Stories from Lochwell 5. The Slave Part One
The walled town of Lochwell on the empire's eastern fringe, was calm as the sun beat down on the denizens while they quickly went about their daily business making good use of this sandstorm free day. The train schedule ran like clockwork despite the amount of merchants getting off for some R&R before getting back on the train and heading off to their final destinations. Even the town guard disappeared into the background as they quietly made their rounds of the wall, something which was quickly becoming a rarity in this town. One of the guards looked away from his post and saw a shape in the distance, he thought it was a merely a mirage in the heat but as he continued to look at the shape it grew darker and bigger before becoming more detailed, quickly grabbing a pair of binoculars he ran out of the watchtower and put them to his face as he focused the lenses a convoy came into view.
The convoy pushed forward through the sand towards civilization and was made up of various transports ranging from propeller-powered sand surfers to beast pulled sleds and chariots but the majority of the convoy was made of retrofitted train wagons."Boss, yo boss" a hyena sitting at the front of the first retro-fitted train cars called out "what?" came a male's voice that was like silk from beneath a poncho next to him, the male was so still that the only other way he could be noticed was by the horns sticking through the wide-brim straw hat. "We are approaching a settlement, should we head in or just pass on through?" the hyena asked, the straw hat tilted upwards exposing the brown and white face of a goat. He looked towards Lochwell with his brown eyes and stroked his beard for a moment before nodding "yes, lets head in, we might even be able to sell off some of our wares and get some good tail before needing to hit the trail again" the goat coughed slightly "oh, and Orawn don't forget to tell the boys to holster their weapons we don't want to frighten off the clientele". Orawn nodded "yes boss" he replied before making a few hand gestures and flicking the reins he was holding making the beast pulling the wagon pick up speed as the sand-surfers pulled in closer to the convoy and men on them put away the weapons they carried.
This was no ordinary convoy, the convoy belonged to slavers and in quite a few of the retro-fitted train wagons were cells filled with slaves, of various races and genders, that the slavers were going to sell off first chance they got, that is if they didn't keep them for their own personal "use". In the very last wagon, in a cell near the rear was a black furred jackal who sat on the wooden floor and watched the guard near him intently and memorized every detail of him, from his hyena face and style of his hair to the colour of his fur and his hastily made leather and metal armor that was meant to protect him somehow, even the type of rifle he carried. The guard moved towards the front of the wagon and the jackal watched him go before turning to look out of the barred window of what was once a passenger wagon and sighed as he looked at the blazing sun that reminded him of the fire and that day, something that would now haunt him for the rest of his life.
***
"Ar'kesh honey, come see what your son can do" came a female voice from outside "yeah dad, come see what i can do" a young voice repeated. The jackal nodded to himself before getting off his chair and walking down the stairwell that connected the second story of his house to the outside, seeing his wife, Ar'kesh walked over to her and kissed her cheek before looking into the golden eyes of his son who looked back at him as a smile spread across the boy's face. His white teeth stood in stark contrast to the coal-black fur "so boy, what did you want to show me?" Ar'kesh said, "my new technique" the boy replied eagerly as he took his spear off the ground "alright then" his father said as he wrapped his arm around his wife and rubbed her shoulder, the boy started to twirl the spear in both hands, slowly at first then he gradually picked up speed, spinning faster and faster before lifting it above his head, not once slowing down as he brought the still spinning weapon down to one side of his person and shifted it to the other side, his movements as fluid as a running stream. The boy then stopped before placing the spear in his mouth and going down onto all fours and pushing his legs off the ground so ended up in a handstand, he wobbled slightly before starting to slowly spin around on his hands for a minute or so before falling onto his back. "Oww" he groaned as he took the spear from his mouth, Ar'kesh walked over to his boy and held out his hand and pulled up his son as he grabbed his father's hand "not bad, you keep refining your technique you may end up in the royal honor-guard" he smiled wide "you really think so dad?" the boy's glimmered with glee as he said this "of course, your grandfather was a member of the honor-guard before he retired to sit on the council of elders in this village and your uncle is the honor-guard liaison in Oasis". He nodded thoughtfully "dad were you part of honor-guard?" Ar'kesh knelt down and placed a hand on his son's shoulder "it was offered to me but i was about to be married and your mother was carrying you so i declined, I am content as commander of the guard protecting you, the village and...". An explosion was heard in the background "The council of elders!" Ar'kesh yelled before grabbing the spear and looked at family "Nita, take our son back to the house and stay there I will be back as soon as I can" she nodded and grabbed their son's hand "stay safe" he nodded before he started to run to the center of the village while Nita and the boy ran towards the house.
