You Tried

Chapter 41- Stars

(-A/N- When it's Ty's POV, there are a lot of horse references. If you don't know a word, look it up on Google images. The breed I'll put on here. Not the rest. It's the big one!)

-Lachlan's POV-
We've been here a while, and it seems the dragon left, and so did Ty and Anthony. Sky and Seto haven't come back in three days, and Rob is stressing out inside. We all tried to talk to Rob to calm him down, but everyone was sent back out except for Preston. Even stuck in a human form, Preston was still a sweet little lava mob. He may be 10, but he and Rob have a connection on another level.
Preston hasn't left Rob's side for a few days now, and the rest of us have been wandering, bored and confused. We've played games and stuff all day, and Vikk had laid down in the grass for a while. He had fallen asleep a few minutes ago. Jerome was climbing an oak tree, hanging off of it like a bac would. His humanoid brown hair dangled in his face, and his shirt fell a little too. Not enough to show anything too serious, but it showed his stomach, and from climbing so many trees, it was tight, thin, and packed.
I laid down next to Vikk as Mitch followed Jerome into the oak. Mitch laid on a branch half as high as Jerome, and Jerome was hanging upside down, making it twice as dangerous. Because he can fall off straight to his head. Vikk turned to me, and somehow managed to move me closer to him. He wrapped his arms around me, and sighed in his sleep.
I held him quietly with a smile, and soon, I fell asleep next to him, with Jerome and Mitch laying in the oak tree above me.

-Christie's POV-
My day consisted of being chained to a tree, being forced to watch but not help as Sky got a whip to the hand. This resulted in an upset mother, and a crying child. But when I analyzed it further in my head, I realized the kid wasn't crying because he pat her head. She was crying because Sky had gotten punished for it. And this was the same kid that connected a few days ago with Anthony.
It's the same kid, another parent/adult. Poor Sky is panicking, and he can't even see. Mark had the bright idea to toss the glasses in the fire after he'd tied us up, and it made the campfire explode into sparks. They're burnt and the lenses popped- broken glass was spread around the fire pit. But the day ended gracelessly.
Not understanding, Sky had connected fingers with a little boy that had come up to him. The boy had put his fingers through the bars, and it panicked Sky. He leaped back again, and returned to hold the boy's hand. It made the boy smile, and the parents scream. The whip came down harshly on Sky's hand again, and a lash nicked his head. I could see blood pour down his face.
The carnival ended for the day. There are a few more days left. Approximately two days left of this torture, then Mark plans to give them to the Barns. Which is a horrible idea. It's torturous, and Mark doesn't give a shit.
The horses have been tied to the fence only a few feet away from me. They seem happy enough. I intend to keep it that way, but the temptation is too great. "SNAAAAAKE!" The yelling riles up the horses, and they break through their tying lines.
Mark is overwhelmed and disappears under the hooves of the horses. When the horses disperse, Mark lies on the ground, beaten hard by rock-hard hooves of 3,000 pounds horses. Oh yeah. They aren't small horses, either. These are shires, one of the biggest kinds of horse.
Jonah and Lindsay pick up his limp body, and set it closer to the fire. To my utter dismay, he still breathes. This man's gotta have dementia or something, and he lives through 6,000 pounds of pressure on him?! WTF?! It's completely fucked up, and the Overworld doesn't care.
This man lived through so much, and he didn't deserve to live. The horses should have most definitely killed him, or maimed him to the point that he'd die on his own anyway... Jason stupidly healed him, and let him rest by the fire. Jonah approached me. "Why, Christian?"
I ignored him, angry. "Christian Devil Rossa. Answer me." I was brought back to Jonah with my full name. He's promised to never say my middle name. Ever. Not once, never again.
"He needed to die, okay? He's willingly giving the hybrids and Skybrine to the guards of the Barn family. You know they'll gladly kill the hybrids, and they'll gladly torture Skybrine for eternity. These are real people. They may look and act different, but they're still people."
He looked away. "Christie, he may be sick and twisted, but killing him through spooked horses is a low blow, man. Choose something more classy, and memorable." "Fine. How about when I'm not chained to a tree?" He nodded. "Of course, Christie. When you're free."
I studied Sky, as he got semi-comfortable, and fell asleep. Ty and Anthony were waking up as dusk faded to night. The others fell asleep as well. My vision faded as I fell asleep.

