A/N: Ah, dag-gummit…I could not resist yet another AU…well, at least I'm getting practice in one way or another for my writing…this is mostly going to be a Cinderella-style story…Read and review, would you kindly? This way I'll know if it's worth it to continue.
A ten-year-old boy sat among many of his people—his own sticklike frame and shoulder-length hair made it easy to mistake him for a girl. From his experience, many of the people in the same predicament as he came from other tribes wrangled up and sold in these auctions to the upper class or are prisoners of war that the Kisaragi Nation had conquered in their campaign to unite all of Wutai under their banner.
As he watched on in sadness as many of the adults were sold out to the highest bidder, he could not help but wonder what happened. He remembered seeing an emissary from the Kisaragi walking up to his father and saying that they wanted to bring all nations of Wutai together to make the land stronger. His father told the emissary that he would require a few days to come to a decision regarding the alliance, and that was it. He remembered that day as if it were yesterday—in fact, it was only two weeks ago that that same emissary had called in an attack squad to decimate his village, taking all women and children as slaves while killing or enslaving all the men…only then did the boy find that this was no emissary, but a slave trader looking for a quick buck. So much pain that day—so much death…and the worst of it came when he saw his mother being sold off to some fat pig some two days ago.
"And next up, we have a very special treat for everyone!" said the auctioneer, calling for three guards to drag a struggling boy up to the stage…not that there was much for him to struggle with—the conditions of his quarters were enough to weaken him. He was still alive by his own will, especially when they decided to cut down his already low proportion of food by only feeding him just a little bit per day for the last five days (the other slaves tend to beat him to the food first since they took advantage of his weakness). "This little brat is the prized treasure of a savage chieftain—his son in fact! Look at him! So beautiful—so fragile-looking—and with such fine hand-crafted jewelry on his body, it's hard to believe that this is actually a little boy!" With that, many of the men in the audience were laughing and making fun of the boy. "Practical work may not suit him, but it would seem that from the trouble that the slavers had while trying to catch him, there's more to him than meets the eye, the rest is up to your imagination! We're willing to start the bid off for one from royalty with a fair price of 70,000 gil! And the auction begins now at 70,000 gil!"
No sooner than the auctioneer had kicked off the auction than when people started raising their hands. A fat bearded man shot up his hand and offered 70,500 gil for the boy. The next one to make a bid was a bony woman offering 80,000 gil with her arm flailing in the air. Another person bid 90,000 gil for the boy—but he was automatically beaten out by a voice calling out for 100,000 gil belonging to a large and hulking man in armor, and then finally a feminine voice rang out to offer 900,000 gil. The crowd turned, and faced the owner of the voice, as did the boy—from what he could tell from his perspective, she was a well-built foreign woman neither fat nor skinny, and the looks of her implied that she was somewhat of an upper middle-class citizen at the very least judging from the rather valuable-looking jewelry on her body.
"900,000 gil! Going once! Going twice!" When nobody contended with the woman, the auctioneer's hammer landed on the wooden pad, and let out a final "Sold, to the lady in the red dress!" With that, a hook was clipped on the ring stitched onto the boy's leather collar as the handler dragged him off the stage and into a different tent…from there, he could see the woman's features more clearly as she stepped into the tent and sat down at the table—she had auburn-colored hair, and eyes the color of sea foam…she was the most angelic woman he had ever seen second only to his mother in his eyes. "Ah, Duchess, how good to see you," said the auctioneer, "it's actually strange to see you here, especially given your stand on slavery."
"I'm not going to purchase this boy for your sake Hojo," she said as she spat the name, "I'm purchasing him for his sake…I can see that you are clearly not treating your slaves properly…and unless you want me to bring up my findings on your slave trade to the emperor himself, then by all means, you will let me have this boy for free and you will start treating the slaves better, or Lifestream help me, I will buy you out of business with express permission from the emperor."
The man named Hojo simply laughed with overconfidence in his voice. "You have no proof of this! I will deny everything you say the second that you do!"
