Shaken to her senses, Miren instinctively jumped up, attempting to prepare herself for the danger that surrounded her.
Pang!
A shooting pain immediately pulsated throughout her head as she felt the crushing pressure of steel slamming into her, sending her collapsing back down to the ground.
The sudden blow temporarily rendered every muscle in her body useless, and she lay there paralyzed, a prickling sensation gradually emerging all across her that accompanied her breathlessness.
Haah!
She gasped for air as control of her lungs finally returned to her, coughing heavily as she got used to the motion again.
With her muscles also starting to listen to her, she once again lifted her body, electing to take a much more delicate approach this time around. As she moved her limbs, she was met with the cacophonous sharp rattle of metal pieces clashing against one another and tugging against her with unyielding strength. Their harsh jangles blasted her sensitive ears, torturing her further, and she began to pull harder in response, desperately fighting to escape their cold grip, but it wasn’t long before she suppressed her struggles, her body resisting her resistance. Despite being unable to clearly see them, Miren quickly discerned that attached around her limbs and neck were several thick, binding cuffs that spread in chains to the floor.
Panic set in her chest as a somber image struck her mind, but she tried to quell the thought and focus on the situation at hand.
Her body increasingly trembled with effort in each movement, and her breaths had become heavy, each exhalation sore with a dull pain that seemed to weigh down her chest. But enduring the discordant sounds and aching pains of each movement, she maneuvered her body slowly, positioning one of her arms toward the other and starting to claw and swipe at the unsightly addition to her wrist.
But her aim wasn’t perfect in such low light, and the hard steel proved to be a formidable opponent.
She gritted her teeth as she scratched herself, but she continued on. Strike after strike, she maintained a grimace born from self-inflicted pain. Each hit, though forceful enough that the pain that recoiled back into her hand, was not strong enough to bring the metal into submission.
The weakness that coursed through her muscles was unsettling, unnatural, and she knew she had to get out of this somehow. If brute force wasn’t working, then she had to see what other options she had.
Miren’s eyes darted around the unfamiliar room, trying to make sense of her strange surroundings, but it was difficult to discern any definite shapes. As her search stretched on, worry started to set in even more than before, and eventually her meager investigation led her to the unfortunate conclusion that the small box she was in was entirely absent of anything except for her and her restraints.
There was nothing that could help her.
Lifting her head to the level of the thin slits in the otherwise solid crate of metal she was trapped in and pressing as close against it as she could, she strained to see beyond the confines of her prison. Squinting as her vision adjusted, she caught a glimpse of the world outside. Vast fields of tall, yellowing grass stretched as far as the eye could see, and a scattering of trees discretely populated the landscape like lonely sentinels. It seemed to continue forever, with no hint of her familiar forest anywhere in sight.
Was she beyond the wall?
She’d never seen it herself, nor did she know what was beyond it, but the wall was supposed to be where their world ended, and this certainly wasn’t the world she was used to seeing.
Lingering on the sight beyond her confines, water began to accumulate over her dark sclera as she stared ever-hopefully at the foreign landscape.
And with her movements now quelled, Miren’s ears were open to a new discord of disconcerting sounds. The rhythmic stamping of unseen creatures’ feet against the hard earth and the demented, disoriented clanging of unknown objects farther away added to her confusion. Soon, strange, unintelligible voices speaking in a language she could not understand finally gave her confirmation of what she had suspected. Unable to suppress the realization any longer, the tears that she seldom shed finally began to roll down her face.
Kaja.
Demons.
They had captured her. She was in their world now, the world on the other side of the wall.
And the worst part about it was that she never even had a chance to fight back. They must’ve ambushed her tribe during the night, but now a different worry plagued her.
What happened to the others?
Her tribe was small, only ten-people in total, but there was always someone who stayed awake to keep an eye out for danger. The fact that they didn’t get woken up meant that, for whatever reason, that person didn’t get the chance to alert them.
Dad–
His smile flashed into her mind before fading back into the darkness.
He was the one keeping watch last night.
Trying to calm herself down, Miren focused mana in her ears to try to listen for her family, but that caused exhaustion to hit her like a wave.