-Ty's POV-
Waking up quietly, I found Anthony and the dragon waking up as well. The dragon flitted its head around, restudying its surroundings. Anthony simply growled when he saw the bars again. I'd tried everything last night. I'd tried to teleport, even.
It was no use. Any type of magic is bound and tossed from the cage. It's useless to be trying. So, very, very useless. So now we've sat here for a while, thinking of impossible ways to escape this damn moving prison.
Then I saw Sky, again in the cage. He was curled up in the corner of it, sleeping fitfully. He'd flinch a few times, the shift the way he slept. Watching, he did this a good 10 times, and ended up laying on the exact opposite side of the cage floor. It was sad to see him like that.
Anthony turned to me. "Is there any chance of escape? Or is it truly impossible?" "Sorry to say, but it's truly impossible, Anthony. Though I wish it wasn't." "Fine..." "Hey, Anthony? Do you know where we are?"
"Umm... Yeah. We're about 10 miles west of the Barn family's castle." "Doesn't that Mark guy want to sell us to them?" "Yeah. Why?" "Because we have Vikk at the Flower castle. I wanna know why they abandoned him." "Tyler, that's a dangerous question to ask."
"I don't care! He was left to die as an infant. That's incredibly rude. I wanna know why it was necessary." "They may have a reason, so be gentle when you ask. It may be serious." "Did you just say gently? Why would I ask them gently? Anthony. They pretty much tried to kill Vikk."
"Tyler! Just think rationally. They may have a true reason, and it may be a good reason." "To kill an infant? Really, Anthony?" "Sure. May be it was for something that needed to be paid. Players do that stuff, ya know." "And how do you?" "Christie. He told me my first night here."
Near midnight, I saw someone in the camp move, and it caught my attention. I flicked my eyes in the direction of the fire, and saw the dark silhouette of Mark stalking toward us. He looked sickly, and broken, but he still walked well. Behind him were two much larger silhouettes. The horses. Why'd he have- No. Oh god no.
I didn't know what he was doing until he unlocked Sky's cage door with a key. He was going to do something involving Sky, but I wasn't sure what. He dragged an exhausted Sky out of his cage, put shackles on his wrists and ankles, and chained the shackles to a tree, so that Sky hung off the tree in an awkward way. But the second he full-on hung, his face lit up with pain as he woke up. He cried out, and it spooked the horses.
One bucked, kicking Sky's legs. The other spun in panic, and reared at him in fear. The stallion's hooves landed square on Sky's ribcage. I could hear the sickening echo of his cracking ribs. Sky continued to cry out, and it only spooked the horses more. But this time, they went after both Sky and Mark. I wasn't happy about Sky getting hurt, but I was happy they turned on Mark instead.
Sky's arms were held up behind him, upside down. It must hurt, because he actually ended up starting to cry. The one horse bucked again and again, probably wrecking Sky's legs a bunch. But the other turned again, and with its extended height when rearing, struck Sky's head with a hoof.
Sky went limp, clearly knocked out, and very injured. But Mark went unscathed, and escaped back to camp. He laid back down, and left Sky hanging. Morning arose, and I fell asleep before I saw reactions.

-Jonah's POV-
Waking up to the bright sunshine and light breeze happily is no longer a thing. Now it's hoping Mark didn't act irrationally during the night. Which is exactly what he did. I could see Skybrine, chained and hanging limply from a nearby tree. The horses were a few feet away from him, clearly spooked and touchy.
I searched Mark while he slept, and came up with a key. I woke Christie, unchained him, and he jumped into action when he saw Skybrine. He stole the key out of my hand, and ran for Sky. I whistled, and the horses came. I gave Christie a clear path the Sky, and he finally reached him. Taking the wire holding Sky up, he slowly lowered Sky to the grass.
I walked over quickly, and found many wounds throughout his body, and there was a big hoof print on the side of Sky's head. His legs were broken, and he was bruised and beat up thoroughly. Searching for any other injuries, I discovered broken ribs, and  a broken collarbone. He wasn't dead, but the injuries must've been damn close to  painful enough for him to wish he was dead.
Mark woke as I was finishing helping Jason and Christie wrap Sky's wounds. We hadn't noticed him wake, so we gently placed Sky back in the cage and closed the door. I purposely left it unlocked, but made it look like I locked it. Sky was still out, and Mark has stalked up behind me when I wasn't paying attention. "How do you have my key?"
"I took it so I could return him to his cage. I saw you injured him. I thought you wanted more money for them. You know they only give money to those who bring in top condition creatures. This is not top condition, and we also still have today at the carnival. You kinda wrecked your last day at the carnival, Mark. It's not gonna get better."
"You'll see, Jonah. You'll see. Lindsay! Get the horses hitched. We're going to the castle a day early!"
Lindsay's voice called, "Early? I thought the Barns hated early!" I answer. "They do! But Mark is stubborn!" Mark thwacks my arm, and goes, "Shut the hell up, Jonah!" He walks away to help Lindsay with the horses.
Today is another day, and tomorrow is another day.