Chapter 7: Slavery

  The carriage slowly made its way inside the mouth of the metal tree.

  The people on the carriage were dead slient. Even as they trembled in fear, none of them made a sound.

  The bearman jump on the carriage and joined the dwarf.

  Once inside, the tree closed its mouth.

  We were inside.

  It was an empty circular room we were in.

  The walls were sliver with some stains of redish black that appeared to be dried blood that bleached into the metal over time.

  'Where exactly do we go from here?' I thought

  My question was quickly answered when the floor started to decend.

  We were in an elevator.

  I heard the sound of metal scrapping against each other for a few seconds before it faded away, replaced with a subtle huming sound.

  As we decended, the dwarf started talking to the elf.

  "Hey boss, how much you think we can get by selling these 'products' " asked the dwarf in a casual tone.

  "We'll probably get about 20-30 sliver coins for each of them." The elf said

  "But," the elf looked at me before continuing "this one seems to have so fighting spirit" he pointed at me "he's also the only one that has been able to keep himself together compared to the other 'merchandise' "

  "You think we could sell him for more then?" Said the dwarf excitingly

  Lowering his finger, the elf said "We could probably sell him to 'the Colosseum' "

  "I see, I would enjoy watching them fight to the death. Wouldn't you think It'd be entertaining to watch boss? Maybe we could go together to celebrate our big haul today." Said the dwarf.

  "No. I want to go to the tavern" Said the bearman "why would we watch a bunch of weaklings fight when we can finally drink until we drop dead." Said the bearman.

  "We'll decide after we get the money, for now let's just make sure everything goes well and none of them try to escape" Said the elf, crossing his arms and looking at us with half opened eyes.

  "Alright boss" said the both in unison.

  The elevator came to a halt. We arrived at our destination. There was a door covered in metal cogs and gears. Slowy the door opened as the gears started turning. I could here the sound of metal dragging across the floor as the door was opened.

  I looked outside and say something amazing. I saw a busling city with buildings, shops ,blacksmiths and weapon shops. There were people on the street buying from street vendor and food stands.

  The drawf slowly drove the carriage inside.

  'Should I light the carriage on fire and run' I thought 'there's a bunch of people to cause a commotion. Maybe if I jus-'

  "Hey" Said the elf

  The air felt as if it turned cold. I could feel the pressure of his gaze on me.

  "Don't think about trying anything, you are our best merchandise, i wouldn't want to have to cut your tendons to make sure you don't cause trouble" said the elf

  'Damn it,' I only stared at the elf back as he threatened me.

  I decided to look outside.

  I saw humans but they weren't from earth that's for sure.

  The carriage was ground to a halt. We stopped infront of a building that said 'THE CHAIN MARKET'.

  The elf got out of the carriage and started walking towards the building.

  It was at this moment that someone inside the carriage bolted out. He ran as fast as he could.

  The strange thing about this situation was that the elf didn't do anything to get him.

  "Garrett." Said the elf.

  "I know what to do, ya don't neada tell me" responded the dwarf.

  In the distance you could hear the sound of screaming that lasted for a split second before vanishing.

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  I didn't have to see what happened to know that guy was dead. There was probably a spell on all of us that killed us incase we became more trouble than we were worth.

  A man dressed in black pants and suit exited the building. He had a cane yet he wasn't using it. He only spined the cane with one hand as he walk over to the elf.

  The man in the suit was able to see everything. He say how the man ran, he saw how the man died. Yet, if you looked at him, you wouldn't be able to tell that anything happened. It's like if seeing people die like this was a normal occurrence to him. Just another day at work.

  "Hello Alex, you seem to be doing well today" the said the man in the suit. Smiling ear to ear, Yet his eyes remained deadpan.

  "Let's talk inside" the elf said as he walked passed him and into the building.

  'Well, running isn't an option anymore, considering I'll probably die like that other guy. Damn it. I need to find a way to escape.' I thought

  We were all taken out of the carriage.

  As I was exiting the carriage, I saw the corpse of the died escapee. I say corpse but it was more of a pool of liquid.

  His entire body melted into a water like substance except for his bones.

  'Well shit. Even with my trait of immortality, I don't think it will help much' I thought

  As I enter the building, I see an receptionist to my right behind a bar.

  "Hello Garrett, hello Michael. Great to see you guys working together again" Said the receptionist.

  The receptionist only looked at the elf nervously before continuing to make small talk with the dwraf and bearman.

  I couldn't hear anything they were saying because we were taken deeper inside the building.

  We walked straight from the door into a hallway before reaching the wall. To our left was a staircase down but it was pitch black.

  The elf and the man in the black suit were infront of us. The man snaped his finger and then the stairs were illuminated in a blue light.

