The Cruel King of Ashudhar | Completed

Chapter -1

Kirti, Present

I opened my eyes, and they stung from the bright sun. The first thing I noticed was the searing pain through my shoulders and knees.

It had to be a nightmare. How else could I explain it? I tried to move my hand and winced as a sharp ache traveled from my wrist straight to my shoulders.

My stomach dropped, my limbs froze in panic. I realized my hands were bound to my back. I was on my knees, leaning against a post between my bound hands.

I couldn't focus, panic rising in my chest. The sounds, the lights, sensations were all overwhelming. The pain was all I could focus on. My wrist, my neck, my knees, and my throat were all aching.

I tried to take a deep breath, trying to slow down my erratic heart.

I opened my mouth to make a sound but to my horror, my voice was muffled with a cloth stuffed inside my mouth.

My eyes finally adjusted to the light. People were moving around. I tried to gain their attention, groaning under the cloth but no one so much as looked down. I was kneeling in the middle of a market-like place, that's the best I could understand. The chaos became more and more apparent with each passing second.

A small kid with a basket full of fruits sat at a distance, snot coming down his nose. He stared at me without any expression.

Save me! I screamed behind the gag.

He had to see my panic but all he did was wipe his nose and avert his gaze to focus on something else.

I looked to my side and saw a man bound to a post just like me. He was in a much worse condition. This wasn't just any market, this was Ashudhar's market. Memories came back slowly, mom, dad, his friends. I begged behind the gag, my eyes blurring with tears but no one answered. No one cared. I didn't know how long I had been here. I was parched. Everything hurt.

The man beside me was a human and not an Ashujan as far as I could tell. Maybe, he was kidnapped as well. He lay unconscious, unaware of his surroundings.

The unconscious man was dragged through the dirty road and dumped into a sack.

I was still in shock when I saw a man get down a chariot-like thing. He walked towards us, talking to another man who had been standing behind us all this time. I didn't understand what they were talking about. They spoke in a different language which I gathered was Ashudhar's language. I knew it was Ashubol because I had heard my father speak in it before.

They spoke back and forth, occasionally pointing a finger at me. The man who was standing by me all this time had a scruffy beard. He wore a dirty sleeveless jacket made of animal hide and leather pants. His polished boots were stark opposite to the rest of him as if he had stolen them from someone rich. The bearded man walked to the sack. He took out the head of the man in the sack and showed it to the man who had arrived in the chariot.

My eyes finally took in the new man's masked face. He was taller, wearing a trench coat and thick cotton trousers. He shook his head seeing the face of the bound man. He pointed a finger at me and said something.

The bearded man walked to me next, pulled my head back to show my face to the masked man. I snapped my head away but not before the masked man's eyes crinkled with what must be a smile under the mask. He turned to the bearded man and nodded, saying something in the same foreign tongue. A few seconds later, my binds were removed. I sighed in relief, rubbing my wrists as blood finally flowed back to my limbs. My relief was short-lived though. The masked man handed a few gold coins to the bearded man, took my arm, and pulled me towards the chariot. It didn't take a genius to know that I was being sold.