A/N: Yo homies! Sorry for the long update, but Holidays, a lot of Naruto watching, and a lot of video making. Yeah... Complicated. But there you go, I return in the game! Hope you enjoy!
The shiny day, bright blue skies, with white clouds adorning it. The forest was dark, and almost no sunlight made it through the thick crowns of leaves. There were you average birds, of course, but the whole being of the forest was unsettling. You could say it was the best choice for horrific tales, but I thought not about this. It was somewhat cozy in this place, although it's unnatural nature was a bit unnerving for some. I grunted when my foot contacted with a branch on the ground, knocking it away, signaling critters nearby that I was there.
With a sigh, I proceeded with sitting on the ground and grunting again. The handmade bow, strapped to my back, was disappointed. At least, if it was a living being it would've been. No catch today, that was not good. Yesterday I've been able to get my hands on a hare, and I was not well fed from it. Catch was getting more and more rare in those parts, as I moved North. But I had to go North. My destination was there, I couldn't ignore it. But, about the reason... I wasn't sure I was on the right way. Yet it was more or less just random walking around. I have started out south, it was far away from where I was now. Attempting to stick to uncivilized areas, I have managed to remain unnoticed... For no reason. But, it seemed that North I was going to have to avoid more things than before. Civilization was probably quite a lot in here, which meant more hunters would roam the woods and there won't be enough catch for me.
I spat on the ground and stood up. It was stupid, at least kind of. I was, of course, going to find a pond or something and get myself to wait and try to get some fish, but it was going to be a pain. He hated fishing. It was plain, but it was going to be good enough to feed myself.
I started walking around, looking at the trees. It was not your average dank and cursed forest, more or less, it looked like the cheery green woods I've heard existed in the North. Maybe that was one of them... Maybe. Oh, well I am not going to stay here until my feet broke under me. Strange, the sound a caravan was weakly leaking from ahead in the woods... I might be able to sneak past them.
Grunts and curses were present in the caravan's cacophony. My hand weakly went through the leaves and moved them aside. There were a lot of carriages, while four goons surrounded each one. The stock in those carriages was unsettling... Because, the stock... Were living people. Men, to be correct. They looked beaten, starving and exhausted to no end.
I barely held a wince in my mouth, as one of the goons pointed me and shouted something. I was probably hiding really bad, which probably costed me my cover. Someone screamed to capture me, and I just turned to run.
"Stop right there!" Someone roared and my head was mauled by something heavy. I fell on the ground, black rings started clouding my vision. I felt something warm trickle down my head. Two strong hands grabbed me, roughly, of course, and carried me somewhere. I grunted when he threw me on a wooden floor, and a door closed.
I lay there, breathing heavily, wondering where I went wrong, forgetting that my cover was awful. After a few minutes, I raised my head and saw black, metal bars running around me. A cage? Then it hit me. Those were slavers. I had no chance to do anything, for they were rich, and answered only to the nobility. I cursed my luck, and sighed. Laying back, as my eyes started closing.
"Don't go to sleep!" Someone whispered. I opened my eyes and rolled my head around. There, a black skinned man, with a bald head was looking at me. His shoulder was injured, and his eyes were wary of everything.
"Wh... Why?" I managed to ask, feeling dizzy as my mouth closed.
"Don't speak so loud!" He cut me off, with a whisper again. I nodded, and looked at him. Waiting for the answer, I tried to stand up, or at least sit, but it felt as if I was going to vomit when I tried. Laying back, I turned my head only to look at him.
"One lil' guy went to sleep, and those thugs... They got him out of the cage and raped him..." My eyes went wide. Rapist slavers? On top of that doing it to men? This was just wrong. Plain wrong.
"And... Poor boy couldn't even talk for a week after this, god bless to walk. It was animatistic. I don't wanna see it again, that's why I'm tellin' you..." He shrugged off. I knew he just wanted to be kind, but probably being a slave required heartlessness. I simply smiled.
"Thanks for saying this to me... I don't want to think how I would've felt. Thanks..." He just nodded. A while past without a lot of talking, but I knew I wanted to ask a lot of things. Sadly, I didn't think he would answer them. So, a slave, eh? How bad could this be? I mean, excluding the rape and itemisation of a human being. He could be a good servant... God bless if he got a good owner. But... Was the a way to escape?
"Hey... Um, name's Ryland, nice to meet you..." The same black man who had given me the advice to try and be a sleepless punk, but save my virginity. Although, I didn't know if it was counted as virginity if you have not been crazy enough to stick something up you ass, then I was fine.
