“Stop whining or I cut your tongue!”

The guard yelled annoyed. It wasn’t a baseless treat, they had done it once already and the prisoners knew. The prison went silent. Only the occasional sob could be heard, breaking the silence. Nobody even dared to speak.

I had long since stopped crying or being afraid. There was nothing I could do. Crying was only a waste of health. Escape wasn’t an option to. I was just a seamstress. I lacked the skills to escape. Even if I managed to escape from my cell I would surly be caught by one of the guards. In that case I could only hope to be killed quickly.

Instead I resigned myself to comfort my fellow inmates. Just like me they were all young woman and girls. From the looks of it I was with 18 the oldest. Although looks could be deceiving.

I never would have thought that I would be kidnapped in broad daylight by an underground organization. I had always made sure to be on the commonly used and save streets in the end I was still caught. Even worse the underworld was currently laying low. The heroes of multiple kingdoms where currently in Ironwall and yet I was caught. The gods must be laughing at me with a cruel laugh. How else could I explain my predicament. My sins are negligible compared to others and yet here I sit experiencing one of the worst things one can. Being sold of as a slave for someone.

Whilst I contemplate my destiny I hug Mina. She has been in my embrace for hours, crying and sobbing in my arms. She is one of the reasons why the guard had yelled. Her crying is understandable. After all she was brought here only today. Mina is a young child barley in her teenage years and now she is to be sold as slave to some pervert. The gods are the worst, why do they leave an innocent child in such a state. Worst of all Mina is a Catkin, having catlike ears and a tail, as well as sharp fingernails and cat eyes. To slave traders she is a valuable resource selling for much and even more valuable because she is still young. I don’t want to imagine what her buyer will do to her. She will end up as the toy of a rich perverted noble and will ultimately be thrown away if they grow bored of her.

After a while I managed to calm her down. The yelling of the guard helped although in a negative way. Now she was sleeping in my arms, having drained all her energy by crying. I gently stroked her back like I would do with a cat. I just wanted to comfort her. My grandpa had told me that Catkin could purr like an actual cat and that stroking calmed them down. I hoped that it would help.

The others in the cell where also falling asleep. Most of the younger ones, were just like Mina in the embrace of an older girl. We all sat as far as possible away from the iron bars, hiding in a corner huddled together for the smallest amount of warmth and comfort.

The guard where horrible they yelled at us for the smallest things and threaded us like livestock. We didn’t even get enough food and the food we good was horrible. I hadn’t eaten for two days so the younger ones could eat my share. Some others of the older ones did the same thing. The only good thing about the horrible treatment of the guards was that they weren’t into kids. Luckily they too saw me as child, despite me being 18. This is the first time that I ever was happy about looking way younger than I am. I am scared of getting dragged away like some other woman from other cells. The woman that got taken away for the pleasure of the guards rarely returned and if they did they were barley recognizable. Only one of the women that returned cried the other only had an empty dead stare.

I was somewhere I the middle of the night and I was slowly dozing of into a dreamless sleep. The nightmares I had when I first got here, were now more.

Suddenly a guard flew past our cell, hitting the ground multiple times and bouncing of like a ragdoll. I was wide awake. Before I could react, Noel the most fearless of us all rushed forward to the ironbars to see what was happening. The guards from the other side of the room charged past our cell, weapons ready and screaming from the top of their lungs,

With an ugly crack one guard landed before our cell. His head angled in a weird way. I hid Mina’s head in my chest, preventing her from seeing what was happening. Mina now awake complied and held her ears shut. I couldn’t see what was happening, but it sounded horrific.

“Noel!! come here!!1”

I shouted. My voice cracked. Noel flinched, hurried back and hunkered down next to me, holding her ears and eyes shut. She had a terrified look on her face.

It was quit. Death silent. As quick as it came it went by. The only thing I could her was my breathing and heart beating.

A shadow appeared on the ground of the hallway. Slowly getting bigger and bigger. A giant appeared slowly walking in the hallway and stopping before our cell.

They were truly a giant far taller than my uncle who was the tallest man I knew. The giant was covered head to toe in a black cloak covered in fresh blood. His boots and gauntlets were only partially covered by the cloak. Both made of old black metal. They looked heavy and thick. Their face was hidden under a hood and behind a mask. The mask was horrific. Only painted in white red and black. Depicting an abstract demonic face. The mask was grinning, displaying four massive teeth that couldn't be hidden in the mouth like an Ogre. The top of the mask had two long slender horns.

The giant stood a moment before our cell, before grabbing two iron bars and bending them sideways, creating an opening, through which we could escape. And we did the moment the giant stepped back from the ironbars some of my inmates got up and ran out of the cell. I waited until the majority was out. Then I stood up and tacking Mina on my back. Then I grabbed Noel and dragged her through the opening in our cell.

