I’m enjoying my black bread as I watch the rest of the procession take their turns to get their water and bread. The majority of the people after me were able to take their turns without issue, but towards the end when the supply of bread was starting to dwindle, fights started breaking out amongst the final dozen or so people. With how skinny their arms and legs were along with their sunken bellies, it looked more like a fight between sickly children than grown adults. None of them had the energy to put any real strength behind their punches or kicks and the victors only won because they flailed around longer than the losers. The ones who won and got pieces of bread gratefully ate their prizes with relish while the ones who lost openly wept and tried to replace their lost meal with water instead. Is this the law of the jungle Corbin was talking about?
My thoughts are interrupted by whimpering noises coming from the chair I’m sitting on. I snarl, “Shut up,” before kicking my heel at it and it yelps more so in fear than in pain. The two brothers, Jonas and Jonathan, are currently stacked on top of each other and they have the honor of being my seat while I dig into my lavish feast. I might have gotten beaten down this morning pretty badly but against a pair of uncoordinated brothers with bony bodies? It was easy pickings.
All I had to do was nail the younger brother, Jonathan, on his nose with a quick punch to buy myself a second and I took care of Jonas with an elbow to his chin. He went down like a sack of potatoes and that let me turn my full attention to Jonathan. He was still holding onto his nose with both hands and tearing up when I landed a hit on his left temple and knocked him unconscious. While the two of them were knocked out, I stacked them on top of each other, with Jonas on top, and took my time to get food and water as the rest of the crowd watched on with horror. I think I’ve cemented myself pretty firmly as third in line for food and water now.
“Seems like the both of you are awake. Here’s what’s going to happen: the both of you work for me from now on and when I tell you to jump, you jump. When the whistle blows and it’s time for food, I’m going to be expecting the both of you outside of my cave, lined up and well behaved. If my expectations aren’t met, the both of you are going to be joining Corbin right outside of my cave. Now, decide between the two of you whose corpse I’ll dance with first in case worse comes to worst.”
Jonas and Jonathan snivel while they’re still underneath me and after some back and forth, Jonas says, “You can dance with Jonathan first.” Jonathan grunts in displeasure but he’s quickly silenced by Jonas jabbing him in his ribs. Getting off of them, I stand in front of both of them and ask some questions that have been on my mind. Unfortunately, neither of them have the answers to those questions since they’ve only been here for half a year at most.
Apparently, they both live in Ocean’s Rest and were traveling through the Plainheart Woods to get to Everview down south when they got caught by The Fold. Their mother owns an inn in the waterlogged city and sent them to Everview to invite an architect back to renovate their family owned inn. Coincidentally, the name of their inn is Azureview Manor. The same inn in which Torban eviscerated Roderic. I keep that little detail to myself since I’m not sure what happened to that place after we left.
“Since neither of you know anything about this place, do you know who might?”
The two of them glance at each other for a second before Jonas turns back to me and says, “Old man Hawthorne is your best bet. He’s been here longer than anyone else and he practically knows everything about this place. He’s normally pretty approachable for the most part as long as you don't end up on his bad side. But if you do end up there, it’s best to get away from him as fast as possible since he’s really strong in a fight even with that limp of his.”
“... Why do you sound completely different from before?”
“Oh, I apologize, Boss. I was sort of playing up a character to try and intimidate you but that didn’t work out too well for my brother and I as you know.”
“Boss… I like that. Anyways, where’s Hawthorne’s cave?”
Both Jonas and Jonathan point across the way at one cave in particular that’s on the complete opposite side from my own. Jonas comments, “That’s the one right there that’s still lit up. Boss, you might want to avoid the group of caves on the left over there though since that’s where the remnants of Corbin’s crew live.”
“Noted. Remember boys, bright and early outside of my cave when the whistle blows, agreed?”
The both of them nod their heads vigorously and Jonas replies, “Of course, Boss. Bright and early.”
Giving them a curt nod, I start heading over to Hawthorne’s cave before stopping in my tracks. “Ah, nearly forgot.” I toss the two loaves of bread wrapped with a rag I’d been holding the entire time over to the brothers. “Follow me wholeheartedly and I’ll keep the both of you fed.”
Their eyes light up seeing the bread in their hands and Jonas says, “Thanks, Boss. We’ll be there tomorrow, bright and early.”
I continue towards Hawthorne’s cave as I watch the brothers scurry off while munching on their bread. Seeing how shriveled their bellies are, I doubted whether they were normally third in line or not. More than likely, they were always near the end of the pack and barely survived off what scraps they could scrounge. They saw me as an opportunity to show everyone else how strong they were because they thought I was the easy target.
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After I knocked both of them out, an idea brewed inside my head and I went ahead and grabbed four loaves of bread after drinking my fill. Two for me and one each for the two brothers. Someone tried to stop me seeing how much I was taking for myself but I made quick work of them by tackling them to the ground and pounding their face in until they surrendered. After I was done with them, I slowly stood up while wiping the blood from my face, glaring at everyone else around me until they turned their heads away. Now that’s how you build an image for yourself.
