15

Darkside

Although by a vehicle that could fly faster than the fastest horse could gallop, or the fastest bird fly, it was not a long flight; for Saber it was the longest ride he had ever taken. But despite that, and although most the time, he kept his gaze riveted rigidly on his abductors, he could not help looking over the side to the ground below. This was something no one in his entire village, even the whole valley had ever seen!

This was what the eagles must see, flying up among the clouds. Had he not been in such trouble, he would not have wanted the ride to end. But as it was, it lasted far too long.

He was watching the terrain actually change before his eyes during the long flight, when finally he saw the forbidden territory, a land of demons, or so he had thought before. It was dark, oppressive, foreboding - but no realm of demons. Of that he was now sure. If he needed proof all he had to do was look at the blue skinned one that had struck him, to see the blood, and the expression of both pain and rage on his face. Demons did not bleed, and they did not feel pain.

But he had other things to think about now, as they began to descend. Although he had calmed down somewhat, even with the unpleasant smiles on the others' faces, now he began to shake again. His face hurt, and was swollen a little, his lip bleeding, and his arms ached from being bound behind him for the long flight, but now he was beginning to rethink his wish for the ride to end.

"Come on, brat," Infra said, jumping form the vehicle and unfastening Saber's crash restraints. The boy immediately used his feet to push himself back, but the green-haired one that had caught him in the first place grabbed him once more.

"Oh no you don't," he said, with an eerie calm, his iron grip around Saber's arm. He shoved him back towards the edge, and Infra caught him.

Chilldon shoved them both aside as Earthquake bounded ahead. The icy Lunattack limped forward and grabbed Saber's hair. "You've got a meeting with Fintii, little wretch," he growled, as Saber made a frightened outcry and cringed away a little bit. Chilldon shook him. "And you'll be lucky if she kills you right away!"

Saber was trying not to cry again, but it was not easy. Had he traveled for a month and a half only to be brought right back to his northern borders and killed here? Killed by the mortal but frightening beings that had captured him?

Once inside the dim, oppressive fortress, the young boy was taken to the control room, where Fintii had been monitoring their arrival. Again, even as scared as he was, Saber could only stare at the consoles with their flashing lights and levers and screens. A big one, like the little one in the bedroom of the animal fortress!

But then two others caught his eye; there were more than two there, but it was two that grabbed his attention first. One looked like a trollkin from the children's stories, only she had bright blue hair with a whitish streak through it. He blinked for a moment. She was not intimidating or frightening. Her steed, on the other hand, was.

Havoc stepped forward, as Chilldon none too gently made sure Saber did not go anywhere, and grasped the boy's arms. He swallowed hard, then looked up, as the trollkin addressed him in a high, very annoying voice.

"So, you're the gutty whelp that left the Valley, eh?" She laughed. "I am amazed you got as far as you did. What's your name, brat?"

Saber could not speak at the moment, both too terrified to, and too in awe of his surroundings. There were three others besides the ones that had captured him. There was another blue skinned one, a female, that looked on in cold amusement. There was another with the unsettling red eyes, a male. At least Saber thought he was a male. The last scared him the most He was a tall one, purplish skin and gray hair, but his eyes were cruel and savage. They were the eyes of someone who wasn't sane. Saber gulped.

He was shaken out of his observances when the beast the trollkin rode squeezed his arms hard enough to hurt, and then lifted him in the air as if he weighed no more than an infant. His eyes widened, and all his attention was again on the little one. "I asked you a question, wretch!" the troll screeched. She knew his name, but wanted to know if he would tell her. She was testing him.

"S-s-saber," the boy stammered, and was roughly set back down. The beast did not let go of him, however.

"That's better!" She whapped him on the head with her riding crop. "The next time I ask you question, you will answer it immediately!"

"Oww..."

"Now, how did you get to the old Cats' Lair?"

"Th-the what?" he asked, looking around again. He did like being watched by all the frightening, powerful beings. It made him more nervous than he was, and he was very unnerved to begin with.

"The Cat's Lair!" came the impatient reply. "I can't believe one of you stupid, primitive humans ever left your village. That big cat fortress my Lunattacks found you in!"

Is that what it was called? And Lunattacks? Were those what these beings were? He had not heard it in any of the little disk things. Well how did she think he had gotten there? "I-I walked!"

Fintii growled a command to her beast in a language that was clipped and harsh, and he responded by shaking the boy violently. "Don't be a smart alec!" she demanded. "Or I'll just turn you over to Psychren!" She indicated the tall, lanky Lunattack that Saber had been eyeing uneasily. He grinned an unpleasant grin and cracked his knuckles.

Saber burst into tears. He had not meant to be pert! "I-I wasn't! I did walk there! I w-went beyond the Western Boarder and walked!"

"No one helped you?" Infra demanded.

Saber shook his head. "O-only a couple, the Robear Berbils, and the U-unicorn keepers..." Why were they asking him these things?

"The Berbils!" the female with the blue skin laughed. "I didn't know they still existed."