Doing her best to make any sort of noise, she opened her mouth to speak, to signal she was okay. Even if she didn’t know if anyone else was out there, she had to try, but all that came out was a strained squeak as her vocal cords failed her.
She couldn’t resist any longer as she collapsed back onto the hard, unforgiving surface she awoke on, acquiescing to the sleep.
◊◊◊◊◊
Stifled whimpers followed the rattling of chains and the occasional banging of wood, a common combination of sounds in this place that kept Miren awake on edge in a constant dither.
About a week had gone by since she’d arrived at her new prison-home. She couldn’t say that her situation had improved much, but she was at least grateful to have some light and much more room than there was in that metal box that they transported her here in. In fact, she was surprised at how much room she’d been given. From the stark, metal door at the center of the stony-gray walls at the front of her cell to the back of it where her chains started, she must’ve had about ten feet of space.
The distance between the other two walls was about half that, but overall it was still a lot, especially with her small body. She wasn’t able to get a good look into any of the other cells around her, but she assumed they were identical.
Laying down on the straw, she tried to relax as best as she could, pretending to not have already learned the routine by now. On her first day, she decided to just observe her surroundings before making any hard decision. If the stories were right, the Kaja were tricky, and that presumption proved to be true. She saw how they reacted when a couple of the other beastkin awaited their food with calm patience, as did she witness how those who tore at the air in rage were treated. Neither outcome was met with grace.
It was clear that the Kaja were trying to break them. So, to Miren, it seemed the best course of action was to sit in the middle of the two extremes and do nothing. That was what they seemed to want anyways.
Since the start of her captivity, she just continued to act like nothing mattered, lying down with her body and head pressed against the ground and her red-tipped tail curled around her like there was nothing better to do.
Was it even an act, though?
There was nothing better to do. It’d only been a week, but that week had been utterly hopeless. She’d been brainstorming for ways to escape every moment of her time here, but every plan she came up with seemed to hit an impassable wall, both figuratively and literally.
Although she wasn’t encased in that tiny box any longer, the smooth walls of her cell were tall and sturdy, and her now persistent feeling of sluggishness in any prolonged period of movement made it impossible for her to even try climbing out of them.
Her body didn’t want to move.
It was like gravity was increased twofold, each muscle requiring twice the effort to pull them up off of the ground.
Not only that, but it seemed that the weight of her imprisonment was starting to take its toll on her mind. Most of the time, she could seldom find her thoughts maintaining clarity for very long.
All she could do was wait— wait for an idea to come, or for someone or something to come. Honestly, she wasn’t sure what she was waiting for, but there had to be something beyond this. After all, the Kaja wouldn’t just keep her here for no reason. If they wanted her dead, they would’ve killed her the moment they found her, but she was still alive.
Whatever it was, she was determined to survive long enough to get out of here, even if every second in this place started to feel like death was coming the next one after.
Unsettlingly, although she’d heard several stories growing up about beastkin from neighboring tribes and even her own who were captured by the Kaja, she now realized that none of those stories were ever clear on what exactly happened to them. The danger was what had pushed her tribe so far into the forest to begin with generations ago, and as far as she knew, none of them were ever seen again.
Kraaya.
Miren’s thoughts settled on her younger sister, and a sorrow overcast her mind.
As kids, when Miren heard stories of the wall and those who were lost beyond it, her mind reeled far away. She felt like finding a hole and hiding away in it, safe where nobody could find her. Her sister, however, always seemed curious about what lay beyond it.
Would she be happy with this answer?
Footsteps approached the outside of her cell, and Miren’s focus was fully brought back to the moment she’d been waiting all day.
Finally.
The scent of food hit her nostrils and confirmed her hope moments before the dish containing it slid its way into her cell from the small hole at the bottom of the door. Miren took a moment to acknowledge it before getting up and despondently making her way towards it.
Before she began eating, however, she took notice of the peculiar marking that adorned the tray, staring back at her as if it was watching too. The same trio of eyes was plastered everywhere in the building, largely marking the center of her door, flowing on the banners that she could see hung outside in the main corridor, and emblazoned on the metal shackles that kept her trapped in this space. It was off-putting, like each of her slightest movements were being monitored. She felt like she was a prey being toyed with, lying in wait for her predator to finally decide to put an end to her desolate existence.
