Disposable Hero Ch. 01 Pt. 04

I awoke to somebody trying to pull me out of the cave, I was so weak that all I could do was help them get me out. A man looked down at me, with his red eyes and white hair with what looked like blond highlights, he spoke the same language that the little girl had.

I said, "Sorry I don't speak Gypsy." I remembered my mother telling me she was a powerful Gypsy witch and she had cast a powerful spell on my father to make him fall in love with her. Me and my brother and sister thought she was just funning us, I guess not.

Alak looked lost and told his daughters, "All humans speak common and I have been speaking it for 40 years yet he doesn't know any of it. Look at his clothes and his things, I have never seen any of this before." His daughters could tell from his eyes and body language that he was very excited about that, they on the other hand could careless.

The man was speaking another language to his children as he turned to me and pointed to himself and said, "Alak" he pointed to me, I might not be a genius but I'm no idiot. I said "Onree" I always used my French pronunciation even with the men in my platoon, which is why they always called me Casper just to fuck with me more. I stood slowly and looked at the strange people, I was shocked they were all much shorter than me and the men looked even smaller than the women. I looked back towards the cave to see if they had gotten the girl out, Alak pointed into the darkness I figured it was in the direction that those wagons had been.

My hands had been tied this whole time and tightly at that, they must have tied them while I was passed out. They must have used some kind of chemical to make the cave glow so they could see better my vision was limited to about 1 meter, 2 meters tops with this kind of light, I would not be able to see my hand in front of my face if I were to move away from it, how would I know where my feet were going down hill. I felt a push in my back, they wanted me to walk down the hill, I knew it was there but I didn't know when it dropped so I dug in as the next push came, followed by a hard crack I craned my neck to see one of these girls hitting me and trying to push, guess she hasn't figured out about leverage and expects me to go because she hit, I smiled knowing she couldn't move me not matter how hard she tried. One of the smaller boys came over and kicked the back of my leg knocking me to my knee, he knew what I had done and grabbed the rope that was left from tying my hands together and gave a tug, I might have been weak but I knew I was still stronger than both of them, as I felt another crack along my back that stung like a mother fucker the bitch behind me knew how to use that stick. I yanked back hard and pulled the boy to the ground, I opened my hips and spun around sweeping the legs of the girl behind me as she hit the ground I smiled and saw the cane she had hit me with on the ground as well, the man with the blond highlights came up to me, said something to both of them and looked at me then pointed down to the wagons, I ran my hands in front of me and pointed in the same direction, I saw my flashlight still on my webbing and reached for it.

A knife came to my throat and I stopped, the blond man looked at me, I waved my hands like before pointed in the direction of my flashlight and made the hand motion I wanted to shake my head no but the knife would have cut me not deeply but I really didn't want to get cut if I could help it, I brought my hands to the flashlight and felt the knife dig into my neck. I understood that one wrong move and they will slit my throat. I turned it on and watched as 'Blondie' I had forgotten his name, jumped back and saw small swords like the Romans used pointed at me, I put my hands in the light to show that it wasn't dangerous, 'Blondie' put his hands into the light and stood next to it.

Alak said his voice thick with wonder, "It gives off no magic, I think this must be a new part of what the humans call science."

Belarbreena said in a condescending tone, "Alak, everybody will be able to see us with that thing, why don't we bring darkness, it is for our safety?"

Alak replied, "If we do that we will never get him down this hill and back home or did you enjoy being knocked to the ground by him? I want to know how that does that don't you, as well as many other things." Belarbreena couldn't hide that she did find this human fascinating with his massive shoulders and the fact that he towered over all of them, plus she knew her sisters would take great pleasure in beating him for her it would provide and opportunity to embarrass them which was always a very good thing in her opinion.

