A Slave's Past

"Ok, here should be fine, this is a considerably quiet area in the corner of the park, nobody would bother us here."

It is now just after lunch time, in the early hours of the afternoon, we arrived at a park and finding a quiet location at this small park in the central district proved not too difficult of a task.

Judging the area we found was satisfying, we sat down on a bench under the soothing shade, we introduced ourselves again to Milia.

"So I am Aras as you already know, I use to live deep in the mountains with my mentor until I turned 18, I became a wanderer and after meeting Daami and coming to Mabrosa, I became an adventurer."

"And I am Daami, the cute, reliable and charming hunter who became an adventurer as well and I am also 18."

What's with that introduction...

"Oh and I am actually a quarter-Elvin,"

Daami shows Milia her odd ears,

"And Aras is actually an Orgrekin."

I nod in response to Daami.

"I see, I thought when I first met Aras, he said you were same species as me I thought you were a Dark-Elvin as well. Ah My name is Milia Arishia, I am 15 years old now and I am a Dark-Elvin."

"Are Dark-Elvins different to normal Elvins?"

"Oh um, I'm not so sure myself Aras, I just remembered stories from my childhood about Dark-Elvins and Elvins however since then I have being a slave…"

Tears begin forming in Milia's eyes.

"It's of if it's too hard for you to tell us Milia, you don't have to force yourself!"

"No it's fine Daami, I trust you guys, you saved our pitiful lives after all."

We both nod and listened earnestly.

"It started when I was still a child, my family lived in a Dark-Elvin village, the village didn't have other races beside Dark-Elvins. Our race was quite reclusive, we didn't interact with other races often. We were proud of our technology, the entire village is built on flying ships floating in the sky."

2x "The sky!?"

"U-um yea, we Dark-Elvins lived in the sky, our Skyships carried houses to live in, land to farm on, military equipment for protection, and more, we were very safe and happy."

Both Daami and I were captivated by the story.

"Daami does Elvins also live in the sky?"

"Um, I don't think so, from the stories I heard the Elvins were just normal race that lived in the forests."

"That should be correct, we Dark-Elvin's were descendants of Elvins however, our ancestors were actually the Elvins who migrated to Dwarven countries to study technology. Ever since living in the sky, we did not have much shade and the long time sun exposure caused our skins to evolve and become darkened. Well this was the story we always got taught in primary school when I was a child."

"That sounds amazing."

"It was until one day, my father who worked as the captain of the fuel transportation brigade went down to the surface. It was a common job, out of many Dark-Elvin Skyships, this was one of the jobs that require travel and contact with surface races. Usually it is quite safe because Dark-Elvins and Dwarvens made a pact, they would help with our fuel supplies, so we often landed in Dwarven countries.

I often admired my father and the surface world, so on that day, I snuck onto his transport ship and came down to the surface. However…"

The mood has dampened again.

"We were ambushed. The Dwarven country's soldiers themselves attacked. My father, the captain did not know why, no communication or reports were out of the ordinary. Not even until the annihilation of the transport force. I was saved because father knew something was not same as the usual due to instinct and asked his trusted subordinate to hide me in a cargo crate before landing. After the fighting broke out, father was fighting to protect the crew and he died fighting right in front of my eyes. His subordinate escaped the fighting momentarily to where I was hiding, covered me in a sheet and snuck me away. Just before reaching the edge of a forest he told me to run away with all my might. I ran into the forest but turned around and looked as I hid behind bushed. It was then I saw the subordinate get killed by several Dwarven soldiers. They came into the forest to search for more escapees, I tried not to make any noise while hiding in the bush for a whole 2 hours before they stopped the search. It was during my hiding when I overheard the Dwarven soldiers, 'Do not let any one of them Dark-Elvins escape, King Gophus demands it.', since that day I have be running and hiding until finally I was captured by a slave trader and forced to become a slave. Soon after that I traveled from location to location of towns and cities I knew nothing of, I believe we traveled a continent as there was a long ship voyage involved. At the end of a year's worth of travelling with slave traders I was purchased by Sir Bellado and brought to this city."

Daami and I could not believe the story, what a tale, what an admirable father.

"Unfortunately, the only way back to the Skyship village is via another Skyship. I don't even know what the situation is like with my home land right now, whether the Dwarvens have betrayed us, or if all transport ships going to Dwarven kingdoms have being captured. I do not know if I will ever be able to go back!"

Milia begun bawling her eyes out.

Daami quickly brought her closer to comfort her.

With tears and a muffled voice.

"I will not forgive that Dwarven King, Gophus."

The story was unbelievable, a whole race was betrayed, Milia was so young back then and she watched her father and her own race slaughtered right in front of her. With no way to return home, the fate of her village and race unknown, and to make matters worse, falling into slavery before turning to an adult.

We let her cry out everything she had held in for the past years of her life.

Milia slowly fell asleep, possibly used all her energy up from crying.

Daami and I exchanged looks, without speaking a word, we knew we had came to the same conclusion.

We will help this girl if she so desired.

Although things are getting a bit more troublesome. *sigh*