Outside the city of Meereen, under the watchful eyes of the bronze Harpy statues lined up on the tall and thick brick walls, the famous monthly market was currently in progress.
All kinds of goods were changing hands, from the most expensive spices of Volantis to the rolls upon rolls of silk from Pentosh, Lorathi furs to jewels from Qarth; everything was available here.
In fact, one could even find products from the faraway land of Westeros if they searched for them hard enough.
But even in this prosperous market, there was a place that stood out from the rest.
In the most prime location, sellers stood on a huge platform and hawked their goods with more enthusiasm than anyone else.
And the buyers here were not the usual merchants and freed men either, but were some of the wealthiest men from the city.
The merchandise being sold here was unique in a way that, while there were very few of them being sold here, the product could be found everywhere in the world.
But even then, if the product was in good enough condition, then they could easily be sold for high prices, with many people fighting for them with enthusiasm.
After all, the price of a 'human life' is well known to change with time and location.
On the large platform in the center, several slaves were made to stand in a straight line naked as the day they were born, so that the buyers could effectively examine the product they were about to buy.
The slaves came in all ages, from fifty-year-old women to ten-year-old boys; there was no prohibition on what could be sold here... as long as there were buyers willing to buy, there would be sellers willing to sell to them.
The so-called 'sellers' were a profession unique to the Slavers' Bay.
They were professional hawkers who took almost ten to as high as thirty percent of every sale they completed, depending on how experienced and well-known they were.
They were experts in praising every single quality of their goods to the heavens so as to get the highest price that they could get.
Next to the platform stood other sellers, with lines of cages filled with humans behind them.
They were anxiously waiting for their turn to sell the goods their clients had procured from the open seas.
Most of these so-called clients were career pirates who made their livelihood by attacking lone vessels and capturing their occupants as slaves, but there were also a few merchants and ship captains there, who usually made an 'honest' living by the day. But when an opportunity presented itself to them, and if their target was weak enough, then they would not hesitate to turn into pirates and attack them to make some gold on the side.
The third one in line today was one such 'honest' captain, and behind him lay three cages filled with their most recent catches.
One cage held a lone 20-year-old man with well-defined features and better-than-average skin, one had two middle-aged women in it, and the last one contained two males, one a thin balding forty-year-old man, while the other was a scrawny young boy with dirty brown hair who looked no older than thirteen or fourteen.
Unlike the middle-aged man who was currently looking at the platform with worry in his eyes, the young lad was showing no such concern as he remained lying on his side with his eyes closed.
But what no one seems to have noticed was that it wasn't by choice... and that the young lad's chest had stopped beating a few minutes ago.
A large bruise on the back of his head was a very clear indicator of the cause of the boy's death.
This should have been the end of the line for this young lad's story, his life taken away from him too soon, like many others in this world.
But fortunately for us, it seems a certain higher power had other plans... as before anyone could notice the boy's sudden demise— his eyes miraculously snapped open with a wild panicked look in them, his motionless chest began beating once again with the power of a wild horse as if it was trying to make up for the time that it had been forced to shut.
"What—Argh!" the boy groaned as he tried to sit up, but then his hand instinctively went towards a bump on his head that was hurting like hell, like someone was hammering a nail into his head, "Where the hell am I?" he asked aloud in a half-confused, half-scared voice.
'Wait! I remember... I-I died, didn't I?'
His name was Gavin, a young freelancer who lived in a second-tier city and worked for software engineers employed at Big Tech companies who felt that they were too rich and smart to do the grunt work involved in the back end for big projects, so he did the labour for them.
His life had been the most ordinary kind, born in a middle-class family as a middle child, who then graduated with average grades from an average university... he was the very epitome of averageness.
The only thing that stood out about him was that he was a loner...
He had no friends, male or female, no co-workers to talk to outside of work, and since he lived in a different city from his hometown, he barely even talked to his own parents, and that too was only when they called him on their own, once a month to check if he was alive.
So, safe to say, he was the kind of person who would leave no mark in the world, and if he was abruptly taken out one day, he did not think anyone would even notice.
Now, if one wanted to ask, how exactly someone so ordinary as him ended up dying... well, then one would be satisfied to know that, unlike his life, his death was actually quite ironic.
You see, like all young people, Gavin, too, was a little disgusted with his own body every time he looked into the mirror and wanted nothing more than to cut it open to take all the trash out.
And while he wasn't fat to the point of being morbidly obese, his sedentary lifestyle and his non-existent discipline towards sweets and fast food meant that his arms were weak and flabby, and his beer belly was very much an eyesore.
That was especially obvious when compared to the Greek god bodies that everyone and their mother were showing on the internet these days.
So it only took him a few of those so-called motivational reels to decide that it was high time for him to join in the hustle and go to the gym.
