Side Story 3: Slave to Fate... Elusive Freedom...

Day 43

(Slave Girl Chanti POV)

That damn female rat won't stop yelling. I don't have a problem with how rough the guards are toward her, she's a twisted bitch and I have no sympathy to give her. Finally they gag her. Ugh... I have a headache from those yells. Stupid, naive primitive. These men capture and market slaves, they do not know sympathy for merchandise. Your cries are nothing but the sound of coins jingling in their purse. Just accept your lot and become obedient. In the long run you won't survive with that attitude.

Still the merchants are decent men, they understood my plight for what it was; a cruel servitude to savage barbarians. (Note: the word barbarian originates from Greek merchants where it essentially translates to a version of blah-blah [bar-bar]... the Greek merchants couldn't understand the foreign dialects and it was intended as a slur... it seemed appropriate to elaborate.)

…

Sigh. Fine, I'll have to purchase you with my share of the profits. I feel responsible, still a bit of discipline should help your crooked personality. I won't let them go easy on you. It will be worth it to see you crack.

Oh, the crystal room. I remember this. Such magnificent purple gems.

Now it is all cliffs. I look over the edge but see nothing but darkness below. I pity anyone that falls down there.

The guard captain is a kindly man, admired by the guards as a soft-touch as much as a steady and stout commander. He seems to have taken a liking to me; he first suggested I sleep in a separate area to keep my innocence from his corrupt, womanizing subordinates.

Disaster! The ground falls away beneath us! This is awful, those poor men... swallowed by the gaping abyss and endless plummet. So many died in that instant.

As the merchants gather far back from the collapse and discuss the alternate route... we are struck. A monster rat, a berserk beast with a body covered in a patchwork of metal and fur. Some kind of delayed defense monster left as a last resort by the dead Weapon-smith rat?

It shows no concern as it sustains damage, crushing men with those powerful breaker rods...

The weapons transfigured into a strange bludgeon? That is a skill, surely a monster isn't capable of... no... nononononONONONONONO!!!! It's HIM again!

He is coming straight through the soldiers, aiming for our lives. He is going to take my freedom again! No!

I find his female. I hold the knife he made to her throat as he comes for us both. It is one or nothing, I shall be slave to no one.

“Well... I suppose I can't win this one.” He says in that thick accent of his as he comes upon us. “But this isn't a loss yet either.” He bares his teeth in a snarl of awful cruelty. “I have to retreat for now. Remember this though, scummy little bitch. You hurt my sister and I will be back and I won't stop until I have your black heart for my dinner! But don't worry, you'll eat your share too. Rest easy, I will be back... soon.”

He leaps over the edge of a cliff and finds the far side, crawling up to cross what would be an almost impossible gap.

I collapse to my knees, shaking violently as the terror drains away. The female rat; his sister, eyes me with such pure hatred that I am secretly afraid.

The guard unit has been crippled. Half of the men are dead or incapacitated. Shit. He did this. He dropped the floor under us. He halved our defense force in a surprise attack.

The merchants are panicked. The guard captain suggests we make an organized retreat back the way we came and down some side tunnels. I point out where he is making his great mistake. This is not a monster, it is a clever and crafty trap-maker. If we double back we will all die. That path will be littered with traps, each deadlier than the last.

No, if we are to escape it must be away from him. He has tried to corner us. The best move is to enter a new area, even if we have to make sacrifices. I point at the original exit we were going to use.

“His aim is to keep us here, if we cross over we will have the ability to make our own traps. When he sees his trap failed he will come and take our bait, from there we will throw him over the cliff and into the abyss! Alive, dead, flesh or metal, it matters not if he is trapped and broken.” I state.

The sister still glares at me, but she doesn't understand. But as I pass I hear the younger rat whisper to her. Her eyes bulge and she strains at the ropes. She knows. The little rat understands us enough to be a threat. I have him gagged to stop him from shouting out a warning.

Day 44

With a heroic effort the guards manage to string a rope across the gap and then several more follow. We move whole carts across and then the slaves, bound to the rope by their wrists are hauled over by pulley. They strain and try to shout but we gag them all as a precaution. We do not want a premature visit from the monster rat.

Finally I cross over, on a bucket seat, with a safety rope looped over my waist, the same method used by the other members of the caravan.

The poor Carthe cannot cross with us, the dumb beasts have their throats slit as they are pushed over the side, to deny the rat food if he is cautious enough to notice our trap. We leave him a short rope, knowing he'll suspect something if we make it too easy for him to cross.

Then we wait in the shadow of the tunnel.

We wait for over three hours. We know something is up, because we can hear him cursing in our tongue at himself.

He hooks the cliff on our side in only a few tries with some sharp thing, then swings over.

