Arat slowly rolled over, moving in a way that made it seem like he was still asleep. Once he faced Fernand, the blond man with the stylish beard, he lightly tapped the ends of Fernand's boots with his own.
Fernand, opened his eyes, the red veins in his eyes clearly visible, a sign of his disrupted sleep, Yet, despite this, his expression remained calm, as though he wasn't bothered at all. He stared directly at were Arat's eyes were, silently waiting to hear why this demon child had woken him.
Arat raised his hands near his face, showing the ropes around his wrists, the mans grayish green eyes squinted, focusing so that he could see better, as there was no sufficient light to properly illuminate Arat's hands. Without a word, he dragged himself closer, eyes narrowing as he studied the ropes more closely.
Arat extended his hands further so that Fernand could see the rope better, The man's eyes widened slightly when he saw the frayed rope. It wasn't cut, the strands were wet, scattered, and twisted, as if they had been torn apart by force rather than severed cleanly by a sharp object.
"You said I can think about escaping after I deal with these ropes."
The corners of Fernand's lips curled up slightly, so slightly, a nearly imperceptible smirk that Arat could barely detect, even with his night vision. Fernand moved even closer, until his face was less than a meter from Arat's.
"Can you do the same to my ropes too?"
He he, you didn't think I could do it huh? Now you are asking me to free you too? Don't adults have shame? I can chew his ropes, but I'm afraid I don't want to chew a mouthful of ropes ever again in my life. It's better if I can find another way.
Arat looked directly into his eyes and nodded indicating that his answer was negative, the man's face turned calm once again. Arat then drew his hands back at his chest and whispered.
"I don't want to chew anymore ropes, and if I had to how can I trust that you know and can escape from here?"
"Uh, sorry I didn't notice all the people here acting friendly to you and wanting to tell you that. Listen to me you little devil, I'm the only one who can give you a chance to escape this place with your head still attached to your shoulders."
He is right, the others hate me so much that they won't even talk to me, but if I tell them that I can chew their ropes and set them free they may help me, working with a half devil so that they could escape seems logical, I doubt they hate more than these bandits. On second thought why are we even prisoned here, don't bandits usually rob the people and leave them? Some may kill but I have not heard of any bandit imprisoning people. I didn't notice this since they wanted to hand me to the church, I thought the others were like me too, but I don't think all these guys have a reward on them like me, can it be that these guys are not any ordinary bandits?
Arat who couldn't object Fernand's reasoning didn't talk about it any further, instead he decided to ask him about why they were all held prisoners here.
"Um, mister, Fernand, I think thats what your friend called you. Why are we held prisoners exactly?"
Upon hearing this Fernand adjusted his posture as he remained laid down.
"They are slavers. Once they catch enough of us they will take us inside the city and sell us for the highest price."
Slavers? They sell us. To who? Why they sell us? Can humans even be bought and sold, who would do that.
Was what Arat thought once he heard of the concept of slavery for the first time, his grand father had never mentioned this to him before, knowing such a thing his understanding of the outside world had been completely over turned. He realized no matter how much his grand father had taught him or no matter how many books he read. There were still many things he didn't know about the outside world.
Grandpa only mentioned that the outside world was a dangerous place full of people who would even betray their own kin and that there were devils every where fighting the humans. He had never mentioned that humans bought and sold each other like products.
After collecting his thoughts, Arat pointed at his injured leg with his head.
"Mister, If you want me to live long enough to free your hands, I should deal with my wound first."
Fernand swept his gaze at the ground and picked up one of the black ants from the ground, he then severed its head by pulling it apart from its body while twisting it, he placed it in front of Arat.
"These ones are the guardian ants."
He then put the ant's head on hole on his cloth and clenched its saw like jaws together. It acted like a small stitch keeping the fabric of his cloth together, he pulled it off and tossed it on the ground.
"You can find plenty on the ground."
he muttered before returning to his spot, where he had been sleeping earlier. He rested his hand under his head, closing his eyes and drifting back to sleep. Just as he did that, Arat noticed that the brown haired man was watching them with his dark brown eyes the entire time.
He retracted his gaze and closed his eyes as well. Arat rolled back to where he had originally been. Earlier, he had curled up to appear cold, but now, in the chill of the night, his body truly began to shiver. the other slaves were huddled together for warmth sleeping close to each other. Due to him being a devil Arat couldn't even have something as little as that, being left alone to sleep all by himself, deprived even of the simple comfort of warmth from the others.
He unwrapped the bandages on his leg, squeezing them tightly as blood dripped to the ground. he then cleaned the remaining blood near the wound using them. Picking up a large black ant on the ground, decapitating it he wanted to throw away its body, but paused.
Arat brought it near his face and pushed his iron mask up and cautious sniff. Then, with a moment's hesitation, he touched it with his tongue, instantly regretting it and spitting out the foul taste.
Determined, Arat brought the edges of his skin together and used the ant's head and its saw-like jaws to keep the flesh aligned. A sharp pain pierced his mind, a sensation akin to a needle, as he realized he had underestimated how sensitive the skin around a wound was.
After securing the last ant head to close the wound, Arat could only hope that his bleeding would stop and his wound would start to heal as fast as it could, wrapping the bandages on his now sealed wound gently, his exhaustion exceeded his hunger thus he closed his eyes to catch some sleep.
He felt a soft patting on his legs that grew stronger, jolting him awake. He sat up straight, looking at his legs under the early sunlight of the morning with his worried emerald green eyes. It was Fernand, he had woken him up, after looking at the others Arat saw that they were all paying attention to him so he stole his gaze from Fernand's face. He pointed behind Arat with his index finger.
Turning his head, Arat saw four figures approaching. One was a lean man with messy blond hair carrying a straw basket. The other was a middle-aged man lugging a large leather sack.
After opening the gates, Mackenzie looked at Arat with his thin blue eyes and smiled widely, revealing two rows of yellow and black teeth, with a few gaps and a single golden tooth.
He went past Arat and gave the brown haired man a piece of bread and continued. The middle-aged man followed him by giving water to the others, Skipping Arat unlike the previous time.
Tch, you creepy bastard, you better hope you are not around me when my leg is healed.
After the food distribution ended, everyone was busy eating their dry moldy breads bit by bit. Arat spotted a piece of bread rolling toward him, and he lunged forward to grab it. looking at the direction where the piece of bread came from, he saw an old man with white hair holding half a piece of bread, his gaze elsewhere. It was the same man who had spoken with him yesterday.