“I’m sorry,” Griffin offered up. Maco shook his head and let his hand glide over Aestiva who began to purr.
Griffin didn’t know what else to do, so he got up and went to get some water for Maco. Skip and Maco had a special bond. He had noticed that before. Maco might look like a humanoid toad with tusks, but he was reliable, peaceful, and quiet. He took the time to consider things and often looked a little sad or lost in thought, but he was the perfect big brother to Skip. Skip, on the other hand, was playfully mischievous, always happy, and could often act impulsively. He was far more outgoing, and quick to drink or play cards.
Their differences made for an unlikely friendship, but put together, they were a perfect team.
Griffin wondered whether the two of them still suffered because of their past. Did they ever wake up at night, panicked, believing they were still there on that slave ship? Did they still hold a grudge against the people that had caused their anguish?
What about the others? He already knew that they had all been wronged by the world and suffered because of it, but to what extent? Were they all still haunted by the ghosts of their past? He didn’t know.
He was thankful that Maco had been able to open up to him and share his story, but Griffin was still horrified at what he had heard.
The trolls he had met previously, had been manual laborers, but to his knowledge, they had always been treated well. He had been aware of slave ships, but he had never realized how awful they were. He had always been under the impression that only criminals were put on those. Apparently, he had been deceived. His parents had kept him away from that world by doing their best to not get involved with the kind of people who would involve themselves in the slave trade.
Griffin filled up a cup and a bowl with water. Aestiva ought to have some more as well. It must be awfully warm with her fur! He didn’t want the kitten to get heatstroke.
He returned outside with the water for his comrades, but both of them had fallen asleep. Smiling, Griffin left the water for them and after a brief glance at the shore, he returned to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Ryo and Ayalon would surely be back soon and they would probably be hungry.
CHAPTER 10
They surprised him. One moment he was in the galley, cooking, and the next, the door flung open and two muscular women stomped in.
They wore little clothing, suitable for the climate – a corset made from suede, and short, skin-tight trousers with even shorter skirts over them. They had headgear made from animal heads and furs.
Artfully decorated scabbards were attached to their hips with belts woven from vines. The blades were pointed at Griffin’s face.
The smaller of the two women, still taller than Griffin, gestured toward the door.
Obediently, the boy started walking. Cold sweat ran down his face and back. His eyes darted around the deck at the speed of a black marlin searching for Maco and Aestiva. They were nowhere to be seen. He’d only left them alone for about half an hour – where were they? Hopefully, they had managed to hide before these women had boarded! What about Ryo and Ayalon? Maybe they were laying low in the jungle, waiting for a good chance to jump to his rescue.
What should he do? These were clearly Falicians and Griffin was well aware that, as a man, they saw him as an enemy, but at least they hadn’t killed him yet. Why not? Griffin wondered if he really wanted to know.
Griffin was escorted to shore, where two more Falicians were waiting for them. All of them were scowling.
But where were his friends? What had happened to them? The question was answered almost immediately as the women pulled him toward the jungle. When they reached the tree line, they were joined by three further Falicians escorting another prisoner: Maco. One of their captors was holding a large woven basket at arm’s length. It emitted the most awful screeching noises as it swung violently from one side to the other.
Maco looked miserable in his chains. He was staring at the ground, and if he were able to control his ears, they would have hung low as well.
Griffin was tied up like Maco, leaving only his legs for walking.
“Forry,” Maco mumbled as they were pushed onward.
Griffin shook his head. “Not your fault, Maco.”
Both of them were prodded in their backs, indicating they should stop talking.
As they stumbled on, Griffin regarded the women with them. They were all shapes and sizes, all hair and skin colours. The one holding the basket with Aestiva in it had a number of deep scratches and bite marks on her arms. Griffin had heard nothing while he had been in the galley. They must have taken Maco and Aestiva while they had still been asleep.
A couple of the women carried spears or bows and arrows instead of swords. None of them spoke. If they had to tell each other anything, they signaled with their hands instead, but the signs didn’t make any sense to Griffin.
They walked on for a couple of hours. The Falicians allowed them a short break about half-way, to quench their thirst at a brook. Since the women refused to untie their bonds, Griffin and Maco had to throw their faces into the water. Aestiva was only let out with a vine tied around her neck. However, she completely ignored it and jumped onto Griffin’s shoulder, violently hissing at any of the women who came close. Eventually, the women gave up but kept a close, distrustful eye on Griffin, keeping their weapons pointed at him once they began moving again.
Griffin was glad to see that Aestiva was still unharmed. Then again, he had noticed by now that she was quite a fighter. If someone she didn’t like came too close, she would tear them to shreds.
At some point, Maco tripped. The women pulled him back up by his chains and made him walk on. He was stumbling more than walking. The heat and the exertion were too much for him. If this should go on for much longer, then… Griffin didn’t want to think about it. What would the Falicians do with a prisoner who was unable to go on? What would they do to someone who collapsed and couldn’t get back up? Someone who’d become useless?
