The rustling of the inside of the sand wagon brought a slight smile to the man's dreary face.

It could only mean one thing, sleeping beauty had finally woke up.

Steps, tired, and sluggish as he made his way through the sand to the entrance of the sand wagon.

Slowly he opened the door and light flooded the darkness.

…

‘Huh?’ Kou thought as he noticed his boundings, the only sight that greeted him was darkness.

‘Where am i?’ thoughts surged forth like a endless dam that had just burst.

Suddenly light filled the darkness, blinding, light.

“Ahh!” Kou cried out in pain as he used his hands to cover his eyes.

Standing at the entrance of a door, was the man referred to as ‘Captain’ by the mercenary group.

A slight chuckle made it’s way into the air as he stared at the kid covering his eyes.

“Well, bout time you woke up sleeping beauty.”

The language sounded like gibberish to Kou.

‘Huh? is he an outsider?’

“Uncle Ruka!” “Aunt Rekia!” Kou cried out.

But to no avail.

“Hm, that’s the first time i’ve heard that language before, and i’ve traveled around the continent quite a bit.”

Again the words sounded like mere gibberish.

“Please take the ropes off!” Kou said as he held his arms in front of him.

A snicker appeared on the mans face, he understood what the kid wanted.

Shaking his head he mouthed the word, “No.”

He started walk over near reaching with a hand, grabbing him by the jaw.

‘Hmm. a girl? looks like a male to me, still won’t affect the price too much.’

With a flick of his wrest the the boy was sent to the floor with a thump.

Staring at him as if still amused, he reached towards a cabinet in the sand wagon, inside were water skins. filled with water.

Grabbing one, before shutting the cabinet he turned his attention back to the boy sprawled out on the ground.

A slight chuckle escaped his lips as he chucked the waterskin onto the boy.

…

Pain, followed by a thump.

‘Ow’ Kou was starting to tear up as he noticed what fell on his back was water.

Greedily he started drinking, the rope burns which stung bothered him little as he was blinded by thirst.

If he had been outside of the sand wagon and not inside of it he would have died on the second night.

The heat of the desert is not something to be trifled with.

The man staring at this started to laugh.

Wiping tears from his eyes. “Ah i've never seen someone down a waterskin that quickly before, thats almost a talent in itself.”

Chuckling his made his way towards the boy on the ground, receiving a death stare.

“Feisty little thing aren't you,” he said, as he reached for something in his trouser pocket.

Rummaging in his pocket for pulling out small object that seemed to glimmer in the light.

Glancing at the boy again he put the object back into his pocket and made his way towards the other sand wagon to sleep.

Minutes turned to hours, alone in the darkness, slowly his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

The inside of the sand wagon, was littered with pieces of armor and the occasional shield. The armor looked like it had been used in combat before, some had long gashes in them.

Occasionally the sounds of a group of Kyr would penetrate the walls of the wagon, as they struggled with the weight of the armor.

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Hard, wooden floor was the only thing for a floor in the wagon, surely not made for comfort Kou thought as he tried to prop himself upwards into a sitting position.

With much affort, he succeeded.

The man that came before, he spoke a odd language.

‘I wonder what happened to Rufra..’

Tears slowly formed in the corner of his eyes, the mind numbing darkness ate away at him for hours without interaction.

On a shield a symbol could be lightly made out in the darkness.

A dragon, eating a knight and his horse.

‘What a odd shield,’ Kou thought as he tried to bring his muddled thoughts to his rope burned wrists.

His face slightly twitched with pain from the movement of the rope.

His feet were also bound, however due to his trousers the ropes didn’t dig in as far as they did with his wrists.

Every so often the wagon would bounce up and down through the sand dunes.

Until they finally came to a halt.

Night once again descended upon the land, swallowing light with a fever pitch gluttony.

Darkness was the only sight for miles in every direction, a small light could be seen off in the distance.

A group of men sat around a fire, warming their hands in it’s warmth.

“Krist, that kid you brought is a boy,” the captain said as he reached into his trouser pocket to retrieve the small glimmering object.

Krist looked in his direction before letting out a surprised “Huh?”.

“Well, it shouldn't affect the price that much anyways, don’t worry about it,” he said as he fiddled with the small object in his fingers, softly caressing the metal casing.

“Well i’ll be a fire monkeys uncle I wouldn't of guessed that one,” Josha said as he reached for a piece of salted blood ox that he was in the midst of cooking over the fire.

The lovely aroma filled the air, making mouths water.

“Damnit Josha do you have to cook your food right now?” Another of men said as he greedily eyed the piece of salted blood ox.

“What? you guys ate yours yesterday, don’t start complaining to me about it,” he said as he slightly blew on the piece of meat, before taking a medium sized bite.

His face shortly thereafter filled with bliss.

One of the staple foods of the Wildfire Plains was the blood ox meat, it’s taste could compare with food that even the nobles would happily devour.

They were so common in the Wildfire Plains that even commoners were allowed to have this luxury meat.

As the aroma drifted in the night air, it entered a crack in a sand wagon, filled with darkness, the mind numbing darkness was shortly replaced by an insatiable hunger.

It wasn’t uncommon for slaves or captives to go hungry for days, as they were nothing more than ‘stock’ and wouldn’t be bothered with unless it was almost life threatening.

The only reason the captain gave the young kid water at all was the fact that they were in the middle of a desert. Without water, you would die in mere days if not hours if you weren't protected by the inside of the sand wagon.

The stinging of the rope, melted with the pain of hunger as a single thought rampaged through his head.

‘I'm so hungry.’

At the mercy of someone else, we are nothing but helpless.

So truly helpless.