The screams were blood-curdling as they rang through the house; Kardin looked around, what was going on? He tried to get up but his little body quaked with fear.  The door burst open and a man shrouded in black appeared, his hand holding a bloodied knife. With the metallic smell lingering thick in the air, the blood dripping slowly down the edge of the blade, Kardin began whimpering, “why, why him, why his family, he never did anything?” 

Kardin woke up shivering. He looked around. He was still in the fields, chained to his fellow slaves. The dream had woken him up again. It had happened over a decade now but those dreams still haunted his sleep. He couldn’t even remember his parent’s names but he could remember their screams. He could remember the man dressed in black. He could remember being given to Gaor. Of all the monsters he had seen, Gaor was the worst. If Kardin could, he would rip Gaor’s throat out and dangle it in front of the monster as he watched Gaor suffocate. Gaor was his master, though, and a slave who attacked his master got worse than death; he was tortured. Gaor was an ogre though, and they were not known for their intelligence but Gaor was cruel, crueler than most. He was known to have his slaves ripped apart for no other reason than his amusement. But that was a problem for another day. For now, Kardin needed sleep. Tomorrow was going to be another long day in the fields.

The sun rose, but Kardin and the other slaves were already working, hacking at the fields, turning over the soil just so they could go back over and plant. The sun beat down on their backs, sweat drenching their body. Kardin looked around and saw old men and young children passing out from the heat. Every time he saw it, it made his blood boil. Then the slave to his right fell. It was a young girl, about eight years old, and she collapsed crying. Kardin put down his hoe, and cradled the little girl, speaking softly to her, “It’s all right, just rest.” 

She began wailing, “But Gaor, Gaor, I can’t upset Gaor.” Kardin was disgusted, they were all whipped and conditioned, they didn’t want to disappoint the monster, but not Kardin, Kardin had been whipped too often to care.

 He just hushed her quietly, “It will be all right.” Suddenly he was ripped from the ground, suspended in the air by a big muscular arm. “Well hello Gaor, how are you today?” Kardin snarled. Gaor just stared at him, his square, brutish face unmoving, “You back to work, you cause enough trouble already.” 

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Kardin just stared at him, Gaor was well over seven feet. Kardin was tall for his age but Gaor still towered him. Gaor was all raw muscle, Kardin wiry and lean from working in the fields and starving every night. Kardin’s back was a crisscross of silver and red lash marks, from the whip. Most slaves had been whipped but Kardin, Kardin had been whipped harder than most. Unlike the other slaves, Kardin refused to submit, refused to admit that he was inferior. “And what if I don’t?”

Gaor smiled, a hideous smile that made his silvery canines flash, “Do you want to be sent to the mines again?” 

Kardin smiled, “Last time you sent me to the mines, you had more than a few problems.” Kardin had set fire to Gaor’s supply of coal, making it useless and wasting Gaor’s resources, not to mention the guards he killed doing so. 

Gaor’s smile widened, “Oh so you want to be in the Pits?” Kardin’s smiled waned. the Pits were also known as the Coliseum- it was where the worst of the worst were sent to die. It was where the only rule, was that of death, death matches that put foe against foe. The only benefit was the slim chance to earn freedom but to do so was to make your master a very rich man first. Which Kardin had been trying to oppose all along. Gaor let out a rough hearty laugh that echoed across the fields, “You don't like that do you, you trouble maker?” 

Kardin shrunk away from Gaor. He had always felt brave and stared the monster in the eye, when he spoke unlike how a slave was supposed to, but he always knew the worst punishment would be the whip. Pain Kardin could live with, but he had never feared death for Gaor wouldn’t kill him. Even rebellious, a young teenage boy could be worked for his whole life, an investment. At that moment though, he knew things were about to change, and so Kardin forced his entire weight forward, swinging towards Gaor’s face. He bit and attacked like an animal, feeling the blood fill his mouth as he crunched on the cartilage in the nasal cavity. Gaor screamed in pain dropping Kardin. His enforcers began whipping Kardin until he was bleeding from a myriad of wounds and was too weak to stand. 

Then gaor picked his face up and snarled, “To the pits it is, you little piece of shit.” Gaor’s face was bleeding from where his nose used to be. Kardin realized the flesh was still in his mouth and began retching on top of it all. He had a literal piece of that monster in him and it sickened him.