I'll preface this by saying that there will be a little bit of uncomfortable material in this chapter. I do hope you read it so you can gain the full effect of the story but I would recommend that those of you who typically try to avoid the mature themed fic's on this site might want to skip to avoid the bulk and just read the opening and the ending. :/

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It was year 99 of the second era. The long battle for freedom from the tyrannical being known as the overlord had finally ended at the dawn of this era. Though it had come in quietly as the overlord had died due to the passage of time rather than by the hands of anything in existence; even now though, the ravages of her reign remained present. Despite nearly a hundred years after the ending of her existence the forests remained untamed and uninhabitable. The lands west of the great Hindrun river were nigh uninhabitable due to malignant magical contamination.

However life still persisted on the Western shores of the river, which was the least contaminated area in the whole of the western part of the continent. Several magicians that had taken interest in studying the malign magic contamination, suggested that it was the purifying mana found in the great Hindrun river which split the Gran continent in two was the cause of the relative habitability of the area.

That was until this day.

On this day……men had come.

Specifically, slavers. At first there had been a rumor here and there among the population along the western shores that children or women, sometimes an attractive male, would disappear when they went to the water whenever the fog rolled in. This had been a rumor that had continued through all ninety-nine years that the people that lived on the edge of the wasteland by the river.

It had even begun to work its way into their bed time stories. Parents would admonish their kids to behave or the fog ghost would come for them.

But on that day, the fog man came for them all.

It was the single greatest enslavement of a people to ever occur since the beginning of the overlord’s reign which had been an era ago.

Men and women fought for their families desperately. Many a woman was brutalized that day defending her litter with tooth and nail, if it came to it. The abled body men of that generation were all but wiped out as they fell under the power of the corrupted magicians who had been hired by the slavers. Against that magical might no man regardless of how much stronger or faster he was than his human counterpart was able to obtain victory.

In the end, the people that had eked out an existence on the destroyed lands by the Hindrun river were entirely enslaved. It was only natural; they who had no magic had no way to defend themselves from the magicians hired by the slavers.

The humans to the east of the Hindrun river saw no problem with it. It could be said the majority may have even celebrated it. To them it may have felt that this was a higher power balancing the scales.

For the humans, the people on the west side of the Hindrun river were beings of nightmare.

They were the creatures that had been their overlords and they were the ones who had acted as the hands and feet of the Overlord.

These people were, The Beast Race.

When it had been confirmed that they no longer held the power that had once caused humanity to be ground underfoot, humanity had relaxed.

When the first of the Beast race had been enslaved they began to be looked down upon.

When nearly a hundred years had passed, humanity had truly begun to believe the Beast race were lesser beings. That they truly were nothing more than beasts, that a female of the Taurus clan was nothing more than a sow, good for only providing milk.

A young girl of the Feline clan was broken.

She had been a proud huntress. She would stalk the terrors of the wastelands and eliminate them with other clansman before they could even hear her.

During the great enslavement a year ago, she too had fought. She had even nearly succeeded in killing one of the magicians at the cost of her brother. However, his magic had proved to overwhelming for her since she had no way to combat it.

In the end she had been captured and the magician who had killed her brother kept her as part of his reward.

Then began a life of days where she was experimented on and nights where she would be raped by the magician that had become her owner.

She managed to hold out for a year of constant torture on both her mind and body, until there was nothing left. She had fallen into a doll like state, capable of movement only when the magician forced himself upon her. During those times she would move, but only to please her captor as if to just quickly finish the atrocity that was committed to her nightly.

……………………………….

A few months passed and the magician grew tired of what he referred to as his play thing. Eventually he sold her to a brothel within the capital of the westernmost kingdom, Snaga.

It was there that her body continued to exist until it ceased to function; her mind and soul already long dead. During that time however she birthed a child.

A truly rare occurrence, it had already been discovered that the chance of success for a child to be born of a beast race and human was nearly impossible.

