This time while I sleep I dream. The dream makes no sense, to me, I am a large dog and I find myself in a cage with another dog, while I am a small terrier with soft brown eyes and a smooth pelt the other dog is a large pitbull rippling with muscles, scars covering it and I see in its eyes, a pained resignation as it looks down at me. It is clear that this other dog wants nothing more than to leave this fighting ring, but it knows that it cannot so it bites and claws at me while a bunch of men just like the three from earlier cheer with malicious grins on their faces, I attempt to only evade the other dog, but when I do not fight, a whip strikes me on the back until I approach the other dog. The other dog looks down at me and raises one paw with a wicked looking claw and right as it swings down to cut my face I wake with a start.
This time I don't even get to see the men, they rush in and throw a bag over my head, the inside of the bad smells like artificial chemicals and as soon as I breath them in I start feeling woozy. It seems however they underestimated the dosage needed to knock me out because while I am groggy I am still awake. I can feel every bump, every piece of gravel on the rough stone floor that they drag me on. I cannot see anything through the bag, but judging by the amount of turns that they are taking me through it feels like we are going through a labyrinth. After what feels like hours but was probably only 15 minutes I am unceremoniously dumped onto a hard metal surface the bag is taken off of my head but before my eyes can adjust to the blinding light the men leave and I hear a loud clang before the room enters into near pitch darkness. As my eyes slowly adjust I can make out many other people in the room with me, and the room doesn't seem to be a room at all, more like a rectangular box. Suddenly I can hear a loud drawn out groan of machinery as the box starts moving slowly but picking up speed. Somehow the other people in the room seem unfazed by what is happening. I approach an older looking catfolk. He has a pelt that probably used to be a vibrant orange and silky smooth, but now is matted and splotched with gray. He is hunched over and his eyes seem tired despite that his body seems very spry and quick. His right eye is closed due to a scar running vertically across it. I sit down next to him and ask
"Where are we, how is this box moving"
He laughs a halfhearted tired laugh and in a gruff voice says "This is a train, its a bunch of boxes on wheels called cars, they are all connected and travel along tracks called rails, its a cheap method for transporting people."
"How do they move something so heavy" I inquire dubiously
"With soul energy, how else" He says like it is the most obvious thing in the world
"What is soul energy?" I inquire =
He looks at me like I was born yesterday and says "You really don't know what soul energy is?"
"Nope"
"It is energy made by converting someone's soul into energy, it kills the person but makes so much energy that pretty much everything in the modern world runs off of it."
This revelation shocks me. Who would be so evil as to create such a terrible method of extracting energy. However I don't ask this, I ask an arguably more important question.
"Why exactly are we on this train?"
"Because we are slaves" He says again like it is something everyone knows by the time they are 3 days old
"Slaves?" I ask again sounding stupid
"You don't know what a slave is?" He asks incredulously
"I know what slaves are, but isn't slavery illegal?" I ask exasperated at how dumb this man thinks I am.
"You do realize that we are on the first level of Hell right?" He asks
"No What? What is hell?"
"Oooooook, get ready for a lot of information here because it seems like you know nothing." He says looking even more tired. "We live in a world. This world has 3 different main parts, The surface, it is the surface of a planet, with countries and kingdoms and dominions, there is war, there is peace, there are alliances, there are rival nations Alright?"
"Alright" I say, not fully understanding
"Then there is where we are, the second part, Hell. It's a cave system beneath the surface. It is a land of evil trickery and deceit, not a very good place." He says, like he is talking to a baby.
"Finally there is Heaven, it's where the super rich people who are too good for the rest of us go. They are floating cities in the clouds where everyone gets along or whatever, no one really knows, because once you make it up there you either stay and never return, or they drop your body in one of their dumps. Heaven isn't that important for this explanation."
"We are on a train in hell, this train is headed towards La Casa Daemus. It is a palace where our owners, the Daemus brothers, live and keep their slaves. Slaves will do anything from building stuff to serving the Brothers, to cleaning and some unlucky few, do the Arena. Hopefully for you, the arena is not your destination"
"Why is that" I inquire
"The Arena is a place where major houses and unknown ones alike pit their personal fighters against each other in various matches for show. The fights are bet upon and the only winners are the owners. No one survives there long. I wouldn't be worried, in all likelihood you will end up scrubbing the brothers' stables." With that uplifting speech the catfolk turned away and told me over his shoulder. "You should get some sleep, this won't be a short trip.
Sleeping was easier said than done however as trying to find a place to lay down in the packed train car was nigh impossible. Eventually however, I found a free spot in the corner and layed down. Eventually I fell asleep, just praying that I wouldn't have any more weird dreams.