A bright summer morning in a small town, filled with the laughter of children playing in the roads and the light sound of wind blowing through the trees surrounding the town. Despite the small size of the town, it is still filled with the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life. The town filled with people carrying baskets of food and clothing, shop owners trying to gain the attention of passersby, and simple parents peacefully watching their kids play in the streets. As the children play the parent’s mouths are curled into smiles, as the parents watch the children one of the children suddenly stops and-” CLANG!” The sound appears to silence the entire town as many of the adults look deeply unsettled by something, acting as if an overcast has suddenly covered their hearts. Every inhabitant looks towards the empty entrance of the town when another “CLANK!” is heard. Upon the sounds of the noises becoming louder and more frequent the hustle and bustle of the town is replaced with a sudden urgency to get inside: parents usher their children into their homes before locking the doors, merchants close up shop and shut the curtains, and the many people in the streets quickly disperse. As the sounds get closer it becomes clear what the noise is, the sound of rattling chains, hundreds of chains rattling at once. As the sound of clanking chains and rickety wagons riding across the dirt roads finally enters the town it is finally clear what the sounds are coming from. The Chained-Ones come in all shapes and sizes: tall, skinny, muscular, young, old, children, with many even having animal limbs on their bodies such as ears, tails, or most commonly random patches of fur across their body.
The chained are led into different tents depending on their race, age, and physical strength. While the chained are given temporary rest in the tents; the ones in the caged wagons appear sick and weak as they are hauled down the winding roads through the town’s desolate streets, long cleared out upon the sound of chains, for fear of becoming just like them.
Inside one of the tents sits a young girl no older than twelve rubbing her beet red blister covered feet. Her hands cracked and dirty from some time of neglect. Because of the dirt it is hard to tell whether the girl’s hair is naturally a dark red or simply has been discolored by dirt and grime; the hair is rather long as well, reaching close to her ankles and partially covering her face. Albeit hard to see at a surface glance, a keen eye would notice the slight pokes of black tipped orange hair at the top of her head, they are animal-like ears, resembling what appears to be a red fox’s ears. She is rather uneasy while sitting on the wooden chair, her tail causing her to awkwardly sit cockeyed as she lightly shakes from the pain in her feet. Her dark forest green eyes behind the thick red hair appear listless and lifeless: more closely resembling a corpse’s than a living person.
The other children, mostly “beast-people” like the girl, but some not, look just as depressed as the girl. Many shivering in fear, while others crying in the arms another, and many with red puffy eyes; all wondering the same thing “Why?” Suddenly a rotund man wearing a shiny black leather coat and dark pants enter the room. As soon as the children notice his existence, they go silent, an action that appears to have been distilled into them with fear as shown by the many pain stricken and hate filled glares despite their continued silence.
As the man walks in front of the children he speaks, his voice nasally and rough “I’m so happy today you little runts. You want’a know why?” The man gives a sickening smile as he rubs his hands together before speaking again “I’ll answer for you seeing as how you are all too slow to understand basic human speech. As you are common-borne roaches from the zoo kingdom. I am so happy today because today is the day I finally sell you overgrown roaches off! Today is the day where you all will live the rest of your miserable existences with some highborn and more importantly. The day where I get filthy rich because of you pitiful things!” The man’s voice filled with excitement and condescension towards the many children before him as he walks around animatedly while he speaks. “And I’m telling you zoo animals this, so you are on your best behavior. Because if you mess up even a single sale! Lose me a single coin and I’ll beat you so bad your whole body will look like a mers!” The man laughed, if you could even call it laughter. His mouth was joyously open, but his smile did not reach his eyes, and the sound was a poor imitation of the real thing.
Suddenly the sound of a bell toll reverberates across the town as the man’s smile grows even wider “Now remember those words insects.” The man says as he turns and leaves, leaving the dejected children alone in the tent. One of the children, a small, skinny girl with dark black hair equally as long and unkempt as the red-haired girl with similarly shaped ears at the top of her head as well, the only difference being her ears are a dark black like her hair rather than a lighter orange; sits on the floor slightly distancing herself from the other children.
