Richard the Runaway Slave

Richard the Runaway Slave 

Part 1

There was an adventurer and treasure hunter named Richard that searched high and low for gold and silver looking to make himself rich by any means necessary.

One day he came across an old mine tunnel wondering what he found. Everyone in the town said he was fool, that only a loon would look for something of value there.

The people of the town were a race of Dark Elves known as the Darkwil.

These elves had dark blue skin, red eyes, and long pointy ears. Some of them had black hair, some had blonde. Some of them wore wool clothing and the more wealthy and noble in the town wore linen.

Their houses were sometimes made out of giant mushrooms which they had carved into homes with lamps and furniture and all the comforts of home.

Some of their other houses were made of wood and stone and very decorative. Not like homes today but very Medieval or Celtic in structure.

This town was near the coast line. Not only was this town subject to a lot of piracy, thieves and other dangers but they suspected that the tunnel he was looking at contained men who would kidnap him as a slave.

He ignored the advice of the towns people and went anyway.

He opened the wooden doors of the mine, walked down the dark tunnel with just a candle at his side, wearing a dark cloak and some wool pants and shirt, and some boots he had bought from the locals. He was ready to start his treasure hunt.

Richard hoped to find gold or even some silver. In the first room he found a big wooden chest with a leather book next to it.

He did not bother to look into the book, which may have saved his life if he had, but I'll go into that in a minute.

In this one second room, he found chests of gold, silver, and gems. Certainly more than enough for one man and definately enough for a king.

He opened the chests one by one and stuffed his pockets greedily,  thinking nothing as to who put them there, or what the consequences might be if he took the treasure..

He went further down the mine, wondering what else he could find.

He found that he was lost in the mine. Suddenly there were three tunnels in front of him and he had to choose one.

Two of the tunnles were blocked with doors of iron, the third had no door. He saw that his candle was going out so he picked up a torch, which was made of iron, that was on the wall. His candle was going out so he used the last of the flame to light the torch, which luckily took.

The treasure hunter went through the door to the right, thinking it was the best way out, or that perhaps he'd find more treasure. By fate the man was captured by the slavers he'd been warned about, and lost his wealth and his name.

The evil men, bearded and light haired, tattooed with dragons and serpents,   seeing all the gold in his pockets first beat him, knowing he was a trespasser to them. They chained him up in one of the cells with other people who were going to be put up for sale.  Richard woke up in chains the next morning. The slavers decided that they could have lost money if he'd gotten away, so they planned to make money off of him.

The slavers were talking among themselves, asking how had he found their hideaway, and why had no one been guarding the entrance.

The captain of these slavers said "This is what we get for being drunk on the job. From now on you're limited to one beer a day."  The men weren't happy, but they knew that once they landed and were paid they could drink as much as they wanted.

In an effort to disguise the fact that they'd kidnapped a free man, they wrote his name down in their book as Boulder, laughing at him and saying that his head was as thick as one and calling him stupid for ignoring the townspeople's advice. 

He was whipped and beaten into submission so that they could break his spirit and strip him of his pride.  They needed for him to learn his place as a slave in shackles until he was sold off.

This treatment went on for about a week before he and many others, were finally sold.

A rich merchant family, the Taruses bought him and prepared to take him far across the sea to their homeland.

Boulder was in tears but this is where his story begins.

He was sent to a new province, Narakum, with his new master named Tonteth the merchant, who needed a slave to move his cargo.

The cargo was very heavy, containing trunks of gold, large shipments of cinnamon and spices, and valuable artworks from other lands. 

Tonteth and his family and crew prepared to set out to sea. The master, Tonteth, wearing gold and jewels, and silk clothing of red and purple, idly asked his newest slave, "What is your name?"

With just a little bit of defiance left in him and risking his life at that moment the slave, Boulder, said, "Richard. My name is Richard!" he said, in a strong voice.

Tonteth looked at his new slave and said. "That's not the name they have in the catalogue." he laughed at the chained man.

Richard said "I don't care."

With a gentleman's voice Tonteth said, "I'll tell you what slave, be loyal to me and I'll let you keep that name of yours if it means that much to you."

The reason Tonteth made that arrangement with his slave was because he firmly believed that if he could keep his slaves happy that they would be more loyal, cooperative and productive.