"Hey, I'm... I don't know." Truth be told, that was true. I always ran around the dark woods, feeling no need of a name.
We stood in silence for a long while. Me, tinkering over what could happen if my owner, or whatever he was, decided to be an asshole and... Do that thing to me, would I be able to get through it? I didn't know.
"Where are we... Going?" This time it was me trying to start the conversation. And I did wonder, where were we going? I was probably not going to recognize the place we would be sent to, so me being me, I decided to ask, just so I didn't boil in the boring silence, which was disturbed only from the silent conversations led by the thugs.
"We were leaving Demacia when they captured you. I was a bit amazed by the fact they got a slave from so close to the city. Truth be told, I wondered if you were not going to be a noble out to hunt. But... You aren't." He answered. So... Demacia. What was that place either way? I knew I was going to be deaf and blind to the names and looks of those cities, but... They were strange. At least, the names sounded strange.
"I think we will drop off in Kalamanda, but... I hope we don't. I've heard stories about the arena there. They say that the gladiators can just slash off twenty armed slaves like us. I... I beg whatever God is up there we don't get thrown in that place." He shivered when he answered.
It seemed, that we were nothing more than belongings to the man who ran the caravan. I shivered. So they could throw us in that Hell Hole,called Kalamanda? And they would care less if we did get out of that challenge alive. They would make money either way.
I sighed. Maybe it was not going to be a good thing, being a good slave. Because there was the possibility to be thrown into Oblivion every minute of our lives. But... I didn't think I could escape, even if I wanted to. Ryland would know something about this.
"Hey... How long have you been a slave?" I asked him. As well as being an odject, he was a slave, longer than me.
"Well, I'm a slave since the Institute stopped the battle which was going to tear Kalamanda apart. I lived there, I had money, a home and a family, but the spells and warriors destroyed all of it. Something chose to let me live, and... Those thugs found me. I'm a slave for three years, and I have managed to evade the arena. But if I don't get a permanent owner any sooner, they will deem me unworthy and... Send me to that place..." I nodded. Now I understanded. A slave ended in the arena, no matter what he or she did. Well, maybe for the jentle sex it was not necessarily the arena. After all, women were not treated like men... I sighed as my stomach growled. How am I going to live with that empty belly?
Ryland's eyes drifted away as he lost focus on me. He was not a short person, yet he didn't look like an experienced man in anything. Yet, I already knew his nature was much more than a selfish human. I sighed.
After a few hours, and thousands screams of my starving stomach, the caravan came to a stop. Ryland sighed as a thug came our way.
"Ya slave, ya know da drill. Explain it to him." He unlocked the cages and I left mine. Ryland slowly crawled out of his, and walked next to me.
"It's time to eat. Do not leave the caravan or another hit on your head will follow. We will be given a bowl of food and then we are sent back to the cages." Ryland explained, looking at the grass. The landscape has changed quite drastically with the trip the caravan had made. Only grass remained from the deep forests I had been in when the day started. I groaned as my eyes fell on the rows and rows of men and women, all waiting in front of a wagon, one which probably had the food supplies. The slaves were all looking like Ryland, if we do not count the amount of bruises or their absence. All were exhausted, rib were visible from under their skin. They looked like... Undead, yet they were alive. I have seen the living dead, and even though it was only once, I had been terrified, I dumped everything and ran for my life.
Shiverring at the memory, I looked at the food we were going to receive. Something like a soup, but it was more or less too thick to be a soup. We also got a rough spoon to eat with. As I looked at Ryland, I felt that he was going to eat something he didn't want to. I realised that this meal was not going to be warm, nor tasty. At least it would feed us.
After a minute it was my turn. I was handled the bowl with the same thick substance and a spoon. Then it was the next slave's turn. Well, so it was my turn to go, find a seat and... Well, eat. So I looked around, searching for Ryland. The black skinned man was already digging into his meal. He looked like he was eating something really tasty, but in reality it was probably the worst thing you could eat. I peaked at mine, and felt sad, because thins kind of food was fit for swine and hens. Grunting, I sat down next to him and started munching. It was, indeed, disgusting. Awful taste, dry, and it was not a liquid at all. A few bites and I was already prepared to just leave it.
"If you don't eat this, you won't have any other food until tomorrow at the same time." I looked at Ryland, who was just finishing his meal, and I knew he was telling me the truth.
Somehow, with a lot of willpower, I finished mine too. With the wish to throw up, I was walking back to my cage, when a thug grabbed me by my shoulder.
"You, not yet. Tha wizard's going to have to mark you with tha spell." At first, I felt so terrified when I felt his hand on my shoulder, I thought that this was the end, the rape would follow and I wouldn't be able to do anything for a week. But, his voice was not threatening. I couldn't believe my luck when he led me to a small carriage and mad me go inside.
