Chapter 4

Ethan leapt into action and threw the ball of fire that was currently in his hand straight into the face of the guard who was clambering up onto the carriage. He let out a painful shriek and fell to the ground. Another guard was climbing onto the back of the carriage from the other side. He charged toward Ethan, stepping on top of the cages. Ethan, being on the carriage floor, scooted his way in between the cages as fast as he could. Just as the guard was about to bound on top of him. He let out a cry of surprise. Tiny Leo had stuck his hands out of the top of his cage, grabbed the guard’s foot, and tripped him over. The guard tumbled down, his massive body wedged in the space where Ethan had just been. Ethan finally clambered his way through all the cages and out to the back of the carriage. Another guard was on his horse watching him.
“Got nowhere to go now, boy,” the man growled. Ethan breathed in a deep breath. Trying his hardest to clear his mind in the midst of this mess. While he rushed forward, he tapped the magic inside of him, and instantly a stream flew out, and his hands suddenly had fire glowing in between them. The ball of fire was huge this time. It was the size of a small dog now. The horse neighed, it was scared of the fire and pranced sideways. Now without even thinking, Ethan naturally shut the entrance to the stream of magic, and the fire seemed to dissipate instantly into black smoke. Just as the guard’s attention was distracted for a minute, Ethan stepped on the back of the horse's rear and leapt off and onto the ground. He landed and rolled on the ground to reduce the impact. He thanked his mentor, who had given him a bit of knight training since he was 5 years old. Once he was safely on the ground, he was off and running. He had to get away. He felt a bit of guilt but he didn’t have time to save the other boys. He made his way straight for the underbush below the pine trees. That was when someone stepped out from behind the tree. Ethan ran straight into his big, fat belly. The man picked him up by the scruff of the neck. His legs dangling in mid air. Ethan’s heart sank.
“I like this little guy! He’s feisty!” The man gave out a massive belly laugh. Ethan tried to spin around and punch the man. “How much is he, Rowan?” he carried Ethan back over to the carriage.
“Bardin, is that you! He’s going up for auction, starting from 500. I’ll put a word in for you for your help,” the man on the horse, Rowan, grunted as he glared daggers at Ethan. The man who had the fireball to the face was being treated by a water mage. A bubble of water was rolling around on the bright red spots on his nose and cheek.
“Release me! I’m the second son of House Feur, and I’m not a slave!” Ethan shouted as arrogantly as he could. He was not used to it, and instead his voice came out super squeaky. The big man gave out another massive belly laugh.
“Listen to him, Rowan. Sounds like he’s never said those words his whole life.” The man carried him over to the guard that Leo had tripped over before. He had finally squeezed his way out of the cages. The man grabbed Ethan in a tight grip and shoved him back into his small cage.
“Let me go! My father will pay you! He’ll pay a fortune to get me back!” Ethan started banging against the bars.
“Shut up, runt. You should know by now that your father is the one who put you here in the first place! We bought you from him!” Rowan laughed. Ethan couldn’t speak. He just stared at Rowan’s grinning face.
“You just killed his spirit, Rowan,” Bardin grinned.
“Hahaha, look at his face! You’d think that I’ve just killed his daddy. You poor baby,” he mocked. Ethan ignored him, his mind going a hundred miles a minute. Why would his dad do this? He thought of that day when his dad had punched him in the face. He was so angry at him. It was only an accident, though. He didn’t mean to shoot fire into his brother’s face. He loved his brother. Why would his father go so far as to sell him into slavery? He was his son, right?
“Let’s keep moving! We don’t have all day to sit around here! Get back on ya horses and let’s go. Bardin, you got a horse?”
“I’ll meet you there, I have some business to do first. I won’t miss the auction. I’m out shopping for General Barker. He wants fresh meat for the army. They’re running low on supplies.”
“What! Didn’t I just sell him some meat a month ago? The empire can’t be losing, can it?” Rowan complained.
“Not if I can help it. The recent cargo walked into a troop of electric mages, and someone hadn’t supplied them with rubber uniforms. The whole unit went down.”
“I bet someone paid for that mistake,” Rowan laughed. The carriage started moving again. “Well, we gotta go, good to see you, Bardin!” Bardin gave a wave, and the guards got on their horses and went back into formation next to the carriage. It was like Ethan had never escaped in the first place.
“Nice job, mate, that was a really nice show,” the arrogant boy with blonde hair said to Ethan. Ethan didn’t even look in his direction.

“I’m so sorry Ethan, I really tried to help,” came a sniffle from beside him. Ethan looked up and saw Leo huddled in the corner of his cage. He had a nicely pronounced purplely black eye now that surrounded half of his features. Looks like he was punished for helping him. Ethan felt like he was at the bottom of a dark endless pit. There was no use escaping now because there was nowhere to go. His own father had sold him. He wouldn’t be welcomed back to the estate. He wondered if his mother knew about it or even his brother. Surely not, both of them seemed completely fine with him when he was in his brother’s room the other night. He had to check to see if they were still okay. He couldn’t just leave his own home and family behind. He needed to talk to his father too.

“Thanks Leo, for helping out, you did a brilliant job,” Ethan praised him. Leo sat up and his face brightened up a bit. The blonde boy snorted with laughter.

“Oh shut it Conner, I didn’t see you do anything. You just sat and watched the whole thing,” Leo growled at the blonde boy.

“Well, I would’ve helped if I thought the escape was a bit more promising. He was just going to leave us behind, you know that don’t you Leo?” The boy now named Connor complained.

“I was not! I just couldn’t help you alone at the time. I would’ve come back!” Ethan protested against his accusation.

“Oi! Shut it you little meat bags!” shouted one of the guards. They all kept quiet. The only sound now coming from the creak of the carriage and the birds singing their hearts out. That was when Ethan started to hear the sound of distant chatter. Slowly their surroundings started to have human life. A woodcutter was at it, with his massive axe. He stopped his work to stare at the carriage as it went pass. I saw many emotions flit across his face. Just as they almost passed completely I saw a little girl jump out to give him a hug. We all had our families we had to protect. Slowly buildings started to appear on either side of the road. Men strides past, dressed in nice suits and canes in their hands. Ladies in beautiful dresses were walking along the street, while maids carried shopping bags as they followed behind them. Ethan also noticed the small figures huddled in the corners. Their clothes stained, their eyes completely lost of their souls. Beggars, small families and even just small children by themselves. Begging for money with small tin cans in their hands.

The carriage finally came to a halt, they had finally arrived. They were now going to be auctioned off to who knows where. Like livestock at the slaughter house, only some of us get saved while the rest get pushed into the mill. The guards started pulling the boys out of their cages one by one. There was only one girl in the 6 of the cages. She had dirty blonde hair and a dress that used to be blue.they put chains on their ankles and tied their wrists together with a rope. Then they had to walk forward to a set of wooden stairs which led to a nice wooden platform. Something else about the slaves that Ethan noticed was that all of them were children, there were no teens or adults in their mix. It was then Ethan’s turn, the guard immediately grabbed his wrists and tied them together. He seemed experienced because as soon as he was out of the cage he had chains instantly clapped onto his ankles. He was pushed forward and Ethan also went up onto the wooden platform with the others. Leo was put beside him and then Connor came after Leo.