Watching one of the few people that helps us burn makes my soul ache, but my magic doesn't work here, so that's all I can do. Before he lost it and started taking the heat off most of us, things were a lot more grim with the unhinged slaver. I shake, thinking about how things are going to return to that way now that he's out of the picture.
Being here already destroyed my once over confident self and now that slaver will be back to his escapade soon enough. To think that the hair on my tails started to regrow, since he didn't have time to grab and yank at them.
Before he lost it, you could have mistaken him for just some boy that got sold by his family like the most of us. Though he was a repeated offender of scratching drawings into the brick wall, which probably made him get his fair share of beatings.
Just one day he snapped and started doing anything to annoy the slaver when he was in here harassing us. He didn't show any pride or dignity. He acted like the feral animal they treated him like while the rest of us lay here, accepting this in quiet defeat.
Even now he's lashing out, slamming on the bars and screaming while the fire slowly spreads. Nothing intelligible comes out of his lips anymore and his movements are quickly getting slower. It's obvious he's at his end.
Suddenly, he drops his stance that he was throwing punches from and then flops onto his back and lets out a loud laugh as the fire spreads to fully engulf him now.
Our savior… our hope… our light.
His laughter reverberates throughout the room; each one seems to hit the slaver harder and harder. Suddenly, he snaps and yells out, "Shut up and die already!"
I hear "You're fucked" come from him while he's on the ground. Then red lightning shoots out of every direction. I try my best not to touch any of it, but it's not good enough. I realize it doesn't hurt at all strangely enough.
Almost as soon as it started, the lightning disappears. He stands up while picking the card up. The fire's out, but he's still badly burned. Even with his injuries, he stands tall and holds out that card and asks the slaver, "Do you know what this is?"
The slaver, still confused by how he's standing, mutters, "N-no…"
With a burned smile he says "Me either, but it was talking to me and said it'll help me kill you."
As soon as that left his lips, a red glow came from the card and it transmuted into a knife. It's an artifact, of course, that the uneducated slaver knew nothing! He tightens his grip on the knife and his arm forms glowing red veins as he slams a fist into the cage door and it flies off its hinges into the guard.
By getting hit by the bars with such force, I'm pretty sure out, but his heavy armor saved him. My light steps out of his cage, then bends down and says something I couldn't make out. Then, with the same charred smile, he holds his knife out and spins his knife in the air, forming a circle, then red lightning jumps from it onto the slaver.
The slaver lets out loud whales almost immediately and everyone in the cages look on with glee while that guy got what was coming to him. He gets shocked quite a few times till he stops moving, then he gets his keys stolen off of him. Immediately, our savior tosses them to the person in front of him as he falls onto his back.
He quietly says "Ow, y-yeah, that thing only healed me enough so I won't die, apparently… I gave you the key, so let the others out."
The beast person in front of him just quickly says "Of course I would." as I watch him release the others one by one, my heart is in my throat. I never thought I would see the outside of this cage without being thrown into a brothel or becoming a rich person's pet. That feeling doesn't subside until I take my first step outside my cage and feel ether return to my body, but I don't relish the feeling for even a second.
Immediately, I dash over to our savior. My eyes scan his body just to realize his burns are much worse than anything I've seen before. Even with ether back, I don't think I can do much. I don't specialize in the healing arts.
The freshly taken in ether leaves my system feeling like cold water being splashed on me, but as I see some of the skin on his face, hands, and feet return, my joy over powers those feelings. I know that I won't be able to heal him too much, but I weaved something that'll dull some of the pain when he comes down from the artifact's high.
I turn to the others and say, "I don't think it's viable to move him too much, so I'm going to try to hold the fort down here." As soon as I say that, they all turn to me like I've lost it and I reiterate, "We can't move him till he's healed some more. Once all of you leave, I will freeze the doors shut."
Almost everyone agrees just to find their own ways out and leaves immediately, but the first beastman he released steps forward and says, "I'll stay to help guard him. I feel I owe him too much."
"Alright, then help me seal the exit, grab those bars, and hold them against the door." As he does, I gather my ether and conjure ice to attach them to the wall. Then, with a sigh, I take a seat on the ground where I was standing to catch my breath from using so much ether in succession right after getting it back.
Looking back at the beastman which jumped behind me when I first began to shoot ice, I say, "My name's Ava. What's yours since I guess we'll be around each other for a while?"
He simply just says, "Zandral."
"It'll probably take a day or two to heal him enough, since healing isn't my specialty."
Zendral just nods and closes his eyes. I take a couple of deep breaths and then force myself to get up. I gather the bedding from all the abandoned slave cages, even if they are just rags. If I pile them up, they'll be decent.
After I'm done, I go back over to our savior and lift him up and his eyes snap open, then he starts to squirm while letting out slight screams. I quickly get him to the makeshift bed and cast a dulling incantation, since I'm still too tapped out to heal him anymore.
Even if I run my ether veins dry, I'll heal him!
Author's note: I ended up taking a break from writing when I moved out on my own as well as a couple hobbies, but now that I've settled down I picked them back up, so enjoy!