You Tried

Chapter 38- Captivity

-Anthony's POV-
The archer somehow managed to get me to the portal water inside the alter, and I tumbled into it. Once on solid ground again, I was lifted by my chains, and dragged into the trees. Hearing metal, I freaked out. What is it?
I knew immediately. I was shoved backwards, and my back slammed into iron bars. The chains were taken away, and the door to the cage was shut and locked. The bars glowed with an enchantment. They were unbreakable, and protected from all kinds of magic. I was certainly trapped for entertainment.
A large black sheet was tossed over the cage, engulfing me in darkness. My feet were swiftly swept out from beneath me when the cage jerked forward, and was pulled along. I could hear Aether creatures, not players... Ugh. What are they? That's right, horses.
Horses were dragging the cage along on wheels. This is all Aether stuff, man. I don't know this shit. Gimme a break. But it was weird still.
I heard the horses, understood they were pulling the cage, but didn't quite grasp the concept of where we're going. An hour passed, and the horses stopped. The sheet was lifted, exposing me to sudden light, which hurt. When I adjusted, I could see players milling about. I turned a full circle in my cage, saw the horses, the players who caught me, and just random other players walking around in this loud, open space.
One thing, and one thing alone made me happy. Tyler was not here. Someone stopped next to the cage. "Mommy? What is that?" "I don't know, honey. It may be dangerous. Be careful." "But he looks scared." "That's wonderful, sweetie. Stay away."
But the child continued to come closer to me. She stuck her fingers through the bars, and I backed up. I was confused. Why is she not afraid, and instead is discontent with staying away, like her mother asked? "Amelie! I just told you to stay away! What part of that sentence did you not understand?!"
She mumbled, "...all of it...", and walked away. She seemed discontent with leaving, and disappointed that I'd stayed away from her. This child was courageous, and confusing to me. I didn't see her again once she left. But I saw plenty of other players throughout the day.
Many of the men tried to poke me, the women stayed far away, and most of the children stayed with their mothers. It was strange, in a strange part of the Aether. But one part of my day bothered me. My one set of visiting players. They walked differently to the others, and looked slightly familiar to me.
After mulling it over, I realized why they were so familiar. They looked and sounded like Vikk. The accent, the hair and skin color, the walk, everything matched up with Vikk. They had stood a yard away, watching me in silence, judging me. It bugged me.
The players who had abandoned Vikk to the forest, were now silently judging an injured Enderdragon hybrid. It was disgusting. But I sat quietly, and closed my eyes, resetting my anger to numbness. The one swordsman from the End came over and knocked his fist against the bars, startling me. In an instant without thought, I shouted, "Pedicabo ego vos!"
He stepped back in mild surprise, and slammed his fist down harder on the iron. "Never speak to me like that again, Anthony Ellis." He spit my name angrily, and sauntered off to tend to the horses. The archer appeared. "That was a bad idea, Ellis. Don't repeat that."
Another of the swordsmen came over. "I don't know where you learned Latin from, hybrid, but that was bad if you didn't know. Mark'll beat you to a pulp if you do that again." I have yet to speak back to one of these men in English in the Aether dimension. The sun fades to a darker sky, and the sheet is once again draped over the cage.
I don't sleep in the Aether's night, so I stay up, pacing the tiny cage I'm in, hundreds of times by dawn's inevitable approach. Dawn arrives, and I curl into myself, falling asleep.

