Chapter Title: The Pit
Seeing as the guards and their employer saw me as merchandise, it was clear to me I had no choice but to obey them. After all, I doubt even their employer would bemoan about beating a slave who attempted to escape, no matter how much she cared about me as merchandise.
Not to mention that doing what I was being told to do would allow me to buy some time to figure out what the hell happened for me to be in this situation while simultaneously trying to figure out how to safely escape.
As I stood up, and now that my mind wasn't entirely preoccupied with the absurd situation at hand, I noticed that my skin was no longer the pasty white I had acquired over the years of being habitually indoors. Instead, it was a healthy olive tone and instead of my average-looking arms, I was looking at ones that were more toned, as if they had been used for manual labor.
I also realized that my field of view was farther up than I was used to, and taking a quick glance down at my legs confirmed that I was much taller than before.
'This isn't my body. What the hell is going on?' I thought before searching my memories for the last thing I remembered before waking up.
'The dream of the Being. That's the last thing I remember. They said I would have the chance to start over in a new world. I thought it was just a dream.' I thought as I came to the realization.
"Move!" said the guard, pushing me forward and snapping me out of my thoughts.
'I'll leave that train of thought for later. Right now I have to glean as much information as possible to see what kind of world I'm in. But if their armor and deference to the lady who was here is any indication, it's looking like I'm in some kind of medieval world.
A medieval world means kings, queens, nobles, knights, swords, chivalry, etc. The downsides of that are slavery, disease, basic hygiene issues, and death at every corner.' I quickly thought before putting my attention back on the present.
"Hands." said the soft-voiced guard as he held onto some handcuffs, or shackles rather.
Complying, I put my hands forward and allowed the shackles to be placed on me.
"Let's go." he said as he started walking while I followed with the other guard trailing behind me.
The corridor to which my cell led was made of the same material my cell was made out of and had torches evenly spaced out.
'Dungeon straight out of a game.' I thought.
As we walked, I could see that my cell was not the only one. The corridor was full of cell doors, but all the ones we passed were empty.
After a minute or so of walking, we came upon a heavy wooden door reinforced with wrought iron and guarded by two guards, dressed in similar armor as the two escorting me. And without exchanging a word, one of the guards banged on the door which was followed by the door being opened from the other side.
As the door opened, the sunlight flooded in and blinded me, but I wasn't allowed a second to let my eyes adjust thanks to the guard behind me pushing me forward. But after a few seconds, my eyesight adjusted and I was able to see.
See nothing.
The exit to the dungeon led to a walled area/courtyard that was lined with trees, blocking my view of anything outside the walls. But before any real disappointment could set in, I looked behind me to see what kind of building the dungeon was located in, and I set eyes on a beautiful brown, grey, and black stepped pyramid that towered over me, leaving me in awe.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" asked a familiar female voice, causing me to look in the direction of the voice where I laid eyes upon a dark curly-haired, olive-skinned girl who looked to be in her mid to late teens and had a retinue of guards around her.
"It is." I said, but before the conversation could continue I was punched in the stomach by the gruff guard, causing me to keel over in pain.
"Show some respect, slave." said the guard, but unlike last time, the girl didn't speak up for me, probably to save face in front of all the guards.
"Forgive me, My Lady." I said as I bowed my head.
"Mm." she said as she looked down at me before turning her gaze back to the pyramid.
"The House of Kandaq and this pyramid have existed since before the times of the Old Empire of Ghis. They've survived and been around longer than some nations have existed. If things could speak, the stories the pyramid could tell would last a lifetime and beyond."
I could not see her face but by the tone of her voice, I could tell that she had a lot of love and pride for her family and the pyramid. In fact, it almost sounded sexual but it must have been my imagination.
"Do you know why our House has existed for so long when others who are mightier than us have fallen and been forgotten even to the annals of history?" she asked, before continuing to talk without giving me a chance to respond.
"Because we have always been modest. We have never overstepped in politics or business. We have never wanted more power, money, or influence than we had, and we have been rewarded for that." she said, falling silent for a few moments while staring at the pyramid.
"Let us depart." she said as she walked off.
After standing up, we made our way through the courtyard and to a waiting palanquin that had four very strong-looking slaves carrying it.
One of the guards stepped forward to open the palanquin door for the Kandaq lady, wherein she got in and got comfortable.
"Go. We don't want to be late." she said as the four slaves started moving while I followed behind, flanked by the two guards who were guarding my cell.
'A bit of an info dump from her, though not the kind of info I want to know at the moment but it's good to know.' I thought before seeing that we were passing through a pair of gates, 'Now to see what this city looks like.'
Passing through the giant wooden gates carved with a harpy, I set my eyes on the city.
Brick and stone buildings of all colors lined the wide paved streets, and people in light and breathable clothing walked and showed respect to the palanquin as it approached before continuing on their way, hawkers peddled their wares, and slaves followed their masters.
In the distance, I could see other pyramids of different colors peeking over the rooftops, but the one pyramid that towered above the rest caught my attention the most. It looked at least twice as tall as any other pyramid, and the very top of it shone with a dazzling light.
