Sanjay woke up to a throbbing headache and an almost useless nose. Unfortunately it wasn't entirely out of service and that left him uncomfortably aware of how much he stunk. Like a skunk. If he wasn't tied to a post on a cart the slavers seemed to have materialized out of nowhere, well he'd have obviously put this to good use. For example by attending a super fancy party, or going on a rickshaw ride to scare off Gurjot's customers.
Instead, the only one's suffering from his plight were the children he'd gone to rescue, the other half of the bandit gang and the ex-slave captain.
Crotos Quillus looked rather pathetic now, bruised purple where some of the slavers had decided to hit him, crow-eyed and thickly bound. It was almost pitiable… indeed Sanjay did pity him. Slightly. Although, this whole thing was also technically his fault.
The kids, he found, were unharmed. Not exactly happy, but with luck they would get back with no permanent scars… apart from perhaps a recurring nightmare or two.
"You stink." Secrat complained.
"And grass is green." Sanjay retorted, his usual grin growing across his face.
"But you smell worse than grass." Blacktooth pointed out, his brow furrowed in concentration.
Sanjay opened his mouth, but found himself at a loss for words. He shrugged in response.
"Can you not sit next to me?" The she-wolf continued to complain. Her own paws bound to her side Secrat could not even clamp her nose shut.
"Hey slavers!" Sanjay shouted. "Can you change the seating plan a bit?"
A langur turned around, apparently considering how to do this, when a firm whack, courtesy of the Weeper, made him ignore the request.
Turning to the glum-looking children, Sanjay gave his most convincing grin. "Don't worry kids. My siblings should get us out in a jiffy. Shade, Dianbo, Tian Yi, you know. They'll go to hell and back before they give up on us. Don't worry, they'll get us out."
They seemed to perk up ever so slightly after that declaration.
Crotos did not. "We're doomed." He whimpered.
"Well you are. I mean, you did kind of start this all-"
"We're all doomed!"
"Stop acting like Jamal!" Ravi snapped, growing frustrated by the constant noise of whining and whimpering and crying.
"Hey!" Complained the aforementioned boar.
"I'm not acting!" The porcupine pointed out, sniffing loudly. "None of you have ever been to Ashtar. You don't know what it's like there."
"Yeah, but I know people." Secrat said darkly. "You bite them, they bleed. Aim for the throats kids. No mercy."
"I can't bite someone." Ganga pointed out, horrified by the very prospect of commiting murder.
"Just smack 'em with that trunk of yours." The wolf said with a shrug. "Or better yet, strangle them."
"Don't." Quillus advised, shaking his head. "You'll only end up dead quicker." He sniffed again. "Just do what they tell you to do. An obedient slave can rise high in the ranks. If you're lucky you might even get freed."
Padma frowned. "But what if they tell you to do something bad?"
"Do it." Quillus insisted. "Whatever they tell you, whenever they tell you. Slaves are valueless, a good one stays alive much longer than a rebel."
"I'd rather go out fighting." The she-wolf insisted. "If I die, I die a free animal. As do we all."
"But I don't want to die." Blacktooth gave voice to the thought in everyone's head.
"Then you're a coward. Go on, live your life for another creature. But know that when I die, I die a great death. You will die and be forgotten, while I will live forever in the stories of this world."
"But you died first." The sable pointed out, confused by Secrat's new, apparently suicidal, nature.
"If we're lucky we won't even get to Ashtar." Sanjay interrupted, determined to keep the conversation away from death. His siblings had better hurry up... "So, let's kill some time chubby. Why become a slavemaster?
The porcupine paused for a while. "Does it matter?" He muttered, avoiding eye contact.
"Okay… er- so Blacktooth how did you become a bandit?"
"Fine!" Quillus snapped, drawing the attention back to himself. He gave a resigned sigh (odd considering he hadn't been pressured into speaking) and began.
"It all started I suppose… the day I turned five."
Quillus was excited! And who wouldn't be? For the past few weeks his parents had been dropping continuous hints of some great surprise for his birthday. A 'once in a lifetime' gift. Something he'd 'never forget'. His young mind had concocted all sorts of possibilities. He did not have any toys, after all his parents were slaves they couldn't buy anything. Unless their master had decided to be nice? The tortoise could be nice… when he wanted to be. But it most likely wasn't a toy. It was probably an exotic kind of food, something to die for.