-Christie's POV- (The archer!!! :})
Mark pulled the blanket off of the cage to reveal a sleeping hybrid. He shouted, screamed, tried to wake it, but failed. Jason tried, and succeeded, if not for a moment. The hybrid fixed him with a cold, purple- eyed glare, and fell back to sleep. There was no waking this vile creature from sleeping.
"Christie! Wake the damn hybrid." "And why should I? His day is opposite to ours. His day is our night. Our day is his night. He's sleeping through his nighttime." Mark disliked my answer greatly. "I don't give a damn. Wake it up. The carnival will start again soon." "Why are we putting this poor creature through the carnival again? It seems cruel."
"Christie." "What." "Money. That's why this damn thing is coming through here with us." "But it's cruel to drag the poor creature into our activities. He must have his own life." "I. Don't. Give. A. Damn. Got it? And cruel? Think of another word, Christie."
"Fine. It's abusive." "Nope." "It is! You're forcing this creature to go through something it doesn't want to, and you've threatened its life! That is extremely abusive to the hybrid." Mark spun on his heel, and got in my face. "It's not abusive until I say it is. Understand me, Christie Rossa?"
I swallowed, and nodded. I managed to wake the hybrid, gently enough that he wasn't angry, and firm enough that he stayed awake. "What the hell do you players want with me?!" I jumped, surprised by how fluently and clearly he spoke English. He looked foreign, a secondary English speaker.
He stood in the cage, and leaned against the one wall, to face me directly. "Mark wants money, and you are apparently his ticket to that." "What's money?" I blinked, feeling as if slapped. "Are you serious?" "Yah. What the hell is money?"
"Money is currency, the thing that gets you other things. It's how you buy stuff." "Um... Okay? Aether thing?" "Eh. Yeah. Exactly." "Oh. Okay." "You're smarter than you let on."
He raised his eyebrows. "Am I now? And what makes you say that?" "You're curious, and you pay attention to detail and words. I can see it in your face." He smirked. "Clever, player. I'm much smarter than I exert into open space. I'm very conservative of myself."
Mark screamed my name. "Gotta go. Talk more tonight, k?" "Sure. Why not." I ran over to Mark. "Is it awake?" "Yes, Mark. It's awake. I see you're prepared to torture it." It's true. Mark's belt has adopted a leather whip, with a plethora of small leather strips on the end to inflict extreme damage.
He looks down at it. "Yes, Christie. I am. What if it hurts someone? I can't lose money for not disciplining it." "Mark! It's a valuable creature! You can't go around whipping it! If you do, and you sell it, it'll have a lower price." This is Mark language. I can't speak Christie language, because he won't understand... or care.
"I still don't give a damn about its health, Christie. The price I care for though, and I am going to sell it in the near future." "To who? Those awful palace guards?" "Of course!" "Mark!!! They'll tear him to bits!! He'll die!!" "NO ONE CARES! You gotta understand this."
"Go die in a hole, Mark." I walked away, and started to stroke the horses, ignoring Mark. Jonah approaches me, wrapping his hand around mine. "What now, Chris?" I speak softly.
"Mark is gonna whip the poor thing, then sell it to the awful guards at the Barn palace. Jonah, they're so cruel there. He'll die, and Mark doesn't care." "It's okay, Chris. We'll try and help the best we can. But Christian, be careful around it either way."
(Bet you guys thought Christie was a girl! Nope. Guys all around.)

-Anthony's POV-
The day resumed as it did yesterday. Players milled around, and many stopped to look at me. But when I lashed out at an incredibly rude passerby, I was met halfway with a leather whip. It snapped my natural instincts into gear, and I jumped back to assess the whip. It was held by Mark- the main swordsman.
My eyes narrowed, glaring hard at Mark. Christie, the archer, stood a way off, but even from this far, I could see a tear run down his face. Mark approached, livid. All players had walked on. The whip slammed into the bars, making a thrum rattle the cage.
I sat back, and enjoyed the anger. It was funny how furious players could get by one simple act of rebellion. Christie shook his head furiously at me. Don't stop, or he won't stop. So I stood back up to face him directly.
One whip lash got through the bars, and cut into my right wrist. It didn't hurt, with all my numbness to pain from years and years of it. I simply flicked it, to help it go numb so it wouldn't bleed. It didn't stop bleeding, but it was a lot less than before. But I didn't react, which was a terrible idea considering the livid player.
The players walking around had made a crowd, a circle around the cage and Mark. Mark shook out his arm, and threw the whip's end into the cage. It created a laceration, deep to the bone in my other wrist. I held my left wrist to my chest, and pressed it into my shirt. Blood soaked into my white shirt.
Mark grimaced, and rolled his shoulder back. He has a bad arm. Then why was he using a weapon that required arm strength? "...asshole hybrid..." He then rolled his shoulders and head back and up, and strode away.
Christie didn't appear happy, and dug into a bag on the ground. His head came up, and he turned around to reveal what was in his hands. It was a small white bundle. He ran over, and beckoned for me to give him my wrists. I did, and he unraveled the bundle be held.
He ripped it in two, and took my left wrist. He wrapped my wrist with whatever it was, and did the same with my right. When Christie finished, he looked up at my face. "You have a high tolerance for pain, don't you?" "Of course. Too much pain destroys intolerance for pain."
"So you've had a lot of pain in your life?" "Oh yeah, my brother would snap my wings a lot. He has a lower tolerance." "You have a brother? Where?" "You left him in the End. And I'm happy you did. He wasn't doing too good." "Oh? What happened?"
"Before you guys showed up, he jumped off the island. He... tried to make a suicide leap to the void." "Oh! Oh god! Then how do you know he won't try again?" "I don't. But it's doubtful. He has enough sense to know."
Christie turned behind himself, to see if anyone was within earshot. Satisfied that there was not, he leaned close. "You need to escape while you still can. Mark is going to give you to the Barn royalty for a lot of money. They'll kill you." "Christie-" He flinched when I said it... "-You don't understand. This cage has been made escape-proof. It has a magic barrier, and an 'unbreakable' enchantment. I'm sealed in. There's no way out." And as night fell, I didn't sleep, but the sheet was again tossed over the cage, and the players slept.

Tomorrow is gonna be fun...