Chapter 1
I sit down, back against the wall so I face the door. There are no windows, only dirt that was once a soft brown, but now almost black due to the amount of blood spilled on it. I hear the clang of a door and watch as the Shalamr open a cage across from mine. I watch yet again, as they pull out the poor being that is in there. The beings in the cages are constantly being replaced, due to them not surviving the Glipher, or pits, for very long. I have been here for as long as I can remember, and the acts of the Shalamr have long ago stopped bothering me. Years ago, I overheard one of them say that I was 14. Since then, I have counted the years by taking a broken piece of the cage and carving notches into the wall. Now I am 22, most in here never make it that long. Once I seen my reflection, a girl with faded, dingy brown hair, and blue eyes with no sparkle. What I may look like now is beyond me.
I shift slightly and wince at the wound in my side, I just got done fighting about an hour ago, a Melert some how managed to hit me in my side. Melert’s are nasty creatures when they want to be, usually they are a peaceful race, but if cornered and not given the option of flight, they can be as bad as anything. The Kelmary in the cage next to me gets up quickly, as if to help the poor creature, but is stopped by his chains. He snarls at them, but it does no good, they drag the Prouly out of here and take it away. Once we hear the door shut, the Kelmary turns to me.
“You just sat there and watched!!! You could of at least done something!!! Now that poor thing is probably getting raped!!” He yells; I sigh, he has been here about a hundred and fifty-two days, a little longer than most, but not long enough to understand just how things work.
“They won’t rape the Prouly.” I tell him. You can usually tell the age of one by their voice, the deep husky ones are female and the light airy ones are male. This one does not speak, I haven’t even heard it scream, so we don’t know if it is male or female.
“How do you know?” He asks harshly.
“The Shalamr have no genitals, they are a single gender race.” I tell him with a shrug. He sits, taken back by the news.
“So what is happening to it?”
“It is being either trained or fighting, more than likely fighting, the Shalamr very rarely train anyone.” Just then the door opens and this time a group of Crocotta walks in. I sit up straighter, despite my side complaining, I can’t really blame it though, it is a part of me. They stop outside my cage and growl threateningly, I growl back, overtime I have come to know the language of all of our captures, the Crocotta speak through a lot of different growls and snarls. I can now tell the difference between the Crocotta’s growls and snarls. This one was new and knew that I did not smell as the others did. The other races besides humans have a almost sweet scent. For some races, like the Mrelst, that scent is very strong; others, like the Walnyn, is very faint. I do not have a sweet scent, I have been told that I have a scent that is like a mixture of different spices, which is weird because the only time I go out of this cage is when I go to the Glipher.
The Crocotta keeps on growling, getting closer to the cage, the Kelmary next to me growls faintly, not liking the animal like creatures getting near him. The Crocotta pays him no mind, its goal getting me to submit. A lot of races have forgotten about the humans; they still remember them as a race that lived here a long time ago and who were superior to them, but they do not remember the scent. The only race here that knows that I am human are the Muchungs. But there are very few of them.
As soon as the Crocotta gets close enough, I launch myself at the cage door and let loose a furious snarl. The Crocotta stumbles back and whimpers; the other Crocotta growl lightly at their friend, as close as they get to a laugh, the foolish Crocotta slinks back, it’s head bowed down in shame. I continue to growl at them, threatening them to come closer. They eventually go back the way they came and I climb down the door and make my way carefully back to my spot, holding my side carefully. The Kelmary looks at me in a look of confusion, awe, and worry as he sees me hold my side.
“Why are you holding your side, that Chelmire did not come close enough to do that to you. And how do you know their language? Only the ones who specialize in the Chelmire can understand them and that is only a little bit” I growl at him, using his language this time. I basically told him to back off or I will slam him into a wall multiple times. His look turns angry and he says in a calm but angry voice.
"Who taught you that language? Tell me so they can be punished.” The Kelmary have two languages, the basic that is taught to travelers and is available to everyone, then there is the original. This is only taught to the pure blooded Kelmary. It is a closely guarded language and they will strictly punish anyone that taught an outsider. There are special tattoos that only the pure blooded have this tattoo, but they can give one that is similar to the pure bloods, but it means that the person is a closely regarded friend, or Rashla, and if you hurt them then you will be put in that families shit list basically. Every pure blood tattoo is different because there are different families, therefore, the Rashla tattoos are different. I sigh and lift my hair off the back of my neck, then turn around so he can see the Rashla at my collar bone and say.
“When you have been here as long as I you pick up stuff, you also make friends. You aren’t the only Kelmary who has been here and you certainly won’t be the last.” I put my hair back and turn around.
“I apologize, Rashla--" but I cut him off.
“You did not know so there is no need of an apology.”
“How long have you been here?” he asks.
“How long have you been a warrior?” I counter.
“Do you know other languages?”
“Do you?”
“How old are you?”
“How old are you?” He groans and says.
“I won’t get anywhere with you, will I.”
“Nope.” I smirk. He goes to his wall and leans back.
“Are you ever going to answer my questions?”
“Maybe, when you survive longer.”
“How much longer?”
“At least a year and a half.” I tell him, his eyes pop open.
“Do you know the chances of that!!!!” he asks loudly.
“I have survived way longer than that and there are a few beings who have survived longer. The second longest being to survive down here survived for almost three years before it was killed.” I say, my tone cold and hard, he looks taken aback.
A few hours pass and the Shalamr come to give us our daily meals. It is enough so that we stay strong enough to survive, but does not give us enough strength to fight. Once they drop the trays off with bowls of soup and a small loaf about the size of my palm of bread, they leave. Once they are all gone, I tear my bread in half and eat about half my soup, then crawl over to the Kelmary. As much as I want to eat all of it, I know that the Kelmary will need it more than me.
“Here.” I tell him as I make my way over to him. He looks at me, then sees the tray in my hand and shakes his head.
“You need it as much as me.” He says, how sweet, he is trying to be noble, but that is foolish for him to do, I can survive longer with less portions of food than he can.
“I have already eaten as much as I was going to, besides, I know that that bowl of soup will barely sustain you. Don’t try to be noble in this place, it will make you a fool.” I put the tray down, then went back to my spot and put a notch in the wall. One day down, a bunch more to go. Then I look at the Kelmary and find that the soup and bread are gone. I crawl back over and put the plate in front of my cage door, then close my eyes and relax, the closest thing I get to sleep here.
