talked about how to move the foal to the vehicle, 'Guilt' simply vanished and left only a tiny pool of blood on the ground.
Shocking, the villager asked Kasimir if he just had a hallucination - to which 'De' just smiled and answered 'I think we both just got spooked, mate."