But what would be the action that signaled her demise?
Trying to ignore the incessant unease, Miren faintly smiled and got to eating her only serving of food for the day. It was scant and crude, but a feast to her severely deprived stomach. She savored each bite, trying to make it last as long as possible, because it would be another long day of waiting before she got another.
Her taste buds quivered at the dull bitter flavor that pervaded the food.
Agh. What was that?
Miren was no chef, but this kind of taste was strange at best, even for her eating habits. From the singular portion of meat to the unidentifiable sludge that accompanied it, that faint bitterness was the only flavor that the food could be described as. Though unpleasant, she was getting used to it by now, and she was trying her best to enjoy it. There was no sense in complaining anyways. If the Kaja noticed that she was trying to starve herself, she expected they would coerce her into it one way or another.
Besides, she didn’t want to die, even if the food was terrible. Sometimes, you just had to eat whatever you could get.
Survive for the next meal.
Her mother’s voice echoed in her mind, something that she’d always been told whenever they found themselves in a struggle for food and had to resort to eating rotting leftovers. This wasn’t quite the same situation, but the words still stuck.
Mom…
The entire week had gone by without so much as a sign of her mother or anybody else from her clan. She could only see a few other cells from the view from the window in her door, and none of them held anybody she recognized, so in the middle of the night, when she was sure none of the Kaja were around, she’d even tried calling out to them.
Her hopes were only met with silence, however. Nobody here could understand what she was saying, nor could she understand a single utterance from any of them other than the sounds of pain. Her mind lingered on the worst possible outcome, but she was trying to remain optimistic.
She had reasoned that perhaps this outcome was the Kajas’ goal. If she could communicate with her fellow prisoners, it was possible for them to conspire and potentially find some way out together. Assuming that was the thought process, they were probably intentionally separated to avoid that possibility, in which case there was a chance her family was still alive.
The thought that she might never see any of them again was suffocating, but as long as it remained a possibility, Miren would survive for as long as she could.
She was going to see them again. She had to.
◊◊◊◊◊
Scratch.
Scratch.
The sound tingled Miren’s ears in the midst of the night, rousing her from her meager slumber. It annoyed her to some degree, considering that an actually restful sleep was something she seldom managed to fall into in this place, but she couldn’t be mad at her fellow captees for trying— that was more than she was doing anyways.
Dimly lit lights that worked by some kind of magic hung above them in the middle of each of their cells and lined the hallway outside of them to maintain a constant level of brightness throughout the entire day’s cycle, which made it difficult for her to fall asleep. If not for her daily rations of food and the schedule that the Kaja followed, she figured it would be quite difficult to tell if it was day or night at all. Maybe she was already wrong in what she assumed. There was no way of telling, as not a single ray of sunlight ever crawled its way into this building.
That visual discomfort was only compounded by the same grim medley of sounds that she’d been hearing ceaselessly since the day she got here.
But despite all of that, she was adjusting to this bleak environment. Weeks of it had grown on her, and she could feel her mental acuity returning to her. It was a dismal feeling, but without it, her body flooded with panic and sorrow, torturing her and disrupting her warped ataraxia. So, her options were to either live with one or succumb to the other, and she knew which one she was going to choose.
Scratch.
Scratch.
The metallic carving continued on the same as it had for the past several weeks. In fact, she’d been hearing it every other night since she first got here. Someone must have had a plan, though it was taking ages to accomplish. Regardless, if they managed to escape, Miren wanted to be awake when it happened. She needed to know that it was possible, because she had yet to find a way of her own.
Although the mental pressure that was repressing her mind had gradually alleviated over this time, her physical situation hadn’t improved any. In fact, it had declined quite significantly. Her body didn’t feel weak anymore, it just was weak. If she really mustered the strength, she was confident she could still maintain a sprint for a while, but anything much more physically intensive and she didn’t feel that she stood a chance. That realistically left her with only one option to escape: sneaking out. Evading detection was a strong suit of hers, even among her species, but she had to figure out a way to get out of these chains first before she could even start to worry about that part of the plan.
Scratch.
Scratch.
