Being sold into slavery was not my choice, but then again, no one chooses to be a slave. I was sold as a young girl by my parents, I was told they were in deep debt, but on some level, I was sure they were relieved to see me go. They had loved me at first to be sure, but as I grew older I had caused no end of problems for them. I was born into this world as any other child, but my corruption soon became apparent as at the age of five I grew sleek backward curving horns from my temples, and a long thin tail sprouted from my lower back. The other villagers started harassing us, saying I was some demon spawn, questioning the morality of my parents. We had to move from village to village at first, but rumors spread quickly and everywhere we went to, our reception was the same. In the end, it grew too much to bear, and my parents sold me into slavery at the tender age of nine. I kind of understand them now, though I might wish they had come up with a different solution I was nothing but a burden to them after all.
My first master was a cruel man, he beat me mercilessly for every little mistake. I was eventually resold for a pittance of my original price, and at first, I was relieved. Life under my second master was pleasant by comparison, he only beat me when he felt I had truly erred. I thought him a fair man at first, but as I blossomed into a young woman he showed me a new side of himself. I bore his attentions silently at first, fearing punishment, but as he tried to bring me to his bed for the first time I snapped. That night had started with me playing along, pretending to enjoy my master's clumsy hands groping me, but had ended with a hairpin lodged through his throat. I can still remember the look of anger and betrayal in his eyes as he lay there, choking in his own blood.
The incident only served to worsen my situation, rape was, of course, forbidden, but the law grew hazy when it came to slaves. No one saw what happened behind closed doors, and no one believed a slave especially not one like me. My owner had been beloved by the people and had a spotless reputation to boot, the fact that I was on his jealous wife's bad side didn’t help either. I was now seen as a true criminal, deserving of my fate. The rune for dangerous had been scratched into my forehead, it still itched, the wounds have not healed fully. Should I have continued to bear my masters attentions, it would surely have been better than this, maybe I would have grown to enjoy it. That thought was wrong I knew, but my current situation seemed bleaker than ever before. Anger suddenly bubbled up within me, no one would be allowed to touch me ever again, how dare they? It was ultimately useless though, I was still a slave after all, property, nobody cared about the property, about a thing.
The wagon bounced as it cleared a hole in the dirt road we were traveling. My current master had found me a great bargain as my price had basically lowered to nothing. The wagon was full of slaves he deemed curiosities, not many people would want a slave branded as I was. Therefore we were traveling to the ends of the earth, where not many people lived. I think my master hoped my brand would be less recognizable in the untamed wildlands, where men and women both came to seek their fortune. People were less superstitious here, my horns and tail might actually drive up my price a bit if they could get past my brand. A glimmer of hope flickered through me, maybe I could be bought by someone hoping to go into the plains. These were treacherous lands, filled with monsters and though terrain, but in equal parts full of hidden treasures. I might be used as a meat shield or bait, but escaping a couple of bumbling fools would be easy in the wilds. I did not care about the treasures so much, but some coin might get me a long way on the road to freedom.
I was not allowed any personal effects anymore, they could be used as weapons apparently. While that might be true I wouldn’t try that again, I had learned the hard way to be more subtle in my rebellion. The sad excuse for clothes, basically a sack, was the only thing on my person as I sat with my legs dangling outside of the bars, watching the land go by. The wildlands truly were strange, fluctuations in the power of the land were apparently the cause of the wildly differing scenes we passed by. Everything from deep chasms to gently sloping hills absolutely covered with flowers coming in every color of the rainbow, making for a confusing carpet of shades, it almost hurt to look at for too long.
Our wagon was surrounded by a regiment of mercenaries, they would protect masters investment if we ran into any monsters or bandits I suppose. There might not be a lot of people out here, but they came from all corners of the land, no wonder some of the more shady types made it, hell I was one of them now I supposed. Could I run away and join a gang, become a bandit? I’m sure they would love some cleaning and washing, yeah right, I could see where that would go, robbed of all my belongings if not killed outright. I kicked one of the mercenaries that got to close in the back of the head in my frustration, sometimes I couldn’t help myself. He nearly lost his helmet before he caught it and turned around to glare at me. Now that I had his attention I might as well start a conversation.
