On a rainy and gloomy evening, in the slums of the grand kingdom of Granzia, a young boy no older 7 years old sat under a tree with a single red apple on his hand, one which he had bought with the leftover money that his parents who abandoned him, left behind for him
'It's so red'
The boy thought to himself looking at the reddish apple while completely ignoring the pouring rain
'Let's have a bite and see if it was worth the last coins my useless parents who brought me into this 7 years of hell left me'
With bitter feelings the boy took a bite off of the juicy fruit's flesh, and smiled with satisfaction that was alien to his little world
"Sweet"
He immediately took another bite, savored it then took another bite, and finished the whole thing in a matter of seconds, the fruit called apple, it was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted in his whole short life
'totally wroth it'
Satisfied he laid down on the damp and wet soil under the cold and rainy weather, looking up at the giant tree shielding him from most of the rain, feeling sad, a song that came up in his mind, one that his mother whom he now resented used to sing to him when he couldn't sleep
"Mom, dad ... I hate you both!"
He cursed while crying, refusing to accept that he wanted them to come back and get him, away from this cold and lonely spot where they told him to wait for them two days ago after they were kicked out of their house by the gangs of the area
"Hey look over there"
"hmm?"
Hearing the voice ,the boy turned around and saw 3 shady looking guys walking towards him, he was pretty certain that those guys were one of those child kidnappers his parents would always use as a word to scare him
Seeing those guys approaching, the boy got up and began to run away under the rain, desperate and afraid, he ran, he ran as fast as he could, but no matter how fast he ran, the kidnappers eventually caught up and surrounded him, and even though he fought back, the strength of 3 guys was obviously too much for one child, the kidnappers grabbed his limbs and easily rendered him immobile and knocked him out
"He seems young so I doubt he could be sold as a worker -slave, what should we do with him?"
"Who cares what kind of slave he'll be? Let us just sell him to the merchant on the outer streets, he buys whatever we bring him there as long as it's still breathing after all"
The voices I heard while being half conscious clearly belonged to those men, it seemed like what awaited me was the life of a slave from now on, but as a slave I should still get some food right?
That was the last thing I remembered before I woke up the next morning, inside a big cage made of steel in a dark place alongside kids in the other cages
"The air seems awfully damp again, is it raining once more?"
The boy muttered to himself inside the cage he was in, it's been well over a month since he got caught, and he had also been moved to a different location, probably somewhere far off from his old home since the travel time lasted 2 whole weeks
"Hey Jerry, are you cold?"
The boy asked his new friend who was caged on the opposite side of him, Jerry was a human like him, kid who as a bit older who also got kidnapped, he was talkative and funny but today ,they boy remained silent
"Jerry?..."
Seeing the immobile body of his caged friend across him, The boy let out a heavy sigh and said with a heavy heart
"Rest in peace man"
"graaaa"
The beasts inside the room with him groaned, and grumbled as if mocking the two human prisoners, the air in the dark room was always heavy with it being always filled with the smell of rusted metal and monster excrements but today it seemed especially heavy for the young boy
He sat back down, hugging his knees to his chest, obviously not because of the cold air, his cheeks were bruised, his lips cracked as he plainly stared ahead, at the cage where his dead friend lifelessly sat, after a while, pain, sadness and anger passed, and when the animal food arrived at the evening , he simply ate like usual and cheered himself up with the thought of him being atleast fed here
And then after dinner the door cracked open, two guards came in and removed Jerry's dead body from the cage, they put his corpse inside and bag and left the place before another guard came inside with a girl who seemed to be the young boy's age if not younger than the boy, tied up and gagged
Her muffled whimpers sounded desperate as she got shoved in the cage, the boy simply looked at the entire scene with a blank and uninterested expression even as the girl cry cried out for her parents as soon as her bindings and gag were removed
She cried for a while before the annoyed beast beside the cage scared and roared at her to silence, the girl, now that the boy got a clear look at her, she was a half wolf based on her long and furred ears that were dropping like a scolded pup's, a fluffy and long tail was curled around her legs as she looked around the room, sad and terrified ,probably hoping to find someone to talk to, and eventually her gaze landed on the boy, seeing him, her ears perked up
"H…Hello?"
The boy did not immediately reply, simply stared at her as he no longer felt like making friends, but to his dismay
"Hello? Hey! My eyes are very good so I know you can see me there"
"…"
"Hey!! Talk to me you meanie!!Please!"
The girl cried again, and looking at her pitiful wailing, guilt and empathy finally made the boy sigh and talk
"Stop crying"
Hearing his voice the girl looked up at the boy and cried out sounding like she was wronged
"Why did you not talk sooner?"
