Chapter 10: Boat Ride (11)

Chapter 10: Boat Ride

It was a rather strange dream, the fact that she had dreamed of being a sword. But it wasn’t the strangest dream she had ever had. In all honesty, it was the least convoluted dream she had ever had. The simple fact that that is what her reaction to being a sword in a dream about being a sword wielded by herself was weird.

But then again, that was what dreams were supposed to be, strange figments of one’s experiences in life. The last dream she had before that that she could remember was a dream about being back in her first home. She was being chased by a strange monster, and she died.

This dream was tame by comparison.

Aisling awoke to the sound of metal on metal. Her eyes slowly opened to see the roof of what seemed to be yet another cage. It looked like cages were going to keep popping up in her life. She looked to the side of where she was and noticed something.

There were other cages. Some of the cages were empty, others were full. But her cage, her cage was different. It wasn’t full. It seemed like they had gotten a cage just for her. The majority of the people in the cages were beastkin, though some of them looked like elves.

But none of them were alone, all of them seemed sick. And it seemed that all the elvish slaves were shackled by strange metal cuffs. Those cuffs had runes carved into the surfaces of the cuffs. The runes glowed a deep, purple. It left a deep, ominous feeling in Aisling’s stomach.

She looked down at her hands and noticed that she was naked. Now, as a person of the age of ten, looking 13, this caused her to panic. She looked round the cage and noticed some clothes on the floor of the cage.

They were simple garb, just a linen shirt and pants. She quickly put them on and sighed in happiness. The fact that she had been naked in an environment that was completely unknown to her was nerve racking.

It was still nerve racking, but ever so less so while she was garbed. She then sat down on the ground and pondered on where she could be. She had to remember what happened as of late and what was the thing she could remember.

Looking back, she had only been a slave now for about a day, yet so much had happened that it felt like years. The simple fact that she now was thinking of herself as a slave was rather shocking at surface value. But then again, her past life’s work might as well be considered the same.

A little bit of her masochist side wanted to act this way with everyone. Act in a submissive and less than confident way. But her rational mind often simply put that idea down harder than Bambie’s mom. It was then that the noise of a raking of the bars of the cage was heard. That was a lot of words to describe someone simply trying to get her attention.

She looked over and noticed a young girl on the left side of her cage. She was an elf. Said elf had long hair and green eyes. Her beautiful eyes were muddled and slightly red. Her long blonde hair was surly rather pretty to gaze at, at some point. But now she simply looked like a downtrodden Begger.

“Hey, pst! Where are you going? What master are you being sold off to?” asked the elf girl.

Aisling was now confused. This girl seemed happy to get someone to talk to, but…

In all honesty, she seemed not all there in the head. Maybe she was simply trying to be nice and make a new friend, but it was all rather unnerving. Looking into the girl’s eyes explained why. She was high as a kite.

Did they give this girl opium? Was that why she seemed so relaxed? Or maybe they gave her another type of drug. Maybe it was in the food to make them more submissive. Or maybe she was a pleasure slave, and they didn’t want her screaming. Whatever the reason, she still needed to respond.

“I don’t know, all I know is that they branded me with the duke of the west French isles crest and chucked me in a crate into the ocean,” she explained.

The girl then seemed to panic for a minute. She went away from the bars and crouched in a fetal position. It seemed whatever that meant was the wrong answer. She then walked back over and seemed to be collected now.

“I’m so jealous,” she finally said.

Aisling wasn’t expecting that. She expected her say… well anything different. She wondered why she would say such a thing. Maybe he was known for treating his slaves well? Or maybe he gave them a lot of intoxicants? She did seem high.

“See, that lord loves beastkin. To an unhealthy degree, and the simple fact that you are a spirit beastkin with a mutation. Meaning he will probably use you as a status symbol or as a concubine when you get older,” she explained, but then continued.

“I have heard he loves kids though, so he might take pity on you,” she finished.

This was all news to Aisling though. It was rather strange actually. How did she know of his love for beastkin? Or maybe outside of Ireland it was common knowledge? Whatever the case, she hoped that that knowledge was true. And she doubly hoped that she didn’t get turned into a concubine.

But then again, it wasn’t the worst thing a slave could be. She could be a just straight up sex slave. Although, the author hasn’t put up a nudity content warning on this story so she should be alright. But she also doesn’t know she’s in a book, so there’s that.

It was then that the door to the room that they were in opened. It was also then that she noticed the rocking of the room. She had spent a whole day in the crate so the simple fact of her not being in dry land kind of went to the back of her mind. They seemed to be on a boat. She could probably think of this as a kind of boat ride.

She looked to where the door was, and by the door stood a man. The man was the same man the had carried her on his shoulder. It seemed like he had survived the explosion and made it to wherever or whoever this boat belonged to.

In case you are wondering where the door is, it was on Aisling’s right, down the middle of the walkway that was made by all the cages in the room. He seemed to be looking for someone and then scanned the room. his eyes drifted over all the cages and finally, landed on her own cage.

He walked down the line and then stopped in front of her won cage. As if just to make sure of her identity, her ordered her to do something in French. Said order became clear when the collar sent the message of pain throughout her body and down her leg.

