Tale of Death

After walking away from the group of annoying kids, Shi soon found herself staring at the amazing items that decorated the stalls of the marketplace, just begging to be sold. There were so many things she had seen before, but also so many more things she had never seen in her life. From odd-looking bones of monsters to armor made from the body of creatures to weapons that looked like they belong on a shelf, and many more interesting things.

The most interesting things that kept catching Shi's attention, however, were the books.

Shi had always been interested in books, she loved using them in order to learn more about the world outside her small cage of a village. And while she may not have been all that good at reading, she still tried her best to learn words that not even some adult commoners in her village knew about, granted, most commoners never had the need to learn how to read in their short lives.

Books were a way for Shi to travel the world from the comforts of her home, they contend things she could only dream of, never to truly enjoy for herself, tales of adventurers on epic quests, battles against fierce beasts that threaten life, depictions of grand events that change history. Those were the things she loved to learn about the most, things that were, as she would like to put it, cool.

Unfortunately for Shi, she could never actually afford any of the books she wanted. As books were a luxury only affordable by the rich, nobles, and merchants alike. Shi had actually once asked about this out of curiosity, why were books so expensive, to that one merchant that didn't show back up for a year. The answer she got surprised her because she simply couldn't understand why it would be that way, she originally thought it was due to how difficult making the book was, however, the merchant had told her, it was because nobles didn't want commoners to learn too much.

That fact alone, if it was true at least, made Shi doubt what else the nobles are doing to limit the commoners, but what could she, a mere commoner, do about it. All she could do is hope that someday when she grew up, she would become powerful enough to change the way things are now, or at the very least, have a better life for her family.

Snapping out of her thought, she spotted a book for sale that she had never seen, and it had an interesting cover. It was an image of a moon and sun interlocking behind beastly eyes, it looked quite odd to Shi, but that only made her more interested in it.

So, while she couldn't buy any of the books here, that didn't mean she couldn't skim through them while pretending she was going to buy them, this was what she often did, leading to yet another reason most of the merchants here didn't like her.

Approaching the merchant, she smiled and tried to act as, 'cute', as she could. 'Who would deny such a cute face,' she thought to herself as she spoke to the man that ran the stall, "Excuse me, sir, could you please tell me about this book?"

'I must say, my acting skills are just too good.' She boasted to herself in her mind where no one else could hear her and possibly deny that claim. Not that they would, she was indeed quite a good little actress, since the man believed her little act and smiled at her, replying with a tone that was trying to be as kind as he could, "Well aren't you a cute little one, sure thing. Which one, this?" He said pointing towards the book that she was looking at.

With a short little nod, she spoke softly, keeping up the act of a cute curious little girl, "Mhm, yep that one, it looks soooo interesting~"

Her reaction caused the man to chuckle, after which he then spoke, "Sure thing, that's quite the big book there for a little one like you, hmm, how about this, I don't mind telling you about it, but it would take a while, so why don't you come on back to my carriage, and I'll read it for you?" He suggested to the girl with a friendly smile.

Shi frowned her brow slightly, this seemed weird, something inside of her was screaming not to agree with this man, something she couldn't quite seem to put her finger on, yet it felt so familiar. That screaming wasn't strong enough though, far too muffle it was, as her curiosity for the book got the better of her and she agreed with a nod, "Oh! I would love to!"

"Alright, why don't you run along ahead to my carriage, and I'll finish packing away everything here before following along. The carriage is packed just around the corner, take that road down, take a left, and you'll see a big white carriage being guarded by some of my men, tell them I sent you, ok?" The man explained the way to find his carriage for Shi since he couldn't just leave everything open and go to it with her.

Shi had to listen closely since the directions were a bit complicated, but once she understood it she nodded her head, 'Straight, left, white carriage, men, got it.' And replied to the man, "Yep, I got it, I'll wait for you, hurry up!" She had some time before the sunset and she had to return home, so she didn't mind waiting a bit, so with that thought in mind, she ran off down the pathway, looking for the carriage.

She went straight down the gravel pathway, took a left at the first turn she saw, and there she saw it, a big white carriage with some other carriages around it. Shi was actually amazed at how big it was, while she had seen tens of carriages before going in and out of the village, they were usually made from low-quality wood and didn't have any fancy designs on them, however, the one before her looked like it would cost a small fortune. It was pure white, but it had patterns of blue and green decorating it on all sides.