At last the moment came, and his body was filled with more excitement than blood. A flight of stairs, a secret wall and many a dark tunnel lead them to a solitary cell. and His mother was smiling widely at him, while his father stood behind, ready to bring the gift into sight.
"Alright son." Said the older porcupine. "You're five years old today. Know what that means?"
"That I'm a big boy?" They had been saying this for ages, so clearly it was the right answer.
His parents chuckled.
"Close your eyes son."
Quillus obeyed and screwed his eyes shut, expecting anything from sweets to freedom. A heavy metal collar, as cold as ice, was not something he had expected. It clicked around his chubby little neck and sent shivers down his quills. "W-what?" He asked. How was something so heavy a gift?
"Sorry son." His father did not sound sorry at all. In fact, he looked slightly relieved.
"Master's orders." His mother said vaguely, relief was clearer on her face.
"B-b-but I don't understand. W-what did I do?"
His father chuckled and turned away. "You were born." His mother did not give him any reply.
The young porcupine tried to scamper after them, but found he was chained to the wall. It could have been a sick joke, but Quillus panicked anyways. It was dark in the cell. And cold. And the collar was so heavy!
"Hey! W-wait! P-please! Please! Mom! Dad! What did I do? WhatdidIdo!?"
Neither so much as looked back.
Quillus sobbed away the rest of his birthday, yet every heavy chain had a lock and every lock could be unlocked.
So knew the young wolf known as Vera Darkrose. Older by a decade than the sobbing porcupine, she had seen the same scene countless times before. Sometimes the parents truly had no choice- this was as much their punishment as their children's. No slave could breed without their Master's consent. But often it was a relief. No more child to look after on top of everything else.
Picking the lock was not difficult, she had done that too, countless times before.
"Hey kid. You okay?"
The she wolf had not expected any response- and received none aside from more sobbing. Carefully, she patted his shoulder. The contact made his quills spike up defensively and pierced the lupine's paw. But Vera had endured pain before.
Eventually Crotos Quillus could sob no more, and merely wiped at a snotty nose before growing silent. This, Vera knew, was her cue.
"Parental abandonment?"
He did the smallest of nods, his lips quivering.
"Been there. Seen that. You may think you're the unluckiest kid in the world right now, but you're not."
The five year old sniffed rather loudly.
"It's your birthday isn't it?"
Again he nodded.
"Many happy returns."
"Thanks." He mumbled quietly.
Taking his much smaller paw in her own, Vera led him further down the labyrinth of dark caves and tunnels that made up Ashtar's undercity… and sewage system. It stunk to high heaven, but the wolf was used to it. Even though his own sense of smell was not as strong as the wolf's, Quillus had gone a delicate green.
But at last they arrived at their destination, a sprawling collection of cells lined with blankets and pillows older than him. Children of every species under the sun darted round the place. Tigers were common but there were many species Quillus had never seen before.
"Everyone here went through the exact same thing as you." Vera informed him. "They know how you feel. I'm Vera by the way, Vera Darkrose.
"Quillus. Crotos Quillus." They shook paws.
"Welcome Quillus, to Ashtar's mini-rebellion."
It was not so much a mini-rebellion as it was a survival club. Many members perished often, caught in the act of thievery and sentenced to the fighting pits. Noone ever came out of the fighting pits alive. Yet they were the lucky ones. Sometimes they were caught and never seen again, subjected to all sorts of horrendous things. Yet, Quillus and Vera lived on. Until the porcupine turned thirteen. Then things began to change for the worse- and that wasn't just puberty talking.
Youth had gone easy on the porcupine. He was a good deal chubbier than the majority of his peers- many of whom were either twig thin or muscled like a maiden's dream. He was not nearly as tall as most of them either, and was constantly looked down upon (literally). And he stunk- but that was just puberty. But none of that was his biggest problem.
Now, Quillus was on his last lifeline. The past three robberies had been an unsuccessful mess- in part due to his inclusion as look-out. Okay, the first time had been his fault- he'd fallen asleep. And the second time he'd accidentally triggered an alarm. The third time, well, he would have been caught if not for an older tiger with more muscles than sense staying back to buy him time to escape.