Miren wasn’t sure what was preventing her from activating her cloak, but she’d lost the ability to make use of it ever since her capture. It was an inscrutable, hollow existence that she felt forced into, like a piece of herself had been lost, like she was something that could just be taken apart at the will of the Kaja.
She had to prove them wrong.
Once more, she prepared to pour mana into her golden coat to activate it, though she could feel she barely mustered enough within herself to engage it for even a second if it did work. Still, she closed her eyes and concentrated, focusing as best as she could on the feeling that used to come naturally to her. As she directed what little mana she had into her fur, it felt as if it were drained away by a void, completely ineffectual despite her struggle.
Clenching in response, she tried to prevent that vacant feeling from completely absorbing her. As she shivered away from its cold embrace, she looked down and met the gaze of the three small gems that were socketed at the base of her shackles.
Was there any point?
The question lingered in her mind like a welcome fear.
…30 …31 …how many?
Miren was starting to lose count of the days already.
Why was she here?
She’d already long-accepted the probability that she’d never see her home again, but that was something she could live without.
Adamantly, she held onto the belief that she would see her family again, but as each day waned along indistinguishably from the last without any sign of them, she knew that the odds grew increasingly slimmer.
As she thought about them throughout her time here, there was one memory she found herself returning to again and again, one that she hoped she could relive again someday.
It was a few years ago. She didn’t remember quite how it started nor how it ended, but the feeling of that night lived on in her as strongly now as when it happened then. Their whole extended clan came together and sang from the night’s birth to its death, lighting up her memory brighter than the daylight that came after. Back then, she didn’t know the lyrics to most of the songs, but their rhythms resonated with her like a heartbeat, and by the end of the night she’d learned them all. She still remembered them now.
They were songs of their history — her history — and reliving them seemed to be one of the only comforts she could find in this uneasy limbo, an easy past to distract her from her uncertain future.
And adding to her worries, a new one had recently begun to sprout in her mind, leaving a virulent tang in her mental cavity. Even if she eventually managed to reunite with her family, and even if by some fortune they found their way back home, what if Miren never regained that part of herself?
She’d been trying to reclaim it every day she’d been here. Each day, she struggled to eliminate that feeling of emptiness and cleanse herself of the bitterness that spread from her food throughout to her body and mind. Each day, she summoned what insignificant mana she had left in her body and tried to turn it into something. But maybe it was too late. Maybe their damage, whatever they’d done, was irreversible.
It made her skin itch ceaselessly.
Scratch.
Chink!
Miren’s ears twitched, and she raised her head towards the unexpected sound.
A moment later, it was followed by the familiar rattling of chains, but something about them sounded different. After several seconds of their moving around, Miren heard from the same location a deep breath and the raking of claws against stone.
It’s happening.
It was hard to tell exactly what was going on, but it sounded to Miren like they were digging into the walls. She could only imagine the kind of power that was required to pull that off.
Miren quickly got up and crossed the distance to the door of her cell to get a view as the creature continued their attack on the stone wall of their own cell. It wasn’t exactly quiet, but noise of this level wasn’t uncommon during the night, and the Kaja had never come to investigate before. They must have believed that their methods were indomitable, but clearly they were wrong.
The hastened sounds continued on for a while as all the other prisoners matched Miren at the doors of their cells to witness the spectacle. Eventually, at the far end of the hallway, she finally saw them tearing through to the other side of the stone. As the hole got large enough and the debris was pushed away, a couple-hundred pound white beast stumbled out onto the dirty cobbled floor of the central hallway.
No wonder.
It was a wolven man. If there was any higher creature with the strength to escape from a situation like this, it would’ve been one of their kind. Yet with that display of strength, Miren was a little surprised it took him this long to break free.
He breathed heavily as he stood still to catch his breath, watched by dozens of eyes all affixed on his every action. Miren knew that the people behind each pair of those eyes all had the same singular wish on their mind, but neither she nor any of them would dare ask for it. The longer he stayed here, the more likely he would end up back where he started. Besides, this was the product of likely months of effort. She doubted he had much energy left to break anybody else out.
Inspecting him closer, it was clear that inadequate nutrition had taken a toll on the wolven’s body, but even in his declined state, he still must’ve been thrice as large as Miren was before she got here. Then, just before they were gone, she noticed the numerous black, bony protrusions near the man’s hands that were receding into his body.
