Chapter 02: Fleeting Freedom

Suddenly, the sound of flapping wings came to her hearing and she lifted her face. A pigeon had just flown into the cage and landed on the shoulder of the elf who sat beside her. She saw the elf gently caressing the pigeon's silky head and heard her say, "I understand and thank you".

When the pigeon flew out again, Amethyst asked the brown-eyed elf, "What did it tell you?"

The tired elf looked at her and answered, "It says, we're now in Numany, the human territory."

Amethyst's face turned pale and so did others.

Suddenly, the carriage, that carried the cage, came to an abrupt stop, forcing the captives forward in their seats

"Get out, you lots!"

A rough voice along with the loud banging on the cage, shook everyone.

The elves in the cage got out, and their hands were bounded as soon as they stepped on the ground. Then, they walked on foot, literally dragged, towards a massive tent that was located far from where they were dropped off.

Along the way, humans were everywhere and they were having fun. Their happy voices were the result of it, in contrast to the unhappiness that painted the elves' weary faces.

Amethyst looked around in silence. Everything looked strange. There were shops selling tools, armouries that supplied weapons, goldsmith workshops, eateries and fairgrounds that were brightly lit. Humans were seen swarming the fairgrounds, having fun to their heart's content.

The elf felt sad as she pictured her sister Topaz smiling sweetly among the humans, enjoying what the humans enjoy. If only...

"Keep moving!" said one of the men and he whipped her as if she was an idle donkey.

Amethyst grimaced. She limped and forced her feet to carry her weary body to where the humans led them.

As they came nearer to the massive tent, loud voices came to their ears. They also heard wailing screams and screeches, and it seemed, elves were not the only beings the humans were after.

The newly captured elves felt tension rushing throughout their bodies. Are they going to be sold? None of them could tell but they'd already surmised it would become their not-so-far future.

"Move!"

The humans pushed the elves into the tent where they came into the views of greedy humans. The humans cheered when the elves lined up before them as if the elves were about to make a performance.

Amethyst looked around silently. She had never met humans up closely in her life but, she had heard in bedtime stories that humans were vile creatures and, they were the only mortals that grew tremendously in numbers, and their number had outnumbered the elves and vampires over the centuries.

Amethyst looked to the side and saw lots of huge cages. Inside them, there were rare magical animals from the Ancea forests. To her dismay, some of the animals were sacred to her race.

The elf felt her heart tighten as sadness flowed in. If only she could, she would free those animals and her race from the humans. But, she was captured, unarmed and wounded too.

A man with a curly moustache danced forth and lifted a hand. His gesture immediately silenced the audience and everyone waited. But, impatience could be seen permeating their eager gazes.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began and his face beamed. "Many of you had demanded that you wanted only the best and of the highest qualities from our products. So, today, we realized your dreams and only the luckiest will go home with them today!"

Everyone within the tent cheered madly. But, the elves found themselves shivering not because of the cold of wearing tattered clothes but because of the human's terrifying greed.

The man that chaired the event continued, "So, today, as you can see, standing on this stage right now, you can already see who they are. Yes, they are the elves from Ancea!"

Another wave of loud and maddening cheer deafened the atmosphere.

"I'm happy to announce the bidding for them start now!" the man said loudly and just as he wanted to hear, the others cheered.

Amethyst watched as her kin left the stage one by one after the highest bidders won the bid of buying them. Well, that was also after the humans fought among them which was so ugly to watch.

"Finally, to our last one with beautiful long golden hair," said the man to the audience and pointed at Amethyst who looked at him with scrutinizing eyes. "This one has golden eyes and most of you know golden-eyed elves are our King's most prized possession because of their magnificent eyes colour that was believed to hold magical powers. But, my dear valued customers, please don't dig out her beautiful eyes if any of you managed to buy her because she is the only golden-eyed elf we managed to get from Ancea. Well, at the cost of our brave men's lives."

The people inside the tent laughed as if it was something funny. The curly moustache man smiled and laughed as well. "Well, they deserved it, ha ha!"

Amethyst glared at the audience. Her heart turned sour and she pondered why did they laugh when their kin died out there?

The curly moustache man, then began again, "Moving on to our main event and I'm sure all of you are eager to know the starting price for this lucky one!"

Lucky one? No, she was the unluckiest one.

Amethyst became anxious when she heard him. But, her resentment lingered when she thought of her time as a free elf would come to an end.

"Her price is higher than the other elf that we sold so far," the man said. "The bidding price for her is starting from 50,000 Numand!"

Amethyst stood silently, watching the humans shouting out numbers one after another. Their greed was something that she couldn't understand at all. Why and just why were they so greedy? What did they want to achieve after killing so many innocent lives?

"Sold!"

Amethyst flinched and she came to her senses after she heard the loud and excited voice of the man that chaired the event.

"This last golden-eyed elf is now sold for 500,000 Numand!"

Amethyst felt her stomach churn for an unknown reason. Was it because her hunger had gone past the eating time? She had no idea. She also had no better vision of her fate because she was lost within the sea of greedy humans.

Amidst the craziness inside the tent, a person wearing a black mask that covered his entire face stood near the entrance. Then, within seconds, the person was no longer there.

...

Amethyst reached another place called Hevean City or the City of Entertainment after she travelled from Dyranz Town which was located in Lareth, the City of The Royals. The travelling hour was too long and she felt her energy draining fast on top of being too hungry.

She stood in front of a flashy-looking building that looked nothing like a house that an elf was used to. The building was so big, most probably a bungalow. But, strangely she saw only men entering and exiting the building.

The elf was left wondering about their business there as in her life, she had never heard of or seen a brothel before. Also, since her race was always running into hiding because humans and vampires hunted them, they only learnt about mastering healing techniques and defences. So, the knowledge about the outside world was limited or none at all.

"Hey, move!"

Amethyst found herself getting dragged to the back of the huge house where a man, with a potbelly and greedy-looking face, was waiting. He looked at her from top to bottom.

"Hmm, fascinating," Amethyst heard him say to himself. His eyes beamed. "Get her ready!"

Two female elves, both with beautiful azure eyes, emerged and took her away at his command. They bathed her and then forced her to wear a sheer nightdress, the type that Amethyst had never seen in her life.

"I'm not wearing anything revealing," she said to the elves and pushed the dress away. "This is inappropriate to us elves."

"Shhh, lower your voice..." one of the elf elves said and looked around warily. Fear danced in her eyes. They may be alone in the room but, guards were standing outside.

"You have to wear this if you wish to live," the other elf whispered. "You can't be choosy."