Remember, the option with the most votes out of both polls will be chosen. If there are 8 votes in option 1 on this chapter and 8 votes on option 1 on 16-2 then I'll either wait until one of them has more votes, or use a random number generator to decide.

Something inside my mind tugs me to follow the old man, so I turn back around and run up to his legs. He pats me on the head.

"That's good, Boris. Now, let's go home."

He says as he turns around while taking my hand. I hear the woman click her tongue as we walk down the street. Should I say something…? Eh, I'll just let him take me to wherever he's taking me. We walk through various streets and alleys for at least ten minutes before we arrive in an area secluded from the main street. Up ahead is an old-looking building with broken windows and part of the roof missing.

"You did well to get away from your master. You'll be safe here."

Inside the building, there are seven other children with metal chokers on their necks a few years older than me and one of them is a girl. The person appears to be a young woman who also wears a metal choker on her neck.

"Mister Black! You brought someone new?"

A few of the kids gather around me.

"Yes, I just found him. Luckily it was before the Slavehoarders came."

I knit my eyebrows. Slavehoarders…?

"Umm…"

"So what's your name?"

"Durrendal. So wh—"

"I'm Evan, nice to meet you!"

"I'm Henry!"

"And I'm Brendan!"

"Yeah, nice to meet you. So what—"

"You can call me Mister Black. Let me know if you need anything."

Damn! Stop interrupting me!

"Shut up for one second!"

The smiles disappear from their faces as they stare blankly at me.

"What are Slavehoarders?"

My question is met with silence for several seconds.

"You don't know…?"

Evan asks.

"So you weren’t sold from the official slave market?"

Mister Black asks. I shake my head.

"No… I was sold by two guys wearing black hooded clothes."

His eyes widen.

"Do you know if one of them wore an emerald earring on his left ear?"

I raise my eyebrows as I recall one of them wore an earring as he describes.

"Do you know them?!"

"Yes… They're brothers called Grims and Broggy. The one with the earring is Grims. They're both wanted criminals with a bounty sum of 100 gold pieces."

"Do you know where I can find them?!"

"I have an idea where to start looking but… why do you want to know?"

"They still have a friend of mine. I want to save her."

"That's very brave of you. What will you do if you find them?"

"I'll kill them, of course."

The kids around me and Mister Black laughs.

"Durrendal, you're hilarious! Are you sure you don't have a loose screw in your head? Maybe you hit your head on something when you ran away?"

"Wait a minute Evan… Now that I have a closer look, he doesn't look injured despite having so much blood on him…"

Henry comments.

Oh, I forgot about that… I look down on my shirt, noticing random stains of blood on it. I look around my right hand and see the same thing. There's probably some on my face too. I was too excited and forgot to clean the blood off… Oops…

"Durrendal, whose blood is that…?"

I smile after Henry asks.

"My former master's. I killed him."

I say while raising my clenched right fist.

"You… how…? With your bare fists? Impossible."

Mister Black says. Ah, what a pain to explain this… It'll be faster to show them.

What should I do…?

Link to poll: http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=56ff403ae4b0ac8ca23d13ca

I'll have 16-2 posted within 30 minutes.

Note that if you get a bad end in the one with the most votes then you don't reset back to the same point as you do here. Instead, you reset back to the five other options you have on that route.