The woman pulled something out of her sleeve, and threw it at the auctioneer. From the slight glimpse that the boy had caught as Hojo inspected it, it was a small piece of paper with a picture of slaves being mistreated. "I have various pictures taken with many copies hidden, so don't bother trying to destroy them—and killing me will do you no good…it will only accelerate the plans I have in store for you and all involved in the despicable trade of slave trafficking like you. Either way, this nation will be cleaned up of scum like yourself!"
Hojo looked in absolute hatred at the woman…this woman seems to have quite a bit of power if she could use the threat of the emperor to have her way. In the eyes of Emperor Godo Kisaragi, nobody deserves to be a slave…and yet, there are people who still moonlight the slave trade on the black market. Part of the reason that Emperor Kisaragi has naught but the utmost in contempt for slavery was because he himself was a slave before he rose to power—and he believed that dependence on slaves would make a nation weak from corruption, and so he made the act of selling or even owning a slave illegal in the nation of Wutai.
The hatred in his voice was pure and venom-filled. "Fine! Take him! I don't care about some little slave brat!"
With that, the noblewoman pulled the boy in gently by the leash, and threw it away after unhooking it from his collar. "Come dear," she said in a sweet voice, somewhat motherly in his ears, "we have to get going. There's someone I want you to meet very soon." The boy took a few slow steps towards the woman, still puzzled by her behavior just as she was surprised that he understood her…why was she being so nice to him? And who was this person that she wanted him to meet? Before he could think anymore on the matter, the weakness overtook the boy, and he fell to the ground from starvation…
The boy woke up to find himself in a white room with various machines about him. He slowly sat up, and raised his arm only to see that it was being restrained by tubes going into his hand and attached to a large plastic bag filled with some sort of clear fluid, while other parts of him are attached to machines that made a beeping sound. As he continued to look around, the boy found himself on a plastic bed and in blankets…and as he studied his surroundings, he saw several chairs around him, as well as a wheelchair. Yes, this was a hospital all right…the questions he asked in his head were "How did I get here?" and "How long was I out?"
The boy turned his attention to the sound of a door opening. In walked a woman scribbling on a clipboard, fairly close to her early- to mid-twenties. Her long hair was tied together in a single bundle behind her head with a single ribbon. "Good morning, how's my cute little patient today?" she said, with sincere kindness in her voice, it was clear that she was a doctor judging by her scrubs and canvas jacket, "You were out for a few days now due to malnutrition. Do you not get enough to eat at home?"
The boy simply did not answer…he simply looked on at his doctor in curiosity. It wasn't that he didn't understand her…he could understand Common fine, it was just that he didn't understand what was going on. A few days? He was unconscious for a few days? But then…now he understood. "Um, are you all right? You haven't said anything so far."
"Where is that lady that brought me here?"
"Lady? Oh, you mean Duchess Gast! Yeah, she rushed you in here a few days ago—she was really by your side the whole time. Did you want to see her?"
"Yeah. I wanted to thank her…she bought me off from that horrible auction."
"Auction? You mean you're a slave?"
"My whole tribe captured and scattered on the way here. I was with my mom and dad on the trip here…I don't know what happened to dad because he was traded off elsewhere just like most everyone else, and my mom was sold almost six or seven days ago. Since then, I hardly ever got anything to eat—hungry slaves are desperate for any bit of fresh food, and they'll eat whatever food is thrown at them."
With that, the doctor looked at the boy with sympathy in her eyes. "I'm pretty sure that she'll be back in a little while. Duchess Gast has always been known to champion the rights of slaves—in fact, she's in agreement with the emperor himself in the goal to rid the nation of slavery…and if she bought you, then I'll expect her to come in a while. I can count on that…now sleep—it's at night and so you'll need it. And those machines will be dripping nutrients into your system while you're asleep. I'll see how you're doing in the morning." The doctor then put down her pen and her clipboard, and turned to leave. "Oh yes, and if you need me, call for Doctor Valentine."
The boy watched as Doctor Valentine opened the door, and left. There was not much for him to do, except fall asleep…