One of the children noticed us as we finally touched the white sand of the beach and shouted at his friends. All of the kids now ran to us, their fingers pointing at Kai. Their remarks were simple curiosity about his golden skin at first, though they quickly became more aggressive.

They started pinching his cheeks and pulling his hair, laughing loudly whenever he tried to defend himself. At first they ignored my attempts to shoo them away, but then some of them started pulling my now very short hair and laughed in my ears.

“Look at me, I’m a spineless mage,” a boy said mockingly.

“I will rain thunder on ye,” said another. “I will feed ye needles and ye’ll shit knives.”

The group laughed.

“Proud of your haircut, are ye, spineless witch?” snorted a teenage girl.

“Buzz off, kids,” said the man who was carrying us eventually, and abruptly moved his hands—and us with them—in order to shake off the children as if they were flies.

They did leave, but not before most of them landed at least one more punch or kick on one of us.

Shortly after, we were carried onto the ship and taken down two levels to a small room. In the corner was a tiny cell with only short chains hanging from metal rings on the wall and a wooden bucket. The man opened the narrow iron gate with his left foot and threw both of us in. He then attached the chains that were connected to the wall, to the back of the metal collars around our necks.

“This should keep you nice and cozy,” he snorted.

The chains looked long enough to allow us to lay on the floor, but not long enough to stand completely upright or reach the gate. Worst of all, they were far enough apart that they wouldn’t allow us to have any physical contact.

The muscular man produced a small knife from his belt and cut our bonds. It felt so good to finally be able to stretch my limbs, even if we were now inside a cage. And finally being able to open our legs let out the stench of our soiled clothes.

“Spineless filth,” the man said, as he hid his nose on the inside of his elbow and backtracked out of the cell. “We should’ve put you somewhere with a window.”

I was embarrassed despite our predicament, but I tried to rationalize my emotions. I needed to stay strong.

He swiftly put the lock that had been hanging open until now to use, pocketed the key and left the room, closing the door behind him.

“Are you alright?” I asked Kai, moving as close to him as I could get before my collar chokingly forced me back.

“Yes,” he replied, without looking at me. Obviously he was not okay, but I was relieved all the same to hear him speak. “We need to escape before the ship sails.”

“Yes, of course, but I don’t see how—” I started saying.

“You get out of these bonds, and you kill them all,” he interrupted me. “We find our chest and go back to the forest like we said.”

“Kai, these people are monsters but they’re not stupid. I can’t just slip out of these bonds.”

“Then what use are you?” he snapped back at me, his piercing golden eyes full of anger.

“I…” I tried to explain myself, but I couldn’t. Instead I dropped my eyes to the ground and tried to consider how much pressure he was under. “We will be free again, Kai. Before or after the ship sails. Do not lose hope.”

***

The hours passed without us exchanging any more words and apart from the occasional voices outside of the room, it was silent until the room started moving. My desperate thoughts only multiplied at the realization that the ship had started sailing to the other side of the Endless Sea.

This was not a failure, I tried to tell myself. This was still a simple plan. We were still going from place A to place B and this was just another setback. We needed to clench our fists and get through it. I would not lose hope.

My thoughts were interrupted by a woman who entered the room carrying two bowls. She didn’t bother unlocking the gate of the cell but rather placed them on the floor just inside of its iron bars, left the room and quickly returned only to leave a clay jar between them.

I didn’t even bother with reading her name or class. It did not matter one bit any more.Once she had closed the door behind her, we both went for the bowls and saw that it was the same broth that we had the day before with a smaller, albeit less hard, piece of bread on top.

The jug, though half empty, had water in it, and we used it to wash down the bad taste that our food left in our mouths.

Once we had finished eating, Kai moved closer to his side of the cell and laid down on the floor sideways, with his back turned to me. I thought about trying to talk to him.

But what would I say? That things would get better? Things were likely only going to get worse once we reached the lands of the barbarians.

I thought maybe it would be best if I just gave him some space, and so I also put my back on the ground and closed my eyes. I couldn’t sleep but I didn’t want to be forced to look directly at our predicament. I needed to think of a way to escape.

Soon enough, the constant swaying of the ship, along with me keeping my eyes closed, took a toll on me.

I felt sick, but forced myself not to throw up what little food I had eaten, knowing that it may be some time before I ate again. I teared up trying to fight the nausea and eventually it became better, partly because I got used to it and partly because my tiredness took over.

***

And so the days went by in our little cell. Different people brought us the same food at the same time of day, not even troubling themselves with emptying our potty bucket. Long hours passed without us saying a word to each other, though I could tell that Kai’s frustration was building up as much as mine was.

The awful smell of the room, the disgusting food—and small amount of it—and the indifferent looks of our captors made both of us boil with anger. I was not going to have any more of it.

I felt my gut and chest stiffen from anger as soon as I heard the doorknob turn. A tall and slim man with greasy long dark hair entered the room with our usual wooden lunch bowls.

Name : Jaber Manur

Race : Light Elf

Class : Mage

Level : 12

I immediately stood up and glared at him though he didn’t seem to notice while he touched the bowls to the ground, in the same place they always did. Before he managed to straighten up, I kicked the bowl over and broth stained his brown shirt.

“You little bitch!” he exclaimed, his arms open, looking down at the mess that I had made of his clothes.

Without hesitation, he took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the gate. Kai took the opportunity and launched himself toward him but the chain pulled him back long before he could reach him.

The man proceeded to kick me in the groin with the instep of his right boot. The force of the hit threw me back violently and I hit my head on the metal ring that was nailed into the wall.

The pain was staggering. I felt faint but before I lost my senses, a punch to my stomach made me open my eyes wide and regain my wits. The man was now on top of me, furiously throwing punches at my body, with the occasional slap to my face. I could feel warm blood flowing down the back of my neck and my lips went numb as I tasted blood in my mouth. With each hit, I could see Kai shouting and trying to reach out and grab the man, though I could not hear his voice. I couldn’t hear anything. Just the vibrations of the thumps whenever a hit landed.

I couldn’t feel pain anymore, even as the thumps continued and my vision was now limited to blurry moving shapes. My HP was dangerously close to zero when I saw a bright light, or at least I thought I saw it, and the thumps stopped.

Is this how death feels? Bright light and complete absence of pain?

I felt a big weight being dropped on my chest and warmth spreading over me. It was tempting to give in. But I couldn’t.

I will not give up. I need to stay alive. I will get us out this.