Now his own fate and the tiger's were intertwined. Being sent to the fighting pits was often a death sentence. But this tiger had muscle, right? He could beat some dumb old bear, right?
The dumb old bear in question had been the Champion of Ashtar's greatest pit for decades, but the young tiger was a tough one and fought with the desperation only possessed by one with years of surviving Ashtar behind him. Had he known how to use a sword, he surely would have been the victor.
As it was the bear lurched forwards suddenly, it's own mace and shield forgotten, and tore feline face from feline body through the strength of jaws alone.
Okay, he was dead.
Now nervousness filled the porcupine, who with deliberate slowness made his way back to the undercity. Everyone had said it was his fault, even Vera and she was his only friend. Three good thieves, dead because of him. Guilt, did not nag at him of course, it wasn't his fault he'd fallen asleep- in fact the chicken who'd been caught was to blame for that, curse his constant squawking! He hadn't meant to hit the alarm, and the boar it had caught had always liked picking on him anyways. As for the tiger, well Crotos Quillus had never asked him to be stupid and brave.
By now he was back at the camp, and all eyes were on him.
The porcupine opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again when he spotted the other tigers of their gang glaring at him.
"He's dead isn't he?" Came Vera's voice. She sounded grim. The she-wolf was a full twenty-three now. Already fully grown and quite a beauty. If she didn't live in a sewer she could have been a princess. Or a queen.
"Y-yeah, hehe. The old bear… chewed his face off." The nervous chuckle was perhaps, not his best move but it seemed to ease some of the tension.
"He was a good man." Vera said sadly. She gave the smallest of nods to the tigers before continuing. "And he was useful. Brought in more food than anyone else."
"Yeah, we're starting to run low Vera." Hissed an aardvark named Inkling. Not that he knew what he was. Everyone thought he was a mutated pig or a scale-less pangolin. The fact that he was covered head to toe in tattoos of some kind did not help.
Vera nodded at him and frowning slightly, the aardvark handed Quillus half a slice of bread.
The porcupine, still eyeing the tigers with worry (for it looked like they were about to pounce on him at any moment) accepted the bread and without any hesitation, swallowed it whole. Seeing as the issue was not likely to be addressed, Quillus brought it up. "So er- am I gonna get punished or…?" He trailed off and gave another nervous chuckle. "It's just that hehe, you guys all said it was my fault and er- well- you're not out for me are you?"
"Oh we very much are." The aardvark replied bluntly. "Should have checked for poison you fat idiot."
The next thing Crotos Quillus remembered was an auction. Two slavers, both in control of a great fighting pit, were bidding ever higher for a particularly plump slave. They were bidding for Quillus.
"Eighty-five!"
"Ninety-five!"
"A hundred and five!"
It would have been funny. Two rival slavers, fighting tooth and claw for one pudgy porcupine. Hilarious even. If not for the fact that he was the pudgy porcupine.
"Three hundred and seventy five for that plump little shit!" Shouted one, an overweight rhino who had no right to call anyone plump.
The other, an equally wide boar, banged his fist against a wall and turned away- unable to bid any higher.
"Sold!" Cried the slaver, and with a jolt Quillus realized that it was one of the tigers. He tried to scream, to plead, to beg… to pinch himself out of this nightmare, but there was no escape, he was pinned to a board like a slab of dung, and gagged. The rhino grinned and handed over the money.
"Keep him here for now, gotta clear up some of the cells first. I'll pick him up at sunrise."
"As you wish." Agreed the tiger, and ignoring the porcupine's attempts at eye contact, closed up shop.
Quillus woke up again, and found his gag had been removed.
"Can't believe someone actually payed for him."
"Oh, you know slavers, they'd pay for anything if you sell it the right way."
Three voices burst into laughter and as they came closer Quillus saw their faces.
A burly tiger, much like the one his lack of skill had sentenced to death. The aardvark, chuckling at the terror painted all over his face. And Vera, also smiling but with a kind of sadness to it.
"Guys!" Quillus whispered desperately. "Guys please! What did I do? What did I do!?" He'd asked his parents the same question. They hadn't even glanced backwards. "Please! You know I didn't want them dead. I-it was an accident! P-p-lease guys!" His begging came to a halt when all three began laughing.