Ar'kesh ran across the bridge that separated his house and a few others from the rest of the village, he gripped the spear tightly as he ran through the village looking at the destroyed buildings before quickly crouching behind a pile of rubble as he saw a figure in red and black robes brandishing a rifle walk past. The jackal tried to get a look at the person's face but it was covered by a feline-shaped steel mask Ar'kesh turned his head and saw a jackal about fifteen years old lying dead on the sand with a couple bullet wounds in his chest, he grimaced as he placed two fingers on the young male's eyelids and closed them "may the embrace of the ancestors keep you warm in the land of eternal sun" Ar'kesh said quietly. Grabbing the spear with both hands, his eyes flicked back to the robed stranger and his eyes seemed to darken as his purpose became resolute he quickly jumped over the rubble and with a powerful thrust embedded the spear in the intruder's back, the feline toppled over with a gargled scream as the robes began to darken making the jackal smile slightly before he heard the cries and screams of the other villagers get silenced by gunfire, his eyes went wide and he ran off towards a big central building that housed the council of elders. Once he got there Ar'kesh saw the full brunt of the carnage; there were smoking holes in the council building from what looked like rocket shells, the surrounding building were on fire and perforated with bullet holes. Strewn all over the ground were the dead bodies of the red and black robed intruders as well as the bodies of his fallen kin that was when it hit him, this wasn't an attack by raiders or bandits, this was something else, something worse, this was slaughter. He ran into the smoking ruins of once was one of the grandest buildings in the village and worked his way into the elder's sanctum while stepping over dead bodies and rubble before pushing open one of the heavy metal doors that led to the sanctum. Ar'kesh looked around the sanctum, it was dark and looked like a few pillars and part of the ceiling had collapsed "hello, anybody here" he called "eh? who's that" came a voice from somewhere in the room. "father!" Ar'kesh called hope fulling his voice "where are you" "beneath this damned stone" came the voice again and a noise of stone hitting stone, Ar'kesh ran to the sound before kneeling on the ground and shifting a chuck of stone with a slight heave revealed a tired looking jackal face "father, don't worry we will get you out of here" "my boy listen..." the buried jackal started" "all we got to do is move this stone and you will be right as rain" the younger jackal said frantically. "Listen!" he said with a slight edge "my time is up I can feel death's cold grasp coming for me so i shall speak quickly, whoever those people are, they took the other elders for what purpose, i don't know but regardless go back home grab nita and your son so you can escape to Oasis and tell your brother and the honor-guard about these people" the older jackal coughed violently bringing up blood before he groaned and the light faded from his golden eyes. Ar'kesh shed a few tears for his now deceased father before closing the dead jackal's eyes "ancestors protect this warrior in death as he protected you in life, defend his memory as he had defended yours so that his kin may live on to honor the example he set on the mortal plane before leaving for the land of eternal sun" Ar'kesh said solemnly as he wiped the tears from his eyes. He got off the floor and started running back through the village, hoping that those he cared for escaped the brutality of what had happened, he stopped a hundred meters from his home to see it ablaze "No! Mother" he heard his son scream as a couple robed figures dragged the boy away from the fire. Anger surged through Ar'kesh at the loss of his wife and he picked up a stone from the sand and threw it with all his might making it collide with one of robed intruder's head sending that one to the ground the other, an ibis, turned around and laughed through the metal mask covering their face and top of the bird's break. The ibis grabbed hold of the jackal boy's scalp before pulling a knife from the robes they wore and looked directly at Ar'kesh as they put the knife to the child's throat and said in the ancient tongue "di'an ku orthro marg'th kivroon ba'sa-uumn". Now Ar'kesh was no scholar but he was taught enough about ancient history growing up to know what that meant: "only in death shall sin be purged" his eyes went wide as the ibis slit the kid's throat before dropping him to let the jackal bleed out on the desert floor "NOOOOOOO!!!" Ar'kesh screamed.