Now, there was nothing inherently wrong with going to the gym, as it was overall very good for your physical and mental health... that is, if you do it right.
But the thing was, Gavin was someone who had been a couch potato for more than five years and someone who had not gone on a jog even once since leaving college... he was not what you would call a 'normal' unhealthy man.
So on the first day of his gym, when the overly busy trainer asked him to go run on the treadmill for 'just' ten minutes to get his body warmed up, Gavin did not find anything wrong with it.
But sadly for him, he had very much underestimated how bad the condition of his body was... as barely a minute into the run, he began huffing and puffing like a man on his deathbed, his chest and his sides began experiencing a sharp pain as if someone was poking a needle inside his organ, and what was worst was the painful jarring he felt in the bones of his legs everytime they hit the ground.
His body cried at him to stop immediately, but he felt that it would be too embarrassing if he stopped barely a minute into his run, especially considering that there were quite a few pretty females in his surroundings, so he went on despite his body's protest.
And unfortunately for him, while his mind may have been determined, his heart was not...
Unused to experiencing so much stress, it could not handle the sudden onset of this massive workload, and in the end, barely a few seconds later, it chose to resign and give up.
And that is how his life came to an end... and he had assumed that that was it.
But as luck would have it, that had not been it for him.
Because, unlike what his last thoughts were, he was not obliterated, his mind was not reset, and he did not get reborn into his new life as an ant or a bird or something.
Because the next time he opened his eyes, he found himself very much a human... with eyes that could see, two hands that were relatively new and intact, two legs and a decently sized coc—
'Wait! Why the hell am I naked!!'
"Oh, good! You're finally awake," a deep voice abruptly came from beside him, jerking Gavin out of his thoughts.
He looked up to see that there was another man in the cage beside him, who too was wearing nothing, "I was scared you were a goner for a moment, boy... Though perhaps that would have been a kinder end, considering the situation we are in," he muttered the last part to himself while grimly looking at the platform in the distance.
"Wha—Ahem! What happened?" Gavin asked in a dry voice; his mouth felt as if he hadn't had a sip of water in days.
Thankfully, though, his heart was starting to calm down by now, and the throbbing in his head had also lowered to a manageable dull throb, leaving him with enough mental faculties to worry about his situation in this strange environment, so he began by asking the most basic of questions, which would not give away anything.
"Don't you remember, boy?" The middle-aged man asked with a puzzled expression, but then, before Gavin could even open his mouth, he answered, "Ah! Perhaps it's because of how rough those wretches were with you. They did hit you too hard, didn't they?" he said while looking at Gavin's head bump with pity.
'Of course, I don't remember,' Gavin screamed internally while trying to maintain a confused smile on his face, 'I don't remember anything, you strange old man. Damn it! I thought everyone who gets transmigrated at least gets the basic memory package of the person they inhabit. Now, not to mention the package, I wake up completely naked in a fucking cage. What kind of shitty beginning is that?!' Gavin screamed internally, cursing the omnipotent bastard who had stranded him here.
'Ok, calm down. It's not like panicking is going to change anything. I was dead and gone in my previous life anyway, so anything that happens from here on out is just going to be a bonus and an add-on to the experience, so there is no need to whine.
'Wasn't there that one saying that people always used to say, "Forget about what you can't control and focus on what you can," or something like that?'
'So, what is under my control, right now?' he asked himself, and the answer was almost immediate: 'My mouth and my wit, that's it. So I need to somehow use them to my advantage and figure out what kind of situation I am in...'
"Um, where are we?" he asked casually, trying not to let it show that he did not even know who the man was.
"Well, boy, let me tell you the bad news," The unknown man answered in a grave tone, "Our ship was attacked by pirates on the sea, and now we are in Slaver's Bay, outside the city of Meereen, about to be sold off—"
"Wait! Meereen! Y-You mean from Game of Thrones!" he mouth blurted out before he could stop himself.
"Game of Thrones?" The man asked confusedly, "What are you talking about?"
"N-No, nothing!" he said, hastily shaking his head, "but, um, weren't we going to..." he trailed off with a frown as if trying too hard to remember something, but in reality, he was just hoping that the man would answer for him... and he was not disappointed.
"Volantis, yes, we were, but the ship captain we hired as our guide," he glared at a well-dressed man with a hat standing a few meters away from their cage, "Was a cunt, who was in leagues with pirates, and he used out our unfamiliarity with the area to lead us straight into the pirate den, and then... well you can imagine, the rest," he finished with a shrug, and then went back to watching the platform where the turn had come for the person just before them.
'So I have been transmigrated into Planetos, huh,' Gavin mused with a grimace, 'The world of ice zombies, dragons, immortal warlocks, and whatnot, and not to mention the barely existent morality of the people here, who could betray you at the drop of a hat,'
'But wait, since I am in Meereen, maybe I just need to wait for Daenerys to come and free me along with the other slaves, and then perhaps I could join her guards or something... she did, after all, survive until the final season...'
