[A/N - TW there will be depictions of assault and rape in this chapter] 

Chapter 3: The grip of desire

After their leader spoke everyone started to move closer to the caravans path, hiding as close as they can for their ambush. Surprisingly no one seemed to be worried about facing danger from the guards in the caravan. Instead they were eyeing one another, some with venom, some with glee, others a simple caution. Sneaking behind the young man the older man who gave a nonsensical lesson the other day. 

He crouches down besides the young merc, gives him a glance waits a few moments and finally speaks "since it's your first time boy I'll be so gracious as to answer any questions you might have before we attack". Emphasizing the gracious part. 

Although the young merc doesn't like the way the old man talks since it feels like he's being looked down on, he still decides to take him up on his offer since everyone and everything they're doing does seem a little off. He glanced up at the eyes of the old man before looking forward at the caravan once again. 

"Tsk... fine I'll bite. How come everyone is acting so off? It's not like its my first time doing a raid so I at least have enough experience to know they shouldn't be this carefree"

"Good question boy, I'm likin you more and more. Anyways the answers simple, cause the little princess said it was safe to attack. Nothin more nothin less"

This caused the young merc to be shocked and quickly look up at the man once again. Noticing that other than a smirk, probably for his reaction he was utterly serious. "What.. Why?" 

Bringing a hand up and pointing at his eyes he responded "It's simple, her eyes are special. So we use her as a final check before we attack anyone. But now now there's one more important thing that you need to figure out... hmm can you guess it"

The young merc was quiet but was able to accept the answer after all this was a strange world with strange things happening all of the time. Looking around to try and figure out what the old man was talking about. Although it was annoying being talked to like this he was smart enough to use it to his advantage and gain whatever he can. So he tried to pick up on whatever clues from around them, and eventually he did notice something odd.

"How come everyone's got some strange symbols or markers that they're keeping ready?" 

In response he saw the old man give a big grin "Good good boy, you already answered it in the question. They're markers so everyone can mark whats theirs as we go about the attack. You see before we used those markers since everyone knew we'd win the fight they'd start celebratin or start fighting each other to the death before we even got done raiding. Which just led to a lot of people dying stupidly. But this way you mark what you want and if two or more mark the same thing they can figure it out later"

The old man decides to let the young merc borrow his marker. "Here boyo I think I'll take a break from this one. Here just poke whatever it is that you want. It's just a little branch carved into a unique shape. The residual sap from the wood will glow softly when on anything other than the tree"

After this the old man just sits down completely. The young merc looks at him quizzically, with a dismissive wave of his hand "Don't worry about it, I'll just skip out this round and just sit back and relax"  

Deciding to ignore the strange old man, he focuses back onto the approaching caravan. Once the caravan got close enough everyone charged at once, there was no signal just a practiced easy that can only come from experience.

The attack was no fight just a brutal slaughter, but that's only pertaining to the guards. The young man noticed that outside of a few people the rest of those in the caravan are kept alive, all being marked. Everything was being marked and claimed. Just like the old man said if more than one person tried to mark something at the same time they'd just grunt and glare at each other for a moment then decide to keep moving on. 

Just like that in no more than an hour they successfully raided everything. Tying up all of their prisoners, taking whatever of theirs they wished to keep. Then destroying, burning, then burying the rest.

After doing that they marched off the trail past an opening and until they finally reached the familiar forest edge. They went back to the familiar camp but now much more boisterous. Although not everyone seemed festive as almost immediately the 'princess' climbed up the tree to hide into it's canopy. But none seemed to pay to much attention to it, as if they were completely used to such things. It seemed to click that the reason they traveled along the tree line was so the little girl can hide away into canopy at night.

The young merc began to look at his surroundings and get a better understanding of how everything worked in this group. He saw some people begin to figure out what to do if they had the same thing marked. Some decided to share, others traded, but most just fought it out. One of these ended with a quick death for one of the people fighting. Everyone cheered and drank while watching this playout apparently people barely died in these fights anymore so everyone celebrated when it happened.

Overtime he noticed more and more people began disappearing from the crowd as well as the number of prisoners chained up. If it was just the women and a few of the others being taken he wouldn't be confused but instead it was an even spread of everyone on the caravan. Women, men, children, families, replacing the sounds of laughing and cheering overtime instead were cry's of pain and suffering. 

