[Flashback] Desperation and stupidity go hand in hand

[Nyahna Sasin]

28th of Summer, 501 AV

The Viper Nest


Sasin was playing with a mouse, catching it's tail, dragging it back, and letting go again, over and over again, when the lesson started. He could hear the new captive screaming, his brothers and sister laughing, and their father explaining some of the most delicate areas of the human body. He could hear everything from the next room, and it was really rather distracting.

Gulping the mouse down, he returned to his book, trying to puzzle out the Eypharian poetry. He had found that while he was a rather straightforward person, he rather enjoyed the tongue and mind twisting way the Eypharians spoke, and apparently, wrote poetry.There were so many layers to it, it was really quite the mental ex-

He winced as a particularly piercing shriek cut through the air, and he realize he could only hear the captive and his little brother now. His other siblings had evidently wandered off, and dragged their father off with them. Snapping the book shut, Sasin slithered out the door.

"Casson, what in Siku…" His voice trailed off as he saw the captive. A human male, fairly young from the looks of it. He was in very bad shape now, with dozens of lacerations all over his body. He was bleeding, badly, all over the floor, and was still screaming.

"Like my work?" His brother asked cheerfully. Nyahnacasson was practically bouncing up and down, eager as he was to show his brother his new toy.

"I'd like it better if I didn't have to go deaf." He said dryly. "I like your enthusiasm, but not when I'm trying to read please?"

"They're so soft it's hard to find a place where you can cut and they won't scream."

"And there you have the basic idea of the human body. Let me read in peace."

His brother sulked, but wandered off to return the captive to the cages, leaving Sasin to read in peace.

At least until something else came along.

[Nyahna Sasin]

30th of Summer, 501 AV

He was taking a shortcut through the slave pens when one of the captives tried to attract his attention. Looking around, Sasin hesitantly slithered over to him. "lahemzooq;iahg hkelnq;s phenadfv dog ds;aj dsfj d;lsfjih ehlnv d" he said quickly. At least, that was what it sounded like to Sasin. He had no idea what the human was saying.

The slave must have caught his blank look, because he began to speak very slowly, with hand gestures and pauses. Sasin shook his head, still confused. He only knew a few words of common, only enough to make out "you" and "me", which he had gathered from the hand gestures anyways.

The man switched to Arumenic, which Sasin knew a little more of. "You help me esoagd." He frowned, confused. "esadkd. Go out. Go home." Sasin's eyes widened. Was he… was this slave asking him for help escaping? That… what? Why would he do that? Why would this slave think he would do something like…

Wait, he recognized it. This was the one he had told his brother to leave off a few days ago. But he had just done that because his screams had been annoying him. It was like showing mercy to a mouse because you weren't hungry. But the human wouldn't have seen it like that, would it, he realized. All the slave would have understood was that Casson had been torturing him, and Sasin had come and gotten him to stop.

Oh sweet Siku this was laughable. If this human actually thought he was going to help… Turning away from the captive, he continued on his way, making a note to tell someone about this.

He saw his mother first, and related his experience to her. Assilanyahna, hearing her son's story, chuckled softly. "I see. Well, now, what are you going to do?" Sasin frowned, confused.

"Do? I thought you'd punish him for trying to escape." She gave him a look he had never seen before (In later years, he would come to recognize it as a sort of cunning maliciousness).

"That would be a simple way of dealing with it. But this could be an interesting experience for you. You've always been interested in the rest of the world. Why not start learning?"