The cart jerked and swayed beneath me, each bump sending metallic clangs through my cage. I'd managed to work free of that cursed net, but these thick iron bars proved far more stubborn. Even with my considerable strength, they refused to bend.

  Four bedraggled men trudged ahead of my cart, ropes over their shoulders as they pulled it along the mountain path. Their ragged clothes and shuffling steps spoke of long days spent at this task. Armed guards walked alongside, occasionally prodding stragglers with spear butts.

  Fragments of conversation drifted back to me from the men in charge.

  "...good haul from that village..."

  "...Qordos always pays top coin..."

  Two more carts followed mine in this grim procession. The nearest held men and women, farmers by the look of their simple clothes, though it was hard to tell under all the bruises and dried blood. They sat in defeated silence, avoiding the guards' eyes.

  The last cart tore at something deep within me. Children. Ten small faces peered out between the wooden slats, some crying quietly, others just staring ahead with hollow eyes. A girl who couldn't have seen more than twelve summers sat at the front, her blond hair, freckled face and green eyes reminding me of... someone. The memory slipped away like smoke.

  "Move faster!" A guard struck the nearest cart-puller with his spear shaft. "Want to reach Qordos before dark!"

  The slaves stumbled forward, shoulders straining against their ropes. The children's cart hit a deep rut, drawing whimpers from its cargo. The freckled girl reached out to steady a smaller child who'd nearly fallen.

  I pressed against my cage bars, testing each joint and seam. There had to be a weak point somewhere. These slavers had taken me for some rare beast to be sold, but they'd also raided peaceful villages, torn families apart, caged children like animals. Something cold and furious stirred in my fractured memories. This… this was not how humans were supposed to behave towards each other. We were all in this struggle together. Weren't we?

  The mountains loomed closer until their shadows swallowed our caravan. The path wound down into a valley where Qordos sprawled like an open wound on the landscape. Smoke rose from dozens of cooking fires between canvas tents and crooked wooden structures that looked ready to collapse at the slightest breeze.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  My cage rattled as we entered through a gap between two guard towers. The stench hit me first; the unwashed bodies, waste, and despair was thick enough to choke on. Slavers in mismatched armor lounged about, weapons close at hand. A dwarf with an eye patch bartered with a tall sapien over a group of chained workers. Near a large tent, an elf in leather armor counted coins while two more slavers led away a family in chains.

  The cart lurched to a stop near the slave pens. Row after row of crude enclosures were packed with bodies. Men, women, children of every race huddled together on mud-covered ground. Some reached through the bars toward family members in other pens. Guards walked the lanes between, clubs ready for any who caused trouble.

  At the far end of the camp, slaves were being herded into covered wagons hitched to teams of horses. These weren't the crude carts that had brought us here; these were built for long journeys. A slaver checked marks on a ledger while others secured the wagon doors with heavy locks.

  "Got some'thun special here!" One of my captors called out to a group near the largest tent. "Never seen nothin' like it! Some kind of many-legged armored monster we caught in the wastes."

  The children's cart rolled past mine towards one of the pens. They swung wide the cart's gate and the slavers hollered at them to get out. The small bodies clambered out of the cart, wary eyes looking around as they were led into the pen. The freckled girl glanced my way as they passed, and I saw dry tears cutting clean tracks through the dirt on her face. A guard shoved her forward when she hesitated at the pen's entrance.

  "Good work, boys!" A rather rotund slaver with a bare torso said to the men who had caught me. He looked into my cage, noting my large armored form and numerous legs. "Well, well," he spoke up after his cursory exam. "Whatever it is, it's definitely rare. This thing will fetch a good price with the rich boffs down south."

  The fat man waddled away to survey the other two carts and the people who had emerged from them. "This the lot from Weath?"

  One of my captors nodded. "Aye."

  "Not as much as last time," the slaver complained.

  "Oi, it was a bitch gettin' this many back here at all!" The other slaver rubbed his ragged hair, looking frustrated. "There was an adventurer at Weath when we swung through, a strong one. Prolly over level 15 by my reckon. Lost three men to that bastard."

  "Damn fucking 'venturers," the fat man spat. "Oh well, nothing to be done. Go have Vert give ya yer pay." He then turned around and called towards a tent. "Harke!"

  A short, skinny man dressed in dirty robes pulled the flap of the tent open and stumbled out. He rushed over to the fat slaver and bowed. "Y-y-yes sera?" His voice was soft and his words stuttered, very much a reflection of his frightened, nervous demeanor.

  "New inventory just got delivered," the slaver said with a smile. "Go check on each of them, make sure they're nice and healthy. They should fetch us a good price, especially the kids."

  I watched as Harke's thin lip hair contorted from a scowl. A flash of revulsion crossed his features before he dropped his gaze to the ground and muttered, "Y-yes, sera."

  The scrawny man started shuffling toward the fresh batch of captives, retrieving a tattered ledger from within his garments. He halted abruptly before my prison when his gaze landed on my motionless figure. His eyes lifted to meet my masked visage, transfixed with obvious wonder.

  "F-f-f-fascinating!" He said aloud. "D-Dirtborn?"

  My hollow gaze snapped up to meet his the moment that stammered term left his mouth. Where in the world had he learned that phrase? As far as I was aware, it had only ever appeared within my personal status box, nowhere else.