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CHAPTER II

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

4 years later- The Serpent Isles, Bilgewater

Four years has passed since that fateful day, Eli and his mother were brought to Bilgewater where they were sold as slaves. A man that went by the name 'Bartolome' bought them days after Gangplank dumped them in the slave market, he was a very wealthy man living in the Serpent Isles, his wealth came from slaves tending his beach farm.

Their first day there was torturous. They were forced to work on the beach farm from dawn till twilight, they were whipped when they faltered in their work, they were only fed lunch, sometimes it was leftover foods from Bartolome's family. But they were not the only ones, a few hundred slaves suffer this everyday, under the cruel rule of Bartolome's slavery.

Eli and his mother were brought to a small village where the other slaves lived. The men and women were separated, so most days Eli didn't see his mother, it was only at lunch where he gets to see and check on his mother, and most of the time, he would see her face with bruises and scars. Eli had tried several times to get past the guards and see his mother at night only to be caught and get whipped.

Even though Eli was enslaved, he made several friends to help him through his suffering. Eli had learned that many of them were kidnapped by Gangplank and sold to Bartolome for dirty money and power. Eli had tried to convince them to start an uprising until he learned that they had tried several times and that it ended up in the same result: failure.

Despite being told that there is no escape, Eli had kept on making mental plans of an escape. Eli was a genius, he was very observant of the Isle's environment, advantages, and weaknesses. He kept trying to learn what he can while he was being forced to live with the other slaves in a small cabin, where there was no beds and everyone was lying on top of each other and cramped so close to each other.

Eli was currently carrying a large piece of of coconut wood along with several others, it was a afternoon at that time, despite his time as a slave, he had grown quite atonishingly good, he grew a few feet taller, and had a good lightweight build, all from carrying heavy objects and stretching after whipping. As he dropped the heavy piece of wood, he heard someone call out for his name.

"S-311!" or what is at least his name given that his is a slave now, not only were they stripped of their freedom, but of their identity and name. Eli looked to see an incredibly ugly man with his hand on a flintlock pistol, ready to shoot him if he did not comply, walk up to him and shouted.

"S-311, you are ordered to follow me immediately!" Eli could swear he felt a large bit of saliva land on his face. He followed the ugly man where he was brought to the women's area of the slave village. He looked to see the many women who were carrying their daughters make eye contact with him to which he immediately stopped looking at them and continued walking towards a cabin where several women were crying. Eli was confused as to why he was being brought here, until he saw his mother, who was lying down on a cot and was terribly pale and sickly looking.

Eli rushed forward toward his mother, the ugly man was about to bring out his pistol only to be stopped by a younger woman, she was admittedly beautiful, she was around 16 in age and was a foot smaller than Eli. Eli kneeled down at his mother's side and checked her condition. It was terrible, her temperature was not going the right direction, her hair was messed up, and she had eye bags under her eyes which hinted at her not having enough sleep for a few days.

"Leave us" the young girl told the ugly man and the other slaves. She put a hand on Eli's shoulder where she kneeled next to him.

"She has been like this for the past few weeks, I'm sorry" the young girl said.

"Wha—what happened to her, Miss Bartolome?" Eli asked the now identified girl.

"Eli, you know how I hate it when you call me 'Miss', just call me Mary" Mary Bartolome, she was the daughter of the man who enslaves them, unlike her father, she was a rather kind hearted woman, always looking after the health of the slaves and actually treating them like human beings. She was one of the few people Eli had as friends.

"The doctors said she was bitten by a venomous spider while she was tending the beach farm, they also said that… she doesn't have that much time" she said sadly. Eli was going to break into tears, until his mother wiped away a tear that was running on his cheek.

"Shh, don't cry my sweet, sweet boy, you're stronger than that" his mother told him. Eli stopped crying and held his mother's hand tightly, as if letting her go would allow her to die. Mary Bartolome left them to give them space, Eli and his mother stayed in that position until the guards pulled him out of the woman's side of the slave village and back into the beach farm. He went back to work trying to tell himself that his mother would be fine and that she would hang on a little longer.

He was tending the farm when he heard his name being called out again.

"S-311! Go get more wood, NOW!" the slaver shouted rudely. Eli complied and grabbed an axe to cut wood and entered the jungle, he chopped off some wood and put it in a sack he had on his back. As he chopped off another piece of wood, he felt that the ground was weird, he can tell it was stone, but it felt smooth, he slid his feet slowly to feel a small line cutting deep in the stone, Eli looked down to see that he was standing on some stone structure, looking at his northern side, he saw a stone road, it looked ancient by staring at it.

Eli followed the stone road to see an ancient temple, completely covered in nature's grasps. He chopped off the vines blocking his way and entered the temple, the entrance was blocked but the floor was open to him, he dropped down and walked into the darkness of the underground, Eli observed that is was a tunnel system and walked along the largest tunnel, it lead him to the outskirts of a beach, he looked around to see a bunch of wrecked ships and boats, he approached them to see that the lifeboats were still intact, albeit some of them were damaged, nothing but minor repairs would make them reusable to allow him to escape, he took one of them and set it on the water, ready to use it to escape, all he needed is to get his mother and leave this damned island. But Eli remembered the hundreds of slaves that have been fighting for thier freedom, it would be unfair of him to escape if they can have a chance of freedom. Eli stepped back from the lifeboat and devised a plan to help everyone escape the island.

