"When do we bury my brother?" A small child speaks with his black disheveled hair and calm grey eyes that glisten in the sun asks curiously. A hint of childish worry within his tone
An older man walks beside him holding a leash tied around his torso and shoulders like a harness. Indifferent to the child's question, he spares a cold glance before yanking the rope. The child is forced in front of the older man who's beard is a dark brown with its white hairs and stern, expressionless face twisting a bit before being hoisting the child onto l his shoulder and then carelessly tossing him into the wagon.
Winded as the boys back hits the side of the wagon, he chokes as his throat gasps for air in a desperate attempt to keep his broken body alive. A few children of similar origins are tossed along side him, all connected to a rope.
The old man takes a silver knife and slices the rope to cut off the parts still attached to the ones who aren't breathing anymore. The talkative child looks at the knife In fascination.
The knife is intricate and has flower like engravings. It looks far too fancy to be used for such labor, so much so that the child can't tell if he should be honored such a piece is being used for his sake, or worried about his already minimal rations due to the fact the soldiers are resorting to using such tools.
"That knife is so cool! Did you kill a nobleman for it?" Asked the child. Despite his circumstances the childlike wonder and fascination of the boy had yet to dwindle down into despair. He got some looks from the half dead orphans around him as he asked, the old man looked at him with distain. The cold Indifference crumbling beneath what can only be described as pure hate.
"Nameless fucking weirdo" The old man scowled before rasing the wagons ramp and hitting the side with a shovel.
The child looked at the pile of corpses as the wagon started moving. He smiled seeing the old man taking the rope, which had been tied by the cut ends by another soldier to make collecting the corpses easier and his shovel to a nearby ditch.
"Thank God's… I was worried he wouldn't get a proper burial! I'm glad he can rest easy" The child spoke to himself wistfully as the labored breathing from others in wagon drowned out the sound of his thoughts. In turn, the wagons movement drowned out the sounds of their breathing. "I do wonder why they couldn't wait until we get there though… a few dead kids can't be too heavy can it?"
The wagon moved onwards and the child felt his insides moving in ways they shouldn't be. His ribs were broken in two places and his body was coveredin bruises. Despite the situation though he was excited, as he was never able to leave his section of the village meant for the people the king ordered to be contained.
The boy was meant to die soon anyways, but he was glad to leave the place and see more of the world than he could before.
Before he could get up and try to watch the scenery though, a rope was wrapped around his neck by another boy with an angry expression.
"You just can't shut up! Do you even know what's gonna happen w-" before the irritated boy could finish a bump on the wagon sent them flying up a bit before losing balance and falling down. The head of the angry child hit the side of the wagon with the weight of himself and the talkative one on top of him.
Laying there on top of the possibly permanently unconscious boy the talkative one smiled again. "Ah… well the sky looks lovely too… i guess i'll lay here for a moment". Before another thought could be formed he fell unconscious, some time passing as he slept.
Waking up the talkative one sat up and realized two things. Firstly there was a makeshift gag in his mouth, fastened by torn cloth. Secondly they were in a stable where the wagon was parked.
After a bit of struggling he took out the makeshift gag. "Someone really gave up their shirt for that? Well, can't blame em. One guy did just try to kill me to keep me quiet so this is more preferable. Should've learned to tie like these guys though… then this gag wouldn't have been untied with just my hands!".
He Laughed softly to himself and then choked on air, his lungs burning, he quickly got to work. As glum as things seemed his favorite word was his motivation. "Persistence" was his name and his philosophy after all.
Taking the arm of the unconscious boy he was laying on, and hesitating for a moment he bit into the skin with his teeth. Spitting out the flesh and gagging he took another bite, and another, and another. After just a few minutes of chewing and spitting he found two small bones and began using them in an attempt to sharpen one into a makeshift knife. Nothing special, just something sharp enough to cut the rope.
"I gotta learn the names of bones too…" The boy said as he rubbed one bone against the other in an outward motion.
After what he assumed was a long time he realized the guards must've gotten lazy and tried to kill them off with hunger instead of doing the ritual. After all if recourses were dwindling like he suspected, they would definitely be jealous. Of the meal part that is, not the dying half.
Spending many breaks and much time on sharpening the bone the boy finally had a crude knife. Using it he took his sad blade to the rope tied to his chest and shoulders before wedging it as deep under the rope as it's tightness on him would allow.
He yelped silently as the broken ribs disagreed with his actions he slowly began sawing until the knife broke. His shaky hand cut his skin open a couple times but the rope was gone for the most part.
The frail boy used his hands in an attempt to rip the rope apart, but unfortunately he found he was too weak to do so. After a bit of thought he went over the the ramp of the wagon and let it down. It swung downwards, crashing loud enough to cause the exhausted travel buddies behind him to stir.
He decided to use the corner edge of the wagons railing to rip the rope off. Crawling to the end of the wagon he pressed his broken ribs and ripped rope to the corner and put gravity to work. He didn't weigh much but the rope was cut enough to snap under his weight… and allow gravity to also get to work on his chin hitting it in an uppercut.
"Goddammit!" Rolling on the ground in agony and holding his chin the escaping boy allowed himself to throw a temporary temper tantrum and she'd a tear or two before regaining his composure. "I'll live… unlike that one guy…".
Slipping the rest of the rope off, the nameless boy looked around the dark stables. It was night and the place was barely illuminated by the faint flame of a dirty lantern.
"Now what?" The boy asked himself as he looked around. It didn't take long to decide that he should probably leave the place the wagons that brought him but as he walked around he saw big walls of stone and metal gates with spears along the walls.
Looking at the spear curiously he grabbed it and then immediately dropped it. "S-So heavy!" Or maybe he was just weak. After all this little shit had no idea what the hell he's doing trying to even touch a weapon. Who does he think he can kill?
"Fuck you! You try being starved an malnourished! I'd like to see you try and escape asshole! The young man stayed silent for a moment, thinking. Then realized he's a fucking dumbass and should probably start running. The child saw two men wielding spears effectively rushing towards his direction, but due to the cover of night he wasn't spotted yet… though he should definitely consider running.