The Adventures of A Reborn Dragonkin

Chapter 3: Bring The Cavalry

"Your Majesty, our source has sent a message." In the rather large office, the older gentleman bows in a respective manner to the man sitting at the desk, the surface littered with stacks of papers. The regal man looks up at the servant, his tired yet sharp gold eyes piercing though him.

"Oh?" He hums in interest, setting down the fountain pen and steepling his fingers in front of him. "Well, spit it out, this is quite an important matter." The older servant unfurls the small piece of paper in his palm, having been sent through a messenger bird. He takes a moment to focus his bleary eyes on the message before relaying it to the king.

" 'Corrin Forest, edge of kingdom at town Mortemal, sundown. One captive, many beasts.' " The servant pauses and looks at the young king, a slivering brow raised. "If I may, it sounds like a call for backup." The king sits silently, pondering as his chiseled features pull taut with thought. A moment later he looks up, his golden eyes sharp.

"Get my brother here, and get special company 06 ready. Tell them to be ready to leave within the hour."

Silas slowly wakes up, feeling like a truck had hit him. For a fleeting moment, he thinks to himself how he's glad that he didn't die like that in his past life.

He groans in pain, tasting the metallic blood in his mouth before slowly opening his mismatched eyes. A fire flickers in his vision, small enough to not attract attention but large enough to keep the camp warm. Men sat around the far side of the camp, a caravan of cages surrounding them. Silas stares at the flames dully for a moment, trying to comprehend his thoughts when someone shuffles outside of his vision.

A heavy boot lands on the side of his face, pushing his head into the dirt. Silas moves to grab the ankle, but finds his hands bound behind his back. The owner of the boot says something to him, his familiar voice condescending. Silas manages to turn his head slightly enough to see the smirk on the man's face.

Oh, that's right. These people took him.

"Awake already?" The leader leans more on his foot, pushing the teenager's face further into the dirt. "Asleep for nearly the whole day, I was hoping you would stay that way until we got to town."

The men around the fire watch silently as their leader crouches down and sits the boy up. He grasps Silas's chin roughly, forcing the glaring boy to look at him and tilts his face to either side.

"With your face, you're going to fetch a nice price-" The leader's sentence cuts off abruptly when Silas spits in his face. The men freeze and hold their breath as their leader emotionlessly wipes the bloody spit off his face. Some of the men turn away when they hear the loud clap that follows.

"Too bad you're a wild little thing." The men look back and see the boy's head turned to the side, his cheek beginning to swell red. Silas keeps his head turned that way, his cheek stinging sharply with pain but refusing to make a sound. He knows that what he did was reckless considering his life was in their hands, but he also knew the arrogant man was insulting him without having to understand his words.

Looking back at the leader, Silas glares at him, not breaking eye contact. The man stares back emotionlessly for a moment before standing up, looking down on him. A sneer crosses his face, muttering a word with obvious distaste.

"Stubborn."

He picks Silas up by the front of his shirt and drags him over to the nearest cart in the caravan. Unlocking the cage, the man tosses him inside carelessly before locking it again. He smirks at the willful expression on the boy before hitting the bars once.

"Have fun." Turning back to his men, he orders, "Don't give him any food or water. The brat needs to learn his place." Most of the men took the order without question but two of them glanced secretly at each other. Like that, the campsite is promptly broken down within ten minutes.