David felt someone roughly shaking his shoulders. Even though he had slept through eathquakes before, he had to wake up...given the slight kick he just received at his groin.
'Ugh, ugly morons!' He cursed inwardly as his eyes flew open.
He found himself lying on the ground, surrounded by the figures of the large horses that loomed over him, their reins being held by the three knights.
The knight that had been riding the horse he was sitting on was standing closest to him. He looked irritated as he glared at the lying David.
Meanwhile, David just wanted to trash around and maybe even shout out for the pain he was experiencing right now. But one glance at the nameless girl who was watching him curiously, he swallowed all his complaints.
No way was he going to embarrass himself here. Call it his fragile ego but he just wouldn't.
"Get up, savage. We have arrived." The knight bellowed, making David wince.
'Rest in peace, my little eardrums.'
With some efforts, he raised himself from the ground and almost slipped for not holding onto something for support. Afterall, his hands were tied together and these knights didn't look like they would do a charity by helping him.
The nameless girl silently stepped up beside him, her eyes on the ground as if afraid to lock eyes with any person present there.
Ahead of them, two other soldiers - not knights, stood in attention, their heads raised high.
Behind those two, at a little distance away, a small caravan rested by a tree.
One of the soldiers approached them. "Sir, the caravan is ready. We didn't exactly have much space in it but maybe...we can adjust them somehow." The rugged looking man said while glancing at David and the nameless girl.
One of the knights harrumphed. "Of course, do that. They are just a waste of space anyway...just make sure they reach the Southern Capital."
The soldier bowed in answer. "Without a doubt, sir. The others in the caravans are also going to the Capital for the Sihapis, so it's all alright."
A knight yawned, his eyes slightly puffy and red from lack of sleep. "Take them then. We need to be on our way as well before we get some rest...hopefully."
'An eternal rest sounds better.' David snickered inwardly. If only he could have uttered them without facing consequences...
"Hai, sirs! We shall be taking our leave then." Saying that, the soldier pointed at the two nameless asking them to follow him and his colleague.
David glanced subtly at the three knights before following the soldier. 'I am no astrologer but my senses say I shall watch you three die someday....and the rest of your squad.'
The imagine of his burning village flashed through his mind for a split moment. The flaming fires and his people's screams - people like him, their agony still burned in his mind. As long as he was alive, he would definitely avenge them.
He approached the caravan and instantly felt the intense urge to puke. In front of the caravan, two slaves were tied to a tree - they were almost naked except for the filthy white or what was once a white piece of garment that covered their figures from waist down. Their skin was shriveled, with veins popping at odd angles.
But what made David almost puke was the fact that their skins looked like overcooked meat and as if that wasn't enough, red diagonal marks marked their skins like some plague. Without a doubt, they had been beaten with whips for all they were worth.
"No Hermanns..." The girl beside him mumbled. To which David added, "But they are humans..."
The girl looked at him with widened eyes as if he had just spoken a divine revelation.
Then almost hesitantingly, she nodded. "Yes. Humans."
*Slash*
A whipping sound echoed in the air, making both of them flinch as if the whip had struck them. They looked in front of them, at one of the slaves who opened their eyes in a dizzying manner, too tired and in hellish agony to even respond to the pain.
With trembling hands, he tried waking the other slave beside him. But mid way through it, the man standing above them struck his whip on the other person, who opened his eyes with a sudden scream.
This person looked younger but was afflicted with the same malnourished and tortured state as the other slave. And it seemed that he still had the senses to feel pain.
David didn't know whether that was even a good or a bad thing. In a way he felt grateful for him on not loosing the only thing that made a human a human; even if he escaped, he could continue his life from where he had left it off.
But here comes the twist...before this imaginative situation happened or if it even happens, he still needed to deal with all the pain and torture. In a way, he would have probably prayed to be 'blessed' with the disease the other slave carried, if he was in his shoes.
"Oh? Two new slaves waiting to join the line?" The man holding the folded whip in his hand, asked in a condescending manner as he smirked at David and the nameless.
The soldier guiding them answered, "Not exactly. Heard they are going to be contesting for the Sihapis."
The man laughed at such a response. "Does it matter? They shall become slaves like these two here..." He pointed downwards at the fallen slaves as he continued, "...and be worked till their death with miserable conditions or they shall end up as Sihapi slaves, the very frontline of our border forces, and end up rotting there to death - never knowing what even killed them. Either way, they are doomed."
David stole a quick glance at the nameless girl as a shiver passed through her body.
"Alright go into the caravan." The man pointed at the small door of the wooden transport.
The soldiers quickly opened the doors into a dark space, only lightened with few specks of sunlight.
David and the nameless girl could hardly squeeze through the door as they passed through it.
Instantly they both felt a stenching smell that invaded their nostrils.