When the people were captured and made into livestock, put in a cage for them to reproduce and die as fast as possible, large unbreakable spells were put on many things to continue this cycle.
First, a wall. A tall thin wall that looked easy enough to break through with enough man power. But it was not so. The metal was embroidered with magic, sewed in by the strongest of the Monsters sorcerers, many of them dying in the making of it. Magic was more like a parasite than anything else, feeding off its user.
If one was to touch the wall, directly or indirectly death will always pursue. By Antlers. The rapid growth of the appendages will not stop until demise by pain and brain damage as the things get heavier and roots burrow themselves deeper within their head. If they aren't killed by that, they are the first to be targeted by the Caedes during a raid. No matter how well they hide, the monsters can smell them in the night.
On the other side of things are hares. They had the ears of well, a hare, or a bunny and they conducted necessary business with the Monsters to keep the humans, the food, alive enough. Somewhat well, just enough so they don't go extinct and leave the monsters without there favorite meat.
It was a shameful thing to be a hare, hated by the rest of their species. The masses saw it as betrayal and treachery but the hares just called it jealousy. Because they, and their families lived lavish full lives. That was their reward for their cooperation.
If one was to attempt to harm a hare that would also lead to the growth of the dooming antlers.
Now, the monsters have been defeated but the magic of the wall still remains. Though It has weakened greatly allowing People untouched by magic leave. However, those cursed and blessed with antlers and the ears are trapped.
But, thought freedom is rare, its in no way impossible.
..............
Outside
The Kingdom Of Sallo
The stolen castle was grand and beautiful, just as the monsters had been themselves. Hundreds of bedrooms, dozens of libraries, kitchens, ball rooms, study rooms, rooms, rooms, rooms all kept impeccably clean though many used rarely. They were clean before at least, now not so much.
As the demanding woman took it, she slaughtered maids and cooks and servants, drowsing the shiny marble floors in deep blood, only realizing her mistake when there was barely anyone to clean it up. The hate and the need for revenge ran hot within her, and although it was an unspoken law to kill any Monster on sight, she decided a better punishment was humiliation.
On a throne of gold, deep intricate patterns covering the seat of honor, the woman lounged, eating the freshest berrys she had ever laid her mouth on out of a large, burly monster's hand. She moaned as she rolled her eyes back in delight, black and white strands of hair falling into her face as she squirmed in her seat. The monster arms shook, deep bloody gashes within them, the ache of his bones making the task of holding the berries up to her so much more difficult. He shuttered, the collars around his neck and arms tightening as the woman fiddled with a remote that controlled them as she chewed loudly.
He didn't dare look at her, none of them did because nobody wanted her focus. Her focus was torture so the man's eyes were glued to the ground away from her as was everyone else's, his mind elsewhere as she spit on the ground beside himself, just barely missing his leg.
"Missed," she said quietly.
"Clean it up" She said as he grabbed the last berry, a wide smirk spreading across her face. The man still didn't look at her, only brought his shaking hands down as he gazed at the glob of mashed berry and saliva on the tiles beside him. The man didn't speak the language, but he couldn't infer her demand as she pointed at the mush.
Other than the sharp, tight numbered collars on their neck and arms, all of the men were naked. There was no cloth to clean it up with. They all knew what she meant and would've made a face of disgust if it wouldn't lead to an excruciating beating. The man leaned down, wincing at the pain in his back, and licked the floor clean as she watched. Giggling in delight.
"I want to play" All of them sunk into a fearful dread at that last word. "Play."
Her small frame rose from the chair, all of the much larger men huddling away from her, avoiding her eyes like the plague. She walked around them, heels clicking menacingly on the hard floor as she examined her slaves. She smiled in the face of their fear, grabbing, kicking, whipping, but she stopped at a trembling boy, eyes red from tears. He froze when she stopped at him, closing his eyes as he tensed to stop from sobbing. But unfortunately for him, his fear only interested her more, her hand gripping the boy's hair as she pulled him up, his legs weak and stiff as they poorly supported his low weight.
"I'll take you" He shook almost violently as he now cried, eyes wide and pleading as he looked around him for help but everybody's gaze was plastered to the floor.
"The rest of you clean, guards will watch y-"
"Please, Master," A shaky voice said loudly from behind her.
"He's only a boy" The voice sayed quieter.
"Stand up, whoever said that" A man stood. Short and pale, a past Caede with some of his tattooed skin torn off painfully, cuts and bruises fresh on his skin. His hair short and eyes strikingly blue. He was the only one who knew English, though he had a accent.
"You again" she said almost pleasantly with a little laugh as she walked towards him slowly, he also walking towards her as others watched in awe.
"How long will it take to break your spirit number fourteen"
"Maybe you'll get it today if you put me in his place"
"I wasn't going to torture him actualy, he's pretty-" She stroked the boys purple cheek " I had more pleasurable plans"
"He's 15"
"He doesn't look 15"
"Well' I'm pretty too aren't I" He begins to sway, trying his best to flex his muscles he prays are still there, licking his lips and biting them as he approaches. He's not as tall as the woman but he knows his charm will get her as it's got her before.
"Please master, I'm dying to taste you again" He says longingly, poking out his pierced tongue and kneeling down to drag it along the rim of her short red dress. She smiles.
