I have only recently begun to wake up. I start to jerk awake in a panic, convinced that I have overslept, and wince as a shooting pain travels through my back. As soon as I got home yesterday, I realized that it was about to start raining and that my tent had a few holes that needed to be patched before it could be used again.
The last time it rained, everything inside of my tent got soaked, and I ended up having to dry out an old fur blanket that I was given once its old owner had gotten a new one.
It took several days to dry out and it now stinks to high hell.
I slowly got up off the ground, and as I did so, I could feel my body screaming in protest. At the same time, I started looking around for an old piece of clothing that I could just use to patch the holes on my little tent.
Slaves are obviously paid very little, and I do not have sufficient funds to be able to squander on new material in order to mend the holes in my tent.
The light from the sun is just now making its way through the lining of my tent flaps, and I can see that daytime has arrived. I have a few spare minutes in which I can put the finishing touches on my little tent.
When the members of the Horde get new tents, they give the slaves the older one as a gift even though it is not much.
I actually find that very nice of them to dot that, they obviously do not have to.
The only Horde members that have actual wooden homes are the Kings and the Captains.
At the very edge of the territory is where you'll find the hidden tents housing the slaves. In addition to this, we are only permitted to eat three meals per day and are not permitted to snack on anything else.
If any of us are caught attempting to steal food, we will have one of our hands severed as a form of punishment.
When I was younger, I only had one male friend, and his name was Justin. Because his grandfather was in such bad shape, Justin's only concern was to make him feel better as soon as possible. One night, he had broken into the kitchen tent under the cover of darkness and secretly taken a few fresh vegetables.
Because he had been caught by a captain while he was walking out of the tent, his hand was severed as punishment. The Horde men could not allow something like that. They are rough and tough men and do not like to be disobeyed.
The infection ultimately proved fatal for him.
It was terrible.
After assuring my friend that I would look after his grandfather, I had to watch him pass away slowly while I kept my promise. I kept my end of the bargain up until the point where his grandfather's illness finally overtook him and he passed away.
It is the dry part of the season, which makes the already hot desert much hotter for us humans, and I often have to sit down or I risk having a heat stroke.
The desert is already hot for us humans.
The members of the Horde are not affected by the heat in the same way that we humans are; they do not even become ill.
It was a rare occurrence that the females to become ill, and I believe their numbers to be somewhere around one hundred at most. They are all dispersed across the various kingdoms ruled by the Horde across the planet.
In fact, this was the cause of the death of both of my parents. I have no idea why, but the rogue Horde that showed up with the intention of kidnapping a few of the women.
Those that were able to survive the illness were rendered sterile as a result. They are unable to have children, which will eventually lead to the extinction of their race.
I have no idea what course of action they are going to prevent that.
There is speculation that members of some alien races have mated with human females and produced offspring with them.
However, there are those who are too arrogant and do not wish to combine their superior DNA with that of humans.
If you ask me, that is a ridiculous idea.
It's not that I'm interested in having a relationship with an alien; I'm just pointing out the obvious. Why would you want not want to do anything that you could in order to make sure your race goes on?
That is completely insane.
The hordes follow a long time tradition, and that is to hunt their brides. They are all very excited to take part in the bride hunt, which will take place in whichever region is chosen to host it, and women from every kingdom will travel there to take part.
They literally abandon the women there and force them to fight the men; according to the legend, the more the women fight, the more powerful their mates will be.
That is to say, if a woman is fighting as if her life depended on it, she will attract the attention of either the Captains or the Fighters.
The king has never taken part in a bride hunt, and because their population of women is dwindling, the people do not subject the remaining women to the ordeal of a bride hunt out of fear that some will die.
Accidents do happen.
Some of the members of the Horde go so far out of their minds with rage and lust that they end up killing the women they are competing with each other to mate with.
After a lot of searching, I came across an old shirt that was full of holes, and I began to tear off pieces of it and attach them to the outside of my tent.
The other day, I bartered with one of the workers, and in exchange for my assistance, I received some of this glue stuff.
It really does work wonders, as it can hold anything together and prevent it from falling apart. They even use it to construct their homes out of wood.
When I was done after a few minutes, I hurriedly slipped on my sandles that had been covered in mud and walked out of my tent.
It appears that the other slaves are beginning to emerge from their tents looking exactly the same as I do right now. There is never a day off for any of us. Every day, we put in a certain number of hours of labor, and if we are caught being lazy on any given day, we are not allowed to eat.
The women of the Horde make full use of their relatively few numbers to their competitive advantage. They go around camp with the expectation that everyone will cater to their every whim.
The Green, Orange, and Brown nearly trip over their own feet in order to do the women's bidding, but the Red and Blue do not have time for that.
Today, I am grateful for the clouds that have been present. The day before, I exposed myself to way too much sun, and now I can feel my skin beginning to blister.
I shouldn't even be wearing my sandals on a day like today. Even the tops of my feet are sunburned, and the sandles are only making the pain and discomfort even worse.
Every single step I take causes excruciating pain in both of my feet.
Because it is getting close to the time that we should eat breakfast, I hurry towards the tent that houses the kitchen.
Being late for your duties is against the rules.
I listen to a few of my fellow slaves cough as they try to breathe through the dust that is kicking up around their feet. There are times when I wish I had been assigned to the Western or Eastern regions instead. They do not have to put up with this nonsense associated with the desert like we do.
If you ask me, living in an area where the temperature regularly drops below zero would be a different kind of hell than the one I'm used to, so the north is not an option for me.
The fact that the Horde does the hunting is actually something for which I am extremely grateful. The animals that I have read about on Earth do not compare to those that live on this planet; they are much larger and present a much greater threat.
Slaves are transported to the primary space station for medical examinations at regular intervals of a few years' duration.
I am able to watch TV and stay informed about what is going on my would have been home planet while I am here in space.
That is something that I am looking forward to very much; I only have two more years left before I can take a short vacation for a whole week.