Chapter 3

As the boy ran, the silver moon hid behind the grey clouds. The only source of light was snuffed out like a flickering candle. The young boy slowed to a crawl, carefully feeling his way around as he wobbled forwards. Crash, the boy trips…

Ouch! Jaq tripped and feel onto the hard, cold ground, it felt slightly moist, yet the night was still young, and the silver dew was not out. An unpleasant aftertaste of iron can be felt rolling in his tongue, he immediately spat out the dirt, grabbing the hard stick which he tripped on he levered himself up whist rubbing his sore bottom.

A steady wind blew across his face, as the man in the moon poked his head out of the clouds. The silver light touched the ground, revealing a field of mangled bodies. Amongst the corpse stood a boy, he looked no more than 10, he stood like a statue grasping a long leg bone of a skeleton...

“Ma, where are you?” Jaq’s face twists with agony. Wincing as he took a step forward, waddling across the sea of corpses and headed towards his house”.

“What are you going to do now?” his ghastly sister asks curiously

Jaq ignores the voice as he bites his lower lips. He eyes freezes upon a tiny shack in the distance, looking closely one can see that walls of the shack have been torn apart and the roof has collapsed under its weight, seeing this it was as if Qur the God of mischief forcefully ripped his ribs apart and shoved a seed of dread deep into his beating heart his vision wavers, he feels short of breath as Jaq faints amongst the corpse… tears streaming down his face.

The next morning down at the harbour a small caravel arrives. It was a standard merchant ship, made of mortal Oak wood, compared to the vast ships the deceased villages had seen before this ship really would not hold a candle to them, it had only one mast and flew a humble white flag with a faded yellow lion on it, if you look closely you could see that the lion was not even symmetrical. on its mast a once crimson rose has now degenerated into a dull orange, the ship looked unremarkable in every way. It was run down, the furbishing shabby and the captain who just stepped out was a fat stout man. The captain and the ship could relate to an unhappy marriage, as the man was well fed and well-dressed the mundane ship was so poorly maintained… I could guess all the money really did go into his stomach.

“hurl anchor ye swashbucklers, nice and slowly, hide ye weapons let me scout the area, you numb skulls stay back, ya hear me ye bunch of maggots!” the fat man fiddles with the gold ring around his forefinger. He wipes the sweat on his large forehead and tightens the buttons on his purple sea worn vest. His slight frown can be seen on his face as he grunts “where is everyone, was harvest so good this year that these rats party all night?”, he couldn’t help but massage his gold ring, this mood relaxed as he gave it a few twirls. His mouth crooks into a smile, his eyes narrow as he thinks of the rich harvest of wisperwhod waiting for him, quickly he turns around confirming that he was indeed the first and only ship here, he licks his lips and mumbles happily “time is money. These suckers, don’t they know the early bird guts the worm? Ah well I better check on the village, this time ill surely make a killing!”

As the merchant arrives at the village he gasps at the scene in front of him. He was not a naïve young man like before, therefore he did not faint. Yet the scene in front of him causes him to instinctually take a step back. In front of him laid the mangled bodies of 200 or so peasants, their bodies riddled with holes and hoof marks, like a jumbled puzzle: severed limbs, broken bones, crushed organs, littered the ground, the ground stank of iron and faeces. In his life as a travelling merchant, he had never seen such a messed-up scene in front of him.

“looking at these bodies, obviously a herd of wild beasts trampled though the village these bodies still have flesh, so it must of happened recently, looking at how the other ships never came they probably knew something was about to happen…damn…how could this be” the merchant pondered at the possibility that his competitors knew something about this puzzle in front of him, yet after a minute he stopped.

“The smell of blood is strong here, soon scavengers will come for a free meal…since I’m here I can’t return empty handed.” The merchant turned and ran as fast as he could back to his ship, with his round physique it was quite a show for the crew when they saw their captain half running, half rolling towards them.

Pant, pant “you idiots, hu..pant…hurry up and help me. Shits gone south, the village is gone we have to salvage what we can and get the fu*k out.”

The men stood like idiots, dazed by the words of the captain “what do you mean gone?” one men could not help but ask.

“Stop asking just move, salvage what we can and bring it to the ship” the merchant practically roared at the poor crewmates.

“Oh, and don’t forget to smash the head of the corpse, we don’t want them to turn into unlife, with the wicked forest around who knows what could happen” the merchant warned.

“Cor_pses?” the crew stares questionably at the merchant

“YOU RETARDS, DIDN’T I SAY THE VILLAGE IS GONE? OF COURSE, THERES CORPSES, NOW HURRY AND GO BEFORE THE SCAVENGERS COME” the merchant shakes with anger. His fat jiggles up and down as he glared at his crew, countless drops of saliva plasters onto their poor faces.

“right away captain” the rag tagged crew consisting of a coalition of common folk quickly grabbed a cart and large sacks and ran towards the village, from grabbing resources to gathering equipment not a single bit of teamwork could be seen.

