Chapter 2

We found ourselves at the base of a tall cliff that when I looked up to see that it was in reality the wall of a box canyon. The walls towered taller than the highest buildings I had ever seen before. The walls were steep and smooth to touch, too smooth to climb anyways. It smelled worse than the public bathrooms in lasnarnguard I couldn’t help but feel hopeless as I saw that the only way out seemed to be a large entrance that was heavily guarded by a group of legionaries. A hard kick to my back caused me to stumble and stop thinking

“Move along Scum, walk faster” said the soldier in a flat, dead voice “Slackers won’t last for a single day here.”

“But you kicked me!” I replied angrily.

“So what” the guard smirks. Aghast at the prospect of working in this horrid place and the hard toil ahead, I retort saying “I’m not working here!  It’s practically a rat’s hole!”.  The last thing I heard before darkness and pain was the guards angry: “I’m not taking none of your lip boy!  We’ll use you as an example to the others.”

When my eyes finally opened, It was almost as if I hadn't opened them at all, so great was the darkness.

“Looks like you're finally awake.” spat a voice angrily. I at first thought it had come from one of the temple looking legionaries, but it turned out to be the redhead who I had run into at the plaza.

“Why are you so mad at him?” Spoke a softer voice from the darkness. I felt solid rock under me

“It’s all his fault!” redhead cried angrily, “ I shouldn’t be here, I didn't do anything.”  

“Why are you in here for” said the soft voice, directed at me this time.  My head was a little groggy but I was able to answer in a voice not that different from that of a bull frog.  

“Talking back to the legionary temple peacocks” I replied  “What?” said the voice  sounding confused, I could now tell that the voice came from a girl that appeared to be about my age, in the light of a solitary candle you could tell that she had brown hair and dark green eyes, similar to the color of the few leaves I had seen in my short life. Plants were few and far between in the city and were a luxury to have around, she was wearing something that resembled a shirt and pants but they were to dirty and ripped to really tell.

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“The guards.” I said flatly.  

“Oh, you shouldn’t have done that you'll probably be dead by the end of the week, but that’s how life is here.”  

“Where am I?” I asked, trying to change the subject away from my supposed imminent death.  

“This is the lovely slave compound of Welserig.  It’s where the empire mines the metals for war.  No one in the grand city of the empire knows about it, their loss.”  She intoned in a dry sarcastic voice.  

“What do you mean for war, the empire has been at peace for hundreds of years.”

“Oh, I forgot you wouldn’t know, everyone here knows about the secret war that has been going on ever since Prince Xavier came into power.”

“Prince Xavier?!” I cried “He’s really nice he helps all the orphans!”

“Heh, that muttonhead?” “He couldn’t tell an orphan from a barbarian, Prince Xavier is essentially a puppet of the courts wills”

“What's your name?” I ask interrupting the girl, “The name is Martha, now don't change the subject.” Suddenly a small crack of light appeared above us and I realized that we were in a pit. The crash seemed to become larger and light streamed in. I looked around to get a better grasp of my surroundings, to my surprise about 20 men and woman were gathered in groups around inside the pit they wore ragged clothes they looked starved and beaten but weirdly they had determined expressions on their face. As the crack grew wider I saw several legionnaires faces peer into the pit. “ Ew, smells like rotten eggs!” Exclaimed a guard “ I would hate to live here!”

“Well it's work time.” The other guard sneered ”GET OUT OF THE PIT!” Another legionary roared “YOU LOT ARE SLOWER THAN MY PET SNAIL!”

“Charge!” Someone from inside the pit yelled and rocks started flying towards the legionnaires, the legionnaires fell unconscious to the onslaught of projectiles. Men and women I had previously seen inside the pit started climbing out of the pit, I saw they held rocks and pick axes, on their way out they stabbed the legionnaires with their pick axes killing them as I stared in shock at the scene unfolding before me.

“Come on, we're escaping!” Martha said grabbing my hand and pulling me up out of the pit.

Martha started running past a squat two story wooden building and what looked like a mine towards the gate I had seen earlier

“That’s suicide!” I yelled “We won't make it 5 feet there's like a million guards.”

“Don't be like that.” Martha retorted “Other slaves are sacrificing their lives to help us and a few others escape!”

I assumed if someone is sacrificing their life for you you should probably do what they say so following that line of thought I followed Martha towards the gate. All around me slaves used their pick axes as weapons to keep the legionnaires back creating a path for us to get out. I took it running out the gate. I looked back to ask Martha where we were going but saw her suddenly grabbed by a legionary

“Martha, I'm coming!” I yelled

“No, escape without me” she yelled as the legionary dragged her back.

I ignored her running towards the guard, I grabbed the guard from behind the back and kneed him in the back causing him to drop Martha and stumble. I promptly shoved the guard over and pulled Martha up, together we ran up a set of stairs and into freedom, or so we thought.