Freedom isn't free.

"Fall in, you lot! Unless you plan on fastin' tonight! the fat, bald man spat. A line of people began to form around a makeshift kitchen. An open fire that had a huge black pot sat atop it was emitting a foul stench from the brown slop that was inside. It was supposed to be food, but it seemed more like waste.

The people were Beastkin, or in their native tongue, 'Y'shvahema'. Often, the other races would derogatorily refer to them as 'demi humans'. These ones in particular were slaves. The most elementary description of these Beastkin could be human animal hybrids, but it was much more complex than that. They varied in types ranging from dogs to cats, birds to bears. There were even dragon or chimera types, but those were more rare. Beastkin were often the slave of choice as they had more strength and stamina compared to the other races. Because of this, it was often the case that if you were a Beastkin, the chances of you being kidnapped and sold into slavery were extremely high. The women were especially sought after, for more...nefarious reasons.

Among the other Beastkin was a little, dark skinned cat type girl. She had absurdly long, messy green hair, cat ears with white tufts fluffing out, big orange eyes and wore the usual female slave garb, which was to say, not much. A black tunic that resembled a camisole and a bikini bottom hugged her petite frame, her lionesses tail popping playfully out the back. She had no shoes, just like the others and a collar with a chain attached for when it was bed time. There were also cuffs on her wrists that could connect to chains as well. Everywhere there was bare skin, there were scars. It was clear she was beaten regularly, but despite this, she wore a smile that reached her eyes.

"Yay! It is food time! Food time!" she said excitedly, looking to her friends behind her, giggling. "Don't be too noisy, Ruti". A serious looking girl with red glasses, silver hair and steel blue eyes said, adjusting her glasses daintily. She had little bird wings on either side of her head that fluttered about to show her mood. "Lest you forget what the Master did last time." Ruti had a penitent for being loud and boisterous. She would often get excited over the most mundane of things. Last time she made a racket over seeing an ant carrying away some bread she dropped, she was beaten by the Master so hard, she couldn't walk for a week. "Ehehe~" Ruti giggled. "Honestly, how you can be so carefree is a mystery not even The Mother could solve."

El-Ima'havah, or The Mother as she was often fondly referred to as, was one of the Gods of the Beastkin. Or, as it were in the Empire, the heretical 'Old Gods'. Worship of these Old Gods, or any god for that matter, was outlawed after the son of the previous Emperor, Gavius Demericus V, Caius Demericus I, wrote it into law on his first day of rule. The Empire of Demerica used to be a god-fearing nation, now they instead feared Emperor Caius as their God.

"Shush! Don't talk about the Old Gods so openly, Biyo! They'll beat us all!" a little, mousy girl squeaked in fear. She had curly brown hair, perpetually sad, green eyes, and huge, floppy mouse ears. Biyo started, looking around for any slavers who could have heard, then back to the mousy girl. "Sorry, Neshu...I'll try and be more cautious from now on." Both the bird and mouse girl shivered, and stared at the rocky ground, surely thinking what could happen to them and their families had the slavers overheard. Ruti and the girls moved up in line to receive their food for the day. The term food is used lightly, as it more resembled something that came out of one's body, more than something that should go in. Ruti was first, she held out her wooden bowl and grinned stupidly at the bald slaver. "Wipe that moronic smile off yer face, beast, or I'll beat you with this here ladle." the fat man bounced the ladle in his hands. Ruti toned her smile down a bit, but she still looked happy. "Is that better, sir-" she was abruptly cut off by the hard, steel utensil whacking her across the face. The man hit her with so much force, she flew backwards into Biyo, who caught her. "You lot better start listenin' when we tell you wot' for!" the man said, looking to the rest of the line.

Ruti was bleeding from her mouth and nose, her left eye was beginning to swell. She looked up at Biyo and smiled. Biyo looked at her, tears welling in her steely eyes. The man leered at Biyo, anger building. "You, bird thing. Drop her, now." Biyo started, looking at the man, then back to Ruti. She had passed out from the pain, though a small smile was still sat on her bloody face. "Drop her or I beat you next!" The man pointed at the terrified bird girl. Biyo was shaking, tears streaming down her pale face, falling onto Ruti. "I'm sorry, Ruti..." She dropped her and walked away. Neshu looked down at Ruti, screwing up her face, then followed behind. The man spat on Ruti's unconscious body, another slaver kicking her into a ditch and out of the other people's way. "Let that be an example to the rest of ya! Tonight, she sleeps in the pits."

"Never forget, dear Ruti. No matter what happens, always smile. Smile for the people who can't. Be the guiding light when the ones around you are lost in darkness. Be the light of the world, like you are mine." These words replayed in Ruti's head nonstop. The words of her late mother. They gave her the will to live, even when all seemed lost. She had these words, the words of the one she loved the most. She would live and die by them.

It was nightfall. Ruti stirred awake at the voice of her mother. She would often dream of her, it was comforting, almost like she was...still there. She sat up slowly, felt her face. It hurt. She was hit pretty hard after all, but it was nothing she wouldn't recover from. She looked up from the pit, it was around eight feet deep, much too tall for her to attempt crawling out of, as she was just under five feet herself. She surveyed her surroundings. It was dark, but she had great night vision on account of being a cat type demi human. She looked at her hand, it was dirty, bloody. Tears welled up in her eyes, her smile turning to a frown. "It hurts, momma...I'm hungry and it hurts..." she sniffed. She wiped her face and began to stand up, it was pointless to cry now. Not after everything that happened. She needed to be strong now more than ever. Just as she got to her feet, and alarm sounded. She could smell fire and people fighting, screaming. "Hello?!" she shouted from the pit, as she tried fruitlessly to climb the dirt wall, desperation needling at her like a bad itch. Then, a rope ladder hit her on the head. She fell, rubbed at her scalp. "Who is up there? Hello?" But nobody answered. She shrugged, began to climb the ladder.

"Wait, not yet. Wait until you see the fire in the west. Then you can make your escape. Go eastward and don't stop." an unknown woman's voice said. "W-what?...The west? Eastward? Who are you?" Ruti asked, but again got no answer. "I guess she's gone now too..." Ruti thought of her mother again and smiled. She wondered where her friends were, if they got out ok. She assumed this was some kind of slave uprising as she heard of them happening at other camps, but never thought she'd live to experience one. To experience freedom. But what really was freedom to her? Everything she cared about before becoming a slave was gone. Everyone she loved, dead. All she knew was this life, and the people she met along the way. Could she manage a life outside this? This life of order within chaos? The fire went up in the west, just as the woman said. It was time to move. She grabbed ahold of the ladder and began climbing, slowly crawling out once she made it to the top. There was fire everywhere, bodies of slavers and her fellow demi humans strewn about. Smoke and carnage. The sight made her sick, she dry heaved on account of not eating anything in over a day. She looked around the burning camp, hearing the swords clashing and battlecries to the west. "Biyo...Neshu...I hope you made it out alive."

She continued east, away from the fire and smoke. On the road, she saw a pair of red glasses. "These...are Biyo's! She cannot see without these!" She picked them up, stored them on her belt. And then she saw it. Biyo and Neshu, impaled on large spears sticking out of the ground. Like some sort of sick crucifixion. Sharp, bloody, iron tips protruding out of their stretched open mouths. Their faces were beaten so badly, it was almost impossible to tell who they were, but Ruti knew. She stared. The light gave out of her eyes again, her precious smile fading. The last two people she had in her life, were gone. Only her mother's words remained.