As they proceeded, more and more warrior women joined their party. They dropped out of trees, walked out of bushes or just appeared somehow. They all wore the same scowl, making Griffin feel like dirt.
Finally, they reached their destination. It was a village – no, a town – in and around the trees. At first, Griffin only saw the animals: chickens, sheep, goats, cows, and some that Griffin couldn’t identify. Then, shouts came from above and, lifting his head, Griffin saw where the people lived.
He could only stare at the beauty that lay above him. Bridges made of plants connected platforms and huts. Hanging ropes and hammocks thirty feet above the ground formed playgrounds on which young girls were enjoying themselves. It looked like a place in which happy memories were made and everyone was one big family. At least that’s what Griffin liked to imagine when he saw the smiling and laughing faces of the children. Some of them were looking down curiously, their big, curious eyes fixed on Griffin and his companions. He supposed that the cold, stoic women who had captured him and his friends were the warriors or guardians of this place. Everyone else appeared to be going about their everyday tasks. All in all, it seemed like a peaceful place.
That was, until Griffin noticed the men in chains working on small fields on the far side. So they really did enslave men…
But as much as Griffin searched, he couldn’t make out any of his friends between the sad, hopeless, shuffling creatures. A single woman was supervising them, but no one seemed to have the energy or will to attempt an escape. They didn’t so much as look up when Griffin and Maco were marched past them.
Griffin wondered whether Selene and the others had been captured, too. Would the Falicians consider Captain Black Shadow an enemy? After all, Selene was female, and her mother had been Falician. Didn’t that make her part of the family? Did that count for something here? Or would she be treated like the rest of her crew?
Before Griffin could explore the thought any further, Aestiva was pulled from his shou
lder, despite her violent protest. He was pushed forward and dropped into a hole, plunging into darkness. Hitting the hard ground, he lost consciousness.
Griffin found himself in darkness when he awoke. It was a deep black, darker than even a night without stars and moons. It was the kind of darkness that made him wonder if he had gone blind. Slowly, he sat up. His head complained with a pounding ache, and he felt ill. Doing his best to pull himself together, he tried to get a grasp on his surroundings. There was straw on the cold stone ground beneath him. It was smelly. The odor of sweat, rot and excrement all mixed together with the stuffiness of an old, closed-off cellar.
He could hear someone moaning. He got to his feet and edged toward the sound until his fingers touched a solid surface. He groped his way along the walls. He was in a small stone cell, but he couldn’t find any windows or doors. But if there was no entrance, how had he ended up in here? He vaguely remembered being pushed down somewhere, but when he looked up he could see nothing except more darkness.
The moan was repeated somewhere nearby. As far as Griffin could tell, he was alone in his cell, so there had to be one connected to this one somehow. Maybe he had missed something? This time, he dropped to his knees, searching for an opening. After some scuffling, he found a hole in the wall just big enough to put his hand through. Just like on his side, he could feel straw on the ground. There was another groan.
“Are you alright?” Griffin enquired anxiously.
He heard something shuffle around on the other side.
“Griffin?” someone croaked. “That you?”
Ryo. Griffin nodded. Silence.
“Griffin?”
“Yes?”
“You do know that I can’t see if you nod, right?”
Ryo sounded as though he was in pain. Griffin wondered if his wounds had ripped open again and become infected or something.
“Yeah, sorry.”
“Do you know where Selene and the others are?” Ryo asked.
“No. They took me by surprise on the ship and brought me here.”
“Ah.”
Another silence.
“Are you okay, Ryo?” Griffin asked again.
For what felt like several minutes, he waited for a reply. He was about to repeat his question when Ryo finally answered. “No.”
Just that. Griffin didn’t know what to say. There was nothing to say. In the distance, a howl rang out. Maco. There was nothing Griffin could do for the troll right now. Better to concentrate on the person who was right there.
“I think I’ve gone blind,” Ryo say. Griffin had to smile.
“Don’t worry, if you have, then you’re not the only one. But I dare say that there’s just no light in here.”
“Damn.”
After a short pause, Griffin asked, “What happened to you guys?”
Ryo sighed. “We found the village. And then we were surrounded by these war-vixens. They’re made of some fierce stuff! I almost had three of them when two more jumped me with a rope, trying to strangle me. And then another one fired a rock at my head! The little beasts are fast, I tell ya! Anyway, it knocked me out and I woke up here. Feels like my arm’s dislocated and my head could use some bandages.”
After a moment he quietly added, “I don’t know what happened to the others. But we need to find them so we can escape.”
But for that, we have to figure out a way out of here first, Griffin thought to himself.
A scratching noise came from above him before light flooded into the cell. Blinded, he held up a hand to shield his eyes. Something dropped down from the hole at the top: food. Or at least what Griffin would have considered dog food up to now. A flask of water dangled from a rope. Griffin scampered toward it and untied it. The rope immediately disappeared. The light stayed. Gratefully, Griffin consumed the just-about-edibles and the water. He hadn’t realized how much he’d needed it. He heard the same thing happen in Ryo’s cell.