  It was at this point that some of the people being taken couldn't stifle their cries anymore.

  It was first just one of them. An incomprehensible cry escape their mouth before sobbing. This caused a chain reaction.

  The others couldn't hold back their fear. One by one they all started crying. Unfortunately for one them, they couldn't hold in their urine and peed the floor.

  "Quiet those things down already" the man looked in digust as he saw the man who pee on the floor. "I hope you'll be giving me that one at a discount for peeing the floor"

  The elf turned back sharply and glared at the man who pissed himself.

  Everyone shut up just as quickly as they started crying.

  As we decended down the stairs, someone came to clean the urine on the floor. I wasn't able to see who because I was too far down the stairs to get a good look.

  "So, I've been seeing many new humans being brought to our establishment. It's quite the predicament." Said the man

  "I've thought you would have liked this. Considering that now your business would be booming" Said the elf.

  " Oh, yes. Business is booming. I just can't find the place to hold them anymore. You see, I got 234 new humans brought to me yesterday. Ofcourse people have been buying them fast but the rate at which they've been coming is insane!"

  "Guess I should take my business somewhere else then" Said the elf sarcastically

  "Oh. No need for that. While I am struggle with keeping them captive, I just have to stuff from all together in the same room. There problem solved!" Said the man happily.

  We finally reached the bottom.

  It was a massive room with cages all over the place.

  They seem to be disorganized. Mostly likely due to the fact that what the man said before. How he has gotten many new humans brought to him.

  In the cages I could see others like me, but in worse conditions. They reeked of shit and urine. They weared ragged cloths and were covered in feces.

  They all looked to have lost hope.

  There were other cages as well that didn't contain humans.

  There was goblins that were in cages, just like the ones fought. The only difference from before was that not all of them had the same sigils in their stomach. Their were different.

  The goblins were just leaning against the bars, staring outside the cage at nothing in particular.

  There were kobolds with sigils on their backs and wolves with two heads.

  The two headed wolves had marks on their side cheek. It was lightning bolt.

  There was one monster that stirked me different from the rest.

  One cage contained a cat. The cat was laying down curled up sleeping.

  All of a sudden it jolted awake and look at us, as if trying to find someone.

  Its cat eyes landed on me. Staring at me the cats eyes grew sharp.

  Something grotesque happened after that. The cats face started to inflate before contortioning and distorting.

  The cats face was transforming.

  Suddenly, the cats face was the exact same as mine.

  Black hair. Emerald green eyes, pale face.

  The only thing different about its face compared to mine was that it had a sigil mark on his right check.

  The skin on my back crawled, I was more creeped out than scared.

  I was taken down deeper into this dungeon like room, but for the entire time I could see the cat, it watched me, never taking its eyes off of me.

  "Here we are" Said the man

  We were infront of a large cage. It already contained a lot of other people to the point that if we were to be forced inside, we would be packed like sardines.

  "How's two gold coins sound" Said the man

  "Don't think I don't notice your trying to scam me, 2 gold coins and 60 sliver" said the elf

  "Deal" Said the man

  "Alright let go get the mone-" the elf said before being interrupted by the sound of rustling coins.

  The man took out a bag of coins

  "Here, all the money should be in this bag." Said the man smiling.

  The elf stared at the bag for a second, his eyes twich for a bit before grabbing the bag.

  "You sly bastard" Said the elf.

  "I'm just good at judging my suppliers" laugh the man sadistictly

  With that done, the elf left to join the dwarf and bearman that stayed talking with the receptionist.

  When the elf was out of view, the man scoffed "the fool could have sold this to me for 3 gold pieces and I stilled would have bought. Hahahah stupid bastard"

  "Alrght get in, hurry up, single file!" Screamed the man as he open the cage and pushing us inside.

  'Damn it, I couldn't find a way to escape before this. Damn it, its gonna be harder now to escape considering that keeping people is this guy's job. There has probably been many people that have tried to escape before. He most likely has a bunch of counter measures incase someone did try to escape.'

  I could feel my despair clawing at the back of my neck, just waiting for me to crumble.

  Unfortunately, I can't succumb to despair yet. I need to be vigilant .

  While I did try to stay vigilant. I slowy felt my body grew wearily, there was no longer an immediate threat for me to run from or new information for me to process. Slowly I felt the adrenaline inside my body start to wane.

  I sat down and tried to lay down but because of how cramped the cage was, my Back was leaning against someone else is back. We both supported each other from falling. The cage stink of shit, urine, blood, sweat and tears. But even then I was too tired for that to stop me from falling asleep.

  I don't know for how long I fell asleep for, but I was awoken to the sound of my name being called outside the cage.