'Wait! What time am I in?'
"Um, do you know what year it is?"
"Year? Isn't it the year 298 AC? But don't ask me about the month, boy. We have been at the sea for so long that I am not even sure if it's spring, summer, or autumn," he grumbled, shaking his head as he began muttering to himself, "And why did we do it? Just so that our master fulfill his wish of wanting to be like his ancestors and travel all the seas, go on a round trip around the world, but..." he then went off on a tangent cursing spoiled brats and their indulgent parents with too much coin on their hands, but Gavin had already tuned him out by this point.
'298 AC, huh? So that means it is around the start of the first book, so there are two or maybe three years before she arrives here if everything went the same... Ah, but who knows in what shape I will be in by then, so there is no point in thinking that far, is there?' he thought despondently, 'I should just focus on surviving being sold first,'
"It is our turn next," The seller said to the Captain beside him, before turning around and surveying the three cages for a few moments, "Let's get this one out first," he said, pointing towards the boy who had the 'luxury' of having a cage all to himself, "You said that he was a noble,"
"Yes. At least, that was what he had told me when he hired me," he replied while looking at the boy with a look of disgust, "The brat had the arrogance of one if nothing else," he scoffed before ordering his men to pull the boy out of his cage, "I can't give you any proof of it, though,"
"No matter, no matter," the seller remarked dismissively as they slowly went towards the platform with their merchandise in tow, "It is not like anyone here has even been to Westeros..."
'A noble from Westeros,' Gavin wondered with narrowed eyes, 'I wonder which family he is from... can't be from the Great house, they should be almost all accounted for—but wait, how can I even understand all of them? Shouldn't they be speaking in Valyrian or something?' he mused to himself with a confused look on his face, 'Did I get a language starter pack or something?'
But he did not have long to think about it, as their turn finally came, and their seller immediately walked onto the platform with the Noble boy from Westeros reluctantly trailing behind him, trying futilely to cover his privates to hold onto some modicum of modesty.
"Your worships and your excellency," The man gracefully bowed towards the masters in the audience before he straightened up and began in a booming voice, "Today I bring you the rarest of products! One that has almost never been seen in these parts of the world. I bring you someone who has been handpicked from a continent located on the other side of the world."
A hush spread through the crowd as people immediately sat up with curious looks on their faces at this interesting introduction, and the Seller did not keep them in suspense.
"I present to you—A Westerosi Noble!" he exclaimed dramatically while waving his hands towards the boy behind him, "A boy who is part of a lineage that had been carefully bred over centuries and centuries. You will not find a finer breed from that place and—"
"I am not just any noble," the boy abruptly screamed, with an angry, humiliated look on his face, "I hail from the noble house of Velaryon! We are the descendants of the dragons. My father will give you—" but that was as far as the boy managed to get before the guards who had been standing below the platform began whipping him with unerring accuracy, making him scream like a pig as he fell onto the ground.
"I-I deeply apologize, your magnificence," the seller said while bowing towards the crowd, sweating a lot at causing such a debacle in front of the noble masters, "I shall work hard to make sure that the boy is properly educated in the future and—"
"It is not your fault," a deep rumbling voice from the crowd interrupted the sellers groveling apology, "After all, this much pride is to be expected from the so-called descendant of the dragon, isn't it?" the speaker was fat man sitting in a luxurious palanquin with a nasty look in his eyes, "Our ancestors suffered quite a bit at the hands of the dragons, so it would be quite a disappointment if their offsprings turned out to be cowards,"
"Er, of course you are right, your worship—"
"Sell him to me," The fat noble ordered in a no-nonsense tone, "Perhaps I shall finally exact some revenge on behalf of my ancestors."
"Of course, your excellency," The Seller immediately bowed with a jubilant look, "He is yours, Master Darraq. I shall immediately have him sent to your mansion."
He was feeling so excited at having a disaster turn into an opportunity that he didn't even bother to negotiate.
Besides, the seller knew that as long as the price he quoted was in a reasonable range, this little bit of money would not even put a dent in the whale's pockets.
"Hmm," The master nodded with a pleased expression on his face.
'What kind of a man outs himself as the descendant of a dragon in front of ghiscari nobles,' Gavin mused with pity on his face, "Poor idiot..."
"What are you talking about, boy?" his cagemate suddenly scolded with an irritated look on his face, "That was our young master, Tylon Velaryon. If he had succeeded in ransoming himself, then maybe we could have been saved too, but now our only chance of leaving this place is completely lost," he stopped as he suddenly began to scrutinise Gavin closely, "Do you really not remember anything, boy?"
"Um..."
