[img=http://i.imgur.com/eeX4Zmf.png] The room was dark, and Selan lay awake, staring at the ceiling. She could hear the waves crashing against rocks, and she could hear the wind gently brush along the tops of the trees. But much closer, she could hear his soft, steady breathing next to her. As though her body were moving on its own, she left the bed and strode toward the unlocked door with no hesitation. Her nightgown swept across the floor, but she was otherwise silent. She had only been outside of the room a handful of times, but she had heard the noises every so often, noises no one thought she would be able to hear. But she heard them, as faint and terrible as they were. She followed her instincts, turning left here, right there, down this staircase, through this door... No one was around to stop her. The basement smelled stale and dusty, and soft whimpers echoed throughout the cramped prison. The only light was provided by a single flickering candle affixed to the wall. Huddled, broken forms were crowded inside, some moving, some not. One pushed her way to the front, and clutched at the crude wooden bars weakly to see who had come and why. Her face was hidden in the darkness. "[I]Sister...[/I]" Selan said, touching her fingertips to the girl's. She was younger than Selan, perhaps only thirteen. Selan felt oddly detached, despite the heartbreak of seeing her people, mere [i]children[/i] imprisoned. The girl relaxed at the sound of her voice. "[I]Selah, you cannot be here,[/I]" she said in their shared language. "[I]The iron men will do terrible, terrible things to you, as they have done to us.[/i]" "[I]What did they do to you?[/I]" Selan whispered. "[I]They care for nothing other than gold. If we refuse them, they will hurt us until we can no longer dance. They will make us cry until we can no longer sing. They will starve us until we die. When you left, they took us in droves. So many of us are gone, either across the sea or from this world. Selah, they lied, they lied! You must not let them find you here! Leave!"[/i] The girl looked up into the candlelight, and Selan could see that both of her eyes were crudely bandaged. The light went out. Selan fled the basement, the sight of her terrible eyes engraved in her mind. She needed to find her bed, but the staircase seemed to continue on forever. --- [img=http://i.imgur.com/aBIXoi8.png] "Estelle, I don't want to--" "[I]Estelle, I don't want to hurt you!"[/I]" Estelle mocked in a whiny voice, sneering down at Lisette. "How many times have I heard that? You don't want to hurt this, you don't want to hurt that!" "But it's the truth!" Lisette insisted. Her tears mixed with the rain. "Then why are you aiming your bow at me?" "I'm not, I... Ah!" Lisette realized that she was indeed pointing an arrow straight at Estelle. "That's the spirit, Lisette! Now, can you do it? Can you kill me?" "No... Never." she answered, lowering her head in defeat. "That's too bad." [I]Gliissssh!![/I] "U-ungh...!" Lisette gasped, looking down at the blade that had pierced her abdomen. Blood oozed from all sides of the sword, and her vision faded to black. But it seemed as though they weren't finished with Lisette just yet. Face down in the mud, she began to regain consciousness. Her bow lay just out of arm's reach. She stretched her hand out to grab it, but a red high-heeled shoe stopped her, stomping her hand back into the dirt. "Nnaaagh!" Lisette cried, thrashing her arm free and sitting up. Estelle, the sword, and the wound she inflicted on Lisette all were mysteriously gone. Amy towered over her, as though she were the goddess of judgment herself. "Feh. Look who's finally awake. You think you've suffered enough? You don't know what suffering [i]is[/i] if you think you're getting off that easily. You're still the same person no matter how much you say you'll change. [I]Syed.[/I]" Syed, who always had a kind word or a piece of advice for Lisette, was now deathly silent and refused to meet her gaze. He stepped forward with his ringed fingers outstretched. "No...!" Lisette cried, just before searing pain flooded every single nerve on her body. Over and over and over, Syed channeled what seemed like all of the lightning in the heavens into Lisette's curled up body. The pain never lessened as it went on, not even a little, and Syed made sure she wouldn't even have a spare moment to cry out for help. But despite her best efforts, once again she lost consciousness, the last things she saw being Amy and Syed's disdainful glares. Even somehow knowing they would disappear when she awoke again, she would have beared through the pain if it meant they would stay. --- [img=http://i.imgur.com/9AVqdzv.png] Kapi huddled near the back of the box, fearful of being the next one taken away. He was rewarded with both of his sisters being taken next. Kapi used all of his little capybara strength to ram against the latch to the door. He was rewarded with his oldest brother being carried off, squealing as though he were a newborn. The man who took him wielded a very large, very sharp knife with a flat edge. He once jabbed it through the fence as a "joke", cackling all the while. There were three of them left, all brothers. They sniffed each other and slept near each other, struggling for even the slightest bit of comfort, but the smells of sizzling meat would wake them from their slumber and fill them with terror. Kapi eventually realized that the man was taking them in order based on their size, which meant that he would be the very last one, forced to watch the others be taken away. He dreamt that a smiling girl with freckles and hair that reminded him of golden wheat fields would come to save them, but the very next day, another brother was carried off. He stubbornly clung to his dream, even though his very last brother was dragged out by his hind leg while the other kicked wildly. It was hard to dream when he knew [i]his[/i] day was coming up next.