The Roselands

Chapter 18

The three of them suddenly jumped out and brandished their weapons. The one in the middle, a rough looking Beerth with a mohawk, chuckled and snorted. "Would ya look at this? We got ourselves a ragtag bunch of hybrids. Or a bunch of hybrids and...this thing."

His pointed his curved blade at me and I snarled, pulling my knife from my belt. "Back off! We're only passing through."

Zazil stood up and pulled his knife as well, curling his lip and brandishing his tusks. The girls all cowered away, but had their hands on knives or clubs in case of a fight. Dusty hid over behind the log seat, too scared to be of much use. The biggest Beerth, with a similar mohawk and matching eyes, glanced at Zazil and laughed. "Look at this one, mates. Isn't the hair and eyes a giveaway?"

The other Beerth, who hadn't spoken yet, laughed as well, tossing his long hair over his shoulder. "That's Carzil's spawn ain't it? Ain't ya runt?"

Zazil snarled and pointed his knife at them. "I'm not a runt."

The middle Beerth took over quickly. "Well whether you're a runt or not, you're all our prisoners, and the girls over there will please Lord Caldwell greatly."

He walked closer to the girls and reached out to touch Sprite, who cowered from his touch, whimpering. "Specially this little one. She got a good body."

I rushed over and stabbed his hand with my knife, shoving him away from her. "Leave her alone, you bastard! We're not your prisoners!"

He snarled and nurse his hand, but then he pulled his sword from his belt. "Caldwell won't appreciate your behavior, boy. Now come with us, or else!"

I snarled and stood over Sprite protectively. "Or else what?" The last thing I heard was Sprite and Blossom screaming, accompanied by Zazil and Dusty's yells as the Beerth backhanded me, knocking me out quickly.

I came too slowly, but as I began to lean up, a bolt of pain went through my brain and my cheek throbbed. I reached up and touched my eye, feeling the swollen skin around it and my temple. I shook my head a little and sat up, looking around. I was in a cage with Zazil, Dusty, and Jeepa, but Sprite and Blossom were nowhere to be seen. Jeepa appeared to be crying and Zazil was shaking his head, muttering crossly at himself.

Dusty saw I was awake and scrambled over. As he helped me sit up, I noticed a bloody gash along his hand and one of his ears had been clipped and now there was a nasty notch in it. "Where are we?"

Dusty sighed. "We're in some kind of prison for hybrids. The only things outside of cages we ever see are pure Roseland creatures."

I looked up and around, noticing that there were dozens of cages in the space where we were, hardened closely by a thick collection of creatures. I saw Beerths, Fockses, and even a Marhet, but the one thing that stuck out to me...was the lack of light. We were obviously held in a forest of some sort, but the trees were grey and shriveled and the ground was black with not a blade of grass to be seen. I looked at the cages, spotting dozens of hybrids I had never seen before, but identified from books. I saw a lot of different hybrids I'd seen, but a few breeds were newer to me.

One of those was a Racka hybrid. Rackas were large eyed creatures with long tails and sloth like claws on each limb. They looked very bizarre, but the hybrids came out with huge adorable eyes and prehensile tails on a human body.

I also saw a large collection of Ghaght hybrids. Ghaghts were hardworking squirrel men who did nothing except store food and build their homes. When a Ghaght mated with a human, they'd usually steal the human away and become that humans servant. As nice as it sounded, most humans hated to live in a Ghaght's home. The Ghaght did everything for you. Everything. Not to go into detail, but it never let you do anything. It persisted to do all the work.

The only other hybrid worth mentioning is probably the Doolik hybrid. Doolik's were sorta like the goblin men of the Roselands. They stay alone predominately, but they ceme out of their caves to find food. During their food hints, most of them find humans. Doolik's have a lot trouble passing on genes for strange unknown reasons and so Doolik hybrids were rare thanks to Doolik reproductive issues.

Before I could get a better look at the other hybrids, a noise came from the end of the cages, where they ended and led towards a pathway into the forest. I glance up and coming down the path was a normal man, clad in a purple jerkin and leather pants that came down to black leather boots. His blonde hair was the brightest thing in the forest, but his grey eyes gave his entire face a dull and sullen appearance. As he walked, he radiated a glow of power I had never seen or felt before.

As he came along the cages, I instinctively shoved Dusty away for his own protection. The man came up to our cage and stopped, gazing in. His gaze fell on me and I saw his eyes narrow. He pulled a sort of stick from his belt and pointed it at me. "You! Are you a hybrid child?"

I stood up and nodded. "Yes. Why does it matter?"

He frowned and put the stick by his side. "I'm the one asking questions. To what being are you a hybrid?"

"Zytrey. Why?"

Several of the Roseland guards gasped and a steady murmur spread throughout them and the surrounding cages. I ignored them and looked at the man. "What have you done with Sprite and Blossom?"

The man chuckled and put the stick in his belt, crossing his arms and tossing his blonde hair as it tried to all across his forehead. "The two hybrid whores. One of them has already pleased me. The other is still in my room. Waiting on me to return. Guards, the Marhet."

As two guards came down the path, all the Marhet hybrids, who were mostly female, wept or looked away. Zazil stood and came to the bars, but we were both pushed back by guards. The door swung open and the two guards threw Blossom in unceremoniously, obviously not worried about her well being.

The poor Marhet herself was obviously not in any state to be thrown or even handled. Her back was cut up by what looked like crop marks, and almost half her original clothes had been torn or shredded. Her pretty face was bruised and from the way she moved, she'd been though something terrible.

Zazil gasped and knelt beside her as she sobbed and crawled away from the man. I snarled and looked at him as the guards close the door. "What did you do to her?"

He smiled a smug smile and waved a hand at her. "What part of pleased me did you not understand? Must I go into detail in front of the young Seerdeer?"

Understanding hit me in the chest like a thunderbolt. He had raped her. And he was gonna rape Sprite as well.