Escape From the Slave Market

by Apple Bottoms

Chapter 7

There was silence for a long moment, then Silach cleared his throat very quietly.

“What, am I supposed to fuckin’ start?” Blue snapped, sort of hoping that his heavy glare would prevent Silach from pursuing his line of questioning. “You’re the one in a fuckin’ - collapsed castle, or some shit.”

“Monastery. Abandoned centuries ago.” Silach said simply, watching Blue Cat from under half-lidded eyes. “You’re the one who intruded on my forest, with two young foals in your care. You’re the one with more to explain. Plus, I saved your life. You owe me.”

Blue Cat exhaled a sharp, annoyed breath as he rolled his eyes, but after a moment of silence, he obliged him. “I was a sailor on a slave ship. Which I guess is a nicer way of saying I was a slaver - but it’s not like I set out to do that.” Blue Cat backtracked rapidly when he realized that Watermelon Seed was suddenly watching him very keenly. “I wanted to be a regular sailor, only … well, most of the ships didn’t want me. I got a bit of a … reputation.”

“Hard to imagine why.” Silach said coolly.

“Would you shut your trap?” Blue Cat snapped, turning to glare at him. “I didn’t know slaver ships were like that. But I figured … I dunno. For a long time, I told myself it was just a job. That it wasn’t so bad. That they’d have a better life where they went - even if they were slaves.” Blue Cat sighed heavily, and his delicate ears laid flat against his mane. “Besides, getting initiated into the crew was plenty rough. Doesn’t exactly leave you with a lot of desire to repeat the experience when you leave. So I convinced myself it wasn’t that bad.

But then I went to pick up some pretty stripey mare from an auction, and they sent over this one instead.” Blue Cat tilted his head towards Tilik, whose rounded ears perked in curiosity, but without any clear understanding of the conversation in his expression. “Just a little sprout. Crying like he was going to die. And I realized … I couldn’t send him off. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Crying like that, and hanging onto me, like I was the last safe thing in the world. Me! Lookin’ like this!” Blue Cat chuckled, but there wasn’t any real humor to it, and it soon faded to silence again.

“Made me feel like I still had a heart to break.” Blue Cat murmured, and after a moment, Tilik snugged his face back down against Blue’s shoulder again, his ears still swiveling to listen. “So I left. Took the kid, never went back to the ship. Let ‘em think I’m dead, I guess. I’m sure they’d have a bone to pick with me, seein’ as I took the coin to buy the kid, but - well. I’m staying inland for a reason. I heard there was another kid in a slave market, real small, too small for anypony to have good intentions for buying, and - I got this one.” Blue tilted his head towards Watermelon Seed. “Shipwreck got her folks.”

“Folks?” Watermelon Seed piped up, and both stallions looked extremely uncomfortable.

“Um … parents.” Blue Cat said carefully.

“My parents weren’t on the ship. I was visiting my Nonna and Poppa.” Watermelon Seed clarified, shifting a little so she could lean against Blue’s warm side more comfortably.

“... I didn’t know that.” Blue Cat replied after a beat, considering her. “So where are your parents?”

“Ponyville.” Watermelon Seed replied, and a small frown soon settled on her face. “Do you think they’re worried about me, because I didn’t come home?”

Blue Cat and Silach exchanged a quick look.

“Perhaps we can get you home quickly enough to keep them from worrying.” Silach said at last, his voice gentle.

Blue Cat snorted, but Silach hissed a quick sound at him, and he silenced himself.

“Really?” Watermelon Seed’s eyes were quick when they darted to Blue, and stayed on him.

“The sooner we get you back, the less time they have to worry.” Blue said instead, and relaxed a little when Silach didn’t snap at him. “Anyway, I wanna hear what Silach does.” Blue Cat continued, and enjoyed when it was Silach’s turn to look uncomfortable.

“Well, my tale is not - quite as fanciful as yours.” Silach said carefully, his voice a little tighter than it had been before. When Blue simply stared at him and waited for him to continue, Silach sighed heavily. “I was a … missionary.” Silach paused, mildly annoyed when Blue offered no response to allow him to dodge the question. “For the Temple of the Moon.”

Blue Cat watched him for a beat longer, then suddenly squinted. “Wasn’t that a cult?”

Silach tried to hide his flinch. “Is. The Temple still exists, only our - her numbers are greatly lowered in recent centuries.”

“Well, because it’s a cult, isn’t it?” Blue Cat persisted, and this time Silach didn’t flinch, only closed his eyes.

