He was still strong enough to find a way to get free.  The others though, they had been there for some time and showed no signs of spirit.

“How many can this pen hold?”  

Her attention had moved away from the pot and towards the wide slot in the wall where figures were already shifting in the dark.  

“Maybe ten at most.  If you get too many in there they start fighting one another and it’s difficult to manage.”  His tone was flat and dismissive.

“We should get a bigger pen then.  There needs to be enough for the whole town right?”

There was nothing he could do to hide his honest surprise.  This girl was already talking about this town like it was her town.  She hadn’t even been there a month and yet here she was trying to look after it.

It grated on him something terrible.

“We don’t support the whole town.  That would be crazy.  This stock is for Lord Vidar, and the elders he employs.  The inn gets a portion too if we catch too many or if some have more blood than others.  Usually the inn gets blood from the hunters and uses or sells that.”

As far as he was concerned, this girl was insane.

“Well….  If the pen were bigger, then we could support the town right?”

Hypotheticals now?  Why had the blood god cursed him with this?  Why couldn’t the girl just shut up and do as she was told.  Anger flashed in him and he did the only thing he was taught to do, he let it show.

“Look,”  he was gruff and to the point, “no one cares about the whole town.  They don’t care about anyone but their families.  They don’t care about you.  They don’t care about me.  They don’t care about your stupid questions that mean absolutely nothing.  You’re here to do as you’re told and nothing more.  So no more stupid questions.  Got it?”

A silence filled the room and settled thick between them.  It held there as she moved and squared her body up with his own.  He turned and met eyes with her, completely expecting the girl to be angry and rage driven as she had been on the first night and in the grass outside her home.  But instead she was simply standing there with balled fists.  Her little frame shook but she was making no move to act on the anger he could plainly see.

“I…”  He voice quivered with apparent anger.  “I need to ask questions.  I don’t know which are stupid to you.  But I have to ask.”

He watched her shake a moment longer before gently shoving her away from the heat of the stove and towards the middle of the room.  Just seeing her seething and holding back was enough to snuff out his own anger.

“Just stand over there and watch.”

Tuning out her quiet angry shuffling there in the room, he focused on filling the bowls and getting them lined up near the wide slit in the wall.  As he did, hands began to reach through and pick up the deposited earthenware bowls.  The hands were thin and gaunt for the most part.  Each one took a bowl and disappeared into the dark.  

“Make sure everyone gets the same amount of vegetables and broth.  Otherwise they will fight.  Any leftover broth is thrown away.  Do not give them more broth.”

As he spoke, he was already using a bowl to scoop the extra broth out of the pot and into the water bucket from before.  Judging by how much more she was fidgeting, she clearly didn’t like the instruction but he didn’t care.  This was the way things were and she needed to learn that the world did not revolve around her.

Once the pot was empty, he moved to shut the heavy door and barricaded it from the inside with a thick heavy beam that had been across the inner door.  Once the beam was properly in place, he moved towards the other door and unlatched it.  

“Get the bucket and follow me.”

As he spoke, he grabbed a towel and opened the door to the pen.  The familiar body smell of humans pressed against him and he welcomed it.  Behind him he could hear her gag a moment and smirked.  This really wasn’t a job for girls.  No doubt she would be begging him tomorrow not to come here again.  

Without missing a step, he led her to the building across the pen.  It was a small, open room with no wall on the side that met the pen and held nothing more than a pit toilet.  With three hole and no dividers or doors, there was no privacy.  It was sanitation at its most basic but that is what they had provided them.

Stopping before the bench toilets, he heard her gag again before actually bringing something up there beside the toilets.

“Pour half the water on the seats, especially towards the back.  They miss sometimes.”

Stumbling beside him a moment, he watched as she fumbled with the bucket but did as she was told.  Some part of him took pleasure at what he was going to tell her next.  He relished the idea of this prissy, well off girl cleaning stock toilets.  It was just too hilarious.

“Now use this and wipe them down.”

Once more she retched though this time she managed to actually get it in the toilet.  Despite the occasional heaving, he watched as she performed her task.  It wasn’t a hard scrub by any means but he knew that they would be clean enough for the day.  When they had been wiped thoroughly, he motioned to the bucket once more.

“Now use the rest to rinse it off and then we’re done here.”

He watched as her little frame heaved the bucket up and rinsed the toilets off.  No wonder his elder had taken him in.  It felt amazing to have someone else have to do all these things.  Tossing the towel into the bucket, he had her carry the bucket all the way back to the room on the other side of the pen.  The humans around them seemed to watch idly and he took note of the fact that they had put their bowls back through the slit for him; all appeared accounted for.  

Shutting and locking the inner door, he went to work removing the beam and placing it back across the inner door.  Leading her out into the little market and towards the well again, she dry heaved upon arrival and he couldn’t stop himself from sighing.

“Sit.  I can do the rest.”

Drawing up the bucket from the well, he went to work cleaning the stuck on filth off of the towel.  Beating and slapping the fabric against the well did wonders for removing the stuck on grittier portions.  Once it was clean enough, he set it aside to dry.

“Hold out your hands.”

Once the command was followed, he rewarded her with a cool stream of well water over them.

