The Winglies of Hellena
Chapter Three: Slavery
Disclaimer: You know the Characters from LoD aren't mine, but all the others are. No stealy. .
Lloyd opened his eyes slowly and nearly jumped out of a skin when he met a pair of blood red eyes exactly like his own. The owner of the eyes was a Wingly child, maybe twelve years of age. Her silver hair was short-cropped, like his, but whoever had cut it had done a bad job of doing so. She was dressed in nothing but rags that barely covered the essentials. The Wingly girl had jumped back upon seeing him wake up and skittered to the far side of the cell.
Wait a minute... a prison cell! Lloyd sat up quickly to find he was in a small, cramped prison cell. There were many other Winglies of varying ages in the cell as well, some male, some female. Their platinum hair was cut short like the girl's, and their crimson eyes all looked at him cautiously. As he tried to stand up, he found his ankles and wrists were shackled together. His eyes narrowing, he jerked at them, but it was no use. He couldn't break free. Not that way, anyway. He closed his eyes and concentrated on shattering the shackles with his magic, but suddenly screamed in agony as electric currents flowed from the shackles and into his body. His eyes rolled back in his head, and as soon as his concentration broke, the electric currents stopped and he fell to the floor.
"You okay, mister?" a quiet voice chirped at him. Lloyd opened his eyes to see that the Wingly child had returned.
"Where am I...?" Lloyd asked slowly, and then added, "And what just happened?"
"You're in Hellena, mister," the girl replied as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. "And whenever one of us tries to use their magic, they get shocked. You must be pretty powerful, mister, for you to have gotten such a shock. You got your nose all bloodied up and you passed out there for a few minutes."
Lloyd slowly lifted one of his hands to his face, but ended up lifting them both up because of the shackles. His fingers came away from his nose with blood on them. He growled and heaved himself to a sitting position. The movement caused his chest to hurt. "Hellena? How did I get here?"
"You were brought in the wagon, same as us all. They go out lookin' for Winglies in the woods and stuff, either wounded or too young or too old to fight. Usually they use the Traitor to catch other Winglies. They gots these special chains that prevent us from using our magic and getting away. We can't even summon our wings to fly." The girl sighed and tilted her head to look at the wound on his bare chest. "Gosh, mister, that musta hurt." She then moved around behind him to look at his back. "Somethin' stabbed ya right through, didn't they? What happened?"
"Wait a minute, what traitor? And what do the humans want with us?" Lloyd asked in confusion, also carefully avoiding answering the question.
"The Traitor. The Wingly that sided with the humans to help capture the rest of us Winglies and use us for slave labor and other stuff like that," she replied quietly, with an undertone of fury in her voice. It somewhat startled Lloyd to hear such vehemence from a child, but he agreed. How could a Wingly betray his own race this way? Had he no pride?
"So I'm supposed to be a slave now? I hope they're kidding. They haven't the slightest idea what they're getting into," Lloyd growled furiously. Suddenly the little Wingly girl grabbed onto his arm.
"No! You mustn't fight them! They'll whip you and shock you and hurt you so bad! They'll torture you until you're all broken and have no will left! I seen it happen!" she cried.
"I am not broken so easily," Lloyd sneered and pulled himself away from her, climbing to his feet. He walked to the front of the cell and noticed outside there were several other cells all packed with Winglies with the same shackles he had on now. All of their clothes were ratty, and many had whip scars on their backs and chests. All of their hair was short-cropped, both male and female. There wasn't a single human in sight. He had expected guards, at least. Farther down the line he noticed a cell with a few Winglies whose hair hadn't been cut. They also had slightly nicer clothes than the rest, but they still looked as miserable as the rest. "What's with those down in that cell over there?" he asked over his shoulder to the Wingly girl.
A male spoke up instead, a heavily scarred, well-built man with eyes the color of garnets. "Those are the slaves used for other purposes than labor."
"Other purposes?" Lloyd growled, hoping it wasn't for what he suspected it was.
The male simply nodded. "They are used to pleasure the humans as they see fit. Winglies have become a private market. There is quite a lot of money on each of our heads. Some humans will buy us for household slaves, some for pleasure slaves, but most come to have their very own Wingly that they can beat. Some even come to take Winglies and release them in the forest to hunt them down and hang their heads like trophies on their walls."
Lloyd's eyes narrowed dangerously as he hissed, "Why must they still hold a grudge on us? It was ten thousand years ago that the Dragon Campaign ended and humans were free from slavery. I remember. I was there."
A gasp arose from every Wingly that heard what he said, and the scarred male stood up. "You are one of the Ancients?" he whispered in awe. "I didn't think any of them were left alive..."
"Yes, I am one of your so-called Ancients. I was twelve years old at the time the Dragon Campaign ended."
The garnet-eyed Wingly bowed his head. "I am Nakai. What be your name, old one?"
Lloyd's blood-red eyes flashed in irritation. He didn't look old, that was for sure. He looked in his mid-twenties, possibly early thirties. Thanks to Wingly magic, he had not aged. "My name is Lloyd."
