Emolecipation

No child should be thrown into slavery. Or made to harvest fruit that's covered in poisonous barbs. After five years of this, young Gedov will do anything to escape. He jumps from a slave ship at night and swims to freedom on a tropical island.

A passing ship carries another batch of slaves off to deadly fields, and Gedov determines to set them free. But what can a teenage boy do against a crew of slavers? He needs a squad of trained fighters, but he'll have to settle for a trio of talking moles whose sense of humor is stranger than the islands they've built over the centuries.

The classic tale quoted in the novel Scribes' Descent. A Scribes Series Novella.