Being a Puppet Is Not Being Alive

The villagers reluctantly open the doors for me to pass through. I’m greeted with a strange smell and the villagers cowering at the back of the room. An old man and his wife scowl at me as I enter. “Greetings. My name is-”
A sharp pain in my arms stops my sentence from continuing. I look to each side to find a pitchfork stabbed into both my arms. An assassination attempt? Anger wells up inside me, but I cast it aside and laugh. “I wasn’t expecting that! Well done!”
I pull the farm equipment out of my arms and place them on the ground in front of me. The two that stabbed me stumble back and the old man throws a fireball at me. I punch it out of the air and sparks fly around the room. I’m not sure that fireball would have even been enough to sear my skin, but I can still feel a vein pop in frustration. “I already said I was impressed. There was no need for that.”

Someone tries to hit me with a shovel. Okay. I’m getting tired of this. I snatch it from the air, yank it out of their hands and crush the spade. “Other attack, and the person who tries will die. Now. May be converse?”
The villagers cower away from me now. This isn’t what I wanted, but if they won’t listen to me then I have no choice but to use fear. The old man finally accepts and sits at the opposite end of a table sitting in the middle of the barn-like hall.

“What do you want elf?”

Its taking a lot not to end this man’s insufferable existence. Maybe a little more fear. “I have been appointed by the King of Solaris as the Lord of Karvithia. We’ve bested your King’s army with minimal casualties. I am here to ask for your cooperation.”

He snarls at me, “Right? Spit it out.”

Involuntarily, I glare at him before saying, “Tell me about your people. Perhaps there’s a disconnect between us.”

He displays an open air of hostility as he gives me a brief insight into Karvithian beliefs and life. Apart from living in a farming hamlet, it doesn’t sound too different from life in Solaris. Ah, I see. He, like the humans in Solaris, bears a hatred for elves and demi-humans. I’ll just have to prove my worth again, to a different city. Then he asks for water.
His servant makes his way around the corner with the pitcher and mug and my stomach churns. His slave is wearing nothing but rags as if they’re clothes. He looks like he hasn’t seen water or food in years. And his ears. They would have been elven ears if they hadn’t been severed near the base. My anger and inpatients is boiling over containable limits.

I interrupt him. “How many slaves do you own?”

He grins. He grins! “Why?”

My voice turns into a growl as I speak. “Bring them all here. Now.”
He obeys and calls them all into the hall. They each line up against the wall with their heads bowed. I walk down the line inspecting each of them. All of them! All of them are elves! Each with the same severed ears and haggard brown hair. I can’t even tell if they’re men or women. There’s even a kid.

It’s vile. It’s beyond vile. My eyes slowly turn to the old man. He laughs! “What? Did you not know we kept slaves?”
As he blabbers on, I release one long breath. A black miasma escapes my nose and swirls around me.

“Tell me, old man. What do you see the elves as?”
He doesn’t answer my question, but he stops laughing. The table launches up into the celling and splinters rain overtop of me. “Answer. The question.”

He begins channeling a spell. A crater of wood chips and splinters explodes where I was standing as I lunge at him. My hand grabs his arm and crushes it. He screams in pain as my other hand lifts him off the ground by his tunic. I slam him against the wall just hard enough to keep him conscious.

“Grandpa!” My gaze slowly makes its way over to a group of children as more fog escapes through my breaths. The oldest is maybe thirteen, human years. I toss their grandfather in front of them. He lands with a thud as my hand grips his wrinkly head. I pull him up and have him kneel beside me under the weight of my grip.

“How do you feel about your grandfather?”
The parents move to cover their kids and the other villagers take up arms against me. “Stop! If anyone but the children move or speak, I will crush his head. Understand?”
They all nod so I crouch down to be on the same level as the cowering children. Their grandfather squirms and groans in my grip. “Tell me children. How do you feel about elves?”

The one in the middle studders. “Y-y-you’re a m-monster!”

I can’t help but laugh. “No no. Not me. I’m talking about your slaves. I suggest you answer honestly. Your grandfather’s head depends on it.”

They cower in place before reluctantly answering. “They’re… They’re good workers! Sometimes she’s fun to play with, a-and even though she cries a lot we always play with her.”
The oldest of the children pointed to the one elf kid.

