We had been living peacefully, just the three of us, within a small town in Bakeno Kingdom. I hailed from the race of werewolves that had apparently existed long ago. I had gotten married to Rosa, who was from a different tribe, several years earlier and we had our first child after many failed attempts. She was a beautiful baby girl born in winter, so we decided to call her Yuki. She had beautiful, white skin and looked fragile. With short orange hair, she resembled both her mother and myself; I was overjoyed at the birth of my daughter. I promised that I would protect her no matter what.

As she grew older, we went on monthly vacations to the eastern edge of the Kingdom. The Plain Rise was a beautiful mountain range that stretched through the Bakeno Kingdom, and there was a flat surface on top to enjoy the surrounding view. Most beastmen like us enjoyed going to this mountain range, however, there were some humans that were suspiciously on the mountain range. It was not unusual for different races to visit this spot, it was a rather popular tourist spot, but this group of humans smelled so strongly of evil that it didn’t take much to notice it if you were a beastmen. But I decided to leave them alone, after all, they were on a different kingdom’s land and trying to do anything suspicious would lead to tenser relations than there already were.

There had been rumors of people disappearing near these mountains. As such, I decided to go up to them and ask them what their deal was, constantly being on the mountain for the past few months. I saw that they were rather large horizontally and short vertically. Would the humans consider them nobles? I did not know much about the human race and their traditions.

“What are ya guys doin’ on these mountains?”

“Nothing much young man, just… observing” *laughs*

I thought this was extremely suspicious, but I had no proof and I couldn’t just throw them out of a place that they had paid to come in. That evening, when my family was heading home, we were ambushed from the woods. They somehow managed to catch a beastmen off guard in his own territory, this shouldn’t have been possible. Taking into account our superior ability to sense things in the wild, I thought it would have been impossible to surprise beastmen. Immediately afterwards, I tried my hardest to fight back, but these cowards had hired mercenaries and I stood no chance against a group, even if they were human. We were captured, chained, and enslaved; our lives had changed in an instant.

We were brought back to the human kingdom, Raksha, and put in cellars. I was devastated and demoralized, but I appeared strong for more family. I experienced pain and torture that I had never experienced before in that dark, damp place, chained by metal on the cold, hard ground. I learned that we were now slaves to be sold to human noble trash that would use us however they wished, there was not even a guarantee we would stay together after we were bought. Everyday, I saw human trash walk in through those forsaken metal doors at the end of the hallway and leave the same way after purchasing a slave. They all had lascivious expressions on their faces that disgusted me; I hid my daughter in those moments. There was a lot of groaning, moaning, and screaming from all around me and I was slowly losing grip on my mind. I held on to my sanity as much as I could for the sake of my family, and just as I was about to break, I learned that we had a buyer.

The buyer had purchased the whole family and promised that we would stay together. I was happy for some reason, perhaps because I believed that I would be able to go back to my normal family life. As we left the cellar, I realized how decrepit the environment was and how bad my daughter looked. She was on the verge of fainting at any given moment due to malnutrition. I hoped that we would get to our destination so my family would be treated well. As we boarded the wagon and left the cellar, I was relieved. Our little trip lasted a few days and at last, we made it to a long train of wagons - I had a very bad feeling about this, and as it turns out, I was right.

We had been transported to a long chain of wagons that were going to one of three hellish places - there was no place suitable for a child to go. I was separated from my daughter, which worried me to a great degree, but I took comfort in the fact that they wouldn’t kill goods they bought.

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Several days passed with nothing significant occurring, and I woke to another day, starved and on the edge of death. But I still had hope for whatever future was left before me. On that day, I had heard my wife argue with a guard - her voice was recognizable anywhere. It escalated so quickly that I could not comprehend what was happening, and then, I heard her scream louder than she had ever screamed. I knew something had gone wrong and heard a thud immediately after. I was terrified at what had just happened, I didn’t know how to react. On the remainder of the journey, I continued to mourn for my loss, the only consolation being that my wife would be unloaded at the same place as me - the mines.

Afterward, I bottled up my feelings and buried it at the back of my head so that I could support my wife during this time. Rosa gradually recovered, but there were still moments when she would wake up from a bad nightmare or start crying in the middle of work. From time to time, I still thought about what had happened in the wagon, but I never let it consume my mind until the day I saw a child come up to talk to me. Something overtook me and I was infuriated that this boy was alive, but my daughter had been ruthlessly murdered. I took my anger out on him and Rosa thoroughly scolded me for it. He then dared to blame me for the duel and I took offense in that comment. Perhaps I had gotten too sensitive due to bottling up my feelings, but I could not face it until everything had settled down.

Rosa calmed me down once again and we talked for a bit after the incident with the boy. She told me it was okay to take a breather and let out my feelings in front of her.

“I’m your wife, OKAY! We go through life together and no matter what happens, we will have EACH OTHER to lean on. Since you shouldered the burden for me first, it’s now my turn to comfort you”

The tears flowed out so easily, I did not know how I held it all in from the start. We cried while talking about various things. She said she wanted to take care of Sol, at least until they were able to get out of here. If they were not able to escape, then she wanted to take care of Sol like he was our son for the rest of our remaining time. Perhaps she had a hole in her heart that she wanted to fill. I was okay with this as long as she was mentally and emotionally stable.

“If we ever get out, the first thing we’ll do is to make sure Yuki has a proper burial and pray that she has a blessed afterlife” *whisper in ear* “And if we ever make it out alive, we can try for another one, only after we grieve for and come to term with the loss of Yuki”

I nodded at this and internally promised to my wife and daughter that I would continue to protect them with all my strength - until my dying breath.

Afterwards, I made up with Sol with the encouragement of Rosa and we were now asleep next to me - Rosa having fallen asleep with her hand in Sol’s hair. Even though he was still very young, no more than eight years old, he was rather mature for his age; he was able to reason logically and understand the environment. Perhaps it was due to his parents or environment, but he would have a bountiful future if we were able to get out of this place. Perhaps I would teach him in secret while he was still young.

As I lay there, staring at the ceiling with the sound of water dripping down, I thought back to the time in the wagon. It was ignorant of me to think that everything in the wagons would go smoothly. They had purchased that many slaves accounting for the fact that a few would die along the way; one of them just had to be my daughter. As I fell asleep, I promised to get my revenge on them in any way possible.