Heir of the Dragon

Isen's Well

I pulled myself from a fleeting sleep as I felt the suns warmth retreat as she once more hide herself in the looming mountains. Bark dug into my spine and swollen wrists. I could feel the tender skin under my wet gag slowly becoming a burning rash.

Two weeks of this. Shifting slightly, to ease the feel of the ropes digging into me, I watched the pale skinned men roll up tents and load them onto the larger beast-men's backs. I cringed as a burly man pulled off the black tunic he'd worn to bed leaving his chest and legs bear except for he black cloth around his middle. He threw them roughly at a young lanky boy standing off to his side and I began to hear the sound of twisting, grinding flesh. I watched him lose his form in a mass of black fur.

I had yet to find the ability to control the nausia that flashed through me every time I was unfortunate enough to see it happen, or hear it for that matter. Just as I bit my lip and sealed my eyelids, taking one deep breath at a time, the sound once again began to come from everywhere.

The soot creatures were viciously uncomfortable during the hours when the sun shone so we traveled at night. Every day I was struck awake, thrown onto Payge's massive form, and forced to endure hours of feeling my body bruise again and again. Slowly I had discovered that the pain wasnt as earth-wrenching if only I could retreat deep within myself. I shut it all off. My senses again became a dull faraway feeling and I let myself slip into the depths of my mind. I knew I had been lifted onto Payge. I knew that his pounding footfalls had begun again, keeping time in my personal abyss. I knew the moon was crawling mournfully across the deep lavender sky. But I didnt care. Not tonight.

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I let out a cry as I felt a pair of rough hands yank me from Payge's back and throw me, hard, against the bark of a tree.

"Time to get up princess," The man sneered as I struggled to balance myself away from the sloping trunk of the dark Sicor tree, abyss yanked from my grasp. I slowly realized the gag had fallen around my neck leaving my raw face to feel the biting air of midnight. I did a mental backtrack......midnight? I looked through the canopy of trees that tatood the violet sky. Yes, the moon was still almost straight overhead. I stood puzzled as I watched the men unload eachothers burdens. My skin crawled and I felt my stomach lurch once again as the sound of lurchy breathing and shifting flesh began to rip through the night. I flexed my back trying to ease the feeling of still being tied down, distraction helped. Nervously I stood by my assigned tree unsure of how to digest their carelessness in leaving me unbound to it. The tents were all growing like mushrooms around the forest floor, hastened by the hurried efforts of the band of nearly-men. I felt the warmth of a fire spring up on the opposite side of the tree from me and I forced my aching, burning legs to edge me around to the other side. Five or six of the ruggeds were settling around it pulling out bottles of a brown liquid. I sunk down into the needled ground, pulling my legs up against my chest and enjoying the rare warmth.

"Madon!" I heard one of them bellow across the night, "Get yourself a drink, my boy!" A figure shuffled into the licking light of the fire carrying a rolled blanket under his arm. He slumped stiffly onto the ground next to his burly summoner. The man let out a deep chuckle "The run hard on ya?"

"Let up Jabe." He groaned, rubbing his calves.

"Aw look Achshaph, poor Made's got cinky legs and we've hardly gotten to Isen's well!" the burly man bellowed across the fire. The rest of the men laughed hartily thowing up their flasks.

"Go easy on him, Jabin. It's his first hunt" a figure said, sauntering into the light of the fire. A woman. I hadnt seen any women on this expedition but I could easily see why she could make it on an expedition where no other women would venture. She had a slick figure but her arms were thick with muscle and her brutily feminine yet gracefully placed features were hardened into a stony mask.