7 Cruelty

Walls of wood surrounded the people who were taken from the village. Chains clanked and rattled, clothes were tattered, faces with looks of fear, surprise, and sadness. The carriage rocked as it went over bumps on the road. Due to barely any insulation, the walls only having small slivers for the wind to pass by, the heat was starting to get to them. The smell of sweat has already filled the carriage, but it was still breathable.

A girl at the back was humming a lullaby that her parents always sang to keep herself composed. But it barely worked. It was Leyla who sang the song, Venetia listened quietly as she continued looking down at the rose she still had before getting captured.

Murmurs of a man praying to his gods, and a woman talked quietly and quickly to herself, others weeping or grieving. Venetia tried to keep the voices away, trying only to hear Leyla's quiet song that gave her some comfort.

Then the sudden halt of the carriage stopped her song, the villagers slid and collided each other, their bodies sticky from sweat. Venetia and Leyla quickly sat down again in the back and glanced around, even though they knew that they couldn't see outside.

Their captors spoke outside, their voices muffled from the walls. Then the faint sound of metal hitting metal. The yelling and screaming were barely audible.

„What is happening?" One man spoke.

„Is it our saviors?" Another said.

The carriage rocked as something hit it and broke parts of the wood. Even an arrow pierced through and stuck itself on the other wall. The villagers all ducked and held their heads, Venetia and Leyla amongst them.

And through the broken wood, she could smell it. Not just the thick air or sweat, but it was the smell of sweetness. Blood. Her eyes widened as it went through her mind, getting rid of all the foul scent she inhaled since first getting inside her captors' carriage.

Her mind was clear, she barely could hear her surroundings anymore, and she wanted to taste the very thing she smelled.

She shook her head and covered her nose and started breathing through her mouth.

„Not now, please. I don't want to smell it, not now, not now," Venetia thought.

The yelling has ceased, the fighting has stopped. Not a sound was to be heard, not even from the horses that are supposed to be dragging the carriage.

Then muffled steps were heard, moving ever closer towards the locked door. The villagers braced themselves for their saviors to come, while others still feared the outside. All eyes were locked on towards the door, waiting until someone fiddled with the lock outside.

The sound of footsteps faded away, and then the door was ripped open and thrown away. The ray of light shone brightly from outside, but the sun wasn't visible as it was behind the trees.

Venetia blinked a few times, making her eyes more comfortable to the light. Then she stared at it, all of them did. Reptilian eyes, sharp teeth bared, claws coated with blood.

Silence, not a word was heard, only the low hiss coming from the creature in front of them. Venetia could see the frightened faces of the people, even Leyla was scared. But didn't understand why. Wasn't he the one who was going to save them?

The reptile lifted up his hand that held a collar, and he pointed it towards the person to the left. Then when he was unsatisfied, he pointed the collar to the next person. Then the next. And the next. He moved the collar a few more times, then passed Leyla. But stopped when the collar was pointing towards Venetia, and it glowed.

Michukha growled quietly in confusion. Then pointed towards the next person, then the glow faded. He returned to the small girl in the back and the glow came back. He didn't understand why Vulkin wanted the small girl to be his slave, why a weak human?

„You," he said. „get out."

Venetia motioned towards her chains, which were bound to the floor. Michukha broke the chains with his ax, and the villagers quivered.

Venetia glanced at Leyla, and her eyes only showed fear. Never has Venetia seen her in so much terror. She hasn't seen one of these beings that were outside before, never has she heard of them. She has heard of other races before, but not this one. The reptilian was completely unknown to her.

She stepped outside, still chained but not to the floor, and the chain rattled. The sight of corpses widened Venetia's eyes. A human, arms torn, and another had guts shown as his belly was ripped open. A feline's head was missing, only the body remained. An elf with no legs. And a dwarf with an open chest, showing the rips. Many more were dead, slaughtered, butchered by the very being that she thought was her savior.

Venetia, for the first time in a long time, was trembling in fear, even more terror than getting captured. This reptile she claimed to have good intentions only gave her the nightmares she once dreamt of. Nightmares that came into reality.

But as she stared at the bodies, her mind calms as the scent flowed to her, the scent of blood. Her mind calm, the bodies around her turned from a bloody gore, into glassed of sweet red liquid. And she completely stopped thinking about the corpses and looked straight into the reptilian eyes. But she didn't say a word, even though after smelling the air of blood, she still could feel fear when looking at its eyes.

„Why does my ancestor think you are great? Why a little girl like you? Tell me, is there something special about you?"

He poked her head with a finger, glaring deep into her soul.

„I. . . don't know," she answered, honestly.

