Entwined

And Continues To Fuck You

I ignore the quivering in my arms and legs as I continously beat the rock at my feet. The massive pickaxe in my hands and the sweat causes splinters to push into my fingers and palms with every little slip of the axe. Sweat flows down my skin like a river only to be caught by what my captures deem as trousers, which are nothing more than loose undergarments with rips at the ends that run from the hem at mid thigh to the waist band. I have to keep tightening the thin rope to keep my trousers from falling down and exposing myself to these brutes. I've already watched them brutally rape another when his garment fell down.

He died from blood loss and over exploitation.....

His screams still echos off the walls of the mine, haunting and slowly killing the little bit of hope in us all.

If the brutal raping didn't sucked the life from you, the torch lights did just that, giving just enough glow to see around the bends and dips.

The sight is horrfic....

Men sluggishly lift their pickaxe to beat and break the stone in front of them trying to find precious stones to hopefully receive a bit more food as the little food giving not enough substance for the gruesome task day in and day out with little sleep.

And the toll is gruesome.

Eyes sunken, bones prominent, wounds worsening, quivering of limbs....

However, we can not stop. Not in fear of dying from overwork, but from the beasts breathing down our necks.

Just one look at the creature makes you shake from deep within your bones. They stand about eight feet tall, with plated armor that resembles rock. Claws that, if hit, will splat you on the walls as morbid decor. Their torsos are hairy and soft, but they roll in a ball to protect their soft underbelly. If that doesn't cause terror, then their face should. Teeth a half a foot long overflows from the mouth and a single eye located a few inches up from their mouths.

Shaelmaar, I heard the other slaves whisper. A creature that devours slaves on command. However it isn't the devouring that causes terror, it's the way they prepare with their food.

Crushing the body, for easier slurping.

I've counted two in this section of the mines with eight more roaming in the other sections.

Since being thrust into the mines, I have been trying to find a way out by memorizing the schedules and habits of both the guarda and the monsters.

So far, there's no pattern. Shift changes are random, no guards slack off, and the Shaelmaar always standing along the walls.

Thirteen days I've been here. Thirteen days since Ellie was ripped from my arms and thrown to another man. I can still hear her screaming ringing in my ears as she was thrust into a metal cage, like an animal, and pulled in the opposite direction.

I have no idea where she was taken. After my captures casted a spell to understand them and them me, I've asked other slaves where girls where taken, however none gives the answer, only stare with eyes blank that have long since given up.

I do know that the only way out of this mine is by finding a jewel, but not just any jewel. The slave master doesn't want just rubies, diamonds, gold, sapphire, etc. He specifically wants a rock, a meteorite ore.

He showed a tiny piece of meteorite. The rock had a pattern that reminds me of old cobblestone. It shone like liquid gold, with a silvery mirror making the cobblestone pattern outline and the shiny gold colored in the middle like bricks.

It isn't a reward I'm after, because there is none. A slave told me that when a jewel is found, the guards get drunk on ale. The jewel is so expensive, that a even a piece the size of a pebble is worth more than hundreds of emeralds.