3

"Why does your slave have a weapon?" the man focused his full attention on me.

"He has been trained to be my bodyguard," Sekka gripped my collar.

Dragging me forward with ease. Mainly because I allowed myself to be drug forward.

"He's very loyal, and perfect for some cheap labor," Sekka explained.

"Can he answer for himself?" the man continued speaking, "Any idiot can tell he's strong if he can meet the gaze of my beast so easily."

He'd noticed me looking over their shoulders to their beasts behind them. I didn't flinch away from their gaze. Not only did the riders not frighten me, but the beasts didn't frighten me either.

"I can speak for myself," I smirked as I straightened right out of Sekka's grasp, "I've been instructed not to in the presence of those that might find me speaking offensive. You're clearly not the average elf. Seeing a low elf side by side with a high elf means you must have some considerable skill yourself."

"You're bold to speak that way as a slave," The man spoke again.

"I am allowed to speak freely more often then most slaves," I blinked slowly, "My master has given me that privilege in exchange for saving his life."

"I'm guessing that you only speak out like this when granted permission," He frowned at me slightly.

"Of coarse," I nodded passively.

"From what I understand the alpha wyvern came down to greet the two of you," he was looking right at me as he spoke since I didn't go back down to one knee like before.

"She did," Sekka glanced over his shoulder at me.

I didn't know if it was intentional or accidental. That look didn't go unnoticed.

"I take it she was interested in your slave, and not you?" the man continued.

Sekka feigned surprise. Confirming that the look was at least partially intentional.

"My slave greeted the beast quietly, and moved on a few seconds later," Sekka threw another apprehensive glance my way, "Nothing else appeared to happen."

"That is all?" he looked at me with some concern in his gaze.

"He told me it was troublesome to calm the birds afterward," Sekka stopped himself from shrugging.

I watched them with a bit of a frown. I crossed my arms over my chest as I looked at the wyverns behind them. They were both young. Not much stronger then the one I'd killed in my youth. They asked a few more questions, and requested our presence in the palace once we made our way to the capital before mounting their beasts, and flying toward the capital.

The next few days were a whole lot of boring walking. Once we finally made it through the gates I felt a powerful gaze on us. Someone was watching us with eyes with more power then I thought possible. I frowned to myself. Looking around to the danger that surrounded me.

We were completely surrounded by powerful elves who could kill Sekka in a heartbeat. There was a guard on every corner. Each, and every one was incredibly powerful. The quality of the guards that lived in the surrounding area were far weaker then the one standing before me. Almost as if they had been recruited.

Did all the power on the planet get recruited to the capital? It was a curious way of doing things. It would definitely prevent anyone from amassing enough power to fight back. If that was the intent then they were succeeding famously. No one stood much of a chance at all if all the power was amassed in the capital.

That gaze never left me. I looked around to the world around me. The buildings in the capital were nice. Better then most of the buildings I'd seen so far. They were well built far better then anything I'd ever seen before.

They all appeared to be made of ornate stone. Carved from ornate stone that was so smooth it was hard to believe that it was stone. I didn't think any of it was made by elven hands.

"These are dwarven techniques aren't they?" I asked Sekka in a whisper.

"Yes," Sekka looked down at me quietly.

This whole city had been built by dwarves, and the elves were just living in this beautiful city that had been built by other peoples hands. Enjoying the benefits of someone else's hard work. That, and they built it all on the bodies of their slaves. I kept on striding along next to the birds like a good little slave. We were still looking for an inn to spend the night in when we found ourselves surrounded by guards.

They grabbed us, and yanked us along as if we were nothing. The number of guards were incredibly dangerous for Sekka mainly. I looked over to Sekka as we were dragged along. My eyes focusing on him as we were dragged closer, and closer to the stone castle at the center. Throwing us in a cart to be yanked along faster as our cart was pulled along at full speed.

The guards mounted their various mounts, and stayed close to the cart. How they managed to throw this together so fast was unbelievable. They'd even managed to tie my hands behind my back, and remove my weapons. My strength was crazy so them actually being able to yank my hands behind my back was pretty insane. Granted I wasn't trying to resist them when they yanked my arms behind my back, but it still couldn't be easy.

I scanned our surroundings as we were rushed along toward the castle. My spatial awareness told me that there was a large colosseum to the north, and a large port to the south. There was a battle happening within the colosseum even now. Humans were getting thrashed by various large creatures that no human could really face one on one. They were being thrown into battles they wouldn't normally be able to handle.