I woke up in my cell, the feeling of the hard wooden slats on my back. We had been dragged back to the Chacali camp, the grievously wounded were patched up enough to keep living. I stretched my arms and took in the camp. It looked to be a kind of nomadic set up. There was nothing more permanent than tents made of furs and leathers all around us.

I turned and saw the cage across from me, filled with the eight boys, the duchess and her handmaiden. I sighed, wishing terribly that I was stuck in the cage with them. Instead of…

“I hope you know this is all your fault.”

I turned and saw Ghala and Barth sleeping in the cage with me.

“It’s not all his fault,” The bard said, “We can’t place the Chacali attack on you. But it would have been better if you were not philandering with someone of such repute as the duchess.”

“Philandering.” I mumbled under my breath, “I was not philandering. I was networking.”

The ‘magis’ users had been set up in another cage from the general populace. We had spent hours in the cage bickering, Ghala and I argued about who fucked up what and how until the bard screamed at both of us, but he did it in this annoying theater kid way that had way too much flourish. Then, the Chacali came, showed us a rusty hook and said it was going inside the eye of the next one who talked.

After that, we spent the rest of the night silent, except for the stifled crying I could hear from us prisoners.

I rested against the door.

“Good day.”

The Chacali guard turned to me. I could tell he was young. He looked away from me and said, “Not for you, I think.”

“Sure… but it’s still a good day, wouldn’t you agree?” I asked, “You like birds, don’t you? Weather’s nice.”

Silence.

“So are your kind nocturnal?”

“Noc-huh?”

“You operate largely at night? I assumed you only stayed up to capture us. This is probably closer to when you’d actually be up. That must mean you all are awfully tired from the hunt.”

The young Chacali was insistent on ignoring me.

“Totally understood. Hush hush, right? I assume that the battlemasters are all going to be eaten, may I ask what it is you intend to do with us? Just for my own edification.”

The Chacali turned around and snarled at me. He reached over and pulled me by my tunic, my face slamming against the cage door.

“Shut up, runt.” The guard said.

“Understood.”

He let me go and turned back around. I waddled my way back to the other side of the cage.

“What are you doing?” The bard whispered.

Ghala was still laying down, facing away from all of us, “You’re going to get us all killed. I shoulda been leader.”

“Oh really, Ghala?” I asked, “If you had been leader the Chacali wouldn't have killed the battlemasters and the cavalry, and we would all be fine? Not likely. Not. Likely.”

The campsite was a lively place at night. There were tiny Chacali children frolicking on all fours, playing games. The women were still tending to the wounded from the battle. Behind us there was a river. I was mostly sitting and waiting. I rested my hands back on the door. I could tell by the young Chacali’s ear twitch that he knew I was there.

“So… do you like guard duty?”

He turned around and forced an angry face; he growled at me. We heard a terrible bark that caused us both to look behind the Chacali. The leader, no longer adorned in the skulls and battle armor, had called out to him.

“Ynec!”

Ynec flashed me a look and approached the leader. He took his huge hand and grabbed the scruff of Ynec’s neck, pulling their faces closely. He howled, snarled and barked in Ynec’s ear. There was clearly some kind of interrogation going on. Poor Ynec had his tail between his legs and was getting chewed out for something, culminating in the leader scratching the young Chacali right in the face.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Hey! Take it easy!” I yelled.

The lead looked up at me then murmured more to Ynec and left. Ynec went off in some direction, pawing his abraded face.

“Okay. Guard’s out. We gotta make a plan. Don’t know how long he’ll be.”

“What is the plan?” Barth asked.

“Well…” I looked around. It was the dead of night, which meant everyone was up. I looked over to the other cage. The boys were watching me. Waiting on my orders.

“Plan what?” Ghala harrumphed from his spot on the floor, “We don’t have weapons. We’re in the middle of their camp in the middle of the night where they have the advantage. What do you expect us to do?”

“Right. No weapons. No musical instruments. Even if we got out, we’d need to make sure everyone gets out safely.”

“That includes the duchess,” The bard said.

“That’s right. That’s why I said ‘everyone.’”

“I want to make it abundantly clear that my primary duty is the Duchess’ safety.”

“Mhmm hmm.” I said, “We both care about the Duchess’ safety.”

“Well, it’s my mission, “The bard said, “So… I’d say I care more.”

“Okay.” I said, “You and I both want the duchess to be safe, but you care more.”

“And I’ve known her for longer.”

“Very cool.” I hummed.

