Bound and Broken: An Isekai Adventure Dark Fantasy (Melas Book 1) V.A. Lewis (feel good books to read .TXT) 📖

a Hunter’, and not ‘we’?" the Dog Beastkin sighed and began to rub his temples. "And in the first place, weren’t you the one who dozed off during your shift to keep watch at night— which led us to being captured while asleep?"

Shang looked accusingly at the young woman; Rin’s face immediately turned beet red, and she began trying to defend herself. "W-w-what? No, I—-"

Then I laughed.

At first, I giggled, as if someone made a bad pun that was slightly amusing; then I started to chuckle, the kind I made when I was watching a really funny family movie; and finally, I guffawed, laughing and laughing like some sort of insane woman— as if some sort of madness had taken control of me, forcing me to laugh against my will.

It was not a happy laughter. It was certainly not something that came about from being entertained. But it was laughter nonetheless.

And what did laughter even do? Supposedly, it secreted endorphins— some sort of happy hormones— to stimulate my brain, making me happy. That was science. Something which I vaguely learned about in my world. But I was not in my world.

Did laughter work the same way here? I certainly did not feel happy in the moment, so clearly it did not. Or maybe, I was taught wrong; after all, I did learn this from the internet, and not some science textbook.

But there was something which laughter did, that certainly did work across worlds. It did not always do it. But when it did, it just happens, almost like—

Magic.

Not the kind that would get you killed for doing in this world, or the ones that only existed in fiction back in my world. But the kind of magic that just works. That just happened.

And the magic that laughter brought about— the thing that would happen, inexplicably and only occasionally— was a simple thing: it lightens the mood!

Laughter was contagious. It spread like a disease in an airtight room, with everyone in the room squished together, and naked. That’s a graphic thought— in more ways than one. But when laughter spread, it eased the tension of the room; it lightened the severity of the situation, because how could you be serious while laughing?

So when I laughed, at first, everyone stared at me confused. Rin, Shang, and all the other Beastkin in the wagon were simply bewildered.

But as I continued to laugh, Rin joined in, then Shang; and from that moment, it was a domino effect. Dog, Cat, and Rabbit Beastkin alike all laughed together with me, a Human. A young Human girl that gave them false hope that could never be; and yet, because we were together, we laughed together.

The laughing kept going, on and on, and would have lasted forever if we were left unchecked. But that never would have happened, because we were slaves. We had no freedom. And without freedom, we would always be checked.

"Oi! Shut it, you noisy fucking animals!" a voice bellowed into the wagon from the outside. The wagon driver shouted, and spoke in a quieter voice to himself, "It’s even worse than a zoo."

All at once, everyone stopped laughing. A hushed silence enveloped us, and brought us back to the moment. But the moment was no longer one of dread and hopelessness; although it was not one of hope and joy either. It was just different. It was… calm.

Our nerves from before were gone, and we looked at each other with a readiness that will never be enough for what was about to happen. But we had to be ready. And we had to be calm.

So when we finally arrived at our destination, the wagons stopped moving, and the night returned to its natural quietus, I whispered something out for everyone to hear.

"Same plan, different place, but same outcome."

Shang looked at me, and he simply nodded. He did not ask if I was certain or sure any longer; there was no time for that any more. If I were not prepared like during our last escape attempt, then we would simply fall into the fate we had been expecting since we were chained up. Or die.

Rin looked at me and grinned. She might have had a thousand words she wanted to say to me at the moment, but now was the time for action: so the grin sufficed.

The Mancis Company began unloading their goods into their warehouse, and I saw Julian gleefully looking over us with money in his eyes.

The warehouse was large; there were more guards in the building than there were escorting us throughout our trip, and Marcus began ordering them around. Slaves— not the ones with us— but slaves that were already in the warehouse, slaves that have been in Bys for years, came out, and began unloading the cargo and bringing it into the structure; as they did this, they were being loosely supervised by their masters, almost as if they did not expect them to do anything suspicious.

And they probably would not have done anything other than what they were told. They looked worn down, broken and crushed from years of hard labor and torture.

When I looked at them, I knew I did not want to be like them. I was never going to give up. I would never be broken; neither my legs, nor my will. I was going to escape their shackles, and run away from this bondage.

I will be free.

So when we were brought in our cells to a room to be stored; when the door was shut and locked behind the slavers as they left us alone; when the darkness of the night closed in, and the world slept in silence. I did not sleep.

Instead, I reached out. I raised my hand in the air, and felt something. A dim circle of light appeared, and then—

The world