Dragon rocked from side to side. He opened his eyes and then sat up. Wooden walls surrounded him. He saw several children and a handful of adults who sat away from him.

“…”

One of the children looked up at him, whilst the others averted their gazes.

“Mister, are you alright?” She asked as she stared up at him. She was a tiny little thing with golden locks and with blue eyes that were like a clear sky.

He could still feel the numbness of pain flowing through him. Blood had dried around his body, but he felt much better.

He nodded at the girl.

“Oh, yer awake?” A strange voice called out.

It was a man dressed in leathers, with two curved blades at his side. They were smaller than the average sword, though were not quite short swords. The man hopped into the wagon, which had by now stopped.

‘Arandal blades…’ Dragon thought. Blades that were commonly found in the far East. This man didn’t seem Eastern, though he could have been one from the various tribes that littered the border.

“Y’alright? Can’t be having yeh die on us.” He chuckled and then brought up the pair of rings that he had swiped from Dragon. He played with them between his fingers.

Dragon narrowed his eyes.

“Yeh look rough, what happened to yeh?” He asked as he glanced towards the injured Dragon. “Don’t often see a man covered in blood on tha road like that, not one tha’s alive anyway. Can’t help but ask questions about it, eh?”

Dragon tugged on the rope around his elbows that kept them together, and the metal manacles as well. He then went back to lay down to relax. If he were a little stronger he could probably flex through them, though without resting properly in the proper position, he couldn’t effectively recover his ki.

“Eh, alright, can’t blame yeh.” The man chuckled. “Don’t want ta talk ta slavers, eh?”

The wagon continued for some time before stopping once more. It was dark out now, the land was silent save for the critters that started to poke out into the darkness where they roamed. Several other slavers appeared and started to guide the slaves out. Dragon stood, but a slaver pushed him and then dragged him along by the rope.

He was dragged to the other slaves, all of whom were kept in a circle around a small campfire. He sat between a large man, who was gagged by a cloth, with his hands tied back behind his back, and also the small girl that had spoken to him earlier.

“Mister, we have to be quiet.” She whispered.

He nodded and glanced over to the slavers, who turned when they heard the noise.

“Oi no talking.” He pulled a whip taut and then walked over to the slaves and circled them. He whipped the gagged man, who grunted and earned another whip before the slaver walked away, grumbling to himself.

Dragon eyed up the slaves, all of whom seemed to be slightly underweight, the dead look within their eyes was evident enough. It wasn’t the first time he had seen the look.

The girl beside him seemed fine, so he assumed she was new to being a slave, or she was someone important.

He looked back towards the slavers who allowed a couple of slaves to cook. They were making some kind of stew and he noticed that several of the slavers were playing around with some of the slaves, whipping and kicking at them.

He sent out waves of killing intent towards the slavers. They began to sweat and then turned to face Dragon.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?” The slavers grabbed some spears, pausing for a moment before they slowly shambled forward. They struck dragon with the blunt end of the spear, but it cracked and then split apart. His body seemed almost like iron, but he was quickly becoming spent again.

Dragon didn’t utter a grunt, not a single sound would escape his lips. He just glared at the slavers.

“Oi, what tha hell yeh playing at?” Called the dual wielding slaver. “Ena, ena.” He smacked a slaver across the back of his head. “Ena!”

The slavers stopped at their bosses behest, who was growing red hot with rage.

Dragon’s body was covered in bruises, the last few strikes having actually harmed him. His body was leaking out blood now, his wounds aggravated his previous injuries. He fell unconscious with the glare of a banshee.