For the time being, Richard in his rags and chains hoped that things would get better. That was before the captain of the ship ordered him down into the hold to help with the oars where he was chained once again. Richard went without a fight.

Tonteth was happy to see his slave cooperating, and once the ship was loaded they sailed off.

After a month of sailing on the slave ship Richard was a little shaken up, having been made to row the boat with the other slaves what seemed nearly non stop. It had been hard work and everyone was tired. Some of the men had died and had been thrown overboard.

Being so used to adventuring on land and not at sea he had became sea sick a couple of times and had been made to mop it up.

Richard was brought to a port city called Nashanta. The long trip across the sea was over but now for Richard came the hard part.

Imperial guards dressed in full steel plate armor and red capes guarded him and the others as soon as they got off the ship, and were made to stand in the heat of the sun for over an hour before they removed the slaves chains, and replaced them with bronze collars.  Richard received one as well, which marked him as the property of the Taruses Family of Nashanta Port.

Richard's master saw that he and the others were a little dehydrated so he gave them a little broth with bread, and water, and allowed them ten minutes to rest up knowing perfectly well that a sick slave would be in no condition to work.

Nashanta was a big city. It had, compared to the small towns Richard was used to, at least a million people as far as he could see, and in the ports were slaves of many races, including men and elves.

As Richard was unloading boxes as his master had commanded, he noticed the granite walls, the clay roof tiles, the stained glass windows. He noticed the aquaducts that brought fresh water to the city, and horse drawn carriages everwhere.

Just a little way past where Richard was working was a huge market place selling fruit, clothes, furniture and merchandise of all sorts. There were even a couple of arenas where gladiators fought.

The streets were made of sandstone, and were lit with oil lanters at night.

Richard's master looked over the city and said to his family, 'Isn't this glorious?'

Tonteth's son said, 'What do I care, it's just a city?'

Richard's master, being proud of his city and all that was in it, began to argue with his eighteen year old son. The argument turned into a political debate.

Richard, not daring to say anything out loud, thought to himself as a tear ran down his cheek, 'I wish I could go back home. Not to my old treasure hunting habits but to my family in the Fosslands, which was north of the province of Narakum and a separate country.

Richard swore to himself that if he could return there he would never treasure hunt again.

The Fosslands were not a weathly country, mostly farmers and craftsmen, and there was no central government and they only unify when there is a crisis, but Richard knew he would much prefer to live in that chaos rather than this. He also knew that if he could get back to his own lands, he'd be welcomed by his own people.

For ten years Richrd slaved away, packing crates, loading boxes onto ships, on occasion being whipped by the overseers for not doing it fast enough.

In those ten years Richard witnessed many things, including vandalism. He watched in amusement as some lunatic painted 'Imperials Go Home!' on the walls.

There was one time when Richard figured out how to fix the scales which weighed gold so his master made that part of his job. And because Richard was an educated individual he began to label the crates.

But after all these years, just when Richard was getting ready to give up on the idea of freedom, he had this one chance to run for it like he was on fire. 

On the other side of the city a big explosion happened. The narrative that was pushed by the mages college was that it was an accident.

Not only did part of the city walls fall down which left them open to attacks, half of the city was in flames and destroyed.

Every free man was trying to repair it and rallied the slaves to assist them.

In the confusion, Richard and some of the other slaves made an effort to escape.

Richard, as he was running, tripped over the body of a monk who had apparently died after being hit by debris from the explosion. He put on the monk's robe, hiding his collar, and took the man's identification papers so that he could get out of the city wthout being noticed. He ran away through one of the broken city walls during the chaos.

A few other slaves tried following him not knowing who he was or what he was trying to do, but they were rounded up and captured.

After Richard successfully made it out of the city, he made it to a forest to a dark cabin in the woods where he stayed for a while.

The people back at the city put out the flames and rounded up the slaves who carried the bodies to a charnel house where they did a body count of who was missing and who was dead. They noticed out of all the people they rounded up, and were dead, and all the people who were on record, Richard was nowhere to be found, so his master Tonteth had his suspicions that his slave had escaped.

Just out of suspicion that his slave had run off, his master put a bounty on his head of 600 gold dinorians.

