28/06/337

Vasuki

Admitting that he was overreacting to such a small thing Vasuki decided to head back into town once morning came after sleeping off yesterdays events in a small tent of ice in the woods to the south he had a clear mind going into Daemerall. Walking into the Rising Bull Inn he caught a glimpse of Zadkiel playing cards with a few men at a table, instead of confronting the bastard he followed the feline and dragonic scents up the stairs and to the room they had been sharing, but he could feel Zadkiel’s eyes burning holes into him. Audra, Cabana, and Noelem froze in place when he walked in to the room.

“Good morning. No hard feelings? You know, about yesterday? That was just you guys joking with me, right?” Vasuki asked, nervous. They simply stared at him, their jaws were clenched hard.

“Why are you here?” Cabana asked, not a hint of emotion.

“You shouldn’t come near us.” Audra added. Vasuki sighed in annoyance.

“What the hell is going on? Why are you guys acting like this, out of nowhere? What did I do to des-” Vasuki was cut off by a punch in his jaw, he fell to the ground and looked up at Cabana standing over him. She pressed the bottom of her shoe on his head and twisted her foot back and forth, as if stepping on a bug.

“You aren’t welcome around here. I’m surprised you had the guts to come back to the room.” She said. Audra walked towards him and kicked him in his stomach. Cabana took her hold off of his head and kicked him in the jaw. Noelem picked him up by the collar and slammed him against the wall, knocking the air out of him. He felt the demon’s fist ram into his cheek, he tasted blood in his mouth. Audra grabbed him by his hair and slammed his head against the wall behind him. He was seeing stars. Cabana opened the door and Noelem tossed him down the stairs, as if he were little more than a bag of trash. He saw the stairs quickly approaching him until his head met them.

Vasuki’s eyes came open to him being dragged on a hard stone floor. He felt some kind of wet liquid matting the hair on the side of his head. He quickly noticed that he was wrapped in taut rope. He looked up to see two men holding the ends of the rope, both were dressed in black suits and had full head masks covering their faces.

“Can’t believe they just gave us one. He’s going to make us a fortune.” The man on the left said, his voice was scratchy and a bit on the higher pitch.

“Silver scales...not very common, he’s worth his weight in gold!” The one on the right replied, he spoke with a deep voice and a carefree tone.

“Who...are you?” Vasuki asked, through a mind full of fog. They looked at him in surprise.

“Oh damn, the bastards awake! We’re...your new best friends!” The man on the right claimed.

“We’re going to treat you, and your scales, real nice.” The left man added. Only then did it click, with Vasuki as to what was going on.

“You’re….dragon raiders, aren’t you?” He asked still groggy, he could still taste the blood in his mouth. The guy on the right chuckled a bit.

“We prefer to call it, you know, scale trading. Raiders make it seem like we’re desperate for it, in reality we’re more like a mafia if anything. You know, we hurt the people that need to be hurt, especially when they are a problem for our boss. But you? Nah, you, are a money making machine. Those things on your arm, and wherever else we decide to grow them, are worth a fortune!” The man claimed.

“Go to hell.” Vasuki ordered weakly.

Eventually, they stopped dragging him, placed a burlap sack over his head and then he heard the sound of metal clinging together, a lock popping open, and a creaky door opening wide. Even through the sack he could smell it, there were more people where he was going. Not just dragons, humans, rabbits, felines, variants of all kinds. Their smell was accompanied with fecal matter, urine, and blood.

“What have you been doing to these people?!” He yelled.

“You’ll find out soon enough.” The deep voiced man claimed.

They continued dragging him, until he heard the clinking of keys and the sound of another lock popping open. He felt himself get pulled off the ground and chains placed around his wrists, when the rope was unwrapped from around him he tried to move but found he was suspended in the air by the cuffs holding his wrists. They tore the burlap sac from his head, he could finally see where he was. The sight of deep blue stone walls surrounded everywhere except behind him, seeing as how he couldn’t move properly he could only get a glimpse of the metal bars behind him. He felt his shirt getting cut from behind him.

“What are you doing to me?!” He demanded.

“Examining where to make new farms, if we decide to. If you ask me, I think his arm is good enough for now.” The scratchy voiced man said, “If we want to make more we can. Let’s go tell the boss.” he added. Vasuki heard the opening of the door and the closing of the lock, then the same with the creaky door they had dragged him through.

Vasuki reached for his magic, hoping to break these chains somehow. It was gone, the hypothetical chains he was so used to twisting and bending to his will weren’t there. It was as if they had been taken out of him, and were now suspending him in the air.

“What the hell?” Vasuki said aloud.

“Don’t bother with it.” He heard a woman behind him say, “There’s not really much you can do, I’m sure they already put the magic blocker in you. They do that first, then continue to inject it every few days. It’s so we can’t get out. We're all getting ours tomorrow, you'll probably get yours then too, that way they can just give it to everyone all at once.”

“Magic blockers? You mean those are real?” He asked. He had heard rumors about people being injected with some kind of liquid to block the use of magic, but he wasn't sure they were actually true.

“Yep, sorry you have to be in here with us.” She claimed, “I’m Izenia, by the by.” She added.

“Vasuki. Do you know where we are?” He asked.

