Kato awoke to the happy chittering of birds welcoming the morning sun, the stench of body odor, and a cold breeze. He reached into his dirtied pants and withdrew a small piece of bread he’d stashed, and drank the remaining water in his waterskin.

“You're awake.” The man in chains noticed his busyness and commented.

Some of the other prisoners acknowledged his rummaging for a moment before silently returning to their brooding. Kato had always been a boy who had to be on the move. He never wanted to be stuck in one place, and now that he was trapped inside a cage, he felt very restless, alone, and afraid.

“What is your name, by the way? I forgot to ask you before,” Kato asked with a wince of pain.

He had felt slightly better than the last time he’d awoken, but throbbing pain in the back of his head was a constant ache that Kato was bearing.

“My name is Bahir.” Bahir smiled innocently at the boy and answered patiently.

“Why are you chained up, Bahir?” Kato asked curiously.

This was something that Kato hadn’t been able to figure out and had been on his mind despite his current circumstances. Bahir was the only person in the entire prison cart that was tightly bound in chains.

“That’s simple. They are afraid of me!” Bahir laughed.

Kato glanced over the elderly body of Bahir, unconvinced. He didn’t understand how a thin, reed-like man could pose a threat to those well-armed soldiers. However, if the man was in chains, then the Hydrians must have believed that it was warranted.

“What is the Devil Bite Island you mentioned?” Kato asked, remembering the description Bahir had told him earlier.

“Hmm.. well, the short answer is that Devil Bite Island is a prison,” Bahir answered.

“We will learn more when we get there, but just know that place is harsh, and the guards are cruel.” he finished.

Bahir gestured towards the other prisoners, who all seemed to have lost any hope they may have once held.

Kato began to observe who else was amongst him in the cart carefully. Many different races of men and women who all seemed battle-hardened with scars and good physiques were suffering from malnutrition and the pain of being physically broken by the Hydrian prisoner caravan guards.

“Most of these sorry lot are rebels or enemy soldiers from the Hydrian’s many border wars. I am one of those sorry few.” Bahir said.

“Could he be from the Alam Kingdom then?” Kato thought to himself after looking closely at the dark hair and sun-kissed skin of the old man.

“Yes, I am from Alam.” Bahir laughed.

Kato jumped with shock at having a question answered without even asking.

“No, I didn’t read your mind just now. Your question was written all over your face,” he answered and laughed again.

“But that is who we all are, so who are you? You seem to have been a last-minute addition to this caravan.” he finished.

“I’m Kato,” Kato responded.

“And that was your village we were stopped at, I'm assuming. What’s it called?” Bahir asked.

“It’s called Farvel,” Kato said with a sigh.

This response caused a look of deep thought on the face of Bahir, who adjusted and sat himself up as straight as he could.

“Well, boy, you rest up a little longer, and I will wake you when I need to,” Bahir said.

The old man’s face changed from a more stern look to a smile with bright eyes that seemed to comfort Kato, who soon felt himself drift off to sleep.

Kato dreamed of his family and remembered the words his grandfather once told him some time ago, “If you are lost and need help, ask the friendliest person you can find and be courteous.” He thought about many things, but the pain he felt in his heart eventually outweighed his happy thoughts causing him to wake abruptly.

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Lying on the floor of the creaking cart, Kato woke up to the morning sun creeping over the horizon through the evergreens. He thought of the fact he did not know how many days he had actually been in the cart, but the pain from his wound was even less than it was the previous day so he assumed it had been longer than a day or two but was not sure of the exact time.

“Hey, Bahir!” Kato said to Bahir, who seemed to be sleeping.

“How long has it been? How can we get out of here?” Kato said, then sat up straight and turned to face Bahir.

“Heh, now that is the question, isn’t it, boy,” Bahir said with a forced smile.

“The truth is that we won’t be getting out of this cart until we reach our destination. As for how long it's been, I’d say a week a two. Hard to keep track of how long you’ve been on here.” Bahir continued turning his smile to a frown.

“Although I am quite curious about your situation. What happened to have them depart from Farvel so quickly? I’ve never seen the Hydrians leave without finishing a fight.” Bahir prodded.