A description was given of the brown haired, brown eyed man with a thick accent which marked him as being from the Fosslands.

Later it had been discovered that there was someone matching that description living in the woods so the hunt was on, and Richard became a fugitive.

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While Richard was running he found an old cabin in the middle of the woods, most likely somebody's home who wished to remain private.

Richard stayed in there with no light, for he did not want to be seen a night.

The cabin was made of wood, most likely from the trees around the forest, given all the rotting tree stumps outside.

There were no glass in the windows which were mostly covered in oiled tarp and shutters on the outside.

He went inside and found a modest dwelling, only a kitchen/living area, a bedroom just off the kitchen and another bedroom in the loft overhead.

Richard was extremely hungry and began to eat.  Instead of cooking he ate the food that was in the cabinets, cheese, bread, preserved fish and meat as well as some vegetables which hung from the rafters, and a few jugs of beer.

Once he was full he found a large cabinet full of clothing that obviously belonged to the owner of the cabin and his wife.  He began to try on the man's clothing, but while he found them a little big, he improvised by using lengths of rope to fix the pants in place, and to wrap around the waist of the tunic so that it didn't look as large.

Ready to run at any minute, he rested as well as he could one night at a time.

He also found, as he explored the property, that it appeared to be the home of a blacksmith.

Richard was thrilled to find tools of all kinds, especially the chisels and metal files which he used to remove the collar he'd worn for so long. The fresh, cool air felt good on his skin where it had lain, and chaffed over the years, finally free of the thing which had marked him as property, and praying that he could remain free until he reached his own homeland.

Knowing that the cabin was still occupied, and that his time to rest was growing short, he began to make plans to leave. He had no idea when the man and his family would be back, and he had no desire to cross their path.

Richard took an old knapsack and put in a few extra pants and tunics. He took more bread and other foods, trying not to take too much so that his stay at the cabin wouldn't be noticed immediately.

As he searched through the kitchen and sleeping area for these things, he found a small purse filled with gold denarions and silver denarius. Knowing that the gold would be immediately missed, and also that a man of his class would look suspicious if he carried gold around, he chose to take a handful of the silver and copper coins, as well as a rather sharp knife from the kitchen which he knew would be less conspicuous than one of the swords that were hung in the shop.

As Richard was packing, a horse drawn wagon pulled up and the family got off, unloading heavy burlap bags and barrels of what he thought might be supplies.

There was only one door, and that would have brought him face to face with the family. In a panick, heart pounding, he ran as quietly as he could into the loft and dropped down out of the window there.

He was just in time as he could hear the man's wife run back outside to her husband, exclaiming that somone had broken into their home. He didn't hear much more as he ran as fast as he could into the woods nearby.

He traveled through the woods for days, keeping his cooking fires small and only in daylight, and traveling by night.

He found himself just barely escaping capture and death when he was spotted by a bounty hunter. He ran for quite some time, dodging between trees where the horse would be too big to get through. Finding a swampy area, he rolled in the mud and then ran into the trees, quickly covered himself with leaves.

When the horseman went away, RIchard washed up in the river and went on his way until he came across a small town. He roamed the little town until he found an inn called the Silver Dragon.

He walked through the doors and was immediately assailed by the sounds of rowdy speech and loud laughter. The inkeeper was behind the bar, talking and laughing with some of his patrons while bar wenches made their way among the tables taking orders and cleaning used tables as quickly as possible to make room for more.

The wood floor was worn but clean. The tables and chairs were made of rough wood, and sturdy. The bar at the front was carefully smoothed, clean wood. There was also a painting of a dragon on the wall behind the bar.

Richard sat down at the bar and asked for a tankard of beer for which he paid five copper pieces. The beverage wasn't the best quality but it soothed his parched throat.

'Where are you from, stranger?' the friendly innkeeper asked, trying to spark a conversation.

Richard replied somewhat evasively, 'Just out of the country. I'm passing through on my way home.'

The innkeeper smiled and said, 'Ah, that explains your accent.I admit I haven't heard it around here before.'

'I'd like to see more of your northern country,' Richard said casually, 'where can I get a boat ride?' He knew he couldn't mention that he was a run away slave, nor did he want to let anyone know that he was trying to get back to the Fosslands.

