Chapter 13 – City of Iris

Inside the lonely caged wagon the eyes of the child fluttered. The child eyes opened and showed a beautiful blue color. Everyone in the area was quite. The child looked around seeing the flickering campfire beyond the bars.

“Pssh. Naulo! You are awake now?” whispered a voice from the other caged wagon.

Naulo tilted his head. “We were drugged to sleep and taken out of the village…” Xaro said slowly. He did not want to tell Naulo that everyone in the village possibly has died.

Naulo was silent. He then remembered that his parents were the ones that drugged him. He was not consumed by anger at their betrayal or anything. It was not because he knew their reasons. It was because he never trusted them completely in the first place.

“Naulo it is fine if you are angry. Don’t make a scene here. The slave traders are bringing us all towards the city.” Xaro informed seeing the silent Naulo.

Naulo nodded towards Xaro and lay down again.

---Naulo’s POV---

So, what I saw back there wasn’t the trick of the eye. My ‘mother’ did want to do something to me. Since Xaro is still here with me, I glanced at Xaro, which means that the others have either taken somewhere else or died.

I was the only one in this caged wagon. Did this mean that the slave traders value me? Would it make more sense to have an even number of people in two cages? I looked around to see some slave traders awake and keeping watch while others asleep. “Slave trader” seems to be a genuine occupation.

One of the guys that was awake noticed me looking around and approach, “Hey little one, I see you are awake now? Hungry?”

He didn’t seem to be hostile according to the mana surrounding him so I nodded. “You,” he pointed at one of the little girls in the other wagon, “come and feed this one here.”

I think he believes that I have no strength from the amount of time I was asleep. Though it is true because I can feel soreness in my muscles and my strength in them hasn’t returned because of the drug. I am assuming that since I had no mana to push back the effects of the drug it affected me more than the others.

A girl that looked around the age of 13-15 came forward with a bowl of soup. She doesn’t seem like a normal little girl though. For example, her mana is much more controlled compared to other people. It wasn’t something that a 13-year-old human can accomplish. She wore ragged clothing and as she was feeding me her facial expressions was completely static. I could see a glimpse of dark blue hair from underneath the layers of dirt on them.

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After eating my fill of soup I went back to sleep. At least that’s what it seems like. I’ll keep my ears open to see my situation. For now, let us stay quiet.

Early next morning I heard rustling from the tent. It seems the slave traders awoke. I listen in to their conversations.

“Boss, it seems that child is a mute or somethin’. Haven’t heard a single word outta ‘er mouth. Children would usually scream ‘nd cry when they realized that they are locked in a cage, haha!” A rough voice was heard.

“That’s a good thing. I don’t want to deal with whiny children. I might have smacked her if she became annoying, child or not.” Another voice said.

“Quiet. We are still a few days away from the Iris City. Get ready and go.” A voice I’m assuming is the “boss” said.

The men came out and packed up the tents as they prepared to move. The 13-year-old girl was placed in my camp to “serve” me. I’m assuming that they thought I was a fallen noble child or something?

I smelled myself and realized why they thought so. I smelled of blood and death, like I escaped from some unfathomable danger. Someone died? I looked over to an eerily quiet Xaro. His eyes showed sadness but also hope. Hehe, I wonder what happened while I was out. Did I miss a good show?

I am confused. Ehh? Why did I think that? Hmm…

A few days later we arrived at the City of Iris. The gatekeeper took a look at the document provided by the slave traders and let us through. We were taken throughout the lower city; it seems we were shown off as advertisement. Disgusting. Every one of us was stared at by a bunch of people like monkeys in a zoo. Disgusting. Their eyes glued onto me, with some people wearing better quality clothing than others. Their eyes licked me all over. Disgusting. I want to gorge them out.

After the trip around the lower town we were taken into a large dark building. Inside there were people going through and fro, skittering around like rats.

“Welcome back!” A tall man in a blue robe approached the slave traders.

“We’ve brought the merchandise.” The slave “boss” said to the blue robe man.

“Ah, yeah of course,” He walked up and inspected us. His eyes shone as he looked at me. I want to puke; he was the most disgusting thing I’ve seen. No he didn’t look ugly or anything, it was the look he gave me.

He smiled and nodded as he finished inspecting me and turned toward the large boss man with a smile, “You’ve done good this time! Got some very high quality items, hehehe. I think you’d get a good sum this time around for you and your buddies.”

The blue robed man then walked up to my cage and smiled showing off his silver teeth before he motion the others to take me out of the cage and lead me towards a door. I looked back to see Xaro looking after me nervously. However, this time he seems to be staying quiet and trying to understand the situation. I wonder why he isn’t using his strength to break free?

I was lead by three people down a set of stairs and into a large room. This room also contained cages but they were large and the inside was well decorated. I was pushed into one of the empty cage and they locked the door behind me before leaving. I stood there looking around the cage. The floors were made from a dark wood, there is a bed with good quality sheets, blankets, and pillow, there seems to be a makeshift toilet and a table with a chair.

Being in a cage doesn’t really feel all that new to me, however, being in a well-decorated cage like this is new.

“Hey, you new here?” A sweet voice sounded out from the cage beside me.

I looked over to see a girl with ears on top of her head and a tail. She had round ears and a long puffy tail with black leopard spots. Her hair was white as it reached her lower shoulder blade. She was sitting atop her bed in a relaxed pose with her legs crossed and her tails flicking back and forth.

“Haha! This is an interesting treatment, huh?” She said with a smile showing off her sharp canines. She looked around 18 or 19 years old with a good hourglass figure of 82-62-74 from top to bottom.

“Well~ It’s because we are classified as ‘high-grade goods’ that would be sold in an auction. They need to take good care of us for a better price.” She said nonchalantly leaning her head onto her hands as she lay down on her stomach.

“Ayyy~ don’t you talk? It’s boring here without anyone to talk to,” she pouted, “Anyway, my name is Gaya, nice to meet ‘cha, cutie!”

---End POV---