“Northern Daemerall, underground some rich guys outhouse for all I know. I’ve been here for a month, they seem to be interested in my tail fur. I’m sorry… for what you’ll have to go through.” Izenia mentioned.

His scales. They were going to extract his scales, unless he could get out of here, but how? Vasuki seethed with anger. The people he had trusted for so long had put him here, in this hellhole.

“You’ve met with a terrible fate.” The old man said, “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

“I need to get out of here, Vistrata. If not, they’re going to make me suffer.” Vasuki whispered.

“Who are you talking to in there?” Izenia asked.

“It seems the fox girl is worried about your mental health. I have...a bargain to make with you.” Vistrata claimed.

“What do you want to bargain about?” Vasuki asked.

“I will help you, on one condition.” He paused, “You will do what I say for the next few days. It will take a bit of time to help you, but my...solution...will be more than sufficient.” Vistrata said, his arms spread to his sides.

“Just, tell me what I need to do.” Vasuki claimed, agreeing with the solution.

“Suffer for a bit, it’ll be well soon enough.” Vistrata said, vanishing into the wall.

“Dammit!” He said aloud.

“You...uhh...you okay in there?” Izenia asked.

“Just peachy.” He claimed.

Vasuki hung from the chains, trying his damnedest to reach his magic, every single time he thought it was within grasp it would vanish right before he grabbed a hold of it.

“Shit!” He yelled, after countless tries.

“Just give it up, dude. You can’t use it. It’s literally an injection that keeps us from using magic.” Izenia claimed.

“I refuse to just sit here with my arms going numb!”

“Yeah...you do seem very...uncomfortable? That’s a word that could fit what you’re going through. I don’t mind the view of your back though.” Izenia claimed, “A lot nicer than the rest of the starved folk.”

“Well enjoy the view all you want, not like I have a choice.” He quickly heard the sound of a lock coming undone.

“Hey, fresh meat!” The man with the scratchy voice yelled from the beginning of the prison. Vasuki went pale with fear.

“Shit shit shit shit!” He yelled trying to physically break his chains, though his attempts were in vain. He heard footsteps getting closer to his cell, the jingling of the keys, his cell door creaking open. He heard a loud crack, pain scorched through his back as he howled in pain.

“Boss wants more of your scales, sorry about your back. You should feel honored though, you’re like a prized cattle at this point.” The man said jokingly.

“Go fuck yourself!” Another crack of the whip.

“I ain’t gotta do that, got plenty of whores back at my place who want a piece of this meat!” He claimed before laughing. Another howl of pain came from Vasuki’s throat.

Twenty strikes to his back and Vasuki was in tears. He was shocked by a new stimulation, a flash of a knife and pain searing through his right arm as it sawed into the upper layer of his skin. He screamed through gritted teeth as four inches of skin was filleted from the top part of his arm.

“Don’t worry, Trophy, we’re almost done here. Boss just wants to know exactly what he’s dealing with. Y’see, he doesn’t like coming down here, he might get dirty, now I don’t know about you but I’d hate to get a three-piece suit, that cost more than most people make in a year dirty. And the animals in here? Feces and blood spit or thrown on anything takes a real long time to get out of clothes. Might as well throw it out at that point.” He felt the man take care of the wounds on his back and right arm, the sting of the cleaning solution was a small comfort in his dire situation.

After bandaging Vasuki’s injuries he thought the man would be leaving, but his words echoed in his head. “Boss just wants to know exactly what he’s dealing with.” Vasuki shut his eyes, preparing for pain he had never felt in his entire life, something Mai had went through so long ago. He felt pliers clamp on one of his many scales, it began to wiggle back and forth then he felt the man pull it hard, yanking the natural armor out of it’s socket. Vasuki cried out in pain, letting his tears fall as freely as the blood that leaked from the wounds. The man wrapped a bandage around the missing spot in his right arm before unlocking the cuffs on his wrists and letting him fall to the floor that was decorated in his own fresh blood.

Vasuki laid on the ground for a while, just trying to catch his breath. His body ached terribly, and he just wanted to sleep, but was in too much pain to even try.

“Vasuki?” Izenia asked, “You alive in there?” She sounded worried.

“Yeah.” It was a whisper mixed with a sob. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m...so sorry for what you just went through. I’ve heard that dragon variants have it the worst in here, I’ve never seen it though. Only heard it.” She said, pointing to her left with her thumb.

“I can’t say I’d like to go again.” He muttered.

Eventually he sat up, pain searing through every muscle in his back. He leaned against the wall that he had been staring at for so long. He finally got a look at his company. Izenia was a fox variant, tall orange ears poked from dirty long orange hair, and a long hairless tail extruded from the back of her waist. Her skin was pale and her body was malnourished, though she didn’t look like she was on deaths door yet. Her eyes were a light shade of brown, and the clothes she wore was just a dirty loincloth and chest wrapping

“I’m sure they’ll be back soon. You should try and get some rest.” She suggested. Just then he felt a spark in the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t feel his magic at all, but there was something else there, something powerful, but he had no way of grasping that terrifying power.

“Yeah...rest.” His thoughts turned to Audra and Cabana, how they had beaten him, how they had hurt him, how they had put him in here, “I’m going to make them pay for this.”