"How dumb are you fatty? We're not gonna stop selling you!"
"B-bu-b-but-"
Vera raised a paw, silencing her sniggering companions and ending his blubbering. "I'm sorry Quillus. But it's true. For the past eight years you've been the least productive member of our team. No problems with that, but your stupidity cost us three good friends and that's not something we can forgive easily."
"But-"
The tiger marched forwards and pinched his stomach between two claws. Quillus writhed pathetically in pain.
"You should already be dead." He said, twisting the porcupine's fat. "Fat little runt."
Quillus was crying now. "Stop! Stop! Please! That hurts."
"Let him go." Vera commanded and the tiger relented, before storming away.
"Goodbye Quillus. I guess you weren't totally useless. Three hundred and seventy five caesars. You'll be feeding us for months." The aardvark chuckled. "You'll be feeding the old bear soon too. Crotos Quillus. Feeding the hungry." Laughing uproariously, the long-nose pig-pangolin (aardvark) walked away.
"Vera." The porcupine pleaded helplessly with the she-wolf, her figure already blurred by the wetness of his eyes. "Please."
The wolf shook her head. "So long kid."
"Vera! Vera come back!" He exploded into tears now. "Ple-e-e-ase!" But like his parents, and every dipshit that had ever lived in Ashtar, the she-wolf didn't care enough to turn around.
He spent the next few days being transferred from one filthy cell to the next. When a dismal little one was chosen for him he was more or less abandoned. Three meals a day. Each the same. A bowl of western beans with an eastern sweet. If his hunger had allowed it he'd have just eaten the sweet but then there'd be no end to his stomach's gurgling.
He was fast asleep one evening, when there came a roaring and a rattle of chains and two bickering voices.
"Chief said put her at the back!"
"You drag this thing all the way there! Look, here's an empty cell, shove her in here."
Quillus' cell was not empty, but neither noticed the porcupine. The slavers were wrestling with a bear. She was young, perhaps no older than him, yet fought with a brutality that was so animalistic it wasn't animal. A thick collar was bound to her neck- heavier than the one he'd been given, yet of the same make. Thick and cold and fixed to a chain.
One slaver attached the chain firmly to one end of the wall, while the other kept the bear's jaws from snapping shut over him.
"Okay it's done! The bitch's tied, now let's get out of here."
The bear was shoved to the ground and both slavers darted out the cell. The feral beast followed, but instead of flesh, was met with nothing but iron bars. For a while she beat at them and Quillus was scared to move. She must have caught his scent, for suddenly she turned and roared. The sound echoed around the little cell and sent saliva flying. As the bear came charging, the porcupine retreated to a corner. He was not as fast as the ursine, but the chain held her back so she could not bring her jaws down over him. An inch, just one more inch and he'd have been bear food. The feral continued to try and reach him, stretching out her tongue, her paws, her claws- all to their greatest length. But the porcupine evaded her. Pressed into a cold corner he had about a foot to move around in. His heart pattered wildly, but relaxed when the bear lost interest in him and went to pacing round her own territory.
Terrified, he did not leave his corner, nor did he let sleep take him. He had enough nightmares to deal with in the daytime- to say nothing of potentially waking up inside a bear's stomach.
For the most part, his new cellmate ignored him, but if he put so much as one toe in her line of attack she would come darting forwards as fast as a hungry predator.
His meal came again the next morning- now delivered between the bars. The bear sniffed the air and turned to him.
"Y-you hungry?" Quillus swallowed, but that sound was muted out by her defeaning roar. Charging forwards she was lurched backwards suddenly by the chain. Even though the young porcupine was safely out of reach, he was terrified. Forgetting his own hunger, he placed the bowl down upon the floor and slid it slowly within reach of her paws. They snatched it away as fast as a lightning bolt and the dull meal was devoured in milliseconds. The bear roared, still hungry and kept thrashing about.
"I haven't got any more." Quillus whimpered.
The next meal was the same, as was the one after that. The bear ate his meager portion of food while he went hungry.
"I need to eat too." He whined as she lapped up his third breakfast. The bear stopped suddenly, and licking her chops clean, proceeded to use her snout to roll over a dust-coated Indian sweet into his range. "Th-thanks."
