“Cheese gotta be here.” A husky voice scampered past my feet.

I glanced down to my well-worn sandals and saw a strange, rat-like creature, with fiery red fur, rush across the stone ground and disappear through a crack. It was the first time seeing beasts that weren’t terrifying and trying to eat us. I wondered what other animals lived in the underground. My mouth began to water with another thought of small beasts. A pleasant vision of roast chicken, potatoes around a gravy boat and mugs of frothing ale spread on a table graced my mind. My stomach rumbled loudly.

“Wonder if beasts here would be tasty roasted over a spit.” Drool seeped down the corner of my mouth.

“Yikes. Creepy!” Troy bulked at the sight of my hungry face.

My eyes bulged with glee when I saw another rat scurry across our path.

“Don’t go away, dinner!” I said and moved to chase the critter, but went flying backward by a heavy blow.

A henchman pulled me up and fished through something in their belt pouch. I trembled when they pulled out a small rock and shoved it in my mouth..

“Omph!” My mouth was tasting dry bread of some kind, but it was salty and bland, making my eyes water.

I peered at the bull helmet head, which was waiting for something.

“Thanks,” I whispered as I swallowed down the food.

The others groaned when the same small rock bread was shoved in their mouths. Everyone grimaced and muttered their thanks. We pushed on and eventually entered a large cavern with a lone set of wood chairs around a rectangular table at the cavern’s center. Torches illuminated the furniture’s age and its many fine nicks and scratch marks.

A henchman gave my arm a nudge towards a chair. It took me a while to register that I was granted permission to sit in one. They pointed to me and then the chair to confirm the okay.

“Thank you.” I signed with my hands and gulped when I noticed their body tensed and was more upright.

There was a pause before the bull helmet head nodded and turned away. I sighed with relief when I eased onto the seat. Never thought a chair had so much value. The best invention since the wheel. The henchmen left our sights, but I could still hear them nearby.

“You know how to speak their language?” Troy didn’t hide his awe on the fact.

I nodded.

Khes regarded me with a thoughtful manner. He stroked his chin like he had a beard. And stared at me sometime before saying, “Who are you?”

“Good question,” I answered and looked away.

The three henchmen returned with baskets of cheese, bread and bowls of dripping. They placed them at the table’s center.

More food! Like all the others, I scoffed my face and was sorry to see the baskets go bare quickly. I wiped my mouth clean on my sleeves. Avoiding the clamps’ links, which chinked near my cheeks. The food was a hopeful sign about our situation. Surprisingly, the henchmen had been taking good care of us. Maybe being a Zone slave wasn’t going to be a terrible experience after all.

Heavy footfalls entered the room. I looked up and saw the chief with the jagged scars on his cheekbones. His formidable presence loomed over us from the head of the table. The henchmen left us alone with him. My hope went down with my food.

“Still alive, I see,” he said as he skimmed over our faces.   

I lowered my eyes to the swirly knots drawn on the table’s surface as he circled us with predatory steps. Breaths tickled my nape to stir nausea. My mind gave a plausible reason of having scoffed down too much food. I pressed my hands to my belly to keep everything put. Damn if I would let my last meal be regurgitated because of this vile person. My neck went cold. I glimpsed the chief standing before us again.

“We’ve been kind to take you in for exchange of your freedoms. Fair trade. No one wants you.”

He clapped his hands. The henchmen re-entered the room. Although, two more had been added to the numbers. He directed his next comments to them.

“You know what to do. Make sure the girls are properly prepared.” I caught a greedy twitch to his smile before he left our sights.

We were ushered out of the chairs and followed the henchmen into a large room where odd scraps of metal scattered the floors or sat in pots with odd-shaped heads poking out. The dust and smell of iron overwhelmed the air.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

The men lined us up before a beefy man in smudged overalls and a black apron. He grunted over a dark iron anvil. Hammers and iron bars were spread on the workbench nearby. We were positioned before the anvil’s triangular end.

My body broke out in a sweat, and it wasn’t because of the stifling hot air. Instinctively, I moved my hands closer toward my right elbow.

The beefy man grunted for Zak to lay his wrists on the anvil, so the links were stretched across the narrow end.

He took a good look at the boy’s wrist, picked up a hammer and an iron bar, and wedged the point of the bar into the middle link. Zak shuddered as the hammer head fell on the bar with a dull clunk – clunk sound. It went down on the head again, causing a few sparks. After a few more bangs, the links broke apart. The beefy man pulled off the clamps, threw them in a metal drum and shoved him aside. Khes was nudged up to the anvil. The process was repeated.

