A deep sharp cold spike feeling hit, forcing his eyes to stutter open in an abrupt shock, noticing his entire body is completely soaked, that telltale smell of acrid dust telling him he had been sprayed with some of that mining dissolution wash. Eyes shooting upwards to see one of those large figures standing in front of him, wearing studded boiled leather armor, a leather helmet with a crest and a few studs, with eyehole opens and a triangular opening starting from the light golden toned skin nose.
"Youuu, late again, huh." the barley man holding the metal bucket in front of his bucker said. Then he walked forward, grabbing the coller of his wet sack wears, roughly pulling him off the bed and tossing him on the ground. His dark-skinned arm hitting the floor first stopping him from hitting the ground headfirst. "What do you mean again, sir Karcheym." the dark-skinned man said in a tone of difference knowing if even the slightest of rebellion sipped into his voice, he would pay for it in more ways than one.
Karcheym turn and looked at him, his lazy gaze holding for a short time before moving off and callously throwing the wooden bucket in his direction turning around and heading further into the shack probably looking for more at slaves still within their beds. "Heyyy 41, take back to mining shadeee, assemble at the stones, no." Karcheym slurred again in his lazy tone before going off down the corrido.
The bucket hit 41's head in a glazing hit, but he shook it off quickly grimacing just a bit before he stood up. Taking off his sack cloth shirt try to rinse it until it started biting into his palms which he deemed too early in the day to have fresh openings, so he put the slightly less wet shirt back on his upper body, grabbing the bucket off the floor and walking out of the wooden shack.
He steered around looking at the twelve long narrow wooden shacks similar to the one he had just left behind, the sound of water flowing from the nearby river that separated their slave settlement and the redwood forest at his back flooded his surrounding atmosphere. He looked forward, up the gentle slope of the muddy landscape with only one cobblestone path and right beside it was a small warehouse made of stones and that stone-ash stuff that 41 had never truly understood. He walked to it through the mud, making sure he avoided stepping on the path. 41 one walked, hunched over thinking "Damn, I shouldn't have eaten those damn extra pans last night with those damn guy, but what can a guy do when they have to working that hard in the refining plant that damn long." he shook his, a sight frown appearing on his face before it vanished just as fast. "And all that damn slope they feed us, why don't they at least make it adequate those damn bastard." he caught himself there, not wanting to continue that thought process, such rebellious thoughts are what got 21 flared just last week, pure sap died in quite a pitiful way, a slight shiver passing through him at the memory.
He pushed the lurk open, walking into the tool shade that Karcheym loved to call the mining shade. 41 chuckled to himself, "How in scorching sands, did that bound fool even get promoted to a citizen, his not even a slasher, his a sun-damned Overseer for the Sun-one's sake." his thought rattled on as he placed the bucket with all the others and walked out of the tool shade without a second glaze.
By the time he got out, his eyesight meet with a procession of wet slaves walking over the mud heading to the assembly point, all lost in deep thought or none at all just moving forward with hallow expression. He moved over settling in silently into the group of sodden figures matching along with them silently praying to the Sun-One and the bearer of choice, hopping that the slashers weren't in a bad modded, or that idiot Karcheym for that matter cause then their day was to be a terrible one, and porter duty was probably not off the table.
But once they crossed the edge of the slope reaching the flat area completely paved by cobblestones with a middle of this wide courtyard a circular unpaved patch with three wooden poles stucked into the ground holding up the three flag he had gotten accustomed to these last decade and a half. The courtyard was boxed in by to large structures one closer than the other. The furthest one was made of long red Metal sheets while the nearest one was a box-shelter with a flat roof made the same way as the tool shelter seemingly made on the side of utility rather than comfort, but it was undoubtedly living quarters.
And in front of it, just a few feet away, was all the thousands of slaves in this camp lined up. And within their ranks where those leather armored men, there sabers strapped to their sides while they held those long wipes made of animal tendons of high quality, each handle holding nine strands with in it. The slashers, there they stood, the one-eyed men as 41liked to call them in private. Fellow slaves that took pleasure from suppressing their bond-mates out of there given so called authority from the militia orders. But something was wrong, the atmosphere was not right.
His thoughts got more anxious when the slashers rather than reprimanding them or "teaching them a lesson" as they usual do, they simply forced them into the lines of the thousand slaves arranged in front of their barracks facing the flags not allowed move or even discuss like always. But it was to elaborate, everyone was here, this had never happened before. And no one was saying anything, the air around felt weird, so thick with tension it could be cut with a saber.
Even when Karcheym walked up to the courtyard on the cobblestone path, all he got was a chant of overseer as the entire crowd acknowledged his presence which hard him frown slightly, something 41 had noticed over the years, for some reason he seemed to hate his title, he rather preferred his name that he seemed to cherish quite a bit. It's the reason he always used it to refer to him anytime he got time alone with him.
But Karcheym simply nodded, shaking off his irritation and walking off towards the front side of the courtyard which was connect to a high bridge that had thick wall-edges which he sat on. But nothing else happened, nothing at all. In a few minutes, he could see it wasn't only bothering him, the silence, the inactivity, the lack of action from even the slasher, those looks in their eyes of anxiety and impatience. It was the worst thing you could to do a slave, for there was nothing more horrible than not understanding your fate or situation, the silence before anything happens.
