-Break-
With no energy left from the tears that have fallen from my eyes today, I just walk into my hut and fall to my knees. My mind feels fuzzy, feels heavy, and it feels like it isn’t even attracted to my body any more, just a boulder that is hanging on by the string that is my neck.
But in a state I am sure is only a few steps away from death, I hear my roommate say, “You should get to sleep, we only have a few hours before we wake up tomorrow.”
With an utterly despondent expression, the older of the two boys turns his head towards the younger, and says, “Huh.”
Setting himself, ready to get to bed, he says, “We still have work as usual, but it will be lighter since they tend to about triple our workload the first few weeks new people come.”
Turning his head towards the ground the older of the two boys says, “But my father’s dead, so why would I even both-.”
My roommate quickly chimes in and says, “Why would your father's death matter right now?”
This time with a quiet furry he the older of the two looks at the younger and asks, “What did you just say?”
With the same tasteless tone and expression, he always has, my roommate says, “Why would you father death matter ri-.”
Before he can finish, I punch him in the face, and then hold him to the ground. “I AM SO SICK OF YOU! What the hell thinks someone like you, someone without any form of soul thinks they can talk about my father.
You’re no different than a golem, than a tool. But your not, you’re a human and I am going to teach you respect.
With my first, I hit him, hit him, and hit him some, whilst saying, “You’re a slave right down to your soul, you’re just a puppet who does whatever they say to do without even a word or look of dissatisfaction, and I refuse, I REFUSE TO BECOME LIKE!”
I keep hitting him more and more, until after a while I hear someone say, “What the hell are you humans shouting for.”
Looking through the open door of the hut, a beastkin runs up towards the older of the two, and hits him off saying, “You scum really can’t behave at all.”
Despite taking a beating the younger of the two just lays there with the same expression he always has, the only difference being the teeth that are now missing from his mouth.
-Break-
Moments before the sun arises that day the older of the two boys is kicked in the stomach as he lays against the wall of the campsite.
Walking up from the pain, I look up at who just hit me and see two beastkin, one unknown to me and one I recognize the rat.
The unknown one says, “What’s with that look do you have a problem.” Then picks me up by the throat.
The other one says, “He is not in the best shape, he could die.”
Annoyed he says, “Shut your fucking mouth Baine cíche, don’t you think I understand that. I am just punishing this little maggot, for causing trouble even though Bricriu was so kind to him.”
Dropping me, he says, “Watch yourself piece of shit. Now time to go get the bell.”
As I cough up, Baine cíche says, “He isn’t that bad of a person, please forgive him.” Then runs towards the man who just left.
It seems getting into fights with your roommates is a giant offense and those who do that are forbidden from returning to their hut’s for four days.
Looking to my left and right I see a lot of people in the same situation, I guess fights broke out throughout last night. Some of them look like they want to return, but for me, it is the exact opposite because I don’t want to ever see him again.
-Break-
Location: Íogair grassland
Ripping the last seed from the flower, I say, “Finally I am done.”
Looking over at all the seeds, I have taken I say, “It is a bit less than my usual amount but that thing did say we have less work to do now so it should be fine. I guess I have to go and hand these up since he doesn’t do it for me anymore.”
With my seeds in hand, I say, “I can’t wait any longer, I need to find a way out of here as soon as possible. If I get good enough at my work I should be able to have energy left over to escape after a day of work. I can’t stay here, I can’t be a slave.”
Walking up to the area where I see people handing in their seeds, I get in line and wait for my turn and when I do, I drop all the seeds down, and say, “Here you go.”
The beastkin with a look of confusion says, “What’s this.”
“My seeds.”
Scoffing he says, “Looks like we got a jester here.” With a shockingly fast blow, I am punched in the face, right down to the floor.
One of the beastkin
While on the floor, I say, “What the hell was that for I did my work?”
“This amount of seeds is nowhere near the total necessary for today's work. You're on punishment so you’re supposed to meet the quota on your own.”
“I had no idea what my quota was supposed to be.”
“Ehh, have you not been here for 2 weeks? Have you not had roommates? Don’t take the piss me with you fucker! You’re work load has been drastically reduced and yet you try to pull shit like this! This is one of the long list of reasons you humans are trash!”