She was more bearable by the fourth day, and shoved back the bowl of half-eaten food for him to eat his fill. Or rather to pick at in search of beans not covered in drool.
That night sleep finally conquered Quillus. It was bitterly cold both in his dream and in his cell and the porcupine shivered pathetically. He was awoken by an immense weight being pressed on his knees, and found the young bear had finally broken the chain. Despite his initial fear he found that he liked the warmth her larger form provided. Gently, he itched the fur around her ear and the whole bear purred. Still terrified, but no longer shivering, he managed a nervous chuckle.
"Hehe, you like that don't you?"
The next morning they shared breakfast and Quillus was in a better mood than he had been in a long time. His new friend was not exactly a wordsmith, but she was a good listener and he spent the whole morning narrating the events of his life to her. Simultaneously, he tried to remove the weighted collar, but found that his chubby little fingers were not particularly good at picking locks.
"So turns out Vera was an asshole." There came a satisfying click and then the collar came free. The bear moaned in satisfaction and shivered in relief. Turning slightly, she dragged her tongue across his whole body. "You're welcome I guess." He replied, wiping away at the saliva. With a fondness he did not remember feeling for anyone, he proceeded to itch at her ear. "Say… I should probably give you a name. 'Bear' is kind of lame. What do you want to be called?"
The tongue once more soaked his fur in saliva.
"Spit? Tongue? Licks?" Disgruntled, he wiped his face dry. Then he grinned, having landed upon the perfect name. "How about Licky?"
As if in reply, the bear did what she did best, and although he was covered in slime and in the presence of a terrifying predator, he laughed a genuine laugh that was not nervous in the slightest. "Licky it is then!"
The next few days were the best in Quillus' life. No longer interested in ripping him apart, Licky proved herself to be a great friend. Or at least a closer companion than he'd ever had. His parents had always been busy with work, and had never loved him anyways. Vera had been better, but looking back the wolf had always kept him at arm's length. Perhaps it had been their difference in years, after all she had been too busy robbing and raiding to play with him back when he was a kid, and had only distanced herself further from him when the time came for him to do his own robbing. Licky, although she knew nothing about personal space, or how hard her saliva was to rub off, or how much she weighed, was someone he could truly confide in and trust. And even if she did hate him, she didn't know enough words to spill his secrets. He strongly suspected that she was incapable of speech.
"I don't know why it keeps happening to me. I mean, I don't try to get people to hate me. They just do! And I can't help my height, or the spines, or my weight or…" He sighed and itched idly at her ear. "Even you wanted to kill me."
The bear nuzzled him, an act of kindness that- due to differences in size, weight and strength- winded him.
"I know you don't want to now." He wheezed, sucking air back into his depleted lungs. "I was just saying people are hard. I don't know what they expect from a guy like me. I guess you only expect lunch."
The bear shook her head and gave him another affectionate lick. All things considered it was probably the most affection he'd ever received. His parents had faked it, Vera had only been nice because she wanted to use him.
"You're just being nice now." He chided, but he found that all worries and insecurities seemed almost trivial when next to her. It was easy to be brave.
The good days, however, soon came to an end. Eventually the pit owner realized that his new feral was sharing a cell with a slave he'd payed a lot of money for (and now regretted buying). The rhino raced down to the holding places, expecting to find a full bear and a porcupine's carcass. Instead he found his slave trying to stand atop the ursine's head. He kept falling over, but each time he did, the bear put him back. It was almost cute, but the slavemaster was not a fan of cute. Blood and guts reeled in the crowds, not cuteness. This was Ashtar, not a circus! He found himself glaring at the porcupine- who had fallen off again. If the other slavers could see him now…
The good days came to an end. Quillus did not know why, but he was moved to another cell on another floor. Despite the fact that he had all the meals to himself he found he couldn't eat anything. He no longer had to sleep with a tremendous weight on top of him, but could not sleep anyways. He was lonely and miserable and wanted nothing more than to go back to his only true friend the bear… if she was still alive.
