Chapter 38: Arc 4.01: Basileia Crystal Cave

Arc 4: Basileia Crystal Cave

Name: Orb

Age: 15

Birthday: Capricorn 28^th

Hair: Primary White (standard), Red (anger), Green (excitement), Yellow (fear), Brown (nervousness), Grey (confusion), Cream (hunger), Lime (lying), Orange (discomfort), Black (worry), Pink (happiness), Purple (?), Gold (arrogance), Blue (embarrassed)

Secondary: Silver

Eyes: Blue (left) and Gold (Right)

Height: 168 cm

Likes: Drawing, Food, Snow Sculptures, Books, Captivant, Wolfie, Draga, Cole, Meat, Villagers

Dislikes: Being left alone, Physical contact, Cliffs, weakness

 

Φ As I wake up, I am greeted by the familiar voice of people from my village. I open my eyes to see multiple people in chains from our village.

“Willow, are you ok,” Buloke says.

“Except for the chains, I am as good as ever.”

He sighs in relief, saying, “That is good to hear.”

I then feel a sudden urge and say, “I need to shit and piss right now.”

There are buckets over there. With haste, I go over to it and relieve myself.

When I finish my business, I look around and see that all of us are in a giant cell, “Where are we?”

“I wish I could tell you that, but I can say, it seems only men are here, all of us excluding Sequoia and Orb. I screamed out, and they responded from the other cells.”

How the hell did we even get here? The last thing I remember is Cole giving us a speech then I was unconscious. “Hey everyone, what is the last thing you guys remember.”

“We have already discussed this, but it’s the banquet though some of us have some memories after that.”

“What would they be.”

“They said some of them felt like they were being carried off somewhere. Some say they felt a very rocky motion and caught glimpses of grasslands.”

“What the hell could that mean”. As I say this, the last person who was unconscious wakes up: it’s Oren.

“You all right, you geezer,” Buloke says to him.

“Who are you calling geezer, you fool.”

“Well, at least I can say your all right.”

But like me, Oren suddenly asks, “Where can I relieve myself.”

“There are buckets over there”, and with Buloke’s words, Oren races over there and relieves himself just like I did.

After he finishes, he asks, “What is going on, Buloke.”

Letting out a sigh, “Well, for the twentieth time today, let me explain.”

After telling Oren all the info we had, he says, “I might have an idea as to what happened.”

“What is it,” I ask eagerly.

“Think about it. There is no way we all passed out simultaneously. So, we must of all been drugged at around the same time, and there are very few ways to do that, but one would be at dinner time. It is the moment when all of us could have been drugged.”

As I think about what Oren says, it clicks in my brain, “The food had something in it, and the one in charge of all the cooking was Cole.”

“How would Cole be able to do that? We have no such drug in our village. It isn’t possible.” Buloke says.

Then Oren says, “It is like how he made that anaesthetic. He has lots of knowledge from the outside world. It isn’t hard to believe he found some combination of things inside the village that could have such an effect, and it is not like anyone in the village would notice him cooking it into the food. They would simply think it is a form of spice. The speech he also gave was a sign of this.”

We all sit in there, meditating on Cole’s actions. Someone says, “So wouldn’t that mean Orb could also have betrayed us.”

Snapping at the man who said this, I say, “No, it doesn’t. He has already told us they only met by chance. There is no way Orb was a part of this.”

“But look at the situation; he isn’t anywhere here while all of us are. I doubt that’s a coincidence. Isn’t this why we feared his presence in the first place.”

“You must admit it is suspicious, Willow”, someone else says.

“You guys can’t be thinking this,” I say as I look around at the faces of the people around me, but they have their heads down and are not looking at me. Everyone is your fate so hollow.

“Cole could cook because of saving Maple and Orb’s constant praise of him.”

Then someone says, “Wasn’t Orb the reason Maple even ran into the forest to get hurt.”

“The more I think about it, the more suspicious it gets.”

