CHAPTER 5: in the cell

Theo slowly opened his eyes. It was hard to focus on a consistent tough as for all of them were extremely foggy.

After a while his mind begun to clear, and he was faced with a dark room made out of rough bricks. The air was moisty and there was some pale white fungus growing on one of the walls. In front of him were bars. Thick iron bars that reflected the light from the torches in the hallway connected to his sell. From here he could see at least five other cells, and there were probably even more on his side. However, for as far as he could tell, they were all empty.

He soon found that most of his clothes were missing, his wings were pressed against his back with leather restraints and his wrists and acles were chained to the wall. Even is tail had a tick metal chain on it, preventing him from moving it more than fifty centimeters.

His only glimmer of hope was that the people who restrained him clearly had no idea if he walked on all fours or not. So, he had longer chained on his wrists to allow his hands to touch the floor.

He leaned back against the moisty wall and tried to find a way out. He had to know what happened to his parents, if they were safe, or if they were also chained up somewhere.

But right now, there was nothing he could do. Nothing except staring into the empty hallway.

After what felt like a day, he heard heavy footsteps echoing through the empty hallway accompanied by the rattling sound of keys.

He dropped on all fours and walked from side to side for as far as his restraints allowed him.

Soon a large man wearing leather armour stopped in front of his cell. The man had blond hair and dark grey eyes and seemed to be in his early twenties. The man carried a piece of raw meat along with him, together with a wooden bowl and a can of water. He gave one brief look in the direction of Theo before he began to search for the right key.

Theo growled at him, hoping that if the man thought that if he was not as intelligent, he would have a higher chance of escaping later.

After a little while the man seemed to have found the right key.

The metallic door of his cell slowly creaked open. Theo backed away until the point where his back touched the wall.

"I don't like it here either buddy. I think that they should at least give you a dry cell, this is just cruel."

The man held the piece of meat in front of Theo.

"Here don't worry. I won't harm you."

Theo snarled at the man and pretended to try to back away further.

"it's okay. You can just take it."

After a while the man just placed the meat in front of Theo, and slowly walked backwards.

"I really hope that you will warm up to people. You'll probably lead a better life if you can be tamed."

The man placed the wooden bowl down and filled it with water.

"Well then. I'll probably see you tomorrow."

Theo's eyes followed the man as he left the cell. Once he was gone, he picked up the meat. He couldn't smell anything off about it. He carefully took a bite. Just like the smell, noting seemed out of the ordinary. He quickly ate all of it but made sure that a little blood remained on his hands and around his mouth, in order to keep up the act of him being just a beast.

Once he finished, he checked if there was a weak spot in the chains themselves. He wasn't sure if he could break one of them, but the chance would be higher if a part of the chain was already weakened. Unfortunately, this was not the case, contrasting the rest of the cell, the chains were in an excellent condition.

Theo let out a deep sigh and decided to try and get some sleep. He didn't know when his first chance of escape would be, but it would be best to preserve as much energy as possible until then.

He woke up a couple of times until the blond-haired man came again. Again, Theo made sure to get as far away from him as possible. And again, the man spoke in a calming friendly tone.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

The man looked down at the bowl of water.

"You barely drank anything. Is everything okay? "

Theo pressed his ears flat and hissed at the man. He needed to win his trust and figured that the best way to do that was to act feral and after that slowly pretend to warm up to the man. This would give the man the feeling that they had a bond of some sorts. And right now, that was what he needed to survive and eventually get out of here.

The man held a new piece of meat in front of the blue creature.

"Come on. I need to give them prove that you are worth keeping alive. Otherwise, your horns will hang on their front door."

Pretending to be nervous, Theo slowly reached out for the meat. If what the man said was true, then he needed to show that he could be tamed as the man put it.

He grabbed it and started to rip a piece off.

"Wow, you actually use your hands. Come to think of it they are quite human like in structure. Actually, I have never seen anything like you before. I wish you could tell me what you are"

Theo ignored the man. Even when he was not putting up this act, he couldn't tell the man what he was, because he had no idea himself.

The man sat down in front of him while he kept eating the meat.

"I heard you lived with a married couple without much issue before you came here. But now that you act like this it keeps me wondering. What did they do to you?"

The chains rattled as Theo backed further away. The man had tried to reach out to the wound that was still on his arm. It was mostly healed by now, but he definitely didn't want anyone to touch it.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Though greatly hindered by the chains, Theo flung his tail from side-to-side wile exposing his teeth.

The man stood up and created some distance between them, as he didn't want to seem like a treat to the blue creature in the cell.

"It's alright, it's alright. I won't touch it again, I promise."

With a final snarl Theo managed to drive the man out of the cell. After he was gone, Theo sat back up. Only now he noticed how dry his throat was and reached for the bowl of water.

"That idiot was right, I should have drunk more."