"Only one lesson I can give you.....survive by...being greedy to yourself....and others..."
The words of the elderly slave man continued to repeat in Azaworth's mind for the night. While everyone was given bread to feed themselves. Azaworth held his bread in his hand, having no appetite to eat after what he witnessed throughout the whole day.
Even though his world was bad enough, this realm was even worse. Deaths happen frequently, and it's no telling when you'll die. He started to think that his miner's life wasn't that bad at all. And he started to question whether or not his and his sister's lives weren't that bad. In this realm, children even had it worse than both of them.
Before any other thought came to his mind, Alphiues just gently placed his hand on Azaworth's shoulder.
"Your hand is shaking, Azaworth."
Azaworth looked down and covered it, hiding his embarrassment.
"Ah...sorry. I-i didn't mean to."
Alphiues smiled at Azaworth and gave him a comforting look.
"It's okay to be scared, Azaworth. Look around. All of us are scared and fear what is coming for us, including me."
They looked around inside the caravans and saw everyone eating the bread, some slaves still shivering in fear, and some slaves hiding it. Guards continued to watch over the slaves with a strict expression.
"It's fine if you didn't save them earlier. You tried, and that's all that matters. And, I was truly in awe of what you did earlier."
Hearing those words surprised Azaworth. He didn't think that anyone respected his effort, and slowly, the thoughts in his head dispelled, and he truly was happy that someone respected his effort.
"To be honest, in my life, I have never seen someone as courageous as you. And I was even more impressed with how you managed to take down an algamor by yourself."
He was happy for a moment, but suddenly remembered it, how did he even do it by himself? Sure, he was in an adrenaline rush during that time, and he had muscles from mining for a while, but it still wouldn't have been enough to kill one, as stated by a miner earlier, it would at least take 20 people.
But at that moment, he remembered something vividly, but suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted when his hands started to feel numb, and he dropped the bread on his hand.
"What's wrong?"
Alphiues looked at Azaworth's hands and, in shock, saw that purple veins were growing on them. Looking back, Azaworth grunted in immense pain and fell to his knees, soon to collapse from this immense pain.
"Someone! We have a poison slave here! Is there anyone who can do any medical treatment?!"
Alphiues called out loud in the caravan, which caught the attention of the slaves and guards. However, none dared to move; slaves were still scared, and some guards knew nothing about medical treatment, and some guards showed disgust at touching a slave.
"Anyone?!?!"
The poison began to spread through his blood vessels at a rapid rate. His hand was already feeling dead as it seemed the poison had killed every single red blood cell in both his hands, and it would likely spread to his whole body and veins.
Soon enough, the poison had already gone through his whole arms, and he was forced to lie on his side, while Alphiues began to shout desperately for help, yet none came.
'Damn it....is this how I die...from a damn calf...?'
Azaworth's mind began to lose a lot of consciousness as the poison started reaching his neck and slowly upwards to his cheeks, and spread across his body. Soon enough, he began coughing like a maniac as the poison arrived at his lungs. The poison then rapidly went through to his face from the veins and started heading upwards to the brain.
'I-I can't die like this...I need to live... to escape...for Doriel..'
Before he could lose consciousness, footsteps were made, and Azaworth felt something on his lips. It tasted solid, as if from a bottle. Soon enough, he felt a liquid that tasted like medicine to him, and soon enough, he felt the pain reduced, but still there.
From his ears, he heard a voice.
"This should ease the poison."
In his half-lit eyes, Azaworth sees the High Commanding Officer's face, and to his surprise, he is quite young and more fit. Azaworth didn't have the energy to open his mouth to say what was on his mind, and soon after, he got up a bit with the help of Alphiues and sat back where he was just now.
"Rest now, slave, you'll need it."
Alphiues and Azaworth stared at the high commanding officer guard, and Alphiues was grateful for it.
"Thank you for saving him, sir guard. But what medicine did you give him, though?"
The high commanding officer guard held the small bottle in his hand and closed it.
"This medicine is highly concentrated on removing poison from a body just by having a few gulps of it. It will take about 1 day before the poison is destroyed within the body. Which gives us time to reach our destination tomorrow."
Alphiues would give a sign of understanding, and the high commanding officer guard nodded at him before walking away.
Soon after, Alphiues helped Azaworth keep his stability to sit up straight before leaning him against the wall. Azaworth able to breath normally again and cough only a little as he feel the poison in his lung getting destroyed.
"I was worried and scared for you, Azaworth. I thought you were gonna die this time."
Alphiues chuckled a heaved a sigh of relief, showing gladness in his eyes. Azaworth turned his head to face Alphiues, despite currently being weak, he could still make a small smile. Despite all the unluckiness within this realm, at least Azaworth survived.
"Say, I know you're weak right now, Azaworth, but I just wanna ask, do you want to be my friend?"
Azaworth was caught off guard by the sentence made by Alphiues. Now that he thought about it, he didn't think of making any friends within this realm, and his main objective was to survive and somehow get out of here.
After a lot of thinking, he nodded his head, and Alphiues smiled at him. Before speaking up, the candle lights inside the lamp went off and was blown by the guards.
"Lights out, slave! Get some sleep."
After hearing this, slaves in each caravan began to sleep one after another. Azaworth noticed a cloth that is hanging from the side and was being blown by the wind. He also noticed that every cloth was taken to prevent each slave to not get cold, so he grabbed the blown cloth and covered it on Alphius.
Alphiues felt the cloth and nodded a thank you to Azaworth. But feeling a little bit bad for him since he had no cloths to cover himself from the cold wind, Alphiues decided to share his with Azaworth. Despite not being big enough to fit both of them, it was the least they could have, and soon, both fell asleep.
-------------------------------------
The sun rose up the next day, and soon slowly, a large horn suddenly blared. It woke up the slaves from different caravans and felt that the caravan was moving. Azaworth opened his eyes slowly and rubbed it, and noticed that Alphiues was still asleep. He covered him with the cloth from his body making sure he is warm.
Soon after, he heard an announcement.
"We are approaching the Oasis!"
'The Oasis?'
Still waking up, he check outside from the back caravan and look from the front and to his surprise, it would see they are approaching a kingdom. Before anything thoughts could come to mind, the gates came down, and every caravan entered through the gates. it took a while, but when the caravan Azaworth was in, came inside the Oasis. He was shock and surprised to see the sight before him.
It was bustling with activities, many mini stalls sold fruits, children playing around, and some citizen watching through buildings street of the caravan. It was nothing like Azaworth had seen before, and it felt warm here rather from his realm.
Soon, the high commanding officer with a horn in his hand began to announce.
"Citizens of the Oasis! We have returned from our expedition! Soon you'll be able to wander through the world!"
After the announcement was made, citizen began clapping and cheering for the guards. Azaworth spotted that the citizen also took a disgust look at the slaves within the caravan. He felt as if this Oasis will be even tougher for him. Soon after, Alphiues woke up , still wrapped in the cloth, gotten up and stood behind Azaworth and look at the sigh before him.
As the sunlight shined above the caravan, every citizen noticed Alphiues and were shocked and amazed by the sight before them, as Alphiues look the most beautiful one under the sunlight.
Azaworth would also noticed it but decided not to comment on it now, as he had to decided and think what to do next.