-Ajax-

“We need to escape.”

“How? There is no escape from this hellhole, there is only death, misery, and despair.” I pressed my ear closer to the door of the storage room, I had stumbled by this conversation by chance, while on a late-night errand for Master.

“We can take some of the guards by ourselves, all we need is the help of some of the other slaves.”

The more cynical voice spoke once again, “The other slaves are dogs, curs, born and raised slaves! The only help you’ll be getting from them is nothing!” The man’s voice rose, “All they will do is rat us out, we are stuck here and that's final, you need to focus on surviving and hoping to the heavens that maybe just maybe the master will let you go.”

A third voice spoke up this time, “I agree, there is no escape. We are in the middle of thousands of miles of forest, on top of a mountain, surrounded by guards, gathering one of the rarest materials that can be found here in Torian. It’s best to purge all thoughts of escaping and leave that for the next life.”

I could hear them move toward the door, it was time to leave.

…

My thoughts were jumbled and confused, I knew that there was a world out there, a place other than our own but I never truly thought about it until I heard that conversation. They said that none of the other slaves would help them escape because they were all too cowardly and never knew a life before this one, like me, like my mother.

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My mother. Blood coming off in waves, staining the grass and splashing my face. The Master grinning as he whipped me and my mother. Standing helpless, not being able to do anything. The screams of the friend I shouldn’t have.

“Ajax,” a whisper came from behind me making me flinch and snapping me out of my reverie, looking behind me I realised it was Varic, my one and only friend.

“You really need to stop doing that! You scared the nine hells out of me!”

“Sorry, you know I can’t help myself,” came his reply a grin stretching across his face, then he went more serious, sombre.

“I heard about your mother, I don’t know if it’ll help but….” He took a breath, “I’m here for you, if you ever need help you can come to me, I promise.” He looked me in the eye and I could tell the truth to his words,the sincerity. He took something out from behind him “I know it’s your birthday today so I got a little something for you, snatched it right off the master himself!” He gave it to me and I started to unwrap it, his watching me expectantly, inside was a gold coin.

A gold coin! This was the most money I had ever seen in my life, the most money that Varic had ever seen as well probably, and he was giving it to me, Ajax. It warmed me, and it was then that I knew that I had a friend, a true friend, someone that would stick by me, I had a brother.

“Thank you Varic, thank you.” The words came from my soul, from the core of my being.