From the distance the horrible sound of bones breaking can be heard. The sullied ground became more grotesque as the mushed brains of the fallen victims splatted out. The blood and fluid wetted the dry ground once more releasing the horrid smell of rotten flesh.

“boss, we got a live one here!” a sailor shouts at the top of his lungs.

“A live one? that’s impossible, who can survive such disaster?” the squad leader could not believe his ears, hopping off the cart he runs towards the sailor.

“Is this the one?” he asks curiously.

“Aye boss that’s him, found him fainted among the corpses…the sailor hesitates for a bit, still burst out in the end “boss I found him holding onto this” reaching out he pulls out the bleached thigh bone.

“walking amongst the corpse, holding a bone as a talisman, boss do you think this child is a necromancer?” the sailor looked worried

“we should Ki…” but before the sailor could finish, the boss hurls a fist at him, sending him flat on the ground…

“you fool, he’s nought but a boy, what necromancer. Didn’t you hear the Captain? (Salvage what you can) The boy’s bones are pretty good, he’ll make a fine slave.”

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The men return to the ship by noon, pushing a cart full of miscellaneous goods ranging from: wisperwhod, the dull iron axes of the village, and a fainted young boy.

“captain we’re back. harvest ain’t good this year, just these 40 bundles of wisperwhod. But we did get all their axes, look at the handles cap, made of the finest wisperwhod I’ve seen, and the head is crafted from iron! My eyes aren’t bad right” the squad leader stuck his chest out and boasted.

“hmm a decent harvest, we won’t make a loss here…hmm what’s this…a survivor?” the merchant probes.

“Ah yes captain, found him lying with the corpse, thought he’d make a fine slave” the squad leader quickly explained to the captain, not daring to mention a word about the suspicion that this lad was a necromancer. Necromancy was deemed as a forbidden magic in the kingdom, just one mention of it could get your family line snuffed out. What makes matters worse was that many experts believe that necromancy was curse magic. And those who encounter necromancers will have their lifeforce slowly withered away. This lifeforce which in turn strengthens the user. This was the reason that the sailor thought Jaq was a necromancer, Amongst the corpse he was the only survivor one alive, why wouldn’t he be suspected.

But why would the squad leader make such a serious mistake? Was he truly a kind man? Showing sympathy to the boy? Maybe…but this ain’t a fairy tale, the real reason is much simpler. He gets a cut of the profit; more money equals more profit. Such a fine young slave can probably earn him a few silvers, of course he’ll gamble it, his salary was merely 50 copper a month and it will take him 2 months just to earn a silver, it’s a pity that the survivor wasn’t a girl. Everyone knows that nobles have weird tastes a and young girl could sell for much more. Sigh…how unfortunate, the poor squad leader probably could only shake his head in regret.

The merchant looks his lieutenant thoughtfully, he smiles and says “I’m in a good mood today, you’ve done well, throw him in with the others” with that he tosses the squad leader five round silver coins. These printed silver coins had a rose on one side and a lion stamped on the other, this was indeed the authentic silver coin released by the greatest bank in the kingdom: The Imperial of Rosathornia- The capital of Europa. The squad leader stares at the coins in his palm, pocketing them with one smooth motion…

Jaq’s eyes snap open as he gets shoved into a cramped cage. he massages his bruised elbows and looks around. Beside him 12 children all around his age laid curled up into a ball on the damp wood.

“where am I” feeling nauseous he stumbles as he struggles to stand, eventually balancing himself by leaning against the rocking wall.

“Not in Escanor, probably a ship…can’t you feel the rocking…listen…can’t you hear the squeaking wheel?” the sweet voice of his sister tells him.

“huh why are you here?” looking puzzled Jaq stares at his sister and asks her

“oh, look a crazy one, I wonder who’s he talking too” the children exclaim

Jaq looked at the 12 wide eyed children and then at his sis…it seems they cannot see her.

“I’m Calvin, I’m the oldest here, not sure bout you but we are all orphans, the orphanage we were in was too poor, and as the oldest bunch we were sold to the fat merchant. This ship is headed towards a town called Calabar where we will be sold as slaves, don’t frown it’s not as bad as you think, I hear even slaves have wages, or at the very least we won’t starve to death.” The boy replies with a smile.

Thump, Thump, the sound of heavy footsteps can be heard, from the distance, a door hinge squeaks and groans. A person descending a flight of stairs could be heard, getting closer and closer to the children…

“Hey boy your awake now? That’s unfortunate” the man had a set of broad shoulders, he had a long blond goatee and had neat hair locks can be seen poking out of his black bandana. The man smiles and looks at the Jaq, one could see his crooked yellow teeth caused by many years of being out at sea. The children huddled together as they saw the man approached the cell. When Jaq saw this, he could not help but feel anxious.