"…I did not feel like it"
"You are a bad person!"
"…."
"Hey!"
"…"
"I'm sorry, so please don't stop talking to me!"
The girl grabbed the bars and pleaded, and to her plea, the boy began to talk to her once more, her name was Luma, and apparently, her village got plundered and after failing to flee with her family, she ended up here after her family got killed, the boy also gave her his name
"My name is Riven, I got kidnapped off the streets"
That was how to two kids met
***
"…."
Three days had passed since Luma got caught at this place, and I must say she has a way harder time getting used to this than me, which is not that surprising, considering that she was not abandoned like me, everyday she cries atleast once, and even now she's crying silently in her cage, her ears drooped down her tail lifelessly laying in the cages cold metal floor
And then as usual the guards came in to inspect the cage, and as usual he walked passed mine without a glance as it was rather dark, the place where my cage was at
"1 minute and 36 seconds"
The time it took him to get to my position, I had been making mental notes on his movements or a while now, honestly I do not even know why I am doing all this, maybe I am more bored than I imagined
As usual after making his rounds the guard went back out, leaving the room in silence, and taking this opportunity , I tried to get some sleep but once again, I heard Luma crying, even if she was trying to hold it in, the sound of her crying still seeped out it seems
"Riven"
"yeah what is it?"
"Do you think we'll ever be free?"
"No"
"Will I be sold off to a bad guy then?"
That question hurted my heart way more than I thought it would, the thought of this poor crybaby being sold to some nasty guy, honestly the thought alone makes me want to cry for the girl as well, feeling awful now, I sat back up and faced her and called out to her
"Luma"
"hmm?"
She looked at me in the eye
"Tell me, what will you do if you escaped?"
"W…well I'll go back h…,I…I don't know"
Her expression sunk as she finished her sentence, seeing that I changed my question
"Then tell me this…Are you willing to risk your life to escape?"
It was serious question, probably too serious for a child my age to answer seriously, but to my surprise the girl answered me standing up in her cage with determination in her voice
"Yes, I want to get out of this place, even if it means I'll die"
'What am I doing?'
"I have a plan then, tomorrow be ready to run for your life, are you fast?"
'Why am I taking such a big risk like this?'
"Yes in the woods, I can run very fast!! I'm sure I can outrun them if I'm careful"
Hearing the girl's reply, Riven could not help but admire how innocent she was thinking that she would actually be able to outrun these people
***
The next day, nighttime came and as usual the guard came in to do his usual inspection of the storage room, but this time when as he was passing by the left cages from the right row of cages
"Waaaaaah!"
The demi-human girl suddenly cried loudly startling all the beasts and monsters in the room
"Graaii"
"AASRRRR"
"Shit!"
Cursing the man walked over to the Luma's caged and threatened her with a glare
"Little girl if You cry one more time, I will feed you these beast get it you runt?"
"waaaa…I..I wanna go home"
As she was not stopping, the man shook the cage and grabbed her by the throat and slammed her back the cage, knocking her unconscious
"Geez what a headache"
With that he calmed the beasts down and left the storage room in a sour mood and after some time passed, the sound of an iron cage's door clicking open resounded in the storage, Riven, the moment the guard was infront of his cage, as he instructed, Luma cried out as loud as she could, enough to startle the beasts, and as the guard turned around towards her cage he grabbed the key ring full of keys on his back amidst the noise unnoticed
And now much to his shock his plan worked
'We have 2 whole hours before the other guard arrive at this storage room'
"That's more than enough time"
Reassuring himself he went towards Luma's cage
"Luma, Luma!"
Seeing that she was not responding Riven unlocked her cage and checked her body to find that she was infact unconscious
"How troublesome"
'A baggage'
"…."
Looking at her unconscious body, Riven realized that he had a decision to make, either to leave her behind and escape swiftly or take the more troublesome route, and after some thought he sighed
"No more abandoning"
With that he grabbed her and piggy backed her and got to work, he put her in his cage and immediately banged the door attracting the attention of the guards, hearing the noise the guards immediately went towards the storage room but when they were about to open the door, it was rammed through, from the inside by the red gorilla and the other beasts locked inside those magic steel cages
This was a part of Riven's plan, chaos, he released all of the beasts inside the room one by one, and directed them to the guards, and what followed was pure unadultered chaos, the monsters and beasts began to rip everyone apart, limbs and all and when the beasts stampeded through the area, killing everyone, Riven escaped with the little girl on his back and left the area
And as he walked and walked ahead after grabbing a few things he could find at the area, about 5 hours later when the light of dawn came, the young boy, with the demihuman girl on his back, stood on a cliff where a large and colorful town was visible below
"Wow"
End of chapter