Sariel: 16th April: Kargos, The King's Road
We have been riding for quite a while now; it's quite a harrowing experience being stuck in a wagon, honestly.
Though significantly less so than back home.
At least I'm going somewhere, I suppose.
The place smells dusty, and quite often I find myself having to stifle a sneeze to stop the merchant escort from catching on.
I think this was probably the best option for me. I have my freedom back, and although im cold and alone, I at least have my thoughts, and the voices of the merchant and his mercenaries to distract me.
A gruff voice beamed out,
-" Nowhere to stop for quite a while, Barron,
We've passed all the villages on The King's Road."
Barron, whom I have deduced to be the merchant, replied
-" Not an issue, I brought extra stock in case there was any problem with the transport taking longer than usual.
Also, because those elven nobles seem to have quite peculiar tastes."
He Explicated.
The gruff voice replied again
-" Aye, once saw an elven man refuse a perfectly good loaf of bread whilst we were on the road, said he preferred pears and apples."
They both shared a laugh…
"Didn't take long for him to be begging me for it, though, when his fruit went off hahahaahhaha!".
I turned my attention to the fruit in the wagon. Come to think of it, it did look particularly delicious, and the bread did too. Hmm, well, as long as Im here, why not feel free to live a little.
The wagon jolted as I lay in a heap of bread crusts and half-eaten fruit.
This is the life I laughed to myself.
Sariel: 18th of April: Kargos, The King's Road
A few more days passed in this similar cycle, of me listening, eating, having to do my business in the corner. And lying down in the wagon, feeling the smooth roads lulling me to sleep. I slept better these days.
Although my stomach was turning constantly, I think I might be travel sick.
As I peered through a crack in the boards, I saw the distant capital; it was like an ant city from here. I wonder what it'll be like when we get there. Then all at once, the knot in my stomach released, and three days of breakfast, lunch and dinner released with it. I know im quite a skinny girl, but after this, I think comely would be overdoing it.
The wagon suddenly creaked to a stop, and I was forced forward, landing on my face.
-"Owww"
I rubbed away the pain.
If I weren't indulging myself, I likely would have noticed that the voices had stopped quite a while ago, and my munching and murmuring had not.
I ducked to the nearest crate, but by then it was already too late, and the back of the wagon swung open, and the gruff voice boomed out.
-"Looky what we have here, lads."
I felt a heavy boot step into the space, and a horrific realisation dawned on me. They could kill me here, and nobody would be the wiser.
I felt a heavy approach shake my very core.
Step…Step….Step...…step.
A rough, ragged hand firmly yanked my hair towards the direction of the door.
My body seemed to work with him, as I somehow managed to hit every crate with my forehead or legs as though I was destined to be a mixed-breed punching bag.
Air brushed my face, I felt as though I was flying,
Then came reality.
Otherwise known as the dirt on the side of the road,
my ragdoll body hit the ground like a sack of flour.
Bruises were covering me more than my shabby clothes were.
I looked up just in time to see the merchant's face coil up in disgust as the words mongrel were hurled at me like salt in a festering wound.
I would like to say I cursed him back, but that was far more than my weak body allowed, so I merely lay there whilst cursing my own helplessness, I suppose.
I rolled over a bit, the new bruises stung more than the ones mother had graciously gifted me a few days ago. My eyes adjusted to the sun, and I could see The Capital City in the distance. I was almost there. I could smell the city's scent from even here. And much more pungent ones as well.
The visceral smell caused me to turn my head left and observe the rapidly degrading food waste that littered the sides of the road.
-" How filthy"
I managed to get upon my hands and knees and forced myself into a strained crawl.
I had made it quite a way before I started feeling some effects.
I was about half a mile from my initial spot and almost a tenth of the way there. When darkness crept up on me.
I was cold,
losing my will to go on.
And making steady but minute progress.
After a few more movements, I felt my legs begin to buckle, and I unwillingly fell into a nearby field.
That was it, I was done for the day, I knew it.
And so was my sanity.
-"why.. ..why ..why …why"
I couldn't stop saying it.
No, I wanted to stop saying it, but I physically couldn't.
I was gripping my face like it would fall off if I didn't, and I genuinely couldn't think.
I was stupid, I was so stupid, I was just a stupid, worthless girl. Maybe if I curled into a ball here, I would die knowing nothing was lost from the world, and my mother would have peace knowing her shame was finally gone…
I stayed like that for a short while…
Then a few hours…
???: April 19th: Kargos Capital
The elven girl was still chained to a wall,
Her wound from the syringe had already fully closed up.
And she was looking out at the small window at the top of the wall.
The sunlight kissed her face, and lit up her warm features.
She was a quite beautiful girl in her mid-teens. And she was quite fond of nature. So whilst she awaited the man called Cook's return, she hummed a tune and admired the small red spiders that were dancing upon the wall.
-"La la di dum di dum, the demon king was an elderly one, he fell of his horse, and landed of course, on a lance of holy lighttt"
The door opened, and a tall human man, with one eye blue and one brown, walked in. he looked of common birth and came in with a dish of cheap-looking soup.