I felt the slack taken out of my rope and one of the boys was trying to pull me up but my body was in the wrong position for that, so I pulled hard and set my hands on the ground and got to my feet and started walking towards the wagons. I stopped at the wagon and saw another of these children sitting on the wagon looking down at my patient, she was undoing the bandages and she looked at the hole, I had stitched up when she was under the morphine. I guess she didn't like my work as she looked at my patient's shoulder with disdain.

'She must be the medic.' I thought, to be so unhappy because somebody was still alive that meant more work for them and even exposed them to being shot at which of course they weren't in favor of.

Henri couldn't have been more wrong, Shyntaunlin was pissed for several reasons; first she had been dragged out to get her worthless sister, second her sister had been wounded by lowly Deep Dwarves, third this thing had saved her and for what reason? finally that damn light spell was annoying the hell out of her that and he was male and not worth the time, three times as much because he was human and this close to their home.

Alak who seemed reasonable enough walked up to him and mimed, pointing to his eyes and making a painful face then pointing to the flashlight. I got what he wanted as I reached up and fumbled with the light but having my hands tied made this very uncomfortable, I looked at Alak and held out my wrists, said something to them and 4 stood around me, pointing short swords at me while another glared at me but did as he was told. When my hands were free I pulled the flashlight out and switched it to red and set it on low, they all looked at me in amazement, I mimed my helmet and it was brought to me, I grabbed it and hooked the flashlight to my helmet and put my helmet on, I held my hands together like they were tied and showed how easy it would be for me to reach it. Alak looked impressed that the light could change colors and found the low red light could not be seen and further than 100 meters if you have very good eyesight, plus it didn't hurt their eyes.

I looked up and saw the medic girl pouring something down the throat of my patient. I watched in horror as she started to convulse she was having a seizure, as I saw her back arch and her arms and legs begin to flail, the medic jumped out of the wagon and they all stepped away from the wagon. I had to do something she was opening up her stitches, I jumped up and having nothing to put in her mouth but my fingers I did and got bit repeatedly for it, she convulsed for about 5 minutes and stopped. I looked around for the bottle she had used, I uncorked it and smelled it, it didn't smell toxic so I took a small sip and felt a tingling in my fingers as I looked down I saw the bleeding stop, I sipped some more and watched my fingers to heal up. I couldn't figure out how this concoction did what it had just done let alone caused my patient to have a seizure.

I saw the rest of the rescue party climb onto the other wagons I had two people on each side of me one had a knife on my right side the other had a knife at my left, I watched as my patient slept. I would have loved to get my bearings but I would need the high white setting on my flashlight and any light seemed to hurt their eyes. They must have been down here a long time to be so sensitive to light, how long would that take a generation or five? Other than Alak they all seemed to be younger that myself, with those knife shaped ears, everything I saw led me to think they had evolved for this environment, those ears could help catch sound, sort of like a cats ears the difference well one of many is that cats could move them independently to focus on a sound. They didn't retie my hands as we rode on I guess they weren't too concerned about me getting away or maybe they figured if my patient had another seizure I could treat her, the wagons stopped and my hands were tied as I was led to the camp sight.

I was left alone and they didn't want to touch me, only Alak looked in my direction and he answered questions from the girls. I reached up and switched off my flashlight and got some sleep, with the solar cells and the red light at low I would have about a half day of light, the contractor said a fully charged solar cell would run for 36 hours before dying out. They set up a picket and kept a cold camp, I was used to skipping meals but not days I was so damn hungry, I wondered if they would just starve me to keep me weak so I would be easy to manage. I curled up and decided to get some shut eye, not that I would get much of that.

I was awakened with a boot to the stomach and looked up at the medic screeching something, I glared at her and earned another kick from her. So this was how our relationship was going to be as I received a third boot, this time I hooked her foot and shot my right foot out to her left ankle sending her to the ground. Her eyes burned red and I could see it clearly without the red light of my flashlight, it was a bit intimidating to see them actually glow red. She barked something and I saw the other 4 girls come over and join in with kicking me, this was an old school beat down 5 on 1 and my hands were tied, I guess I couldn't take the 5 of them with my hands tied, I could tell from the blows they were trying to break bones. Once they were satisfied I was tossed rather unceremoniously into the wagon with my sleeping patient, I was jerked up by the rope to see the medic staring at me, she held a knife that was glowing red like a poker left in a fire I didn't like this one bit.