Ynec came back, struggling to carry three burlap sacks stuffed to the brim. He dropped one off with us, then dropped the remaining two in the other cage. He sliced them open with a bone knife, then circled back to our cage and did the same. Inside was nothing but grain.

“Eat up. All of it.”

“Uhm,” I stared at it. Thank you so much. May I have some water?”

“That’s enough. Eat it.”

I picked up the grain in my hand, it filtered through my fingers. Ynec was just staring at me.

“I’m not going to eat this.”

“What are you doing, Egen?” Barth asked. He got on his knees and started shoveling the dry grain into his mouth, stifling chokes as he tried to swallow it.

“Thank you. I was so very hungry,” Barth said.

“Eat.” Ynec commanded me.

I shook my head. He grabbed me by the tunic again and placed that bone knife right to my neck.

“Do as I say.”

I looked down at the knife. He was shaking. I looked back in his eyes. He saw that I saw.

“Do it, then.” I goaded.

I could tell his heart wasn’t in it. He let go of me, turned his back and said “Starve.”

Something about how the lead had treated him, or the fact that… upon further examination, I hadn’t seen him at the battle that made it all click for me.

“Honestly, maybe I will enjoy some food. Could be good! Never had dry uncooked grains before. Better than my dad’s cooking. Although, if I didn’t have my dad’s food, he’d have used that knife on me.”

His head didn’t move, but his flappy ear twitched.

“Yeah, honestly, I don’t know who’s worse, the Chacali or my father. My father, he just wants me to be a porter. The guy who guards the door. I’m pretty sure he’s happy I’ll probably show up dead. Is your dad proud of you?”

Upon his silence, I turned to the bard, “What about you, Barth? What did your dad want you to be?”

“He wanted me to be a bard,” the bard said proudly.

“That’s no fun. What about you Ghala?”

Ghala was still laying down, “Who cares?”

I gave him a small kick with my foot, “What’s the answer, Ghala? Got anything juicy for us?”

“My dad said he’d help me become whatever I wanted.”

“Ugh. You two suck. What about you?” I then gestured to the young Chacali standing guard, “What’s your dad like?”

After a minute of silence, he said, “Strict.”

“Now, that’s more like it.” I said, “This guy knows what I’m going through. He ever beat you bad?” Off his silence, I continued, “I tell you, I once tracked mud in after my mom had just cleaned the house. Her parents were coming to visit. I don’t think I've ever gotten a wallop that bad in my life. Not sure I could see straight for a week after that.”

“My dad has expressed that since, so often, our power as bards comes from song… that we should use them in arguments to express ourselves. No hitting.”

I turned and gave the bard and mouthed the words ‘shut up’ while calmly asserting with my eyes that he was not helping. The chacali guard relaxed his shoulders. I prodded him again, “You got any stories of how your dad got to you?” I asked, “Or is he not the beating type?”

To this, the guard scoffed, “So there’s something?”

“There’s something.” Ynec said.

“What’s your name? Mine’s Egen.”

As if he had silently decided something, he said, “Ynec.”

“Ynec. Very nice name. Yeah, so anyway Ynec, I tracked the mud all over this house, and my mother was absolutely livid. Thank the gods she didn’t deal with me, or else I'm not sure I would be standing here, ripe to be eaten by you all today. But she sicced my dad on me. Now that was something. First, he had to catch me. Well… I knew what would happen if he did, so I kept on running around the house… which meant more tracks… which meant more fury. I tell you, when he finally did catch me, I really thought he’d be out of energy. But nope. He was a new man. Got me in all four cheeks if you know what I mean.

Ynec let out a snicker.

“Oh, you know what I mean.” I said. “Ynec, I’m sorry. I want to eat the grain. I want to make sure your dad doesnt get mad at you. But it’ll be impossible without water. The river’s right over there right? We’d be in sight the whole time?”

Ynec stared at the direction I was pointing, toward the river.

“We’ve got no weapons. Caged… No way of leaving. I get that they want to make veal out of us but… I can't take all this grain down. I can't keep all this grain down without some water. What do you say?”

“Fine. But don’t move.”

“I won’t! Hell, I’ll put my hands right through here.” I slipped my hands right through the cage door, casually resting them about shoulder height. I rested my head against the bars too.

After some deliberation, he scurried away, behind the cage to head toward the river. I kept exactly where I was.

“So… that was subterfuge,” The bard said. You’re about to do something? But it is as you said… There is no instrument or paladin spell and none of us are rogues.

“I got something better than paladin spells. I got a plan, and more importantly,” I looked back at Ghala, who had rolled over and was looking at me, “I’ve got stinkin’ elf magic.”