小嫂子的味道

My vision was blurry but I was able to see a bright light claiming my field of vision. I rubbed my eyes to get a better view but before I could see, the weight of my hands and the clang of the metal told me that I was chained.

After I was able to see somewhat clearly I came to know that both my hands and legs were cuffed with heavy iron chains and I was locked inside a wheeled cage.

It was usually used to transport animals but right now it was being used to keep human children. Children because I was not the only one there, along with me there were five other kids—among them three were whom I didn\'t recognize, so they were probably from a different village.

All of us were chained and restrained, and pulling our cage was a horse with a knight riding on top of it. It took me a good amount of time to notice the motion and the change in the surroundings. The cart was moving.

I was no longer in the village, as for what I saw outside the cage was miles of dried land with stones and dead trees scattered around. In front I could see the Devil\'s Mountains.

In length they stretched as far as the eye could see and in height and stood till the end of the sky. They covered the whole horizon, it meant I was closer than ever to the mountains.

They were moving toward the mountains but I was sure that they didn\'t intend to climb it; no sane human would even think about that. I didn\'t know for sure, but my dad had once told me that there was a small settlement just at the feet of the mountains so I guessed that was where they were headed.

I moved my head around and noticed that out caged-cart was surrounded by the knights on horses; two were behind us, one on each side, and the rest of them were ahead of us.

Escaping was out of option, giving up and accepting my fate was the only thing I could do right now. If anything I should be grateful that they even let me live. I looked at the other children who were caged in with me.

Three girls and one boy, all were about the same age as me except one girl who seemed to be around ten or twelve. All of them had the same darkened expression which told them that they\'d lost hope.

Well, it was only reasonable. These children were most likely captured for a longer time than me, considering that they were from a different village.

The two of them whom I knew back from the village were the brown haired boy and the blonde girl, they were siblings. I\'d played with them a few times however none of them seemed to even notice me, less recognize.

I think it was the natural reaction. Their parents were killed right before their eyes, their village was burned down and they were abducted by a bunch of dangerous people they didn\'t know about. Being stunned and drowning in despair was only to be expected.

Maybe I was the abnormal one here, since I felt like I was the most in control among the six. I was still able to think, react, and feel that I was living. Maybe that was wrong.

They\'d given up, so why shouldn\'t I? I mean, everything was lost already. The village was the single place in the world where I belonged, now it was gone and I had nowhere else to go.

So I should just give up and accept whatever fate has in stock for me. Yeah, that will be for the best. No one would complain if I did, there was no one left anyway.

I leaned my head against the bars of the cage and watched the sky and the Devil\'s Mountains. It was only then, when I watched the setting sun, did I realize that I\'d been knocked out for more than a day.

Closing my eyes, I tried not to think of anything. I wanted to give up and accept this dark reality, I really wanted to. That seemed like the most easy option available to me.

But something inside me was not ready to accept that, there was something burning and smoldering, stopping me from giving up completely, and I wasn\'t able to put my finger on it.

That\'s why, for the moment, I decided to ignore that feeling as well.

*

When I opened my eyes again, it was because the cart had come to a sudden stop. I could hear the men shouting orders and unloading their stuff from the horses, the chains on their armors ringed as they moved.

The blanket of night had covered the sky, but today there was no moon in the sky.

A bad omen, according to my mom, but I was not in the condition to care about such things. Since I was restrained by heavy chains I had no way of moving hence I waited and watched.

The knights have stopped in an area where a lot of torches and campfires were burning. My guess had been proved right, and they were really camping at the small human settlement.

There were small camps laid all across the land and a big one in the middle, before it was a big campfire with its flame lifting up to around ten feet. There were small fires around each of the camps too, but most of them were already burned out.

The knights unloaded their weapons and whatever things they had from the horses and went to their camps one by one after leaving the horses at a certain place away from the camps.

Then, when I thought they might order us to leave the cage, a big man came to us instead and lifted the whole cage with his arms. I can only guess how strong he was, since he carried the whole iron cage with six children in it and thumped it to the ground, a bit away from the campfire.

What followed afterward wasn\'t worth mentioning. The bastards grouped up around the fire and ate and drank and chatted and laughed with no regret whatsoever.

At that time the burning and smoldering I was feeling within myself increased, but I still couldn\'t figure out what it was. Hence I sat there, and watched them.

At times some of them would point their fingers toward us, talk with each other over something, then laugh as if they\'d just heard a joke. It went on for quite a long while, until things changed…

It had been a few hours by now, the height of the flame had lowered down to five feet and most of the men had either gone to sleep in their camps or were down drunk beside the fire.

Then among the men who were still awake and by the fire, two of them stood and walked over to the cage. They opened the cage, or I should say they broke the chain that locked it with their bare hands.

One of them bent down and reached out to grab one of the girls. At first I thought he would grab Roe—the blonde girl I knew, but his hand went further and grabbed the elbow of a girl I didn\'t recognize.

She was about my age and had long chestnut colored hair, the man grabbed that hair of hers and pulled her out of the cage. I thought she would resist but all she did was let out a futile cry.

He moved aside after breaking the chains from her hands, and made space for the other knight standing with him. He reached out for us in a similar way, his hand coming inside the cage like a snake inside a rabbithole.

Unfortunately, he didn\'t make much effort and grabbed whoever was near, which was me. I was pulled out by my hair just like Roe and then he broke the chains that were restraining me.

For a moment I thought of running away now, but then I remembered how he broke those chains with his bare hands, and how I had nowhere left to go back to.

The men closed the cage shut and tied it with the remaining chains, after that they forced us to walk beside them. They stunk of alcohol, but there was nothing I could do about it.

They both went separate ways, and the one who was holding me led me to this camp. As soon as we stepped inside he pushed me from behind, causing me to fall and roll over on the ground.

When I picked up myself and turned back I saw a devilish grin on the man\'s face as he removed the remaining of his armor and then unbuttoned his shirt.

Of course, this was why they kept me alive. I should\'ve known before, I was a fool to expect anything else.