Then the day came, the day he'd been dreading since his arrival in the pits. He would have to fight. He had seen all the fights of his previous 'rebels' and knew that his life was forfeit. What did it matter that he had spines? That he was clad head to toe in thick plate? That the dagger he'd been given was as sharp as broken glass. He did not know how to fight and the armour made him slower. If a visor was lowered he couldn't even see.
"Alright." The asshole rhino said with a grin. "I payed good money for you. Could have bought three better slaves for that price. Maybe even four. But I think you'll love the irony of your death. Go on kid. Give them a good show." The rhino pulled him in close. "And when you die, don't forget to scream. The crowds love that shit."
Quillus whimpered and opened his mouth to beg, but the visor was slammed shut and he was thrown roughly into an arena. The force of his landing threw sand into his armour, leaving him coughing and spluttering and blind. The crowd laughed, one big jeering laugh that nearly made him cry. Or perhaps it was just the sand in his eyes. He shoved himself to his feet and put his paws to the sides of the helmet. A hard tug freed his head.
Those that could see that he was crying laughed ever harder.
"And his opponent! All the way from the Northern Mountains! A feral bear!"
Quillus swallowed heavily and picked up the dagger. A bear. He was fighting a bear. But as the gate opposite him came creaking open he realized with a horrible sinking in his stomach that it was not just any bear. It was Licky. The bear roared loudly and the crowd cheered, already calling for his blood.
The dagger fell from his grip and the porcupine fell to the ground in a tightly curled ball- or as tightly curled as the armour allowed him to be, and sobbed pathetically. He did not want to die, let alone at the paws of his friend.
Licky was standing over him now. He could feel her shadow, protecting him from the hot sun. Then her claws were seeking out the gaps in the armour and tearing it off of him piece by piece.
He was shaking now, too scared to even beg. The final piece of plate came free, and despite the pair of black pants he wore, he felt naked. There was nothing between them now, nothing but his quills and fur and flab. Her claws would tear him apart any second now. Her paw was digging at the sand behind him, she was going to flip him over- to expose his soft flesh and bypass the quills completely.
Instead, the tip of her snout went into the hole, and her paws shoved his quivering form on top.
Realization hit Quillus with a sigh of relief. Licky wasn't going to kill him. Now seated rather comfortably on her neck, he raised his paws in triumph, and laughed his head off. Licky roared and for a few seconds the crowd was stunned.
Then a great booing errupted from them, directed not at the bear or her rider, but at the slavemaster who had promised them all blood, guts and gore. Instead they had gotten cuteness! And cuteness was disgusting!
"Release the champion " The fat rhino roared, and from another gate emerged the old brutish bear Quillus had seen execute a dozen of Vera's 'freedom fighters'. Unarmoured and more muscled than the average elephant, his mace flailing around him, the Champion roared a roar that made the crowd cheer.
Quillus, who had by now pissed himself, was thrown off his own bear as Licky stood on her hind legs to give a roar of her own. Younger, smaller and unarmed, she stood no chance.
The champion tore forwards and swung the chained mace at his opponent.
It caught Licky on the side of the head and the feral bear fell to the ground. The mace came down heavily on her side, once, twice, thrice, until Quillus had seen enough. He was not a brave mammal by any standards, but the sight of Licky- who had moments before not chewed him to pieces- being beaten by the dumb brute, filled him with an indigant rage he had never before felt. Dagger in paw, the porcupine charged. Luck was on his side and he tripped, letting the Champion's weapon fly harmlessly over him.
The old bear was used to skinny, frightened children. A feral bear was not his forte. The crowd gasped as, brushing aside all previous blows, Licky pounced, and sunk her jaws shut over her opponent's belly. The sudden pain made him drop his weapon and pound his assailant, but Licky, big for her age, managed to hold on. Quillus sat up, spitting sand out of his mouth, and remembering all those who had been killed by this stupid old bear, charged forwards once more. This time he did not trip, nor was he brushed aside. With all the force he could muster, the porcupine drove the sharpened blade into his opponent's foot.
Unbalanced now, the long-time champion fell over, and then his fate was sealed. Temporarily abandoning her attack on his abdomen, Licky moved on to another, much more profitable target- the older bear's unprotected face.
It was a brutal wrestling match that lasted several minutes, by which time all three fighters had blood on their paws… rather literally. But the combined efforts of a dagger repeatedly plunging into his right leg and a feral bear tearing his face off finally put to death the old bear's reign.