The innkeeper, proud of his country, replied, 'Ask my son out back, he can take you up the coast as far as you'd like... for a price.'

Richard finished his drink and went out to the river which was in the back of the inn, he walked up to the boatmaster with a friendly smile.

When the boatmaster saw Richard approach, he said with a cocky grin, 'Daniel's my name, sailings my game.'  The man had blonde hair and grey-blue eyes. He wore a silver ring, a blue shirt that accented his eyes, red pants and heavy boots.

'How can I be of service?'

The runaway explained that he wanted to go north at which time the boatmaster frowned a little. 'This being a time of war, I'll need to see some papers,' he said, at which time Richard presented the stolen papers.

Daniel looked at the papers and then at Richard and smiled, "Well, I've never had a holy man on my ship before. Where would you like to go, Brother? I'll take you as far north as I can, at at a discount no less.'

Richard quietly replied, 'To the northern boarder. I'm on a holy mission,' he lied, unconvincingly.

Daniel took 10 silver pieces from the holy hack and rather than taking the imposter back to the city to be enslaved once again, he took him to the bog lands which was close to the northern boarder of the empire.

As Richard was getting off the ship, Daniel, with a smile, leaned in toward the man and said quietly, 'One more thing, Brother Nathaniel, I know you're no monk. Next time you want a ride from me, don't pretend to be something you're not. Or at least steal better papers if you find yourself in a position where you need to run away again.'

Richard's eyes grew wide and he said, 'You knew what I was and you didn't turn me in? But why?'

Daniel replied, 'Because I don't support slavery, and the guards never pay their tab at my father's inn.'  With a final smile and a wave, the ship owner sailed away.

Richard walked north through the mud and tall grass until he found the imperial boarder.  It was a mighty stone wall set with red flags embroidered with an eagle.

Legionaires were fighting on the wall as the Fosslanders attacked using trebuchets to launch flaming, oil drenched stones. Arrows were fired from both sides.

Approaching quietly, Richard made his way stealthily through the woods where he nearly walked into an imperial scout. Taking out his stolen knife, he stabbed the man in the neck, and took his crossbow and quiver of arrows.

The runaway hid in the tall grass and took in the situation carefully before picking a target. He pulled the string back on the bow, loaded the arrow, aimed carefully and shot the general of the imperial guard through the neck. The man fell.

The legionaires were shocked at first, then a lieutenant took command and sent 200 soldiers down to the valley behind them, thinking that they were being surrounded and attacked from behind by more troops from the Fosslander army.

Just as Richard, who was lying flat in the tall grass, thought he was going to be caught for sure this time, leading troops of the Fossland army ran foward, shields creating an impenetrable shell, and used a battering ram on the once mighty gates which had been weakened through the days of fighting.

The Imperial troops which had been defending the wall surged through the ruined gates and engaged in open battle.  Richard used the resulting chaos to slide into the city where he was stopped briefly by two Fosslander guards who wanted to know who he was and why he was there, if not to become a soldier.

Richard explained that he'd been born in the Fosslands and only wished to return home after what had seemed a lifetime of slavery.  The guards while not recognizing the strange clothing the man wore, heard his accent and knew that he was one of them. They allowed him through.

Running through the city, afraid of what he'd find after being gone for so long, he ran to the house he'd grown up in.  He knocked on locked the door, calling to his mother, 'It's Richard!'

His mother tentatively opened the door to see the familar face of her son, who despite his bad experiences still looked like the boy she'd raised, but was unable at first to believe that he was alive and home once again.

'Hello mom.' he said with a grin.

His mother grabbed him and pulled him into a bone crushing hug, kissing him and crying in her relief that he was alive.

Before he could reply, however, she pulled him the rest of the way into the house and began to rain spanks down on his backside. The man, surprised beyond words or action at being spanked by his mother at the age of 33, stood in shock as she, still crying, angrily asked him, 'Where have you been all these years!?'

Finally, Richard turned toward his mother and pulled her into a hug, whispering reassurances into her ear and rubbing her back gently even though what he really wanted was to rub the sting out of his own backside. 

'Momma, I'm home. I'm home.' he said gently as she cried out her relief.

He was now in a safe place. He breathed a sigh of contentment. He was home.

The End