“When do you think it’s grub time, Mr guard, sir?” I asked as if I hadn’t just kicked him. His face darkened as he stalked over to the bars to glare at me some more. “What’s the matter, cat got y,” I began but before I could finish, the guard's hand shot through the bars, quick as a snake, to wrap around my throat. His touch alone made me slightly nauseous, but I ignored that as he brought his face mere centimeters from mine.
“You better watch where you swing those legs little demon, or I’ll cut them off,” he growled in my face. Meanwhile, my hands were exploring his belt pouches, he had a dagger sheathed there, but I let that be as I had no place to store it. It looked like this guard didn’t have a key, or if he did he kept it closer to his chest, probably under his armor.
“Careful, don’t want to damage the master's investment,” I managed to get out as he loosened his grip. His eyes narrowed before he unsheathed the knife to poke me in the ribs.
“So what if I do, he might even thank me for it. I’ve had to listen to you prattle on for this whole trip, maybe the master feels the same, huh?” These guys needed to learn some street smarts, why were mercenaries always all up in your face? I had practically gone through all his stuff as he had been threatening me. Oo, naughty, naughty, Mr guard, sir, if I was not mistaken, that was a set of lockpicks hidden under your cloak.
“I’m pretty sure the master can decide that for himself, who do you think he will be more angry with? Me, a slave, who was being a little cheeky, who he’ll be rid of in a couple of days anyway, or you a mercenary, who he hired, paying actual gold, to guard his wares, the mercenary who went against his direct orders and damaged his merchandise?” I wiggled my eyebrows at him as I unhooked one of the picks and sat on it. “How about that grub, huh? Do me a favor and make sure my gruel is free of flies this time, thank you,” he growled at me again as he seemed about to say something before thinking better of it, he let me go to stalk off to the front of the wagon train, no doubt to make a report to the master, and not to indulge my request… probably.
“You should not antagonize them so, it will leave you in big trouble one of these days,” one of the other slaves said to my side, I turned to see a middle-aged man sitting there, his brows knit in concern. He had a big purple birthmark covering half his face, but still, that was one of the tamer looking ones. The slaves in this wagon had every ethnicity you could think of, and they all had something that made them weird or special, none was weirder than me though.
“I’m already in big trouble, have you not noticed the scar on my forehead yet?” I gestured to the ugly thing, the man's eyes flicked to it briefly, but other than that he gave no reaction.
“Yes, I could not help but notice, it’s pretty obvious, as is your other… shall we say assets,” he was no doubt referring to my horns and tail. “Life as a slave is already hard enough, why you need to make it harder I don’t understand?”
“I don’t plan on being a slave for very long,” I said under my breath, but the man heard me anyway.
“Ha, and how do you plan on achieving that?” I was about to shove the little lockpick I had stolen in the man's face, but he interrupted me. “No, don’t tell me I don’t want any part of it, besides, with that brand on your forehead you will never know a moment's peace for the rest of your life.” The man went to sit on the other side of the wagon after that, leaving me speechless. It was true that my scars would be a problem, but I couldn’t just accept my fate, or could I? Was all this for nothing? What would I do once I escaped? It was true that the runes were not well known out here, but more and more people migrated to the wildlands every year. Someone would eventually arrive that could read runes, I would just have to cover them up. What about my master though, he might travel to bring more goods to sell, but he wouldn’t just forget about me, a girl with horns and a tail was pretty hard to forget after all. I could live in the wilderness, away from people, but I had no experience in such things. Bah, all I knew was that I had to keep trying, eventually, someone like my previous master would arrive, and I would be powerless to stop them. I could not go through that again, I wouldn’t allow it.
