Kui Hitomi's Story

Kui sits in her cold, dark cage; her eyes closed. She could hear the sounds around her, but chose to ignore them, and the other lycans. She just wished to be somewhere else; somewhere far away from here. Her body was pale and fragile; maybe even boney. It had been a while since she had gotten a decent meal. Her once shiny, beautiful long hair, which reached the middle of her back, was now quite greasy and dull. Occasionally, a prod from a sharp stick would jab in between one of her ribs, and she would let out a gasp of pain, but not much else.

Kui didn't want to give the pleasure of torturing her to these people, so she kept as silent and as still as possible. Sometimes it would seem maybe she was even dead from the lack of movement she made. Her breathing was short and shallow, so it was hard to tell if she was doing so, being that her chest made no movement. Just another horrid trade...Kui would just be traded off into another horrid home where she would be used, beaten and tortured. That was not much of a surprise...But, as always, she held a small gleam of hope that maybe...just maybe...she would get that chance where someone in the new family would treat her with some sort of kindness or respect...But that wish, Kui knew, was so far impossible, it was foolish to even think it....

Kui tried to let her mind wonder to something beautiful; something pleasant so that she may have at least some sort of haplessness...But there was no memory in her head; no thought which could help her. Since she had been little and as far back as she could remember, she had been a slave, and never once was she treated with a kindness. She had always been locked up in dark houses, working, cooking, cleaning...Any chore which the master would not want to do. Kui had never had the pleasure of seeing much of the outside world; beaches or forests...They sounded quite beautiful though, especially when she read about them in secret. The only glimpses she could catch of these things were through glass windows and bars...She could never touch them, smell them, or hear them...They were forever out of her grasp...

With an aggravated sigh, Kui slowly opens her chocolate brown eyes to gaze around her. There was not much to see, though, as she had already known...The lights which shimmered off her eyes caused them to shine as if they were amber jewels. In fact, the way she was sitting against the light cast shadows all about her face, making only her glowing eyes visible.

(Sorry, I won't be on all day tomorrow.)

The sky was blue, the birds were singing and the sun was shining beautifully. All in all, it was a very nice morning. On the way to the Slave Market, there was one person who didn't enjoy the warm sunlight...not even a little bit. And that person went by the name - Alphonse Padraig. The young man, for once, was cursing every minute of his existence...Why did he have to buy a slave again? Even if he's loyal to the king, he hated slavery with a passion. It didn't feel...natural. Everyone was equal...even if the ones that weren't completely 100% humans...they still had intelligence. His fists curled tightly as he crumbled the letter in his hands. This was an order by the king...apparently, every warrior had to own at least one...something about proving loyalty...Hadn't he proved enough? Hadn't he risked his life enough? Hadn't he killed enough? Why did he have to buy a slave? Alphonse turned his head and looked back, depressedly wanting to go back into his mansion and laid on his bed, slept for an entire day. He didn't want to be in this place. The smells, the pleads, the begging, the looks...they all reminded him of something that came out of a horror story. He looked at the eyes of the slaves, feeling a deep sense of sadness and guilt as he saw a lycan being beaten into the ground and he suppressed the urge to go there and stop the beating. The slave cried out in pain and Alphonse turned his head away, his eyes pressed tightly shut. Why? Why couldn't they just be normal servants? Why did they have to be slaves? He knew the king wasn't as sadistic as he seemed to be but...this was just...wrong.

Forcing himself to turn a blind eye toward the scene, Alphonse continued to walk, curses rolled out of his mouth easily as he spotted another one being beaten...what's wrong with this society? He wasn't rebellious...but that didn't mean he was accepting. And all he saw right now was humans making a fool out of themselves by lowering their pride and treating someone with the capability to think as worse than dogs. This was...unacceptable. Simply unacceptable. But as a warrior, he could not voice his thoughts...in some days like this, he just wanted to be a rebel...at least, he wouldn't have to hide his true thoughts then...but he was different from a rebel...he didn't think Lycans as equal to humans...Lycans would always be worse than humans...but...

