The clock ticked by as I scraped the pile of graphite dust off my paper. I had finally finished my drawing!
A long magical tail that gleamed, the radiance brightened the surroundings. A round hard carapace, almost like a turtle. Four thick sturdy legs with hardened scales. Its head had a beak and feathers. It was a combination of a bird, turtle, and dragon.
The drawing turned out better than I thought and I kept staring at the newly drawn masterpiece. It was one of many art projects I have done during my time of capture.
I heard the locks of my door being fiddled with and the sounds of rattling keys. The door opened and another man then Allegrano stood there. He was scrawny wearing a bright yellow vest.
He approached me and asked me to put my hands behind my back. I resisted and demanded him to stop. He moved in closer and grabbed my arm.
I fell off balance and landed on the floor. The room was too small to avoid him. He is scrawny and weak but he at least has been moving all his life.
We both struggled as he grabbed my other arm. I couldn't push him back. My body wasn't strong enough and I was pinned down onto the floor.
"I can't really damage the produce, so please don't fight back," he said panting.
Handcuffs were placed onto my wrist and he tied a rope in the small hole and tried to pull me out of the room.
I contested as much as possible but with each step he took forward. I was slowly being pulled out. I neared the entrance and when he saw that I was almost out. He yanked on the rope as hard he could.
The pain traveled into my head as soon as I landed on the ground. My wrists had been damaged. It was probably minor injuries though. Looking at the red marks around the parts the handcuffs had grazed against, I coughed in pain.
I didn't want him to violently drag me around the basement so I just stood up and complied.
The cells that were unoccupied when I exited to visit the city were now occupied by people and animals. There was some half-elf in one room. I had never seen elves in my life before. It was so bizarre seeing such long ears and greenish hair. The dimly lit cells made it difficult to observe the people inside but with small clues about how they look like, I could visualize how they look like.
There was a massive dog inside in another cage that was barking aggressively at us. It had a bunch of wounds on its body. The dog's snowlike fur had been tainted by blood and dirt. It fiercely bared its canine teeth and drooled endlessly.
He led me to another cell, which had steel bars without anything inside. It was an empty room without any necessities and he shoved me inside. He tied the rope to a nearby pole and walked away.
I was now in solitude. Secluded from all the people I knew. The cuffs were a little oversized so I tried slipping my hands out to feel more comfortable. How cumbersome was this? I tried to maneuver my hands around the handcuffs but in the end, my skin was even more irritated.
The ways were made of dark slated cobblestone, the floor had some unknown fluid spilled all over it. There wasn't a bed or toilet. I think that I won't be in here for too long though.
Sitting there in a fetal position, I just waited so this could just be over with. I tightened the distance between my legs and wrapped my arms around them, resting my head on my knees. The sounds of barking continued. Further down the corridors, I heard the cries of a small child.
She kept yelling at Mom and asked where she was. But her calls were left unanswered.
The unnerving cries of a child made me remember my days as a small kid. I was raised as a protected child. As soon as I was born the family physician diagnosed me with an incurable disease. He told me that there was never a record of anyone having such a disease in history before.
I don't remember my mother's face at that time. My sister and father didn't want to talk about that scene either. My sister was first exhilarated to witness her first sibling being born. When the maids informed her that I had been born, she rushed immediately towards the labor room.
More than that, I haven't heard more about my birth itself. But soon after my birth, I discovered that my life wasn't as normal as other children. The tiny bumps on my head made other children tease me. My mother would always be tired and not have enough time with me.
It made me want to show off my skills to them. I wanted them to acknowledge me. Even if I tried to do something to prove myself. I was always overshadowed by my sister.
My body had slowly deteriorated with time without exercising. It was slow and weak and every breath made my body convulse in pain.
My sister had no such problems, she was always physically average, not really the best at sports or running, but she far outshined me.
Due to my inability to travel, my father hired tutors to teach me. Whenever I would show my tests to my father he would look at them and give them back to me without a word.
I'm not the person that is smartest in the world but in the small world that I lived in, I thought of my sister as the smartest person.
She would instruct and guide me doing puzzles and sewing cute plushies. The first plushy I ever got from my sister was a yellow chubby rat with red dots on its cheeks with a long yellow tail.
She gave it to me and said "Pika Pika?"
The day she gave me that plush, I wanted to have a collection of those so I asked her to train me to sew. It was something easy for me because it didn't require such physically demanding tasks.
In retrospect, my sister could have done everything, always better than me. She could have gone and become the best in everything, but she decided to stay with me. Always being home in the afternoon to keep me company. Without her, I couldn't deal with this miserable life of mine.
I started weeping in my cell, the handcuffs had cut a piece of my skin and it started bleeding. My body started to tremble as I reminisced about my family. I just couldn't stop thinking about them. Me being gone or dead would probably be beneficial for them. My fingernails dug into my knees as I tried to stop crying.
A man's voice yelled out from the darkness of the basement.
"WHOEVER CRYING, SHUT THE HELL UP BEFORE I KILL YOU!"
The girl who was crying earlier stopped crying immediately. The man shouted again, his voice thundered throughout the basement.
Seconds after that, a loud metallic clang could be heard ricocheting on the solid cobble walls. Proceeding with the sounds of keys jingling and clinking. The sound of the metal door being forcefully opened and slamming into the metal railing was so loud that my ears went numb and a high-pitched buzzing sound rang throughout my head.
The little girl in the cell shrieked as the man went into her little enclosure. She pleaded repeatedly for forgiveness and promised the man not to do it again in a screeching tone. She whimpered and cried.
I could only hear what happened but it was as clear as day what happened a few meters away from me. The man had beaten up the little girl with his baton until she fell unconscious and didn't cry anymore.
"I thought I heard another brat crying?"
The malevolent and prideful steps could be heard sauntering down the dark corridors approaching me.
Was this my punishment for relying too much on Marlowlia? Taking away her future?