Yet it happened.

The child was a boy, which the brothel promptly sold off to a farming family, believing that a boy would be no use at the brothel even if it was one of the feline clan.

The boy of the feline race had grown into a man. The farming family had been abusive of the slightest mistake, but they provided adequate shelter and food. They understood it was better for them to keep their slave healthy so their fields could be better tended.

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It was around this time that the farming family had begun to sell the ‘services’ of their slave as a stud. This was in an effort to procure more money so that the youngest might be able to buy an apprenticeship with a merchant and have a shot at a better life.

One of the females he had mated with belonged to a blacksmith’s family. Perhaps it had been due to the part human nature of the male but this girl gave birth to only one child, a girl.

The girl had now grown up and replaced her mother as the slave that minded the shop that sold the wares produced by their owner.

It was during this time that She became acquainted with Him; a man of the feline race.

Every other day He would stop by the store to deliver the bread that His owner made as a baker. Over the course of another five years they fell in love. An emotion that any human would scoff and declare that, “no creature of the Beast Race could possibly feel that!”

However, they did and eventually it bore fruit in the form of a daughter. With this new baby born into the world, the father became determined to free himself and his new family.

This desire, however, never came close to coming true. On the night that he came to spirit away his spouse and their newborn child he was killed. The son of the blacksmith thought that he had been a thief.

The Bakers were naturally enraged that they had lost what they considered their property. As compensation for their loss the blacksmith gave the now dead man’s child to the Bakers.

The now grown up daughter was the pride of the bakers. She was the perfect slave, never once did she attempt to resist and she followed every order perfectly.

However…..

One night, the Baker’s brother became particularly drunk while visiting and forced himself upon the girl. The Baker was naturally angry with his brother, worrying that his once perfect slave would start to resist against her enslavement.

Much to his relief she did not.

But.

She did become pregnant.

The boy She gave birth to was just as perfect a slave as She herself was. From an early age he had been very bright and was capable of accomplishing tasks most would consider too difficult for even a four year old of the Beast race. However 

he was able to!

Now that he was five, he had been entrusted by the Baker to deliver sweet breads as a gift to the merchant family who were friendly with his family.

The boy had eagerly set off to do his master’s bidding.

While the delivery had been successful, it had become dark by the time the boy left the merchant’s house.

It was a particularly cold night and snow started to fall. While walking home He saw a group of children a little older than 

he was playing in the snow.

He paused and watched, there was a deep longing in his eyes as he desired friends to play with.

“…………”

The children noticed him. They paused in there play and suddenly began to discuss something.

His sensitive cat-like ears could only pick up a little.

“Creepy….”

“Disgusting….”

“………..let’s play a game.”

A little while later they all bent down and began to form snowballs; however, He could see they were including stones in them.

A chill ran down his spine as he clung to a childish hope that they weren't going to do what he feared they would do with the rocky snowballs.

He was wrong.

They began to through them at him, laughing each time one hit.

He tried to run, but they kept chasing him. They were older and faster and stronger, despite being human and he of the Beast race who were physically gifted.

Eventually, after they had completely bruised and battered every part of His little body with their loaded snowballs, one of them threw one at His head.

It was then that He lost consciousness.

It was hours until his master and mother found him in the snow, nearly dead.

During that time between life and death, He found himself in a weird room on a bed that was hard but at the same time softer than anything he had ever felt. Before him stood a man with blue skin in a white piece of clothing with a bemused expression on his face.

The expression seemed to say, “didn’t I just see you in here?”

But then He was gradually nursed back from death by his mother.

Correction, I was brought back from that ethereal doctor’s office.

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Next

Yeesh! this story took an even darker turn than what I was expecting! I literally sat  down and did this all in one sitting. I didn't even plan when I wrote this! It was somewhat of a word vomit. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this dark and history laden chapter. Also see if you can find the english translation for two of the names in this chapter. They will have something to do with the story (I think)