She squinted her eyes.
One of them?
There were stories about their tribe of wolven. They were powerful beings, even by wolven standards, who had a proclivity for hostility. Never would she have thought the Kaja would be capable of capturing one. She wouldn’t dare approach one normally, much less think she stood a chance against one, but she was never much of a fighter to begin with.
But as her thoughts continued on, she grew confused.
What was he doing?
Miren watched as her fellow beastkin seemed to appear frozen, his hazel eyes locked onto something dead ahead of him. His body seemed tense, stunned in a permanent flinch as if it forgot how to move. A dreadful anticipation inundated the enclosure, making each bated breath from each creature that silently observed clearly audible, and as she listened, Miren noticed that their sullen savior’s breathing was equally stifled, if not moreso.
Turning her head to follow the path of his static pupils, she finally saw what he was looking at, and a different unease now confused her.
Across from the nearly escaped wolven, on the other side of the hallway and barely within sight of Miren’s window, stood a young Kaja male.
Throughout her time here, Miren had become familiar with the faces of many Kaja — they frequented the area for various purposes — but this adolescent she was positive had never been here. The clothing that adorned his body was simple yet elegant, markedly different from any she’d seen before. From his shoulder down, plain, muted colors of red and gold slimly clung to him, painting his skin in a swathing blood. Plainly on his chest, worn in a symbol of declaration, that same pattern of eyes pointed straight forward at the white wolf.
When did he get there?
She hadn’t heard any sign of his approach, and something about that fact made her fur stand on end, like peering into a completely black night sky, entirely devoid of the slightest trace of light— empty.
Unreactive, the boy simply stared at the wolven several times his size, seemingly waiting for something to happen. His burnished golden eyes looked up to meet the similarly aureate irises of the beast ahead of him, scrutinizing them as if challenging them in a contest of purity. Miren couldn’t pinpoint it exactly, but she felt a certain presence emanating from the demon child, and it was clear that the wolven was responding to it too.
The boy seemed unafraid, perhaps even… eager.
And then, as if to confirm her impression of him, a willing grin suddenly appeared on his face.
As the boy Kaja took a step forward, the wolven stepped back, wary of his approach. But he had nowhere to go. There was only one way out.
Harsh words of the Kaja’s language flowed out from his mouth, though Miren still couldn’t understand a bit of it, and in response it seemed the wolven started to prepare for combat.
All over the man’s body, parting through his skin and fur like deathly thorns, an innumerable amount of bony spikes began to emerge. They intertwined with his pelt, forming long, white and black spirals that curled in various directions, some flattening to create a vicious defense and others splitting to create sharp dispersions of bone like a charred tree. They spread out in all directions from his body, creating a barrier that threatened immediate demise to any who came into their expansive range.
It was grotesque, and Miren trembled in respect of it.
The child’s fate was already decided. Even if they were capable of capturing him, a Kaja so young stood no chance against a creature like him.
Miren’s mind was sure of that, but her instincts spoke to something different, and her eyes read another story entirely.
Smiling in some twisted excitement, the Kaja steadily began to close the distance between him and his fearful prey, those golden eyes focused on their target like a bird of prey locked on to its victim. He wanted this.
Picking up the pace as he neared, the boy darted forward, and the wolven bent down and twisted his bony body around to attack.
CRACK!
Like a thousand twigs snapping under overwhelming force, the entire section of bones covering the wolven’s right shoulder exploded, producing a flurry of black dust that spattered onto the stone wall behind him like a layer of soot. The combination of sight and sound were nauseating, forcing Miren to turn away. But even worse, petrifying as if it had attacked her, was the impossible display of power she had witnessed that sent her into an anxious panic.
Only more chilling was the sharp yelp that came after, and as Miren compulsively looked back to watch the fight continue, she observed the wolven’s pale fur around the now-exposed shoulder reddening as it darkened with blood.
Mutually unscathed, the boy’s hand, imbued with a terrible mana, bled lightly. Though, as she watched him inspect its condition, he seemed entirely unbothered by it. Wetting his fingers with some of the blood, he brought it to his mouth and tasted it before speaking several more words to his adversary who was still reeling from the attack.