***
Ar'kesh sat up violently and panted "will these ceaseless nightmares ever end" he thought to himself before looking around, the convoy was no longer moving it had stopped. The jackal looked at the guards at the opposite end of the wagon, gone were the rifles they carried and he caught only a glimpse of a concealed sidearm, the jackal knew this meant only one thing they had reached civilization. He looked out the barred window again as best he could and saw a large sandstone wall "an outpost town, interesting" he said to himself before sitting back down and awaiting the inevitable slave auction that was to happen.
"C'mon kid, just open the gate and let us in" Orawn said a slight annoyance in his voice that they were made to wait outside, "but there is a lot of you and I-I don't think i should, I think I should get the captain" the male wombat guard said nervously before disappearing into the watchtower. "Damn kid, what do you think we should do boss? Orawn asked the goat next to him "just wait" came the silky voice once again "everything will work it self out" the hyena sat back exhaling heavily as the wombat came back from in the watch tower with a male cheetah, which, Orawn assumed was the captain "so my young friend was right, there are a few of you well then what can i do for you?" he asked. This time it was the goat who spoke "we are humble travelers who are looking for a place to get a good meal and a place to recharge before we hit the trail, surely a town like this knows of the hardships of the desert and can offer weary souls some warm hospitality" the captain laughed, "laying it on a bit thick aren't you but yeah we have what you seek, you have any other needs" the goat looked around at the convoy "somewhere to safely store these" he said pointing a thumb at the wagons" "we have an couple empty warehouses on the outskirts you can use, provided you have the coin" the captain of the city guard looked down at the goat and his companions. A smile slid across the goat's face "sounds perfect and indeed we do" "good, I shall inform the mayor to rent it out to you lot for a few days, the warehouse is at the north-western end of the town, Milton open the gate for these men" the wombat nodded before going back into the tower and pulling a lever, there was a slight hum as the iron gates slowly opened "appreciated" said the goat as the cheetah went back inside to see the other male staring out the window as these four legged, moss-coloured skinned beasts with tusks protruding from their lower jaw and two antler like horns jutting out of the back of their head, pulled the wagons and chariots through the gate. He swallowed nervously as the cheetah laughed slightly "what's wrong boy, never seen a Brokuuni before" the wombat shook his head "no sir, we don't get beasts like that in kaynoc" he said sounding almost apologetic "ah" said the guard captain as he patted the rookie's shoulder "I forget your a city kid, no matter take this paperwork regarding our visitors to the mayor" he nodded before taking the forms and headed down the stairs before stopping and looking back at the aged cheetah "umm... sir...uhh.." the cheetah coughed as he picked up a pen and started writing into a ledger containing the comings and goings of people into Lochwell "what is it boy?, speak freely". " I don't think those men were completely above par" the wombat blurted out making his boss laugh heartily "no, I don't think they were, they did look an awful lot like slavers" the wombat guard looked shocked for a few seconds before piping up again "shouldn't we arrest them and make an example to other criminals" the cheetah laughed again this time though, there was a touch of sadness to his laugh. "If we did that, you are right it would make an example and the criminals would flee this town and take with it most of the business keeping this town from starving, even our two biggest businesses: the Lockheart Saloon and _Madame Mouse's House of Eden _wouldn't be enough to prevent this place from drying up. Maybe the empire cared about its outpost towns at one point but we have outlived our usefulness to them and now the only thing keeping us limping on is the ill-gotten coin that criminals spend here, usually on liquor and tail" he realized he was still talking and looked at his young guardsman "off with you now, take the paperwork, go!" the wombat disappeared from view and the cheetah sighed before shaking his head and rubbing his eyes.
