Brave Alex

"Activate"

My palms were sweaty with excitement, hope, fear and a little bit of uncertainty. Everything was unpredictable and I don't like it when I can't predict a situation. Soon as I said that word, the robotic voice resounded in my ears.

- "Activating the system, please wait a moment…"

[12%...56%...88%...99%...]

Infront of me was a loading screen. It was translucent and ethereal, having a slight green color to it. All in all, it looked strange and yet it looked kinda cool! As it was loading, I felt a very miniscule amount of coldness in my body, dancing from one organ to the other! When the loading got finished, which was pretty fast, the screen vanished and the male robotic voice resounded again in my ear.

- "Welcome host, please refer to this system as 'Delta'. Delta will be host's partner and guide for this world. Delta was created and sent to the host by the Goddess of Destiny, Psais."

He had a monotonous tone which was still pleasant to the ears. After introducing himself, Delta went silent.

'So my system has a name! And who's Psais?'

Hoof! Hoof!

Thud! Thud! Thud!

I was just about to ask who Psais was and about my status window when the Lakéquses started to make strange sounds while frantically stomping their legs. Seeing them acting like this, I was taken aback. And then I heard it, the approaching footsteps of various people. They felt tired from the way they were walking so slowly and silently.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

It was then that I remembered I was Alex, a slave and this stable was big enough to be compartmented into a place for the Lakéquses and for the slaves. All the other slaves were most probably coming back to rest and sleep for the night after toiling in the mines or the field.

I was just making sense of the situation when a middle aged man entered through the door. He had a strong build but his height was short. He looked bulkier due to his small height and muscular build. He looked at me and then his eyes widened, he smiled and looked back to the other slaves entering through the door, he then said with an excited tone, "The lad is here guys!"

On hearing his words, many people entered through the gate and filled the stable. There were about 25 of them. They were all looking at me, some with excitement, some with fear and most with respect. As they looked at me, they walked towards me with smiles on their faces. Looking at the scene unfolding infront of me, I instinctively took a step back.

As they got closer, they surrounded me into a small crowd and the short but bulkier guy from earlier raised his hands and patted my back while saying, "From where did you get so much courage, Alex? You were like a hero back there who was going to fight the masters to save us! But alas, you were too weak."

'Now I see, they misunderstood my actions as an act of heroism!'

A young and skinny boy my age came towards me and said with excitement, "You were so cool back then Alex!" His black pupils were sparkling and I could see that he has made me his idol. I didn't know how to response to these acts of appraisals so I just smiled innocently. I could hear many voices from the crowd as they started murmuring.

"So he's Alex!"

"If only he was stronger and actually put up a fight"

"What can you even expect, he just turned 15!"

"His bravery must be complimented!"

"Why didn't they throw him away? Aren't they afraid that he'd start to rebel like the previous batch of 'breeders'?"

"They can't discard him so easily because firstly, he has a name and secondly, he worked on the farm with 'him'!"

Noticing the murmurs in the crowd increasing and becoming louder, an old and experienced looking man clapped his hands twice and the crowd suddenly became quiet and everyone turned towards the old man. When I looked at him, a memory suddenly clicked in my head, slightly jolting my brain with electricity and I whispered very quietly, "James". The old man also had a name just like the body I reincarnated into!

After getting everyone's attention, James creased his eyebrows and said in a soft intellectual voice, "Quietly go to sleep everyone. We don't want to wake up the masters, do we?"

Everyone listened to him like he was the boss around here, and that he was. Every slave was divided into various groups containing at least two named slaves, the oldest one is the leader of the group and the younger ones were his successors.

The slaves turned away from James with tired expressions. Some glanced towards me with a slight smile and went away to occupy a place in the stable to sleep. Yes, all the slaves had to sleep on the floor in the stable. Meanwhile, James approached me, patted my shoulder and said softly, "You should lay low for a while." Then, he moved across me, towards the stomping Lakéquses to calm them down.

Everyone else went away to sleep but the skinny boy who was same age as me, stayed behind. He looked around the stable and reaching inside his shirt he took out something disc shaped, about 6 inches in diameter. He then grabbed it with both of his hands and broke it from the middle with some effort before handing it to me. It looked like a thick and hard tortilla! A memory then hit me and I realized that it was called 'komita' and it was the dinner served to the slaves.

Seeing my confused expression, the boy smiled and whispered to me, "I know that they took today's meal from you so you haven't eaten anything yet. So, I sneaked in my share of the meal for us both." After saying this, he started eating his share without any delay while looking at me, then smiling and going away to find a place to relax.

I looked at the half of the komita in my hand. Since I was already starving, I dove in to eat it without any second thoughts. It tasted like bread which was salty, coarse and very hard. It was getting difficult to swallow so I went to the water source where I saw my face earlier and sat down beside it. Cupping my left hand to store the water in it, I ate with my right hand and drank with my left. I somehow finished my meal and crawled back onto the ground to sleep after a mentally exhausting day.

As I was lying on the floor, keeping my face away from the other slaves, tears started streaming down my eyes. Holding back my sobs and breathing deeply, I thought to myself, 'What has happened? What is going on? I'm lost. What have I done to deserve this? I miss my planet, I miss my orphanage, I miss my colleagues, I miss the good food, and most of all I miss my home…' My thoughts faded as I cried myself to sleep.

***