When I arrived at Hawthorne’s cave, light from a torch inside was filtering out of his cave as shadows flickered on the walls and the ground. Walking inside, I saw the little girl from before peacefully slumbering on a pile of rags. The man with the lame leg, Hawthorne, was scratching out letters in the dirt with a stick in his hand. He should be fully aware of my presence but he hasn’t lifted his head to acknowledge me once as he continues writing in the dirt.
Cautiously walking over to him, I look at the dirt he’s writing on and it’s covered in Informal letters. Reading his writing, his text is basically recounting what just occurred outside. It includes descriptions of me knocking out the brothers, taking a large amount of bread for myself, and then violently beating the person who tried to stop me. “Well, I don’t think I agree, “an extraordinarily violent young boy with deep emotional issues,” is quite an accurate description for myself. But I do suppose I’m biased in that regard.”
Hawthorne looks up with a surprised expression before asking, “You can read? Where’d you learn?”
“I learned at a small inn in Midriver. They were offering reading and writing lessons for a handful of copper coins each week.”
“Midriver, huh? You’re far away from home.”
“My companions and I were escorting a merchant caravan to Ocean’s Rest. However, I got separated from them while we were escaping Ocean’s Rest. I was badly injured during the escape and nearly died but I luckily managed to patch myself up after slipping into the woods. Not even a full day later, I ran into a search party from The Fold and they brought me back here.”
“Escaping from Ocean’s Rest? What happened there? Why were you on the run?”
Smiling, I go ahead and recount the whole experience, exaggerating a few details to make the whole thing seem more exciting. If Hawthorne’s been down here for decades then he has to be bored out of his mind and if I tell him some interesting stories, he might be more receptive to answering some of my questions. After I finish telling him my story, he exclaims, “Wow! What an adventure you’ve had. But you said the boy you found beside the black dog had black hair as well?”
“That’s right.”
Sighing, Hawthorne puts down the stick in his hands and stares at the cave wall in silence for a few moments before saying, “Damn, tragic. His name was Ruben and his dog’s name was Shadow on account of its black fur. He was thrown into The Pit a little over a month ago and made it out a few weeks later. He’s one of the fastest I’ve ever seen get out of here and it made sense because he kept saying he had to deliver medicine to his sick little sister. He was driven and I could see it in his eyes. But even if he made it out of here, those mad whoresons up there wouldn’t have let him leave The Fold since he passed their trial and became a brother.”
There’s a look of undisguised hatred etched on Hawthorne’s weathered face and when he said the word, “brother,” it was dripping with venomous loathing. Seeing this as my chance, I ask him, “Who are The Fold and why are they doing all this? Did they build this place? For what reason? What is The Pit?”
Hawthorne looks up at me with an empty expression and says, “It’s a long story.”
Smiling back at him, I respond, “I have the time.”
He rolls his eyes in annoyance but I can see a smirk forming on his lips. He shrugs at me and sighs, “Where do I even start?”
“How about from the very beginning?”
“Alright, well, to answer one of your questions, no, The Fold didn’t build this place. They’re just a bunch of maggots infesting this relic from the past who have lost their minds following a false prophet who has somehow brainwashed them into believing in his own delusions. No, this place was carved out thousands of years ago by ancient elves during their conquest of humankind.”
“Elves? Why would elves want to conquer humans? I’ve only ever seen a single elf in Midriver but it didn’t seem like she was looked upon too kindly.”
“That’s probably the reason in and of itself, her being an elf. Even to this day, elves aren’t particularly welcomed in the Nasaar Kingdom. You see, thousands of years ago, before the Nasaar Kingdom was even founded, ancient, militant elves roamed across these lands and enslaved every intelligent species they could find. Why? Because they could. They had the power, they had the numbers, and they had the magic.
“These pits were essentially slave quarters for all the people they captured. Even now, you can find hundreds of these pits scattered across the Nasaar Kingdom, the Ribier Kingdom, and the Loran Mercantile Alliance. Uhh, actually, that reminds me. All those places do still exist, right? Most of the information I can get down here is secondhand and comes from illiterate peasants. I at least know the Nasaar Kingdom is still going strong but the other two I’m unsure of.”
“Yeah, the Ribier Kingdom and the Alliance still exist. We’re currently at war with the Ribier Kingdom and King Aethelbrande started his march to take back Vansgrieri a week or two ago.”
“Hmm, I knew about the war but I didn’t know we lost Vansgrieri. Interesting. Where were we? Right, the elves. Eventually, the intelligent species combined their forces and rose up against the elves, winning our freedom and exiling our oppressors back to their Ancient Forest up north. But the treaty between the humans, dwarves, orcs, and goblins was dissolved due to infighting and-”
“Wait, wait, wait. Orcs and goblins were considered intelligent species?”
“Of course, who do you think taught us magic in the first place?”