But at the moment his mind almost broke he heard it, or more like he felt it. The ground from before the brigde until the courtyard began to rumble, the horizon leading towards the passage besides the mining mountains was fuming with dust, something or someone was coming. And then he was really surprised when he heard the sound of a large bird squawking, the sound more like a high-pitched thunderclap than the sounds made by a beast. And as if discussed beforehand, all eyes turned up all the slashers standing at attention while the slaves trebled slightly in their place as they saws the golden feathered bird with bellows of flames flowing of the edges of the bird, but most importantly there was a symbol burnt into its hits golden underbelly glowing black as if smoke pulsing off a burning bush but never going further than a certain point.
And just like the rest, 41 trebled as well but his reasons where probably different from the other. The symbol had him blanking, the memory of images of a fire lit night, scents of bellowing smoke, screams of despair and feelings of pain assaulted his sense almost instantly, and most importantly a man seemingly made of flames with that exact symbol placed upon his chest burnt deep into his darkest memories. A bout of that rebellious anger he still felt till now bubbled up manifesting in his furry ladened shivering. His minded had blanked long enough that his rebellious emotions that he had learned to suppress for the past few years. The hot waves of wind that blow over and threated to blow him over helped him to wake himself up as the large bird descend. And by the time it had landed on the ground he had repressed is chaotic emotions, it was then he realized the type of bird of prey the beast was. It was one of those rear mixed blood's, a damn eagle-dragon that borrowed its size and flame like abilities from its mythical ancestry.
A man jumped off its back, draped in a green jade like gambeson with that symbol on the left side of his chest designed like a badge. He was quite tall, and his form was middling, more well shaped than highly muscular. He had a non-expression as he stood there none of his emotions showing. He walked towards the now standing Karcheym, as they looked at each other for a while before an unexpected scene happened. The two men embraced, this was so shocking that the crowd didn't notice the men of the celestial-cavalry mounted on their mixed breed mounts like the scorpion-horses, the termite-hounds and elk-caramels that had arrived.
They had even dismounted off their majestic steeds and arranged themselves in tightly neat rows arranged in two squads of 15 all dressed simply in normal linen gambeson, only two men stood out standing in front of each squad, their gambeson of a slightly different design. 41 noticed this after taking his eyes off the two men. He wondered what those two men in different styled gambeson were, and which rank they held in that military unit, but still the most important thought in his mind wasn't what these men wearing but what they were doing here, and what a member of the royal family was doing in a remote area such as theirs.
When the embrace ended, " Hahaha, my friend, what a while it has been since we last meet and your still left here in this outpost of tra... well, ammm, a place of questionable merit in the middle of nowhere, dealing with kids like a babysitter. You deserve better." the man in royal livery bellowed in a voice that would exhaust anyone else's vocal. "Lasssq, you mustn't think like that. Kids my responsibility, someone must, no." Karcheym said to his old friend with a serious look, he nodded once after saying so as if affirming the statement to himself, then continued,"Soooo, Lassq, here for ceremony, no?" he asked. Lasq watched his friend for a while, then he parted his shoulder and said, "You are right my dear friend."
Then an incomprehensible word was abruptly shouted by lasq, "Mechi" and ended that action by tapping the large eagle on its wing. And in an almost instantaneous motion the large bird ascended off the ground and the neat rows of thirty soldiers matched forward in a unified gat across the bridge and onto the courtyard matching until another shout was sounded "Usanidi".
This caused them to halt, then in the next moment they arranged themselves spreading across the front side of the courtyard in front of the arranged slave.
Then the man walked forward passing through the crowd of arranged elites as he began to talk, ''You young men must be asking yourselves why we are here, who is his, what are we doing here and why are there thirty warriors staring at me in the face.", the man's booming voice washing over the entire crowd emphasizing every statement with each footstep he made. Then he paused on his way and began again. "Well, I can answer a few of your questions. One, I am Lasq Kerdrishib, a royal envoy. Two, you are here to prove your worthy to your owner the emperor. And three, these men here are here to test you." The man began to walk again as he listed his points, by the end he was standing at the head of the troops.
And while all this was happening, 41 had noted a few things. One, that this man was not of the royal family but rather of the imperial family, the official envoys of royalty. Secondly, that booming voice wasn't nature but rather evidence of his power as a powerful forger. And thirdly, this might be the moment he had been waiting for, a moment he had planned for ever since he had heard that such a thing existed, so much so that he couldn't contain his excitement his attention lingering on his every word.
And just as 41 was expecting, "I am here to officiate your Naming Ceremony." the man named Lasq dramatically announced. This had 41 clench his fist in joy, but also clench so hard his nails bit into his palm while trying to keep the joy with in. He had been preparing for this moment for over a decayed, the name and its meaning already deeply ingrained into his mind. He could finally make of himself what he considered himself for so long to be,"A sword of faith". All he had to do was earn it, but in his heart he knew, that by the end of this day his name would be DHULIR.