Chapter
8
Kevin’s point of view
“Move it, scum!”
I felt the sharp pain of the whip flicking at my exposed back. I
winced but turned and dropped my pickaxe. I stared hard through narrow slits at
the Valedron perched on the guards’ railing. Others around me looked fearful,
but kept on digging at the sheer rock face. The guard’s anger seemed to flare.
“Get back to work! You know the penalty!” It warned, raising the
whip at me again.
He brought it down swiftly, and the tail of the whip snapped the
air right next to my face, stinging my cheek. Yet, I just stood there in
defiant silence. He may have had power over all of the slaves, and weapons too,
but I knew deep inside he was just a bully…. A coward. He recoiled to whip me again,
but seemed to falter under my constant stare of hatred.
Knartop……. That was his name. Knartop the Coward…. That’s what I
called him. The nickname seemed to have caught on among some of the slaves.
Yet, they dared not say it in front of the guards. To express opinions here was
to ask for death and torture.
Knartop moved away to some other prisoners that would put up less
of a fight. He lashed about, venting his anger that he was afraid to vent on
me.
“Come on, you layabouts! There’s a schedule to keep!” he snapped
at some younger, scared creatures: mostly Valedrons with a few Small Geckos.
They shrunk away in terror and continued to work at a faster pace.
Reaching down, I grabbed the chains linking my ankles to a line of
other prisoners. Summoning up my strength, I snapped them with ease. I may have
been trapped in physical form, but it didn’t stop me from accessing my
strength, which was now double that of a normal human.
I’d had enough of Knartop for one day. It was time to show him
what I really thought of him!
Quinn’s point of view
I was old; I was frail. That made me the perfect target for
Knartop. I wondered why I just didn’t bother avoiding it. But fear was a
constant companion to me now. I could tell he was looking for an excuse to flay
that whip at some creature. As I feared, it was me. The aged, weakening Giant
Gecko who couldn’t defend himself.
“Faster, you old misery!” he yelled at me.
Knartop purposely whipped at my feet, tripping me over as I
dropped the large, hefty rock I was struggling and stumbling to bundle to the
mine carts.
The whip bit my scaly forehead, but all I could do was take the
blow.
“You’ve been lagging behind the others, old one!” Knartop snarled.
“Why?!”
I held my stinging head in my claws, now blunt with age and
overuse in the mines. “Knartop, sir. Ah cin only carry so much so fast. Mayhap
if th’ older slaves were giv’n more grub-”
“Excuses! I don’t want excuses! I want to make sure this section
keeps to its schedule so I don’t lose my position!” Knartop screeched in his
high-pitched roar. “I’ll teach you to make excuses!”
I sensed Knartop’s intentions to whip me senseless, but as he
raised his whip and tried to bring it down on me, it stopped, pulled taunt by
something. It was as if it was snagged on something.
Gasps filled the room. Knartop looked surprised. He was hovering
now, wings flapping rapidly to say in mid-air. As he moved away, I saw that
alien. The mammal who’d been caught recently. He was holding tight onto the end
of Knartop’s whip, refusing to let go, even when Knartop demanded for him to.
“Let go, creature! You’ll suffer for this!” Knartop roared for a
third time as the other slaves watched anxiously for a reaction from the
newcomer. Surely he was mad! He must have had a death-wish!
The newcomer’s patience with Knartop snapped and he hurled the
Valedron guard across the small cavern with a flick of his wrist. Knartop hit
the wall hard. Stunned he sat up then took to the air awkwardly. He bellowed at
war cry and the room was instantly filled with the flutter of reptilian wings
and the pounding of Giant Gecko guards’ feet.
The mammal disappeared under a bundle of wings, claws and tails as
he was beaten mercilessly into unconsciousness with staffs, claws and whips.
“The Cells! Take him to the Cells!” Knartops cried in fury. “Throw
him in there and keep him confined for three suns!”
I saw the newcomer dragged off by the scruff of the neck to the
narrow corridors. I dragged myself to my feet with the help of some Small
Geckos and Valedron slaves.
One of the younger Valedron slaves had told me of this mammal……..
a Human, that was right!
Such strength and boldness! Was all of his kind like that? But he
was also headstrong and reckless too. That could get a creature killed around
here.
Now, what else had the little Valedron told me? Oh, curse this old
age! It was doing my memory no good these days.
Wait, there was something else! What was it?
His name, this human…… it began with K. Hmm…. Karlin? No, it wasn’t that.
Kevar? Not that either.
“Kevin….” I whispered to myself, remembering slowly.
Unusual name, but with a ring to it.
Kevin….. I’d remember him from now on.
***
