Scyla

"Move!"

Chandras wiped his whip on the back of the slave in front, propelling him forward, hence making the other slaves who were all bound and connected to each other by their hands, to move forward as well.

Indras, his partner rode towards him. "Today is terribly hot."

"I know. And to think that we have three more slave deliveries to do after them. I am already exhausted. Move faster, damn it!"

His whip lashed at the backs of the slaves again and again as sweat beaded on his forehead.

Indras merely stared at the sickly, skinny looking miserable slaves.

"Chandras, come on. I mean, if I were as hungry as these people are I would walk much slower. And we have already walked five miles. I do not think whipping them would magically enhance them with the strength they do not have."

Chandras huffed at the sound of the word, magic.

"Well, I blame those damned elves for making us do their dirty work without giving us any of the magical abilities which they possess and which could make this work a lot much easier. No. We Powries are the most ridiculed and insulted of the species, simply because we barely have any magical powers."

Indras laughed. "You forget humans. They have the worse hand. Most of them grow up to serve as slaves for the higher ranking species. And even if they do not end up as slaves, they live in those miserable shacks that they call homes and live off barely nothing."He turned to gaze at the slaves, all humans, as usual. "They definitely have the worse hand."

Chandras turned to them but suddenly froze.

"What is it?" Indras asked.

"Hush. Do you hear that sound?"

"What sound?"

The cry of a baby suddenly filled the atmosphere.

"What the heck is that?" Chandras asked.

"I don't know. How about we go check it out?"

"Are you crazy? That could be a demon in disguise."

"Or it could be an actual baby that has been abandoned in the woods. These things happen."

"Well, I do not care what it is or isn't. I am not going anywhere near that thing. I love living."

Indras rolled his eyes and began riding towards the sound. "Wait for me. I will be back in no time."

And true to his words, there lay a baby in the woods, dressed immaculately and... glowing.

At first, he hesitated. But then, unable to leave the infant on her own, he stepped down from his horse and walked towards the baby.

"Who are you?"

The baby looked at him for a moment and resumed crying. He studied the infant. It was a girl, a blue eyed, blonde haired infant that looked exquisitely beautiful, too beautiful to have been born a commoner.

"You are royalty, aren't you? What species are you? Are you are faerie? Or a pixie? You have no wings, faerie babies are born with those and pixies definitely do not glow. In fact, I don't know any species that glows with the kind of golden light that you do."

His hands shaky, almost resistant, he picked the infant up and noticed that one of her hands was wrapped tight around a neck piece that was on her neck. Gingerly, he removed her hand and studied the neck piece, an amulet, in which a name was sketched.

"Scyla."

The baby stopped crying.

"That is your name, isn't it?"

She stared at him, blue eyes glowing. And then, all of a sudden, the light glowing around her body dimmed.

Indras shook. "How did you do that?"

The baby continued staring at him.

"Well, I have to take you out of here. This place is dangerous."

He picked up the baby, sat down on his horse, and carefully cradling the baby, made his way back to the rest.

"What was there?" Chandras said, edging closer to him.

Indras lifted up the baby. "A baby, just like I thought. And you would have left her there to die."

"I have very high self preservation instincts. Is the baby royalty? She looks like royalty."

"I guess so. But I cannot figure out which kingdom she is from."

"She does not look like a magical creature," Chandras said, staring very closely at the baby. "But something about her makes her look no quite human. Maybe it is the clothing. I have never seen a more immaculately dressed human."

Indras considered telling him about the fact that he saw her glowing, but decided not to.

"What do we do with her, anyways?"

"We give her to the Master and get a good reward off finding good merchandise."

Indras recoiled. "You want to turn the baby into a slave?"

"It's better than being dead, isn't it? And we have no other option but to either give her to the master or dump her here to die. Our lifestyle would not permit us to care about the baby."

Indras sighed. "You have a point. But still..."

"Look, this baby has blonde hair, blue eyes and is obviously going to grow up to be a beautiful woman some day. If I can have my fair guess, I'll say that it is most likely that she would end up as a slave wife to some rich being. Her life as a slave would not be cruel, at least not as cruel as these other people are going to get it."

He pointed at the slaves who were all standing in a line, looking both lost, exhausted and afraid. He then came even closer to the baby and lifted her amulet.

"What is this?"

Indras shrugged. "Some neck accessory?"

Chandras opened it. "It says Scyla."

"I think it's her name."

"This looks expensive, do you think it is made of some sort of precious gem?"

Indras shook his head. "You are not planning to steal it are you? Come on, it bears her name. It is going to end up being the only link she will have to her past life once she becomes a slave."

"Look, if we do not steal it, Master will. He is not just going to let a slave carry about some precious gem."

Indras touched the neck piece. "Sundras intraestra."

The neckpiece then transformed and began to shine wooden brown.

"There, now the master won't recognize it for what it really is."

"Doing what we Powries know how to do best, right? Ruining things. It's reversible, right?"

"Yeah. Hey, do you mind if we scout for a bit of food? I am starving."

Chandras hissed. "Come on Indras, let us keep going. We have spent way too much time here and time is against us."