Riv's Sanctuary - A.G. Wilde Page 0,39
lurking in and where.
Backtracking, she exited the room, a yawn causing her to cover her mouth. She guessed she should go to bed then.
Grot lifted his head, looked at her, and stood, padding behind her.
Lauren looked back at him, startled for a moment, before a soft smile touched her lips.
The more time she spent around the dog, the more she was getting used to him and he was really a soft thing.
Turning, Lauren continued down the corridor, her steps slowing as she passed the bedroom she assumed was Riv’s.
At first, there was no sound and she was about to continue walking, thinking her host was sound asleep, when her ears caught something.
Lauren paused.
The sound came again, something like a groan, and Lauren stopped moving completely.
When the sound repeated, Lauren’s brows furrowed in concern, her breath held in her throat.
For a moment, no more sounds came and she thought whatever was happening to her host had stopped. But, as she convinced herself of this, the groaning started again.
It was such a tortured sound that it sent alarm bells ringing. It was the type of sound a person made when they were in great pain.
When the sound came through the door once more, Lauren bit her lip.
He was in pain.
She could feel it.
Her hand lifted to the locking panel by the door and, at another place at another time, she’d have entered the room to check if he was okay.
She contemplated doing that now but logic said she should walk away. It wasn’t her place to do such a thing.
He didn’t want her on his Sanctuary, she was pretty sure entering his personal room would make things worse.
She should walk away.
Walk away, Lauren, do not enter.
Lauren bit her lip, swallowing hard as another groan reached her ears.
WALK AWAY.
15
He was working in the mines. He could smell the thick stench of sweat, sickness, and sex. Beside him, Sohut was digging, too, his little hands going deep into the hole he'd made in the rock to find the rare talik metal the Tasqals wanted so badly.
It was what everyone around them was doing. Males. Females. Chids. It didn't matter the age.
They all woke early and went to bed late, working tirelessly to mine the metal from the unforgiving rock.
His and Sohut’s bucket was almost full after a day of digging tirelessly, their small hands broken and chipped by the sharp rock.
"It's almost full, Sohut," he said. "We're almost done for today."
Sohut sniffled.
The dust in the mines irritated the soft lining in his nose, making it difficult to breathe.
Every time Sohut sniffled, it hardened Riv’s resolve to get them out of the mines one day.
Their mother had sent them there to die but they wouldn’t.
He wouldn’t let it happen.
“Just a few more, Sohut. Then our bucket will be full. Then we’ll be done. We’ll be done and they’ll let us rest.”
"Is that so?" the voice beside them had Riv turning quickly, his small hands closing around the adult-size mining chisel.
Sohut's eyes widened a little, his ears pricking from beneath his hair, as he saw who it was.
Traakni leered at them. He was a tall male; a merkannian by blood, but his golden skin was almost completely hidden by the dirt and the dust from the mines.
Traakni blinked at them with his one eye and Sohut moved a little out of his view.
It wasn't the first time that Traakni had come to steal their days' work. As a matter of fact, he'd done it before, many times, and gotten away with it. And Riv had been the one to take the whippings for not turning in any metal—whippings and working all night to fill the bucket, only to spend the following day working his normal shift, too.
Mining talik metal was hard and some degenerates in the mines preyed on chidren like him and Sohut, preferring to steal than to do an honest day’s work.
No one in the mines could be trusted.
He'd learned that early.
They all hated working for the horrible Tasqals, but being in the mines was better than being in the Tasqals’ beds.
At least, that’s what he’d heard some of the older miners say.
He didn’t understand what was so bad about being in a bed. A bed was better to sleep in than the hard floor of their cave down in the mines.
"Leave us alone, Traakni," Riv said, standing his ground in front of the adult male.
He didn’t care that Traakni was older than he was. Stronger.
He would fight him if he had to.
He had