Eli returned to the beach farm and was shouted at while also being asked why he took so long, as a result, he was scheduled to be whipped in an hour. When the time for him to get whipped came, he was dragged to the middle of the slave village where they ripped his shirt off, tied his hands to a pole, and whipped him hard. Eli closed his eyes and grunted in pain but showed resistance, it had been what seemed like 5 minutes when the whipping stopped, Eli opened one eye and saw Mary scolding the slaver for whipping him, he was released and given a new shirt as Mary carried him back to the infirmary which was empty.

Mary had with her a medical bag and started tending Eli's whipped back, Eli winced a little at the stinging sensation of his whipped back.

"What did you do this time?" Mary asked.

"I went exploring, nothing much" Eli said smugly. Mary is one of the only people he can trust with information that her father doesn't know. Eli yelped as his back felt a huge sting.

"I'm serious Eli, what did you do?" Mary asked, now in a tone that demanded an answer.

"I'm serious too, did you know that your island has an ancient temple sitting in the middle of the jungle?"Mary stopped to look at Eli with wide eyes.

"Truly?"

"Yep"

"Did you find a way to escape?" Mary questioned.

"Yes" Eli Replied.

"Then what stopped you?"

"There was enough for everyone to escape on , it would be fair for me and my mother to be the only ones to escape, when everyone else died trying to free themselves" Mary nodded, and got an idea in her head.

"Say, did any of you make any weapons to fight back?"

"No, besides, it will take a while to assemble some weapons for everyone in the village" Eli told her.

"What if I told you that I knew where the keys to the armory were and gave it to you?" Eli's eyes went wide for a moment and looked at Mary with an incredulous expression.

"Mary, why—"

"Do you think I am satisfied with the way my father does his business? Using slaves to make him rich and killing them because he would give them their freedom? I am tired of the cruelty my father showed to these people, I am willing to go against my own father to show him why his cruelty will be the end of him" Eli had to agree, this kind young woman in front of him will kill if she said she will kill.

Eli smirked and looked at Mary, "Keys to the Armory you say?"

One Week Later

The sun had finally set and all of the slaves were returned to the village. Eli went to the very end of the village where several other slaves lived with him in a cabin, as he entered he was met with several greetings welcoming him back. In the center of the cabin, stood a giant man with skin matching that of chocolate, he was shirtless, only wearing pants and sandals, his head was bald, he had several scars on his face and torso, he looked rather old, very old, almost around his 60s or 80s, his name was Enkulu, one of the leaders of all the slaves in the village.

Enkulu stood like a statue and in a commanding voice spoke, "Now that we are all here, we must discuss something that might change our lives forever" everyone was now eager to listen to what he was going to say.

"For years, we have been trying to fight for our freedom, countless times we failed, and in those failures, we learned our mistakes, each revolt, we were close to victory, but in the end we fail, but now, we may have a chance to finally win our freedom" everyone was now whispering among themselves wondering what Enkulu had planned.

" One week ago, we found an ancient temple deep inside the island, it has a tunnel system that leads to the northern side of the island where none of our oppressors attempted to travel…" Enkulu stopped to look at the faces of his fellow men before continuing.

"... at the northern part of the island is a beach with broken ships and boats, we discovered that the lifeboats were still intact and usable while some others just needed minor repairs, we didn't tell you this when we had discovered it in fear of the slavers overhearing it" everyone had been listening intently, have they finally found their source of salvation? They had to keep their mouths shut if they wished to finally win their freedom, they all looked back at Enkulu where he began to speak again.

" Right now, we are still slaves, tomorrow day, we will become rebels, tomorrow night, we will be free men" everyone was grunting and murmuring signs of agreement and they all looked up to Enkulu to lead them, however, one of them stood up and asked.

"How will we fight our oppressors when we have not made any weapons to prepare ourselves?" everyone was whispering among themselves as they asked the same question 'How will they fight back?'Enkulu smirked as he opened a hatch he was standing on, under it revealed flintlock pistols, blunderbuss guns, flintlock rifles, sabers, and knives. Everyone was baffled by the weapons Enkulu hid under their cabin, they always used wooden spears and stone axes, this was a big upgrade if they were going to fight.

"Um, not to be ungrateful, but where did we get these guns?" Eli smirked as he mentally thanked Mary for her help.

"It doesn't matter, what matters is that we have a fighting chance. Now, I cannot promise you all that we will all leave this island alive, all we can do is to try to fight back while we get the women and children to the boats and follow them afterwards. We will lose lives in this fight, but we will die knowing everyone we love will be free of his torture. Who is with me?" Enkulu opened his arms to see that everyone was in agreement.