The sun was beginning its journey towards evening, and the wagons stopped by the side of the road, making a protective circle around a campsite that would be set up. The master approached then, a couple of guards in tow with buckets of water, and a steaming pot of gruel. The guards surrounded the wagon, holding out long poles to the slaves so we could get a drink, all except me. As the guards handed the other slaves their bowls of food the master took a step forward but stood far enough away that I couldn’t reach him.
“My dear little devil, I had thought you would see this as a chance to try again, a new beginning if you will,” Demozas was his real name, and he smiled as he talked, but it did not reach his eyes. “With all the trouble and risk I went through when I bought you, my investment might not be returned you know. You ought to be grateful, there’s no telling what sort of scum would have bought you if I hadn’t been there,” Demozas was a slightly pudgy man, not overly fat, the sort of man everyone seemed to get along with. I had not had any reason to hate this man yet, other than the fact he was a slaver, but when the smile left his face, there was only emptiness there, and I shivered under his gaze. “And yet you harass my guards, from what I hear you physically assaulted one of my best men today, one would almost think you are not a proper obedient slave.” My tongue seemed to have a life of its own sometimes, but I could not be fully blamed this time, Demozas was asking for it.
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“When is it?” I asked innocently, catching Demozas off guard.
“When is what?” The slaver asked.
“The wedding?”
"Wh, what wedding, have you gone insane to boot?”
“I just thought that since he’s your best man there must be a wedding soon, am I invited?” Demozas palmed his own face and massaged his temples before he answered.
“I don’t really know if that is a silver tongue you have there, or simply that of a serpent for all the trouble it causes. Maybe we should cut it out and find out, it might actually raise your value,” mouthing off to the master might not be a good idea.
“I’m sorry master, you know me, my mouth runs away from me sometimes,” I said hurriedly, I would just need to appear obedient until tonight, then I would escape. Demozas eyed me suspiciously for a moment before he spoke.
“Tell me you are my obedient slave, and we’ll see,” rage and indignation rose up within me, but I didn’t let the feelings show on my face. I could do this, they were only words, but I still had some pride left it seemed, and though it rankled I forced the words out, making them sound sincere.
“I am your obedient slave, master,” the words left my lips, but I did not mean them. Some of my feelings must have escaped showing on my face for Demozas laughed and said.
“You are not a very good liar little slave,” I was worried he would take my tongue, but he shrugged and walked away as if forgetting the whole conversation. “Ah well it doesn’t matter, tomorrow I’ll be rid of you.” He pitched his voice higher, speaking to his guards. “Make sure she is fed and watered I want her in top condition for the auction, tomorrow we’ll be rising bright and early I don’t want to miss my meeting.”
Tomorrow? We were that close already? I would need to decide if I would try to escape tonight or not, being sold would make it harder, but I didn’t know if I could just disappear into the wilds and survive on my own. In the end, the decision was made for me in the form of an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up. A pack of goblins attacked, managing to catch the guards off guard, they even overturned one of the carts laden with goods. In the confusion, I got out my pick and quickly started working on the padlock to the carriage. It popped open with a click and I sprang from the cage, sprinted past the fighting mercenaries and I was free of the circle of wagons. I was elated, it had actually worked, now I needed to find a safe place to hunker down in. My elation didn’t last long however as I heard the sound of pounding hooves rapidly approaching from behind. I looked back to see the guard I had kicked riding me down, horses, why didn’t I think of that? Beyond him, I could see that the fighting had stopped. I might have underestimated the guards a bit, they had been taken by surprise, but once they had gotten organized the goblins were defeated easily.
The guard caught up and scooped me up to plant me in front of him on the horse. “Nice try little demon, but I got a tip that you might try something,” I jumped in surprise and the guard laughed as he explained, gloating. “You can thank one of your fellow slaves for this, once I offered a reward he was very eager to spill your secrets,” but the only one I had talked to was the old man with the birthmark, it couldn’t be true. Was he so content with being a slave that he would snitch for some lousy reward? As the guard brought us back, I saw the slave standing by the master completely unrestrained. I met his eyes and he smirked at me, so it was true then, he had done it. As I watched Demozas handed him a glass bottle, he had done it for some lousy booze, condemned me to slavery so he could get drunk. The guard dismounted the horse and threw me down in front of the master.