Michukha looked at her up and down, and he believed her to be a human, but there were some unnatural features that were clearly shown. But it could also just be rare that her eyes are red, and her hair of silver-white. No pointy ears, no tail, and she didn't seem to be small as a halfling or a dwarf.

„Open your mouth," Michukha said.

„Huh?" Venetia didn't understand, why did he want her to open her mouth?

„Do it!" he growled.

Venetia feared the beast and opened her mouth, slowly. The beast held her mouth with his hand, and she could feel the sharp claws hurting her. He peered inside, and once he saw it, he recoiled. He stopped holding her mouth open and took a step back, he himself showed fear.

„A vampire," he muttered with a hiss.

Michukha stared at the girl, at her vampire teeth that she had.

„Test her," Ardao spoke. „Break her will. Tear her soul."

Even though Michukha wanted to run away, flee from the race that was highly dangerous to his kin, he still listened to them, but not wanting to make a mistake.

„Show me," Michukha said.

„Weh?"

„Your blood magic, magic that only your kin possess, show me your strength."

Venetia stared, not understanding. Who is he? What is he? Why does this unknown race want to see the magic Venetia tries to hide?

She didn't say a word. The smell of the red liquid suddenly went stale. Venetia only watched her savior with fear, but also curiosity.

„I d. . . don't un. . . understand," she said with a stutter. She was quite surprised that she had a hard time speaking. Not understanding why she feared the creature so much.

The reptilian eyes glared, and he walked forwards and grabbed her hair, lifting her up. Venetia yelped, the teeth were so close now, and saliva dripped.

„You'll do as I say, or only pain awaits you."

She was dropped to the ground, but tripped and fell. She slowly stood back up. Her chain still hung on, rattling. Parts of her clothes still tattered, but now with smudges of dirt.

She lifted her chained hands and looked at the blood pool. She started slowly lifting the blood, lifting more, gathering more into an orb, and she didn't understand why she was listening to the creature she thought to be her savior. It must have been the fear, the fear was making her do this, the fear was making her listen to the unknown creature.

The blood orb got bigger and bigger, blood that was drained into the dirt came back up, joining with the orb. And the villagers darted their eyes away from the creature and watched the girl none of them even knew about, except for Leyla. Their eyes showed fear when seeing her magic, but Leyla knew, only she knew about her in the forest, only she talked with her and played with her. She gave her food, she gave her comfort and took away the loneliness.

„What. Now?" Venetia asked.

„That tree," he pointed to a large oak tree with no leaves. „Destroy it."

She didn't want to do it, she doesn't want to destroy anything, not even a tree, not even a small bug. But she did nonetheless, her fear only grew as she tried to stop herself, but something inside her made her listen to the unknown creature.

She changed the orb into many thin elongated spikes. The blood arrows dripped and dripped, covering the ground with blood that it hovered over. Then the scared little girl released her magic, and the tree was eradicated, and it fell, fell down onto corpses, and she winced and looked away, not wanting to see what she had done.

The reptilian eyes widened as he saw her power, and he already knew that she was strong enough to kill him, but he would not let that happen. He wanted to make her do the second test, the test that would break her mind, the test that would break her soul.

„Now, again. Gather a second orb of the same size."

Venetia had only silent words, and after her hesitation, she complied, but could only gather a small amount.

„I. . . need more."

He knew what she meant, and grabbed a body that wasn't ripped apart, a body that still had large amounts of blood, and he tore through the elven corpse's chest, from neck to stomach.

Venetia thought that she was going to throw up after seeing what he did to the corpse, but as the blood flowed down, her mind calmed as she smelled the blood, which now joined with the orb, making it ever larger.

And it was enough, she had enough in the blood orb that she could muster.

„And now, destroy the carriage," the unknown creature said with a growl that made her mind run around with fear.

And as she stared towards the carriage where villagers sat down, chained, unable to escape, she thought of why she was even doing this. Why was she doing what his words were saying?

Leyla stared at her friend, the friend she met in the woods. Alone, afraid, the person she helped, the person she couldn't show to the villagers, knowing that they would fear her and try to burn her while she was tied down on a pole.

Venetia stopped herself, knowing that this was wrong, knowing that her friend was inside that carriage, and she didn't want to do it.

„What are you waiting for?" a hiss came from behind.

Her fear rose, then for the first time in a long time. She cried. Tears ran down her cheek, her teeth were gritted, her fangs were shown, and she released her magic. But it wasn't sent towards the carriage, she spun it around, aiming at the so-called savior. But he quickly reacted and dodged most of them.