The convoy moved through the streets towards the north-western corner of the town, a spectacle that got some of the townsfolk attention as they watched these unknown people ride slowly to their destination from windows, doorways and balconies. Some of the men looked around nervously placing their hands close to the hidden weapons Orawn looked from one side of the street they were travelling down to the other and saw a few of the on-lookers wielding various holstered weapons. "You sure we will make a sale here boss, this place looks like it could get heated quick" the hyena said sounding slightly worried the goat laughed softly as he thought of the look the guard captain gave them, when he mention he could pay for the warehouse hire, a mix of resent, desperation and resignation, he knew what they were. " I have no doubt we will its not like as it is closer to the heart of empire, they need to get what money they can and on the fringe that usually means criminals, bounty hunters and travelling merchants. I know the criminal elements like to have workers and what not where no questions will be asked if one disappeared, so yes we will make quite a few sales I think" . The convoy pulled up to a large industrial sized warehouse made from sandstone bricks_ _and had two heavy iron doors at the end closest too them by a couple of members of the town guard, the goat removed his poncho revealing a white shirt and a black waistcoat on top of a pair of brown pants and heavy brown boots before jumping off the wagon as the convoy rolled on through into the warehouse and walked over to one of the guards, a red kangaroo, "hey" he said gently and the kangaroo looked at him "would you do a stranger a kindness, there would be a fair amount of coin in it for you" the kangaroo's face shifted for a moment before returning to his original emotionless gaze and that was when the slaver's boss knew he had him. "how much coin we talking" said the kangaroo trying to sound uncaring, the goat smiled before taking a small pouch from his belt and throwing it at the guard who caught the pouch, he opened it and pulled out a couple of coins making his composure broke with no sign of being under control "these, these are gold imperial coins, each one is worth one hundred dradec" he looked down into the pouch "and there is seven in here, what would you have me do?" He said drooling slightly due to the amount of money in his hands. The goat grinned "spread the word to the darker parts of this town that we have a wide selection of live specimens that are available to buy, if you get my meaning" the kangaroo nodded "if you have any other things you need me to do, just say" the kangaroo saluted slightly before running off making the goat laugh "too easy" he thought as he walked into the warehouse as his men pulled the doors closed.
The wagon stopped moving with a slight jolt making Ar'kesh look around a bit "judging by the lack of light streaming through the window, I would guess we are inside at our final destination" the jackal thought to himself and his hunch proved to be right as the door opened at the end of the wagon and a guard came in to join the other two. This new guard, a ferret, spoke to the other men in hushed tones, even though he could only hear mumbles the caged jackal had been through this enough times to know what it meant, the guards broke apart and went down the aisle unlocking the make-shift cells and pulling the inhabitants into the aisle before pushing them towards the exit. Those that were the meeker of the bunch just did as they were ordered with the look of someone broken in their eyes while others , primarily the younger ones and the untouched, broke down into tears and clung to the cell bars saying things like " I wish to stay in my cage where it is safe from the outside" or things like, " I will do anything to stay with the convoy". There was also usually one or two who would try to attack the guards as soon as the cell was opened, they usually always ended up with a baton in the gut or the face or knocked out completely, in which case the guard would carry the slave behind where the convoy was set up (if it had stopped) and have their way, which was usually one thing. One of the guards lifted his baton at a young tiger girl, who was sobbing and clutching the bars on her cell door like it was the only thing keeping her from drowning in a sea of darkness, the ferret intervened before the other guard could do anything "Oi, the untouched fetch a high price but they have to be just that, untouched, you know how our boss is famed for his seemingly infinite patience, well his wrath exceeds that tenfold, you hit her and you'll experience it first hand". His eyes went wide and he dropped the baton on his foot making a yelping sound that should have come out of a fox or one of his hyena comrades rather than a alligator, the young tiger watched and laughed, as the gator hurt himself, lowering her guard long enough to let go of the bars. The gator smiled as he saw his chance and pulled the girl onto her feet, she started crying as she was shoved into the throng of slaves, the gator followed making sure the group was fed through. The other guard walked the opposite way making sure no one was still left when he came to the cell containing Ar'kesh, the jackal looked at the guard "well, are you gonna open the cage I want to stretch my legs" the guard turned and looked at the ferret by the door "what about this one?" the one by the door gave a look that said: what one, to which the guard