“Burry your head in my should and don’t look.”

I instructed Mina trying my best to do it in a gentle and soft tone. She complied without objection. Noel simply followed my lead, letting herself get dragged around on my hand. Her facial expression was somewhere between emotionless and horrified for life.

The moment I stepped out of the cell and into the hallway I wanted to run back in and hide in the corner. The iron smell of blood was trying its best to make me puke. The giants work was something that I thought would only happen in horror stories. I couldn’t tell how many guards were laying in the hallway. They laid there ripped apart in boodles of blood and other bodily fluids. Bones, organs and body parts laying around with horrific crude wounds. The faces I saw had horrific expressions. They didn’t die a fast painless death. They died ripped apart by blood loss. I couldn't help but to feel sorry for them. I would never wish such a death to somebody, even if I loathed them like I did these guards.

The giant the perpetrator of this slaughter, was busy opening up the other cells freeing the prisoners. They worked calm and collected as if the slaughter didn’t even effect them. Looking closer at the giant I realized that they weren’t carrying a weapon.

“Monster”

I whispered. The giant was a monster. There was no other explanation. There was no god who had heard our prayers, but a monster. We could only hope that it wouldn’t hunt us in the end. For now I decided to stay near the giant, it was the safest place for now. I preferred to stay next to a monster than risking to run into a guard on my way out. I wasn’t the only one with this idea, some other woman too stayed with them.

After a while they were finished with opening all the cells and started to walk towards the exit. The way towards the exit was blocked by the pile of corpses the giant had created. None of us moved forward, it was like we weren’t able to cross the path before us. The giant moved past us and in to the pile of corpses. Whilst they were moving through the corpses they kicked them left and right creating a path we could follow.

Led by the giant we moved through the hallways. They were like a little maze. I surely would have gotten lost hear. Luckily I decided to stay with the giant, since they seemed to know where to go. On our way we went past multiple corpses each one in a condition worse then the other.

For some reason the corpse that got me closet to puking was one, were the giant had grabbed its neck in the spine and ripped it out. Some of the women however did puke when they saw this corpse or another. Noel too didn’t puke. Her face expression hadn’t changed since the moment she went to the ironbars back in our cell to check what was happening. Mina was clever enough to obey my word and not getting tempted by curiosity. She flinched whenever she heard a slightly loud sound, probably fearing that this was an attacker coming to kill her.

Suddenly a guard charged from a sideway. Axe over their head, ready to strike. The giant grabbed his face and clenched their fist breaking the skull with a crunching sound, spilling blood and brain on the floor, walls and themselves. They didn’t even look. A woman puked others screamed.

Finally we reached a set of stairs leading upwards. Lead by the giant we moved upstairs. I could fell a faint gust of fresh air. The stairs were leading outside on a small court sou rounded by houses.

“Shoot”

A guard yelled. Following his command the group of guards, he was with, armed with crossbows fired their bolts. The giant didn’t evade. Taking every bolt to their body shielding us from getting hurt. The giant didn’t move. I let out a cry, this couldn’t happen.! They couldn’t die! I don’t want to go back.

The giant slowly raised his arms, crossing them before his chest. With a swift movement he lowered them again, now holding a crossbow bolt in each hand.

The giant stormed of, reaching the guard in a moment. Then the slaughter began. The guards attacked the giant. Nobody waited all attacked at once. The giant retaliated impaling them one after another with the bolts they had fired into their chest, or immobilizing them by breaking their bones. After a short slaughter the giant was to only one left standing. Only one guard was moving. Slowly dragging his body away from the giant. He couldn’t walk anymore, for the giant had crushed his legs. The giant still had a bolt left in his hand. With a flick of his arm he threw the bolt piercing the guards head, killing him instantly.

Suddenly we heard steps coming from the right. I hurried behind the giant dragging Noel along like I did the entire time. The giant stood there in the middle of the court while we did our best to hide behind them.

A door opened and a knight came out followed by a group of women. The knight was fully armed in a silver armor with intricate golden rims. These rims swirled around his armor creating one beautiful pattern after another. The main motive of these golden patterns was a rose and thorns. In his left hand he wielded a long rapier the guard of the rapier was a reddish gold rose. The rose knight was the incarnation of a prince in armor, who set out to save his princess. He was like a fairytale turned reality.

The rose knight and the giant starred at each other for a moment. Examining each other closely. Then the knight shrugged his shoulders. Both the knight and the giant turned around and started to move towards the big gate on the edge of the court.

