Chapter 4/4 The path of three

“FOOD” the one with the spoon yells as they arrive at the bottom of the stairs. They start walking from cage to cage, throwing some kind of sticky balls into the cages from the cauldron with the large spoon. It’s brownish color and weird texture hints at many things, but edible is not one of them. Nonetheless most of the prisoners start to gobble as soon as they claim it, like they haven’t eaten for weeks.

“Here comes your salvation.” the calm man turns to the brute.

“What do you mean?” he asks back.

“Nothing” he responds smiling. In half a minute the men reach their cages, and just like at all the others, they throw a ball brown weirdness for them too. The brute doesn’t hesitate, he grabs it and gets at it immediately, while the others inspect the ball thoroughly before even considering tasting it. The girl doesn’t even notice, as she just sits on the floor crying and mumbling.

Though she doesn’t sit for long, as she suddenly stands up and turns to the calm man “What is wuja?”

His mouth is already full with the weird brown ball that they were given as food. “It’s one of the most potent drugs on the continent” He says between two chews. “Also the most addictive one” he adds. “The withdrawal is painful; it starts with blisters, pain in every part of your body, panicking, hallucinations, and in some cases death.”

“Death? Oh no… I don’t want to die.” she asks as tears start dropping from her eyes.”

“It depends on luck… really” the calm man replies.

“Who are you? And why are you here? Maybe it will help me remember.” She takes a good look around herself. Suddenly the ship shakes a heavy one, which makes some stagger while others completely lose their footing and fall to the ground, among them the girl and older man. The storm doesn’t seem to calm down, neither the sea they are sailing on.

The old man stands up casually and dusts his clothes with a few sweeps. “My name’s Hákon, and I’am… well was… a simple worker for the guild of explorers in Etmer. I’ve lived with them at their base in Cronoha as I had no family… I was an orphan, like many of us there. My job was to help them on their excavations, carry the load, dig, cook…”

“So you were a servant?” the calm man asks him.

“No, he was a helper.” the brute intervenes.

“I got paid pretty well, so… yes, more of a worker.” Hákon responds