This got some of the other prisoners inside the cart to perk their ears as curiosity slightly arose. Kato looked forward absently as he thought about the Selection and all the horrible things that had happened because of it.

“I…” Kato’s voice trailed off, and tears welled in his eyes.

It was clear that the boy was still overwhelmed by the extreme violence he had witnessed. The thoughts flooding back to the boy were causing visible discomfort, so Bahir intervened.

“Another time,” Bahir spoke softly.

Bahir’s timely interjection somehow snapped Kato back into reality and away from darker thoughts. However, Kato was still visibly shaken.

The cart jumped slightly as one of the wheels hit a divot in the dirt road. The jolt caused Kato to look closely at his surroundings which he had not been paying much attention to previously. The evergreens were growing more sparsely, and the opening allowed him to see specks of blue through the gaps in the trees. The caravan began approaching the edge of the forest, and the carts began slowly moving into the open sky. Kato could now clearly see a large town situated by a vast body of water, the likes of which he had never seen before. On one of his many excursions around Farvel with Rena, they had been able to talk with a visiting merchant who had come for the herbal remedies which were exclusive to his hometown, so he knew about port towns, but this was his first time seeing one.

“Do you know where we are?” He said, poking Bahir on the arm.

“We were headed to the Northern port town of Anchport. So I imagine this smell of salt in the air means we are close.” Bahir said.

The name, Anchport, reminded Kato of a story he had heard from a merchant who had told them about his journey through the northern territories and how he had arrived from across the sea from a land called Norehaven. Anchport was the closest and largest port next to Norehaven, the only land Kato knew to be allied with the Hydrian Empire. Norehaven was an island nation that was famous for its pirates and naval advancements, and so they were a valuable ally, according to a traveling merchant who had visited Farvel.

After Kato finished recollecting, he noticed the caravan had finally entered the town of Anchport. There were so many people, and the town was so large that the sheer size of everything took Kato aback. The streets were clean, and the people looked wealthy, aside from the odd, very muscular, tattoo-covered men haggling off to the sides with heavy accents.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Kato said to himself aloud.

“If you think this is impressive, you would have loved the land of Alam. The towns and scenery and the beautiful port cities. The women! You would find it all very different from something like this.” Bahir said with a smirk on his face.

As the caravan continued through the town toward the port, the prisoners were met with stares of disgust and judgment. The townsfolk glaring at them with hatred in their eyes made Kato feel unsettled. He frowned and inched closer to Bahir since he felt comfortable with him around.

Eventually, the caravan reached the dock, and the prisoners were being moved out of their carts one by one onto a ship.

“What is gonna happen now?” Kato asked nervously.

“Well, we are gonna be loaded onto that ship, and then our next destination is Devil Bite,” Bahir said.

After all of the carts in front had been emptied out, a soldier came to start moving the prisoners of Kato’s cart onto the boat. He walked over and opened the door, and called for the prisoners to come out one by one. However, after the first prisoner got off, one of the larger men in the back made a mad dash toward the town with his legs and arms still shackled. One of the soldiers in charge of transferring the prisoners called over to a lone armored man holding an itinerary standing off to the side.

“Sir! We got a runner!” the soldier said with a snicker.

The well-armored man, with a disgruntled sigh, threw himself atop a large black steed and rode after the prisoner. The armored man easily caught up to the prisoner who was desperately fleeing. In one uncaring swipe, the prisoner’s upper half was cleaved in two, and the body crumpled to the ground in a pool of scarlet.

Bahir clicked his tongue.

“Idiot should have known that there was no way to escape with a centurion around,” Bahir said with a pained look.

The other slaves didn’t react and continued to keep their heads low.

“Get these slaves on the ship, Lord Darius’s orders were to return immediately after delivering the caravan!” The armored man barked from the corpse of the prisoner.

The soldiers jumped to action, and the prisoners were roughly shuffled along, including Kato, and moved toward the deck of a large ship. Its masts were taller than some trees, and Kato looked at them with awe before being shoved along to the berthing. Now all of the prisoners were locked in one large cell that occupied the majority of the berth. Kato sat close to Bahir and listened as the sounds of the ship and crew grew louder and the voyage was about to begin.