“Stop being fools,” Buloke says. “Orb ate more food than anyone else at the banquet. He also stole lots of food from our plates, and when we started to fall unconscious, I looked in Sequoia’s direction and saw him flat on his face.”

“But that doesn’t explain how he isn’t here.”

The Oren chimes in, “Orb’s body isn’t normal anymore due to his legacy. He might have better drug resistance and could have woken up earlier. Another point in this favour is the fact Sequoia isn’t here. He used to stuff a bunch of plants in his mouth when he was younger, giving him higher resistance than us. They both probably woke up earlier.”

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“That still isn’t conclusive.”

“SHUT UP, YOU IDIOTS. Have a little faith. I know what happened with Cole must have shaken your trust, but that doesn’t mean you should doubt everyone and everything. Don’t let this one bad experience sour your mind. YOU GOT THAT.”

“Yes, sir”, they all scream in unison.

“Now, the bigger issue is how far away from our village.”

“We couldn’t have gotten that far.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Everyone keeps getting a glimpse of things and feeling different motions. I believe that what everyone was feeling and seeing where during the moment between the last drug wearing off and them administering a different one. The fact that we all needed desperately to void our bowels proves this. We have no idea how long we have been out.”

“I will go inform everyone else of this,” I say. As I am about to scream out so everyone else can hear, men I have never seen before walk into the room and say.

“You guys are finally all awake. Rejoice; it is time for you guys to start your wonderful new lives.” After the man says that a group of people wearing the same uniform as him.

“Everyone act cautiously, don’t do anything stupid, and tell everyone else what we discussed today,” Oren says with a severe expression on his face.

“Yes”, we all respond as the men who entered the room open our cells and drag us all out. While still in chains, they take us out of the chamber we were in, but as we left, I saw that rock walls surrounded us. Seeing this, I conclude that in a cave.

They take all of us until we’re in a large area with lots of space and say to us all, “From today until you die, you are our property. It was quite expensive to buy all of you so we will put you all to good work. That is all.”

Property? Bought us? While I think over his words, I can only conclude that we were sold as slaves. I am stunned at this revelation, but not all the warriors are as passive as me.

Buloke and some others still in chains grab and restrain some of the men and women guarding us and say, “Do you think we are just going to let ourselves be enslaved like this”. I see Buloke tighten the chokehold he has on the guard.

“Well, first, I said property, not slavery, so don’t confuse terms you idiotic slave. Second, what your doing is pointless, look at your hostages.”

Looking at the people being held; they aren’t even struggling, it is as if they're perfectly okay with the situation they’re in. Though one of them is crying and says, “I wish I could have been more use to mother Morgan.”

Buloke knocks out the one he is holding and says, “Then I will have to take all of you down.” He rushes at the man giving the speech, but as Buloke gets close, the man drops something.

Looking down, Buloke says, “Fingers”, and starts to take out the man who dropped them. “Was that supposed to stop me.”

“No, it is a warning. Do those fingers look like they belong to an adult? One look, and you can tell they aren’t. Haven’t you wondered where all the kids with you had gone?”

Realising the meaning behind those words, I say, “Buloke, stop.”

But instead, he starts to choke him, “What the hell did you do.”

“For every one of us you kill, one of the kids with you will be punished, and if we don’t return in a certain amount of time, they will be punished, so please, continue to choke me.”

Hearing his words, Buloke loosens his grip and let’s go.

As the man gets up, he kicks Buloke right in the face and says since you guys didn’t feel like behaving yourself, I had to resort to these methods. If you behave, all those kids will be happy and healthy. If you rebel, they will experience punishment worse than the denizens of hell. Now that would be all.”

As the man walks away, I ask him, “If you only hurt the kids to punish us, why did you already have fingers.”

“Oh, that’s simply, because I don’t like you guys, you reek of trouble, so I prepunished some of the kids,” he says as he walks away with a smile.