He wanted to see the brand. She turned her leg to the front, and he looked at it. He then nodded and sped-walked back to the door. She thought she had seen the last of him for a while but minutes later, he arrived with a tall man.

The tall man looked like he was of Norse dissent, and he opened the cage with an ancient looking key. The door opened and the Francian man grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the cage and then out of the room.

The outside world was bright. It was too bright. She had to hold up her hand to the sun to stop it from blinding her. Because of this, she slowed down ever so slightly. The Francian man didn’t seem to like that, so he tugged at her arm hard.

She let out a yelp and started to move again. They were both on a ship. The ship had another ship along the side of it. said ship was the one they were moving to, and it seemed to be the same ship as the one that she had seen when they were running from the Irish army.

The man was pulling her along. They moved over a gangplank that connected the two ships and then stepped onto the deck of the Francian ship. The deck of the ship was awfully different form the slaver ship she had been on.

The slaver ship was flat, it was more of a rather huge barge than any other boat, it only had two masts. While the captain’s office was above the main deck. The were also dozens of oars sticking out from both sides.

But the Francian ship was much more stereotypical when it came to medieval ships. She had four masts, and each one of them had completely furled sails. The sides of the ship were painted blue and red. She looked over to the side of the ship and noted the crest as well.

This was going to be a long voyage.

…

There she lay, in ANOTHER CAGE! It was starting to get tiring, being stuck in cages like this. At least for her, but that weird elf person would probably get her jollies off to this.

She sighed and looked around the cage. It was even smaller than the one she had been first trapped in. It also seemed only marginally larger than the crate she was stuck in days before. At least she had food in this case. There was enough space in the cage for her sit without putting her own foot up her rear end.

But her wings were pinned behind her back in a weird way; as well as her legs being stuck underneath her. Some people might find that not that uncomfortable, but she did find un-comfy. After so long you could only tolerate so much body contortion.

In her lap was a dish. Said dish had a single piece of hard tack in it. she looked up at the man who had given her it. it was the same man who had carried her out of the battle before she was chucked into the crate.

He was looking at her expectingly. It seemed like he wanted her to eat the piece of hardtack so he knew she wouldn’t go hungry. In all honesty it was kind of weird to eat it in front of someone that was staring at her so intently.

But she sucked up her embarrassment and bit down. It wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be. She sighed at finally being able to eat something and continued to consume the hardened flour brick. Her teeth would likely hate her after this, but she didn’t care right now.

After she was done, she looked back at the old man in his chair. It seemed like had been satisfied by her first bite as he had started reading a book. It was then that she decided to save her energy and go to sleep. If she was to make this journey, then she would need all the energy she could muster.

She awoke to her cage rattling and opened her eyes. Looking around for the source of the rattling cage she spotted the French Santa clause look-alike nodded her head submissively. She had to remember to act like a slave. They would see her as a tool, or piece of meat when they got to the duke’s main island. She was a slave now, so shew needed to act like it.

In all honesty she wasn’t that beat up about acting this way. all she needed to do was dissociate from the world if she was ever treated poorly. And from what she heard about her new master; she wasn’t going to be treated all that poorly.

At least she hoped that the elf high on opium was telling the truth and not just being a dick and lying. That would be bad if her info on her new situation was false. She might have to start asking the French man about where they were going. But she was afraid; if she pissed him off then she might be punished.

She closed her eyes and waited for him to tell her something or do anything, but he didn’t. Instead, he opened the cage and grabbed the dish from her and instructed her to stand as best she could. Of course, she didn’t understand him, but she understood because of the collar.

Then he slid a stinky poop bucket underneath her. It was empty but she still could smell the stench of feces and piss from it. She sat down on the rim and pulled off her pants as she hadn’t been given undies. As she did this the man closed the door to the cage and looked away.

He then opened the book he had been reading and started to hum. She was very thankful that shew had a very good guard instead of some pervert. After doing her business she knocked on the side of the cage and then man came over again.

He opened the cage, and she stood up, or did her best too, and he pulled out the bucket and closed the door. She shook her head of intrusive thoughts of running out of there, as she would be caught as soon as she stepped out of the room.

In all honesty, she felt that this man probably was the best to guard her. She sighed and closed her eyes again. It was then that the old man handed her a damp cloth and said something in French. She took it and wiped her behind with it. she handed it back and he tossed it in a bucket that was near the poop bucket.

As the hours passed, she felt the call of sleep deep within her and decided to sleep. In all honesty she felt as if she hadn’t had enough sleep. She laid her head against the bars and closed her eyes.

It seemed her life was going in an odd direction. Her family and her had been torn apart and she had a deep and bad feeling about it. She felt as though she may never see them again. But she had to have faith in herself and her family. If she couldn’t do that, what could she do.

As the world and the noise of the waves crashing against the hull of the ship resounded against the silence of the room, it drew her in. her mind began to cloud and she fell asleep. This would be a rather long boat ride for her, but rather short for us.

This story of her ride to the islands is no longer going to be just words that have no bearing on the plot anymore as the author was going to do. Now the actual plot we had in mind will begin.