“Come out, Dhasum,” a cold voice demanded.

 

Bright light encircled Cylor in the solitary room and in a moment he felt fresh air and smelled the leaves of nearby plants. The sun hung at the horizon and casted a bloody hue. The voice commanded again and Cylor looked in the direction it came from, but what his eyes saw, he couldn’t believe.

 

“Come over here.” The human pointed down at his feet.

 

“How can I understand you?” Cylor asked, but received no response to his question.

 

“Get over here! Don’t make me say it again,” it commanded.

 

Cylor tilted his head toward the ground and the fear of defiance pushed himself to the terrifying creature.

 

“Good. Huh, you are an interesting Dhasum, ain’t ya? Shows here that your tail isn’t supposed to look like that.” The demon turned a device over to show Cylor a photo of a normal Dhasum. “Pretty cool. You’ll make for great money. Maybe the king will pay me enough for you to get me out of debt!”

 

Growing up, species in Jalla told many stories of ancient human rulers. Kings and Queens spreading over to take land, and even accompanying Higher Beings doing their bidding. Though never once did the stories tell if they were able to understand each other through words.

 

“You’re going to sell me? To a king? What about my friends? Where are they? What have you done?” Cylor felt internal pain, both from the thought of his friends and something else entirely.

 

“You make such cute noises too, you may even get to live a decent life in the castle. Or maybe they’ll just chop off your tail and put it on display! Doubt a thing like you would be of much use to me, so there’s no use in me holding on.”

 

“Hey, check this out!” The human turned backwards and seemed to be calling for someone, but what came in response was an indistinguishable language. Cylor scooted around the human to take a look. Why couldn’t he understand the others? “We got an abnormal! It’s our lucky day! Call over all the others! We might get to take a long break from our adventuring days!”

 

The patter of footsteps came swiftly, and all the familiar humans from the fight made their return. Though there weren’t any other Higher Beings around them. Where were all his friends? The humans surrounded Cylor, forming a ring. He ripped his gaze around looking for a way to break free, but even behind him, humans formed a tight line, closing the exit. Regardless, he took for escape, smashing through the humans’ legs, and a moment later he found himself back in that same familiar room with symbols. And within another moment, once again, he was back next to the human he could understand, surrounded by all the other demons.

 

“You can’t escape.” It glared. “Anyway, everyone, just check out this thing’s tail! How much do you expect we’ll get for it? Dhasum’s are already a somewhat hard to find species, so I think we’ll get a decent amount.”

 

The terrifying voices of other humans chimed in, and Cylor’s captor laughed.

 

“He does look a bit scared, I suppose. You think we should show him his friends?”

 

“You better not have done anything to them!” Cylor aimed his tail at the human, clenching it into a fist.

 

“Oh, he likes that idea too. Which one of you have that Bakkon and that Gurden? Let them out. Just for a little.” The human smirked.

 

Two thin rectangles came flying from two other human’s hands and landed beside Cylor, causing him to flinch. Light flared, then Tynun and Guile replaced the brightness.

 

 

“What the hell happened?” Guile said. “What…?”

 

“We were captured, Guile.” Tynun said, looking suspiciously at Guile. “I knew it was going to happen as soon as I was put up against my brother. And…”

 

“You guys! How do we get out of this mess?” Cylor stammered. “This human says it wants to sell me.” He pointed to the human blabbering behind him about how cute the Higher Beings sounds were as they conversed. “I don’t want to be separated from you all. Can’t we break out of here with Neyr?”

 

“Wait a minute, you can understand that giant? It sounds like a bunch of nonsense to me.” Guile paused. “Wait, I can understand that one though.” He pointed to a human further away.

 

Tynun looked around. “My father told me about this. This device the humans caught us with infected us with some kind of “technology” that allows us to understand our captors. Though, it seems they can’t understand us. We can’t ask for help in simple terms… I don’t think we have a chance of getting away from them. I froze up when facing my brother, and now I’ve gotten us all caught, well, maybe it wasn’t completely my fault.” Tynun faced Guile. “Something was up about you.”

 

“Me? Come on, what are you accusing me of? We should all work together to get out of this mess. Not fight each other.” Guile faced the wall of humans. “Anyway, in my village we have a story. A story of a Gurden who broke out of the human’s clutches. There is a way, but we must endure and obey them first. And then when we get the chance and they let their guard down, we fight back when we’re stronger than we’ve ever been. I know it may be uncomfortable. The things they may have us do… I know there may be a limit, but we must do as they want. In the story, there are many casualties of Higher Beings who do not obey. Tortured, killed, and some even eaten. But if we obey, the humans grant us strength… Or so I’m told.”

 

Cylor grimaced. “They eat us?”

 

“I’ve never heard of that either,” Tynun said, “I knew humans were evil, but not to what extent.” Tynun scuttled around taking in all the evil giants. “Work with them? To become stronger? Yeah, right.”

 

“I mean, it’s just a story,” Guile said. “I don’t know if that part is true. But, I do know that my tribe had someone who escaped the humans, and what do we have to lose? Our lives might as well be over if we do nothing. The part about torture is true for sure, though. So, why don’t we just try to obey them? It’s the only story we have to base any chance of escape on. We need to try all we can to attempt to gain an upper hand.”

 

Cylor looked around at the humans laughing and jumping around joyfully. They stopped paying attention to him and the others. Now, they seemed a bit less evil than just moments ago, but the reason for their cheers was something to fear. “So, now what do we do? Just wait until they gain our trust? Do every single thing they ask? How long will that take? They are going to sell me, guys! I don’t have too long!”

 

Tynun looked away in the direction of open plains. “Sorry, Cylor. I don’t think I can come up with a plan quick enough.”

 

“I’d wager we have quite a bit of time until you are taken from us. If that thing mentioned a king as you say, I’ve heard from merchants that the closest human settlement is still weeks away. Hopefully we can devise a plan by then.”

 

“All right, I think they had enough socializing.” Cylor’s human said. And with a flash everything disappeared and once again the Dhasum was placed in the dim room.