“Scrub your hands together good to get the stuff off.  You’re young enough that humans can make you sick.”

Every now and then, he would pour more water over her hands as he watched her scrub and rub her hands together.  By the end of it all, they were both a little damp.

By the time he was confident that she was clean enough, there was the telltale smell of salty tears in the air around them.  Though she was clearly trying to hide it, tears flowed down her cheeks.  A part of him stilled seeing that as it brought him back to his first night doing this job.  How happy he had been to finally have a place only to realize the man that he was meant to learn from had little teaching in mind for him.  The stench of the pit toilets the first time he had cleaned them.  He hadn’t actually thrown up but it wasn’t for lack of trying.  At the time he hadn’t had anything in his stomach to bring up.  

“It doesn’t really get any better.”  It slipped from him before he realized he was talking.  “Even on a good night, the elder finds a fault somewhere.  The best nights are when he either sleeps the whole time or is called to Lord Vidar’s place for a stock run.  Those nights are usually the best.”  

Her sniffling felt like a knife in his chest as he slowly realized that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be this person his whole life.  He didn’t want to be like his elder, drinking and sleeping all night.  He didn’t mind the hunting and the care taking.  There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with that portion of this job.  But, perhaps, there was another way to do it.  Maybe he didn’t have to be his elder in order to be a Barduk.

“Come on.”

Picking up the bucket and towel, he led her back to the pen and put the towel back before latching the outer door once more.  Without missing a beat, he led her back towards the shack and his little closet of a room.  His elder was still sleeping in the bed and he motioned for her to follow him quietly.  Thankfully, she followed instructions and he shut the little closet door carefully.  

"You should take a nap."  It was just above a whisper and intended for her alone.  "I know you're hurting from throwing up so much."

He would make his stand now to change.  Her nod was a subtle one and he helped her down onto the pile of fabrics that he had managed to put together for himself.  Some of it had his blood on it still but he hoped she didn't mind it too much.  

When she was settled in, he shifted to stand but was stopped as her hand slid into his.  Their eyes met and he slid back to sitting beside her.  

"Just sleep."  

He studied her features and fought not to let his mind wander.  But this was the first time he had had someone to experience this all with.  The first time that he had someone to see it all.  Her sleeping face carried with it the promise of his story being seen.  Of his life being different from where it was two years ago.  From the first bucket from the well.  From the first feeding and cleaning.  From the taste of his own blood on his lips.

He could see it in his mind's eye despite himself.  The flames and carnage that had brought him here.  His family and a couple others had tried to start their own little place.  It wasn’t fancy or well guarded by any fashion.  Settled in a valley between two hills, they didn’t need much.  They hunted game for blood and tried to live in a way that didn’t bother anyone else.  But the humans didn’t care.  It was the smell of fire that had woken him that day.  The heavy ash seemed to coat his throat and lungs.  He could hear his father yelling somewhere but it was twisted and lost in the sound of roaring flames.

Parts of the memory skip and jump as things had been forgotten.  He was in the forest with Devon again.  Arana was heavy on his back but he didn’t care.  He had to get them out.  He had said to get them to safety.  To run until they couldn’t anymore.  To not look back and to stay safe.  Arius couldn’t remember the voice that gave him such drive, only the words remained.  Even now, they haunted him.

The sound of crunching wood tore him from his sudden slumber.  He couldn’t remember falling asleep and the disorientation made his head spin.  There was yelling and whimpering and the smell of blood and tears.  He surged to his feet as he realized the voice as Thik’s.  Sasha.  

She was there beside him, though no longer in the bed of fabric.  Now she lay in a crumpled heap on what remained of the thin box he had used as a little chest for his things.  Some of the splinters had torn and frayed and found their way into her arm and side.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of leather as his elder brought up his belt.  Diving forward to protect her, he caught the blow across his back.  Hot and stinging, he fought not to make a sound through it all as it came down again and again.

He felt Sasha wiggle out from under him with a look of fire in her eyes.  “Sasha no!”

But it was too late as she launched herself at the man and bit deeply into his thigh.  Despite Thik’s size, Arius watched as he staggered back with a gravelly yell of pain.  Arius watched as the world seemed to slow.  His elder rose a hand and balled it tight into a fist.  Sasha began to slowly shake her head and grind her fangs deeper.  He fought to stand, to rise up and save her, but his body felt so very heavy.  

Praying that he got there in time, he fought to launch himself off the floor directly into the chest of his elder.  The falling blow connected with his side but the forward momentum left them all sprawling to the floor.  

Sitting up on Thik’s chest quickly, he yelled at Sasha.  “Go!  Now!”

Thankfully he saw some semblance of sanity in her as she tore her fangs free and bolted for the door.  Looking back to his elder, he heard a sound akin to a crunching of wood.

Waking up he became keenly aware that it was very quiet where he was.  His heart raced a moment as the image of Sasha running for the door burned into the blackness of his mind.  Sitting up suddenly he looked around for her and found her laying beside him in the bed sound asleep.  He reached for her but was stopped by a sudden voice.

“Let her rest.”

He turned to the familiar voice and saw Below sitting there beside the bed in a chair.  Arius couldn’t exactly place where he had woken up but given the sounds, smells, and warmth, it was most likely the inn.