Four years earlier

Leaves crunch and twigs snap under their feet as two kobolds furiously race through the forest, leaping over fallen logs and ducking under branches as they pant and gasp to catch their breath.

“Oh god, oh god—“ a fifteen-year-old Apple whips around to see three city guards in the distance carrying nets and catch poles tearing the forest apart trying to find something, “I don’t know how much longer I can do this, August…”

She leans forward, hands on her knees as she takes several sharp, weary breaths. A reddish-orange kobold about a year older than her and dressed in second-rate handmade leather armor rushes over to keep her from falling, his eyes filled with fear and worry.

“I know… I can hardly breathe…” his eyes grow wide as he hears a nearby rustle in the leaves, and he grabs Apple and pulls her into a nearby bush, “Shh— quiet!”

Apple clenches her chest as she strains to hide her panting breaths, fearfully looking over at August with tears welling up in her eyes. They crouch and listen as the guards search logs and trees for any signs of them.

“Where the hell did they get off to? You said you saw them go this way, so where are they?” An older guard with a scar across his face forcefully steps towards another guard — a young man of about nineteen with blonde hair and a single earring — towering over him as the young man trembles.

“I don’t know, okay — just calm down! I’m sure we’ll find them soon, they can’t hide forever!” He nervously throws his hands in the air as he backs away from the older guard, leaves crunching beneath his feet, “We’ll just wait it out and eventually they’ll have to— ack!”

The younger man piercingly coughs out as the older guard shoved him back against a tree, pinning him up with his arm as he spits into his face. The third guard desperately rushes between them before being bashed onto the ground with a heavy kick of the guard’s steel boots. He looks at the scarred man with pleading eyes, “Tyron, calm down! He’s not lying, I saw them go this way too!”

At this, Tyron drops the younger man into the dirt as he whips around and steps towards the third guard and stomps towards him with rage in his eyes.

“What did you say to me, rookie?” He seizes the man by the throat and violently jerks him up into the air, staring him in the eyes with cruelty, “Do you have any fucking clue who you’re talking to, you expendable arrow sponge?”

Apple and August wince as the man crashes into the ground and rolls into the bush that they hide in, “Don’t move!” August pulls Apple close as he grits his teeth and his heart races out of his chest.

The blonde guard reaches a shaky hand out towards them, desperately trying to speak but finding himself paralyzed as Tyron draws a gladius from his side and prods it against the man’s throat.

“It’s a shame ‘ol Adrian over there is here with us. If it was just you an’ me, we coulda’ pretend none of this ever happened,” Tyron smirks as tears begin to form in the corners of the poor man’s eyes, “But given he’s a rookie like you, I’m afraid I’m gonna have to make an example of what happens when insubordinate greenhorns think they know better than their superiors…”

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“N-no— wait!”the third guard, a brown-haired man looking to be around his early thirties, desperately pleads with Tyron through the few weak breaths he can manage to get out, “T-Tyron! W-we can work this out!”

“Afraid there ain’t nothing to work out, ol’ friend…” Tyron lightly drags the blade down the pleading guard’s throat before bringing it to his waist and gently lifting up the bottom of his shirt with it, tracing it along his navel.

“Nnghhhh…” Apple clenches to August tightly as she whimpers with fear. Softly, he pulls her into his chest to block her field of view and looks back out to watch the scene unfold.

“Don’t look, Apple…”

The silence is broken by a mind-breaking shriek as Tyron drives the blade into the poor man’s stomach, twisting and curdling it as his eyes roll back in his head and blood pours from his mouth, disemboweling the man completely before discarding his lifeless corpse to rot like a festering animal.

The predator and his prey both painted in crimson red from head to toe, Tyron turns to the younger man under the tree as he wipes the blood from his sword.

“You breathe a word about this to anyone, it’ll be your gut next.”

His eyes wide from shock and his body trembling with horror, the young man breaks from his trance with a skittish nod as he chokes out just a few labored words, “Y-yes sir! O-of course, sir! Whatever you say, sir!”

“Good, now get your ass up and let’s go find tho—” Tyron’s attention is quickly diverted by the shaking of a small, orange object poking out from beneath a nearby bush. With a devilish grin, he snaps up August by the tail, ripping him out of hiding as he kicks and screams

“NO, GODDAMMIT! Let me go!” August swats and bites at Tyron’s arms to no avail as the guard simply laughs. Another shriek is heard as he brutally twists August’s arms behind his back and binds them in cold, steel shackles.

“AUGUST, NO!” Apple frantically leaps out of the bush as Tyron finishes chaining August and gagging him by the throat.

“Adrian, seize her!” Tyron points to Apple as he forcibly restrains August against his chest and dashes towards a cart in the distance bearing several bound kobolds in its wooden bed.

Adrian scrambles to his feet as he bounds towards a cowering Apple, shaking in his boots as he speaks, “I— I’m sorry about this…”

The wind is knocked out of her as Adrian tackles her to the ground, binding her arms and legs before reaching for a gag in his pocket.

“Y-you don’t have to do this! P-please… please let us go!” Apple begs through teary eyes as Adrian quakes, barely managing to hold onto the gag as he brings it towards her mouth.

“I’m really sorry—” his voice is breathy and timid, “I swear… I really am…” he grits his teeth and screws his eyes as he forces the gag around her mouth. He winces and turns away as Apple stares up at him with crying, terrified eyes. His arms tremble as he carries her, firm so that she won’t escape but gently enough that he doesn’t cause undue harm.

Apple curls up in a defeated ball as she hears him sniffle and whimper. She can feel his heart race and his hands quiver as she’s taken out of the forest, and somehow in spite of everything, she finds herself almost beginning to feel bad for him.

She’s gently set in the slave cart as Adrian wipes his tears and climbs into the seat next to Tyron. He looks askance, trying his best to hide his pain from Tyron as the latter cracks the whip and the horses begin to race.

Apple and August look at each other with pained, hollow eyes as the reality of their situation begins to dawn on them. The sun sets behind them as the cart arrives at the city gates and the two men dismount.

Tyron tosses the slaves into smaller wagons as they’re separated out by gender, and Apple stares into August’s scared, crying eyes one last time before seeing him carted away into the cold stone walls of the city, and she jumps as she feels two hands wrap around her. Whipping around to find Adrian lifting her out of the cart and placing her with the rest of the kobold girls, he stops for a moment as he begins walking away and looks back with weary eyes, mouthing one final sentence to her before climbing into the seat of the girls’ slave cart,

“I’m so sorry…”