Age of Cataclysm: Book 1-Chapter 2
Imported from SF2 with no description.
Chapter length: 1,854 words (A shorty, but there are chapters that are way longer)
Current novel length: 5,639 words
Chapter 2
With their victim's vision blocked and his hands tied behind his back, the kidnappers escort Sylfinas in the sewers. The smell causes him to stop a few times briefly to try not to puke, and each time someone forces him to move. "Move it," is usually what follows after. At some point, everyone stops, and Sylfinas can hear the keychain jiggle as one of the kidnappers fiddles around for the correct key to the locked door. The redolent of the sewers changes to a fresher scent as Sylfinas transitions over into an unknown room. The captors escort him further into this room and through a few more rooms. During the walk, his ears detect other voices greeting the group. After the door closes when he enters into another room, he can hear another door open, feel his hands becoming free, regaining his vision from the blindfold coming off, and finds himself inside a locked cage.
With the blindfolds off, Sylfinas now gets a good look at his kidnappers; the group consists of five members, three are human, two males, and one female. The woman has olive-colored skin, brown eyes, black hair, and jewelry hanging from both her ears. The two men have white skin. One has a beard and mustache, brown hair, and brown eyes. The other man has a mustache, very short brown hair, and blue eyes. The other two members are Half-Orc, and they appear to be a set of identical twins. All of them are wearing leather armor and wielding a short sword, two daggers, and a crossbow with twenty ammunition.
"Come on. Let's go meet the boss and tell her we got another merchandise in place," the woman said to everyone in the group as she clapped.
They all leave through a different door, and Sylfinas is now alone in a dimly lit room. At least that's what he thought he was when he notices another being in a different cage next to his. After his eyes adjust to the darkness, thanks to his Elven trait, he can discern the features of this person. This person is female, and she's covered in black fur, has a facial resemblance to a wolf, pointed wolf ears, amber eyes, brown hair, and has a tail. He also realizes that this wolf-person is completely naked, and only her hair is covering her breasts and her legs covering the lower region.
"Hey. Do you have any idea what's going on?" he asked the female wolf.
"They plan on selling us into slavery," she answered without looking up.
"How do you know?"
"Because I've been held prisoner for a while. I've seen other people, like you, thrown into cages, and I've witnessed them get sold to wealthy people."
"Then why are you still here, and why aren't you wearing any clothes?"
"Because people don't like the fact that I'm difficult to control. Some male High Elf purchased me and returned me back for a refund, saying he had a hard time telling me what to do. Ever since then, people still have taken an interest in me but changed their minds once they heard about the previous owner. As for my nude body, well, this is the group's way of punishing me for my stubbornness." Starting with the padlock in his hands, Sylfinas inspects his cage. The lock looks new and well made. The metal framework of the cage also looks well made. "I notice you are looking around at your cage. Forget it. We can't leave these cages unless someone decides to let us out. They're the best cages I've come across. My body aches from the multiple times I've attempted to break mine, but I barely did anything to it, and I'm more muscular than you, no offense." The words from the wolf did little to dissuade him as he formulates a plan.
The room has several other cages of various sizes, and all of them are empty. There are lanterns lit to provide some light, but they're beyond arm's reach. To the left of his cage and beyond the bipedal wolf's cage, there is a wooden table with two wooden chairs. Hearing the door open, he pivots his head over and observes the two Half-Orcs walking into the room and over to the table after closing the door. One of them has a set of keys on his waist. Once they sit down, they start playing with a deck of cards.
Wanting a better point to survey the two Half-Orcs, Sylfinas sits down at the back corner of the cage, allowing him to see them playing cards with greater visibility and eavesdrop on their conversation. All they ever utter is, "givanni," with a knock on the table and shout in anger, "siznex." Since there's nothing interesting in the dialogue, the multiple rounds merge in one bore-fest until they switch topics.
"I'm getting bored of playing Crossbones over and over again, Karigall," one Half-Orc said as he stretched and yawned.
"Same here, Mukegall," the other Half-Orc responded as he, too, elongated his body and yawned. "Wonder how long we have on our shift?"
"About three more hours."
"That long? Shit."
"You said it. Wonder what we're going to do now?"
"I have no idea."
"If it would be of interest to you, I know a few card tricks I can demonstrate to make time go by faster," Sylfinas offered to the Half-Orcs.
"Alright, let's see what you got Half-Elf," Karigall said.