As he prepares to hit me a beastkin, beside him says, “Only use the strength a human would have.”
“I know”, and after he says this he me again and again and again, while I cower on the floor with my hands protecting my head.
-Break-
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Location: Campsite
With my head hanging low I carry my beaten body to right against the wall where I sleep tonight. Now far away from me is the foul smell of someone’s shit but that doesn’t matter to me at all, because is this moment I am seething with rage.
Thinking of my roommate I say, “That piece of shit set me up, he didn’t tell me anything about this!”
-Break-
Location: Scortha fields
With the sun blazing against my back, I dig up the ground prepared to plunge in seeds. The heat is so intense that the only thing keeping me going is my rage for that thing.
Out of fear of retribution, I work and work, and keep working until the sun falls down and after because I have no idea what kind of quota I am going to reach today. And if it is to get the huge pile of seeds they have given me planted that is simply impossible.
But eventually, for the older of the two boys, the time to stop came and in the moment of expectations of his day of work, he is hit by a beastkin who says, “Don’t fuck with us human, you think work like this is ok!”
They hit him, again, and again, and again until his head couldn’t hang high. Then just like the day before he returns to where he started.”
-Break-
Lying against the wall, I am nothing but a lump of flesh seething with rage but infused with an equal amount of pain. “I will never forgive you scum.”
“I AM SORRY!” I hear someone say.
Turning my head to the source, I see the same rat beastkin from before, Baine cíche. Composing myself, at the sight of a beastkin, I say, “The fuck do you want?”
Shaking he says, “You know I could punish you for your words.”
I just glare at him in response, which causes him to say, “I am sorry, I just wanted to bandage some of your wounds up, because you might die if not, and Bricriu isn’t a fan of waste.”
I don’t want this scum touching me, but I will probably die if things continue at this rate, so I say, “Go ahead.”
As he starts to jollily bandage me up, he asks, “Why did you get in a fight with cha- I mean your roommate, he isn’t really disruptive.”
Feeling my rage, I say, “Because that golem tried to open his mouth on things that don’t matter, and the reason I am getting beat up is because he didn’t tell me critical information. And now I am getting beat up for not meeting quotas even though I am doing the same level of work.”
Stopping for a minute, Baine cíche looks confused, then says, “You humans really are stupid?”
“WHAT!”
“EKKK, SORRY! It is just that Cha- I mean your roommate has always been meeting your quotas.”
“That’s impossible the work I was doing was nowhere close to it.”
“That’s probably because he just let you do what you were able to then did the rest himself. I know this for a fact because when you guys are at the field planting seeds you tend to pass out.
Even on the days beside the river, the only reason you can go take a bath so early is because of the fact that he keeps doing all the rest of the work by himself.”
Through my body feelings of dread and confusion spread, so I say, “Why, why would he do that?”
“I wouldn’t know Cha- I mean your roommate knows the answer to that.”
-Break-
With my bandages freshly put on, I walk towards my previous hut, I will probably get punished if they see I have left the wall but I need to do this, I need to know why.
But when I reach my hut I see something that shocks me; all around my hut are grown men hitting my roommate repeatedly.
Seeing this I shout, “What are you bastard’s doing!” And try to run up to them.
But then I am hit away as they say, “FUCK OFF.”
Another man says, “Quite down or the guards will come.”
Hearing this I scream at the top of my lungs.
A man says, “Everyone run!” And each of the men scatter.
Walking up to my roommate on the floor, I grab him by the collar and say “Why.”
“Why, what?” He says with the same tasteless expression as always.
“Why did you let them beat you up? Don’t think I haven’t noticed but you have some kind of freak levels of strength, so tell me why you would allow those guys to give you shit?”
“They tell me my mother did something horrible when I was about to be born, so they hit me because of it.”
“Doesn’t that piss you off!”
Confused like always, he says, “No, because that is always how it has been. Ever since I have had memory, things have always been like this. Working, people dying, food tastes, so sometimes you confuse me since it isn’t for you. They always tell me to apologize when they hit me, so I think that means I should also apologize for whatever I have done to you. I am sorry.”
