Evrin and his sister, Evris, had finished gathering enough firewood for their masters.
Now they sat near the edge of camp, picking at the small scraps they had been given. It wasn't nearly enough. Their stomachs still ached with a hollow, gnawing hunger, and fear lingered like a shadow that refused to leave.
Evris looked hollowed out, her strength fading with every breath. Evrin, however, felt something else taking root in the marrow of his bones.
Hatred.
He had decided. He would kill them. Every last one. Then he and his sister would run somewhere far away. Somewhere safe—perhaps a city near the edge of Dome Five. It was a gargantuan territory, and the dangers only grew more lethal the closer one traveled toward the Inner Dome Five gate, but it was better than this.
Evrin leaned in, muttering quietly to his sister while they sat beside a small boulder. They kept their backs turned away from the campfire, trying to disappear into the gloom. The heavy chain linking their ankle shackles still ran upward, terminating in the metal ball held lazily by the towering chitinous humanoid a few feet away.
"We have to get out of here, Evris," he whispered, his voice barely a breath. "We need to escape before these bastards kill us… or worse."
Evris chewed the last of her dry rations before answering, her violet eyes dull. "But how…?" she asked softly. "Our masters are just smart enough to notice if we try anything. And there's the chain ball... it's being held by that big shield-skull freak over there."
Evrin's brow furrowed, a jagged frustration creeping across his face.
"We're still some distance away from the batch's hideout," he said after a long silence. "I'll figure something out. In the meantime, eat the rest of your food. We'll need our strength if we're going to escape those bastards."
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A short while later, the fire had burned down to glowing embers.
Scanning the wall of blackness surrounding the camp, Kestin the Flufftar used eyes that could pierce the gloom. Something moved. A shadow within shadows.
"Hey—uh—Boss… Boss!"
The human leader stirred, his eyes snapping open as he instinctively tightened his grip on the precious object in his arms.
"Ugh… what is it, Kestin?"
"There's something out there, Boss," the Flufftar said, his four ears pinned back nervously. "Something big."
The leader frowned, wiping sleep from his eyes with his human hand while his hook-arm clicked. "You sure it's big and not just some verns?"
"No way," Kestin replied quickly. "I know what I saw. It's big… and it's fast."
Not far beyond the circle of firelight, something moved silently through the darkness. It had finally caught up to the creatures who had stolen its most cherished and carefully nourished prize.
The beast circled the camp slowly, a silent phantom in the brush. Watching. Waiting.
But it hesitated when its gaze settled on the absurdly tall Vescrin standing guard. It had never fought this specific one before, but it had fought others of its kind. Once… perhaps twice. Both times had nearly ended in the beast's death.
So the predator kept its distance, a coiled spring in the darkness, waiting for the one moment the towering chitin creature would look away.