“I’m squad leader Ragnar, the one who saved your ass. Kid don’t take it personally, but captains got orders for you get be branded, I’m just following orders, if ye got beef take it with the cap…Don’t worry I’ve done these many times, it’s pretty much painless.” The man brings over a black iron pan and lights a fire inside it, he then goes opposite of the cage and takes out a branding rod from the cupboard, setting it gently inside the fire.

“Don’t struggle kid, I don’t want to hurt you. this can be done very easily” Ragnar tries his best to comfort the child. He was after all a father and hated this part of the job. But regardless a man’s got to eat; perhaps as squad leader if he doesn’t show that he can take orders maybe tomorrow he’d be replaced, sigh…everyone had their hardships and he could only hope that this child would co-operate.

Calvin and the other children looked sympathetically at Jaq, they themselves had experienced the pain of being branded. no one will willingly go and be branded. therefore, as soon as Jaq saw the iron brand his heart sunk to the lowest depths of the ocean. ‘can’t you do anything sis?’ Jaq pleaded in his mind, but it was no use. His sis looked at him and vanished.

As Ragnar unlocked the cage and reached out his thick arms to grab him, Jaq ducked under them and ran towards the stairs, like Icarus who flew too close to the sun, the liberating feeling of freedom was short-lived…as quick as the wind the powerful arms clamped onto his nape and wrestled him to the moist wooden floors of the ship.

“Boy, why do you have to struggle” Ragnar sighed

Jolted by the loud noise of the floorboard beside Jaq all the children’s eyes flashed with joy and lust. They clung to the bars of the cage, tongues out and panting heavily, saliva dripping from their open mouths as they stared wide eye at Ragnar and Jaq. Like a bunch of beasts waiting to be fed.

“clench your teeth boy!” Ragnar took a pincer and clamped onto the nail on Jaq’s left pinkie, with a fluid motion he yanks it out.

Time seems to have stopped for Jaq. He looks down, staring at his bleeding pinkie, watches as the blood drips drop by drop onto the wooden floor, he turns to look at the children…lead by Calvin, the faces showed traces of ecstasy. rage filled his heart, he burned with wrath, how dare they…how dare they laugh, how dare they feel joy while I’m in misery. Why. Why. WHY.

Searing heat brings Jaq back into reality as Ragnar places an iron bar on Jaq’s pinkie, cauterising the wound.

“Boy this is going to sting” as Ragnar pushes Jaq on his stomach he grabs the brand and presses it on Jaq left shoulder.

“Ahh stop it hurts…” tears stream out from his face, his stomach tightens, forcing out a wave of excretions, a wave of nausea hit him as Jaq nearly faints again. Lifting his head, he sees the laughing children…he hates them so much…how could do this when they have experienced the injustice themselves…stop…don’t look…STOP…

“Hey dumbass They aren’t going to stop looking” his lofty sister has appeared again, “they too suffered from the same pain as you. no, they suffered from more, think bro, they didn’t have parents they never felt what love was yet right by now watching you suffer the same pain as them no doubt makes them feel good, a bond will form as you’ve all been though the same pain now.

“Sis your too naïve. I agree they didn’t have parents, so they probably didn’t know what love feels like but what about me. I watched as our parents, our village, OUR BIG FAMILY, all die in one night. I tasted what love is like yet only to have it taken away from me. Have I not suffered enough?” Jaq thought back to his sister.

The girl stopped, pondered for a while, walked up and patted Jaq’s head and whispered “since you know what love feels like, then like Ragnar you should lead by example. Show them what love is like…forgive them bro…you have all suffered so much…are you not tired…forgive them brother. Few things in the world that are equal: Love is one, the other one is Pain. You merely adopted the pain whist these children were raised in it (XD) they have suffered enough pain, to them watching others suffer is a release for them. They will only consider you as brothers if you experience the same pain as them…Pain is stronger than love and will bond you as brothers!” The young girl looks at Jaq one more time before fading into the background.

Ragnar lets go of the brand, opens the cage and gently places Jaq inside. The children surround Jaq, nobody talks. Ragnar looks at the 13 boys in the cage and sighs, his mind drifts to his homeland, to his wife and his 1-year old son…its been 10 years…his son should be the same age as Jaq now…he shakes his head, puts out the fire and walks away.

“Welcome to the gang. Ye one of us now” Calvin rubs his nose and holds out his hand.

“That’s one hell of an induction” thinking about his sister Jaq reluctantly smiles and slaps the bigger boys hand: “Call me Jaq, I’m not much of a talker sorry”. Calvin looks at Jaq and smiles “don’t worry ye fit right in, welcome to the pride”. Jaq nods his head and limps towards a free corner of the cell, he sits down and looks at this branded shoulder.

A circle of thorns with a lion head in the middle

What I ironic symbol he snorts “The king of beasts trapped by mere thorns?”

End of chapter 3