The Concept of Crafting

The thumping of the club against my side was the only sensation I could feel, long having turned numb to the abuse. I lay collapsed on the ground, legs splayed out next to me and arms limp at my sides, no strength left in them to defend myself. The shackles clanked with every hit, and I slid across the ground slightly from the force. I forced my eyes open, looking up at the slaver foreman hitting me with a club.

The man was built like a brick wall, and three times as ugly, but had the strength of three men and wasn't afraid to use it on us. By us, I mean the captured slaves that were forced to mine a silver vein that the boss of the slavers found. Most were doing the actual mining, however due to my body I was made to haul the ore to the massive cart by the gate to the camp.

I was an aurisal, a type of tauric race with the lower half of a massive wolf. We boasted immense physical power, and our military specialized as shock troops. A battalion would charge with tower shields and lances, and impact the enemy lines before retreating. As my mind wandered, I realized that the beating had stopped and the foreman was looking towards the gate. I was vaguely aware of someone yelling, and then the foreman rushed off, leaving me a broken mess on the ground.

Then the screaming started.

I forced my head off the dirt, looking to the gate through immense effort. I was just in time to see the foreman's head fly from his shoulders. I watched in numb silence as his head hit the ground and rolled a bit, the bloody arterial spray fountaining from his headless corpse. A small, hysterical giggle escaped me as I collapsed back to the ground, fading into unconsciousness.

My memories of the next several hours were blurry, flashes of the slavers being massacred, a group of people in robes and armour, a green glow, me being carried, and more screaming, I think my own. Eventually, I fell into a dreamless sleep, and didn't wake until I felt a soft hand shaking my shoulder gently.

I bolted upright, breathing hard and looking around in wild panic at the unfamiliar surroundings. Someone laid their hand lightly on my shoulder and I flinched away, cringing from the touch. The hand quickly pulled away, and I immediately looked over at the person I hadn't noticed until now.

It was an elf woman in armoured robes that marked her as a battlemage. She was watching me with concern, a kind but worried expression on her face.

“Hey, it's okay, you're safe now, alright?” She said, her voice soft to avoid startling me. She slowly reached out to me, and I hesitantly leaned into the touch. As though that simple act broke something inside me, I began crying, a sickening sound born of torture and trauma. The woman pulled me close, my legs curled under me as I sobbed into her shoulder.

I cried for what felt like hours, but must have only been around ten minutes before it finally petered out to a few soft sniffs. At some point, she had started stroking my hair, and my ears twitched at her touch. She leaned back, looking into my eyes.

“Are you feeling better now?” She asked gently. I sniffed before nodding, and then tried to ask her name. All that came out was a raspy wheeze, and then I was thrown into a coughing fit. When I recovered enough to try again, she handed me a cup of water which I greedily gulped down.

“Name?” I rasped, still not fully able to speak. She refilled my cup from a nearby pitcher before responding.

“I'm Allysa, a member of the Adventurer's Guild. I was part of the team that rescued you and the others. We found you beaten almost to death, laying on the ground with numerous injuries. Pala, our healer, did her best, but…” She grimaced. It was just then that I realized that I could not feel one of my front paws. Looking down, I could see that my right leg was still mostly there, but from about halfway down my shin there was nothing but a scarred stump.

“Your front paw’s bones were basically powder. They were in so many pieces that she couldn't heal it. I'm sorry…” Allysa trailed off when I gave her a hug.

“Not… your… fault.” I rasped. “Saved… me… and… others. Foot… small price… to pay… for end… of torture.” It was her turn to cry now, holding me close and burying her face in my hair. It was strange, how just a while ago I was dying in a slave mine, and now I was hugging a stranger I just met while we both cried. Allysa's crying was interrupted by a sudden knock on the door, causing me to jump.

A man, the one I recognized as having killed the foreman, opened the door and looked us over.

“Ah, I see the girl is finally awake! Hey, Allysa, I really, really hate to interrupt, but we were just issued an urgent request to hunt down some allies of those slavers. One of the guild scouts just found another camp a few miles from the last.”

Allysa nodded before gently extricating herself from our hug and standing. Before she left, she turned back to me once more.

“Hey, I forgot to ask, but what is your name?”

I drank another glass of water before responding.

“Lycara Mallin.”

They froze at my name, as only nobles or important figures have last names. They shared a look that said they knew precisely where I came from.

Allysa cleared her throat. “So, you are a noble?” I made a face before nodding.

“Don't care much for the title. Was on my way to the capital to train as a crafter. Slavers attacked, killed everyone except me. Brought me to that wretched place, realized I couldn't fit in the mine, forced me to haul ore like a horse. Beat me every time I slowed even slightly. Eventually I stopped feeling the pain, but they beat me anyway. Were getting ready to kill me when you arrived. If you go after the others, be warned that one of the slavers is a tamer of some kind and has a drake enslaved. Before you ask, my parent's title is Duke and Duchess.”

They both seemed staggered by the large amount of information dumped onto them, but they took it in stride.

“Thank you Lycara, Draven and I will inform the others. You just rest for a while, alright? We'll be back in a few days at most, a few hours at least.” Allysa said before walking out, Draven following behind her.

As the door closed, I flopped to my side on the bed, rapidly fading back to sleep as my exhausted body decided it was just done with the world for now.