[Kachi]: 373.The Cat Boy And The Slave.Chapter 1

The Cat Boy And The Slave

Chapter 1


  Battered and bloody bare feet traipsing over rough, hard soil. That was the first real memory Deiyen had of approaching his new home. Each step a small agony, counter pointed by the biting fear that rose from his heart and stuck in his throat, making breathing difficult. Glances to his left and right assured him that his companions felt either the same or, at least, very similar. Even Daevan, the oldest slave Deiyen had ever known, had apprehension written across his creased face. At the bottom of the steeply sloping track lay some of the largest houses the boy had ever seen: all whitewashed walls, brick roofs and acres of green, lush grass. If you were on the right side of the social divide, Deiyen thought, it must be paradise.
  He was on the wrong side.
  Deiyen had been bought and sold as part of the slave trade many times in his short life, but each time he was sold brought with it new fears. Would his new owners be generous and kind, or would they be more inclined towards greed and violence? He could consider himself blessed that he had had a relatively even mixture, whilst some of the other youths and men walking around him on this trek obviously had never been so fortunate as to encounter compassion in their previous owners. They had careworn faces, many looking much older than their sum of years, and some had limps or limbs that didn't function entirely as they should; many masters would simply sell on slaves that had become injured, either through work or cruelty, for a loss.
  But there was one head before him that intrigued Deiyen. Several inches shorter than the heads of those around it, atop the matted and unkempt hair sat a pair of black, delicate cat's ears.
  Deiyen had heard of the cat people. They didn't venture far into human society, he had been told, preferring to live in isolated communities that only mixed with humans when they had to. They raised and taught their own children, they harvested and farmed their own foodstuffs, and they apparently had no need for slaves. Deiyen had sometimes thought that a cat-man's life would be some kind of utopia: a life of freedom.
  But if they had no need for slaves, then why was one of their own struggling along in a pack of slaves before him? Even as the human watched, the boy's feet slipped out from under him and his head vanished beneath the pack of bodies.
  Without even thinking, Deiyen sprinted forwards and leapt the knot of chains in the middle of his group, and pushed past a few other slaves until he reached the fallen form of the catboy. "Are you okay?"
  The dark haired boy struggled to push himself to his feet again, only for his elbows to give out and send him crashing back to the ground. He whimpered slightly and looked up at Deiyen as if expecting some kind of slap about his triangular ears. "I'm sorry!"
  Unexpectedly, Deiyen felt a pang of pity for this boy with the fearful green eyes. He crouched down beside him and held out a hand. "I'm not gonna hurt you. Need help?"
  The boy nodded vigorously and took Deiyen's rough hand, evidently grateful for the assistance. "You're not angry with me...?"
  Slightly bemused, the older boy shook his head. "Why would I be?" This was bizarre. He had never expected to find himself assisting a boy who to all intents and purposes shouldn't even be anywhere near him.
  "Because I fell over..." The boy looked down and, to Deiyen's utter astonishment, his green eyes began to fill with tears. "I really didn't mean to!"
  Seeing that the catboy was at risk of being pulled over and along by his ankle chain behind his group, and that his own was now almost on top of him, he scrubbed the boy's hair gently. "Come on, don't worry."
  The boy nodded uncertainly and began to walk alongside the taller, brown haired youth, limping slightly. After a short while, hesitantly, he asked "where are we going?"
  All Deiyen could do was gape at the boy's naïve expression. It had been said with no trace of sarcasm, only the uncertainness of a child. Surreptitiously, he began to check the boy's head for any sign of a wound that the fall could have caused.
  The catboy noticed. "Er... What are you doing?"
  "Oh, nothing." Deiyen sighed, a frown furrowing his brow. Was this kid for real? He took a deep breath. "You really mean, you got no idea where we're going?"
  The boy shook his head emphatically. "Nope."
  Deiyen found himself, for the first time in his life it seemed, at a total loss.