“I think some discipline is in order,” the master said as I struggled to my knees. “Grog, give her twenty lashings with the whip, but don’t break the skin, I don’t want to completely ruin her for the auction.” I shuddered at the words, I was well acquainted with the whip and even though they wouldn’t draw blood the pain could last for days.
“Gladly,” the guard, Grog, laughed as he hauled me off to the slave wagon. “Come on, little demon, this is long overdue, and we might as well make an example of you.” He pushed me against the bars and tied my hands to them over my head with a thick rope. He used his knife to cut away the pathetic excuse they gave us to wear, as I stood there in all my nakedness, feeling embarrassed, completely unable to cover myself, I looked at the other slaves. Most of them were sympathetic, giving me looks of pity or trying to comfort me until I met the eyes of the snitch. He gave me a sneer as his eyes traveled up and down my body, then he gave me a toast, lifting his eyebrows as he took a long pull from the bottle. This, fucking, bastard.
“Hey! Shit face, what is your name?” The man scowled as I asked this, then he grinned and answered, slurring the words.
“It’s Hamda, why? Trying to remember me?”
“Yes actually, I want to carve it into your chest before I gut you like the useless animal you are,” the first crack of the whip landed on my skin then I flinched, but managed to not cry out. I could see my words had affected Hamda, he must have heard some rumors of what happened to my previous master. We stared at each other as the blows landed with agonizing pain. Waiting for the next blow to land made it even worse, but I managed to keep from making a sound. hatred burned in my gaze, this man and all the others who have hurt me would pay for what they had done. It might not happen anytime soon, but I would find a way somehow. Hamda scoffed and turned away from me, washing all his worries away with alcohol. My eyes bore into his back, the rage helping me deal with the pain, the last lash finally came and despite myself, I cried out in pain, it landed on a particularly tender area and it grew too much. I leaned against the bars with my forehead and took long ragged breaths into my lungs, the air felt good, it was finally over.
My eyes finally left the old man’s back, my rage leaving me as they traveled to the other slaves. The looks I received were strange, most of them quickly looked away as I tried to meet their gaze as if they couldn’t bear to look at me. Were they afraid of me? No, this was something else.
“They are ashamed,” a man in the cage said, he didn’t look away from me, in fact, he smiled at me when he had my attention. What was unique about him was that instead of normal ears, he had what appeared to be a pair of fluffy rabbits ears, but other than that he was completely normal. “You remind them that they aren’t simply animals, to be used and obey, that they are people.”
“And what about you,” I asked, noticing that he had talked about the other slaves and not himself.
“Me? Oh, I already knew that” his smile grew to a grin then, but before I could answer Grog cut my bindings and led me away. Everyone in camp kept staring at me, at first I thought it was because I was naked, but the looks weren’t lecherous or even admiring, they were more like looks of awe. Grog even had a look of something like respect in his eyes as he handed me a new sack to wear, even if it was grudging.
“Everybody, get back to your duties,” Demozas ordered, and the weird atmosphere that had arisen dissipated as everyone got back to preparing for the night. “You little trouble maker, you couldn’t just take your punishment could you,” the master spat, veins popped out on his throat as he growled at me. “I’ll be glad to be rid of you,” he stalked of then, to go scream at someone else, no doubt.
My hands were tied to a pole away from the slave wagon, closer to where the guards slept. I was left out there in the night, sleep was hard to come by in an upright position, but I managed it in fits and starts. It felt like only moments later when someone kicked me awake, I blinked my eyes blearily looking up, the sun was barely peeking over the horizon. Grog was the one who had kicked me awake, he tied a long rope to my hands, and I was left to walk behind his horse as the wagon train continued its journey.
