(Starting at the events from Chapter 8 and ending in Chapter 16)

The white fox has stopped shaking and has fallen asleep. If she really is young like I think, Mistress will want her. I can't watch that happen again. I need to get her away here. She needs to escape. I have no way to though. The only way is to get the Collar off. Even if I managed to get it off, she would need to run and survive on her own. I would need to escape with her. But I'm just a slave like her. I need a way to change that before its to late. These thoughts consumed my time as the day passed by..

The wagons eventually came to a stop. Master came and took the Minotaur. I wonder what it is they have him do when they take him. I hate the way he smells when he returns. After a little bit Travis came to hand out food and water. I got mine and started eating absentmindedly. I can't figure out a way. It's not really all that surprising. All those years ago all I thought about was escape and its just as impossible now as it was then. I need to change my situation before I can do anything. I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. Travis just woke up the fox and she is looking at me. I decide to wave at her and she raises her paw and try's to wiggle it in response. She's so cute trying to wave. I won't watch her turn into that. I hope Mistress doesn't take an interest in her. I have so much I want to ask her. I mean she is (THUMP, THUMP)

The Minotaur is back and reeking to high heaven again. I can't help but hold my nose. Travis closes his cage then leaves. We will be back in the Capital soon. I think I will lose my chance to save her if we get there. We head out twice every year. Sometimes Mistress comes with us. I don't know why they keep bringing me. I know that they are acquiring many slaves illegally, I just don't know why. They always kidnap the homeless in towns. They will buy and sell some of us in the city's and towns we come to. I think they do that just to cover the fact that they are enslaving others illegally. All of us have forged documents. Sometimes they raid a entire village and grab some survivors, like me, my brother and..   They haven't done that in awhile. 

I hear footsteps and voices approaching from outside. It's Mistress's voice. I can't hear what they are saying. Soon Travis comes into the wagon and opens the Fox's cage. I have a bad feeling. This is just like what happened before. He tells her to follow him outside. She hesitates a little then glances at me. I was lost in my memories so I don't know what happened. I just know she was gone when I snapped out of it. I heard some yelling outside that sounded like Master. After an hour Master and Travis were near the back of the wagon talking.

"So what do you think will happen?" Travis asks.

"I bet it will be the same as the bunny. She will keep her and turn her into a pet." Master guesses. 'No'

"God damnit! Why cant I ever have anything?" Travis curses. "And that meat tonight was shit. We need a hunter again, these guards are shit at it." He complains.

"Well, Ol' Henry died 2 months ago. We have to deal with it until we can get home." Travis said and I heard footsteps retreating. 'They need a new Hunter?'

 I starting thinking things over again, only this time I came up with a plan. I stayed awake as long as I could waiting. Before I knew it, I has fallen asleep and it was morning. The fox was never brought back. It's happening. We were let out to use the bathroom and clean. When I finished I didn't head back into the wagon. It's exercise day. They force us to keep up with the wagons all day. Except for Hanz. He has to clean the wagon. I'm just waiting for Master to come by. I think this is my chance. I need to change my position. I need to become the new Hunter. Here comes Master now.

"Travis everything ready?" Master asks while walking up to Travis. The other guards are ahead protecting the other wagons. They don't need to watch us.

"Yea', were good to go." Travis grumpily says. I take the chance and walk up to them.

"M-master can I become the new Hunter for the caravan?" He turns to me and I can see he is a little stunned. From my question or that I spoke I don't know. Travis suddenly seems outraged. 

"How dare you!" Travis says and raises his hand to hit me. I retreat from him and he steps forward towards me.

"Wait!" Master yells at him then addresses me. "Why?"

"I-I know that I will soon be sold to the mines. I don't want to go there, so I want to be useful. I want to stay with the caravan and be it's Hunter." I lie. "Please Master." I plead. I don't need to fake my tears.

"Why are you even listening to this thing?" Travis asks. "Just let me break her leg and make her keep up." Travis says with an evil grin. This causes me to shudder.

