Now what Kaelen left the scene of the thugs incident and hid under one of the giant roots, covered by the darkness, he was catching up his breath and vomiting the rest of the black goo. He collapsed in the moment he entered the shadows and no one could see him.
It wasn`t just the weakness in his body - it was guilt tangled with enjoyment.
He could fully laugh out but he didn`t feel disgust. Both murder and setting himself free were the greatest emotions he felt since his parents died.
The feelings tumbled in his stomach but he had to fill it with new, clean and tasty food. His fingers reached into the bag and pulled out the first thing he could find, stuffing his face with it as fast as possible.
And it was pure bliss.
"Oh my god" he wheezed through the food "This is so good"
Pure, white, un-rotted and soft bread.
Other feelings went away with the hunger. Just the good taste. Beautiful, clean taste.
weak
The black feather kept nagging him about it, and his body was screaming that too.
"Can you just let me enjoy this" Kaelen didn`t care. Stomach pains, loss of balance, collapsing on the floor - didn`t matter. He just had a proper meal, first in days.
WEAK
The voice continued also not caring about his feelings, only scolding him for an unknown reason.
"FINE FINE!" He packed the rest of the bread into the bag he just stole and got up with shaking legs, holding the root with both hands and standing up very very slowly.
"Lets just...get stronger I guess"
Goood
The dark feather inside him stopped and calmed down. But now Kaelen was the one with unstable thoughts
Now how the fuck do I do that
-----------------
High above the swamps, slaves were coming back onto the platform, where their hard work was taken from them in exchange for pity coins. Which of course - the Overseer was about to take from them as he sat on the chair.
The slaves made a proper queue once again, coins left their pockets and one by one they went home hungry. The slavers laughed and drunk while they left, even more if any of them collapsed on the ground, just so that they can pick him up and push him out of their drinking zone.
The Overseer on his chair was patiently collecting his part, but he wasn`t as joyful as yesterday. The thought of Kaelen was still at the back of his head.
Once the whole line moved and he stashed the pocket change into his massive collection of coins, he grunted and left the chair, just so he can get closer to his thugs.
"Oy, Tessen"
The slaver, Tessen, and the manager around here, spit out his drink and instantly stood up
"YES SIR"
"Where`s Kaelen?"
"umm...who?" He tilted his neck and blinked heavily in confusion.
"One of the slaves. The one who was supposed to be hanging down there for the night"
pointing at the void underneath the platform.
"Oh him! .. yea, he jumped. Didn`t even leave the bench behind"
"What" The Overseer`s brow lowered and pupils narrowed
"Yea, you know. They do that. Why work when they can splat" Tessen gesticulated the drop and ground hit.
"Where" The fat fingers pulled his neck with unnatural speed and took it to the edge of the platform "Where was he"
"Okey OKEY! put me down!!!" And when the grip tightened instead of releasing, he looked down for the spot and "....there, the single rope, that`s where we left him and that`s where he wasn`t in the morning".
"Did you check? Did you find the body?!"
"Check what?!? The boy did the only thing he could - jumped. What else could he have done"
"THERE`S A FUCKING WHOLE IN THE TREE. HOW ARE YOU THIS DUMB" The Overseer threw his face onto the floor and pointed to the Tree - there was just a very small, dark opening in the bark. It looked like a tiny splinted was missing from a kilometer wide board.
"AND????"
"Oh. MY. GOD" The fat man stood up and took out his blinking accessory "Why did I hire idiots for this" With a flick of his wrist, the slaver was pulled up and thrown onto the Tree.
"DO YOU KNOW" each word pressed the man into the bark "WHY ARE THE SLAVES DIGGING THE FUCKING TREE??"
"I ... I don`t....know...boss" He just had a tiny airway in his throat, just enough to talk
"wood? ... bark?"
"LOOK AROUND YOU. THERE`S SO MUCH WOOD HERE, WE CAN FUCKING DROWN IN IT"
Another flick of the hand and Tessen was back on the ground
"The slaves are searching for something. I don`t care about wood, I care that they dig"
The remaining slavers stood up and lined up in front of him, waiting for the same fate and hoping to avoid it , while the oldest one tried to get up from the ground.
The Overseer pulled out his pipe and started smoking it, eating pocket jerky and drank a whole water skin of water. Angry, but calm, he got back to the rest.
"All of you. Get in that hole and report to my house what`s inside. YOU" snapping back to Tessen "Move your ass up"
"Yess.....sir" He barely made it up and had to walk behind the fat man already
"We got a slave to find" Overseers two white feathers were glowing brightly on his wrists, ready to be used. "And you better fucking pray his dead or you`ll be"
The fat man made his steps way from them and all of the slavers trembled even more than the floorboards beneath him.