After a couple of minutes – perhaps half an hour, Griffin wasn’t quite sure about time anymore – the rope returned. He stared at it, not comprehending. There was nothing on it. A woman shouted from above. He grabbed the rope. The shouting got angrier and louder. He let go and picked up the flask. The woman sighed, relaxing a little. Griffin tied it to the rope and it disappeared into the light above. He was plunged into darkness once again, cut off from fresh air and freedom.
He hadn’t understood a single word the woman had shouted at him.
“Do you think we can build an escape route with dog food?” he asked Ryo.
Later – Griffin presumed it was night – he was lulled to sleep by a troll’s desperate howling. It made him wish he could help the poor thing, especially if it was Maco, as he suspected. But how could he help anyone if he couldn’t even help himself? He was a prisoner, just like everyone else. The walls were too smooth and steep to climb. He couldn’t dig through stone with his bare hands and if he were to steal the rope by which they let down water, well… He doubted he would be alive for much longer.
He had found another opening earlier, like the one connecting to Ryo’s cell, but that cell didn’t seem to have an occupant. No food had been left there, and Griffin’s quiet calls were met with silence.
He wondered if all of his comrades had been thrown in cells like these. What about Selene and Aestiva? They weren’t men, so what had happened to them? Were they being treated the same way or were things different for them? He hoped it was. It’d be one thing less to worry about.
And what about the Bat? What had happened to her? Had the Falicians left the ship where it was or had they claimed it as their own?
Despite his fretting, sleep eventually found him. Dreams, however, did not. It was not a restful sleep. His spine ached from lying on the hard rock. There might be straw, but it wasn’t providing any cushioning. If anything, Griffin found it sticking into him, along with tiny pebbles. Every few minutes he woke up, needing to change his position to at least temporarily alleviate the discomfort and then strange noises kept him from falling back to sleep.
A piercing scream resonated through the cells a few hours later. Instantly wide awake, Griffin jerked upright.
“Ryo,” he shouted. “Ryo, are you alright?”
“Mice!” the colossus shrieked. “There are mice in here!”
No sooner had Ryo finished speaking than Griffin felt tiny paws grab one of his fingers. Then the little rodent brushed past him. He could hear some quiet squeaky noises coming from behind him. Although he didn’t share Ryo’s irrational fear, he did feel somewhat uneasy. He had heard of hungry rodents nibbling on sleeping people, but checking his body in the darkness, he seemed to be unharmed. Listening intently, he could only hear the quiet pattering of a single scurrying creature. Perhaps… Could it be?
“Zero?” Griffin asked cautiously.
“It is I,” the shapeshifter admitted. “I thought I recognized Ryo’s snoring.”
“You could’ve just said hello instead of scaring me to death,” Ryo growled through the opening. “If you ever do that again, I swear I will cook you next time you turn into something tasty!”
Zero chuckled apologetically. “I am glad to find the two of you.”
“Do you know where any of the others are?” Griffin asked excitedly.
He had to wait for an answer.
Loud scratching sounds from above were accompanied by light streaming into the cell. Griffin just about saw Zero turn into a mouse and scurry away while he himself lay down, pretending to be asleep. He heard some alarmed yelling from above and squinted against the light to see some Falician women look around his cell, confused.
Ryo’s scream must have startled them. Once they had established that there was no imminent threat to their prisoners – and more importantly, to their village – they closed up the light-bringing holes again. The three men waited silently for a few minutes to ensure that their captors were really gone.
They weren’t.
The Falicians made Griffin get up and checked him for injuries, or perhaps for weapons, he wasn’t sure. Then they looked around every inch of his cell with a lantern. They asked him a question. Griffin shrugged, not understanding.
The woman who had spoken shook her head, and they left again, leaving Griffin in the darkness.
Neither Ryo nor Griffin dared to speak after that. Only when they next got food, morning judging by the light, did they begin chatting once again. Griffin found himself somewhat apathetic to his situation. It wasn’t too bad, really, he told himself. Sure, the ground was uncomfortable, but the water they got was clean and the food was edible. If they needed to relieve themselves, there was something like a drainage system in a corner of each cell. It didn’t smell nice, but it was better than it could’ve been. They got a little bit fresh air and light twice a day, it seemed. Griffin wondered when they would let them out to be in sunshine again, if ever.
“And this is what I became a pirate for,” Ryo chuckled.
Griffin would’ve stared at him in disbelief had there been any light to see anything. Ryo seemed to nevertheless sense Griffin’s reaction, which caused him to chuckle a bit more.
“I’m kidding, of course!”
“Then why did you become a pirate?” Griffin enquired, choosing to ignore the failed joke.
“Ahh,” Ryo sighed, reminiscing. “Have I ever told you how much I hate the Marine?”
Griffin thought back on the perhaps million times he had heard of Ryo’s rather strong dislike for them.
“You may have mentioned it,” he noted.
“Well, this is why,” Ryo began. “When I was a boy, my father put me on a Marine ship under the command of one of his friends. He thought it was the best move; to have his son become part of the Marine young, so he would then become an officer at a young age and have more chances to rise in the hierarchy.”
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