"No" Master says thoughtfully. "This may actually be a good idea. We wouldn't be able to make her the same as John, but she could be a great Hunter if we train her up. She's been around for years and we haven't been able to sell her. I'll pass this on to Miss Kira. I like it" Master says. 'Yes!' Travis just groans and glares at me. 

"T-thank you, Master." I say as I hurriedly retreat to stand with the other slaves. 'This has to work!' 

Eventually Mistress came out for breakfast and to use the bathroom and clean. She always has a little area with screens set up for herself. Master approaches her once she is done. They stand there talking for a moment then he points in my direction and I see her look at me. She looked at me with a cool calculating gaze. Then she turned back to Master and I saw her nod. Then they talked for a little while longer then separated. The oxen were attached to their wagons and the guards mounted their horses. I have to run to keep up with the caravan. I stay near Anna normally. If we don't keep up with the Boundary line it will just drag us along behind the caravan. I've seen it happen a few times. They never lived through it for very long. The only ones who did live, only fell behind a short time before we would stop for the night.

I actually love the days we are let out to run and I'm not the only one. The harpy probably enjoys it the most as she soars through the air making an odd chirp here and there. There are also those that hate it though. Every now and then I cast clean to bring a little water to my hand from the surroundings to drink. Its a nice day for this. Not too hot. When we finally start to slow down for the night i'm exausted. Some of the other slaves are just barely stumbling along. Travis rides next to us and tells us to sit next to the wagon. We all move over and sit down. I sit next to Anna she doesn't seem to notice me. She is almost always sad. Everyone starts setting up camp. I see John climb up onto the storage wagon and start his watch. 

Then I see her. Mistress just came out of her wagon and behind her was the white fox-kin. She was barely walking along. Her hair had been cut short. The left side of her face was swollen and bruised. Her eyes were droopy and bloodshot. She looks like she has been crying non-stop since i last saw her. She looks just like Naomi did. Mistress is going to twist her into something unrecognizable just like she did to Naomi.

I hear a (Smack) and it brings me out of my thoughts. I focus and I can see that Mistress has hit her and she is on the ground. I see blood start to run down her chin and tears fall from her eyes. Mistress says something I cant make out and points where some rocks are. I don't have a lot of time. Mistress didn't take long to break Naomi. I see her look where Mistress pointed for a good while. Mistress waited then walked away towards the fire to get her food. She was almost knocked out by that slap. I watched her struggle to stand on wobbly legs and walk towards the rocks. Travis is handing out the food to us. I get mine and start to eat it. My mind is once again trying to figure out a way to get her out. A faster way. Mistress has a key. Master has a key. Rastlin has keys..

She has come back from using the bathroom and cleaning rather fast. 'Why would she return so fast? Maybe she was afraid to stay gone for too long.' I watch as she follows Mistress into the wagon, but she barely walks in when Mistress hits her again. She almost fell right back out. I hear Mistress yell something at her. I can see her unfocused eyes lock on to me. As they start to clear, I see her mouth move then she clung to the door frame to be able to get up and then she shut the door. I feel something tug on my hand and I look over. Anna has grabbed my hand and is pulling me down. At some point I must have stood up. My hands hurt and i'm shaking. I've dug my nails into my palms. I force myself to sit down and calm my ragged breath. These is bringing back all those memories. I can't stand to see this happen again. I refuse to let it.

I realize I no longer have my bread in my hand. I look around for it. Anna must have figured out what I was doing because she said "Rebecca took your bread." Of course. I find Rebecca and see that she is indeed still eating. Nothing I can do about it now.

Suddenly the door to Mistress's wagon opens and she steps out and around the wagon out of my sight. The girl follows her. Her left eye is now completely swollen shut and blood is covering her face and dripping down her body. They stay back there for about ten minutes then I hear Mistress cry out. I see Master start to hurry over towards Mistress's wagon then stop. Mistress came back from around the wagon holding the girl in the air by an ankle. She was unconscious dangling there. Mistress walked back into the wagon with her and closed the door. I felt someone tugging me. I have stood up again. I see Travis walking up to me. I'm going to get in trouble.

"What's your name again?" