It’s been fifteen days since I was brought here and things have been getting better, I’m still trying to learn to read, it’s not easy but I’m getting better at it. I tried to use my magic but when I tried to the collar started to get hot, I haven’t risked trying it since then.
Right now I’m sitting to the right of the nice human, in what he called a carriage, he said we are going to the nearest city to go shopping, I still don’t really understand shopping or why humans give each other shiny metals for things like food and clothes but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about humans since being captured it is they are weird.
The nice human is leaning on a window next to the door that is covered with some red cloth that mostly keeps the sky fire out, I think he is asleep. The doors have windows to, that are also covered up. Usually, I'd be happy about that, but the cloth also stops me from seeing outside.
I didn’t bring the book he gave me, and I regret it. I forgot about it after he told me where he was taking me. I panicked a bit when he said that we were going to Haidran, that’s the place that the slavers sold me.
I thought that the nice human was taking me back because I did something wrong but he said he was taking me there to get me some clothes while some other humans are in the city getting other things and that we would have to stay there the night, and he also told me that he wanted to get a few things while he was there as well.
I mostly calmed down after he told me that, I was too distracted afterwards though and forgot to bring the book with me.
The carriage is shaking less now, I wonder if it’s stopping?
I jump a little as the door to my right opens, the sky fires light peaks in a little, reflecting of off a human that is wearing shiny red metal, its face is covered to. I try to make myself look smaller as I try to distance myself from it as much as I can, I don't make it too far as I just end up pressing my back against the nice human's arm. The shiny human says.
“Sorry for disturbing you Sir, but we are at the lake.” I feel like it’s looking at me…
"Okay, Sam.” The nice human says, he sounds tired.
The shiny human nods and leaves, closing the door behind it. The nice human moves and I look at him as I move back to where I was sitting. I didn’t really notice earlier but his eyes look darker than they normally do.
“We’ll be stopping at a lake for a while to let the horses rest, uh would you like to go outside?” He says while he rubs his right eye. I shake my head in response.
“Okay, we should be moving again in a few minutes.” He says, sounding tired as he leans back on the window and closes his eyes.
I just sit there for a while, wondering what I should do. Should I try to sleep? No, I don’t think I’m tired enough to do that…
After a while, I eventually stand up and walk over to the door opposite of the nice human hoping to see the lake. I try to be as quiet, not wanting to disturb the nice human, as I walk to the window. Once I’ve reached it, I slowly push the cloth out of the way and peek outside.
“wow…” I can’t help but say aloud as I see the lake.
It’s… Beautiful… I’ve never seen so much water before, I can barely see the other side of it and the water looks so clean, home was never like this. I see a lot of humans and horses near the lake, the shiny humans have taken the horses to the water and they’re drinking from it, so it must be safe enough to drink from. Safe and clean water in home was rare.
I don’t know how long I stared at the lake, but after a while, I hear the nice human ask.
“You like the lake?” I nod my head slightly without looking away from the lake and say.
“t-there’s just so… s-so much w-water… and i-it looks so c-clean...”
“Huh… Haven’t you seen a lake before?” He asks.
“o-only one… it wasn’t l-like this one…”
“What was it like?”
“it was s-smaller than that one, a-and it was b-brown.” I say, thinking about that lake from home… We weren’t allowed to drink from it…
“a-are there lots o-of lakes like t-this?” I ask.
“Hm, well this is the largest on near Haidran, there’s a few more but they aren’t as large as that one.”
“will we see more lakes l-later?” I ask.
“Sorry, that’s the only one we’ll pass on the way to Haidran. But you’ll be able to see it again on the way back.”
Oh… I was hoping that I’d see more lakes like this one latter. Well, at least I'll be able to see this one again on the way back.
I keep looking at the lake and after some time the humans start taking the horses away from the water, it wasn't long until the carriage started moving after that.
I kept looking at the lake until it was the carriage.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
I stayed at the window for a while after the lake was behind us, but eventually, I got bored of looking at just grass and the occasional tree.
I wonder how long it will be until we get to the city... I turn around and look at the human and see that he’s leaning against the window on his arm again. I wonder why he’s tired…
“u-uh… h-how long until w-we reach the c-city?” I ask.
“We’ll be there in about three more hours. That’s just after nightfall.” He says.
I was hoping that we would get there sooner.
I go and sit down next to the human again and sit there a while wondering what I should do. Eventually, the human asks.
“Didn’t you bring your book?”
“n-no… i-I forgot i-it…”
After I tell him that he doesn’t say anything for a while, I start to worry if I annoyed him by forgetting the book. Eventually he breaths out heavily and moves to face me, he then asks.
“Do you want me to tell you a story then?”
“okay…”
Why aren’t all humans like him?
----------------------------------------
‘I’m cold…’ Is the first thing I think as I start to wake up. I must have fallen asleep when the human was telling me a story, I don’t remember feeling that tired. Why do I keep doing that? It’s embarrassing…
It takes a while for me to wake up more, I slowly sit up and look open my eyes and look around, but everything’s too bright and it stings… While I can’t see, I can smell food and I can tell that I’m on a bed, like the one the nice human has, he let me on it once when I asked about it.
