Volume 1: Chapter 1: One For The Orphan Part 2

Exhaustion and pain consumed the boys body as the two men that previously escorted him from his cell carried him back; there was still nothing but darkness. The fire from torches could be heard crackling with fury, and a few skittering bugs on the floor briefly smothered the stone as they passed by. Each step seemed effortless to the two men that carried him, and every inch drew him closer to his insignificant world that beheld the sky with all its glory from a small hole with bars. The thought of returning to its still, stagnated frame gave him comfort and respite.

The screeching of an iron door overlapped all other sounds and the gentle heaving and positioning of the boy against the cold stone was without a single error as the blindfold was removed. It was completely silent for a brief moment, yet odd enough a blur of three men could be seen from the corner of his eye with one of them holding some form of a wooden object.Something small was tossed against his skull and bounced off only to land between the dirty cracks within the stone while a close, gritty voice cut in between the boys groggy sleeplessness.

"Get up and eat you little bitch. Don't make my job harder than it already is."

It was the same voice from the man who led him out of his cell, and passed another sentence into the boys ears.

"Eat or die, your choice."

A sudden burst of cold water flushed the boy from his daze and made him press against the stone wall. His eyes regained proper vision to reveal the former visage of the men into their true forms. The closest man held a wooden pail in his right hand and a small bag rested on his waist line. His body seemed deformed with his large arched back with a stump of a left leg. The two men who carried him resided outside simply staring from the slit of their black hoods. The long sleeved tunic they wore, however, was pure white and thin with the symbol of two olive branches arching from one position to another until they met in the middle. On their hands were brown leather gloves and on their feet sandals. One of the men who carried him noticed the boys slight gaze and pried into him.

"You like what you see? Don't worry, I'm watching you."

The boy looked down in quick submission, but the man to the right of the other spoke in a soft tone.

"Why must you be hard on all of them?"

The other quickly became vexed at the question pressed against him as the deformed man looked over the other child within the cell from a distance while he slept. The other man, through his frustation, began to speak.

"we....."

The deformed man cut the his sentence before it began with a furious slam of his stump of a leg and pressed angrily with his voice as the child near him awoke half heartedly.

"Blind this one and take him for branding." And you, you better eat."

The two men outside the cell moved quickly without a single noise ever to grace their ears as the child became aware and pleaded for help in desperation before his back would be cooked by iron. The deformed man set the wooden pail down near the center of the cell, and before he walked out and closed the iron door he left the boy some parting words.

"Eat that dried fish before the roaches take hold of it, and drink. You'll need every part of you to survive tomorrow and the days that come after."

His staggered waddle was painfully slow as he exited the cell. But through sudden effort the boy asked a simple, rushed question that sprang into his mind.

"What is your name?"

The deformed man spoke in kind.

"It is Amis. Remember that for I do not repeat myself."

With that said, he closed the iron door, and locked it. The boy looked on, and scampered to the dried fish. Feasting on the carcass was slow and tiresome, but it was more than what he would be offered in the coming days.