I woke up to the sound of rattling chains, horses neighing, and the moving of wheels around me. As my bleary eyes came into focus I found myself in a dim room, at least that's what I saw while my eyes were still adjusting. My wrists and ankles were strangely cold, as if I had metal bracelets around them. I tried to rub my eyes with one of my hands before something stopped them. Finally my eyes started to clear up and I saw shackles chained to my wrists, looking down I found similar chains around my ankles.

  Looking around I realized I was trapped inside a large metal cage big enough for me to take two steps from one end to the other. The cage was covered with this giant dark blue cloak that blocked the sun from fully entering the cage. Each of my limbs were connected to a corner of the cage making sure I stayed in the middle. There was just enough leeway to let the chains go slack but not enough to move around the cage in any kind of way. It seemed that the cage was on some sort of wooden carriage and I was slightly elevated a few feet above the ground.

  Outside the cage I could hear people speaking in a foreign language that had lots of L's and R's. It sounded like a really fucked up version of English that I imagine is what a foreigner would hear when hearing English for the first time. Then I recognized one of the voices, it was that man from last night. The one that kidnapped me was just behind that curtain!

  “You bastard!” I yelled as loudly as I could towards the direction of the voices only to hear snickering.

  “Oh is the little princess awake now?” The man said with a sneer as he switched to English, it only made me want to beat him to a pulp.

  I could hear the other men he was talking to laugh at me. I lunged for the curtain to move it away but tripped as the chains tightened against each other on my weight. The fall only caused even more chains to rattle and more laughter from the men outside the cage. As the laughter died down I heard footsteps approaching the cage as a head appeared from the bottom of the curtain. There I saw an old looking man in his fifties with an icy blue scarf and navy cloak peer at me. He was skinny and looked like a homeless man trying to wear fancy clothes after sleeping on the streets for a month straight.

  “Let me out!” I shouted towards the blue scarfed man. I watched as the man opened the door of the cage with an idiotic grin and presented it to me with flair.

  “Come on then! The door's wide open, all you have to do is walk through!” He barely finished the sentence before he fell back with laughter.

  “I'll get you for this!” I wanted to say something worse but nothing came to mind.

  “Get me? With those chains around you there's not a damn thing you can do. Even just one would suffice.” He looked at the chains with some weird look. “Fortunately for you my superior wants the product in mint condition, so you'll only get a light beating today.”

  “Wha-” Before I could even ask him what he meant a knee made its way to my stomach causing me to vomit a tiny bit.

  Unfortunately whatever little bile escaped my mouth only reached the floor around me and not that man's scarf. I fell down to the floor again and could only watch as the man readied another kick before my stomach felt an even worse pain than before. This time no puke came out, there wasn't much in my stomach anyways. The man readied another kick and watched me wince before he gave me that horrible smile again. He put his palm to my face and felt all of it with his disgusting hand. I was too scared to do anything but close my eyes at his groping before he put his hand towards my chin.

  “Quit the pretty little Steilae aren'tcha?” He paused for a second as if he actually expected me to answer him. “Too bad I can't do more.” With that he finally left the cage leaving me on the floor hoping he wouldn't come back. He closed the door and pulled the curtain above me.

  As the curtain fell onto the ground I finally got a good look of my surroundings and it horrified me. Laying on my side I saw over a dozen other cages on carriages, some had those blue tarps over them while others didn't. From those that weren't covered I could see at least three people in a cage my size and more than double that in a cage twice mine in size. Although for some reason everybody else only had a single chain used to keep them bound unlike me. They all wore various clothes, some I recognized as being obviously Silt-like in nature like the clothes Scarlet wore when I first met her. Others were wearing clothes like me, old timey clothes from the medieval ages that itched everywhere.

  I didn't notice anything all of us had in common, it just seemed like they kidnapped random people off the streets. Maybe we were all wayfarers but that would require me to try talking to the other prisoners but I knew that would only end in disaster. In one of the cages I could see a mother and daughter holding each other, both were shaking. Well I assume that they are mother and daughter even though the mother is a completely normal human while the daughter has bright red skin and pitch black hair like Scarlet. She seemed a few years older than my apparent age, maybe thirteen or fourteen. The girl looked around for any guards before looking at me and waving. I would wave back if I wasn't on the ground so I just locked eyes with her instead.

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  Looking around to the other cages I didn't see anybody that looked anything like me, in the end I couldn't find another Steilae in sight. I wasn't sure whether I should be happy that other Steilae weren't kidnapped or disappointed that I still felt strange even in this already strange world. Thoughts of Steilae brought back the memories of the urges, did other Steilae have them or was I just another anomaly? Inevitable thinking of the urges made me think of my stomach and how much it ached from those kicks.

  Eventually my body began to numb the pain after who knows how long. As the pain subsided I decided to take another look at my surroundings, not like there's much else to do anyways. The clouds above me were a dark grey, although I could feel the sun's warm rays pierce through them and onto me. A nice reprieve from this horrible situation. I noticed that the carriages were all set up in a wide circle surrounding this camp set up by the kidnappers. Everyone inside the camp wore these navy blue pirate coats like some kind of biker gang.