As she brought the blade towards my privates she kept saying something, she backed the blade to my knee but had made her point. Her face must have had a look of pure joy as the only things I could see were the blade and those red eyes, whatever had given me the extra light was now gone. Like hell I was going out like a little bitch if she wanted a fight I was more than willing to help, I could see the blade and those eyes so I knew where her eyes and hand were, I brought my knee to her hand and sent the knife flying away, when she brought her eyes closer I head butted her in the bridge of the nose, she reeled and sat screeching at me again as I felt two knives pressing into my side. I had my payback so I stopped and looked out hoping I would see some kind of light, we traveled on for what felt like hours I guessed I had no idea how long, without any sun I had no idea what day it was let alone what time.

Finally, I saw lights off in the distance, I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing but at least I could see. It looked like a city made out of stalactites and columns, the city ad a strange glow on the walls like when I came out of the cave. The streets were wide with no sidewalks and very few carts like the kind I was in. As I was paraded through the streets I saw the odd looks I got from the people of this city, most of those looks were looks of scorn. As I was dragged off to the far side of the city and to a distant plantation, I felt a great deal of anxiety, as I just knew this would be home from now on.

***********

Zilvra was rushed to her room, her wards had been easy to remove, she was set down on her bed and a priestess was brought in to heal her. The priestess looked at Zilvra and saw a strongly magical aura before her.

She asked almost threatening, "Why wasn't this child brought before us? With such a strong magical aura she should have been tested."

The matron said dismayed and a little nervous, "When she was tested she had no magical aura beyond our natural aura. My daughter Micarylafay is my only child with an aura strong enough to become a priestess."

The matron looked at her daughter and could see that her aura was different it seemed like a very old aura like her matron before she replaced her. Shyntaunlin entered the room and told her mother that the human was being taken to the cells.

The priestess looked at Shyntaunlin and asked accusingly, "Why wasn't this wound healed? You had draughts, yes?"

Shyntaunlin replied trying to sound respectful and hide her fear of the priestess, "I gave her one and it disagreed with the demon in her. That is why I had a rider send for you."

The priestess looked at the child on the bed and asked making more of an accusation than anything, "I see no sign of any demon taint here. How can you be so sure?"

Shyntaunlin said her voice quivering in fear of this woman running an Inquisition of her house, "She was found with a strange human, that doesn't speak his own language. Alak, our surface trader knows their tongue and even he didn't understand why the human didn't understand and his aura is very strange as well. He did something to her and when I gave her the draught she got the falling sickness, the human was able to calm it, so he must be a demon or at the very least the one who put it in her."

The priestess was lost she knew that demons had to be brought to this plane and if it was done wrong they would kill whomever summoned them and return to their plane. Besides who would bring a surfacer down here to possess them, when any of their many enemies would gladly help.

She turn and looked at Zilvra, wondering what could do that to her and said, "Very well, I will check her and heal this and then I will meet with this demon you have in chains afterwards."

She kicked everybody out of the room while she tried to look and see if she had been tainted in some way but found no physical signs. As she finished her chant and tried to use her magic, she again saw no signs of demonic taint or anything for that fact. The surprising thing was Zilvra had resisted her magic the priestess knew that Drow could resist magic but not when they weren't awake. She tried again and again it failed, she knew one thing for certain that if a demon had seen her try and detect it she would be attacked by now, so she ruled out a demon. She decided to heal her wound and cast a curative spell as it surged through her body and into her patient she saw a light blue symbol begin to glow brightly, then she watched as the wound began to knit itself back together and close leaving a scar, she was shocked because her spell shouldn't have left a scar. She could see her aura was stronger than before and she knew that she would need to question the human, something about this wasn't right and she wanted to get to the bottom as she walked off to question the human.