One by one, they started to load all of us into a mechanical contraption that could go down with the pull of a lever. They took everyone. Though I did notice they took the more robust people and those who picked a fight down first, it also seemed that subsequent groups came up faster than the previous ones. My group was one of the last to go down.

After we descended a bit, they pushed me into a tunnel, and as I walked in, I saw countless shining bluish-red crystals being mined by people. They bring me inside, then hand me something called a pickaxe and say, “Your quota of crystals is twenty full carts. You only get to eat and sleep once you have completed this, so you better get to work.” With that, they leave, and as I start mining, I hear one of the guards scream, “GET YOUR LAZY ASSES MOVING.”

This whole situation makes me feel sick, but all I can do right now is fill my quota as fast as possible, then I can sit down and think.

-Break-

The air here is hot. I feel like my lungs and skin are about to fire. The only thing that distracts me from this is the colour of the crystals. I swing the pickaxe against the stone again and again. Constantly bashing against these incredible hard crystals has very quickly destroyed my stamina.

This endless repetitive action has me wondering how much longer is left. Looking back at the carts, I have only filled twelve. In all this time, I still have eight left. My body feels like it is about to fall apart, but the worst part is that when I look around, I see the enervated faces of the rest of the slaves beside me. My parent’s corpses had more life than some of them. They are just mindlessly swinging their arms at the crystals. Though some of them are smiling and happily turning away while mumbling, “All for mom, all for mom.”

While refocusing on the task, I see an old man near me fall as he coughs relentlessly. As I walk over to him, my legs don’t move, so I think to myself. Should I get involved? I still have lots of work to do. Who knows when I will be finished? I can’t get in trouble by helping a dying old man, but as I see him cough up blood, I run to his side.”

“Food.” The man says.

As I inspect his body, I see that this man, who is older than Oren, has skin that has been burned and rotted a colour blue. Whatever is going on with his body is clearly the cause.

I then see a guard walk up to us, and she says, “Hurry up and get back to work. You aren’t even halfway through your quota today, not to mention that you still haven’t fully gone through your quota for the last two days, if you don’t finish no food or sleep, only water.”

 “This man is clearly in no shape to work.”

“Now,” she says as she crouches. She then tells the old man, “This year, your daughter turns ten. You should see how happy she is now. She has many friends and always eats well. All of that is due to your work for us in these caves over the last five years. If you die, I guess we no longer have much of a reason to keep her. It is a pity.”

Hearing her words, the man on the border between life and death gets back to mining with blood spuing from his mouth.

At this rate, the man in front of me will die. Suddenly a frightening came to me. I started immediately doubting this idea. Can I do this? Yes, I can, with a little extra effort; I can save someone’s life. I say to the woman, “Let me do his work on top of my own. Let him get some rest and food.”

Looking at me, the woman cries and says, “WHAT A GOOD BOY YOU ARE. I WILL ALLOW THIS!” After this, she takes the old man away.

So, with more motivation than before, I start mining away at all the crystals.

-Break-

As I mine the last crystal, I throw it into the previous cart, exasperated. I don’t have any strength left. Everyone else left hours ago I believe my sense of time has faded almost complete. While lying on the ground, my skin and eyes feel like they were on fire, and it was so difficult to breathe that I would swear someone was choking me.

While on the floor, I think, is this where I die? I did something foolish, and my life is about to end here. Orb, Maple, Sequoia, everyone, if I die here I will only have regrets. Why do I have to go out like this? I feel like crying, but any tears that start to form evaporate.

As I close my eyes, I feel someone pick me up and put me on their back, walking away from the centre.

In my semi-conscious state, I look at this person with overgrown, ruff black hair, two horns and a big tail. I must be having some near-death dream. But to my surprise, the person carrying me said, “D-D-Don’t worry, you will be okay. I will take care of the r-r-rest; just sleep, Boy”, and with those words from a hushed voice, I fell asleep.

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