Invigorated, perhaps from the Kaja’s words, the sudden onset of pain, or the imminent threat of death, the wolven quickly recovered and redoubled his strength in the following attack, launching himself forward to attack the child.
CRACK!
Again, the boy returned the attack with a strike of his own, this time blowing open the beast’s shielded torso with an empowered kick that sent his opponent violently tumbling back.
Blood slowly pooled on the floor where the Kaja stood, dripping down from his leg, but again he ignored the injury, and instead of tending to it, he steeled himself and closed his eyes.
A fervid smile torn across the boy’s face clearly communicated his feelings about the situation.
He was enjoying this.
Miren stared at the young demon with a mesmerized awe, the situation simultaneously becoming less and less understood. Each question in her mind that she answered gave way to several more seemingly erroneous ones that she struggled to reconcile, but ultimately, one question remained overshadowing the rest that she simply could not comprehend.
Why?
But the two animals didn’t wait for her to finish thinking.
Growling, the wolven began to circle the boy who seemed determined to keep his eyes shut. His breathing was labored, the previous chest blow likely the culprit, and he whimpered as he succumbed to a limp each time he put pressure on that bare limb of his. Despite the pain, there was only one course of action he could have proceeded with, and so he again dashed towards the Kaja, the blur of black and white moving so quickly that Miren barely noticed before the ensuing collision ended it.
The sound had become far too familiar to Miren’s ears already.
CRACK!
Allowing himself to be pierced by several of the bones that charged at him, the young Kaja stopped the wolven dead in its tracks and rent one of its arms clean of obstructions. The towering beastkin twitched back as the pain sent waves throughout his body, and a moment later his arm fell limp, utterly ravaged by the attack.
Then, grabbing hold of that arm, the boy slammed him to the ground with a resounding thud that snapped several more bones in an instant. Kneeling down, the Kaja pounded him with fist after bloody fist of uninhibited attacks, each one prompting yelp after weakening yelp of torment from the creature.
The raw reality in front of Miren’s eyes seemed impossible to believe, and that’s why she couldn’t stop herself from looking.
It was brutal and disheartening, but she had to see it through to the end.
The boy continued until the sounds of crunching bone softened and until any quiver of life left in the wolven had been thoroughly deadened.
His task complete, the young Kaja stood back up and finally reopened his eyes to assess his injuries. Blood covered his bruised and bared knuckles, and the small holes in his arm from where bone punctured it dripped with a slowly coagulating flow. As he stretched his fingers out and in, a couple adult Kaja finally rushed in and witnessed the slaughter. They spoke in rushed, frantic tones, but the boy disregarded their incomprehensible words. When one reached out to help him, the boy knocked away their hand, and one word from his mouth was all it took to silence their efforts.
Leaving the mess for them to take care of, he walked past them, and Miren saw that incredulous grin reappear on his face as he exited her vision.
Miren pressed her head against the ground, doing little to try to drown out the noises that echoed from the cell near hers. The more she resisted them, the louder they seemed to penetrate, so she wondered if catatonia might push them away through sheer lack of thought.
◊◊◊◊◊
But her mind couldn’t stop. Whenever she closed her eyes, their image was replaced with the same indelible memory that had been infecting her thoughts for weeks. Whenever she covered her ears, that cacophony of pulverizing bone and flesh would remind her just how vile sound could be. She needed something to distract herself from it, but there weren’t many favorable alternatives.
Some part of her wished that she had been asleep that night, but she doubted that even her dreams could have stopped it from reaching her.
They certainly didn’t now.
That same question lingered in her mind still, apparently insoluble, cursing her mental faculties despite having long given up on trying to answer it.
Miren wasn’t sure exactly how long it’d been, but she hadn’t seen that boy return since. Perhaps he got what he wanted, and she would never see him here again. Perhaps he hadn’t returned because no one who bore witness to his havoc that day dared to try to escape; he wasn’t needed. Whatever the case, she wasn’t going to risk it. Nothing was worth ending up like that.