************

I was dragged off to a cell, stripped and beatten while they kept asking or as far as I knew asking me something. As they tried to shackle me, I figured now was a good time to be uncooperative with them, a man grabbed my wrists and went to chain me to the wall. I grabbed the small man's wrist and bent his arm back sliding my left foot behind his right knocking him to the ground and turned to catch the arm of another man who was going to whip me, I spun the man to the ground and gave him a kick to the head knocking the man out cold. I rushed to the cell door and threw my 240lbs frame into the door knocking the guard down and nearly taking the door with him. I took off running down the corridor and found myself face to face with a certain someone who I was looking forward to paying her back for all the abuse I had taken. She started to say something, with those red eyes that I was going to close for her, I saw her pull a knife and I sprung on her as she thrust at me, I grabbed her wrist and slammed my right hand into her elbow dislocating it with a loud pop, I kicked the inside of her left knee and as she dropped I brought my knee to her face and heard another crack.

She howled in pain I smiled at her pain before my knee made contact with her face and said, "Payback bitch."

I kept running and hated the fact that he couldn't see much further haven't these people heard of lights. I turned the corner; was greeted by a hand crossbow bolt to my thigh, as I bull rushed the woman who had hit me with the bolt, sending her flying about 5 meters back. I was starting to feel sleepy and after a few paces fell to the ground and everything faded to black. When I awoke, I was in chains in my cell with my little tormentor looking at me as she walked up to me she grimaced in pain, this brought a smile to my face.

I said derisively, "Hurts doesn't it, I think the broken nose makes you look better" as I watched it heal before my eyes along with her knee and wrist.

She sneered at me, clearly I have made a new friend as she spun me around, as I felt the sting of the whip began to tear my skin; I screamed in pain and swore I would get even with her, as stroke after stroke fell I lost consciousness. I was awoken by ice-cold water pulled up by the chains still around my writs so I was standing on my tiptoes, I saw another woman she had blond in her hair like Alak but her hair had more blond than his did, her face spoke of experience I understood this wasn't the first time she had seen a naked man let alone one who had been whipped. She was wearing some strange spider design costume and holding a black spider with a woman's head and began to chant something and then touched my back, as I felt the wounds on my back close I felt better and stronger, I thanked the kind woman. In walked a man he had white hair unlike many of them his face said this was all new to him so he must have been young, wearing robes and was shorter than the woman who had healed me, I was turned to face them.

He began to chant and make hand gestures when he finished he spoke, "What is your name human?"

He stayed in the room looking at me with a lost look on his face, guess he has never seen a man before. He could tell from my reaction that I understood him, but something was off and he knew it.

I had been trained in being captured and said, "Private Henri Bordeaux United States Marine Corp serial number 123456."

The kind woman asked me "Where are you from?"

I thought of her as kind because she hadn't beaten me yet, that was about to change. I repeated what I had told the man with a condescending smile.

She continued clearly not happy, looks like I am making friends mom would be proud, she said angrily, "What are you doing down here?"

I repeated yet again.

She was pissed and produced a whip, ok maybe not answering was a mistake, She said in a voice promissing a world of hurt, "Why did you he help Zilvra?"

I wasn't going to tell them anything and repeated for a fourth time. She drew back the whip and slashed my chest opening like it was wet paper, guess these people haven't heard the saying you get more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. I didn't scream I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of hearing me scream, why should I be the only one unhappy. This only made her angrier as she whipped repeatedly and damn she knew how to use that whip, she use that whip until I passed out again. I was awoken the same way as before and the same woman still wearing those clothes with spiderwebs and what not on them, tried again to touch me, fuck that she wasn't going to fix me so she could whip me some more so I tried to move my legs but it wouldn't move, so I tried to get away from her touch to no avail.