Shaking his head he decided to finish his drink, go grab his loot from the pile and turn in for the night. He has never been interested in the things the rest of the band were doing. Although at the same time he felt no pity for them as this is a cruel world and the price for being weak is high. 

As he was stood up to get his things someone called to him. "Hey new guy come here! Most of those other guys are stingy but nope not me look I'll share with the whole group" With that he made an exaggerated wave to whatever was behind him, he had a sadistic confident smile. Unfortunately there were people in the way although he could make a guess about what was happening.

Realizing his mistake he coughed twice and scratched the back of his neck, chuckling he decided to push past it. "Alright I probably should have looked behind first before being so dramatic but come over here let me show you to the game I run after raids" 

The young merc looked at him for a moment then decided to go with him, at the very least it would let him get a little more familiar with everyone. So he just gave the man a nod and started walking with him.

Behind the man was the backs of a few of the men in the band. As they approached he made out the rest, there was a group of 10 or so men forming a loose circle, two of which were having their way with a woman in the center. Although the woman acted like she was having the time of her life it's clear to anyone who saw her that she was dying inside, eyes looking like that of a dead fish with a nonstop flow of tears falling from them. Glancing past the center to the opposite side of himself you could see 3 people bound in chains watching. One of them a middle aged man, most likely her husband if he had to guess, beside him on eithers side was a young girl no older than 9 and the other side a boy who at most was just entering his teenage years. They were all crying, clearly filled with pain and anger but refusing to take their eyes away.

Beside the young merc the man who called him over began talking "Isn't it beautiful, what a family is willing to go through for one another. My family was never like that... anyway you see there's a game to this all. If the woman doesn't seem convincing that she's enjoying this or does something like asking to stop then her family will be punished. The worse she does the greater the punishment for her family. The same applies for the family, if they stop looking then they'll begin beating or breaking the woman. As long as they do a good job for one single week then they'll be set free, I'll even go so far as protect them until we get to the next city. Unlike some of the other chaps I follow through on my promises since games are only fun if everyone follows the rules. So what do you think aren't I generous giving this family a chance to prove how much they care and love for one another"

He was honestly a little caught off guard, even though he considered himself not to be the best of people he was kinda surprised by the ease at which they began to do these things. Afterall this went beyond the normal rape and pillage. He was beginning to understand why the older man told him that this band was different. As he looked at the scene in front of him... he felt strange, he couldn't begin to point out exactly what it was so he ignored it for now.

Looking back towards the man he begins to respond to this conversation. "I don't know if I would call it generosity but to each their own I guess" to this the other man looks at him stunned for a moment before beginning to laugh abruptly, he laughed for a bit before looking at him with a genuine smile "You're right new guy, you fit right in with everyone. This is my thing and I truly believe what I'm doing is kindness. As if they make it passed the week I doubt anything in this world can take them apart. But I didn't invite you here to talk morals, other than trying to spook you for a second the other thing I wanted to do was invite you to have some fun. I'll make it worth your while" Ending his speech with a piece of the dragon empires gold.

Looking at the gold piece he just shrugs grabs the gold and moves towards the center. Others seeing that the new recruit was joining in, they laughed, jeered, and cheered. He ignored all of their reactions, after all the only reason he bothered doing this was for some money he doesn't have any excessive desire for this kind of act.

Once he gets to the center he looks down, seeing the contrasting reaction of how the woman obviously actually feels and the way she is acting, moving, and talking. Combined with the way the father is looking on in fury, tears marring his face helpless to do anything. It causes that strange feeling to comeback but tenfold as sick and twisted to begins to sprout inside heart and grip hold of him. For now nothing more than maybe getting too into it, probably just swept up in the mood. And so the young monster takes his first dip into depravity.

Looking on from a distance the older man who gave the young man the advice sighs while pouring out some of his drink. Bringing it up to his lips to keep drinking he gazes up towards the canopy at the young girl hidden in it's depths. She has no emotions painting her face, throughout the whole day there has been no change in expression from the moment she heard about the caravan all the way until now through all the screams below, and most likely there wont be any changes until non from the caravan are left. 

Looking back down towards the new monster he tried to give advice too he sighed once again and began speaking softly to himself "And so another soul lost into the abyss in their hearts, and another group to the abyss the hides in life... aye princess?"