But as mesmerizing and colorful as the pyramids and buildings may be, I could see that the common people were not well off. Many of the people we passed looked thin and underweight, with rarely one being of normal weight, while some of the palanquins that passed us by were carrying overweight men adorned in jewelry and angry that their slaves weren't moving fast enough. We also passed by some kids that were crippled, missing either one limb or two or even an eye, asking for some money.
'Truly a medieval world. The nobility eats to their heart's content while the common people die of starvation. Can't say it was much different in modern times though. Guess the rich always shaft the poor, no matter the world.' I thought with sympathy.
After walking for about half an hour, we came upon a round structure that looked like a smaller and less cool-looking version of the Roman Colosseum. And the closer we got to the structure, the louder the sound of cheering got, leading me to believe it served the same purpose as the Roman Colosseum.
'Fuck me. Don't tell me I'm going to have to fight to the death.' I thought as fear started creeping into my mind at potentially having to fight to the death.
And the fear that was creeping into my mind must have shown on my face.
"Are you scared slave?" asked the gruff guard with disgust in his voice and on his face, "Don't be a coward, it's a disgrace. It's an honor to fight and die in the pits, even for a slave like you."
'Honor my ass. You can live with honor but you can't die with it.'
As I continued to worry about my potential death at hand, we entered the pit from a side entrance that served as a parking area for other palanquins, and where we were met by a man.
"Welcome, Lady Kandaq." he said, bowing his head as the Lady exited the palanquin.
"Sounds like quite a spectacle is underway." said the Lady.
"Indeed. One of our other frequent guests has brought a fighter to show off. They even insisted he fight against another fighter rather than an animal." said the man.
"Must be confident then." she said, with little interest.
"It appears so." said the man before turning his eyes to me, "It seems you have a fighter as well, Lady Kandaq."
"Yes, I do. I recently acquired him and I want to see if he is worth any investment." she said as she looked me up and down.
"I see. We would be more than happy to be the ones to test him out." he said with a smirk that made me want to knock his teeth out.
"Good. Don't go easy on him. It would defeat the purpose of the whole thing." she said before starting to walk off.
"Wait, My Lady!" I said, causing her to stop in her tracks and turn to me.
"What?"
"If I win, can I have a reward?" I asked.
"Reward? Is you living another day, and the honor of emerging triumphant in the pit not reward enough?" she asked.
"Please, My Lady." I asked, bowing my head in silence for a few seconds.
"Very well. What kind of reward?" she asked, curiosity clearly on her face.
"Answers." I said while looking right at her.
And hearing what I wanted for a reward, I could see a tiny smile appear for a slight moment before vanishing.
"Very well. Live and you shall have your answers." she said, approaching me and stopping only a few inches from me before putting one finger on my chin, "But make no mistake, you are my slave. You do not get to make demands of me. Is that understood?"
"Yes, My Lady. Thank you." I said as I looked down at her.
"Good. Do not disappoint me." she said before walking off and down a corridor with her guards in tow and leaving me with the man.
"Very brave of you, slave. But I do not believe you will live to reap your reward. Come." he said as he walked off down a different corridor than the one the Kandaq Lady went down while I followed behind him.
'The questions I really want answers to, she won't be able to answer, but she may be able to help me figure out how I got to where I am now. And more importantly, whose body am I in?' I thought.
Walking down the corridor, I noticed that the architecture of the building was pretty much identical to that of the pyramid and most of the other buildings I saw on my way there.
Unlike the pyramid which had empty cells, the pit had many rooms which had occupants and cells which had slaves or animals. As to how I could tell the rooms had occupants, the sexual noises coming from the rooms were a dead giveaway.
After a while we came upon an open space that was closed off by a portcullis and had two guards and a few people resting, clearly waiting their turn in the pits. A few of them were clothed in a mishmash of different armor pieces that clearly didn't go together, while a majority of them only had the clothes on their back. But the thing they all had in common was that none of them were slaves.
"You've been pushed to the front of the fights which means you're next." said the man turning around to walk off.
"Wait." I said, stopping him in his tracks.
"What?"
"What about these?" I asked, showing him my shackles.
"Bother." he said, turning to one of the guards, "You. Come break his shackles."
The guard quickly followed directions and used the pommel of his sword to hit the chain until it broke. And while I would have preferred to have the shackles completely off, having the chain broken was good enough.
"Thank you." I said to the guard who walked back to his post at the portcullis.
"Now I shall leave you."
"What about a weapon?" I asked, noticing that all the other fighters had a weapon.
"First-timers don't get a weapon." he said with that nasty little smile, "Best of luck to you."
"Fuck." I mumbled before noticing that the other fighters were looking at me with amusement.
'No weapon in a fight when I don't even know how to fight, am scared to fight, and am scared of dying. Fuck me.' I thought as I closed my eyes and clenched my hands to help calm my nerves and stop the trembling.
"Slave, you're next." said the guard.
Breathing in and out, I stood up and put on a brave face before making my way to the open portcullis and out onto the pit.