"Don't get cocky little boy.""Then come and prove me wrong then."The grown man shaking swings his axe downwards towards Nero, but he just stands there waiting for the swing to hit him, and moments before it does he steps out of the way.Then with his axe, Nero breaks the axe of the other man, then strikes the man on the knee with the blunt edge of the axe causing his leg to buckle and fall down.Going around him Nero puts his axe near the neck of the older man and says, "What was that again?"The man I hold starts to sweat and freak out, so I say, "You see this you old fucks, try me again and I will cut you down."As the other men start to freak out, one walks forward and says, "Everyone calm down, remember there is far more of us than him."Holding my axe closer to the neck of the man I have, I say, "Well you can try me all at once."With a light confidence, he says, "Do you really think you could take all of us at once?""Not at all, but I am sure I could break your axes, and if y
-Break-Φ Swinging my father's spear up and around repeatedly I hear my mother say, "Nero what are you doing with your father's spear.""Practicing so I can one day surpass him.""Why would you even want to do that?""So I can protect you Mom, and everyone else here. I won't let anyone in our clan suffer now or ever.""That's wonderful my son, but."Grabbing me by my arm my mother pulls me towards her and says, "But you failed!"Suddenly around me and my mother, the ground is dyed red as it is covered in the corpses of everyone from the village. "Nero, how could you let this happen, how did you let us all fall."With tears appearing in my eyes, I say, "I am sorry.""THAT ISN'T ENOUGH. DO YOU THINK I'M SORRY WILL HELP ANYONE? ALL OF US HAVE BEEN TAKEN, ALL OF US ARE LIVING IN HELL, OUR BODIES ARE THEIR TOYS, ARE LIVES ARE NO MORE THAN TRASH TO THEM, AND EACH ONE OF US WITHERS AWAY. SO WHY DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN? THIS IS ALL YOU'RE WEAKNESS FAULT, I HATE YOU!"Jumping up I snap out of
-Break-Four weeks laterIn front of me stands my father as the entire camp around us burns. He cuts down one beastkin after another, with the strength of a hundred men, but then they all come at him at once and even he is unable to stop them.Being held down by the beastkin, my father screams, "NERO HELP ME, FIGHT WITH ME."But in my fright, I run and run far, far away to a place where I couldn't see the violence that was unfolding anymore.Through the forest where I ran, I feel something drip right down onto my head, and looking up towards the top of the trees I see it is blood; from the trees, countless dead bodies hand dripping their blood directly onto me and the surrounding area.Then with their mouths, they all say, "NERO, YOU RAN. YOU ABANDONED US, YOU COWARD. YOU GET TO LIVE WHILE WE DIED, YOU'RE NOTHING BUT SCUM."From my bed, I jump up with a fright, and feel like I am about to puke, but the contents of my stomach are too empty to even do that. #Unable to hold back my emot
-Break-Φ Sitting by a table right next to his almost finished sculpture the man called Bricriu looks with joy at his pyre right across from himself, and smiles. Then from the sky the beastkin who looks like a bat; Liam drops down, and in that moment Bricriu says, "Liam how is it looking over there?""It is going just like normal; all of the pyres have been set and the rest of our people are performing their prayers to ward off the dead.""What about the humans.""They have each individually started to walk back, and just as you have requested they are not being guarded.""That's wonderful."Sensing that Liam is a bit stiff, Bricriu says, "Liam is something wrong."With sweat running down, his face Liam asks Bricriu, "Isn't this dangerous, we are simply letting the slaves run free without direction what if they try to escape?"Confused Bricriu responds, "It's Samhain isn't it?""This is my first full year here, so I don't know if I missed something but isn't Samhain just a myth."Gig
-Break-Two days laterIn the river, I see, right next to Aurelius. We race to see who can reach Lillian and Claudia the faster.We swim with all our hearts as we race down the river, but in the end, I lose to Aurelius.He jumps out of the river next to Lillian and screams, "THIS IS THE POWER OF LOVE.""Yes, yes, you big dumb idiot."Reaching out my hand, I say, "So what if you won I will simply win next time."Suddenly all three of them stare at me, and then Claudia says, "That won't be happening."Knocking my arm away, Aurelius says, "You haven't forgotten."Lillian says, "The way you abandoned all of us.""I didn't.""You coward.""You traitor.""You fool.""Die.""Die.""Die."From the ground I jump up and almost throw up.-Break-Location: CampsiteStepping to the front of the line with Charles not far behind me, I stretched out my hands, and the beastkin in front of me gave me winter clothes, and moments later Charles was given these clothes by the same beastkin.Rubbing my face
-Break-Two weeks laterLocation: CampsiteΦ Giddy in line, I say, "I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait."Charles behind me says, "Is this because you finally went over your quota.""Of course, it is, now I can get some extra food and stop being just skin and bones."Walking up to the beastkin serving food, I say, "I completed over my quota this time, you can check with other beastkin if you doubt me."The beastkin says, "It doesn't matter, we no longer do extra food for hard work. All the means have been standardised again."Hearing this shocks me to my soul so intensely that I freeze and collapse over to the floor. But in that state, the beastkin throws my water and potato at me knocking me out.As Nero lays on the ground in defeat, Charles takes his food, picks up Nero and walks away.Then sits him against the wall of the campsite where he slowly feeds him. To all the onlookers around, the sight is almost identical to how a mother feeds her child.-Break-Depressed I walk towa
-Break-The next dayLocation: Scortha fieldsWith my feet freezing from the cold, I say, "How is this worse!""During the summer months, these fields were ridiculously hot, and now during winter it is stupidly cold."But still, despite my complaining, I continue to do the work given to me. Today we are being forced to poor these sacks of white materials through the fields in which we planted seeds in."Beside me, Charles continues to do the world as well at the same speed at me. I would be happy that I am keeping up with him, but it is not like this work requires any form of ability, it is just pouring this stuff into the fields.As the white powder-like substance continues to pour out of my bag, I look to my left and see that Charles has stopped while holding something in his hands.Instantly panic takes over my body, and I look around, but luckily none of the guards are around us, so I quickly say, "What are you doing!""This fell out of my sack."Within the hand of the boy named C
-Break-"Hey Charles, where are we going?""Some place where you can rest.""But won't we get in trouble?""Don't think about that now just leave the rest to me."Following my words Charles slumps his head on my shoulder and when he does, I can still feel that he is hot. I need to move quickly.After a little bit of walking, I stop and say, "The air here is pretty good and it is not too warm or cold. I think it will do nicely."Dropping Charles I say, "You can sleep for a bit.""But isn't it still daytime?""Don't worry about that just trust me.""Ok," Charles says as he closes his eyes.Sitting down next to a tree watching Charles I let my thoughts run wild.He isn't as alert as usual because if he was he would have definitely stopped me from doing this. In all honesty, staring at Charles right now is terrifying, the fact that this boy could be rendered so weak is shocking.I guess in a way I thought him indestructible like my father, a boy with no limits whose strength and endurance