While she was observing the extravagance of the carriage, she spotted two burly men that were standing nearby, they looked quite big and to the young Shi, scary. She knew that they were most likely the hired workers mentioned by the man before, the ones she was supposed to speak to, but she was honestly starting to second guess how much she really wanted to know about that book right about now.

With that doubt in mind, she started to back away from the men, back to where she came but was halted when she heard a voice from behind her. "Ah there you are little one, I was just coming along to meet you, ready to learn about it?" The man asked, causing Shi to turn around only to reveal the same short, somewhat plump but kind looking merchant from before. Shi couldn't really make out his face or features, as he had a long tunic covering his body, and a hood over his head, only revealing his smile.

"Umm, o-of course!" She was nervous inside, she even stuttered to reply to the man, but she quickly caught herself and acted properly. 'I am such a great actor.' She thought to herself briefly before moving on. She really didn't want to be here anymore, but if she tried to leave she knew it would be weird, she also knew that this might not be a good decision but what could she do.

"Good, then come with me." The man said as he walked closer, placing a hand on Shi's shoulder which caused her body to flinch slightly, which the man seemingly noticed this, because he moved closer to her, for whatever reason. This only confirmed to Shi that this wasn't where she wanted to be even more. She had to find a way out, so, using her head she tried to make an excuse quickly.

"Oh! How could i forget, my mother said i had to be home early today, I'm sorry i can't stay to hear you read, i need to go!" That was the best excuse she could think up on the spot in a rush such as this, it not only showed the man she had family that expected her but also would work as a way to get away from the man.

"Is that so? Well, why don't you just stay a little longer and not worry about that, I'm sure she wouldn't worry." The man replied, tightening the grip on Shi's shoulder to the point where it actually started to hurt somewhat. He didn't want her to go anywhere, and this was going to be bad.

Seeing that her idea failed, and this was a lot more dangerous than she thought it was, she instantly became afraid and tried to pull away from the man. Breaking out from his grip on her shoulder, she made a run for it, only for her to hear behind her, "Stop her before she gets away you fools!" From the man towards the two workers of his.

It seemed they were hired for a reason because before Shi could even react, they were already in front of her. Well one of them at least, the other stood behind her blocking her escape, as if they had done this countless times.

'Shit!' Shi said in her head as she paused, looking around, this felt so familiar, why did she feel like she had been in something like this before, 'Arg, no time for that now, focus.' She said snapping her mind into focus as she looked around.

She couldn't get out of this easily, but that didn't mean she wouldn't try to at the very least. She had to put up a fight, otherwise, they would get her, and do Kami knows what to her, her mother had always told her not to follow strangers, she should've listened more, god she should've listened more.

She didn't have time to think anymore about useless thoughts, she had to find a way out of this. Her best course of action would be to trick them somehow and get past them. She had a plan in mind, but it was going to be dangerous.

Without waiting for them to act first, she ran to the left of her, this caused the man that was behind her to lung forward to try and grab her. He failed because she stopped at the right moment, making him fall to the ground just like she had planned.

'Good, now let's go.' She thought to herself as she turned in front of her, before the man that fell could get up, she started to run forward.

The man in front of her did the same, going to grab her, but he suddenly stopped out of nowhere and stared at her. This caused Shi to stop in a panic, why would he suddenly stop if not to do something weird. Locking eyes with the man, they both just, stared at each other.

'What is he doing.' She thought to herself, not noticing the man doing anything weird. She didn't have much more time to do this, so she decided to just run for it, however, before she could do so, a hand grabbed her shoulder.

'Shit.' The man that had fallen had enough time to get back up and grab her from behind, pushing her downwards, and pinning her small body to the floor.

"Finally, god, you useless shits take forever." Said the merchant from the distance as he started to approach them. Shi's head may be pinned to the ground, but she could still clearly see him moving closer, and hear his words. His next words in particular caused Shi to panic.

"What a cute little one you are, trying so hard to escape, that only makes it more fun. I just can't wait to play with you later, maybe when I'm done i can get a good price for you."

'Shit, he wants to sell me.' Thought Shi as she heard the words that made her face run dry of blood. Slavery was illegal, her mother had told her this, but she had also read in some papers that slavers still existed and sold slaves illegally.

She didn't want to know who this man would sell her to, let alone what they would do to her when they bought her, her mother always told her what some sick bastards might do to her if she ever got caught by them. She didn't even want to know what he meant by fun later.

As she started to thrash around in the arms of the man holding her down, in an attempt to get out, she heard a male voice break the chaos of the alleyway.

"What are you doing to my daughter you bastards!"