I choked on the mucus in my throat, acid from my stomach beginning to rise. My sister looked at me with pity and sympathy as she also coughed hard from disease. "Save us, Shield Hero." I prayed.

Naofumi didn't trust this man. The man's demeanor and the fact that they were too comfortable being a slave trader made Naofumi suspicious of him. Not that he wasn't already suspicious of everyone.

"Welcome to my slave trading empire! I have a dragon over here, some beasts over there. Take your pick!" He waved his hands excitedly. Cages sat around the room, stacked on top of each other. Naofumi strolled around, lifting cloths to see the beings inside. He heard a cough and a whimper from one of the cages.

Naofumi lifted the cloth, revealing two little girls. Both were curled up on the bottom of the cage. Their sickly skin and bony bodies triggered something inside the Shield Hero. Pity.

"I'll take these two. How much?" He glanced at the slave trader who was looking over his shoulder. The slave trader put on a professional look. "I'd say about 35 silvers. They're both nearly dead and quite scared of humans in general. The man who sold em' to me loved his torture. A sadist." The smaller of the two girls shifted and started to murmur something.

Naofumi tossed his coins at the trader. The trader opened the cage and pulled both of the girls out.

I whimpered as the trader forcefully pulled me out of the prison. My sister followed me out. As the trader went to take blood from our buyer, I whispered into Raphtalia's ear. "I'm going to use the purifying magic on your crest. Run as soon as it's gone." I started to recite the words quietly. I winced as the crest on my arm shined, trying to resist my magic.

"Ariete! Stop! Don't suffer for my sake!" Raphtalia tried to stop the words flowing from my mouth. Her crest began to turn white. "Go. Leave me here." I said. My eyes closed and my teeth clenched from the pain.

"Stop that!" The slave trader said, and the crest burned my arm, the pain arching into my whole body. I choked on my words and let out a scream. The white shining from Raphtalia's crest stopped. I failed you Raphtalia. I heard my name being screamed before the darkness set in.

Naofumi looked at the collapsed racoon girl, and then looked at the slave trader. "If she's dead you owe me 15 silvers." He walked up to the other girl. She was trembling. "Ariete you said her name was?" He asked. The girl weakly nodded. "What's your name?"

The girl stayed crouched by Ariete, whispering prayers. Naofumi kneeled down next to the girl and checked Ariete's pulse. "She's alive. Ariete will be fine." The other girl gasped and kept her forehead to her sister's hand. "My name is Raphtalia." She said quietly. The trader walked up behind them. "It's time to bond their crests to you." The trader picked up the dish holding the Shield Hero's blood and a brush. "Stand." He ordered. Raphtalia stood up, keeping her eyes on her unconscious sister. The trader brushed Naofumi's blood onto Raphtalia's crest. Raphtalia writhed in pain as her slave crest started to glow. The trader did the same to her unconscious sister.

Naofumi exited the slave trader's shop with Ariete in his arms and Raphtalia behind him. It was dawn and Naofumi decided that there was no where they could go with Ariete still unconscious. Raphtalia followed him to his previous sulking spot under the bridge. He laid the little girl on a sleeping mat. Naofumi examined her for wounds, as well as Raphtalia. They both need medicine he thought as Raphtalia coughed hard. "Are you hungry?" He asked. Raphtalia shook her head, but her own stomach grumbled at the thought of food. Naofumi sighed. "Once Ariete wakes, we can go eat. You can't travel on an empty stomach. We'll also need to get both of you weapons." He gestured for the girl to sit next to her sister, then he sat down.

It was just past noon when I stirred. My body felt unusually heavy, and I tried to sit up. A jolt of pain was sent into my entire lower half and I gasped. My eyes opened, expecting to find myself in a cage, but instead I saw the bottom of a bridge. I cranked my neck to the left and I saw my sister sleeping against an unknown figure. What the hell I thought. The man had one of his eyes closed and the other barely open. My ears heard flowing water to my right. The soreness from the rest of my body returned and I let out a groan. The man's eyes opened fully and Raphtalia started to rub the sleep from her eyes, woken from the motion. "Ariete!" Raphtalia shouted and then threw herself on top of me. Ouch. She hugged me tight, and started whispering to me. "Don't do that again! Don't even think of letting me go without you." She cried into my shoulder and I winced as she held me tighter. "Okay, Okay. Just can you stop suffocating me?" Raphtalia yelped and got off me, now kneeling beside me. Her eyes had tears in them. Despite my body's complaints, I sat up.

"Now Raphtalia, can you explain to me who this is?"