-"hello, whats your name sir"
She asked with a pleasant tone.
She recoiled as he shot back a glance at her with an unnerving glint in his eyes.
-"you do not need to know such things girl"
He leaned in quite close to her, and put his hand on her thigh as he was feeding her the soup; it seemed as though he was enjoying her captivity.
After she had finished the soup, he left her again in silence.
She waited until his footsteps faded and sat up. She bit hard into her own tongue and began to bleed from her mouth.
She would not waste this chance and spat the secretion onto the back of the chains on her left arm.
For what this man did not know, what all of them did not know. Was this simple elf girl not what she seemed?
Sariel: April 18th: Kargos, The King's Road
I was still managing movement; my loss of sanity was debilitating, but the new morning came, and my forgotten will came back with it.
I now managed whole limps, as I continued my move across the vast road.
It was warmer than the night,
And although I felt a fever coming on, I knew giving up would certainly mean death.
I could consider myself half of the way there, after relentless pushing.
And battling against the wind.
I powered through it.
I powered as much as I could…
I powered as much as my legs would take me…
Although my thoughts of power and motivation came to a stop when my legs did;
I am starving.
Truly famished.
It has been two days since a morsel has come my direction, and the constant moving was too much for a girl of my age without rest or water, or food. Woe is me.
Looking around, the merchants' waste was quite useless. I decided to spend an hour or so rummaging through it; bootleg ale was all that the gods had gifted me today.
There were sparse piles of waste where the merchants had dumped less-than-desirable wares across The King's Road.
Im starting to doubt how much care was actually put into naming this place.
As my rummage almost came to a close, I spotted something,
a shiny treasure trove of….
partially rotted foxes.
They smelled foul, they looked foul.
I gagged, part of me was glad that I haven't thrown up yet, and the other part recognised the only reason was that I have nothing to retch.
I collapsed to the floor, not caring for the pain; I had endured too much to care at this point.
The only thing I could think about… insatiable hunger.
I remembered my pocket knife and readied it from its holster (my cloak pocket)
Finding the least rotted fox was a challenge in itself.
Im lucky nobody's around to see the faces Im contorting into right now.
Putting metal to flesh, I carefully sliced off the rotted lower half of the fox, bit by bit. It still looked rotten, but Im mostly satisfied that eating this in its altered state would be less lethal than the latter.
It was a rough job, and although im not a total amateur, as my mother often brought home game from the market.
The hide probably wouldn't sell for much.
Alright, I feel sick doing this, I know it's repulsive.
But Im so hungry, I can't go on without…
I bit down, fast.
Blood and flesh filled my mouth; the taste made my body shudder.
I felt a cold shiver come down upon me, and realised that it was not from the game, but my own body was having a reaction.
It was peculiar, as I gulped back this disgusting meal. It tasted rancid, but a part of me seemed to welcome it.
I had no time to think about that, though, as I was busy fighting back the contractions in my neck.
I managed to keep it down.
Why did I manage to keep it down?
If this was going to be my existence now, why had I even left my mother's cold embrace?
Just to scrounge around, eating foul meat from the floor.
I am truly at my lowest point.
The sobbing came back,
My blood-covered face was mixed with the dirt upon it, and I washed it off with ale; my body was still painted in the mixture, however.
The ale helped keep the "food" down as well.
With that, I began to walk again, my limp had mostly subsided, my speed stayed mostly the same, as there was no point making the inevitable roadkill buffet a sooner dining habit by exerting energy.
I was far closer now.
Sariel: April 19th: Kargos, The King's Road
I had been walking for a full day now, and without sleep, morning had come, and I saw a small rat scurry across the road towards the city gates. I jumped at it, and gnawed down on my meal at the exact same time another caravan had passed me, the merchant's gobstruck expression stuck with me on the remainder of my journey.
I was almost there.
A ten-minute walk away.
The front gate was a regal elven masterpiece.
I had never seen such beauty in my life,
perfect white stone, topped off with two parallel, red gold pointed ornaments.
The walls were high, and the gate guards were in mostly high spirits.
As I approached, Im not sure if I was expecting a greeting of some sort, but they didn't even look me in the eyes, they just stared down the back of my head as I walked through, and some of the other gate guards practically forced me into an entirely different part of the city.
The regal entrance was gone, and the beautiful elven buildings had left.
I was lucky the gate guards were human, as I struggled to think I would've been treated any better by elven ones.
As I felt the firm push of the gate guard's grip, throw me to the pavement, I grounded myself to the wall, and looked around at my surroundings.
This was a slum.
A human slum of horrible proportions.
Dread set over me as I saw that the houses were in an even harsher state than my own in the village. And most of the locals looked as though they would rather slit my throat than give me help with directions.
I'm a lone half-elf girl in a city foreign to me. I'm dirty, and I feel sick from eating rotten animals from the street.
And… I am well… and truly
….fucked.