"You at least remember me, right. I am your uncle! Uncle Jon! Your Father's brother!" he cried, while bringing his face really close to Gavin, "You can't forget about me, boy. I cleaned your shit when you were little,"
"I-I, of course, I remember you," Gavin let out with a forced smile, while backing away from the naked stranger who had suddenly become his uncle, "You are my Uncle Jon! The one who always used to play with me when I was little."
"That's good, then," his new Uncle said, leaning back with a sigh of relief, "Ah, but it probably would not matter anyway... unless we are very lucky, we will likely be sold to different masters, and then we perhaps will never see each other again," he finished in a glum tone.
'That wouldn't be so bad, would it?' Gavin thought with an unsure look on his face.
On one hand, he should have been happy to stay with this talkative uncle of his, who was like a treasure box that kept giving all kinds of useful knowledge without any prompting, but on the other hand, he was also the only one who was familiar with this body's previous occupant, which made him a very risky person to get close to.
Either way, Gavin did not have to wait too long to find out, as it was finally their turn to be sold...
"Get up!"
Because of their predecessor's rudeness, Gavin and his uncle were subjected to quite a few slaps and hits while being pushed towards the platform, their minders warning them to behave or else...
"Now, for the next part, I have for you a man, who has lived amongst animals his whole life." the seller cried while pointing towards his Uncle, "His skills in the art of rearing animals are so renowned that people all throughout the land of Westeros, nobles and smallfolk alike, come to seek his aid when they need help with their animals and pets,"
'But I just said that I know a little bit about raising horses and other beasts,' Old Jon thought with a mortified look on his face.
Though Gavin was unaware of it, courtesy of being unconscious while it happened, all the slaves had been given a crude interview before being brought here. The seller needed to know the trades that his slaves were skilled in so that they could be sold properly; otherwise, there was no way he would have been able to spout so much nonsense so confidently.
After all, while he could exaggerate, he was not stupid enough to completely fool the masters in front of him.
"Some people even say that the man can talk to beasts in their own language, but who can be sure?" The Seller shrugged as if he wasn't the source of this information, "So if you have animals you want taken care of, then this is the man for you. I urge you not to miss this chance, as it may never come—"
"50 Marks!!" Someone began the bid before the Seller even finished.
"I will give you 55 Marks."
"56 Marks,"
...
There was quite a bit of competition between the nobles, as it seems there was a scarcity of skilled animal handlers here, especially one from Westeros who may have different knowledge than the ones born here.
In the end, a rich noble named Zarraq no Ghraaz managed to buy Gavin's uncle at the high price of 65 marks.
And it seems the seller was in somewhat of a hurry to leave, as a guard immediately arrived at the platform to pay the price for his Uncle and then began to lead him away.
His uncle looked back at him with an emotional gaze while being pulled away, and at that moment, Gavin abruptly realised how much of a comfort it was so to have a 'fellow' Westerosi along with him in this unfamiliar land, but sadly this would likely be the last time he would see his uncle... or at last that was what he thought.
Becuse exactly at that moment, his uncle somehow managed to summon his courage from who knows where and suddenly began shouting at his new master, "My lord! Please buy this boy with me!" he pleaded as kneeled on the ground while pointing towards Gavin whose sale was just about to begin, "He is good kid, My lord, and a hard worker—"
"You wretch!! How dare you speak to the master?!" The guard shouted angrily, as he punched his Uncle to the ground and then began kicking him with all his might as if he were trying to kill him.
"Wait," a soft voice commanded, immediately putting a stop to the guards' brutal beating.\
The one who had spoken was the noble master who had bought his uncle. His eyes, however, were not looking at his injured uncle but instead were closely scrutinising Gavin as if he were a piece of expired food that he was contemplating whether to eat or not.
"How much for him?" he asked after a few moments in a calm voice, his eyes droopy as if even talking was taking too much energy out of him.
"Um, 20 Marks, Your Magnificence,"
"I will give you ten,"
"But..." The seller hesitated at that, as that was too low a price for an intact slave, no matter how young, but then he turned and looked closely at the closely at the scrawny pale thing who looked as if a strong wind could knock him over and made his decision instantly, "Deal!" he bowed, thinking that it was better for for him to get a few coins now than to have none later if he went unsold.
A few minutes later, Gavin and his uncle were once again placed in the same cart... this time without having a cage around them, as there were simply too many guards surrounding the noble to worry about the two rebelling.
"Thank you, Uncle," Gavin said with a grateful smile after he had settled down on the cart.
"No worries," his uncle replied, giving him an ugly smile through blood and broken teeth.
"Don't be so quick to thank him, boy," The cruel guard who had beaten his Uncle so brutally interjected with a scoff, "If you knew what was waiting for you, then you probably would have preferred staying back with the slaver."
'Well, that doesn't sound good,' Gavin thought while exchanging grim looks with his uncle, "Not good at all."
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