“I didn’t think it was, when I was a part of it. I thought - it was meaningful. I thought the Temple had - beauty, and strength. I thought we were going to save the world.” Silach didn’t look so young, then; he might have passed for an acolyte at first, with his tall, lean frame. Blue now saw how the years wore on him. “Our Lady of the Moon, that’s what we called her; the goddesshead who granted her most loyal followers abilities beyond our ken. The mare who recruited me, she wanted to bring the Temple back to life; she said it was our duty to bring more followers into the fold, to expand our Temple beyond the reaches of Equestria.”

“And now you’re out here, elbow-deep in the shitholes of gryphon country.” Blue Cat said agreeably, although Silach shot him a glare at his language.

“I wouldn’t have put it like that, but yes. Our leader - Crescent Crystal - she promised us powers, powers beyond what us mere earth ponies can have. She told us that if our belief was strong enough, we could have powers as strong as hers, a unicorn.” Silach’s gaze was far away, lost in a memory; Watermelon shivered, and pressed closer to Blue’s neck, hiding her face there. “I witnessed followers flying, healing the sick; I saw things I couldn’t understand.” Silach went quiet for a moment, and considered his front hooves where he sat. “I came here to the gryphon lands, hoping to share these gifts. It was several months before I realized that any powers I manifested had only come while I was in her company; she had lied to me, had lied to the entire flock. There was never any magic beyond her own. She had betrayed us.” Silach was quiet for a long moment. “There was never any magic in our Temple. We could never save the world.”

Blue Cat’s expression tightened, and he was quiet for a moment, trying to come up with a reply. “That’s … rough.”

Silach shot him a sharp glare.

“So you, uh, ended up in a ruin?” Blue Cat said quickly, trying to push past his gaffe.

“It was the first - only - monastery of the Temple of the Moon in gryphon lands, built centuries ago, when the banishment of Our Lady was still fresh. I had hoped to find a new flock, create a new branch of the temple, and rebuild the temple.” Silach looked up towards the thatched roof, the collapsed stones that still laid scattered around, the fouth wall that was made up of rubble. “Instead, it has become my new home.”

“Well, you could do worse; my home was a shithole cubby on a slaver’s ship.” Blue Cat offered, a sardonic grin curling one side of his mouth.

“Lovely.” Silach grumbled.

“It’s good you were here, though; we would have probably died if you weren’t hermiting in the forest.” Blue Cat tried again, his voice a little less sarcastic the second time. “So … thank you.”

Silach seemed surprised that Blue Cat was making a good point, but he finally inclined his head in a little nod. “You’re welcome.”

There was a moment of quiet before Watermelon Seed asked, quietly, “Is it my turn now?”

“Hm?” Blue grunted.

“Do I get to share?”

Blue and Silach exchanged a quick look. “Uh, sure, kid.” Blue Cat said at last.

Watermelon Seed carefully pulled herself up onto three legs, holding the most damaged foreleg tucked up against her middle protectively. She cleared her throat, and began reciting, just like Miss Cheerilee had taught her to in Show And Tell. “My name is Watermelon Seed, and I am from Ponyville. I like dandelion sandwiches with the crusts cut off, and my family is my mom, my dad, my nonna and my poppa, and my cousin Billygoat and Frillyfloat, and their mom and dad who are my aunt and uncle, and I have a pet hamster, and his name is Sunflower. Mom and Dad live in Ponyville with me, but Nonna and Poppa live far away, because they are the Ponyville ambassadors to the eastern kingdom of Karst. Karst is next to the gryphon lands, and it is very important. I went on a very long boat ride to visit them! I liked riding on the boat a lot. We saw dolphins and many fish and birds. But then we hit a storm, and the ship got holes in it. Then we were in the water, and a gryphon flew down and took me! I wanted to call for my nonna and poppa, but I was too afraid. Then I was in the basement, and it was very scary, and I cried. And then Blue Cat came, and he kicked the gryphon until he didn’t speak anymore!”

Silach shot Blue Cat a sharp look; Blue Cat pointedly avoided his gaze.

“Um… that’s it.” Watermelon Seed considered herself for a moment, then sat back down, reclaiming her spot against Blue Cat’s side. “The end.”

“Very well said,” Silach said kindly, “good job, Watermelon Seed.”

“Thank you.” Watermelon Seed beamed, and Blue Cat shook his head a little, whuffing out a small sound of amusement from his nose.

“Alright, so now that we’re caught up, where th’ fuck are we gonna go next?” Blue Cat asked, and shifted a little, groaning. “Once we’re healed?”

