I'm stuck on this one point of my plot. My MC has just been chased out of his home by a mob and needs to leave the city fast or they will kill him. To go along with what I have planned later, he needs to get picked up by a slave trader and the trader takes him out of the city. I have no idea why this slave trader would want to take him with him though. I though about having my MC break something of his and he get's taken along to pay the trader back, but that would just cost the trader more in the long run to feed him and such. The wagon is caged to keep the other slaves in, so he can't exactly stow away... To give you an idea of the time period, this is early 1300's Italy, before the Black Plague hits.
Maybe the MC convinces the slave trader that he's somebody important - the son of a duke or something. The slave trader might then be interested in him for ransom value. Or maybe your MC demonstrates some kind of amazing but ultimately useless skill, like some kind of sleight-of-hand trick. The slave trader may think he has value because of his amazing skill. Or maybe your MC speaks several languages and can serve as an interpreter, and therefore is valuable to the slave trader. Use your imagination! Think of something!
My MC is the son of a noble. A ransom could work, wont the trader be disappointed when no one shows up to pay it... Thanks for the help, I'll sleep on this a bit more and hopefully be able to finally write something down tomorrow.
Perhaps the slaver is simply pressed to meet a quota and the MC happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It has happened where a group of slavers would simply push one of their own into the hold so they could make the tide.
What if he just liked the guy? Maybe the MC reminds him of himself? So he takes him under his wing and wants to show him the ropes at slave-trading or something. Also, you could try to pull it off by simply having the MC be baffled by his kindness.
Hello Ziast, Perhaps: as the son of the noble flees his home and is chased by the mob, he is in such a state or was caught unawares that he doesnt resemble a noble at all; but rather, a dirty urchin. Coming across a wagon on his escape trajectory, the slaver, who is loading his slaves in to a cage within the wagon, takes the nobles son to be his property, and promptly shuffles him on to the wagon with the slaves. The nobles son objects, announcing his family name, but the slaver scoffs at his attempt to win his freedom through trickery, and bundles him into the cage and out of the city.
The Slave Trader could agree to letting the noble on board, however there could be a friction of trust, the trader could use this as a chance to get a new slave, by pretending to be friendly to the noble. Although it depends on the plot you have chosen.
If he was a nobles son would he have cash and could just pay him to take him out. After that he could betray him or find him useful as in selling his wares depending on the need of your plot line.
One of the things that helps me is to create a list of possible endings. As soon as you write down all of the obvious and not really good enough endings, your brain will see them there and then be forced to come up with a better possibility.
A slave trader would be motivated by greed, anyone who would traffic in humanity would have to be. If you want your MC to go along with the trader as an equal then all he has to do is pay him, or offer the promise of payment at the end of the trip. It would not be unreasonable to believe that a fleeing person would grab a wad of fungible items/currency before leaving, perhaps even stealing them if the need was that great. The risk of of being caught in a theft during flight would be low so the MC may see the risk as acceptable. The thing to watch out for is getting into a situation where the reader would expect the trader to take the MC as a slave if there is nothing preventing it (status, promise of payment, etc..). The MC will be vulnerable while traveling with the trader so there should be some assurances of safety that are backed by some contingency. Having the MC do labor for the trader would be silly since the slave trader would just use a salve for that task in my opinion. If your MC is going to go along with the trader as a slave then the MC would want to have a plan for getting out of that indenture when they got where they need to go.
So I think I've finally got it planned out. For the first time in weeks I wrote more than two lines! MC has a bit of gold on him so he tries to buy transportation to the next town (not know he's a a slave trader). When the Trader finds out he's a noble and tries to ransom him, only to find the towns people end up paying the trader to take him away. In the end he ends up being thrown in with the other slaves, and that sets the stage for the rest of the plot.
