Kotetsu awoke to near darkness, and he blinked his eyes, straining for a hint of his surroundings. As his vision adapted, he could discern the pattern of dim light and shadows cast by the fabric draping the bars that surrounded him – he was in a cage, with walls perhaps four feet wide and tall. His legs were cramping badly, and he tried to unfold them, to reach down and massage the muscles…
I can't move.
He took stock of his bonds: the familiar iron collar weighed on his neck, and the barbed bit attached the muzzle pressed lightly into his tongue, promising to tear into it at the slightest provocation. He'd learned quickly not to plead with or curse his captors aloud, but whenever they managed to coax a scream out of him, he paid for it with a badly lacerated tongue and palate. On occasion, after securing him otherwise, his captors removed the bit and loosened the muzzle enough to for him to eat the bits of rotting meat and stale water left for him. Though he refused the food at first, he soon learned to choke it down, knowing they were watching, ready to feed him by force if he delayed.
As they had been since his capture many months ago, his leathery wings were bound, pierced through the folds with bars – yet more iron – that worried at his flesh with their sharp edges, keeping the wounds there from closing. He was nude, as they always kept him.
He tested what little strength he had against the newer, less familiar restraints. His arms were held together from the elbows to his clasped hands in a cage of tight iron bands, and his calves were strapped tightly to his thighs by similar bonds. Kotetsu was fairly certain he could leverage himself upright, but the bands would force him into a kneeling position… the merchant's men never failed to find new methods of humiliation.
How long will I be left, this time?
His mouth tasted of rust, like blood. He closed his eyes, furrowing his brow at the emptiness in his stomach. Two weeks ago - three weeks now? - his captors had thrown a poor drunkard into a cell with him after removing his muzzle and injecting something into his arm. The drug had burned through him like fire, and it kept his conscious mind from intervening as instinct took over. At the time, hadn't been given anything but water for a month, and he was ravenous.
The merchant and his company had watched from behind the safety of the iron bars, jeering as the man died. When he came back to himself, Kotetsu wept, vomiting the human's blood and retching long after his stomach was empty. They'd fed him on a more regular basis since then - back to his old diet - though for the first feeding they had to resort to forcing blood down his throat.
Over time, after his capture, Kotetsu had moved from a sorrowful apathy to desperation, panic, and rage. For a time, he had resisted his captors, lashing out and trying to escape whenever he found the slimmest hope. After the rage was driven from him by repeated abuse and starvation, he'd finally settled into a heavy despair and a gnawing, ever-present fear.
He heard footsteps approaching, breaking the silence, and with the sound came mingling scents of unwashed bodies. One, he could identify as the sharp smell one of the merchant's hired thugs; the other was unfamiliar. Unable to move away, he lay on his side and waited as the men pulled the cloth off of the cage. Kotetsu glanced through the uncovered bars quickly; they were in a dimly-lit, dusty indoor space. The size of the room was impossible to gauge, as his cage was surrounded by crates, chests, and stacked bolts of cloth.
With the strike of metal on metal, Kotetsu's attention was jerked back to the immediacy of the two men now leering at him through the bars. The familiar one, whom Kotetsu had learned was named Regus, gave a low chortle and tapped at the cage again with the pole he carried. There, on the ground behind the two men, was a large iron cauldron it had probably carried.
"Awake, sweetness? Good for yous. We's here under orders to get tha goods cleaned up fer tha young duke! Sit yerself up, now." Regus looked unusually cheerful.
Am I to be sold, then? The merchant had never displayed any qualms in leaving his prisoner to exist in filth.
The unfamiliar man leaned nearer the bars, studying him. "That's a sad sight right there."
Regus ignored his comment. "Not cooperatin', sweetness? Too bad for yous. Kelvin, climb up there and help it up."
"Me? I heard what this thing did to that sod-"
"I told yous to get yer ass up there, or I'll let it loose an' throw ya in there with it!"
Kelvin grinned, the smile stretching his face into a hideous grimace, and he pulled himself up onto one of the crates and hopped lightly onto the top of the cage. Kotetsu closed his eyes; he had seen the chain that ran upwards from his collar to the top of the cage. Oh gods. He tried to shift his weight, but he was too stiff and immobilized to move quickly enough.
"Ready, boss?"
"Haul 'em up!"
The man above began to pull on the heavy chain, and Kotetsu gagged as the weight of his upper body left the ground. As the other man lifted, Regus shoved the pole through the bars of the cage and prodded roughly at the captive until he knelt upright on his bound legs. When the chain loosened slightly, Kotetsu doubled over, sucking in air past the bit, their laughter ringing in his ears.
"Now help it up jest a little more, an' we'll be ready to clean it proper-like."
As the chain began again to tighten, Kotetsu, unable to control his rising panic, began to struggle. He was hauled clear of the floor, almost to the top of the small cage; his weight fell fully on the collar, cutting off his breath. Blood filled his mouth as the bit tore into his tongue.
As his thrashing became weaker, Kotetsu dimly heard Regus speak again, a note of nervousness entering his voice. "Now see here, yous. Be a mite gentler. If we kill 'em the boss'll string us up with it."
Kelvin let the captive demon strangle for a few moments more, then slowly lowered the chain until Kotetsu 's knees - the lowest part of his body, considering the way his legs were bound - touched the floor of the cage enough to take some of his weight.
Ignoring the rattling, desperate breaths of the trussed creature, Kelvin tied off the chain and leapt lightly to the ground beside his co-tormentor.
"Let's get it done. We're almost out of time."
"Aye, sir!"
Kotetsu watched through his swimming vision as the pair hauled the cauldron to the top of the cage, and one of them pulled the lid off. It was steaming. He finally screamed when they poured the near-boiling water over him. When they released the chain, he collapsed back to the floor of the cage, gagging on his own blood.