[piosenniel]

kittiewhirl’s post

Lanbriel felt relieved as she walked off the field, swaying a little from her fatigue. She had managed to survive another day of fieldwork. She steadily headed back to her master’s house, along with a few other slaves. Five guards, not a heavy amount of guarding by her standards, were following them.

There had been worse. Much worse. Whenever a slave tried to escape, or had killed or injured someone, the guarding had grown a huge amount. Slaves were treated much more harshly. Once, a young, freedom-longing slave tried to escape from Nurn. The next day, twenty guards followed Lanbriel’s party.

Finally, Lanbriel arrived at her master’s home. The house was medium-sized. It had a big red roof that loomed over a small part of the courtyard. It also had four big, half-oval shaped windows spread out across the front.

The slaves sleepily trudged up to the side door, and from there each one went to their room to await their next order. Lanbriel walked down the long, straight staircase that led down into a dark, musty hallway. No more than one average-sized person could fit in the hallway at once because it was very thin, but that didn’t matter to the slaves because they were incredibly thin themselves and therefore were able to walk freely down the hall. Lanbriel walked past a series of doors, all of them being very small. In order to fit through them, the older slaves had to bend down.

Finally, she saw the one tiny door that led to her own little “dungeon” as she called it. Lanbriel felt very tired. She saw her bed, made of straw and hay, mostly. She felt a great urge to drop down in it and never wake again. The urge was about to overtake her, when she started hearing voices from the wall to her right (the walls weren’t very thick, and sometimes the slaves could even talk to each other from their rooms).

The household overseer was talking to her friend Erfandel.

“Slave, where were you at five o’clock?”
“I-I… My friend… she was hurt… I had to help her… I came to the fields as soon as I could!”
“You know the law. You were meant to be doing field work at five o’clock, and you were missing until seven!”
“I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”
“That’s no guarantee!”
“Please, Mr. Overseer, don’t make them beat me!”
“No? Well, then I’ve got a better job for you. You will carry the weapon supplies to the next village by foot. If you don’t get there in one hour, you will be beat to death. You will be followed by three guards, and if you try to escape they will kill you.”

Lanbriel couldn't stand this. No. The hunt was coming up, and she was going to escape these terrible, day by day tortures, if she got called.

“No! Please, it does take three hours to get there by horse. I cannot get there in one by foot!”
“You will do what you are told.”

Lanbriel couldn’t stand to hear any of this. Without thinking, she started screaming things across the wall to the overseer.

“This makes absolutely no sense! Why, she can’t get there in one hour! Are you mad? You’re killing my best friend through the worst type of torture! Why don’t you just give her a horse? Then at least she’ll have a chance of making it! The supplies will never make it to the next village if you do such a terrible thing!”

Suddenly, the door to Lanbriel’s room swung open. The overseer, a large, angry-looking man with a short white-black beard and long black hair opened the door. He stopped at the entrance, a mad gleam in his dark eyes. His frown almost looked like a kind of sneer, and his huge, bushy eyebrows came down very close to his eyes. He was trying his best to look angry and frightening.

Lanbriel almost laughed, but she knew that that woud give her another beating. This wasn’t the first time that she had blurted something stupid out without thinking. Of course, she knew it wasn’t stupid, and that made her angrier than ever.

“You fool of a slave!” He roared across the tiny room.
“Who’s the fool here? I’m only suggesting the best for the girl, unless you want to kill her!”
“If you don’t watch out, you’ll be dead in a moment yourself! How dare you say to me, that I don’t know what’s best? Why should I make her do what’s best! You’re the slaves. You don’t deserve the best, and you don’t get the best!”
“If I don’t deserve the best, you ceratinly don’t either.”
“Will you cease your endless talk! I am trying to tell you that you that if you do not stop interfering every time a slave is punished, you will soon be dead!”
“You can’t just kill me, you’re not allowed to. And there’s no reason to beat me because I’m not on fieldwork.”
“No, but I’ve got an even better idea for you. You will go in place of your friend here.”
“How dare you!”
“I have all the right to punish any slave who interferes or speaks against me.”

Yes, thought Lanbriel. If I get called, I will be able to escape this terrible punishment. But if I don't...