In the Mine there was no way to tell time it was almost as if the place was void of it. But you could feel it ticking along with every swing of the hammer, with every chunk of rock that went flying, with every lash of a spiked whip against someone skin. Sin couldn't tell if it was night or day because the mine was light up by the same dim light and never got darker or brighter. He moved on to the last bolder he found and smashed it down into small pieces.

He wasn't tired, at least he didn't feel that way, his muscles burned here and there as he worked away but it was nothing he couldn't handle. In fact the burning sensation spurred him to move faster and work harder, the heat the spread through his body felt good as it intensified with every swing of the hammer. He stopped and looked around when the bolder was no more and he couldn't see any other, but he didn't want to stop working, he just wanted to do as much as possible as fast as possible.

So he looked around and saw the pickaxe the dead man was using and went for it, he picked it up and spun it in his hands and then faced the wall. He rose up the ax and brought it down on the wall causing cracks to form in it, he watched as the crack expanded until a large chunk of the wall had fallen off and when that happened he went back to his hammer and brought it down on the chunk causing it to break into much smaller pieces.

He went back to the ax and that was how he continued his work from then on, no other slave said anything but some had stopped to watch before turning back to their own work. He didn't care what they thought, he was told to get something done and as long as he did it no one should be too upset with him. He felt someone's eyes on his back and then heard a loud chuckle as two of the owners spoke to each other and then someone else was watching him, he wasn't sure if they liked it or not but Sin wouldn't stop until he felt the sting of a whip on his back.

It turned out time was running because a loud bell rang through the mine and all the workers stopped what they were doing and headed for the exit of the mine. Sin reluctantly followed their lead setting down his tools next to each other and headed out the mine, he hissed and had to blink several times to get his eyes accustomed to the brightness when he had stepped into the sun. When he was able to look around he saw the clear area they had been in now had a large table that held three large pots on them and the people were lined off in front of them waiting on the women that held large spoons to serve them.

Sin went over to a container where three different sized bowls were waiting and picked them up joining the line. The line moved slowly and when he reached the front he held out his bowl to the women, the large one was filled with broth, the second some vegetables and the last one was filled with water. He found a place to sit that was a little ways from the other slaves and around him was quiet as he dug into his food.

That quiet soon came to an end when he heard footsteps approaching him and looked up to see the bear men, he scowled at them and shifted away when Fen took a seat next to him causing the bear me to sigh. He noticed that not just the men had sat with him but among them was a woman with mauve colored eyes and silvery white hair, and a piece of brown cloth that matched he close covered her hair and was holding back her long white ears.

Sin stared at the woman with interest until her eyes flickered to him before they returned to the beast man, he took it as his cue to refocus on his own meal. He sipped the broth and scowled at it, it tasted horrible and nothing like the chicken broth it was trying to imitate. It was like someone took some chicken's foot and dipped it in hot salted water before throwing it away. He decided to try the vegetables and coughed when he bit into the bitter tasting things, the only thing it had going for it was the bright color.

He found himself wishing he was back at the plantation where he could work out in the son all day and then be fed food that tasted good even though he ate the same thing for every meal. He forced himself to eat all of his food before washing the horrible taste from his mouth with water, he got up and returned his dishes. The bell rang and he and every other slave headed back into the mine, he reclaimed his tools and got back to work.

*

The woman kept her eye on Sin until he got up and went back to the mine, she and the bear men followed in after him and she reclaimed her basket to start packing it with stones as she followed the bear man around. "Are you sure that it was safe to speak in front of the child Fen?" The beast man simply nodded and she hummed "is it true that he can't understand what we say?" she received another nod and sighed "it's just hard to believe, just like how I find it hard to believe he is as young as you think."

Fen nodded and swung his pickax against the stone "it was as hard for me to believe as it was for you. The first time I saw the child I just thought he was descended of a smaller beast and yes he did look young. But I thought him to be sixteen or seventeen but when I spoke to the other slaves that had been around him they confirmed that he was at least six years younger. They knew because they heard the slave masters talking about him on many occasions and his age was always their main topic."

The woman hummed "okay but if he is at least ten years old why wouldn't he be able to understand us when we speak, why would you so easily believe that?" She asked quietly and glanced around to make sure none of the slave masters were watching them.

"I know because I spent a lot of time observing the child and I'll tell you he isn't a fan of people staring at him. But my first clue was the first time we had been put to work together and I tried to speak to him. Bad Idea, he had shot up and turned around to growl at me even giving me a nasty look that intensified as I spoke to him. When I had finished talking he simply turned his back to me and continued his work and ignored me completely after that.

"The Second time I became suspicious was when we were about to go to the docks and the slave masters were picking who they would send. The child kept looking at everyone and something shone in his eyes before he was point to and he stepped forward. When I was finally able to confirm my suspicion was when we were at the docks, we were put to work together and instead of listening to what we were told he kept looking at me to see what I would do and was always one step behind in whatever I did for the rest of the day."

"I pity this child, to be both a slave and illiterate is a crime on itself, I'm actually surprised that a master hasn't beaten him to death by now."

The bear man shook his head "To be honest him being illiterate is the only reason I was able to get to you." The woman stopped picking up the chunks of rock and looked at him with a tilted head " That is right, if the child was smart it would have taken longer for me to get to you. The slave masters had called for the slaves to line up for some reason, but the child was nowhere to be seen, so the master called over and over until the child came bolting around barn and by then the master was angry."

"He whipped the child twice and asked him what he was doing but he couldn't answer the question for he did not understand it, so the master got angrier and started beating the child mercilessly and I stepped in, we were both severely whipped because of that and then next day we were sent on a carriage to the mines." The woman's eyes widened and the bear man nodded causing her to sigh,

"And for that reason we need to take him with us when we leave. I must pay him back for what we owe him and also because it makes me uncomfortable to see a child living in these conditions. A child should always be free to run and play no matter how they look or where they came from and even though he is scarred I'm sure if someone teaches him he can find happiness, after all there is so much more for him to learn."

The woman nodded in agreement and returned to her work the bear man following suit.

*

Sin was completely unaware of the conversation that went on just a few feet away from him as he focused on his work. He decided it would be best to let his boulders build up before he smashed them, so three boulders stood in wait behind him as he repeated brought the pickax down on the wall to get another one. A male that had a hammer moved to crush one of his boulders but Sin picked up on this and swished his head around so he could stare daggers into the man's soul and scare him off.

He was able to make a fourth bolder and set it aside and when he swung his ax again it hit the wall and made a weird sound that it hasn't made before. So he swung again and the sound echoed through the mine drawing the attention of the other slaves and some of the master. One of them rushed over to where Sin was and shoved him away from the spot as the rose up a lamp that they were carrying to the spot and saw a shine of silver.

The man cheered and the other master's rushed over to where he was and looked at what he showed them. Sin couldn't understand their excitement as he stood back and watched them, they spoke excitedly to each other and much faster than they had before causing Sin's ears to hurt. He moved away from them and picked up his hammer to smash the boulders, but when he did it took him using extra force before the boulder cracked open and fragments of silver that made the masters screech even louder and Sin stepped back covering his ears.

He bumped into someone and didn't bother looking back as he tried to keep the noise from his ears. Eventually the men stopped and a few of them went running out the mine. Sin was happy to see them go and stepped away from whoever he had bumped into so he could get back to his work.