I didn't sleep much at all. My mind was too obsessed with categorizing and analyzing every single sound around me to allow my mind to drift off into the inactive state that was required for my body to lose consciousness. Every time there was a crack or creak my ears dissected the noise for every detail they could find, from the location to the cause, to the material involved, and beyond. I ended up laying, eyes closed, with my heads-up display open and watching the purple bar slowly tick down, then back up sometimes, then down again as I tried and failed to rest properly.

It was almost a relief when Mpahray, the regular guard, came down to bring me the early morning meal that he usually brought before I awoke. No wait, that's not just one set of footsteps, I thought groggily, there are two of them today. Not wanting to give them any indication that something might be up, I quickly arranged my body into a position that both looked like I was sleeping but also would allow me to spring forward with explosive momentum at a moment's notice. The pair of footsteps rounded the corner and approached my cell, and then a banging rang out from metal on metal.

“Wake up savage!” Mpahray yelled, “you're going to be fed and tvaoljh before we sell you off this afternoon.” I cracked one eye open just enough to see the cell door, and spotted him standing beside another, slightly smaller, human in a guard uniform. The smaller human was carrying a leather bag with something inside it that was most likely food. I can probably take two of them, I thought, but it's going to make getting out more difficult. I laid perfectly still on the ground, closing my eye again and going back to my false sleep. “Okay,” Mpahray said with a hint of mocking laughter, “you want to sleep? I'm coming in to wake you up then.”

The cell door's lock twisted and I heard the bolt move. The hinge creaked as the door opened slowly. Thumping began in my ears as I waited for exactly the right moment. Footsteps proceeded towards me slowly, and I heard the soft leather-on-metal sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath. Just two more steps, I thought while I began tensing up my legs so I could kick off of the back wall, two more steps and you'll be in range. Another soft step touched the ground, then one more, and I sprang into action.

Snapping my eyes open and taking in the scene rapidly, I kicked off of the stone back wall of the cell and launched myself towards Mpahray. Before he could even react I had spear tackled him to the ground, and he only got a short yell out before my fist connected with his chin. I aimed directly for the spot most likely to cause an immediate lack of consciousness, and apparently I hit it because his body went limp after the blow and collapsed into a heap. The sound of something soft and heavy hitting the ground came from behind me, prompting me to snatch the sword out of Mpahray's hand and spin around into a blocking position.

The screech of metal on metal assaulted my ears as the second guard's sword clashed against mine. I had expected a stronger impact, but my enemy's weapon almost reflected off of my own from how stiffly I was holding it. The guard yipped in surprise and bounced back, nullifying their momentum with swift footwork. I rose to my feet and threw out a horizontal strike at neck level, my blade careening into the guard's sword which had moved to block me at the last moment. Sparks flew, and my enemy recoiled from the force of my blow.

Seeing an opportunity to attack their now disrupted stance, my foot lashed out and struck their knee, snapping it backwards with a grisly crunch. The guard cried out in a high-pitched voice and collapsed to the ground, dropping their sword and cradling their knee even as it slowly attempted to re-set itself back into place. There won't be any of that, I thought as I flipped the sword I was holding around into an underhand grip and stabbed it down, shoving the blade through the guard's hands, reversed knee, and into the thin dirt below. The guard's screaming was intolerable, so I grabbed their head and turned it quickly, breaking their neck in one swift motion. The screams stopped, though somehow their body still drew shallow breaths despite their injury.

I picked up the free sword and looked around, searching the bag for a moment before deciding it was better to try to escape with the contents. Inside the bag was a large amount of jerky, probably made from the same meat that the village had been smoking, and it looked to be fresh. Throwing the bag over my shoulder I rushed out of the cell and up the stairs, opening the trapdoor swiftly but as silently as possible. The sunlight blinded me temporarily as my eyes adjusted to it, which proved to be my failure point.

“Dowm him,” a voice commanded, and I had just enough time to recognize the situation I was in to duck. Whistling sounds flew over my head, and something sharp scraped my arm. My eyes cleared, and I could see that I was surrounded by five more guards in similar uniforms to the ones worn by the two I had just subdued. Two of the guards were wielding spears like the one the hunter had been carrying, and three more were holding pipe-like objects. The spearmen advanced in at me while the blowgunners fumbled to insert more darts into their weapons. This isn't good, I thought, frantically searching for an opening.

A soft impact on my chest drew my eyes, and I saw I had a clump of feathers sticking out of me. Not again damn it, I thought, I should have known they would have guards outside on the sale day. The electrical shock I was expecting never came, and instead I pulled the dart out of my chest, seeing the small droplets of blood on it along with something bluish. If it's poison, how does it work on me? I wondered, none of the living parts of my body should be connected to my brain. I had enough time and sense to drop the bag and the sword and kneel down before the poison hit me, laying me low once again.