Halfway there the door swung open guard pouring out. They were nothing like the guards I had seen until now. This guards wore a uniform clothes made out of metal and cloth, armed with well kept weapons. They moved in unison, as if they were soldiers of the army. They took a stance next to the gate neatly sorted in two rows. The front row was armed with melee weapons and the second row quickly readied their crossbows.

Lastly the commander entered the court through the gate. He was taller than the guards, maybe as tall as the giant. He was a massive mass of muscles, which he proudly displayed. His bare chest was adorned with an intricate tattoo of a bull in front of an eclipse. He was armed with an over sized cleaver. Muray the butcher the hitman of the hollow bull. Even I, a law abiding citizen knew of his fearsome reputation.

“Alright playtime is over. No face some foes that can fight back!”

Muray sprinted forward. Accompanied by the bolts of his militia. His men immediately readied there crossbows for another volley. The giant and the rose knight lunged forward. The rose knight jumped into the militia, only to retreat as quickly as he entered. A field of red roses started to bloom on the chest of three of the milita men. Before they could hit the ground, the knight lunged forwards once more sinking his rapier in another body.

The giant rushed forward to meet Muray. Muray readied his cleaver in sprint. Swinging it at the giants neck. The giant didn’t evade. Muray was no pushover the cleaver hit, with such a force that it broke from the impact. Before he could realize what happened he was grabbed by the giant in the face, lifted from the ground and smashed down. Before Muray could manage to get up the giant put their foot on his chest. With a loud crush the giant moved his foot down, through Murray’s ribcage lungs, heart and finally spine.

In the meantime the rose knight had finished his task of taking care of the militia. Motionless they laid on the ground in a see of their own blood.

“Are you an Elysian?”

I whispered there was no way someone could survive a direct hit to the neck with a giant cleaver like Muray had. Not even accounting for the fact that it broke on impact. Muray was said to be on par with heroes. No hero could survive such a hit without taking damage, they were still humans after all. Demons and other too weren’t some indestructible being there are plenty of stories of humans defeating them.

The stories grandpa had told me about Elysian, were always like a tale about natural disasters. The Elysian dictated the flow of these stories, whoever stood in their way got crushed, whoever tried to manipulate them to got crushed, whoever angered or exposed them got crushed. There was simply nothing that could move them around other then theyself or another Elysian. My favorite Story was about an Elysian called Count of Necromancy Emma, who fell in love with a human princess. She challenged and killed the god of death so she could be forever with her love of life.

The giant turned around and slowly walked towards me.

“Please don’t kill me I didn’t see anything.”

I don’t want to die! I want to life! I didn’t want to anger the Giant, it wasn’t my intention

The giant moved closer until they stood directly before me. I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see what they would do to me.

I felt an impact on my head and another. The giants hand was on my head moving from right to left and then back. After a moment it stopped and the giant removed their hand. They… they were patting my head. My head still felt warm and wet. Wet? I touched the top of my head now my hand felt also wet. It was blood but not mine. I didn’t feel hurt or dizzy. Must be from when the giant patted my hand.

I grabbed Noel once again and followed the giant through the gate on the streets. We where on some kind of sidestreets. I had no idea where we where in Ironwall. The only thing I knew was that we were now free. Some of the women, who where freed tonight ran of in to the night, I guess they had somewhere to return to. Some others stayed. I too stayed I couldn’t abandon Noel and Mina and I wouldn’t be exactly missed.

After a while of waiting we, were only a fraction of the original numbers. The giant walked of and we followed. We walked through the dark streets lead by the giant. The giant seemed to have a destination and walked through the maze like structure of the sideways of Ironwall with confidence. The rose knight also tagged along, walking behind us taking on the job of rearguard. Oddly enough I had never felt this save since I was caught by the slavers. There was nothing that attacked us on our nightly journey.

In the end we arrived at a bunch of carriages near one of the cities gates. The carriages, where already filled with men and boys, who seemed to be in the same condition as us. It was apparent that they too had been saved by the rose knight and the giant.

We entered the carriage and sat down on on of the benches. The carriage I was on was filled with food. After a while the carriage started to move. We moved towards and through the gate. The giant and rose knight had forcefully opened the gate to let us through. Once we where outside the carriage stopped.

The time the carriage stood still I used to place Mina and Noel properly on the bench. Before we moved on the giant entered our carriage handing us all a knife. They gave me three knives. Then they put a pendant on me. The pendant was made out of a single rectangular piece. It kind of looked like a dragon scale. The the giant left the carriage. Shortly after we started to move. Looking out of the carriage I saw the walls of Ironwall slowly getting smaller and smaller, so to did the rose knight and the giant who remained in Ironwall.

I started to move towards my new life, gifted to me by monster, Elysian.

Two chapters for one week without