The Chains We Choose

Chapter One Zann

I let out a shrill whistle to let my brood brothers know that I am in position and hear their answering signals.

A few beasts in the herd of serrex we are stalking lift their heads before returning their attention to the tender, pale green grass beneath their hooved feet.

The big female glances around, her long tail flicking nervously, but my brood brothers and I are all well hidden among the rocks and scrub.

I crawl closer on my belly, narrowing in on my target.

The young male, probably just a couple of years old, lifts one of his six hooves to scratch at his gray-brown belly.

He has a barely perceptible limp which will make him easier prey than the rest of the herd.

I raise myself slowly to a crouch and heft my spear to strike when I hear a cry from across the clearing.

The hunt forgotten, I bolt into the open, ignoring the serrex that scatter before me as I race towards the sound.

“Krish!” I call loudly. To my left, I see Davix sprinting in the same direction, his powerful legs eating up the distance quickly. “Did you see anything?” I call to him, but he shakes his head vehemently.

A moment later, I nearly stumble over Krish’s prone form.

I drop to my knees and check him for signs of injury or illness.

He is breathing heavily, and there is something small and shiny protruding from his neck.

I lean forward to examine it closer when I hear a noise from the right.

I glance up in time to see something flying through the air towards Davix.

He jerks out of the way of whatever it is, but another comes whirring towards him.

It strikes him in the shoulder and he snarls and brushes it off.

His hands move furiously, and my head whips around to see several strange creatures moving towards us from the trees.

I reach down to start to pick up Krish when a net hurtles towards us.

I snarl and extend my claws to slash through the netting.

As it falls in pieces around me, more of the metal shiny things fly through the air.

I haul Krish from the ground and signal Davix to run, but he is staggering oddly.

He drops to one knee and I see that several more of the shiny things – darts, I realize – have struck him.

I feel a pair of sharp stings and glance down to my chest where two of the darts protrude.

The strange creatures are moving closer, and I hear them chattering unintelligibly to each other.

I swipe away the darts angrily and open my mouth in a snarl, but another net – this one heavier than the first – envelops me.

Tiny barbs dig into my skin where the strands make contact, and I let out a bellowing roar.

The creatures stop advancing for a moment, but then blackness begins to encroach on my vision.

I feel myself begin to sway on my feet and struggle to stay upright.

To my left, Davix collapses to the ground beside Krish.

My last thought before darkness swallows me up is that I have failed my brood brothers.

???

I awaken to a cacophony of unfamiliar sounds and the feel of a cold, hard surface beneath me.

I open my mouth to breathe in the scents and immediately cough as bitterness coats my throat.

Beneath it, though, there are two distinctive and familiar scents.

Though it is dark when I open my eyes, my vision is sharp enough to make out the forms of Krish and Davix lying nearby.

I instinctively reach for my brood brothers when I realize that my wrists are surrounded by metal bands connected by chain.

I try to stand and realize the same bands and chains surround my ankles.

I scoot towards Krish and breathe a sigh of relief when I feel his twin hearts beating slowly but steadily.

Davix is farther away, and it takes me a moment to reach him.

The chains between my wrists are linked to another chain connecting bands around each of my ankles.

I exhale heavily in relief when Davix stirs at my approach.

He is similarly chained. “Zann, where are we?” he signs to me.

His hand movements are clumsy, lacking his usual precision of movement.

I shake my head and glance around, noticing the bars surrounding us for the first time. We are trapped in some sort of cage or prison. I have seen places similar to this long ago in one of the cities of Gyria, but the construction is very different from that memory.

I jerk my head towards a new sound and see a pair of the creatures that attacked us approaching from outside the bars.

I growl and bare my teeth at them. They chatter at one another in their strange language, but I can make no sense of it.

One of them gestures at me and my brood brothers, and the other shakes its head.

The smaller one’s face turns pink as its chattering increases in volume.

The other raises one hand and points towards us again.

The first one points emphatically, but its chattering quiets again.

One of them pulls a large pole from the wall and slides one end through the bars.

He catches Krish’s chains and starts to pull him closer, but I yank him back protectively.

Snarling and hissing, I position myself in a defensive stance over Krish’s body.

The second creature says something to the first, and my chains are hooked with the pole.

It attempts to pull me closer, but I yank on the chains, knocking the creature off its feet.

Its face is darker pink when it regains its feet, and it chatters loudly before producing some sort of device.

I barely feel the sting of the small metal needles that impact my skin, but then my body is wracked in pain.

I roar as the hook is produced again and I am dragged towards the bars while writhing in agony.

