Chapter 8

It was late at night, but the streets still saw signs of liveliness: the bars were full of loud conversations, food vendors cooking and selling plates of meat and rice, the merchants still peddling their wares to passersby, and the street lanterns were given more fuel to give a few more hours of light. As the people were enjoying a calm, brisk night, a mysterious carriage entered the village. The carriage was being pulled by four horses, each covered with dark sheets. Aside from the horses, the carriage was accompanied by several figures dressed in black hooded robes, some even had a dark blue silk stole that bore a strange symbol. As these strangers came to a halt, the entire street came to a standstill and the people fell silent, wary of these visitors. The nearby guards gathered together and walked towards the carriage, where they were met by one of the figures with a dark blue stole. The tension built as the crowd of bystanders waited silently for any sign of danger from the cloaked figures. The captain of the guards listened to the hooded figure and nodded as if he was offered a deal and he took it. It didn't take long for the captain to tell his soldiers to tell the citizens that there was no danger and to go about their business as usual. After he gave the order, the captain turned back to the figure and said, "Follow me, I know of a place you might find what you're looking for."

The guard captain and a few other guards escorted the carriage to a residential area that was close to the marketplace while a curious crowd was left to wonder what the visitors' business was and what could be so important that it warrants the attention of the guard captain. The carriage and its escort continued past the edge of the marketplace and turned a corner to come to the entrance of an alley where the sounds of children playing could be heard. Upon hearing the voices, the hooded figure that spoke to the guard captain ordered some of the other figures to make sure the back of the carriage blocked the entrance to the alley while a handful of hooded figures and the guards headed towards the noises. The group walked for a little bit and turned into an archway where a medium-sized lot covered in uncut grass and a rundown house laid hidden from the view from the street. As the adults came into view, the kids stopped their playing and cautiously backed away towards the house. One of the kids called out and an older boy stepped out of the house. 

"Hey, what are you creeps doing here, aren't you supposed to be getting drunk off your asses at the bars right about now?"

The hooded man stepped forward, "Hello, my colleagues and I have come here to take you and your friends to a place you can live comfortably. If you come with us, I promise that you'll have all the food you can eat and you'll each have your own room with your own bed. Doesn't that sound better than living in a crumbling shed and having to steal for food and money?"

"Mmm, sorry, no deal. We have a pretty good thing going on here, we've got plenty of food and even if it's not much, we all call this place home. Also, you guys keeping your faces covered is really freaky, your matching robes are weird, and I'm pretty sure this place you're talking about doesn't exist and you just want to sell us off into slavery or something. So yeah, get the hell out of our home and go find someone else to fall for your bullshit."

The guard captain marched up to the kid and grabbed him by his tattered shirt collar, "You miserable brat, shut your ungrateful mouth! This man has graciously offered you and your mongrels a nice place to live and you go ahead and insult him. I see I'll have to teach you a lesson about manners when speaking to your elders!" As he said this the guard captain punched the boy in the stomach, sending him reeling backwards into a pair of his subordinates that restrained him. The boy gasped to recover the wind that was knocked out of him as the guard captain continued to deliver merciless blows to the boy's face. The boy's face swelled and his nose broke as the captain continued to beat him. The beating finally finished when the hooded man stopped the captain and said, "We would like these children to be as unharmed as possible. If you continue to ruin this one any further, you won't be paid. Do we have an understanding?" The guard captain reluctantly lowered his fist and bitterly nodded as he ordered his men to capture the rest of the orphans.

Screams and cries filled the air as the children were being dragged away and thrown into the back of the dark carriage The older ones tried to fight back, but their makeshift weapons didn't do much against the armored guards and those that managed to hit areas like the head and the spaces between the armor plates only angered the guards, making their captures more aggressive than the rest. The younger children retreated into the feeble safety of their house, hiding wherever they could fit since if they were captured, it would be all over. They tried to keep quiet and doing their best to muffle their sobs and whimpers, but the guards kept finding each one. Eventually the guards grew tired of this pitiful game of hide and seek, so they set fire to the house to flush out the rest of the concealed children. The once lively lot turn silent except for the roar of the flames consuming the rickety wood house. The only noises to be heard were the rattling of shackles and muffled yells and cries. 

Bao and Jin were walking down the empty street when the sight of the large dark carriage froze Bao in his tracks. Jin stopped and asked Bao,"What's wrong?" and Bao replied, "That's the alley where my home is." Bao rushed the rest of the way to the alley's entrance and as he approached he could hear the chains and the muffled cries, and he also bore witness to the last of the children being loaded into the back. Bao ran up to the guard captain without thinking and said,"What the hell's going on? Why are you doing this to them? Why don't you just leave us alone?" Tears ran down his face as he angrily banged his fists into the captain's armor. The captain immediately sprang and held Bao down and asked the robed man if he'd like to take Bao with them or if he'd leave Bao in the custody of the guards. The robed man gestured to the carriage and said, "We'll take him and we'll happily give you a small bonus for giving us another unharmed child." Jin saw Bao on the ground and the guards putting restraints on him, Jin knew he had to do something. He rushed to help Bao, but was detained by one of the guards and pinned to the wall. "What are you trying to interfere with our business? These kids are nothing but beggars and filthy street rats, and these men are taking them to their new home. Hmmm, you don't look filthy enough to be one of them, why don't you go back to your family?" Jin took a look at the veiled figures and told the captain, "These people don't look like trustworthy people, how can you say they'll give these kids a good home. Are you complete idiots to fall for whatever lies they've told you?"