Blood still stained the floor where it had happened, pounded into it like paint. It appeared that the Kaja had given up on fully cleaning it after a few days of trying. Miren stared at the blood-marred cobbles sometimes. It didn’t make much sense to her why, but for some reason, they took her mind off of the terrible memory that caused them. Perhaps focusing on the present made her brain drive out thoughts of the past. She couldn’t hide from it forever, though. Eventually, inevitably, it always crept its way back.
For at least the first couple weeks after it happened, the building was trapped in a heavy silence, unified for the first time in a dead language. It was only when a wave of new arrivals came that cries once more livened the crushing atmosphere.
Was it wrong that she was grateful for that?
Miren only found solace in the fact that her sister didn’t have to witness what transpired here that night. It was a grim solace, pathetic at best considering the rest of what she’d probably endured already, but at least she could be sure of that, even if she couldn’t be sure of anything else.
Knock knock.
The sound forced Miren’s attention to her door where she didn’t understand what was happening. Standing outside of it, both visible through the barred window, were two Kaja.
Huh?
They weren’t bringing her food, so why were they here?
The two Kaja stood outside her door and spoke to each other at length in their language that Miren felt she would never understand, not that she desired to. Neither of them she was familiar with, but curiously, she thought she recognized the scent of one of them.
Wearing an ornate, black dress that cinched tightly around some areas while adding powerful dimensions to others, the woman spoke in a deep, almost soothing tone that drew Miren in. It was decadent, somehow overwhelming the still-ongoing cracking sounds of punishment being doled out nearby despite its low volume. Her sharp face was crowned with voluminous, deep red hair that gave the impression that her head had been dipped in blood that hardened into delicate strands. Most striking of all, however, were the woman’s eyes. One blazed like a complex inferno, the other with a familiar ember-like gold, and the third swirled with a pearlescent white, dangling down from a chain onto her forehead, its shape immediately recognizable to Miren now from her months of experience.
Miren was intrigued yet at the same time wary, and while she fought the strange urge that she had to get closer, she refused to look away either.
The person next to her, noticeably older and shorter in stature, appeared to be a male. Miren’s instincts didn’t pull her interest towards him, but his significantly different and more colorful clothing still indicated that he didn’t belong to the regular rounds of Kaja. There was something unique about him, that was certain.
They must have been speaking about her, and suddenly Miren wished that she’d spent more time paying attention to their horrible tongue before.
Her gaze lingered on them. Though her instincts told her something was off, this was the second most interesting moment since she arrived here, and the time seemed to pass by faster the longer she watched them talk. If they could make the night come sooner, that would be at least a small victory gained.
Click.
The noise that came from the door was seamlessly woven among their speech, but it was clearer to her than any word they spoke, and Miren’s heart began to beat faster.
What–?
It was hardly the first time the door had been unlocked, but why now?
As the door slowly swung open, the two Kaja stepped into her cell and began to approach her.
Her eyes immediately darted towards their hands to check for weapons, and her body tensed as she took notice of the hefty blade that the woman carried with her, its crimson-notched edges giving the impression of flaming teeth. Miren steadily restored weight to her feet, preparing to get up and potentially retaliate if it came to that, but her body told her otherwise. Tingling with an unpleasant numbness as she put pressure on them, her limbs already wanted to give in to the effort demanded of them.
Why wouldn’t they move?
She willed them to obey her commands, but they refused to listen, and soon her entire body ached with an undeserved tiredness.
Leaving the old man beside the door, the red-haired demon smoothly rendered the distance between herself and Miren null, blade in hand.
This was it.
Her breaths became quick and shallow as her mind flashed between memories of her family and her memory of the wolven many nights ago. She’d avoided her fate for this long already, but she’d known it had been coming. Somewhere inside of her, she’d known it since the first night she got here. Any thought in opposition to that obvious truth was simply a delusion of reality that she’d managed to convince herself of.
Miren shut her eyes, but a part of her forced them back open.
She didn’t look away back then. She wouldn’t now. If this was going to happen, she was going to see it happen.
Peering up at the Kaja towering above her, Miren half-successfully regained some twisted form of composure. For a moment, her eyes made contact with those of her slayer’s, and she remembered something that had long-been buried in the pit of her memories, a warning from her childhood. The precise wording was lost to her, but the memory gave her a comfort that she hadn’t expected to feel in this situation.
