I groan opening my eyes slowly, I see I'm lying on a makeshift moss bed with a cloth covering me, I look around to spot the lady from the auction talking to a man with light orange hair and a mustache like a goat, he is wearing adventurers's attire and so is the lady, there is an older man as well of orc lineage braaing some, meat? He is wearing black pants with no shirt on and is covered in battle scars as well as tattoos. My stomach growled at the smell of the meat, the lady turned to face me and saw that I was awake.
"Ah, sleeping beauty has awoken" she remakred sarcastically. I blinked at her scrunching up my eyebrows and looked around. She stood up and walked over to me, placing her hand on my forehead.
"She'll live, though I wonder how, she is so malnourished she should've been dead" the woman remarked frowning slightly
"Maybe she has a strong will to live" the goat man replied lazily. The orc looked up and smirked.
"Impressive if you ask me, come here and eat uhhh, whats your name?" He asked. I took a minute to respond, whispering.
"I do not have a name, master used to call me Runtelina" I answer them. They all looked at me with a mixture of pity, anger and eh, I can't point out the last emotion.
"Well kid, Runtelina isn't really a name now is it? To be quite frank it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, why not give you a name now let's see" the goat man put on what I like to believe is a thinking expression.
"Why don't we also introduce ourselves before you go on trying to name another" the orc said shaking his head. The goat man laughed "truly so old chum, I got carried away..so kid my name is Erwin"
"They call me, Riker" the orc introduced himself. "My name is Catherine " the lady introduced herself. I nod my head slowly.
"So I'm your slave now?" I ask tilting my head, I then put myself in a kneeling position, "masters" I bow. They seem friendly so yeah, I think I'll have a very much better life with these masters.
"Wow wow wow, kid stand up and stop bowing we aren't your masters, that's why we saved you" the la..lady Catherine looked at me like I was nuts. I frown, are they abandoning me already? I kneeled down further groveling "please tell me what I did wrong young mistress and I'll correct it, you can even puni....."
"ENOUGH!!" The or...master Riker roared. I quickly shut up not as to anger him further. "You do not surve us nor do we own you understand Runtelina?". I nod slowly not quite understanding, so I'm free? But I don't know how to be free. Maybe my thoughts conveyed to my face because ma...umm I mean E..Erwin pointed it out.
"Yo guys I dont think she knows how to be free" Erwin's eyes widened in disbelief, "how long have you been a slave?" He asked.
"Master said I turned nighteen when he whipped me a moon ago " I answered. They grew quiet staring at me in shock, eh?
"You look fourteen??!!" Catherine said in disbelief looking at my state. Damn, so I do look like a child, well it goes to figure, I havent even bled yet to sure my maturity, madame always asked me, I don't know why.
" So to say you've been a slave your whole life?" The or.....urr Riker asked. I nod an affirmation.
"How unfortunate" Erwin shook his head, "well Runtelina wanna join our party?" Erwin asked. I look at him slightly surprised he just quickly recovered like that.
"No way, how will we feed her? What if she dies out there I'm not going to protect a defenseless nobody all the time" Catherine said quite displeased by me joining their party. They bothe looked at the orc who looked at me.
"What can you do?" He asked me. "Your worth and contribution determine your stay in this party, Erwin is good with arrows, Catherine is wonderful with a sword and I handle a mace and shield, so what about you? Any magic? Do you know how to cook? Wash clothes? Can you read?". I shake my head. All of them unfortunately.
"See, she's extra baggage" Catherine SD crossing her arms over her chest. "We can't blame the kid, she's been in a cage her whole life" Erwin rolled his eyes.
"Then we teach her, she may become quite useful" Riker said as a finality. Erwin punched his fist in the air which made me flinch whilst Catherine rolled her eyes, "sorry" Erwin apologized having seen me flinch.
"Thank you for having me" I bow. Wow, I'm finally free and they're teaching me? Wonderful.
2 weeks later
"Rayel, come here and wash these for me" Catherine called out holding a bunch of clothing.
"Can you make me some food too, thanks doll" Erwin called out from another room.
"Yes ofcourse" I run outside and dropped off Catherine's clothes by the wash basins, I ran to the kitchen to make Erwin a sandwich, I ran to his room leaving it on the floor, I knocked to indicate he's food is here, I ran back outside to wash Catherine's clothes.
So far I haven't been subjected to punishment so that is good and my share from our expeditions is always 1 piece of gold and 5 silver shillings. That's so much money, I've never held so much in my life. When I'm done washing Catherine's clothes I run to my tent behind the base and also take my clothes, 2 dresses, 3 trousers, 3 shirts and one pair of boots, I run to the washing buckets and begin washing my clothing too, I can't afford soap for clothing yet so I use flower and sand to wash off stubborn stains, sometimes I use water from the other's laundry since it will still have suds from the previous washing. Once I hang my clothing I walk back into the base to cook dinner.
"I'm back" Riker announced a boar on his shoulder, he also has a tent outside, he said something about living in the cabin being too soft for his liking, I have to agree the lavishness in the cabin is quite uncomfortable.
"About time, we have a job" Catherine announced as she sat down on one of the chairs. Erwin also joines us sitting beside Catherine, Riker sets down the boar beside him on the floor.
"What is the job?" I set three cups of water Infront of them and stand behind the scenes. I don't like attention if I'm honest, nothing good ever comes with it, I sigh.
"Our client wants us to kill a certain minister in the Flogan district north of Rhonia" Catherine said bored.
"Does it say why we need to kill him?" Riker asked, "what if it's dangerous, we need to know what we're facing". Catherine shrugged "he didn't say, something about it being confidential but he does want a clean kill, no evidence". How odd, I thought to myself but I didn't voice out my concerns.
"Well, we can just find out for ourselves, we're quite strong you guys" Erwin grinned as he popped in a toothpick between he's teeth.
"What do you think of this mission, Rayel?" Erwin looked at me. Ah, they had decided to name me Rayel, saying Runtelina was just too bitter in their mouths, it took me days to be used to that name.
"I have no say, I'm not a skilled veteran like you all, my opinions may prove foolish" I look down quietening down. Catherine shook her head before saying "you should grow a spine Rayel, keep your head down and you will be chained by the ground itself or bosses around by society ".
"Yes, I'll work on that"
"Very well, we'll investigate this job and see if it fits in with our skills, we can't go blindly now can we?, Erwin take Rayel with you and train her in finding information as well as introducing her to Yreka" Riker stood up, "Catherine, go back to the client and try to squeeze out something, if we don't have information by the end of two days, we drop the job are we clear?".
"Yes boss" Erwin responded.
"Yes sir" Catherine also chimmed in.
"Yes, I shall dl my best sir" I nod.
"Good, now Catherine you're cooking, teach Rayel how to do so as well, she can't be knowing how to boil water and make tea only" Riker said with finality picking up the boar and going outside with it, maybe to skin it? I've seen him do that.