Licky fell to the sand with a groan. Quillus backed away from his brutally murdered opponent until he was next to his one true friend. A large bruise on her side told him she would need medical attention, and the flesh caught between her teeth told him he would have to get an uncomfortably close look at the insides of her jaws. But that did not matter. He had won… they had won… and best of all, they were alive. A loud, happy cackle errupted from him and the next thing he knew he was standing atop Licky's roaring head, laughing at the stunned looks on Vera and Inkling's faces.
"And then I became a slaver." He said simply.
"W-what?" Blacktooth was staring at him quizzically. "But you were a gladiato-"
"I was a slave stupid! Me and Licky fought in that pit till the old rhino died. Then we escaped. What was I supposed to do? Earn a living the honest way?" He sounded scandalised. When Blacktooth nodded, the porcupine attempted to kick him. "Every honest idiot that walks into Ashtar winds up dead!"
"Why not move?" Sanjay asked simply. The children, acting as one, nodded in agreement.
"I'd have moved." Declared Ravi boldly.
Quillus glared at them. "Well I didn't think of that, now did I!? Thanks for the fricking idea! You're just a few years late!"
"I don't get one thing." Ganga pointed her trunk at him. "You were a slave so you know how bad it is, but you're fine with enslaving others?"
"Yeah. I am! None of you stepped up to help me, so why should I care!?"
"None of us were even born." Padma pointed out.
"Shut up! Okay!? So I didn't think it through! Here's what I know, all that divides the slavemaster and the slaves is that one's got gold, the other doesn't! I was bought for three hundred and seventy-five caesars! A fat little runt like me, could feed that she-wolf and her gang for months! One fricking slave! Do you have any idea how valuable you guys are!?"
"Grandma always called me precious." Jamal whimpered.
"Exactly!"
The boar burst into tears, certain that he would never again see his grandma.
Sanjay gave the porcupine a scathing look. "All life is priceless, in my personal opinion. That means you can't just put a price tag on someone."
"Don't give me the high and mighty, jackal!" Quillus snapped. "I did what I had to do to survive! You'd have done the same, or you'd have ended up dead!"
"Or I'd have moved out."
"Stop it with the logic!"
"Now that we've established Sanjay's in- in- in-" Blacktooth was searching for a word. The kind of words Splintnose called 'fancy'.
"Intellectual?" Suggested Ganga.
"Now that we've established Sanjay's intellectual super- super- super-"
"Superiority?"
"Superiority! Intellectual superiority, er- that means he's smarter, right?"
"Yes."
"Good. Right. So how are we going to escape?"
Sanjay paused for a moment to think. He did not want to let anyone- especially not the children- down, yet at the same time had no idea how to escape this current predicament.
"We don't." Quillus said flatly. "We get sold, we get separated. If you're lucky some of you end up together. But it's not likely."
The children had not thought this far ahead, and were shocked by the horrible new prospect of separation.
Sanjay wore a scowl identical to his brothers', his attempts at cheering everyone up proving null and void. He opened his mouth, but Secrat spoke quicker.
"At least I won't have to smell any of you."
Sanjay furrowed his brow, certain that that had been directed at him. Oh it's on bandit...
Footnote: A longer chapter than usual, and one that was a bit harder to name with the 'Life' format I've been using for this story. This was originally just going to be a small segment of a chapter and then we'd get Bei and the Weeper and Sanjay's in the same place but... I went a little overboard with the flashbacks. So we'll still get those too... But later on...
But I also think it's nice that I could finally give Quillus' past some attention as I've been meaning to for a while actually...
Vera Darkrose by the way, belongs to Nicholas Wilde, formerly the Assassin of Xion, formerly Mordecai. Originally she was going to be the main protagonist of Village Champion's sequel- but then I went remake crazy and sort of fused the plot line of that story with the original's ending. So she got the short straw.
Her 'rebellion' is sort of a mix-and-match of different things, but mainly I'd say it's like the Thieves Guild from Always Together but slightly less forgiving. Also in my world most major cities have got an undercity- including Ashtar. This concept is from the KFP 2 game- but admittedly I only know about it because of Berserker88.