“You npoyt,” Mpahray hissed in my ear, “do you know how much those jhawpm cost to make?” I felt a slap across my face and my eyes opened to a spinning room. I'm not in the cell at least, I thought in a haze, judging my location to be some sort of barn. I was inside a wooden structure, chained to an X-shaped wooden construct, and surrounded by animal pens and hay. “And you terrified Dayvao with your little escape, dao has been hiding in the ngaapeytz for hours and refuses to come out.” he continued with another slap for emphasis.

“I'd be happy to terrify you too,” I slurred, “take these chains off and we can have a real deathmatch. Unless you’re too scared. You aren’t, are you?” For that, someone out of my range of vision grabbed my face and squeezed, forcing my jaw open. Mpahray pulled out some jerky and shoved it into my mouth, then covered my lips and forced me to eat it. This tastes pretty good, I thought, it's funny that he thinks he has to force me to eat. I felt a sharp stabbing in my side and glanced down to see that Mpahray had stabbed me in a spot that, were it not for their miraculous healing ability, would most certainly have caused a human to bleed to death from liver damage.

“That one is for Dayvao,” he spat. The knife withdrew and the sting of healing began, then the knife plunged between my legs and a new pain sprung up. My body inhaled in reflex, tensing up from the injury automatically. “This one is from me,” Mpahray smiled, “now you be a good little savage and eat up so you're well by the time the caravan gets here. Our leaders are expecting you to fetch a high price.” The knife twisted from side to side as Mpahray tried to get a reaction from me. I simply stared at him, ignoring the sensations, then smiled. He withdrew the knife and muttered something unintelligible, then left the barn. A man walked around from behind me into my field of vision with a bucket of water, holding it to my mouth so that I could drink.

Well this is just great, I thought to myself as I was tugged along. Four new manacles like the one that had been bound to my leg in the prison cell were now fitted to each of my limbs, and so tightly that they were cutting into my skin. The man in front of me, who had not spoken a word after Mpahray left, was the one who shackled me and tied me up with chains. Upon hearing the sound of a bell from somewhere nearer to the center of the village, he had untied me and began leading me out of the barn. As I walked through the village in daytime, blonde villagers with red eyes stopped to stare at me with mixed expressions. Some of them closed their window shutters as I passed by, while others laughed or mocked me.

We reached the rough center of the village, which was a clearing with a boulder in the center of it, and I saw the caravan I was to be sold to. Four covered wagons had been pulled into town by animals that I could only think of as a cross between a rhinoceros and an alligator with brown scales. Tall as a horse and twice as wide, they milled around with their strangely wide gait near the wagons, sometimes using their single large nose-horn to dig up the ground. There is no way those aren't genetically modified, I thought before the man leading me tugged my chains, breaking my train of thought. I gave him a piercing look, and he gave one back to me, then we kept walking.

“I still do not believe you,” I heard someone say in the distance, “their people have been oytzmoydhtm or hiding for zhahlayihdeylb. There is no way you managed to stumble upon one breaking into your village for food. On the mainland I would think otherwise, but Awsriyah is small enough that it is impossible that they still live here.”

“One of our boys, Mihvay, talked to him,” another human said in a more gruff voice. “He didn't even know any Uwrish at the start, but he picked it up quickly. He said he was lost and hungry and that's why he came to the village. It was pure chance that we managed to jhawpm him and get him into a cell before he awoke.” So jhawpm must be their word for using a dart, I thought as I realized the conversation was about me, the darts are expensive? Why? Could the poison that they're using be rare?

“Ah yes,” the first voice replied, “well so long as you make good on your end of the deal I see no reason to tell anyone about how you captured him. Do not worry about that.” The man leading me pathed between the wagons, leading me through the center of them and out the other side.

I emerged to a scene of two humans talking to one another. One was dressed in a very complex garb of beige robes which were clipped to various points along some darker brown undergarments. The robed human also wore a single piece of leather which had been shaped into a four-pointed hat upon his head, and had a bushy but short beard on his face. The other human wore a more simple garb which resembled a tunic, with flowing cloth from their waist covering the legs and stopping just above the ground. Around the two of them were four more armed guards who were equipped with basic plate mail armor on their chests and upper legs, with hardened leather along the rest of their limbs and simple iron helms for their heads.

“Here he is,” the man leading me said in a croaking voice, “been pretty terawnayihmoyr since we fed him. Might have just been hungry.” The two humans, one who was the merchant and one who was likely the leader of the village, simply gawked at him. The robed man then turned to me and, after a brief moment of shock, smiled and his hands together.

“Incredible,” he said, “I'll take him.”