The blood arrows pierced Michukha's shoulder, thigh, and leg. And he could hear his ancestors' words as he raged and feared towards the vampire before him.

„Don't make your hatred kill her! You know that we need her strength!" Ardao said through the gauntlets.

„No! She is only a threat! Kill her before she ends our kin!" Eskiask said through the axes.

Voices of killing her and not killing. But he didn't listen to any of them except for Vulkin's.

„Put the collar on! She will be unable to hurt you when you do so! And as she is our slave, you can hurt her as much as you like, torture her if you want, and I will keep her alive until she dies naturally!"

That settles it, but before he would put the collar on, he wanted her soul to break before Vulkin would do so.

Michukha ran towards the vampire, who was already starting to get more blood above her. And he grabbed her arms with only one hand while holding her head with the other. Her feet were no longer touching the ground, and the orb of blood fell, splattering the ground and his feet turned red.

„Do you not want the taste of blood? The sweet taste you vampires always love?"

Venetia tried to free herself and tried to hold her ears so she wouldn't be able to hear his words. But her arms were grasped by his large hand, and she still could hear the chains rattle.

„Venetia! Don't listen to the lizard! You know you don't want this as you once told me before!" Leyla yelled with tears still running.

Venetia tried to only hear her words, and it was much more comforting than the lizard in front of her.

„Little Venetia," he said, eyes glaring so closely. But then turned her so she would face the carriage. „Their blood is sweet, wouldn't you want to taste their delectable red liquids? I can sense that you haven't tasted blood for a long time. It will be so succulent."

Her tears fell and combined with the blood below, she tried to control the blood beneath her, but she was too scared, too afraid. And her mind was starting to break.

„Cut them, cut the bags of blood, and savor their taste. I know you want it," he let her down, but still held her head.

Venetia's hands were free, but she didn't try to cast her blood magic against the unknown being behind her. She stared at the carriage, her vision turning red. Her memories were fading, memories of the villagers, memories of the girl she called a friend. Her own mind now turned red, only thinking of the liquid she smells.

She raised an orb of blood, then turned them into arrows, but they never pointed to the creature that hurt her, they were pointing to the carriage in front of her. She wasn't even sure it was a carriage anymore, everything was red, everything seemed to have changed. The trees' brown wood turned into crimson red, the grass also turned red as the blood, blending with the liquid. And inside the wooden structure, she saw nothing but bags of blood. Bags that she wanted to pierce and taste.

No voices were heard, no sound of bags in the wooden structure, nor the thing behind her. And the structure suddenly turned into many pieces, it went everywhere, the red wood pulverized. And the flow of blood poured down from the bags.

She walked forwards and crouched down. She held her hands out and let the blood drip on her hand. She tasted it, and it tasted rich. It sweetness went through her throat, down into her stomach. She wanted to savor every moment of it, savor the taste she hasn't had for such a long time.

Then her mind suddenly snapped back, her mind which was red turned back as it should be. Her eyes widened as she glanced around, blood was around her, broken bits of wood, horses that were already dead before she even climbed out of the carriage were torn apart. And she then realized what she had done.

The villagers' bodies were scattered around, some with torn limbs, others with deep wounds. And they were all dead. Before her, she saw the white rose, she lifted it up and lifted up the plank it was on. And she cried. Leyla's body was there, torn and blood flowed. And Venetia knew it was her blood she drank.

She turned with anger, her fear suddenly collapsed, her fear disappeared like Leyla's life disappeared, quickly as her strike struck her down.

She stood up, dropping the white rose on Leyla, and started creating an orb from the villagers' blood, from Leyla's blood. And the yelled, screamed. Her eyes which were already red turned somehow even redder.

But she was to slow, she suddenly felt for a metallic object around her neck. She was shocked and didn't know what just happened. Then she could feel something inside her, tearing her apart, breaking her apart. And then a voice emerged. A voice that growled all around her.

„You are now ours, you are marked by our kin. Welcome to your early hell."

She fell down and writhed, the blood orb fell, pouring down on her, and she started choking on the blood.

She was turned over, and she coughed up the blood of the villagers. She could feel her soul being attacked, she could see a different figure than the one she called a savior. He was different but similar to the unknown creature. And then she finally realized, that he wasn't her savior at all.

„You are now the slave of cold-bloods, fear us, fight for us. Fight only as our tool. Fight just like a sharp object. You will never be free from your shackles."

Her mind spun, and she felt heavier, she couldn't lift herself up, she couldn't move an inch. Her eyes were starting to fade, static was being heard. Only noises of laughter were heard, the laughter of the unknown creatures that she now knew were called cold-bloods.