Chapter 2:
It was the bull's first night in—from this point we will refer to "the boy" as "the bull" as this is his internal vision of himself, and to use his numerical designation of 5052... would be a bothersome effort*—It was the bull's first night in the mines. He was left with twisted confusion that no learned doctor could possibly, truly ascertain. The hard stone poked at him despite the effort to comfort himself; the weight and sound of the chains clapped hard against him in the pale darkness. It was dry and cold, and without a proper blanket he couldn't acquire enough warmth to bear the draft. He let out a terrible moan, and it resounded throughout the area. Every faunas chained to those walls understood that cry, it was informally known as a slave's first act of grief.
The noise, however loud, ceased when the bull's lungs gave out and, having no energy to continue to scream or thrash amidst the dirt, he rested upon the earth. He fashioned the chilled chains as makeshift covers.
Morning came, or from what can be assumed as the morning, the fluorescent lanterns which lined the walls of the residence were turned on, signaling the fauns to rise. Several sentinels from the outer area approached with military ration boxes and water, and gave each to a slave. The number of provisions were exact, and when the last sentinel approached the bull, the youth refused their food and spit curses at his captors. They laughed at his futility and one sentinel, the same who had given him the number on paper, kicked the bull in the solar plexus till he vomited on the sentinel's boot. After the moment of humiliating the fresh meat, the sentinel took a station along with his associates to watch the group of faunus as they ate. The bull reluctantly gobbled what he could, trying to combat the pain in his abdomen.
All the faunus were dirty and wore cloth scrap. The elders were thin but defined, and ate their food with a mechanical accuracy. It had been 30 minutes since the sentinels arrived with provisions. As they watched the faunus finish the meal they removed the chains from the walls, while still having them attached to the faunus' limbs, and had them walk orderly at gunpoint, towards the inner sector. The bull, being new to this chain of command, stumbled while trying to match the organized gait of the fellowship.
Eventually, the group was led to a developing mining section. There was a large metal container where the pickaxes and shovels were stored, everyone took a tool and went to an area almost instantly. The bull was left to assess the operations of the others and learned, by degrees, the process of mineral gathering. He was taught by the other slaves how to distinguish which minerals were precious or plain, how to harvest them, and how to avoid fatality. As the work day continued, the bull had found his own private place to prospect.
It had been well around 12 hours of constant work before the slaves were taken back to their residential areas. This time the bull was free to join any of the fauns within the small hallowed chambers before the sentinels chained them once again to the walls. A group of faunus called him over to their hallow, they took pity on the young bull and allowed him to use their warmth. Among the group was a lioness of supple shape but thinned in the battle with time. She had particular fondness for the youth and allowed him to lay upon her breast. The maternal nature of the gesture awakened a long memory within the bull, and as he fell asleep he wept and tears ran down the chest of the lioness.
The days came and went, and this little group became like a family to the bull, not including himself there was a frog, who acted as the fraternal figure; the lioness as the mother; and two teenage faunus, twin foxes, who were of a similar vein to older brothers. This band covered the wound within the bull's heart and allowed a level of comfort in his damnation. But during the moments he had stopped this delusion, and remembered the true nature of this dwelling, he would let out bursts of anger, thrashing, holding his hands to his head as if mad. The other faunus not of his circle were wary of the volatile nature of the bull, as these episodes of mania were common. Therefore, as his time in mines continued, the gazes of pity he once garnered morphed into grimaces of chagrin.