I was forced to keep up a slight jog as Grog kept tugging at the rope as soon as he felt I was going too slow. So as our destination came into sight I was exhausted, the first outpost of the wildlands looked more like a large collection of tents than anything else. It had the skeletons of houses being built, and a road main road with smaller paths splitting of looked to have been built, there were wooden watch towers, but no wall had been built yet. The wagons rolled into town and into the center square, where various stalls had been set up, merchants hawking their wares. All of Demozas’ slaves were led up to an upraised platform, even me, and signs with our asking prices were hung around our necks. Potential buyers would come forth to inspect us, even going so far as to open our mouths to look at our teeth for whatever reason. All activity stopped as a figure approached from the other side of the square. I couldn’t believe my eyes as the figure became clear, and there were gasps of astonishment from people all around as they thought the same.
It was a Naga, her upper body was that of an absolutely stunning woman, she wasn’t wearing much, mostly embroidered silk wrapped around her torso. Instead of legs, the woman had a long sinuous snake tale coiled underneath her. The Naga had first appeared a couple of years ago, it was said they came from a remote island, but not many people made it to their villages due to the harsh terrain and vicious monsters that lived there. Not many of them would leave their home, so to see one on the mainland was practically unheard of. Demozas was visibly nervous, but none the less he stepped forward to meet the woman. He bowed to her, and the Nagas slit pupils quickly flicked over my master before running over his slaves. She sneered then, and her fangs became exposed as she turned back to Demozas to practically glare at the man.
“Enough with the formalities,” she hissed, “let’s get this over with.”
“Yes, of course, honored Lezuz, I have the payment, do you have the item?” Demozas said as he rose from his bow, he made a gesture and two of his guards came forth carrying a chest absolutely overflowing with gold.
“I still don’t get what value you mainlanders see in this useless metal,” the Naga scoffed. “But yes, I have the item,” she reached into the folds wrapping her body and produced a brilliant ball of glowing white light. She let it go and it stayed there as if stock in mid-air. “I’ll assume our business is concluded then,” the Naga said as she lifted the chest full of gold effortlessly of the ground.
“Yes, yes, concluded,” the look of greed that had briefly entered Demozas’ gaze returned as he kept staring at the floating object. He reached out a hand to touch it but it passed right through. “Wh, what is this? It was supposed to,” Demozas sounded confused, the Naga only looked at him flatly.
“I have upheld my end, it is not my fault you are weak,” she said and turned to leave the way she had come.
“Y-you tricked me somehow!” Demozas almost shrieked, “guards, kill her,” as the order was given three of my master’s mercenaries charged the Naga, with shields raised and swords drawn. The snake woman turned and even with her hands full she almost effortlessly battered aside the charging guards, they went flying to crash into one of Demozas’ wagons. “Archers,” he bellowed then, but nothing happened. “Archers, what do I pay you for? Shoot her down,” Demozas went still and quiet as he noticed what his bowmen had, from the Nagas’ upraised hand flickered a flame.
“Stop this foolishness now, little merchant or I’ll burn this whole place down to the ground, you included,” the Naga threatened and by the way, my master’s face paled he believed she could do it. This was true power, to be able to do what you wanted without anyone standing against you. If I was like her, no one could touch me, no one would care about the scars on my forehead. Strong, I needed to get strong before I could be truly free. Before I could change my mind I lept from the little stage and with my hands still tied I pushed my master to the side and threw myself at the glowing ball of light. I crashed into the ground, but I didn’t feel any pain, all I felt was warmth as the ball was sucked into me, it spread through my whole body before fading. Words and numbers flickered in my vision but they disappeared as Demozas’ face entered my vision, he was furious, his face had turned completely red.
“Congratulations, you’ve just made yourself irreplaceable,” his voice was calm and controlled despite his appearance, he gestured to someone on the side and a fist slammed into my face, the world around me went black.