It takes a bit before I can see, but once I can, the first thing that I notice is that I’m in a room I’ve never been in, the second thing is that I’m alone. I start to wake up fast after noticing that.
I look around at the room trying to figure out where I am and notice that the door isn’t shut properly, and I decide to try and find the nice human. He might be just outside it… I hope…
I stand up and make my way to the edge of the bed, it takes a moment to get down but after I do, I continue over to the door.
As I get closer to the door, I start to hear quiet voices.
“ -ou can’t kee-… -eave it wit-…” I can’t hear the voices that well, so I slowly move closer to the door while trying to be as quiet as I can.
“I’m not lea-… -in a strange pla-… -laves.”
“it’s dange-… -eeping it ne-… -ou are sleeping.” I still can’t really understand what the voices are saying so I keep moving closer.
“ -is not dan-… -etely safe.” I’m at the door but I still can't hear them that well, they are talking too quietly, but that voice sounds like the nice human.
“Your pare-… would nev-… -I can’t… -eep in the sam-… -obold, plea-… -to reason. You don… magi-”
“Enough. I don… -d you to tell m-… You know what? It’s too late to be talking about this. I’m going to bed. Goodnight Sam.” I start to open the door very slowly to try and see if the nice human’s out there.
“Phillip wait I can’t let yo-” I hear footsteps coming to the door, I step back from the door
“Sam. Not now. I don’t care about what you can and can’t let me do, I’m not in any danger and we’ve been talking about this for an hour. I’m tired, and I’m going to bed. Goodnight.”
I start to panic a bit, the nice human sounded angry…
He walks through the door and shuts it, hard, I flinch when it makes a bang. He looks at me and then to the bed and then back to me. I stand there nervously, wondering if I wasn’t supposed to hear that and stay on the bed.
I look at him and notice that he’s wearing different clothes than he usually does. They’re a dull grey and look a bit shiny in the light. He looks at me, his eyes still look dark, he asks.
“Well, I see you woke up, were we talking too loud?” He sounds less angry than he did before.
“w-well, i w-woke up b-because i was c-cold…” I say quietly as I look at the ground, worried that he might still be angry.
“Cold? Now that you mention it…” He mumbles as he looks behind me. I turn to see what he’s looking at and see a fire place with some charred wood that’s smoking slightly.
“Damn it.” He mumbles to himself as he walks over to it and uses a candle that was on a table next to a chair and some dried grass he took out of a metal container that was next to the candle, to set the wood on fire, doing it like he has done it many times before.
I feel the room get warmer almost as soon as the fire has started, the human puts the candle on top of the fire place and turns around and looks at me and says.
“Sorry, I mustn’t have lit it properly” He looks annoyed as he says it.
“w-where are w-we?” I ask quietly.
“You fell asleep before we arrived at Haidran, we’re staying at a house that my parents own tonight. Oh right, and before I forget.” He says as he walks over to the bed and picks up a small tray with some food on it that was on a table next to the bed. I didn’t notice that tray before…
“I got something for you to eat, though it’s probably cold now. I thought that you might be hungry when you woke up, so I put it next to the bed so you would see it in case I wasn’t here, it’s probably cold by now though I hope you don’t mind.” He says as he puts the tray on the chair. And then he walks over to me and picks me up and sits me down in the chair next to the food.
I look at the human as he steps back, I again wonder why the other humans aren’t nice like him.
“You’ll have to sleep on that chair tonight.” He says.
“okay…” I say as I look at the food and hesitate for a moment before I take some of the meat and start eating it slowly, it’s cold but it still tastes good.
As I start to eat the food, the human walks around the room and does things to the windows, he noticed me watching him and he told me he was making sure the windows were shut properly. I continue to eat the food slowly as I keep watching the human do things, feeling tired and not that hungry.
I wonder how long I was asleep? It couldn’t have been that long since I still feel so tired. I’ve managed to eat around half of the food by the time the human finishes, like always I was given too much food to eat.
I look at the human as he walks over to me and asks.
“Have you finished?”
I nod my head and he takes the tray with the food away and leaves the room with it, when the human comes back he’s holding some fluffy red cloth, he walks over to me and says.
“I thought you might need a blanket tonight, in case the fire goes out again.” He places the blanket in front of me and asks.
“You don’t want anything else tonight right?”
I shake my head.
“I’m going to go to bed, and you’ll have to wait until morning if you change your mind later, are you sure you don’t need anything?”
I hesitate for a moment before I say.
“n-no, i don’t n-need anything...”
The human nods and then he starts to put the candles in the room out, by the time he puts the last one out the room is a lot darker, the only source of light is the fire that he lit earlier.
I lay down on the chair and wrap the blanket around me, it feels nice. I hear the human lay down in his bed.
“Goodnight.” He says, I still don’t really understand why he says that, even after he's tried to explain it to me.
“g-goodnight.”
Eventually, I start to think about the time I've spent with the nice human, and I try to think of a reason for why he’s nice to me while the other humans aren’t, but I can’t.
It’s something that I’ve been thinking of for a while now. Why he’s nice and the other humans aren’t, but I can’t think of any reason why he treats me better than all the other humans. I’ve thought about asking him, but I’m worried about what his answer might be.
I’ll ask him eventually, maybe.
Even if I don’t like his answer, it can’t be that bad, right?