Chains rattled, and she felt her mind startle awake. Several other children were also chained up and were pulled off the wagon. She looked down at her own chained ankles and when she looked up she was trudging along with the others.

[ ] Hey! Get back to work. What do you think yer doing?

Crack

The crack of the whip sent shivers down her small body. With the echo of the whip her mind is thrown into disarray. She finds that she’s holding a pickaxe and she hurriedly starts hitting the cavern wall with it.

Crack

Crack

Every so often she feels her body shudder at as the whips strike her back. Her mind starts disassociating, desperate to escape the yelling and the pain that was sure to come.

No more. No more. It hurts. I don’t want it to hurt. I just want the pain to go away.

When she found herself focusing again she was no longer in the cavern but rather at the door of a wide circular room, although the ceiling was very low. Several men surrounded the room with their spears. A runic circle was at the center of the room and a boy was in the middle of that.

[ ] Oi. Come on now. We’re telling you to evolve into a golem. You know what a golem is right? If you mess with us and get it wrong we’ll activate the runes and blow you to pieces ok?

As the boy in the center focused, a large amount of mana was drawn towards him. He grew a minor amount and as pieces of his skin peeled away, the smooth rock that now lay underneath was revealed.

[ ] Hm. We’ve been getting a lot of these small ones. Oh well at least they’re good at tunneling. Oi you. Go out that way and line up with the others.

The boy nodded, devoid of emotion. As he walked out the other door in the room, she was pushed in.

[ ] Come on. You too. We’re telling you to evolve into a golem. You’re of the right age so it should come naturally right? You want to become a golem too right? That way you won’t get tired from work and you won’t be hurt so easily. You’ll stop being hungry too.

She nodded and sat in the middle of the circle like the boy before her. She willed the mana into herself, starting the evolution process. It felt like the air was thick and heavy, pressing down on her chest. Stinging pain ran through her body as she began to grow.

If I wasn’t captured, what would mommy want me to evolve as.

Pain. It hurts.

But mommy and the rest are dead now. Or captured. I don’t have a choice.

The pain will go away. I just want the pain to go away. I don’t want to hurt.

There’s no choice. I have no choice. I don’t want to hurt anymore.

Everywhere hurts. Everything hurts. I don’t want to hurt.

I just want it to stop.

The next thing she knew, a loud noise from the room woke her up. She was standing in the next room with the ones that came before her. People were yelling from the room she was in earlier.

[ ] Hey! What do you think you’re doing. Damnit you’re going to regret this.

[ ] Activate the runes. Hurry!

[ ] ROAR

[ ] Damn kid can’t even think. There’s no room for this in here.

BOOM

ROAR

[ ] Shit he’s evolving too fast.

[ ] He’s damaging the roof. We gotta get out of here.

[ ] Hold him back

The booming noises rang out for some time. And then the sound of rocks collapsing. And then darkness and silence.

How much time has passed? An hour? A day? A year? She didn't know. They simply stood there. Empty. There was no more pain or yelling. Only the silence and the dark. Until one day when they heard the rocks that had collapsed the door being moved and they were bathed in light once more.

The girl opened her bleary eyes. The booming noise seemed to return along with her senses, although much more distant now. As her eyes slowly focused, she saw a dark-haired man with several swords resting by his side. She stared at him for a while. He seemed engrossed in his book.

[ ] Lord?

The man finally looked up from his book and frowned at her.

[Kilian] How many times must I tell you it’s just Kilian. I did not inherit such a title.

[Fels] Kilian.

[Kilian] That’s better. You’ve been out for about a week now. We’ve been ensured that this is more normal for a golem but Icas still insists on purchasing good metals. Luckily this smithy deals with repairing golems, albeit of the manmade kind, and gave us a good deal.

Fels looked down at her body. Where there should have been a wound there was only her body, lined with the veins of metal and rock that ran through her flesh. The side of her abdomen seemed to have much finer veins of a silvery white metal. She gave her body an experimental twist and found that her movement had hardly changed despite the additional metals.

[Kilian] Titanium. Icas insisted, although we couldn’t afford anything better anyways. Buying iron or low quality steel would have come back to bite us though, what with having the pass through the water room every time.

[Fels] Thank you.

[Kilian] Don’t thank me. It was all Icas’s ideas. We need to get you back in fighting order anyways. Thank Icas when he comes back from shopping.

Fels stared at Kilian for a little while. She noticed several new bandages on his hands and the additional wear on his boots and bag, both now permanently stained with mud.

[Fels] Thank you.

[Kilian] Ah whatever. Look. If you’re all better then we’ll need to get back to training soon. It’s about time for my training. I’ll get the head smith to examine you on my way out and Icas will be here soon with some healing items. Get some rest or what have you so we can catch up with the others.

Kilian threw his book back into his bag and grabbed his swords and went out the door. Fels could hear him yelling over the sound of hammers for the head smith. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she listened to the commotion, the booming noises no longer disturbing her.

[Fels] Thank you.