Chapter 5:

 Capture and Escape

Albana

I thought I’d gotten lucky. For three days we waited and no refugees came. Then, just as we were about to pack up and go home, he came.

A young man in leather clothing, with a machete on his hip and a lance on his back. 

Immediately I thought: Oh no!

He was very tall. Taller than Vlado and Miroslav. But he looked very young. Humans age faster than elves, so maybe he is around 17 years old?

He looked very impressive and strong. And his face was kind of handsome. And him whistling and two Riding Lizards coming over looked really cool.

I could tell he was strong, but not strong enough. 

As soon as he directly stated he was from the mountains, my heart skipped a beat. How could he be so stupid! But it wasn’t his fault. He had probably spent all his life in the mountains and knew none of the rules in Llap.

I knew Vlado and Miroslav were going to cut off one of his hands. It’s this disgusting tactic they love to do to opponents. 

I had only gone on quests with these two beasts thrice, and they were always horrible people during the quests. 

Beastmen are all brutes. And these two were nobility in their beast tribe, which meant they were arrogant and looked down upon everyone below their rank.

    While I was healing him the place his arm was cut off, I started missing mommy and daddy so much. I just hoped they were still alive.

Arben

I added Oilyhair and Squareface to my death note.

Squareface tried to feed my severed right hand to Tailless and Speedy, but they refused to eat it, so he just threw it away into the fields. And we started walking north down the field roads.

“There’s a small city nearby. Walk faster so we can get there before dark, all right Lefty?” Oilyhair said and kicked my butt. 

I was walking in front, and the cute blonde elf and the two shitheads were walking behind me. Squareface was the one holding Tailless and Speedy’s leashes.

“So what happened over in the mountains?” said Squareface. 

I wanted to see what information he had, so I figured I’d talk.

“I’m not sure. One morning my village was just attacked. I think by the Hasani Clan, though I don’t know. The army that attacked us was too organised and advanced to be a clan army.”

“You mean Slobden Hasani right?” Oilyhair said. 

I quickly added that name to my death note. 

“He’s starting to get a name for himself. An information broker told us that he had recently become top dog in his clan, and had started a war. But last time you mountain people had a war there were a lot more stupid refugees free for capture. I spoke with the other squads near our border zone, and they hadn’t caught one refugee yet. It seems you’re the only one who made it out alive. Which sucks for us because we wasted three fucking days expecting at least a couple dozens refugees. We never even got to use that wooden cages we made.”

“What gonna happen with me now?”

“Shief said to sell the weak slaves at this town and bring the stronger ones back to the company in Gjilan. We might have kept you like Albana if you still had both hands,” Oilyhair said with an ugly snigger. It made me feel like shoving a sword down his throat. 

I looked over at the elf girl and we briefly made eye contact, then she looked away.

“I’ve never seen a pretty elf before, where are you from?” I said. 

My legs were swept from under me. I tried to catch myself, but I forgot that I only had one hand so my face still hit the dirt road.

“DONT FLIRT WITH ALBANA, MUT!” God some assholes. I got up and started walking again. I could tell they had probably hit on her a lot of times and gotten rejected.

“Where is the nearest dungeon?” I said.

“Why do you need to know---” 

“The nearest dungeon is in the city of Gjilan. Cities always develop near dungeons with lots of arable land surrounding them,” Albana said, cutting off Oilyhair. 

It was the first time she had spoken to me. Her voice was very feminine and naturally high-pitched, but I could tell she was trying to make it sound deeper. I thought it cute.

“It is the law that says any person who crosses from Dukagjina into Llap without a border pass from Drenica is free to be taken as slave,” she said.

“Oh, I wish I knew that before I crossed,” I said and shot her a smile.

Oilyhair and Squareface were getting angrier, and I wanted to avoid further damage to my body, so I stopped talking.

***

It was now night and we had arrived at the small town called Pasjan.

It was about the same size as the main village back in the Krasniqi Domain. There were a lot of brick buildings which I had never seen before, and a lot more people than back in my village. Oilyhair rented a stable and tied Tailless and Speedy there and had them fed and watered.

Then he rented a big room at the inn with four beds.

Inside our room, Squareface put his bed in front of the entrance, and Oilyhair put his bed against the only window. Albana put her bed against the wall right in front of me, and my bed was put against the opposite wall.

“As said, try anything and we will cut off your other hand. Maybe normally you could take us on and win if you are lucky, but right now you only have one hand so you will lose if you battle us. Is that understood?” said Oilyhair.

“Yes. Do we have any food?” I said. I was starving.

“Hmph! Yes we do, but not for you. You’ll survive,” Squareface said. 

Even though these two brothers were shitheads, they were still tactically smart. They never underestimated me, and even validated that I was a danger to them. Also, I could tell that the reason for not feeding me that night was to make me slightly weaker in case of a fight later on.

All three pulled biscuits out of their backpacks. Albana gave me a quick glance. It looked like she wanted to give me some of her food, but decided not to after Squareface and Oilyhair sneered at her.

I jumped on my bed and startled the three of them. 

Compared to the two last nights of sleeping in a tunnel and a cave, a bed felt like a heavenly cloud. I got naked and under the sheets. I could have showered and washed all the sweat, blood, and dirt off my body, but when my body hit the bed there was no getting up. 

“Well, I’m fucking exhausted. Naten e mire!” I closed my eyes and fell asleep.