Now is the time. The guards leap out and use the high ground advantage, trying to push him off or kill. They seem to be taking too long. Finally I scurry close and hack at the rope with my steel knife.

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As the rope frays and snaps under the miracle metal of this knife a man's spear is caught and pulled down along with the owner. The guard captain falls but clings to the monster. They disappear together into the endless pit.

I scream as I realize this. That man was more friend to me than any I have known in years. His gruff but gentle demeanor was like a second father to me.

Returning to the carts I collapse.

While none of the men are happy we all have a grim acceptance of the fact, the captain sacrificed his life to end the threat. The sister rat seems to understand what has happened; her look is insane. Sorrow and wroth seem to be fighting over which has more control. She's bawling and scowling. So is the little rat.

Shit. Why do I feel so guilty? I had to do it. It was him or me. All of this from day one is his fault!

Day 45

That stupid bitch!

Does she want to die?! After the monster killed the captain all I could do to console them was to use her to heal the injured men... but apparently she can choose if her ability works or not. I manage to talk the men into merely beating her. They wanted to string her up as vengeance for the captain now that they know she is sister to the monster. I plead with them, suggesting that if they manage to break her spirit she'll do as they ask and heal the others.

Like she's taunting me she keeps stalwartly resisting the beatings. I don't understand how she can even walk after all of that. She must be capable of self-healing. Damn. She won't break easily then.

I initiate the next beating, more to keep the guard's morale up than actually injure the girl. Even so, that look of utter contempt pushes me to do things to her I would never think of doing.

Day 46.

She spat in my face! That rat bitch! I'll kill her!

No. No. Calm down. It isn't worth the aggravation. She's helpless and her monster brother was killed. Lets cut her some slack. Just a light kicking and a gag. There, much better.

…

What is the warm sensation... I feel something. Drips? On my face...

I taste something strong, familiar, metallic... blood!

I jerk awake to the sight of the rat girl... she's covered in blood and letting it fall on my face!

I reach under the pillow for the special knife. Where is it?!

No... she has it already... she waves it in my face with a threatening smile.

I try to push her away but free hand swoops down fast, her claws cut into my scalp and she rips me upright by the hair... that hurts! Stop it! She drags me around by the grip...

The scene beyond my small tent is ghastly. They're all dead... she murdered them all. Some of them clearly died in an unnatural way, eyes bulging and mouth foaming. The rest are slashed or stabbed... it's too horrible. They didn't deserve this!

The rat chains me, binding my throat with a collar and connecting this to manacles on my wrists behind my back... this hurts.

The little rat tries to explain what the female rat's intention for me is... to fall into the pit that ate her brother? To do so torn open?!

I run. I don't think, this is pure terror doing the thinking for me. As always, it has the right idea. I try to reach the exit. Perhaps I can find a patrol or reach a place even I remember the way home from...

Ow... I'm hit from behind by something... no someone. I fall on the rocky ground, unable to shield my face as it grinds on the rock, cutting to the bone. It hurts more than I've ever felt!

Then the kicking begins... somewhere deep inside I realize... this is all my fault. This is all I deserve. It is my actions returning to me. I am cursed. (Karma isn't a concept her kind is familiar with.)

Day 47

I'm being led around on a lead like a child's Kinert (pet similar to a ferret).

Every few feet I'm tripped.

She sits on me, treating me like a stool to rest.

When I hesitate she kicks me. I'm scared. She's going to kill me painfully. Every single thought of hers exudes this fact. I'm only alive so she can see me scream as I tumble down into the pit.

I want to fight her every step, I want to run and scream pitifully...

Somehow I can't resist. In the end I guess I really am only a slave. How sad.

Then things become weird as we are flung back from a doorway by our own weight. I don't know what is happening but for a moment I think it is a gift from heaven... then I realize that I have only sunk deeper into the mires of the Underworld as the monster rat draws himself from the hole that should have been his end.

This life... is a thing of calamities. I resign myself to my death. If I struggle, if I resist It can only get worse.

I will get all that have earned, perhaps it will be quick. Somehow I do not think it likely.

Mother, Father... sorry for disgracing and cursing you with my life...

What we learned:

Slave girl (Chanti) is seriously broken...

As much as Niala is brutal and without ethics in her obsession she is admirable in a hard-headed kind of way.

Chanti was intending to take responsibility for enslaving the rats, only to have it backfire spectacularly!

Next chapter... what is her ultimate fate?

Also a personal query... if I published a book would you appreciate the current format with the [] to indicate speaker and double spacing for clarity or my standard style, like you see in the opening chapters of Re:Ocean? Note: I didn't even attempt to seriously edit any these chapters, so I can assure you the quality will be superior to what you are used to from me.