  The tents were similarly made of that navy fabric, all except for one. There was this larger tent in the middle that had the same color as that man scarf, an icy blue. I watched as that old man barked orders at his subordinates in that language I didn't understand. It seemed that the boss liked blue enough to make everybody around him wear the same colors as him.

  As the day went on I stayed silent in my cage and watched the kidnappers go about their day. The other prisoners seemed to think the same and only talked amongst themselves, every now and then I'd catch them looking at me with pity before they quickly averted their eyes. They all looked at me with pitiful gazes even though we were all in the same situation. Was it because I got beaten up or was it because I was a Steilae? Even here as a prisoner I was different from everyone else. I should've asked Damian more about Steilae when I had the chance.

  Eventually the cloudy grey sky began to dim ever so slightly until before I realized it night had already arrived bringing a chill with it. From what I could see the ringleader had a red gem and used it to make a firepit that the other men started taking flames from. As the night passed on I began to see some other kidnappers returning with dead animals and game. I watched the corpses with a hunger I hadn't felt in a while, if only I wasn't in this cage then maybe I could eat some of that meat.

  Soon the scent of roasting meat made its way to my nostrils and I nearly drooled at the smell. I watched as the men ate into the animal carcasses without much of a reaction to the meat as if it didn't taste nearly as good as the aroma made it out to be. The kidnappers just didn't understand true cuisine if none of them cared for the meat. As three of the kidnappers sat at a makeshift table near my tent I realized that all the meat had been unseasoned and just cooked without any flavoring like the rabbit I'd eaten. Of them was that man with the scarf who scoffed at the meat he was eating.

  The scarfed man pulled out a deck of cards with snowflakes on the back and on the front were a bunch of symbols that I didn't recognize. I remembered seeing a similar card back in the sewers right after Damian and I killed those giant rats. They started playing some kind of version of poker with the cards and were betting some coins they had on hand, some silver, copper, and even a single gold coin from the scarfed man. As I watched the game play out suddenly my stomach gave out a whiny rumble. For a brief second I almost had hope that they didn't hear me but that quickly faded away as they turned their heads towards me.

  “Have we fed this one yet?” Asked the scarfed man to the other two who shook their heads in response. “Well go feed it already!”

  He barked to the orders to one of men he'd just been playing with, maybe they were playing together despite a difference in their rank. Soon the other kidnapper brought back a leg of whatever creatures they had brought back to camp. However instead of giving me the food the higher ranking man instead grabbed the leg and ate it for himself before throwing the bone down onto the ground.

  “Good meat but didn't I order you to bring food for the beast in that cage?” He asked the question in a rhetorical way but his tone sounded as if he actually wanted a response.

  “That was it sir…” The younger subordinates sounded unconfident in his words like he wasn't sure how to respond.

  “You think that thing needs cooked meat? The only thing it needs to survive is raw flesh and water.” He turned his head to me with a cruel smile as if him referring to me as some kind of monster wasn't enough.

  The subordinate hurriedly left and came back with a chunk of raw meat that was poorly cut off and a small wooden bowl full of water. The scarfed man took the meat and threw it into my cage, nearly hitting me in the face before I flinched and fell to the ground before it hit me. For the bowl he just gently put it down instead but before I could grab it he pulled out a blue gem and made some weird weave with the string and froze the water solid.

  “Have fun you mutt!” He shouted loud enough for the entire camp to hear including the other prisoners who could only watch as he humiliated me.

  I wanted to scream at him, to kick him in the groin until he wasn't capable of making any children if he couldn't already. There were a million things I wanted to do to that man for treating me like this. Looking to the other cells nobody was willing to look me in the eye as I saw that they all got actual food instead of this raw meat that would kill me instead of actually providing any sustenance. Touching the bowl I felt a chill go through my entire arm before I quickly pulled back from the bowl and rubbed my cold hand against my warm one.

  As I stared at the slab of meat a pang of hunger went through me and I realized I was actually considering eating it. My hands reached for it, I'd only take a nibble to see if it was safe, just a nibble… I poked my nail through the meat and easily cut a tiny bit out and placed it into my mouth. Instantly the sublime flavor of the meat exploded in my mouth and I needed more. I grabbed the entire slab of meat before shoving it into my mouth and let the ecstasy engulf me. What little blood that remained left was like sweet nectar to me.

  Soon I hardly cared about the encroaching cold night, all that mattered was that I finally got a good meal. I huddled to myself and the cold chains, tomorrow that water would melt and I would be able to drink to my heart's desire. I let out a soft sigh at the fact that it was only water and not blood. Blood always tastes better than water.

  I let myself drift to sleep as I dreamt of hunting through endless forests, catching mountains of prey just so I could consume them all at a later time. What a sublime dream.

  Author's notes: I'm going on vacation for a week, no chapter next week.