The atmosphere here was so much different from the atmosphere outside. It was dark, with the exception of a small lamp struggling to keep burning. I saw the wizard. He had all the properties of a wizard, with the long beard, the pipe, the robes. Only his muscles, which were easily visible from underneath the robe. One badass mage, I thought.
"Ah, there you are. I was wonderin' when you'd come here!" His voice was somewhat strange. A bit scratchy, as if a child was speaking, but with a little deeper tone. I tried to ignore it.
"So, let's get starting, shall we? I have to know your name, your age, your height, your skills in doing jobs..." I looked at him for a while after he asked me. Then, I realised I had to answer.
"I have no name, I am... 26 years old, I do not know my height, I do not know my skills at doing jobs." I replied to his question. And he looked as if I had mauled him with a wet towel. He rumbled about something as he stood up and walked to a small desk. There, he wrote in somethings.
"So, now, let's see here, we will call you 'The Nameless', you are 26 years old, you are 6.4 feet tall, and you are a hunter. Fine?" I looked at him amazed. Yes, I used to hunt in order to survive, but... How did he know how tall I was? Even I didn't know. I slowly nodded. That was why they called him 'the wizard', because he was able to learn those things from the air, I guess.
"How did you do this?" I asked, unable to keep my interest behind bars. He smirked, or at least I thought he did so.
"You barely fit through the door, which is 6.5 feet tall, and about the job... Well, the bow brought to me couldn't have been used for somethin' else in the forests. I deduced your being boy, now come here, I gotta mark you!" I walked slowly towards him, thinking about the thing he called deduction. It was interesting. He hadn't wasted time using his power to learn about me, he just used his brain. A wizard, no doubt. When I was in front of him, he grunted.
"Get that sleeve of your left hand, because I cannot mark you with it on!" I quickly complied, and when my skin was uncovered, he quickly chanted a few words and slammed his palm against my shoulder. Excruciating pain exploded through me, as I felt his palm burn into my flesh. After a second, it was over. I fell to my knees and started weakly sobbing, for I've never felt so much pain in my life.
"It's over. Now, If you try to run away, the mark will start burning, and cause you much more pain than I did while placing it. So, do not try to escape, okay?" I slowly nodded and left the carriage. The thug looked at me, still sobbing weakly and holding my left hand with my right one. There was... Something strange in his eyes.
"So, what's your name, kid?" He asked. His voice was the same, gentle voice which had scared me when I first met him. I slowly tuned my head to face him.
"Why are you trying to be... Friendly? I'm just a slave... You know, an object. A belonging to the man who owns this... Caravan." He looked at me, brow raised.
"If you think like this about your life, you are never going to get anywhere. You know, I was a slave like you once. But I was thrown in tha Pit, tha Arena I Kalamanda. And, since I was able to last for one month in there, my owner let me go. He was a good man, my owner. But, that guy, I've been on duty here for five years. No one was freed, which is bad. Five years... That guy loves the money he makes from you." So... He was a slave once. How did that matter to me?
I was already in front of my cage when the nice thug went off to his business. I crawled in, and started breathing heavily, thinking of what was about to come.
He woke up. Screaming, his hands grabbed his head and held it with all the strength he could. Blood poured from his ears, eyes rolled back into his head and started darkening while blood trickled from his eyelids. His hair darkened, while his hands and body build as a whole strengthened. His body's skin started shredding, and more blood poured from the wounds. After a while, he stopped. Silence fell in the small room, which was actually a cage.
"Black magic... Curse it." His voice cracked. Gordoth roared as the cell shook from an explosion outside. Another roar echoed from outside, this one however brought thunder with itself. He was weakened to no extend right now. His body in it's previous state was nowhere close to his full potential, but this one was even worse. And, after being forced to use the spell, Gordoth was weakened to a state that even Teemo, in his savagely crippled body was going to be able to beat the crap out of him.
Standing up, Gordoth slipped in his own blood, falling on the ground, and cursing wildly. The body of the slave was going to get used to his presence. And, he didn't kill the man. He absorbed his memories and was now part of him. A little while passed. Another explosion reeked outside. I better hurry. If I do not, the whole thing can fall on top of me.
Gordoth stood up, holding his left arm. Slowly, he creeped to the cage door. Placing a hand on it, the lock slowly melted. Time to see what is going on up there... He thought as his feet carried him up.
A/N: So what do you think about the chapter? I put a lot of work in it, so hope you enjoyed reading it! Bye!