It was something about a three-eyed demon.
Fixed on the short, red and silver blade that pointed down towards her, she watched as it suddenly transformed, growing to a length of a few feet long and taking on an entirely different profile.
But she didn’t have time to process what she’d witnessed.
Slam!
In an instant, with the woman kneeling with it to drive its force, the sword was plunged down. Miren nearly flinched, but she was determined to keep her eyes open. She waited for the pain to come, for her lifeforce to leak out of her, but it was only when she felt a firm stroking along her back that she realized the blade never touched her. Her mind focused on the woman’s long, careful movements against her fur. It was soothing, slowing her racing heart and softening her widened eyes.
More meaningless words found their way to her ears as the two continued their conversation, and Miren could only clench her teeth to bite through the feeling of building panic releasing all at once, stifling the sounds of the mixed emotions that impelled her.
What was this?
Click.
Miren almost didn’t notice it, but the chain that locked her shackles to the wall had been unbound from it, now softly yet securely held in the female Kaja’s other hand and wrapped around her arm a couple times.
The burning that throbbed throughout her body was inexplicably assuaging, and she could feel her energy returning to her in ripples. It stopped short of being enough to use her magic, but it was still a relief to her ailed muscles, and it seemed there was purpose behind it.
Standing back up, the woman clasped the handle of her elaborate weapon, and in a moment it returned to its former shape, not so much as feigning resistance as it pulled itself out of the now cracked stone slab, leaving a veritably deep hole where it was embedded. Tugging Miren’s chain with mild force, the woman urged her to her feet, and now able to, she obliged. There wasn’t any point in resisting, even if she had enough strength to, not against this Kaja. The other one held the door for them, and as they reached it, the woman stopped and held out her hand to give him something.
It was the key to Miren’s chains.
He accepted the silver piece of her freedom with a slight bow of the head and tucked it away into one of the many pockets that seemed to decorate his pants.
He held her fate now.
Suddenly much more interested in the man, she inspected him with intrigue. His colorful attire boldly broke up the features of his body into sections and somehow managed to create a balance that was surprisingly actually visually appealing.
A calm cyan covered the majority of his torso, covered with a more grayish-blue color that spread like vines across his top. Dressing his lower-body, a light green fabric flowed widely around each leg, making them look vaguely like thick stems to the vibrant flower atop them. Tying his outfit together, the man wore a large cloak, uniform in its white, faintly blush tint.
Across both his top and bottom halves, dozens of pockets and pouches patterned his clothes seemingly haphazardly, breaking and blending the bold colors like large, multifarious splatters of like yellow. It was impossible to tell how many of those pockets actually held anything, but several of them did seem to be full, and Miren’s eyes flickered back to the one he slipped the key into.
Could she get it?
The question was the first thought of genuine hope she’d had in ages, but she chose to ignore it. Miren didn’t know what this man was capable of, but she was sure the woman leading her had the power to stamp out any attempt she could have tried.
Besides, something in her was curious where they would take her next. The past few months of her captivity all had led to this moment; she wanted to see what it was all for.
Following an impulse as she slowly reached out her hand towards the man, Miren opened her mouth to speak, to ask where they were taking her, but she didn’t know how to. A meager syllable came out of her before she cut herself short, and all she could do was stare at him.
Taking notice of her attempt, the man turned his head to her and met her gaze with his cocoa-brown eyes, giving her a brief smile before returning his attention back to the woman Kaja and addressing her with a few words more.
He seemed… different.
But she would have time to dwell on that thought later.
As she was led through the metal door and beyond those four walls that had been her home for far too long, Miren was finally able to see the full view of what was outside of them.
Dozens of cells identical to hers lined the hallway, and she could feel the watchful presence of each of their occupants’ eyes on her as she walked along the cold stones, her chains lightly jangling in between each step.
As they approached the center of the corridor, Miren stared at the place where once lay the remains of an indomitable creature beaten to an irrevocable pulp. Though not by intention, he had indelibly left his mark here, and she kept her head fixed on it to observe what was left of his sacrifice for as long as she physically could.
For better or for worse, it seemed she was finally moving on from this place.