Alphonse was saved from the conflicts of his mind as he walked to a store nearby. He observed the store carefully, looking at the pleading eyes of the Lycans and their pathetically thin bodies...obviously, they hadn't been fed enough. How horrible! "...I wouldn't recommend you do that to me..." Alphonse said with a bored tone as the owner of the store sneaked up on him. Taking a deep breath, the young man said seriously "...who knows...my hands might slip if you do that..." The owner chuckled nervously as he walked out of the shadow and faced Alphonse "...I'm sorry, young man...it's just a simple pleasure of an old man...please forgive me..." The middle-aged man said as he bowed deeply, recognized Alphonse's armor and realized he had just messed with one of the king's knight. "...yeah, whatever...I'm here to buy...a slave..." Alphonse said, forcing himself to remain emotionless as he spitted out the word 'slave' like it was poisonous. The man seemed to take that as a dislike to the lycans and nodded his head, a sneer on his face "...those disgusting creatures...never know how to behave themselves...what do you want for a slave?..."

Alphonse licked his lips and closed his eyes, deep in thought. Finally, he re-opened his eyes and answered slowly "...a female... obedient...quiet...healthy..." The reason why he wanted a female was easy enough. He hated torturing anyone and by buying an obedient one, he had made sure that she would obey him and not force him to hit her...of course, even if she couldn't be able to complete her work, he wouldn't hit her...but who knew what the king would force him to do if he saw a lycan that didn't listen to a Master's words? The man might make him kill them...or beat them...or torture them...The owner nodded and smiled, showing dirty yellow teeth "...I have just the right one for you, sir...Please wait for me a minute..." He called out harshly to a glowing pair of eyes in the corner "...come here, dog...let the nice young man see you, you useless, good for nothing lycan..."

Kui's eyes quickly darted toward the armored man who spoke to the owner. As the owner summoned her, her skin began to crawl, his voice sounding like nails on a chalk board to her ears. Was she really being summoned to be looked at? It had been a few days she had been sitting there in her own filth, her lips cracked and dry. But still, a few days was quick for any Lycan to be purchased. Would she be purchased? Kui wasn't sure. In fact, the thought of being purchased made her heart race with not only excitement, hoping that she may finally be treated with some sort of respect and finally escape this hell hole, but also with fear that she may only be faced with a beating once again and only trade this hell hole in for another. If Kui had a tail in this form, it would have been slightly wagging.

However, for a moment, she thought; only armored men worked for the king, and suddenly her heart sank. If he worked for the king, there was no way she would be given a kindness. All of the king's men treated lycans as dirt, almost worse than anyone else did, and so she knew what her fate would hold if she were to be purchased by this man. As the owner unlatched her cage, Kui slowly crawled out, standing shakily on her feet. It felt weird to stand, being cramped in that little cage for so long. Her whole body ached, but she walked up to the owner and the soldier as she was told to do. She looked very fragile, but that shouldn't have fooled anyone. Everyone knew that once in lycan form, they were very powerful. However, Kui hadn't been able to change into her lycan form for quite some time. In fact, the silver collar around her neck was very tight and could obviously be seen digging into her flesh sometimes. The skin underneath it was quite red and sore.

Kui kept her chocolate, dull brown eyes dazedly on the ground, as she stood in front of them, waiting patiently for the soldier to over look her. Her clothes were tattered and dirty and her hair sticky with dried mud that a few other humans had decided to throw at her for fun. Not a word slipped passed her, and not one would until she was forced to speak. Kui hadn't gotten a good look at Alphonse, and neither did she care too. It didn't matter to her what her master may or may not look like, all she knew was that she needed to obey and do what was told of her. It was as simple as that. Not only that, but Kui had been beaten a time here or there for supposedly looking "funny" at a human, so she utterly avoided it in hope the beatings would be less.

She was quite happy, though, at that moment, because Kui knew she appeared weak. Maybe if she did, he would leave her be. Not that she wanted to stay here, but surely going with the soldier wouldn't be any better. He would most likely torture her through the nights and days for his own sick pleasure. Soldiers were meant to kill, anyways, so of course they loved to hurt others. After killing so many, Kui thought maybe they just went somewhat insane, and that was why they began to enjoy it...She knew he didn't want a lycan to fight for him. If the soldier had, he would have been in search of a strong male. But no, he specifically stated a female. Females were not used for fighting, but for other things, although there had been times Kui was used as a gaurd dog; she was confident in her strength....

Maybe this one thought a female would be easier to torture, which was probably true....Kui's stomach twists in fear of all the possibilities, hoping he would leave her in disgust of her apparent weakness and filth, although there really wasn't anything wrong with her besides the lack of food, water and a clean environment...Even if he wanted a female to torture, surely he wouldn't want one which would die right away. That would be a waste of money. So maybe he would just leave her be, thinking she was to sickly to survive for long under his horrid games....