Felix noticed that the guard, known by all the slaves for sleeping, leaned against the wall with arms crossed and head bowed yet again sleeping on the job. The other guard, the one who originally led Felix down to the dungeons in the first place, closed the cell door. “What took you so long?” the guard asked over his shoulder while he locked the door.

        “I had to make sure the dridder was eating. Master wouldn’t be happy with me if I can’t even simply feed his pet.”

        The guard turned around. “How did you know it was a dridder?”

        Felix remembered that even through that human sized dridders were in their world, Bowan said they didn’t inhabit Lord William’s land. All Felix should know about were Lord William’s castle and the terrible monsters that roamed his land. There weren’t stories told about dridders in the castle. Crap. “It’s too dark in there to see it completely, but I can see the outline of it. I still didn’t know what it was, but I could tell it was part spider and part human. I told someone who knows more about monsters than me and he figured it was a dridder.” Felix told him the truth, he just didn’t mention names or tell the guard that he knew the creature was from Felarya and he especially didn’t tell him about his talk with Arachne.

        “Oh. I thought I heard you talking to someone in there.”

        “I must have been talking with myself. I do that all the time,” Felix said before he hurried off down the corridor. The back of Felix’s neck prickled, because he thought he could feel the guard staring at him the whole way down.

            Felix’s day started as it usually did. Some guard came in screaming and demanding all the slaves to wake up, if they weren’t awake already. Usually, Felix was awake by then, because this also meant breakfast and if you woke up early, you’d basically get first pick. But if you were still asleep when breakfast came, you’d be still trying to wake up while all the other slaves swarmed the food before you. This was why all the weaker and older slaves made sure they were awake before breakfast, because it may be the only meal they would receive all day. And if you thought that was bad, the guards make things worse. To make sure all the slaves woke up, they would randomly kick the slaves, making it harder to get a good breakfast.

        Unfortunately for Felix, he didn’t wake up at his usual time, and it was even more unfortunate when he was one of the slaves kicked by the guards. It felt like the steel-toed boot dented his all the organs around his stomach. He curled his frail body inward, clutching his thin stomach, trying to breathe between coughs. He looked up to see the guard smiling down at him, but that wicked smile was nothing compared to his master’s smile. Lord William’s smile would put even Satan’s smile to shame. The guard kicked Felix again. This time, Felix’s left hand, which was over his right hand and over his stomach, received the worst of the boot. Felix cried and turned his head to face the floor. The floor quickly became wet from his tears. He wasn’t kicked again, because he showed the guard that he learned his lesson, that lesson begin: never make direct eye contact with a guard. The guard walked away to harass another sleeping slave.

        Felix’s left hand throbbed and when he tried to slowly shift his right hand out from under it, his left hand shrieked in agony. Felix clenched his shut so hard that his eyes ached. When he opened them again, black spots randomly appeared and disappeared for a long time. When the pain past, he tried to lift his left hand again, but he soon learned the pain wasn’t completely gone. It was just dormant, hiding deep inside his bones and whenever he moved his hand, the pain came back to life searing his hand from the inside. It’s broken again.

        He kept his hand close to his chest and winced every time he moved it. He eventually recovered enough to walk over to where their breakfast was dumped, but by the time he got there, there was nothing left. He walked out of the slave quarters and hurried to the kitchen.

            It took longer to push the cart to the dungeons, because he could only push it
with on hand. Felix realized that the cart went faster when he pushed it with his shoulder, but that caused him to have to bend down really low and he could only do this when he had to go straight. With much difficulty, he eventually arrived at the cell. Different guards were outside the cell. Luckily, they were too groggy to torment him, but they did mutter complaints when Felix asked for them to open the door so that he could feed the creature.

        As soon as he entered, he looked around the cell, searching for Arachne’s ruby
eyes. But he couldn’t find them. He waited for the door to shut and lock before calling out her name in the loudest whisper he could. “Arachne. Arachne, where are you?” There was no response in the darkness. “Are you awake? Arachne? It’s me, Felix.”

        Arachne’s magnificent eyes suddenly appeared and shot up from the floor. In an instant, those eyes went from tired to something else. Felix wasn’t quite sure what that second emotion was; he’d never seen eyes like that before. “Felix, you came back!”

        “Arachne, please try to keep your voice down, one of the guards heard us last night. He didn’t hear what was being said, I don’t think, but he heard voices.”

        “I’m sorry, Felix,” Arachne said in a quieter voice. “I’ll be quieter, I promise.”

        Felix continued pushing the cart the rest of the way, using his shoulder.

        "Felix, what’s wrong?”

        “Nothing, I’m fine.”

        “No, you’re not. You’re pushing the cart funny and you’re holding your arm against your chest. What happened?”

         He had to stop the cart. The tone in Arachne’s voice perplexed him. He had only heard that kind of tone once before, from that strange guard, but this tone seemed more intense. It sounded stronger. But, there was something about that tone of voice that comforted Felix, as if the dridder child actually cared about him. He couldn’t quite explain it. He looked up at those eyes again and saw sadness creeping tears back into those giant eyes that stared down at him, but it was a different sort of sadness. Is that sadness directed at me?

        “Felix, you’re hurt.”

        “I’ll be fine,” Felix lied, not wanting to look at those eyes any longer. But his lie didn’t change the look in those eyes.

        “Felix, what happened?”

        “My hand hurts, but I’ll be fine. It’s no big deal.”

        “Felix…”

        What is she? A mind reader that could detect lies? “My hand’s broken, but it will be fine. It’s been broken before. It’s not a problem.”

        Arachne gasped. “You… you broke you hand? How?”

        “I guard kicked it.”

        “A guard? Why would he do that to you?”

        “The first kick was to wake me up; the second was because I made eye contact.”

        “A guard kicked you? But he’s one of you. Why?”

        “I’m not one of them. We may be the same race and species, but I’m not one of them.”

        “I don’t understand. You look like the others, just smaller and not shiny.”

        “I’m a slave. To them I’m lower. I’m not even a person, just because I’m a slave.”

        “What is a slave?”

        “It means I have a master who owns me. I have to do everything Lord William asks.”

        “You should stop doing what he says. He’s mean. He’s a monster. Just stop being a slave.”

        “I can’t just stop. It doesn’t work like that, Arachne. By law, I’m not a person. I have no rights. I’m just an object he owns, lower than animals. And if I don’t do what he says, I get punished.”

        “But that’s not right. Felix, you’re hurt.”

        “It doesn’t matter. I have to finish the rest of my tasks before diner or I don’t get anything to eat and I haven’t had breakfast, so if you could just eat you’re breakfast and-”

        Felix pushed the cart over the line and Arachne took a large slab of meat between her fingers. She automatically offered it to him. “Please, eat this.”

        “I’ll be fine, I’ve missed breakfast before and-”

        “If you don’t eat this, then I won’t eat my food.”

        “Arachne, I don’t have time to-”

        “Just eat. You need it, please.”

        Felix stomach overruled him and he ate the food Arachne offered him. He still couldn’t use his left hand, making it difficult to eat. He didn’t know what kind of meat he was eating. He just wasn’t able to eat enough meat to be able to tell the different tastes between animals. But he enjoyed it nevertheless. The whole time they ate, Arachne stared at his hand. Concern. Is that the unfamiliar thing in her eyes? Does she really care about me? But, no one does, I’m nothing.

        They both ate silently. When he finished eating, Arachne had already finished and drank the water from the jug, giving Felix one last job to do. She even pushed the cart as hard and as far as she could to help him out. “Felix, be careful.”

        Felix pushed the empty cart to the cell doors and left.