"Excellent, I'm sure my performance will be enrapturing to you." The two Half-Orcs get up from the table and ambulate towards Sylfinas's cage. The wolf also watches with a curious look on her face. "First things first, I need that deck of cards you were playing with. Otherwise, none of my tricks will work."
"Hand this Half-Elf the deck, Mukegall," Karigall ordered.
"Yeah, yeah." With more force than necessary, he hands Sylfinas the cards.
"This is superb. These cards will now spread out in my hands. The next step is one of you pick one card from the pile, stare at it, remember it, and place it back. Don't show me the card. I'll close my eyes and look away to make sure I don't behold your selection, and you place it back into the deck." One of half-orcs pulls a card and takes note of the result before placing it back.
"Ok, we picked our card and placed it back," Mukegall spoke.
"Alright, now I'm going to shuffle the deck, and the top card should be the one you picked when I'm done. Go ahead and see if this is true." The half-orc that picked the card the first time draws the top card. "Well, is it your card?"
"It is. I got three of hearts. Just the same one as we picked before. Right, brother?"
"Yes, it is brother," Karigall replied.
"Wonderful! Lucky for you, I know additional card tricks. I can display them to you if I still maintain your interest."
"Show us more!" shouted Karigall.
"Yeah, show us!" responded Mukegall.
"Say no more, I love a captivated audience." With encouragement from them, Sylfinas shows the half-orcs several more card tricks, and they relish every single minute, adulating as best as they can. Eventually, he starts to wind things down.
"Come on. One more card trick, please," Karigall pleaded.
"Yes, please! One more", Mukegall implored also. They chant "one more" over and over again and sweet-talk him.
With effort hiding a slight smirk in his face that he has the brothers on the hook, Sylfinas succumbs from the cajole. "You want me to do one more card trick?" he asked.
"Yes!" the brothers exclaimed.
"Well, with that kind of rejoinder, how can I refuse. Ok, this will be my last trick for sure. It just happens to be the best trick I've saved for moments such as this. I first need both of you to close your eyes and turn around, so your backs are facing towards me."
"Why would we do that?" Mukegall asked.
"Because this trick involves me putting several cards in one of your pockets, and I don't want to risk one of you seeing them and ruining the trick. How many tricks have I done previously that involved me not being able to see the cards? You can withstand this one time for me."
The Half-Orcs obey the command and turn their bodies and shut their eyes. Sylfinas proceeds to put five random cards in one of their back pockets. Before he can continue further, the door opens, and another person steps into the room. "You two get up. The boss has called an emergency meeting and needs you to be there." The door shuts.
"Well, it seems we're going to postpone this for a while. Don't fret, we can continue this when you get back. Just don't look at the cards in your pocket. If you do, I'll know, and you'll never observe the best trick you'll ever witness for as long as you live."
"We won't. We promise," Karigall responded.
"Excellent." The brothers get up and head off to the meeting. When they leave and shut the door, Sylfinas starts to chuckle. "Imbeciles."
"What has you smiling all of a sudden?" asked the wolf. The array of keys swings around Sylfinas's finger and jiggle after he brandishes them from his pocket in front of her. "So that was your plan from the very beginning. Impressive." After trial and error, Sylfinas unlocks his cage and liberates himself and then emancipates the wolf. The dimensions of the cage force her to arch slightly while standing in order to exit. Her full height actually towers over him when she has more breathing room to stand, and she stretches for a good bit of time, not seeming to care that she's revealing her entire naked body in front of him, but he turns his red face away anyway.
"You're taller than I expected," Sylfinas commented.
"I'm above average for my race, but trust me, there are others like me that are taller. Feels satisfying to be out of that cage. Way too cramped in there to be comfortable." Multiple times her bones crack from stretching, and the sound reverberates everywhere in the room, causing Sylfinas to freeze in fear that the captors would hear the noise and investigate. As she has her back towards him, he notices silver fur going down her spine.
"Whew!" he lets out a huge sigh of relief when nobody comes after a minute. "Well, let's get out of here and hopefully find you some decent clothing to wear during the process," he said. He still does his best not to look at the naked wolf. They both arrive at the ingress to the room. "Almost forgot, I'm Sylfinas," he said as he extended his hand to shake.
The wolf accepts the handshake. "I'm Kaera." They then proceed to go through the door and begin their escape before they discover what the meeting is about.
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