I opened my eyes to the damp mine and realized where I was. I fell asleep so comfortably last night that I thought everything that had happened up until now had been a nightmare and would find myself in a warm, feather bed in a town far away. I was disappointed, but at the same time, I was glad for the first time in a long time, to wake up next to human warmth. I got up from the cold, hard rocks that made the mine and realized Nor and Rosa had already gotten up.

I looked around and saw that some people were still asleep. Labor started whenever the guards rang the bell that echoed loudly throughout the mines. Apparently, it had not rung yet so I had some downtime. I contemplated going back to sleep but decided against it because I had already woken up and it was uncomfortably cold on the ground.

After getting up, I realized how much I had adapted to my new life in the mines. No longer did I look at halves weirdly, instead I simply saw them as other laborers - the same as me. I still did not know what they were actually called, so I decided to ask Nor or Rosa later. As I was thinking about this, I saw a guard heading in this direction and was fearful of what he would do to me.

“You’re the group leader, correct?”

“Y, yes…”

“... THAT’D BE YESSIR!” *smack*

“Y, yessir”

I was caught slightly off-guard, but I expected nothing less from a guard that oversaw the mines. I couldn’t do anything against him at the moment so I decided to stay quiet. My face stung.

“You are to give reports about your activity and progress every day starting tomorrow. You hear me?!”

“Yessir!”

I saw Rosa and Nor walking over here, so I decided to get this over with quickly. I didn’t know about Nor, but I knew Rosa would do something when she saw the mark on my face and I didn’t want to cause a commotion against the guard. The guard thankfully left after he heard my reply and headed towards one of the other appointed leaders in group B. I walked towards Rosa as the guard walked in the other direction. I knew my assumption had been right when I saw Rosa running towards me.

“What’d he do to your face!?”

She held my face in her calloused hands as I internally sighed in relief, thankful that the guard had already disappeared.

“It’s nothing, it was my fault anyway”

“I should go beat the shit out of that bastard” *growl*

She was clearly ready to let all hell break loose, but Nor held her back - it was weird to see Nor be the one to restrain Rosa. If the guard had still been here, who knows what consequences she would have faced for striking a superior. She calmed down after a few moments and proceeded to treat my face with the little bit of water and cloth she had. I thought to myself, I would have to thank her for all she had done for me in the short time we had been together.

The bell rang, and before I left for my own small group, I gave Rosa a light hug and thanked her before running towards my section of the mine. As I looked back, I saw a hint of sadness in Nor’s eyes before it vanished as quickly as it appeared. I convinced myself that I was going insane from being trapped in a mine for so long. I wanted to escape one day, but I did not know how I was going to accomplish such a feat. Perhaps I would ask Nor to train me during the time we would usually be asleep. As I pondered this ridiculous idea, I walked towards where Sho and a few others were waiting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months. Time flew by before I knew it and there were tens of marks on the wall of the cave that indicated each passing day. Today was nearly day 100. Perhaps it had already passed since no one remembered the number of days that had passed in the wagon and at the beginning of our enslavement. Life was still tedious in the mines, but I had gotten mostly comfortable with this lifestyle - more than I previously thought. The only thing that kept me shackled in reality was that people still constantly died from all sorts of causes - diseases, malnutrition, whipping, and cave-ins to name a few. We recently learned that beasts were lurking in the deepest parts of the cave, and a few have succumbed to those beasts due to their ignorance.

The guards still constantly harassed us when giving reports or whenever they felt the urge to. This angered me to no end, but there was still nothing that a slave like me could do anything against them… yet. It was not just the occasional abuse anymore, it happened on a more consistent basis and it started to annoy me with each passing day. The guards no longer gave two shits about us, and instead, they exercised their power to the fullest extent. There were shorter breaks, larger quotas, and stricter rules that needed to be followed. All we were compensated was the same measly, rotted food that was delivered during the break. The slightest evidence of mistake led to a beating and there was no way out of it.

From my group alone, 5 people - both beastmen and humans - had died and were simply dragged off to a place far worse than here. They were replaced by a constant inflow of new slaves. It did not matter if you died tomorrow or survived one more day, you would eventually be replaced and forgotten for the rest of eternity. It was a dark thought that I had been having more often as of late. For the majority of the time, Rosa and Nor were the ones who have helped me through each passing day so far. Of course, others would provide help when they could, but Rosa and Nor were the only ones who thought of me almost like their own child.

The bell rang, and it was time for a short break. I ran over to find Rosa and Nor and saw them drenched in sweat, walking towards the break area. During the past few months, the men had worked on widening the space within the room to allow for better ventilation and space. The room was noticeably bigger and there was more space to sit down. During this time, I noticed myself quickly picking up Nor’s habits as I worked alongside him. From time to time, Sho would also join us for a quick meal because we were in the same small group. While we ate and talked, Rosa constantly checked up on me as she always did, worried that I may get injured and die as many others had.

Time quickly passed and the break was over. I left to go back to the mines with Sho while waving at Rosa and Nor who were headed out towards their sections once again. Another day passed and during the daily reports, I found that a few more were dead and a lot more injured. The guard obviously did not care for the numbers because they only thought of us as property. Those that were killed did not affect me much because they were not a part of my immediate group, however, it was clear that those who had known the dead slaves were mourning with a grim look on each of their faces.

I observed each of the other conjurers during the reports, and it was easy to see that they had gone through the same, if not worse, distress as me. They all had deep gashes from whipping and beatings from the guards who, more likely than not, thought themselves so much more superior than all the slaves in the mines combined. However, one aspect was different today. The only other human leader - a young girl with long, dark blue hair and with bangs that covered her eyes - opened her mouth for the first time. All the other times, she communicated using her hands whenever she was asked a question as they were all numerical answers. She obviously had gotten beaten at the beginning because the guards had thought that she was being defiant, however, they quickly got bored and began to beat her less; even then, she had hardly made a sound.

*whisper* “Can I… leave now?”