Who I assume is his mother begins to vouch for her kid, but stops when the old man moans in pain under my grip. The kid was the only slave watching what was happening. The rest kept their heads bowed, awaiting orders. I motion for her to come closer and ask. “How do you feel about these kids? Be honest here. You’re under my protection.”

Her eyes pass back and forth from me to the children. Her eyes are wide in panic, which only serves to exemplify her many bruises and cuts. “A-a-are y-you sure?”

“I promise.”

Tears start welling up in her eyes as she struggles to speak. “T-t-t-they’re mean! They b-b-b-eat me and and and h-hit me! They!”

The father moves and shouts at her. “You lying bitch!”

“Enough! If you move another step, I’ll not hesitate to crush your throat.” He stops and shakes in his own frustration. I turn back towards the slave.
“Thank you. What’s your name?”

“I... I’m called bitch, master.” She doesn’t even have a name?

I pull the old man back into the air and slam him back into the wall. The miasma sat on the floor for a while, but now it surrounds me like a vortex. “Give me. ONE! One reason to let you live! One reason I shouldn’t tear your head from your shoulders! What do you think our lives are? Are we nothing but tools in your mind? Something to be thrown away when it doesn’t do what you want!? Is that what you think we are!?”
I loosen my grip on his neck and let him fall to the ground, coughing. “Answer me human!”

He looks up at me. “It’s what you’ve always been.”

His head bounces off the wall and flies behind me. His blood pours out of the hole in his neck before the others realize what happened. “NO!”
A few of the younger men charge me with shovels or other farming tools. I blast them back with a silent force that steals the light and sound from them. They clatter against the wall without so much as a sound. The little girl curls into a ball on the ground and repeats ‘I’m sorry’ over and over.

I crouch down to her level and slowly reach my hand out. She collapses to the ground and hysterically apologizes. I gently stroke her hair a few times and she slowly looks at me. I give her the brightest smile I can with the swirling miasma and rage surrounding me. She still looks scared. “Do you want to leave this place?”
She lightly nods her head. I reach out my hand for her to grab onto. Her eyes glance from my hand to me and back to my hand a few times before she reluctantly takes it. Her puny fragile hands are barely long enough to wrap around my palm. I help her up and walk with her to the other slaves. “I’m leaving this place. Do you want to be free?”

They all bow deeper and speak in unison. “No master. Our place is here serving under you.”
I see. They’re all perfect puppets. They might as well be dead already. Despite that, I clasp my hands together and chant. A few seconds later and green orbs escaped out through my back. They float first to the girl, then to the slaves. A few are left over to help the humans.
Although the orbs healed the slaves, their ears remained severed and they remained bowed. Some bowed more deeply, but otherwise they hardly reacted. The girl on the other hand ran her hands all over her face and body feeling as though to make sure that the pain really disappeared.

She looked up at me, with shock in her eyes. She still had scars running across her face, and her ears were still severed, but she looks a lot healthier than she did before. She tries to thank me, but the words get caught in her throat. She tries again and again, but can’t get the words out. With a chuckle I run my hand through her hair and say, “You’re welcome. Now, let’s get out of here.”

As I gently pull her out of the barn, the cries of the humans reach my ears. Some call me a monster, while others simply weep over their fallen elder. I can’t help but smile as I leave the building.
When the girl sees the army standing outside, she freezes. My knee plops as it lands in the mud. “Those are all my friends. If you’re scared, I can carry you.”

She simply nods and wraps her arms around my neck. She’s so light, if it wasn’t for her rotten smell, I might forget that she’s there. As I step over the tear in the ground Alister greets me. I’m sure he already knows how my talks went. He asked anyway. “I’m assuming it didn’t go as planned.”

“Not entirely. If I’m to rule Karvithia, it’ll take a lot of convincing.” I pull back the little girl’s hair to reveal her severed ear. Aroura goes pale and Alistair just stares blankly. The other captains and the princes wear open faces of disgust.
“They turn elves into slaves by removing their ears. Then they turn into husks. She was the only one with any life left in her.”

Zachary speaks up. “I’ve never cared for the elves before... But this is just barbaric.”

Killian agrees. “There was never a time, when I would have even considered turning the elves into slaves. Let alone this...”
The captains offer their agreement.

