Soren awoke to the sound and smell of his mother making breakfast. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he sat up and threw off the worn, musky sheet that was more a comfort than a necessity in the warm months of summer.

Squinting, Soren threw on yesterday's t-shirt and pants and slipped his feet into his work sandals.

It was a day just like all the others, which is to say, a dull one. Stepping out of his room, Soren made his way downstairs to empty his bladder and fill his belly.

“Morning mother” he called as he passed her, stepping outside to relieve himself.

“Breakfast is on the table, you best hurry, suns already up and you know how Thalor gets when you're late”, she replied.

“Thalor is always mad, it doesn’t matter if i’m late or not” said Soren.

“Yes but last time you were late, Thalor had you lugging logs for near a mile. You looked like a dead man walking by the time the sun had set, and you ate through half the next days rations”.

Soren was a woodworker, or, more accurately, he cut down trees and lugged them to the big carts that were ferried of to Aerionthor. It was gruelling, boring work and Soren hated it. Well, it wasn’t so much the work he hated, more the working conditions.

His town, Tarwin, was one of many that was under the dominion of the Aviorian people, and to say that they were unfriendly would be a slight understatement.

Soren and his fellow Tarwinians were treated more like slaves than people. They worked 6 days on, 1 day off, and they worked from sunrise until sunset. Summer was, unsurprisingly, the worst months of the year as the days were longer and hotter.

“I’m a growing boy, mother, I always eat a lot”

“Hmm, quite. Your 19 now though, nearly 20, at some point you’ll have to stop eating so much or your belly will swell and you’ll struggle to swing an axe”

“Well mother, if you stop making such delicious food then maybe, just maybe, i’ll stop eating so much”

Soren's mother was a farmer, she worked the fields and tended to the livestock. Today was her day off though, so she had cooked a special breakfast of eggs, bread and carrots.

That’s what most people in Tarwin did, either farm or cut wood. It was what the Aviorian people had asked them to start work on some 25 years ago and they’d been doing it ever since.

“Oh quit your flattery and eat up, come on, you’ll be late”

Wolfing down the last of his breakfast, Soren bid his mother goodbye, pecking her on the cheek, grabbed his axe and headed out the door to start his walk to the morning's muster point.

The day was hot and sticky already, the air thick and muggy. Soren and his mother lived on the outskirts of Tarwin, some sixty other houses lined the stretch of dirt they called their street.

Normally, if Soren was on time, which wasn’t that normal actually, he’d join the flow of people making their way to the day's muster point. Today though, the sun was already rising high in the sky and the street was quiet.

Shit, he thought, I really am late.

Soren swung his axe over his shoulder and set off at a light jog, heading north towards the base of the mountain that was today's muster point.

He’d be expected to gather there with the other 30 Tarwinian people that made up wing c. There, they’d be divided up into groups of 3 and sent out in different directions to fell trees and gather logs.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Soren made his way past the last house on his street, and steered his way through the barren forest of stumps, the handy work of his fellows, while he looked up at the mountain above to check he was on the right course.

I really hope its Thalor today he thought. If its anyone else then my day is about to get a whole lot worse.

Thalor was their usual wing distributor. He was a firm but fair, well, fair for the Aviorian people anyway, and he sometimes turned a blind eye to any late stragglers as long as they put in a hard day's work.

As Soren crested a small rise, just past the edge of the stump line, he caught sight of a black shape just dipping down below the tree line exactly in the direction he was heading.

Strange thought Soren, its been a while since I’ve seen one of those big birds

As he drew closer to the line of trees he started to make out shapes of people gathered in a large group, just inside the treeline in a small clearing. This wasn’t unusual, it was in fact completely normal as this was typically how their days started when they were given their tree cutting directions.

What was strange however was the 4 people that stood above the others, addressing them directly. Soren could just about make out the sound of a woman speaking, the faint caw of birds making her words hard to discern from this distance.

“...not good enough! You think we like coming all the way down here to stare at you mongrels? No! I could be at home right now, a nice warm fire keeping me toasty, but instead I get sent down to this shit hole to shout at you worthless lot”

The larger man to the right of the women speaking, stepped forward, his bearded face a mask, his sausage fingers gripping his club.

“Would any of you care to explain why you were down 5 percent on your wood quota last month?” said the big man.

Silence met his words, the gathered people keeping their heads bowed.

“No? Surely one of you is bold enough to speak up, or are you all as pitiful as you look?”

Again no one spoke. Soren was closer now, nearing the back of the gathered people. He tried to step subtly, hoping to blend into the crowd as if he had always been there.

“Well well well, what do we have here then?” he heard the women up front say.

“A late comer. Care to explain what kept you? Perhaps you can explain why you all seem incapable of cutting down enough trees”.

Soren, was at the back of the group now, he stood not replying, hoping she’d move on.

The women gestured to the smaller man on her left, “get him” she said.

The smaller man sprung forward like a coiled snake, barging through the crowd to grasp Soren by the scruff of his neck and haul him up front. The man tossed him to the ground at the woman's feet.

She crouched, staring at Soren’s face “i’ll ask again, why are you worthless pieces of shit not chopping enough wood?”

“I… I… I don’t know” stuttered Soren.

And that was the truth, he really didn’t know. No one actually told them what their quota was. All they were told was to chop and carry wood from sunrise until sunset and that is what Soren did.

Rising, the woman smiled, and pulled back her leg to deliver a vicious kick into Soren's ribs.

“Is it because you lazy lackwits turn up way past Sunrise? Or are you just too weak to swing an axe all day” she asked, as she drew back her leg again and Kicked Soren square in the nose, blood spraying forth to land on the bare feet of the gathered workers near the front.

Rolling over and spitting out blood, Soren tried to rise.

“Oh no you don’t, you stay in the dirt where you belong” said the bigger man stepping forward as he drove his club across the back of Soren’s legs, making him tumble forward back in the dirt.

“I don’t know!” screamed Soren.

“Well then, since you can’t tell me why and none of your friends here can either, i’m just going to assume your all too weak and pathetic to manage it” said the woman.

Stepping forward and crouching close to Soren again, she shouted so everyone could hear “it looks like you all need to toughen up a bit! And there’s only one way to do that, some good solid hard work!”

Stepping back to stand shoulder to shoulder with the larger bearded man, she looked at him and nodded.

“We’ve decided to extend today's shift. You won’t be getting any sleep tonight, you’ll be working all through the night and into tomorrow's day to make up for your uselessness. Alaric here is going to hang around to make sure none of you decide to slack off”

“If any of you do get ideas about not working… well it's probably easier to show you all” she beamed.

“Alaric would you please”

Grinning, the big bearded man stepped towards Soren, raised his club and brought it down in a vicious blow across the side of Sorens head.

Soren squeezed his eyes shut at the last moment, and then his whole world went dark.