“But, but why did you help me then? Why have you been doing work for me and picking up my messes?”
“Everyone is always talking about how I should die, so dying must be bad, and on the first day, you said you were going to live outside of here. So I simply thought I should help.”
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT NOISE YOU HUMAN.”
Soon after hearing this I am kicked in my side and sent to the floor, with the beastkin who hit me attacking my roommate next. He proceeded to stomp on him till my eyes shut.
-Break-
The next night
That night just like every other night the men assemble to find the young boy who leaves his hut to meet them.
The man in front of the rest says, “You got off easy yesterday so we are going to pay you back double today.”
With a tasteless expression like always the young boy says, “Ok.”
The man in front gets close and prepares to punch him, but then he hears, “STOP FUCKER.”
Walking up to them with a limb is the older of the two boys. As he walks he says, “It took me a while to get back after my beating.”
The grown man says, “You didn’t meet your quota.”
“Not even a bit, but this is only the third time I got hit because of that, and it is all thanks to the boy in front of you.”
Walking in between the man and my roommate, I say, “This shit hurts like hell and the one who made sure I didn’t taste that every single day is this bastard, so right now I am not going to let a single one of you touch him.”
“Do you even know what that kid caused? Most of us in this campsite used to live in a castle by the ocean, but we were besieged by the beastkin. Luckily our walls were sturdy and we could hold them off, but then in exchange for the safety of that whore’s newly born child his dumb bitch of a mother opened the front gate letting the beastkin in.
All of our families were taken away and we were turned into slaves. If only this bastard wasn’t born none of that would have happened to us, so the fact he even gets to breathe is a sin.”
Letting out a little snicker, the man says, “What’s funny about our story?”
“I have seen the beastkin fight, do any of you really believe you would have somehow won that battle? You were already fucked the moment the battle started, and you can’t blame this child for simply speeding up the process, so go suck each other’s dick’s till you feel better because this has nothing to do with him!”
Immediately I am punched in the face, but then I punch back, knocking him down.
“You’re all skin and bones old man!”
The rest of the men there start to strike me as I desperately fight back.
All my life I have had people protecting me, my clan, my family, and my roommate. I was only able to live thanks to others, but this boy has had no one, no parents, no friends, no allies all his life.
Yet he decided to help me, even though I am much weaker than him he let me hit him and get away with it. This bastard is kind, much too so, and I have decided to not allow him to get hit like this ever again.
With my full force, I release a punch on the man in front of me, knocking him back to the floor. With a swollen face, I say, “How that you fuckers!”
I am then instantly pounded down by the rest, and moments later they hit my roommate beside me. Then after a little while they all start to head back.
On the ground, I scream, “FUCK!” Then getting up I walk over to my roommate and say, “Sorry for not doing a better job.”
Standing up as well, he says, “It hurt less.”
“What?”
“It hurt less today, the beating it didn’t hurt as much.”
With a half smile, I say, “I see, it looks like I weakened them a bit.”
“I see.”
“You’re still as tasteless as ever, but I don’t have time for that since I can finally sleep back in that hut.”
With my strength fading I fall to the ground, and say, “Shit I can’t move.”
Picking me up, he takes me to the room and places me on his thatch bed, then lays down on the floor beside me.
“This bed really is comfy, but still you shouldn’t sleep on the floor hop on beside me.”
Following my instructions, he does.
Then after a moment of silence, I say, “Hey I never asked this but what is your name?”
“Charles.”
“A boring name, mine is the amazing Nero.”
“I see.”
“Next time you say I see I will beat you the hell up.”
“Ok.”
“Can you please just say something that shows some form of want, like anything at all?”
“Could you tell me what golems are?”
“Oh yeah, I did promise to say that. Well behold this knowledge was given to my clan a long time ago by the wandering sage; Cordum.”
Hearing snoring, I turn my head to the left and see my roommate is asleep.”
Did this bastard just fall asleep!!! “But I guess I don’t really mind, because I would like to be asleep as well.”
So Charles and Nero closed their eyes and both went to sleep.