Snippet #2687020

Dustin looked around at the surrounding people. Their faces wore a mixed expression of sullenness and disdain. It made sense, the Meltsanders were their enemies and vice versa, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. They were sentencing these people to defeat.

The Atzerii shook his head. He wasn't a child and this was reality, not some sugar-coated existence. They were likely sentencing many of these people to death. It didn't sit well with him. Sure, he had killed several and imprisoned twice as many being a bounty hunter, but those people were bad. Wanted. For a good reason. Murderers, thieves, they were bad people. The Aklar clan... Dustin didn't know these people. He didn't know their story, the reason for their conflict with the Meltsanders.

The First Sword of Kasselland's conscious wore down on him like a boulder strapped to his back. Each step turned into a trudge, the basic movement turning into more of a laboring task. His new position only strengthened the crushing feeling of his conscious as he looked from one goggled face to the next.

No. This is for our survival, he reminded himself. We do what we have to in order to live so we can find the Change and help everyone, both Meltsander and Aklar.

It was time to get to business.

"It might be best to stop whispering to the cages," Dustin said to both Uluru and Slathe, his face expressionless as he observed the crowd gathering. "No need to make them any more suspicious than they already are."