There was a library-city. The building had many floors, doors and stairs. The architecture was sophisticated and gorgeous. There lived there two kinds of people. One was of ordinary people with a routine life, friendly and harmless. The other kind, fewer in number, were smarter and more thoughtful. The people of both groups were dressed in diversity, some wearing a hat, some covering their faces with a veil, and some in a long robe. From a person’s clothing one could not tell their race, as the two bore little relationship. It was unclear which group my friend and I belonged to, but it was not important.

One day a third type of people arrived. They marched into the city, through the gate and up the stairs, in a long file, two by two. A few of them looked ugly and fierce, like orcs. Most of them appeared no different from humans. It was not until I spotted a beautiful woman near the end of the file that I realized the danger we were in. She was a well-known cannibal! They were all cannibals! Their clothes showed the same variety as those of the first two groups, and nobody could tell them apart from the rest of the inhabitants, except for the few orc-looking ones.

I witnessed the first brutality during a meeting involving members of all groups, hosted by a human-looking cannibal. An orc stormed into the meeting, yelling for food. Unpleased by the interruption, the host urged him to wait till the end of the meeting. The orc, not at all interested in cooperating, picked someone from the first row of the audience and chopped his head open with an axe. Fortunately, it was only another orc, one of their own kind. The bloody behavior infuriated a third orc, who had been standing beside the victim. He swung up a heavy metal chain, struck the first orc on the head, and knocked him down…

The meeting dissolved in panic. People ran in all directions. For the next half an hour, my friend and I ran up and down the stairs, looking for a hiding place that others would never find, while trying hard not to catch the attention of anyone, since anyone could potentially be a cannibal.