Tomorrow, they will shed blood, but not out of hate, but for freedom's sake.

The Next Day

The slavers were expecting to wake up and go on with their daily lives, what they did not prepare for was the sounds of gunfire shooting them dead. The Slavers were scrambling to the armory to get weapons and fight the slaves, only to find the armory almost completely empty, they had to rely on the weapons they had right now.

The slaves killed the slavers who were vunerable and continued to fight them trying to reach the women's side of the village, the slavers were shooting back at them as the slaves took cover on several buildings, when the slavers had to reload the slaves took the opportunity to fire back killing many slavers in the process. The slaves were pushing through the slaver's defences as they entered the women's side of the slave village, they grabbed the weapons of the fallen slavers and tossed it to the women who fought back.

"Enkulu! What of the incapable ones?" one of the women shouted.

"Let Eli take them, he will show them the way!" Enkulu shouted. He fired his blunderbuss at a slaver and stomped his head killing him, the slaves pushed forward while a few of them were shot down and killed, but theu kept pushing.

The incapable ones were dragged by Eli as they were brought to the temple and arrived at the beach with boats ready for departure, the women boarded the boats and started sailing away to freedom, the very grateful ones walked up to Eli and thanked him for freeing them. Eli kept bringing women to the beach until he reached the cabin where his mother resided, he entered the cabin to see his mother breathing weakly from her sickness. Eli knelt beside her, and held her hand.

"Don't worry mom, we're getting out of here" he told his mother to reassure her. But his mother shook her head and she held his hand.

"No, you're getting out of here" his mother muttered.

"No Mom! We are both getting out of here!"

"No… my time has come"

"Mom—"

"Its ok Eli, its ok"

"Mom—"

"Fly…away…my li—little…angle" her speech began to falter as her hand grew cold and became numb to the touch, her breathing stopped as Eli tried to shake his mother, praying to any god existing that his mother was still alive.

"Mom…please wake up, please…" no response.

"Mom? Mom please, no, please, MOM!" He shook her trying to wake her up, he cried on the spot as he knelt beside his mother. Mahal Bloodborne was now dead.

One of the slaves entered the cabin and told him that more slavers were coming for them, Eli gave his mother on final look before looking at the man lending him a flintlock pistol, Eli took it and ran with the slave into the temple.

They entered the temple when Eli heard gunshots that were aimed for him, he hurried with his pace as he ran inside the tunnel, Eli dodged a few bullets as he exited the tunnel and reached a boat that was waiting for him. Eli rowed as fast as he can while watching some of the slaves staying behind to allow the others to escape. He rowed until he met up with the others whose boats were huddled together as families were reunited. Then out of nowhere, one of the boats blew up, Eli looked to see a ship firing cannons at the slaves as they all screamed and rowed away to the open sea.

Eli kept his pace on rowing when the winds started to feel strong, then it started raining. Eli looked to see that the weather seemed to be getting worse as the waves started to get larger and wilder. Eli tried to keep a steady pace but lost his rowing pads and hung on to the ship as the now building storm was carrying his boat into different directions.

Eli lost track of the other boats, but saw the same ship that was firing from earlier going towards to him, now at this moment Eli would think he was fucked but some sick miracle happened by a form of a lightning strike that was aimed at the ship causing it to burst into flames. Eli let out a relieved sigh but felt that was not the end. Eli looked to his back and saw a giant wave coming towards him.

"Oh you gotta be shitting me…" he muttered as the giant wave enveloped him.

Sometime Later- Some Random Beach

Eli woke up with sand in his mouth and face. Eli doesn't like sand. It's coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere. He stood up to feel his entire body was in pain, he struggled to stand still as his legs wobbled in their place. He looked around to see where he was, it didn't look like the Serpent Isles or Bilgewater, Eli shrugged with the only thought running in his head that was the fact that he is free. Finally,he thought. He walked into the land unaware of what's ahead of him.

Eli kept walking.

And walking.

And walking.

And he kept walking with an old man beside him.

…

…

…

Wait, what?

Eli looked to his left to see an old man smiling at him, he wore robes and a straw hat, he looked very old, maybe around his hundreds. Eli looked around to see that he was not anywhere near the beach any more, he must have been walking for hours. Seeing that the old man seemed harmless, he asked.

"Um, excuse me but, do you know where I am?"

"Why my boy, you are in Raikkon" the old man said, Eli was confused.

"Ok where is Raikkon?"

"The southern islands of Ionia"

Ionia. The First Lands. Eli looked around to see the blossom trees flowing with the wind, the giant mountains that reached the sky, the giant swirling rocks floating about the hills, and the strange wildlife that appeared here.

"Do you know where the nearest port is?" Eli asked.

"Well, just go east and you will find the Temple of the Jagged Knife, you will see that they will help you there" the old man offered.

Eli then nodded, giving thanks as he walked to the east.

He was going to get home, no matter what.

Author's Notes: Hi guys, this chapter is rather shorter than the last one because I'm preparing for the Holidays. Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone, don't forget to follow and review your thoughts about this chapter. PEACE!