"Don't you miss my tongue" He moans as she smiles wider, demanding him up with the flick of a finger and walking him away, hand on his thin wrist. He looks back at the boy who mouths thank you as he quietly cries in relief. The other nods kindly, smiling sadly at the boy who shuffles back to the group and embraces his brother, who cries with him.
The woman leads him down a dark hallway, before swiftly pulling him into the king bedroom where her single slip dress is quickly discarded, only her loud expensive jewelry remaining. As promised, she gets his tongue, the experienced movement of it making her whine and moan as she pulls his head in farther, the cold metal ball making it even better. He's almost suffocating when she finally finishes, pulling his wet face away abruptly as she convulses in pleasure.
"Ahh, Piko" She stops for barely a minute, Piko wiping the slick from his face, trying not to make any faces that might suggest he hadn't enjoyed it. As he does so, she gets up from the fluffy chair she was sitting on, plopping herself over Pikos chest to his shock and internal unease. She drops her face to his, kissing him on the lips for only a moment before barging between and exploring his mouth with her tongue, his eyes wide open as she does so.
Her hand began to trail down Pikos legs, making him squirm not in pleasure but in fear of what she would do when she found his length flacid and what she would do when she found it would stay that way despite her best efforts. She fondled, pinched, stroked, and Piko desperately tried to deliver her obvious wishes but no matter how much he thought of the one that aroused him, it only made him feel worse, made him feel like a traitor to his love.
It was not long before she got irritated.
"So you were faking," She said in an unreadable tone.
"No, master, i'm hurting thats all, its hard to uh"
"Fuck that plenty of the others can still get hard with a broken bone or two"
"Master, I'm-"
She didn't say anything, merely looked at him with a look of not anger but disappointment. There was a long pause, Piko sitting on the floor as he stared up at her, debating if he should stroke her calf or lick fingers to regain her favor but before he could do anything she walked away. Not out of the room but around a corner to grab something. He already knew it was something for his torture because playtime was either sex or pain and if you were deemed barren in one you did the other.
He could feel the dread creeping up on him, and though he had accepted it, it hadn't made the thought any more tolerable. His shoulders slumped and his head dropped as he began to appreciate his fleeting moments of mild pain as he heard her struggle with what sounded like knives on the other side of the wall.
As expected, when she came out she bore a large decorative knife with a red blade that matched the color of her robe. She also bore a deceivingly kid smile, as she walked towards him poking his neck ith the end of the blade.
"If it's no use to me I should cut it off"
Panic. His eyes about popped out of their sockets and although he knew there was no escape he lunged to the other side of the room, holding his hands above his privates as he pleaded.
"I'm gay, thats why it- thats o- please, please, no" His breathing got more labored as she approached.
"That doesn't change the fact I cant use it" She said laughing as Piko huddled himself in a corner, pushing himself as far as he could go into the crevice as he cringed violently, his back to the room. Finally, to his dismay, she got to him, turning him around, that evil cruel smile decked wide on her face as she used the remote to painfully stun his hands making them go limp by his side as she used one hand to grab his length, the other to position the knife as he dry sobbed, pleading. Luckily for him, there was a sudden interruption.
"Is that my knife?" A voice said from the dorway, footsteps quickly approaching.
"Oh Sal, darling, my son" She said gleefully and surprised, jumping into her son's arms and kissing his cheeks as he roughly took his knife back. He was big, 6'4 at the least, thin yet still very muscular. Like his mother, he had white hair with a few long black locks in the front and lots of freckles covering his visible skin, though his eyes were green rather than brown like hers.
"Go off and clean," she muttered to Piko, his heart dropping with relief as he swiftly left the room in a rush, leaving the mother and child alone.
"How was it, did you capture Labitia?" She said, excitedly.
"Yes. we-" She jumped in joy, dancing at the news, Sal laughing judgingly at his mother as he continued his report "We brought back a bunch of shit, including the king if you want him, we left a bunch of generals to guard the kingdom, make changes and all that but we need to start worrying about Dariyet, and their king Iliokus bec-"
"Oh shhh, we should celebrate Labitia, it was Large and powerful and you" she grabbed his cheeks and pinched them till they were red, he looked unamused "it was your doing my little head general"
"Mother, Dariyet is twice our size, and we just look Labitia who they were allied with, they are going to come after us, we must prepare"
"Relax, child" She said more seriously, walking over to the window, Sal following obediently.
"Don't you trust mummy"
"Yes, but-"
"It fine, I have a plan. We will send Mantha to assassinate the political figures you deem would cause the most damage to the kingdoms structure, and attack shortly after with our full force"
"It will be more complicate than that mothe-" He paused once he processed the first part of her claim.
"Mantha?! I-I thought she was gone"
"I fixing her" Sal looked startled at the news, almost emotional, trying to figure out which one of his many questions to ask first. But they weren't answered, none of them even getting asked in the first place.
The finger to his lips got the point across, Sal settling in his confusion, turning away.
"anyway, you will go as well"
"What?! No, can I just do it myself?"
"You can't do everything Sal, don't be irrational darling" Sal glared at her, pouting his lips out like a big child. They stood together for a long moment just staring out at the mayhem in the city below.
"I know you miss her"
"I don't" He said harshly, scratching his neck, and hiding his face as it reddened.
"She will be back by your side soon. I just need to tweak some things first"