The guard captain's face filled with rage as he heard Jin talk back, "You little piece of trash, you have the nerve to insult us like. Us, the people who do our best to protect worthless things like nosy children like you!" As this exchange is happening, Jin spots Goichi stumbling up the street, and in a completely desperate attempt, he called out to his father. Goichi looks over to Jin and sees that the guards and the hooded figures were focused on him so he couldn't just ignore Jin. "Why do you always have to stir up trouble wherever you go? I'm sorry for the trouble he's caused, tell me what he did and I'll take care of his punishment when we get home." The hooded man says, "Are you this boy's father?" and Goichi responds, "Unfortunately yes, kid's been nothing but trouble for his mom and me." Seeing an opportunity, the hooded man asked, "Sounds like you want to be rid of him. Would you consider selling him to my colleagues and I?" Goichi looks at the hooded strangers for a while before speaking, "That depends, how much are you willing to give me for him?" Jin lost all hope when he heard his father say this, because he knew that no matter what price the hooded man gave, his father had no problem with getting rid of him. "Would this much suffice?" the man said as he produced a grapefruit sized pouch loaded with gold coins and polished gems that struggled not to spill when the pouch was opened. A drunken smile creeped over Goichi's face, "You've got yourself a deal. Just remember no refunds. Good luck handling that disappointment." He turned to Jin, "Wow, you finally made yourself useful, this almost makes up for you being born." Goichi takes the pouch and leaves happily stumbling back to the tavern to get a little celebration drink. 

As Jin saw his father leave him with his captors, he felt a conflict of anger and didn't know who to be angrier at: his father for selling him off, the guards for letting this happen, the hooded figures for committing the kidnapping, or himself for stupidly calling his father over in hopes he'd chase off the hooded strangers and not do business with them. In the end this is how he broke down the situation and who to be angry at the most: the hooded figures weren't from the village and the fact they didn't show their faces meant they were obviously doing something shady, the guards are always up for earning some extra pocket money, doesn't matter where it comes from so they were probably bribed by the outsiders to escort them through the village and look the other way when they took the kids, his father made his thoughts and feelings very clear the night before but in the heat of the moment JIn forgot about that and thought his father would have intervened in the strange dealings between the guards and the strangers, and finally he reached himself and he could only think of how naive and stupid he was for rushing into this situation. He was an unarmed kid with no one to back him up versus a squad of armored guards and a group of grown strangers and the only person to arrive in his most desperate hour was the man that hated him the most and yet Jin still called him over, hoping he'd help. Jin felt the hot tears of anger streaming down his cheeks and felt his body shake from frustration, so he let out his anger the only way he was able to, by shouting.

"HELP!!!! HELP!!!! HEY!!! ANYONE, PLEASE!!!!! SOME ASSHOLES ARE GOING TO TAKE US AWAY!!!! STOP THEM, THEY'RE UP TO SOMETHING BAD!!!"

The main hooded figure looked at Jin yelling at the top of his lungs and told the guard captain, "Now then, this one's being very rude, don't you think? Why don't you give him the same treatment as the older boy from before? Remember, don't go too far with the punishment, these children are precious cargo."

The guard captain smiled wickedly and said, "With pleasure, this brat is starting to get on my nerves. Nothing annoys me more than a kid with no manners and no respect for his elders."

The heavy blows rained down on Jin's face, rattling his brain and clouding his vision from the pain and bruising that followed. The captain's onslaught continued while the hooded group of figures took inventory of their newly acquired wards. "Maybe this will teach you how to watch your filthy mouth when in the presence of your betters," said the captain as he began kicking Jin, who had slumped down the wall from being overwhelmed by the pain that throbbed in the bruises in his swollen face. Jin knew the captain said something but the words sounded so far away as he laid on the ground motionless but still conscious. Jin had lost the ability to feel pain thanks to a mixture of shock and adrenaline, allowing his mind to wonder to a few questions that were tormenting him that kept repeating in a very calm, clueless version of his voice, "Why is no one coming to help? I yelled as loud as I could, didn't I? A carriage of that size would've drawn some people's attention and a child yelling for help would've surely made anyone in earshot come running, so why…?" In the back of his mind, Jin flimsily repressed his own answer to those questions, "It's because they're all too busy worried about themselves, and the soldiers are only able to strike fear into the citizens because they have weapons and skills that give them that power over them. If I had power, I could've stopped the soldiers and strangers from abducting Bao's friends. If I had power, I could've prevented my mother from being beaten and ending up the way she is. If I had power, I could've stood up to my father and showed him the pain he's inflicted on his family for all of those years. If only I had power….." Those were JIn's final thoughts as he slipped into unconsciousness. As the soldier's loaded his beaten body onto the carriage and bound him, a small flame of hate bloomed within Jin that even he was unaware was trying to spark to life for years and tonight, it finally lit