Upon opening his eyes, Arat found himself inside a tent. Various items were piled up around him, clothes, sacks of grain such as wheat and oats, and dried meat. In another corner, swords, spears, and leather armor were piled up along with horse saddles, while burlap sacks, their contents unknown, occupied the remaining space around him.
Arat tried to stand up but he was surprised and terrified to find that he was unable to move them an inch, he turned his head and looked at his hands and legs, bound in ropes. He struggled to free himself. After several fruitless attempts using all his strength, he eventually gave up on using brute force to free himself. he scanned the surroundings for anything of use to cut the ropes, his eyes fixed on the pile of weapons, among all the swords and spears he spotted a few hatchets laying on the ground.
Arat crawled toward the hatchets, stretching his bound feet until the tip of his boot connected with one of the hatchets' handles. As he tried to maneuver his legs to pull the hatchet closer, he heard sound of heavy steps, sensing someone approaching. The curtain of the tent was pushed aside, revealing a familiar face. A man with long black hair, thick eyebrows, brown eye, and a mustache and beard.
His brown eyes sized Arat up, before he came inside, Arat's swept his eyes from his face to his hands, he held a a large dagger in his hand and held Arat's collar lifting him up so that he could sit, then dragged him outside the tent, after a few steps he threw Arat toward a group of men.
Surrounded by a men clad mostly in old shirts and dark-colored trousers, their mismatched pieces of leather armor gave them a rough appearance. Daggers and swords hung from their belts, while some carried spears, hatchets, or bows slung over their backs.
One of the men approached, the light reflecting off his bald head. He had a blond mustache connected to a short beard and stood over 1.9 meters tall, his firm, masculine frame layered with fat. His dark blue eyes were almost black, dressed in light brown leather boots, a black shirt, and trousers, his bulging stomach shook with every step. He squatted down and inspected Arat's hands, his burnt like skin skin and his long dark-yellow nails undeniable proof that he was not human.
He peered into Arat's green eyes through the two small holes in his rusty metal mask. Standing up, he swept a hand across his bald head, contemplating what to do with him next.
"What species of devil are you?"
What species of devil? There are different kinds and species? Oh yeah those note books. They had all sorts of monsters in them. So this means there is a variety of us half devils too?
Arat, stared on the ground afraid to look the man in the eye. Not knowing such a thing that was apparently something that he should have been aware of, if he was to say that he didn't know it would make him appear suspicious.
I don't know, should I just tell him that or… wait, there is nothing else I can say expect the truth, if I randomly blurt out a name and its wrong, then he would think of what I'm about to say as a lie too, ordering his men to kill me on the spot.
"I don't know, my grand father who raised me never told or taught me anything about this."
The man stared at him with his blue eyes, his chubby face and meaty cheeks appeared rather calm and friendly, he moved his feet the fat of his body shaking as a result, he took a spear from one of the men who stood beside him and observed the sharpness of its point by his meaty fingers.
"You said the church wants you alive and they will pay 100 Birn for you?"
Arat nodded in affirmation.
"Yes. I heard it with my own ears."
The man moved his eyebrows and lips, his expression was as if someone was unimpressed by something that was supposed to be interesting while he looked at the men who surrounded them, his underlings to see their reactions.
"What's your proof?"
His solemn dark blue eyes exuded a heavy pressure similar to that of his grand father's, under such an intense aura that came out of the man's dark-blue eyes Arat couldn't control himself from shaking a bit worried about the spear he held in his hand.
Why is he holding that thing? Does he plan to thrust it into my chest the moment I say something reveling my bluff? I can't say anything else, I hope he buys it.
"I… I… I heard it from the villagers that were helping the Devil brides searching for me."
The chubby man brought his face closer, placing it directly in front of Arat's iron mask.
"And what did you hear exactly?"
"One said that if they find me they would get rich the other one said 100 gold coins is enough for me to live my life with my legs crossed."
Arat, then moved his head up to look at the chubby man's expression determining if he would strike him down with the spear or not, the man circled around, holding the spear he was considering the pros and cons of weather to believe Arat and bring him along or not.
Please buy it, please. I may have lied about the amount but the old man clearly said that they would get rich.
Arat said inwardly to himself.
The man, who appeared to be the leader of the bandits, glanced at Fred before turning his gaze back to Arat. He raised his hands and drove the spear into Arat's left leg right in his calf. Black blood oozed out as the sharp tip pierced his calf, inflicting a deep wound. The bandit leader then withdrew the spear, handed it back to the man he had taken it from, and watched as Arat writhed on the ground like a wounded worm, twitching in agony.
"We can't let 100 Birn have legs and suddenly run away. Can we?"
He chuckled, and looked at his men. doing the similar thing to admire his joke weather they found it funny or not they laughed as well, the leader of the bandits cast his eyes on Fred.
"Stop his bleeding then tie him to the others, once we arrive to the city we will hand him to the church, even if he is lying they will give us something in return. And of course you three will get a portion of the spoils later."
Fred glanced at Arat with disgust then shifted his gaze at the chubby man, he stretched his hand holding a leather bag and handed it the his boss.
"We also found this, there is a weird slab of iron, a silver necklace with a ruby and some books that he carried with himself, I think we can sell that necklace for a good price."
The chubby man took the bag and handed it to another man that walked behind him, he took the bag and left. The chubby man then looked at Arat whose leg was still bleeding.
"Take him"
Fred who had a smirk on his face looked at the bleeding Arat.
"Its your call boss."
Fred nudged Mackenzie's shoulder, breaking his unsettling stare at the demon child. Both of them moved forward, with Fred bandaging Arat's leg. The skinny Mackenzie then dragged Arat along, stopping near an area surrounded by tall wooden fences. He released his grip on Arat's shirt. Fred cut the rope binding Arat's feet and, in a less-than-gentle manner, guided him toward a group of men sitting on the ground inside the fenced-off area.
Their looks emitted curiosity, hatred and anger as they observed Arat, the men wore dirty clothes that reeked the smell of sweat and filth, their dirt smeared faces and bodies showed that they hadn't took a shower for a long time, from their hollow eye sockets and protruded cheek bones they didn't seem the be fed properly as well. Fred and Mackenzie forcefully pushed Arat toward the group of men and tied the rope on his hands to a thick rope, that bounded all the men together.
The group of slaves stared at Arat to see who their new neighbor was, their interest were picked at him because of the iron mask he had put on his face making him like a mysterious creature considering that he was a child, but all of them sensed something was off with him so they distanced themselves as far as the rope that bounded them all together let them.
One of them noticed Arat's hands and said the word.
"Half-devil."
Saying this the others cast their gazes at Arat's hands, seeing his burned like skin and long nails stained with dark-red dried blood, their eyes lit up and widened in fear. The man closest to him was shocked once he heard the word and looked at the expression of the others. He distanced himself immediately, after seeing Arat's hands with his own eyes.
Arat was puzzled from the way everyone reacted, he brought up his hands tightly bound by ropes and weaved his hand from the wrist showing that he had no ill intentions to harm them.