responded in his hoarse mastiff voice "the survivor". "He goes to sale as well" said the ferret, the mastiff looked down at the slave "you sure?, he is aggressive, disobedient and he sticks out like a sore thumb, three things buyers don't want, I don't understand why the boss man hasn't taken him out like he would any other captive". The ferret gave him a looked that burned into his soul "careful, that kind of talk could get you sold off as a slave if not beheaded your self, but the way i hear it someone paid a lot of coin to keep him alive at least until we sold him off". Ar'kesh heard this and clenched his fist "those robed sods I-" he was interrupted by the cell door opening and as he got to his feet the guard came in close, "just so we don't have a repeat of last time" the guard jabbed the end of his baton into the jackal's gut, winding him and making double over in pain before the guard pulled him to his feet and half-dragged him out the door
The jackal was herded out just like the others before him, before being shifted onto mutiple make-shift stages with steel posts attached half a meter or so apart. A few of the guards started taking the captives to each of the posts and attaches chains to their shackles to keep them in place, as well as making sure a few of the more vocal of the group were gagged. Ar'kesh looked around at the others who were up for sale, same sort of set up as always: the males in nothing but a loincloth showing the interested party their musculature and also allowed the buyer to view "the package" if they were that way inclined, the females wore white semi-transparent dress that clung to their forms exposing enough of their "assets" to interest and tempt the buyer into wanting more, to which they would have to buy the product. The only ones that seem to have any sort of dignity were "the untouched" mainly girls with one or two males dressed up to look like innocent children, if they were or not Ar'kesh could not tell but one thing was clear he had not seen so many frilly dresses in one place before. He was pushed onto one of the stages by a guard who then proceeded to attach a chain to his shackles "this was it" he thought "the auction is about to begin".
There was a knock on the small steel door followed by two more in quick succession, one of the guards opened the door and poked his head out side to make sure no law-bringers or bounty hunters got wind of the sale. The guard nodded and stepped aside allowing the people waiting entrance into their temporary den, tapping his rifle as a word of warning to anyone looking to cause trouble. A few more minutes went by and another group wandered in and then another and then another, finally the last of what would be the buyers on this night arrived. The goat with the straw hat gave a nod to his guys at the door, who, in turn nodded back and proceeded to shut the steel door and lock it, once that was done the goat in the straw hat onto a raised platform in the center of the room before clearing his throat "have a look around at what we offer bidding shall begin in ten minutes" he said as he watched the buyers move around to look at the various slave platforms. Each buyer was accompanied by one or two others usually a bodyguard and a slave they already owned that was carrying a trunk or chest full of coin, the goat grinned as he eyed up his potential clients "most would use the slaves as cheap disposable labor or as sex dolls for their own enjoyment, but there were those occasional ones who would use the slaves to breed and sell the offspring to slavers for a profit, of course there were those few who would use them for far worse needs" he thought. The head slaver continued to watch the buyers, he could always tell the kind of buyer by the way they dressed and how they acted,the rawhide wearing gunslinger types for example, would mainly buy the males as a labor force or buy females as breeders to sell on their offspring for a small profit. On the other hand the ones dressed in the fancy clothes would buy females to populate their so called harems, the females were the same, buying the males simply for sex or because they would look nice serving their tea. The group he could always find above all else were the ones willing to pay top coin for "the untouched", mostly males who would generally not even look at the other slaves, their reasons for buying well...... he tended not to ask but if the goat was to hazard a guess, the two main reasons that came to mind involved a bed or a weapon of some sort. The goat sighed before putting his hand in his waistcoat to check his pocket watch, ten minutes had passed meaning is was time to start the auction, clapping his hands together just once was enough to call the buyers attention to him, "alright" came that silky voice again "your time to look around is over, time to start bidding". He motioned to a mouse girl with blonde curls and wearing a white frilly dress standing on a platform to his immediate right "we shall start with this little darling named miranda, any takers?" immediately several hands holding auction slips near the front shot up. "Fifteen- thousand dradec for the girl" a man in the middle of the group cried out, "seventeen-thousand dradec" called a man in front of him, "No I will pay twenty-thousand dradec for her" the only reptilian in the group declared, "Twenty-five large ones" a possum in what looked to be a large overcoat called out. Suddenly a posh sounding voice at the back of the group called out "put me down for fifty-thousand dradec".
