Caught and Released

Another

 "Wait, what do you want me to do?"

"Just speak with him. Try to explain that no one here will hurt him. We want to help him, but we cannot do that if he will not let us."

"Ok, I think I can do that."

"Thank you, Daniel. You are really helping everyone by doing this." Amarvus ruffled his hair.

They went to the doors to another room, meeting with someone at the entrance. "Daniel, this is Ghantin. He is the caretaker of the person you are going to speak with today."

"Hello, it's nice to meet you."

Ghantin gave him a tired smile. "It is a pleasure to meet you as well. Thank you for helping me. I have not been able to go near him without him lashing out. Be careful, alright?" Daniel nodded. "Oh, and will you give this to him?" He handed Daniel a bottle, "He barely eats what I leave him."

"I'll try."

"Thank you."

"Yell for me if you need anything, alright? I will come and get you if something goes wrong." Amarvus was clearly nervous about this.

"I'll be fine. I'll let you know if anything happens," Daniel gave him a reassuring smile, then turned to face Ghantin. "Ok, I'm ready."

Ghantin opened the first of two doors leading into the room. Daniel walked in and heard the door close behind him. The second door opened before him a moment after the first one closed. The room was a bit of a mess, with everything strewn about the room.

"Hello? Is anyone in here?" Daniel took a few steps into the room, hearing the second door close.

"Who's there?" A ruff voice called out. He saw a face peak out from behind the bed. "Oh no, they got another one?" A guy a few years older than Daniel emerged. "How did you get here? Did you find a way out? How did you get past the monsters?"

"Uh, yeah, about that..." Daniel was trying to decide whether he should tell this guy or not.

"What, did they follow you? Did they hurt you?"

"Well, they kind of sentmeinheretotalktoyou."

"Pardon?"

"They, uh, sent me to try to talk to you. Oh, this is for you." Daniel held out the bottle towards the man. He just stared at him, dumbfounded. He started backing away.

"Wait, you're with them?"

"Well, they're not so bad. Your guy is actually pretty worried about you."

"Why would he be worried?"

"Uh, I think that's their job? I'm not entirely sure. From what I've been told, we were illegally abducted. And they're supposed to catch those people and take us back home. And if your guy is anything like mine, I'm sure he really wants you to be ok."

"So we're just supposed to believe them? Believe that they weren't the ones that took us in the first place? After how horrible we were treated, we're supposed to just take their word for it?"

"Well, what else am I supposed to do? They haven't done anything to hurt me. If anything, they've been doting on me. I think our best bet is to go along with this- at least for now." The man seemed to think this over. Eventually, he came to a decision.

"Ok, I'll... talk with them. But I'm not making any promises." He seemed guarded and a bit nervous.

"Ok, I'll see if I can get them to come in here. Oh, I'm Daniel by the way."

"Nathen."

"Nice to meet you, Nathen." Daniel walked over to the doors. "Amavrus? Can you come here for a minute?"