Fintii looked back down to Saber. "See the problem is, you humans have been confined to the valley for hundreds of years. And if I let you get back to your people, they might just realize that there is a bigger world out there." She narrowed her eyes. "And you just might tell them of our weaknesses. They think us to be demons." Havoc shook him again. "And it needs to stay that way!"

Saber was losing it. He had not liked that statement at all, he wanted to go home! "B-b-but, I-I wouldn't tell them!" he protested.

"Yeah right," Chilldon sneered. He was sitting down with a medical kit, tending the wound Saber had dealt him. "Just let Psycho have him, Fintii. He is useless to us, and the little bastard deserves no better."

"It takes days for his victims to die," Earthquake added, with a malicious grin at the boy. Saber bit his lip, trying not to start sobbing. Gathering Day had been nothing compared to this. Nothing at all.

"No," Fintii said. "Put him in the dungeon, keep him tied up, but make sure the circulation is not cut off. I want him able to function. As much as I'd like to off him, I have other orders."

"But why? Infra said. "He's just a worthless brat."

Fintii turned to her. "Quiet! I have my reasons!" She told Havoc to turn the boy over to Infra, who caught him with her muscular arms. "Lock him up, chain his ankle to the wall."

Infra shrugged but said, "Okay..." She figured the little Lunattack did not want to discuss this in front of the prisoner. She nodded at these instructions, and dragged Saber from the room.

He had started to fight again, this time out of fear. "N-no, let me go! I won't tell anyone, I j-just want to go home!" he cried.

"Shut up, kid," Infra said. "Forget home, you'll never see it again." She did leave him bound, and chained his ankle to the wall so that he could not move more than a couple of feet from it. When he tried to kick her, she simply jerked the chain to leave him sprawled on the floor. "Enjoy your stay," she said, as she closed the heavy door, leaving the boy in near darkness.

Saber lay in the corner of the filthy little cell and curled up miserably, tears streaming from his eyes. He had thought he wanted to go home before? He wanted that now more than anything.

"So why are we keeping him here?" Infra asked once she returned.

Fintii looked at her. Most the other had dispersed to go about their duties, but Chilldon and Sounder remained. "We are going to test him. Keep him here about five days or so, maybe a week. These humans have evolved into hardier beings. Don't feed him, give him only enough water to keep him alive. Then you and Chilldon are going to release him somewhere miles away from here. I don't care where, preferably in hostile territory. Somewhere it would take him months to travel back from. And we will keep an eye on him to see if he survives."

Infra nodded. "Got ya, Fintii. Will do." And she left the room to her quarters. She had an idea she knew who had ordered that to be done, and she for one was not going to argue.

The next few days were completely miserable for the Erthrin boy. He was kept tied up in the tiny cell, which reeked of the septic tanks below. there was a hold in the ground that lead to them, and that was his toilet. He had had to go to the bathroom, and had managed, as he only wore a loincloth, to kneel over it and go. But he had no way to clean himself, and he felt filthy.

Most the time he sat curled up in the corner, crying quietly, or thinking of his home, and wishing he had never left. He wished that more times that he could count. And to make matter worse, and only to make him more miserable, Chilldon had come in and tied a blindfold around his eyes, laughing at the boy's cry of alarm.

After a day or so, his hunger was becoming an annoyance, and as the days stretched on, it became unbearable. He was given water by whomever had been assigned to the task, usually the one that fed the other slaves, and this was usually done by jerking his head back by the hair and shoving a water bottle in his mouth.

The first time, he had refused it, and had received a knee to the midsection for it. He had not refused again. In fact, it was the only relief his stomach got for the hunger.

This went on for a little over six days, six days that stretched like an endless blight to the young boy in the pit of a cell. He had not eaten now in almost a week, and had been given water once a day. He had been weakened by the ordeal, and when Sounder came down to fetch him on the sixth day, he was shaking violently, almost not able to walk at first.

He was taken up to the control room, and the blindfold taken off. Saber had to squint, even in the dim light from the screen. "So," Fintii said. "You are holding up rather well for a child." Saber said nothing, only cried quietly and stared miserably at the ground. He was hungry.

Fintii laughed. "All right, you're going for a long, long ride, whelp." She motioned to Chilldon, and he and Infra took the boy to the hangar. Once again he was out into the four-seated Icerunner and taken for a ride. He had to keep his eyes tightly closed to the daylight, as he had been several days in blackness, and the sun was physically painful.

The ride took several long hours, many of which Saber slept. He had gotten little rest at Skytomb, and now in the fresh air, and with the gentle rock of the Icerunner, his body could stay awake no longer. The Lunattacks did not care; it kept him quiet.

After a long journey, Infra brought the Icerunner to a hover, about three feet from the dirt of a desert. Chilldon grabbed the sleeping boy and shoved him rudely off the Icerunner. The boy woke with a cry of pained startlement as he hit.

"Good luck," Infra laughed, as she rose in the air. The kid was within walking distance of a water supply barely, but whether he made it there would be another story. "You'll need it!" With a roar of engines, the two Lunattacks left Saber lying on the desert ground, tied up and helpless.

Part 16: The Desert

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