Alistair nods his head. “It would appear you have your work cut out for you.”

I stand in contemplation for a moment. This is probably something he knew would happen. I don’t know what he’s hoping I’ll do, but something needs to change. These Karvithians are enslaving my rats. These vile beats are turning my rats into puppets! The King of Rats will not stand idle. First I’ll need to convince them to serve me. One way or another. “Any advice on how to gain their approval?”

They all look either to the ground or the sky. Alister’s smile slowly returns to his face. “Sorry to say, but it would appear as though you must figure this out on your own. Oh!”
He reaches into the pack on his horse and throws me an apple. “I figured we should eat while we waited. Here’s your lunch. You’ll have to eat it on the go.”

He turns to march, but I have one more question. “Wait. What about her? She has nowhere to go.”

He looks at me as if I’m stupid, then laughs. “I care not, what happens to her. Send her back to Solaris or keep her with you. This is your territory is it not? You can decide what to do with her.”
He kicks his horse in the gut and leads the army back down the warpath. The princes and Aroura’s horse follow, but Aroura and the captains stay behind. Toross hands me a cloak to protect against the rain. It easily fits over me and the girl.

I pull her out just enough to talk to her. “What do you want to do? Do you want to go to a nice city with nice people, or do you want to stay with me?”

She breaks my grip and clings to me tighter. “P-P-Please don’t leave me alone...”

“Okay. You can stay with me as long as you like okay?” She just nods her head against my chest.

After a moment of silence, Aroura is the first to say something. “I want to offer my most sincere apologies Kar.”
She stands with her hood covering most of her face and her cloak barely concealing her armour and foot soldier’s attire. It still looks strange to me.

I motion my head for the others to follow me and we walk beside the marching army. “That’s a weird way to say, ‘I’m sorry.’ Why? You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Because of what the villagers did to your people. It must have been truly horrific...”

“That’s not something you should apologize for. It’s something we’re going to change. No matter what I must do, I will change their ways.”

“Of course.” She looks at the girl I’m holding and smiles. She leans in close and asks in her sweetest voice.
“Hi there. What’s your name?”

She speaks into my shoulder, barely loud enough to be heard over the rain. “I-I-I'm called bitch mistress...”

Everyone’s eyes widen in shock. I pull the girl off my chest slightly so I can speak to her face. “Hey. How about I give you a new name? One a bit prettier.”
She just nods her head again. I said that, but I’m not sure what to name her. I look up to the grey rain clouds and... That’s actually perfect. “How about Cloudrea?”
She nods her head again. “What do you all think?”

When Maheed speaks, Cloudrea cowers a bit at the hiss in his voice. “I think it’s perfect. It matches her pretty silver eyes.”
How did he manage to see her eyes? And did I not even notice their colour. The others, once again offer their agreement.

“My name is Kar. These are all my good friends.” I introduce them one by one and Cloudrea just nods her head under my cloak. I can feel tears flow into my tunic, even though my surcoat. She’s sniffling as quietly as possible.

A squeak comes out of her. “W-W-Why are y-y-you so n-nice to me...”
I open my mouth to speak but for the first time I don’t know what to say. She continues into a hysterical tantrum of both sadness and relief to be freed. “W-W-Why was no one n-nice to me? W-Why did they h-h-hurt me?”

I hold her tighter and stroke her hair. “It’s okay. Everything’s okay now. You’re with me now. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
Her wailing pierces my ears through to my very soul. I don’t have the words to describe this feeling in my heart. The normally rowdy soldiers are silenced by the cries of Cloudrea. I gradually make my way over to the nearby tree line and find a place to sit. With my back against a tree, Aroura hugs Cloudrea and talks to her in her sweetest voice.
The other captains patiently wait nearby. The world seems to fade away as Aroura and I try to comfort Cloudrea.
I even managed to forget what Desh warned me about. Looking at her now…
Don’t be fooled. Not again.
What could she gain from this?
Your trust.
But why? Why would she need my trust?
Does it matter? Do you really want to dance to her tune? Do you want to always be nothing more than a rat? A tool for the humans?

At some point, Cloudrea fell asleep. I gently shake Aroura loose and stand. “Let’s catch up to the others.”