บท 8: Four Heartbeats. A Cage
(A/N: IMPORTANT. This question I'm about to ask has spoilers for the TBATE Novel, not the chapter but the question in this Author Note has a spoiler. So with the warning I would like to ask a question to you guys about a future arc idea I had. This future arc idea has inspiration from:
SungDripsWoo's "TBATE | SHADOW MONARCH".
With that said I would like to ask: Would you guys like to see an arc in the future where Zefrow goes to attend the academy in Alacrya? This arc would be far away from our current point in the story, but I would still like to hear your thoughts and opinions about this arc idea.
With that being said, enjoy the chapter.)
As the eyes equipped themselves, I turned around to see the two elves still curled up in the opposite corner. The little girl elf was asleep, or she seemed to be, while the little boy elf looked at me with confusion, but less fear than before. This surprised me because from the elf's point of view I probably looked like I was laughing and talking to myself while looking straight into a corner.
I noticed that as soon as the 'Eyes of Obito Uchiha' had been equipped, the box and jar that the eyes had been delivered in had disappeared, as well as the 'Random box' that I had received the pouch from.
I got up and made my way to the two elves, walking slowly, as I didn't want to cause fear or frighten the little victims, the little girl was still asleep. As I came closer to the boy, he grabbed his sister closer and tighter-though I never got confirmation they were siblings-and slightly flinched. I squatted down next to them, my body closer to the boy than the girl.
'Hello," I said, hoping for a response.
He mumbled something back, though it was too quiet so I couldn't make out what he said. I put my right hand around my right ear and leaned in closer.
"Sorry, could you say that again? I couldn't hear what you said," I said in a soft voice to the elf boy, as I tried putting on a comforting simple, hopefully making the situation less tense.
"Hel-hell...hello," the elf boy mumbled once again, but louder this time, loud enough for me to hear.
"My name is Zefrow. What's yours?" I asked the boy, trying to possibly form a bond with the boy.
"My mother...told me not to talk to strangers," the boy shot back. His response wasn't what I was looking for, but nonetheless, it put a smile on my face.
"Well your mother seems to have done a fine job raising you." This made me think back to my own childhood on Earth. I shook my head, trying to remove the unwanted thoughts from my mind.
The elf boy lowered his head, a frown showed on his face, no doubt due to me bringing up his mother.
"But I'm not that much of a stranger, I was kidnapped just like you," I added.
'Poor kids, I can't even imagine what they're feeling. They're in an unknown place, with unknown people. All they have is themselves. Stay strong kids.' I thought to myself.
"Hey," the boy raised his head, I looked over to the elf he was holding tightly, "this girl, is she your sister?... You don't have to answer if you don't want to," I said.
The elf boy disregarded the second option I gave him. He gave me a nod, mumbling once again. "Yes...she's my sister," he said, tightening his hold on his sister.
"Brave boy," I mumbled to myself.
"I know you and your sister must be really scared, but I'm going to need you to do your best to calm down as much as possible. I know I'm asking alot from you, especially during times like this," I said, the boy nodding at my request.
"I'm going to go back over here," I pointed at the corner I had been staying at, "try to get some sleep, being brave tends to suck the energy out of you," I said, the boy looked at me with a slightly confused face, but once again nodded at my suggestion.
I turned around, started making my way to the opposite corner, but I immediately felt a pull on my body. I turned my face back around to see the elven boy, his hand gripping the back of my ash black shirt.
"Ezra," the boy said, in a scared voice, his face looking down at the cell floor.
"Ezra?" I asked, unsure of the meaning of the word, or why he said it to me.
"My name...my name is Ezra," he looked up at me, his eyes staring at me, I could tell he had less fear in his eyes.
"That's a nice name. Nice to meet you Ezra. And once again, my name is Zefrow," I replied, a smile showing on my face, causing the boy, Ezra, to show his own nervous smile.
"My sister, Evelyn," he said, pointing at the elven girl that laid next to him.
"Well, I know you can't hear me but, nice to meet you," I said to the sleeping Evelyn.
"Umm...Zefrow...where did you go?" Ezra asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well...one second you were gone, and then later you were here again," Ezra elaborated, "Are you a mage?" He asked.
"Well to answer your first question, I had stuff that I forgot to do. As for your second question, am I a mage? Yeah something like that," I answered, my truths laced with lies, but this was all I could really say, not that he would understand if I went more in depth.
"You know Erza, you're a smart kid, how old are you?" I asked, as if I wasn't a kid myself, or at least appeared to be.