My turn came. I yelped as the hammer drop sent jarring pain up my arms. It was like my bones would shatter. I sighed with relief when the clamps fell apart, and I was pushed to one side. My wrists felt so light and weird. Kalia stood next to me, rubbing her wrists as well.

“I think I’m going to bear a scar now.” She moped when she showed me a hairline scar across her wrists.

I patted her shoulder. She frowned and huffed when she saw that my wrists were free from marks. I looked at my skin. Indeed, it was near flawless.

“Odd. I mumbled, feeling sure I’d also be carrying scars.”

Our attention was directed to a dubious chair of dark iron and wood at one corner. Its arms and feet were wide, with leather straps dangling to the floor or coiled around the front feet. One arm was raised upwards, showing a slider row of holes along it. A set of pokers stood steaming in the cauldron next to the chair. Kalia looked petrified. I instinctively held my right elbow.

The beefy man stomped his way towards the pokers and stirred them about, causing them to hiss and steam some more. He gave a few deep grunts, then turned his attention to Khes.

Khes grunted with a deep sigh. “No point denying the truth.”

He calmly sat down in the chair and allowed the henchmen to strap him in and position his elbow so some of the skin peeked through the appropriately sized hole.

“Brave.” I thought as I watched him take to the marking like a strong nut.

Indeed, he had kept his eyes on the beefy man and the hot-red poker with a symbol of a rose bud swelling with white fire on the head. I sensed magic circling it. He gulped and sweated, but he didn’t move and was doing his best to be strong. I glimpsed nods of approval from the henchmen.

“Ugh!” He cursed and huffed when the poker head was pressed into his skin to make it smoke and sizzle like cooked bacon. His face broke out in a sweat.

The beefy man dropped the poker in the cauldron and released his arm. He slapped a moist patch over the freshly made wound. A henchman helped him out of the chair and had him stand next to me. I glanced at his patch.

“Pain is going away.” He flashed me a smile and nod.

I could see that his complexion had improved.

“Holy Minos, mother of Hellbore. Let’s hope I’m that brave, too.” I prayed in my head.

Zak sat in the chair and was doing his best to look standoffish by the process. His eyes darted to Khes, who was giving him a gloating smirk.

“Idiots.” I heard Kalia mumble.

It seems she came to the same conclusion as I did. Naturally, manly boys will be competitive with each other.

Zak let out a short cry. But he was soon standing next to Khes, looking like he had won their battle. Khes growled and mumbled that his recovery time was quicker.

Their whispers went silent as we watched Troy ease into the chair. He was bumbling beneath his breath about his pretty arm about to look like roast pork.

I cupped my ears when his voice let out a high-pitched squeal at the poker press. Indeed, everyone else had cupped their ears too. And even some of the tools hanging on wall hooks had shaken and rattled.

“Ugh. His squeal is like nails running down on a washboard.” Kalia groaned.

Everyone sighed when Troy stopped squealing and was pushed off the chair.

“That wasn’t so bad.” He panted next to me. He hugged his patched elbow.

Kalia gracefully sat down. One of the henchmen signed a spell. Her eyes widen with surprise when air magic wrapped around the impacted area. The same rose bud poker was pressed into her skin, yet she sat through the experience as if nothing had happened.

She was still looking surprised when she stood next to me and feeling around her patch.

“No fair. You girls’ get protection spells.” Troy pouted and huffed at her advantage.

I shrugged and sat down. The beefy man prepared my arm and a protection spell blew around my skin. As I watched the white-hot poker’s approach, my mind slipped into a vision.

My eyes saw gray space that was void of characteristics. However, the ground held a massive image of a lotus flower in full bloom. It floated on dark formless waters, which ran on like an endless pond.

“Daughter of Marsilien. You must try to fix this, or we are doomed to Zyon.”

Wind blew through the air to stir the petals into motion. They were cast off the floral disc to fly havoc around the pond. I felt a disruption to my heart.

“Neven!” Kalia cried out my name.

I blinked in my surroundings and saw the beefy man staring down on me with the poker still raised in his hand. Steam lingered about the burn mark on my skin. Like Kalia, I had felt nothing. Although, my mouth and collar were heavy with drool. I wiped it off with my good arm and sat up. But by the odd looks on everyone’s faces and tension to their bodies, I realized something must’ve happened.

“Are we okay?” I whispered.

The beefy man dumped the poker in the cauldron and helped me out of the chair.

“We’re okay, but you fainted,” Khes said.

“In an ugly way. Like a rabid dog. Your mouth was foaming and eyes turning inward. Lucky you weren’t put down.” Zak yawned.

“It’s good to see you’re fine. And not rabid.” Troy cheerfully patted my back when I stood next to him.

The beefy man gave me a cordial nod. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve again and returned his respects. We were led out of the room.