I barely have time to register the blade at my throat before I'm roughly pulled back, my head being held tight in someone's grip, completely exposing my neck.

Hearing the brief struggle Hati turns around.

"Mars?". Mars!" she calls out as the driftwood falls to the ground.

"Well have a look at this. You know when we saw the fire we got our hopes up thinking it'd be some more of the crew who'd gotten ashore, but it's just the beasts from below deck!" The man starts monologuing.

"And would you just look at all that cargo they've gone and stolen from the company?" The man acts wounded, gesturing to the pile of crates we'd collected.

"Grenin." another man speaks up, "It's just some wargs, shut up with the theatrics and lets get it over with."

"Alright, fine. Just trying to have some fun, we nearly just died you know? Anyways, we're gonna be needing all of that cargo now, Beast. And I think we'll be taking the both of you back with it." Says Grenin, smirking.

Hati isn't paying much attention to Grenin's words though, as she's just been moving slowly closer this whole time, looking for a chance to attack, but he's finally picked  up on it.

"Now hold it there, beast! You're really in no position to be trying anything when I've got the mutt here. Wouldn't want my hand to slip now, right?" Grenin says, pressing the edge of his blade harder against my throat.

[Damnit! Again with this familiar powerlessness, I'm in a whole different world and I'm still just going to be used and pushed around like this!?  I can't take any more of it, I refuse.]

Hati meets my furious eyes and smirks, stepping back with her hands raised she flashes me her claws a few times, I don't miss the message.

"That'a girl. Go take care of her would you lads?" Orders Grenin And at his signal the two other men start walking over to Hati with some lengths of rope.

Watching Hati quietly obeying, Grenin lowers his guard a little, "That's right beast, you aught to know your place. Now get on the ground."

And that's when I feel his grip loosen. Releasing this rage inside of me, my body moves before my mind as I tear into Grenin's hands with my claws, getting the blade away and trying to ruin his grip on the weapon. He tries to pull away but I bite into his arm, my teeth go to the bone and hold tight, but to maximize damage I try and shake my head around a bit, ruining his arm.

"Aagh! You fucking mutt, get off me!!" He cries out, still not dropping his sword as he tries to pull me off. But I'm holding fast, still tearing away at his arms.

And on that queue Hati makes a move, suddenly leaping onto one of the other men who's attention was on me. She catches him off-guard as she tears her claws through his neck, immediately dropping him, he's out of the fight.

Seeing this, the other two react quickly. Grenin stops trying to pull me off, swapping his sword from one hand to the other as he roughly bashes the back of my head with the pommel, knocking me to the floor and turning his attention to Hati, clutching his arm.

I'm forgotten on the floor as I watch through blurred vision, the two of them closing in on Hati. But she doesn't wait, not wanting the two of them to come at her together she immediately tackles the second man to the floor, tearing into his neck with her teeth. He's probably dead. [Wow, how are the beast men walked all over with that kind of fighting strength?]

The fight's not over though as Grenin catches up from behind, roughly kicking her off his companion, a bit too late. He doesn't stop there though, with his hands mangles he has no choice but to use his legs as he keeps on kicking her.

As my head starts to clear I get to and see Hati clutching her sides, trying to defend herself under Grenin's assault.

Picking up one of the dead men's swords I sneak up behind Grenin as he unleashes kick after kick to Hati's sides, it's sickening to watch.

"you damn mongrel bitch! look what you've Done! Fuck'n beasts need to be put down!" he shouts as he uses both hands to get a grip his sword, about to finish her off.  [Not happening!]

I reaffirm my grip on the sword and thrust, pushing the blade straight through the bastards chest all at once.

Grenin just freezes for a second before he drops his weapon, his hands moving down to the blade poking out his front, almost as if to check if it was real, then just looks at me sadly as his body collapses, tearing the sword from my grip.

[I did it. .]

I only stand there for a second thinking about it, then with my body still shaking from the adrenaline I step over Grenin's bleeding corpse and make my way to Hati

"Oh Mars. ." Hati looks up and sees me trembling, she quickly pulls me in tight and I wrap my arms around her, once again sinking into that soft fur as she winces.

"Easy there cub, it's alright. You only did what had to be done, nothing more." She comforts.  

She's not wrong though, they were about to kill us both. [It was the only way to save Hati], I tell myself. But why do I still feel like throwing up? Maybe it was just the knock to the head. .

After some time in her arms I calm down and get up, walking over to Grenin's corpse I pull out the sword. I also remove his belt and sheath, hoping I can eventually learn to use it properly.

"luckily they weren't wearing any of their expensive looking armour from before, they must have torn it all off when they jumped ship so it wouldn't drown them.", Hati mentions

And it she's right, if they'd had on those hard plated leathers from before then we wouldn't have stood a chance.

"But I guess we should get rid of the bodies now, cub. Don't want to leave them rotting around camp"

"Mmh", I stand and nod, grabbing onto Grenin's heels, and pull.

When we've sent the bodies out to the water we sit by the shallows to clean ourselves up, Hati showing me how to get the all blood out of my fur with some sand and water. It's uncomfortable and feels really gross but it gets the job done, my fur coming out even cleaner than before.

After we're clean Hati throws some water on the fire to put it out, understandably wanting to be more careful after the whole ordeal  And she suggests we get ready to leave in the morning after going through the crates, no point sticking around after all, especially not now.

We lay down and I eventually drift to sleep, once again trying not to think about the things I've done.