No Longer Freedom

9. Anything for love.

Tom's POV

Excellent, for once I was controlling this little mind game. Just like I hoped. But, why didn't I feel the joy of victory? I won the second round but it just didn't feel right. Why? I couldn't explain why I felt guilty for making a deal with them. Maybe it was because I forced them to tell me stuff they didn't want to explain. I saw something I wasn't supposed to and now they are afraid of me, maybe even disappointed. They took me here, because Tord dumped me here, yes. Yet they still tried to be nice by untying me and giving me an opportunity to wash myself. Maybe it was ungrateful to treat them like this but I just played the game like everyone else.

"You suck..." Paul hissed as he sat at the table where me and Patryk already sat, looking at each other. "No, it's just this game. It's unfair and twisted." I was truly ashamed by thinking like them but what else was I supposed to do? I had to make some tactical moves if I wanted to maximize my chances to get the hell out of here.

"Please, explain." I started calmly as I leaned towards them. Patryk and Paul looked at each other unsurely until Patryk opened his mouth.

"It all started over 3 years ago. It was a hot summer night at South's dry Kingdom Dexyx. Stars painted the dark blue sky as the half moon bath in the white light that the sun reflected to it. I was working as a guard for Dexyx's Queen. I was watching over our kingdom's gates as I heard the sound of camels walking towards the huge gate. Before my shift the Queen informed everyone that we would get 20 new soldiers later that night from the other kingdoms." Patryk sighed as he peered Paul significantly. Paul nodded as he started to continue the story. "The wooden cart had 10 women and 10 men in it. I was one of them. My own kingdom selled me as a "worker" or slave for the Queen of Dexyx. She accepted the deal and I arrived that night at the gates with others." He continued as he leaned to his left hand. "What's Dexyx? And why did your kingdom sell you? Is that common and acceptable?" I questioned. Tord almost sold me because I am a dragon but do monarchs really sell their own people? That's so fucked up to be honest.

"Dexyx is the kingdom where Tord was supposed to sell you. It's a big city that is mainly focused on business and expanding. It's in the middle of the desert in the South. That's why we call it dry Kingdom. When we lived there dragons didn't really bother us or anything. They just sometimes ate our animals but that was rare. And I'm not gonna explain why I ended up there. It wasn't a part of the deal." Paul snapped aggressively as he leaned back. Patryk shook his head as he patted Paul's shoulder supportively and calmly so he would calm down. Unexpectedly Paul's aggressive tone didn't really trigger me. Perhaps it was because I tried to mimic Tord's behavior. "Sure" I just rolled my eyes as Patryk started to continue the story.

"I saw how many different kinds of people stepped out of the carriage. A woman dressed in black trench coat and gray straight pants, raised her slightly pinkish hand. She was clearly burned and over dressed as she yelled on top of her lungs that everyone should get inside. I wasn't really bothered about her attitude, which was very rude but I let it slide. Anyways, I let the group walk past me and my other co-workers. Though, as they were walking past us I saw a shorter man staring at me. At first I thought he was looking at something behind me so I moved. Turned out he was truly looking at me so I waved my hand to him but he just ignored it and ran off. I can say that I was super confused back then." He laughed and wiped his eyes. It felt so unreal to think about them not knowing earth other. When I have seen one of them, the other one has never been too far away. Somehow it was cute.

I smiled warmly as I listened to how they argued about Paul's acting in the first days they met. Patryk laughed about how weird and suspicious Paul was and Paul just denied everything. "You were nervousss~" Patryk chuckled as he wrapped his other arm around Paul's shoulder. "I was not! I just didn't know how to approach you." Paul growled as he crossed his arms. "Enough, what happened after that?" As much as I loved to listen to their playful fight, I needed to know the truth as soon as possible.