The midnight haired girl while sitting on the dirt floor suddenly says with a rather somber and depressive tone “We aren’t ever going home, are we? I miss you mom...” Her voice is weak and fragile while she calls to her mother. The other children look in her direction, but most decide to ignore her, except for one. Another young girl with a head of hair similar to a fluffy cloud and a tail of the same appearance with a noticeable lack of dirt and grime when compared to the other children walks up to the dark-haired girl and slightly crouches down. She stares into the jet-black haired girl’s dark amethyst-colored eyes. The black-haired girl stares back into the intruder’s light pink eyes questioningly before the cloud haired girl’s soft melodious voice rings through the tent “I know how you feel... But you can’t lose hope so soon. We...” Her voice breaks as she speaks “We can still make this better. We are still alive which means that there is still hope.” As the girl speaks another voice escapes from the crowd “What's the point of hope when we all know what's going to happen next? We are going to be shipped off to who knows where, sold to some rich geezer and live a life of servitude.”
The white-haired girl turns around before saying lightly as her hands tighten into fists “We don’t know that yet... Maybe our parents will save us. Maybe a nice stranger will save us. As long as we are alive there is always hope for a better life!” Her voice gets progressively louder and more resolute as she speaks. The voice, coming from a young orange haired boy looks at her before simply shaking his head and saying dejectedly, “There's no point in hope. Hope no longer exists after my last master gave this to me for not walking fast enough.” He says in revulsion his tone laced with venom while he pulls up his sleeve to show a large scar on his right shoulder. The girl stares at him before looking down and whispering some words so softly not a soul in the room heard it. The boy looks as if he's about to say something when suddenly armored guards walk into the room and yell with hoarse voices “In line NOW!” All of the children get into line silently as the guards rechain their hands and tell them to go outside. The now chained children are brought down some stone stairs that send chills through their shoeless feet with every step and walk into a dark room where they are stopped and told to wait. The knights start to seemingly grab the children at random and take them away, some of the children silently go along, while others kick and scream, as the remaining ones are left to wonder when they are next.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Eventually all that remains is four children, three girls and one boy, curiously all of them appear to be fox-people. They are the same girls mentioned before, and the boy has dark grey shoulder-length hair with a similar pair of green eyes as the original girl. They also all look rather malnourished with ghostly pale skin; the boy being the only one with a slight tan. As the four wait another knight comes, but unlike the others who wore plain iron armor this one has a blue gem inserted onto the top of his gauntlet and his chestpiece is engraved with what appears to be a golden sun. As his mouth opens an inhuman and cold voice echoes out through the halls, “You four are a package. Come.” The children wonder what that means as they follow the man through the dark stony halls. The soldier brings them to a large ornate door, with golden engravings lining the edges and five figures etched into it’s wooden surface. The right side displays a roughly humanoid figure whose lower body flows into a river. The one to the left of the flowing one appears to be a mountain with a woman’s face on it, the next one is a tree in the shape of a human, and the last one to the left appears to be a woman made of webs. Finally, there is a sun that resides above the rest and a human figure within that sun.
The knight knocks on the door and someone from the other side pulls open the large door. A blue light leaks out as the door creaks open and finally reveals the room beyond. It is a dark hall with four columns reaching up into a dark void, the walls are lined with small blue gems just like the one in the knight’s gauntlet. The path forward has a silky red carpet with what appears to be words engraved with gold, but none of the children recognize what the strange symbols mean, and at the end of the hall lies a simple stone pedestal with a stone bowl on top and a strange woman stands behind the pedestal. The woman has golden blonde hair and wears a white cloth veil that covers her eyes with golden lines on all the edges and another blue gem that resides in the middle of the veil. She wears a short-sleeved white dress with white gloves that cover her hands and stop before the elbow; the ends of the dress are highlighted with a light blue and a light blue eye is drawn on the chest of the woman’s dress. As the kids stop just before the altar the woman’s ears start to glow a faint blue. The light seems to cascade from golden ear cuffs wrapping around the outer edge of her ear like a vine wrapped around a tree that drops at the earlobe into a blue gem on both ears. As the light slowly fades the woman’s ethereal almost unnatural voice softly moves through the large room, the voice being the same volume regardless of distance, “They all have affinity towards World Energy and the one in the middle” The woman points at the red-haired girl “Has an affinity for internal energy as well.” The children are bemused by the woman’s comments but stay silent in fear of retribution. The woman’s melodic voice moves through the room once again, “What are your names children?”
