The Past Winter
End Story?

Day by day it changed. I don't know how long I've been living here. In a dirty, cold, dark, damp cell. In order to survive, I hid from the officers so as not to be immediately taken and sold to an auction that has lately been more routinely held on the surface.

I camouflaged the color of my hair using the soil from inside the cell. I take a little clean soil from the corner, and I take moss from the wall, I mix it with the ground to soften and easy to apply.

I washed all the hair from the roots to the ends, also on the surface of the skin from face to foot. It was on the advice of Rainar and Rossie so that I could survive. Although after that my whole body became itchy and it felt very torturous, but it was a powerful way to disguise the color of my hair and skin.

I also found it harder to hide, as the straw fibers I used to hide were destroyed by my cellmates. Those who were jealous and unaccepting felt the injustice that Rossie and I had done to save us both.

Those who were annoyed at me smashed that straw fiber at the time I was sound asleep from exhaustion avoiding the guards. Finally Rossie advised me to cover my entire body with the ground, so that my appearance was more unfit to be an auctioneer.

In this dungeon I don't know when it's day and night. All I know is that the eating schedule here happens once a day. The food that was given was the leftovers of the nobles that were taken after they held a banquet right after the auction event was held on the surface. It was after the guards ate the remaining food.

You could say the occupants of the cell only got the remaining rations from the rest of the banquet on the surface. It was then that we, the cell dwellers, got the most delicious food menu as long as we languished in this gripping cold cell.

If there is no banquet on the surface on that day. We, the cell dwellers, were given only one piece of hard black bread that was moldy, and a bowl of cold soup that tasted like dishwashing water and the smell of wet socks. But for the sake of survival, inevitably me and other residents eat whatever food is given, although not delicious and can even be life threatening.

Sometimes the inhabitants of the cell also have to fight for food with rats that roam freely there. There were also other residents who were not enough with their food rations and snatched the bread belonging to others. This of course makes the situation in the cell never controlled. The echoing cry was like a classic song that hummed every time.

Not only those who came out, many new cell inhabitants also arrived. Most of them are teenage children who have not reached the age of fifteen years. Sometimes there are even guards who take girls out of their cells. Then returned tomorrow with conditions that can no longer be explained.

“Hei Rubi! Are you still sane?” Call Rainar. His hoarse voice sounded rather brackish.

In that place let alone to eat a decent meal, can a drop of water be difficult. That's why many of the slave candidates like us died of dehydration. Sometimes even the guards did not give the food rations two to three full days, which made the chances of life even smaller.

There are also those who use moss that grows on the wall for consumption. In addition to containing a little water, the residents also eat it on the day when they do not get food rations. Likewise with me, eating moss on the cell wall is the latest activity I can do for some time.

But not all residents can eat moss to be able to connect lives. Because the limited number of moss is not proportional to the number of cell inhabitants there. Of course, we're fighting over that little moss. There was more moss at the top of the wall. But because of the high distance, we can only dream of being able to reach it.

Many of them are selfish and do not want to share the food they get with their own hands, even though all the inhabitants work together. For this reason, many of the cell dwellers quarrel over their rights to the extent of killing their fellow occupants. All they did was to swallow a little moss from the wall.

I sobbed in the corner of my cell. I'm no longer strong with the madness inside this place. Moreover, Rossie, one of my friends inside this terrible place, had been taken in my place because Rossie was trying to block the guard from saving me a while ago.

“Small..” Call Rainar.

“... Me?” I answered while wiping the clear lips on the cheeks.

“Yes. Because only you have the smallest body here.” He said a little bit.

“This is because I don't eat right, if I could eat a lot my body would be as big as a mountain.” My debate with Rainar on the remnants of the energy I have.

Rainar could only chuckle back at my words. There was nothing more he could say. I crawled closer to Rainar's cell. Leaning my body between the cold iron with a limp. My eyes stared blankly ahead.

“Rainar..” Call me in a voice that can either be heard or not.

“If you come out first, live well up there. Eat the food you like, do whatever you want. If you still remember me on the sidelines of your happiness, wait until I come out too.” I said who had lost my spirit.

“...Hmmm, what if you come out earlier than me?” Rainar asked in response to my words.

“Then I will wait for you. No matter how long it takes, I will wait until you find me.” After saying it my eyes closed tightly. No more power left, maybe that was the last energy I had before I died.

Before long, a loud sound came from behind the big door. The only door the guards used to take out and put the slaves inside. The sound of increasingly loud screams and groans sounded. Making the atmosphere inside the cell feel gripping. The uproar that made me who almost fainted opened my eyes.