He held out his hand and spread his fingers. "Five years old," he said, "Evelyn is also five," he added. "How about you, mister Zefrow."
"You don't have to call me mister," I held out my hand, expanding four out of five fingers, "I'm just one year younger than you, I'm four years old," continued, showing a smile to the boy.
"You are younger than me, but you speak better than me, mister Zefrow."
"You don't have to call me mis-...nevermind, I was just taught early, and practiced a lot," I answered back.
The boy yawned after I responded to his question. 'Poor kid, he must be burnt out.' I thought to myself.
"Well it was nice meeting you, Ezra, Evelyn. I'm pretty tired so I'm going to go to sleep, you should too, we have a long day ahead of us."
"Ok, have a good night," Ezra waved me off, I waved back. The fatigue of the penalty quest was really getting to me, my eyelids feeling like blocks of bricks had been laid on them. 'Man I really need sleep.'
As I got to the corner, I scrunched down on the rough cell floor. I looked back at Ezra and Evelyn.
'I'll do my best to get us out of here.'
I put my hand over my left heart, my heartbeat reminding me I was truly alive in this 'TBATE Experience.' I then moved my hand over my right heart, the 'Clear Heart.' Similar to my left heart, the 'Clear Heart' also had some sort of rhythmic heartbeat, but it was different.
My left heart beats with blood, but my right heart…beats with POWER.
***
*"Clang"*
*"Clang"*
"Get up, big night ahead," a manly voice said, along with loud banging on the cell bars.
I opened my eyes and turned around, Ezra and Evelyn were shaking in fear and shock. The man that had woken us up was someone I hadn't seen, this man was new to our eyes.
'Must be another guy part of their crew.' I thought. The man then unlocked the cell door and pointed at the hall that was to the right of our cell. "Lets go, we've got stuff to do," I got up immediately, my body was extremely sore, but I acted as if it wasn't. The other two elves took slightly longer than me getting up, which seemed to get on the man's nerves, "Hurry up, I don't have all day. Tsk, damn brats," the man shouted at the two elves.
'Asshole.' I thought to myself, a pissed expression showed on my face, but I made sure the man couldn't see it.
In single file, we made our way down the hall, which had another room, and another hallway to the left of the room.
"In here, let's go," he said, pointing inside the room, as he opened the door. The room already had pre-lit torches and candles, illuminating the room. Other than the torches and candle, there were three buckets of water, three towels, and a single chair.
"Go clean yourselves," the three of us looked at eachother, the girl had a nervous scared expression, we were probably all thinking the same thing: 'what about Evelyn?'
"..."
"GO!" The man shouted, his patience seeming to fluctuate.
Following the order of the slave trader, I went over to the far left bucket, Ezra took the middle one, and Evelyn took the right one. I had hoped Ezra would take the middle one, I didn't want to make Evelyn more uncomfortable than she already was.
"Clothes off, let's go," the man said as he took a seat on the only chair, the chair facing us three.
As I took my plain black clothes off, I kept my eyes on the bucket in front of me. I didn't want to 'disrespect' Evelyn by looking at her.
"The auction is in less than one hour, you've got to look somewhat clean and presentable, at least presentable as slaves. Or at least that's what the boss says."
***
After we cleaned ourselves up and put our clothes back on, the man led us out of the room, down the hall, and up a stairwell. We were taken past a large room that looked like it would be the place where the auction and bidding would take place. I caught a glimpse of the many chairs and what looked like light artifacts illuminating the large room.
Though I wanted to go look inside the room, our captors had different plans as the man who was leading us around took us to an area right next to the auction room. This room was dark, but was illuminated by a small amount of torches and the leftover light from the artifacts within the auction room. The light could get through because of what seemed like curtains. I guessed we were near the stage, in the storage room of this place, as there were many boxes, left over goods, tables with who knows what on them, but what really caught my eyes, three life size cages, sat upright all by each other, up against the back wall.
The man went over to the first cage, took out a key from his pocket and unlocked the slim door. "You, get in," he said, pointing at the fist in the line, me. He repeated this process with the other two, locking the doors once we were in the cages. The man put the key back in his pocket and walked over to a wall to the left of the cages, where the curtains were.
Voice and other noises started filling up the area. Laughter and conversations could be barely heard from this back room. But then a strikingly familiar voice was loudened and sampled from what I guessed to be some sort of artifact.
"Hello, my name is Derim, your host, and I would like to welcome you all to the exciting and long-awaited return of the Gold Mine Auction.
***
(A/N: So yeah, I would love to hear your opinion and thoughts about the arc idea.
Till next time.)
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