They stay silent for a few seconds before the gray boy speaks up cautiously, fear evident in his voice, “Ma-M-My name is Fang.” He stutters. The black-haired girl speaks next with a little more confidence than Fang but her voice still soft, “I am Hollie.” Next the red-haired girl speaks up “My name is Kumiho.” The white-haired girl speaks last and most confidently, “My name is Sune.” The woman smiles, her smile nothing like the man from before, a smile that radiated warmth and love, “Such beautiful names you all have. I’m sorry if that man has treated you poorly, but he is the best smuggler willing to work with-CRASH!” A loud noise reverberates through the hall as the four children turn around to see a man with silvery hair and glowing blue eyes.
The knight upon seeing the man draws his sword and dashes with inhuman speed towards the man. As the knight goes to severe the strange man’s head from his body the knight’s right hand suddenly disappears and the sound of iron clanking to the ground resonates through the hall; the sword now on the ground stained in a pool of blood. As the knight clutches where his hand used to be the strange man grabs his head and the knight’s body suddenly explodes into a mist of red, covering the floor and his fallen armor in blood. The strange man continues to walk; the left side of his body now drenched in the fallen knight’s blood. The man stops a little ways away from the children and stares coolly at the priestess before saying, “Wow you zealots sure have been busy. I see you’re getting rather desperate as well to start resorting to using children.” The man’s voice is casual but is tinged with anger at the mention of the children.
“And who are you to question the acts of God?” The woman tries to speak coldly back but her anger is thinly veiled. The man responds just as casually as before, “If what you are doing is an action our Gods allow. I don’t think I want to worship them.” As the man finishes his sentence, he suddenly disappears and appears behind the priestess. “Sorry you have to see this kids.” He says remorsefully as his right hand grabs the back of the priestess’s head and many-colored lights suddenly emit from his hand; wrapping around the woman like the many strings of a spider’s web wrapping around its prey. As the lights fully encase her a bright light flashes and all that remains when sight is restored is a pool of red and a scarlet painted dress in front of the man.
The midnight-haired girl, Hollie, slowly backs away with her mouth agape and her body shaking in fear as her black tail whips wildly back and forth to the same rhythm of her beating heart. The cloud-haired girl, Sune’s entire body is frozen in fear as her hands grip the ends of her shirt and her white fox ears flatten. While the grey-haired boy, Fang, averts his eyes from the bloody scene and as he does notices the red-haired girl, Kumiho, walking towards the man. His eyes widen in surprise as he reaches his hand out and takes a step forward yelling, “Wait stop!” Kumiho ignores him and continues walking, her tail slowly moving behind her. As she reaches the man, she simply looks up at him. The man’s glowing blue eyes slowly dim as his hand reaches forward to touch her forehead. Kumiho knowing what happened to the others upon his touch, stiffens and closes her eyes shut. While engulfed in darkness waiting for the inevitability of her end, she suddenly feels her body engulfed in warmth. Not an uncomfortable warmth but a soothing one. As the warmth spreads through her body, she feels all her aches and pains go away. Her feet that had long since gone numb to the cold suddenly regain feeling, her body feels light, and she feels her lost strength returning to her.
As she opens her eyes and looks down at her hands, she sees them free of grime and dirt. She grabs a piece of her hair noticing that it as well has been cleaned and returned to it’s natural reddish-orange hue. She looks up at the man tears in her eyes and hugs him, not knowing what else to say, but “Thank you.” The man’s arms awkwardly move away from the girl as he looks down at her, obviously not expecting the action. After a moment of hesitation his body glows a dim light and all the blood coating him disappears as he lightly pats the head of the girl. The other children at first terrified from seeing Kumiho be surrounded in the same strange light as the now dead priestess are filled with a sudden wave of relief and happiness at seeing her healthy form hug the man. Relief that Kumiho is alive, and from the knowledge that someone has finally come to save them in their time of need.