The effect was instantaneous. Almost every Wingly in the other cells lunged at the bars screaming for his blood, while the ones in his own cell all stood up and either flattened themselves against the walls or advanced towards him threateningly. Lloyd himself got into the best fighting stance he could manage while being shackled. "You..." Nakai growled, being one of the ones that stepped forward. "Do you realize it's all your fault we are in here! Because of you, people know that Winglies exist again! Because you exposed yourself, the humans know, and even ten thousand years wasn't enough to distance their hate. Because of you, we are captured and thrown in here to be at their mercy! And then trying to destroy the world by bringing forth the God of Destruction, you could have killed every last being on this planet!"
"Do you think it was intentional?" Lloyd sneered coldly. "I never meant to show myself to the humans. I knew that they wouldn't understand what I was trying to do. And I didn't know that the birth of the God of Destruction would be the end of the world. I was told that the birth of the God of Destruction would create a Utopia where we could live amongst humans and not have to worry about prejudice and hate! I. Was. Misled," Lloyd spat out. "Melbu Frahma fooled me into doing his bidding, and that's why I tried to kill him for it when I found out." He put a hand to the wound on his chest. "And I almost died for trying to make up for my wrongs. Dart and the others would not have succeeded in defeating Frahma had they not had the help of the Divine Dragoon spirit and the Dragon Buster, both of which I had in my possession. To make up for the things I had done, I gave them those items, and helped in my own way for them to succeed. You talk about a traitor to the Winglies, some fool who sided with the humans to help round up our kind. He is responsible for your being here, not I!"
"So you were nothing but a pawn..." Nakai whispered.
"HEY! What the Hell is going on down here!" a voice yelled out. Immediately all the Winglies backed away from the bars of the cage, except for Lloyd, who turned to look out the cell. He watched as a heavyset guard came over, a scowl on his face. When he saw Lloyd staying still, he walked up to him and snorted. "Ah, the new one awakens. What have you to say, Wingly scum?"
Lloyd looked the man up and down in disdain before giving the man a cold glare and said lowly, "You're a disgusting hunk of lard who makes cattle smell like cherry blossoms when faced with your body odor. For Soa's sake, take a good, long bath, and use soap. You'll kill every last one of us in here if you don't."
The guard's face turned an ugly shade of purple and he roared, "You'll pay for that!" He motioned to another guard who came running down the hall, and they took out the keys and started unlocking the cell. The moment they opened it, Lloyd lunged for the exit, headbutting the new guard in the stomach and toppling him over while he stumbled to regain his footing and dashed on. He was brought up short by a large hand grabbing his ankle and Lloyd fell flat on his face with a grunt as the pain flared in his chest and the breath was knocked out of him.
Another hand grabbed his hair while he was winded and pulled his head back. Lloyd looked up to see the enraged brown eyes of the heavyset guard and was suddenly punched in the face, making his head snap to the side. The guard dropped Lloyd and started kicking him in the stomach as he curled up to try and deflect the blows. The second guard came over with a whip. "Grab him and hold him up," the first guard snarled, taking the whip. The other guard did as he was told and jerked Lloyd up, standing on his bare feet with his right boot and keeping his arms pinned. The first guard drew back the whip and lashed it across Lloyd's bare back, making him hiss in a pained breath. Again the whip fell, and another long red line opened up on Lloyd's pale back. Again, and again, and each new gaping wound brought on even more pain, until Lloyd's eyes squeezed shut and he started whimpering lowly, disgusted by the noises coming out of his throat.
The stitches in his back split open and soon his back was a raw and bloody mess, the crimson liquid flowing down his pale skin in scarlet rivulets. The whimpers grew to groans, and soon Lloyd was screaming, short, and harsh as they tore from his throat. His legs started to give way but the first guard held him up, and the thrashing continued. Finally, the enraged guard's arm grew tired, and he motioned for Lloyd to be thrown back in the cell where the other Winglies huddled in fear.
The beaten Wingly was thrown on his face back in the cell, and the door creaked and slammed shut. Lloyd curled up slowly, completely silent now as he kept his eyes tightly closed and bit back the pathetic little hurt noises his voice wanted to make. The sound of the guards' boots faded as they walked away, and distantly, another door slammed closed. The young Wingly girl sat down next to him and whispered, "I told ya not to defy 'em. Now your back's gonna get all covered with scars that you can never get ridded of. I bet that hurt a lot, though. They never beat me that bad, but then again, I'm just a kid and I don't try to make 'em mad." Her tiny hands lightly stroked Lloyd's hair. She suddenly giggled, "But you were right though. That stinky man does need a bath. He makes my stomach go all funny whenever he comes near me."
Lloyd listened to the girl's distant voice and felt her fingers stroking through his silken platinum hair. Though his pride resented it, he found comfort in her voice and her touch. She was so pure, so innocent. Children were like that. But here she was, being thrown into this disgusting place... It only hardened his resolve to not only get out of here, but to free every last Wingly in this place, and kill the Traitor that caused all this. If it was the last thing he did, he would free his people.