Inside the black flame, Ted was looking at the boy whose eyes were filled with hatred.

Those eyes reminded him of something… something that happened long ago in his life.

The turning point of his life.

His whole life flashed before his eyes.

---||---

“Sister, sister! Come out!”

“What happened?!” a voice of a young woman came from the inside of the small wooden house.

“Just come here outside!”

The young woman came out of the house. She looked like she was in her early twenties. She had brownish skin from staying outside often. She had average height and a proportional body, in short, she was pretty.

“What happened, Ted?”

“I found two injured kids in the fields!” Said the ten years old boy who was covered in dirt in a low voice.

The young woman who was called sister frowned. “Where? Take me to them!”

Because it was in the middle of summer, it was very hot at that time. The young woman was sweating a lot. She wiped the sweat from her forehead as she followed the young boy toward the fields.

“We are almost there! Follow me sister!”

Not long after, they arrived at the place where the boy found the injured kids.

“These are the kids!”

The woman looked at them. They were all boys around six to seven years old. They were wearing worn rags with no shoes or sandals to cover up their feet and they had various injuries across their bodies.

From their looks, she knew right away that these kids were runaway slaves.

She looked at the surroundings anxiously while mumbling in a low voice. ‘Ugh… what to do, what to do…’

“Let’s help them, sister!” The young boy said in worry.

“…Ted, you do know that helping an escaped slave will bring us harm too?”

“Bu-but… They will die if we don't tend to their wounds...”

“We can’t risk it, Ted.”

“...But sister, who will help them, then?” Ted wore a sad expression.

“...”

“I-if dad and mom were still alive. I think they would save them.” Ted said in a sad tone.

The memory of their parents flashed in her mind. She was silent for a while until the young woman bit her lips and said. “Okay, let’s get them to our house.” She looked at Ted and continued, “But make sure that no one sees us carrying them!”

“O-okay!” The boy smiled happily seeing that his sister decided to help them.

Because they were in wheat fields, they had small carriages to transport the wheat. So they used one to carry the little kids to their house.

They were very careful with the kids so that no other villagers knew about them. Once they arrived at their small house. The sister-brother duo carefully moved the two unconscious kids to Ted’s bedroom.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The house was small. It only had a very small living room that was attached directly to the kitchen, one bathroom, and two small bedrooms.

“Ted, go fetch me some clean water.”

“Okay!” The young Ted directly ran off outside to fetch the water directly from the small river.

The siblings lived in a small village that was far from any big city. The village was surrounded by wheat fields, a small river and then a dense forest.

The village only had around fifty families here.

But there was a big noble house not far from the village. A noble who was the ruler of this area.

‘These kids must be running away from there…’ She sighed and not long after, Ted came back with a bucket full of water.

“Here!”

The young woman pointed at the floor indicating him to put the water down. “Go get some clean clothes too.”

“Okay!”

…

Not long, the young woman finished tending to the injured kids. She cleaned them and changed their clothes with care.

“Okay, Ted! You watch them here, I’ll make some food.”

The young Ted nodded his head and sat in a small wooden chair, waiting at the side of the bed.

The room was small, with only a wooden bed, one wooden small chair and a small table at the side.

The window was on the opposite side of the bed. They opened it so that wind could go inside the room since it was pretty hot.

The shiny sun was blinding with no clouds covering it. Young Ted and the kids were sweating, but he wiped the kids’ faces with the clean clothes he brought before.

‘They are many injuries from lashes? Many bruises too…’ Ted thought as he observed the two kids who were still sleeping on his bed with a sad look on his face.

Time went by, the day was getting darker as the sun finally set in the west. Young Ted fell asleep on the small chair. He was drooling until a mumbling noise woke him up.

“Uhm where am I…”

Ted rubbed his eyes, he was still in a groggy state until he saw one of the injured kids finally woke up. “Oh! You are awake! That’s good! Wait here, I’ll call my sister!”

“Uhm…” The kid clearly wanted to ask something, but Ted had already run off outside of the room.

Not long after, the kid heard footsteps coming and he saw the boy from before and a pretty young woman in her twenties.

“How are you feeling?” Asked the young woman as she sat on the chair beside the bed.

“I-I’m okay...” The boy said nervously as he tried to stand up but the young woman stopped him.

“It’s alright, just stay in bed. I’ll go get you something to eat.” She said and then looked toward the young boy from before. “Ted, go get two cups of water for them.”

“Okay sister!” Ted ran outside, the young woman also followed behind slowly.

The kid was silent for a while before he mumbled in a low voice with a sorrowful expression. “Siblings...”

“Ugh…”

“...” The kid looked at the origin of the voice.

It was the other kid, he just woke up and mumbled.

“Where am I?”

After a brief moment of silence, someone answered him. “We are being helped by a young woman and her brother, we must be at their house.”

“Siblings…” For some reason. The other kid who just had awoken also showed an expression of sadness. However his face reverted back to normal as he looked at his sibling and nodded his head.

“Yes, I understand, brother.” The other kid also nodded his head.

“How’s your body, Mill?”

“I’m okay…”

Tap, tap, tap!

The sound of footsteps could be heard. Ted's face lit up when he saw the other kid had already woken up too.

“Ohh, you are awake too! Nice! You guys must be thirsty and hungry. Here’s warm water, drink it. My sister will be here soon with the food.”

“T-thank you…” Said the one who just woke up nervously and the other one just gave a slight nod.

“Hehe, it’s okay! My name is Ted! You can call me big brother Ted!” Ted said excitedly. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. “What are your names?”

Seeing Ted being so friendly, it eased their tension by a bit and the one who woke up later spoke first. “I’m Ren and this is my younger brother, Mill.”

“Ohh, nice to meet you!”

“Oh, the other one has awakened too?” A gentle voice came from outside of the room and had clearly overheard them because Ted was quite loud with his voice.

“This is my sister, Rebecca!”

“Hello kids.” She smiled as she was holding two small bowls.

Ren and Mill were clearly still a bit unfamiliar being treated like this. So they just gave a stiff nod.

“It’s okay, don’t be nervous. I brought you guys some food. She said as she handed them the small bowls of oatmeal. “Though we don’t have much, I hope you guys don’t mind.”

“...” Ren and Mill gulped down a mouthful of saliva. Seeing the oatmeal in the bowls made them feel really hungry.

Although it was mostly water, but the warm bowl of this watery oatmeal was something for them.

It was unknown to them how many years since they last tasted warm foods.

They were only getting black bread throughout years of their life which was very hard and didn’t even taste like food. However they have no choice and no rights to choose what they want to eat.

Because they were slaves.

Tears started to form in the corner of their eyes. Their hands were shaking and finally they said with a trembling voice.

“Th-thank you…”