“Ponyville, isn’t it?” Silach replied simply, and rose to his hooves, crossing the room to rummage in a small box of items, returning with a quilt to throw over Blue Cat and his two charges. “But they are very far away; for now, we will have to save our strength for the journey ahead.”

Blue Cat snorted again, but didn’t protest, instead laying his chin down on his forelegs while his two charges fussed with the quilt. “‘Our’ strength, huh? That a Temple saying?”

Silach was quiet for a moment, tucking the quilt around Watermelon Seed’s small body. “Well, I don’t exactly have a lot going for me here, do I?”

Blue snorted. “I don’t recall inviting you.”

“I don’t recall you being able to plug the open wound in your flank.” Silach responded sharply, and his orange eyes narrowed as he shot a glare towards Blue.

Blue Cat was quiet for a moment, then grumbled out a little huff, closing his eyes. “Well, I can’t stop you if you follow us. It’s a free country.”

“You couldn’t stop me if you wanted to, you’d just get more holes in your ass for your trouble.” Silach huffed as he pulled out his own quilt, settling down into a pile of straw he’d made for himself.

Blue Cat huffed out another sharp sound, but it was closer to a laugh that time. “The only pain in my ass I’m gonna have is you, I bet.”

“Hopefully so.” Silach said briskly, and rolled over, facing away from the trio. “Good night.”

“Hmf.” Blue Cat replied, his cropped mane twitching.

“Good night, Silach.” Watermelon Seed called quietly, now fully settled down against Blue’s warm side. “Good night, Blue Cat. Good night, Tilik.”

“Warmarsee?” Tilik said quietly, mostly asleep.

“G’night, kids.” Blue rumbled, his eyes already closed. Blue didn’t move, didn’t say anything, but he stayed awake until the two smaller companions were fast asleep on either side of him. Only then did Blue’s heavy, unconscious breathing fill the hollow arches of the former temple.

Comments

[Bronycommander]

NIce! Very nice! He really cares for them

[Nitro Indigo]

If this is NSFW, why is it rated T?

[Starlight Nova]

Shouldn't this be rated M?

[Sena Hoy]

I swear, I’ve seen that picture before. Do you mind if I ask where that comic is from and what is it called?

[Apple Bottoms]

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It's funny, because I actually had this story rated M for the last two years! But I realized that, while it deals with heavy topics (child slavery, human trafficking), it doesn't really focus on the slavery aspect (exploitation as erotica for example), and the topic is generally spoken about in the past tense. I'd call it NSFW due to the cursing, and the heavier topic matter (it's not an episode-like story!), but there's no explicit sex or gore. It reminds me of the Hunger Games, which is a teen-level novel, but deals with heavy topics like dystopia, death, etc. and even touches briefly on sexual exploitation with the backstory of Finn. I'm open to hearing other insights, though!

I even originally had the story tagged as 'sex', but what I intended as a warning ("be aware, there's some mention of untoward sexual advances here"), came across more as an invitation. ("Want sex? Come this way for a sex story!") So that was my mistake, misreading the tag system. I was afraid I had done the same thing with the Mature vs Teen rating; people may come here looking for more Game of Thrones level of gore/sex, whereas I'm angling more towards Hunger Games. Sex and gore exist, and they're touched on, but they don't get long, detailed passages.

TBH, I originally had some off-color conversations in chapter 1, which was why I rated it M; but I realized I felt uncomfortable with it, because it felt like a step away from my usual writing style. It was also attracting some unfortunate eyes, which seemed to think it should be more of a sex fic than I would ever have written it as, so I took the more explicit parts of the conversation out. I suppose I'm in the position of wanting to over-warn folks; don't read this one at work if your workplace is gonna get nervous about a lot of cursing! But you're not going to get long and engaged sex scenes, either.

10130823
You absolutely can! I saved the source on the photo, so if you hover over the bottom of the chapter illustration, a little box marked 'source' will pop up. Here you go! https://mini-tuffs.tumblr.com/post/142386271448/so-i-decided-to-dust-off-an-oc-for-some-warmups

[Sena Hoy]

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Thanks mate!

[Apple Bottoms]

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Thank you so much for your kind comment! It's comments like these that keep me wanting to come back and write more. Welcome back! I took a little break from this story, too, but I really hope to finish it!

[Season Glory]

Did you abandon this again?

[Objeck]

Today, there is a huge problem in the world that is associated with the Lancashire Police, which is fighting human trafficking in the county. I think you should read the article https://www.otsnews.co.uk/lancashire-police-tackle-human-trafficking-in-county/ on this topic. We should always be as knowledgeable as possible with such people in order to know how to avoid trouble. In short, slavery or human trafficking is the movement of a person from one place to another.