The Life of a Slave

The day was hot, and the twin sun's shined down relentlessly without regard to the comfort of the residents of the planet that orbited them.

The small figure shuffled along under the burden of two buckets of sloshing liquid hanging from either side of a thick pole that sat on their shoulders behind their head. They did not know the name of the planet. If they even knew what a planet was, they probably wouldn't care what it's name was anyway.

They didn't really have a name as such. If they were needed for something, the beings that owned her would simply call out things like "Hey slave..." or "You there, go get this...".

They didn't mind really, this was all they knew and all the life they had known since they first became aware of their surroundings.

They took small and careful steps across the sandy ground towards the two creatures they were bringing the liquid in the buckets to.

Two majestic scaled reptiles lounged in the warm suns light without a care in the world. Both of them sported bright coloured scales that covered them from their large square heads to their stumpy pointed tails and they stood up on their six strong legs to tower over the small figure below them with anticipation in their highly intelligent eyes that glowed faintly green in the sunlight.

The slave put down the burden from their shoulders with a sigh of relief, untied the ropes from the buckets, and placed one bucket in front of each reptile.

"There you go, drink up quick, we'll be leaving soon, and you won't get any more until we reach Faren City." they slave said to them in what was a faintly young feminine voice.

If the slave knew what race they were and that the race they were had male and female counterparts, then they would probably know that they were female. As a slave she knew none of these things, and the beings that owned her didn't seem to care enough to enlighten her.

The reptiles eyed the buckets in front of them for a moment and then lowered their heads almost as one and drank deeply, lapping at the liquid in quick flashes of thin agile tongues coloured the same green as their eyes.

The slave waited until the reptiles lifted their heads and turned away from her before she picked up the much lighter burden and carried them back the way she came. Wandering past the two metal carts that made up the majority of the small merchant caravan she was owned by she hung up the buckets and wooden pole on convenient hooks attached to a round tank on its own smaller metal cart hitched to one of the larger carts that were usually pulled by one of the reptiles when the caravan needed to move anywhere.

Pulling down a metal cup attached to another hook, she filled the cup with the liquid from within the tank using a small spigot poking out of it and drank some of the cool water for herself. Looking around all she could see was a dusty and sandy landscape stretching out to the horizon in all directions except for the direction the caravan was going in which there could be seen faint outlines of buildings and smoke from fires.

Walking around the carts, the slave made her way over to where there lay four thick bundles of blankets surrounding a camp fire made by digging a shallow hole and rocks placed around the edges. Three metal poles made a triangle above a small crackling fire within the rocks that made up the camp fire and hanging from a metal crossbar connecting the poles by a chain and hook was a heavy looking cauldron that had steam pouring from the edge where the lid had been placed slightly askew.

Reaching into a pocket in the folds of the loose dirty cloth tied around herself that was used for clothing the slave pulled out a thick rag, wrapped it around her hand and used this to remove the cauldron from over the fire and placed it on one of the flatter rocks around the fire. The slave then moved over to one of the metal carts, opened a compartment located one side of it and brought out a large pan with a handle and a grill that could be hooked up to the poles over the camp fire.

Returning to the cart, the slave then proceeded to pull out ingredients from a compartment, which spilled vapour while open being cold on the inside.

Bringing everything back to the fire, the slave then started to cook breakfast for her owners.

One by one, the bundles of blankets surrounding the fire stirred with grunts, groans, and exaggerated sniffing noises as her owners were woken to the noise of frying meat, eggs and the smell of strong tea.

At first glance, one might mistake these beings for the same race as the slave having two arms, two legs, and head with hair growing from the top of the forehead and down the back of their neck. But the differences were apparent when you looked. These beings had scales starting from the back of the wrist and growing up their arms, with smaller, more intricate scales on their faces detailing their high cheekbones and travelling up past their hairlines. Additionally, the eyes had reptilian vertically slit pupils, and the irises were all the same grey colour. The slave in comparison, had smooth scaleless flesh, round pupils, and bright green irises in her eyes. Her owners didn't seem to have different sexes, all looking similar to each other, and only the colour of their scales seemed to be the only way of telling them apart from each other.

The first one to rise from their blankets was the largest of the four, black and gold scales circled the eyes and long black hair was flicked back with a toss of the head to the back and pressed down with a hand whose fingertips sported wicked looking claws that appeared sharp and dangerous.

The slave scurried to the other side of the fire as their owner approached, and she dodged a half-assed kick in her direction. Her owner then picked up a cup of the tea she had poured and scooped out some eggs and meat from the pan and placed them on a wooden plate she had placed next to the cups. One at a time and silent as the wind, the other three owners left their warm bedding and approached the camp fire. There was one with black and purple scales, another with black and red and the smallest of the four lizardlike people had black and blue scales. The slave did not know their names, but when she thought of them, she just considered their colours anyway, so to her, they were Gold, Purple, Red and Blue.

Knowing what her place was, the slave with her head bowed and avoiding eye contact scurried around and picked up the bedding off the ground and took them out of sight around one of the carts from the camp fire then proceeded to shake out the blankets, sheets and pillows separating covers to be cleaned later and folding and putting it all away into a compartment on the cart.

Returning to the campfire, she saw her owners standing together, talking quietly to the side, finished with the food and drink. Gathering the cooking implements as well as left over food she used the left over hot water from cauldron to wash the dirty plates and cups, put them away then folded down the poles and grill above the camp fire and put this away to. Only then does she allow herself to then quickly eat the leftover food, which is all she is allowed to eat.

As she did her best to remain unseen, she was also close enough to hear her owners talking to each other.

"Do we plan to reach Faren City today? said Red in a whiny voice they always seemed to use.

"Yes, we need to sell those apples we picked up last week before they rot," their illustrious leader Gold stated in their no-nonsense, deep baritone.

Speaking up in their usual drawl, Purple slowly sighed. "Will we be staying in the city overnight? I'd appreciate a good night's sleep in a bed, not on the ground. "

Gold stared at Purple for a few moments before replying, "Maybe, depends on how our business with Hawthorn Clan goes."

"OK then, let us hope it goes well then." said Purple.

Looking around, Gold located his slave cowering close by but attempting to remain out of sight. He barked to her. "Get the Boruun hitched up to the carts slave and be quick about it, or I'll shove my foot up your butt."

The slave jumped up at the command and scurried around to do her masters bidding.