The other creature produces a small, metal rod which it jams against the side of my head.

There is a slight pinch before pain explodes inside my skull and darkness claims me again.

This time when I wake, Krish and Davix are huddled over me. Davix is signing frantically as Krish whispers back to him. “What is happening?” I croak as I try to sit up.

Davix pushes me back to the floor gently. “We are trapped. I do not know where,” he signs.

“At least we are alive,” Krish murmurs. Davix scowls, but Krish scowls right back. “We are alive and together,” Krish says emphatically. “That is the most important thing.” He drops his gaze to me and stares at me pleadingly. “Zann, what do we do?”

I shake my head. “I do not know,” I admit.

Anything else I might say is cut off by a sound from beyond the bars.

One of the creatures is coming through the doorway on the other side of the bars, chattering quietly.

My head throbs, and I close my eyes in pain.

Gradually, the chattering resolves into speech and I open my eyes in surprise.

I sit up and stare at the creature, but its attention is focused off to the side.

I hear a rumbling and stare through the bars at an enormous, hairy creature with four legs and long, spiraling horns.

It lifts off the floor, and sways on its feet for a moment before crashing into the bars of its cage.

The chattering creature jumps and stares at it for a moment before returning its attention to a panel on the wall and resuming its chattering.

“…didn’t sign up for this. Plants and animals are one thing, but those things look humanoid...”

“What have you done to us?” I snarl, and the chattering creature turns and throws its back against the wall.

It stares at me for a moment, and I take the opportunity to study it.

It is roughly the same size as Krish, making it noticeably smaller than Davix or me.

Fur covers the top of its head and part of its face, but the rest of the skin that is visible is a pale pink.

I realize that the brightly colored covering is some type of clothing.

“You can talk?” it wheezes. “They wasted a translation chip on you?”

The words it is saying somehow form in my mind, but I don’t understand what they all mean. “Of course I can talk,” I hiss, “But I know nothing of a chip.”

The creature shakes its head. “Nobody told me they were giving you a chip,” it says.

“That’s because no one needs your fucking opinion,” a deep voice interrupts. I recognize the creature that wielded the rod earlier and growl at it.

“You understand me?” it asks. I narrow my eyes at it and do not answer, but it continues speaking. “I’m going to say this once. From now on, I own you. You do what I tell you to, and you get food and water. You don’t, you get pain and starvation. Got it?”

Davix growls beside me. He may not be able to understand the creature’s words, but he can sense its hostility.

“And in case you need a demonstration,” the creature says, pushing back the fabric of its covering and revealing a black band that encircles its lower arm.

It touches a finger to the band, and suddenly Davix’s back is bowed in pain, his mouth open in a silent scream.

Krish and I reach for him instinctively as he collapses to the ground.

“You got a translation chip,” the creature snarls.

“The two of them got motivators. I’d have gotten you one too, but at higher settings it can fry the translator and I wanted at least one of you to be able to follow orders.

” It bares its teeth at me again, but I bite back my growl.

“No food or water for you today, I’m afraid.

Maybe by tomorrow you’ll be a little more cooperative.

” And then the creature turns and walks through the doorway.

The first creature is still pressed against the wall, watching us warily.

It glances towards the doorway and then takes a small step towards the bars.

“I can try to get you some water,” he says quietly.

“But you’ll be better off if you do what he says.

” The creature shudders. “He enjoys cruelty even more than obedience.” And then the pale creature disappears through the doorway.

Davix pushes to his knees, his face still wracked with pain and his breathing labored. “I will kill it,” he signs angrily.

“Yes,” I agree softly. I reach a comforting hand out to Davix, relaxing slightly as he takes it and lets me pull him closer so that his large frame is nestled against mine.

Krish joins our embrace, wrapping an arm around my waist and grasping Davix’s hand.

I speak firmly but quietly as I tell them, “for this alone, we will kill it as at our first opportunity.”

???

Sadly, an opportunity to kill the creature does not present itself the next day, or the one after that, or any of the many that follow.

What does present itself is occasional fetid water and rancid raw meat and pain.

So. Much. Pain. I am spared the worst of the pain, though the creature called Lianov takes as much, if not more pleasure, from beating us as it does from using the motivators on Krish and Davix.

We do not know or understand how the motivators work, except that they bring unbearable pain.

Despite what the Lianov creature said initially, it makes little difference whether we obey its commands or not.

It always finds some excuse, however small, to punish us.

We sleep little and work a great deal, performing what menial tasks are presented to us as we wait and learn and watch for an opportunity to free ourselves from this cruel captivity.