Bound and Broken: An Isekai Adventure Dark Fantasy (Melas Book 1) by V.A. Lewis (autobiographies to read .TXT) 📕

"Do you know why we stopped?" I asked, as Rin continued to whine in the background.

"...Melas! Shang is a big meanie, stop talking to—"

"I don’t know," Shang said with a sigh. "Hrn, but they encountered something on the road. A roadblock, perhaps."

"...you know! I have—"

"Monsters?" I garnered a guess, to which he cocked an eyebrow.

"...he’s a terrible leader—"

"I don’t think any Monster attacked. If they did, there would have been some sounds of fighting. And such an attack is unlikely to happen on a group the size of this caravan."

"...stop ignoring—"

"No," I said, correcting myself. "I meant maybe they might have run into the aftermath of a Monster attack. On the road. That’s what I heard in Boleria— hordes of Monsters have been attacking cities all across Besha."

"...fine I’ll stop—-"

"That’s… unusual," Shang commented, frowning.

"Why’s that?" I asked, suddenly feeling like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Or an annoying bug had left my ear.

"I don’t know if we told you this, Melas, but we"— the Dog Beastkin gestured between himself, and the girl pouting in the corner of the cage— "are Hunters. From the Hunters Guild. Do you know what that is?"

"Yes," I said, "you guys just kill Monsters, right? Deal with Monster extermination."

"Hrn, correct." He nodded, before looking over his shoulder at Rin. "And we’re not just your regular Hunters. We’re a good team. Veterans. I, personally, have been a Hunter for almost a decade. And that makes us— for the lack of a better term— experts on Monsters."

I felt a shudder come over me, as I realized the implications of what he was saying. "But if this is… unusual. What do you think could be causing it?" I asked, trying to keep the fear from showing on my face.

Shang turned back to face me. He met my gaze as he responded, "Either something has been starving all the Monsters in the entire region, forcing them to resort to attack settlements. Or something— another Monster species from a different region, perhaps— has forced them out of their homes. Regardless, this is not something that’s good for us."

"Why not?" I asked stupidly. "Isn’t that a good thing— if a group of Monsters attacks our caravan, it could give us the distraction we need to escape. And this only increases the chances of that happening!"

"Because—" Shang started, but was cut off.

"It means that if a Monster horde does attack our caravan, it would not be satisfied with just eating all the slavers, Melas," Rin said, both her voice and her face suddenly serious. "Nn, and if there really are hordes of them attacking the towns and cities, then there’s no way we can escape."

I felt a bead of sweat roll down my forehead as the information sunk in; I looked over at Shang to seek some sort of confirmation, and only felt worse when he lowered his head in agreement with the Cat Beastkin.

A sudden jolt shook me out of my stupor. The caravan resumed its travels, but even the rattling of the chains and the banter between the Beastkin could not distract me from the fear creeping over me. I… did not want to die.

That was fairly obvious. I watched those slavers murder the rich man in Boleria; he was an abhorrent individual, entirely deserving of the fate that befell him. Yet, I could revel in his death with glee. If we had to escape— if I had to witness the brutal massacre of these slavers by Monsters— would I freeze up? Or would I be able to act unhindered?

More than that, however, how would my physical injuries serve as a detriment to such a scenario? I had broken an ankle. It was still in the middle of recovering, even if the healing process was sped up by the medical aid I had received back when we were in Boleria. If I were to die during an escape attempt—

The prospect terrified me, to say the least.

I was not sure if I trusted these Beastkin with my life; Shang seemed competent, but on the other hand…

I looked over at Rin who was bickering with Shang because he opted to speak with me about something of actual substance rather than engage in her quipping, and felt as though my life were already forfeit.

The thought unsettled me, so I closed my eyes, and put it off for a little bit longer. Dreaming was different from actually acting. And right now, I wanted to dream of escaping more than I wanted to try and escape.

"Melas," Shang said, waking me up.

It had been a few days since our caravan ran into whatever it was that forced us to stop while in the middle of the road; such incidents were occurring occasionally— not at a particularly high level of frequency— but enough to the point where we all knew something was up.

It was probably evening right now. Far from the middle of the night which would usually be when most people slept. However, my sleep schedule was erratic: with nothing else to do, and if the world sucked, sometimes it was easy to just pretend it all did not exist.

"What is it?" I asked the Dog Beastkin, sitting back up.

"I’ve spoken with the others. These talks of Monster attacks— they’re making us uncomfortable." I could not exactly make out the features of his face most of the time, since he was wearing a muzzle, however I could tell he looked grim. "We’d find anything preferable to being slaves, and I’m sure you do too. But ending up as food for Monsters is one of the last few alternatives we’d want, if we could help it." He hesitated, but I already knew what was coming next.

"You guys want to escape soon, right?" I guessed.

"No," Shang said,