Dance of Betrayal (Fenrys x Fem Oc) (incomplete)

50 Years Earlier

Screams echoed after the crack of the whip. I kept picking the rubbish out of the wool, cleaning it of any impurities. Though, even as I and the other females have been cleaning the offcuts all day the progress we've made seems extremely insignificant compared to what we are required to do.

Today I was tasked with washing the wool. My knees hurt from kneeling on the hardwood and mushing the fibers into the bottom of the bucket and in the cold, soapy water. There's another female in the bucket next to me who does a second pass through the water to make sure the wool is even cleaner.

I pick up the lump of wool in my bucket and pass it to the female. She just nods as I stand and go get more to wash. Wool cleaning is something a lot of the females and women enjoy doing the most. Yes, it kills our backs but cleans our arms and doesn't rub our skin raw from the friction of rubbing our fingers through the fibers.

I keep my eyes downcast as I walk into the room next to the washroom. I don't walk down the singular step leading to the dirt-floored picking room. The lump of fibers is luckily already sitting on the bench near the door. I mutter a small thank you and carry the pile back to my station but I can't put it into the water before a whistle sounds calling us to the end of our day.

I was born into slavery and even though we have it better than most others we hate our lives. We are still grateful we get to eat and roofs over our heads, when on our best behaviour, but the matrons are still assholes and our keepers and owners are even worse.

Our town is basically run by slaves and we are hired out by store owners or just rich people needing extra help. We are treated better in our town and actually considered citizens but travellers or outsiders we get sold to are much more hateful. My father was passing through our town when he met my mother. Being the hateful person he is he took advantage of her and then I was born a few months later.

She never spoke of him and I never asked. He's one of the people who lock us up in the iron rooms and put us in the iron manacles. He's one of the people who beat and whip us half to death. Some leave the violence just to the males and only starve the females to punish them. Others take it out on females more than the others.

Most recently we were hired by some sheep farmers to prepare and spin the wool. Obviously, we aren't given the money and it instead goes to our owners. The sheep farm is on the outskirts of the village and quite a long walk to go shackled wrist to wrist.

There are a total of 15 human and faerie females in my group which used to be 17 but one was taken somewhere else and another died from starvation. It was addressed as typhus though. It always is, it is smart because it's the most plausible illness to be diagnosed with but she was fae and that fact destroyed the claim.

We all walked out of the door in single file. I snuck a glance to the men in the fields who would be there till sundown or the overseer decided they can go back to the compound. My eyes lock onto the body lying in blood in the middle of the fields. Guards are standing around making sure no one touches the slightly moving being. No one would attempt to save him anyway, he's a lost cause.

I stare down at my wrists and the raw skin in that area. We weren't put back into shackles this time and all try to not run. Not to flee, we all know that's a bad idea, but to get back for food that the others working in bakeries or cafes bring home. We all looked forward to that at the end of the day.

~A Week Later~

The auction is the worst thing that a slave here could experience in their lifetime regardless of their job. I stand on the sidelines with my mother watching the various slaves being taken up to the stage and then sold to the various assholes visiting.

Every year it's all you can do to wish that your name won't be called out. The night before multiple prayers to the gods can be heard whether the praying are believers or not. We all hoped the gods would save us but every time they didn't and laughed in the face of friends and family crying, never to see the sold again.

The youngest I ever saw sold was an 8-year-old human and the loss of her caused riots that resulted in a change of the minimum age. It was doubled and that seemed to make most of us happy. I mean it did stop the riots. We all found out a few months later that she was worked so hard her heart gave up. No one spoke for a week and her parents were both executed for attacking and killing the messenger and auctioneer.

I have my eye on one particular woman standing just a few meters away from my mother and me. She seems nice but has about as many scars as some of the eldest in the compound. If my mother and I went up there I wish that she ends up buying us. I can't tell if she was fae or not as her ear was missing and the other is, obviously, on the other side of her head.

The next group walks up to the front and the bidding is over quickly. The group mainly contained fae males and females all fit for doing stronger work but there was one human male who looked like he'd snap if he even tried some of the work the others do. Though they all went to a crippled man who said something about a farm.

After them, they start the individual auctions and the first name that is called out is Maria DeVil. My head snaps to the side as my mother lets go of my hand and is led away. Someone has their hand on my arm keeping me up so I assume that I started to fall and they caught me.

I can't leave my mother and she can leave me. We promised each other that. The gods know it even if they refuse to care. The only thing I could hope is that I go up after her and get picked by the same person or at least someone who knows my mother's new master or mistress.

Thousands of thoughts run through my mind on who would pick us if they'd be friendly or mean, different owners or the same, but either way, I couldn't hear anything that was happening. I did hear however when she was finally sold to the short, ugly man standing next to the scared woman. I also heard when Sarin DeVil was called and I had to walk up onto that stage and wait to see what my fate would be.