Legend of Oria 1: Initial Contact Read Online Free Page B

captured Stoneax and his family alive.  Of Stoneax’s 60 warriors, only 20 survived the Susquehanna attack.  The rest died in battle.  They were the lucky ones.
    The Susquehanna were weary from battle.  They tied up their captives, posted several guards and waited for the next day to begin their celebrations.
    The morning of the day after the battle, the waters had mostly receded.  Stoneax, his family, and the rest of the men in the village stood tied standing up to poles.  One by one, the Susquehanna began to beat the men and dance around them.  Occasionally, the bloodthirsty Susquehanna braves would stab or poke hard with a stick one of the constrained Nanticoke warriors.  These blows were never killing blows.  The Susquehanna began to scalp each of the men and set fires around their feet.  Black Hawk saved Stoneax’s family for last.
    Oria, his brothers, and his father watched as many of the Susquehanna warriors took turns raping his mother and sisters.  In the end, they brutally beat his mother and sisters and Oria watched them die a painful death.  The warriors then began to torture Oria, his brothers, and his father.  One of the warriors was having a particularly good time harassing Oria.  He carved big cuts into each of Oria’s arms and his legs.  Oria was repeatedly beat between the legs.  One warrior took burning embers and jammed them into Oria’s eyes and ears.  Oria, his brothers, and his father never screamed in pain from the torture.  It was against the Stoneax tradition.  Towards the end as Oria approached death, one of the warriors took a knife and scalped him.  Oria could feel the warmth of his blood oozing down over his face.
    Life was quickly fading from Oria. The Susquehanna had lit the piles of wood around his stake and he could feel the flames starting to singe his flesh.  Oria was grateful for the life he had had and looked forward to death and the end of his pain.  Just before passing out, Oria heard a loud sound and sensed a bright light through his burned out eyes.  Oria thought that was the end.
    Sometime later, Oria woke up in a small room with strangely dressed men standing over him.  Oria did not feel any pain and was wondering if he had just entered the afterlife. He was quickly beginning to realize that he was not dead, but a prisoner on a vessel which was beyond his comprehension.  The injuries that he had suffered at the hands of the Susquehanna had all mysteriously disappeared.
    Oria’s captors began to pull on him to force him out of bed.  They were yelling at him in a strange language.  Oria had no idea what they were saying.  His captors picked up clubs and beat him.  Oria fought back pinning one of them to the floor.  One of the other men shot something at Oria and he felt his whole body go numb.
    Oria realized that his captors exercised considerable control over him.  They forced him to scrub and clean the ship and to do other chores.  It slowly began to dawn on Oria; I am slave!
    When Oria left his small room, he entered a larger room and saw various dials, flashing lights, and pictures emitting strange displays of lights.  Towards one end of the room was a large window.  Outside of the window, he saw stars.  At that moment, a cold chill ran down his back as he realized that his captors were from the heavens and not from Earth.  Ever since his early childhood, the tribe elders taught Oria that only the spirits lived in heaven and that, those who lived good lives were able to make the spirit journey to heaven.  Oria did not understand much about his current predicament, but he knew that his captors certainly were not good spirits; at least not like any spirits, the tribe’s elders described!
     
    C r eyte Exploration Ship (1 year prior to Hercules departure from Azortec)
     
    Labasto and Shalustra approached the Creyte war ship slowly.  They had just left an Azortec Council meeting a little over a week ago.  In that meeting, they were