Immediately most of the group put their arms down and it made the goat slaver smile, he may have hated the self-entitled rich pricks but they were good for driving up the price and weeding out the not-so-serious buyers. The voice came from a regal looking white-tailed deer who was standing there with a smug-looking grin on his face thinking he would win when the reptilian yelled out " fifty- five on the girl" making the male deer's face drop, he quickly regained his composure "sixty thousand" he said in a more authoritative tone" giving the reptile a dirty look, "seventy" said the possum in the overcoat as he looked back at the deer and grinned wide. Twenty minutes later and the girl was sold after it boiled down to a bidding war between the deer and the possum in which the possum won for one-hundred and seventy five thousand dradec, the goat gave a nod to the buyer and pointed to the next slave to auction off. It was another "untouched" however this one was male and was wearing a white dress shirt with blue shorts, blue suspenders and shiny black shoes, "this is one of youngest slaves so i should get a nice profit from him" thought the goat as he looked around at the crowd who were getting ready to bid again, he smiled before speaking "okay ladies and gents lets start the price for this fine specimen at twenty thousand dradec".
Half an hour had gone by and the rest of the "untouched" had been sold off and they were starting on the rest off the slaves. Ar'kesh stood there bored as he knew the drill by now all the slaves will get brought except for him and then afterwards he would be shoved back into the cage which for however long it has been he has called home, another fifteen minutes later and two more slaves had been sold to a woman in some kind of hide clothing the jackal guessed she was some kind of rancher which meant those slaves would work the fields. An hour or so and a lot of yelling later and most of the group's "product" had been sold off leaving just Ar'kesh and an Orca female named Sahsass. Ar'kesh sighed as he stood there knowing full well they would start with him and when they couldn't get a bidder they would move on to the Orca before moving back to him, the goat cleared his throat "alright we have here the rare jackal Ar'kesh" the bidders oooohed at this while he tried to pull at his chains starting to get fed up with this farce "so what shall we start the bidding at fifteen thousand dradec?", "where is he from? that village in the shining sands?" there were a few murmurs running through the crowd and it looked like they all took half a step back. "damn it" the goat thought "even the hint of where that damned jackal is from and any potential buyers he may have had scatter to the winds" he waited for a few minutes and was about to move on when a female's voice said " I will buy him fifteen thousand" followed by a chocolate coloured paw pushing out of the crowed followed by the body of a female Siamese cat.
Ar'kesh looked at the female in amazement for a few seconds before looking her up and down. He guessed she stood about five feet five inches and had long, wavy shoulder length chocolate brown hair that matched her brown paws and face, her bright blue eyes so full of innocence stared directly at him. The jackal made a mental note of how out of place she looked with her long white dress with the blue trimmings; it was too nice to be part of the criminal element while at the same time not being fancy and ornate enough to be a member of the nobility, she looked more like a standard commoner or at the lower-end of the upperclass, the question he asked himself was why come here. "Ummm...... are you sure you wish to buy this slave?" said the goat slaver sounding just as surprised as Ar'kesh felt, the girl turned towards the auctioneer " he is for sale is he not?" the goat nodded to this question "and you want to make some money, yes?" she asked again and again the goat nodded "then it is settled, you will sell Ar'kesh to me for fifteen thousand dradec" she said in a very decisive and commanding tone making the goat sigh and shrug, "very well you can collect him once this is over".
The auction was over and not just the goat but the other slavers smiled as well,knowing the jackal was finally going to be off their hands as they watched the winners of each auction line up with their money and to leave with the slaves they won. It was the feline's turn and she walked up to claim her winnings, the goat decided to take care of this personally and went into the claims booth before looking at the girl "you do have the money don't you?" she looked at him angrily before dropping a tiny chest on the surface in front of him "count it, it is all there" she said bitterly as the goat slaver opened the chest and pulled out a handful royal gold dradec "each one worth a thousand, and fifteen in all" he said as he counted them "all seems to be in order, bring him out". Two guards flanked Ar'kesh as he walked out "obviously they didn't trust him or thought it was too good to be true" he thought which in all honesty was probably correct he looked at the female siamese female that he was supposed to call master, she doesn't look to harsh he thought but it did not matter he was not going to stay with her long.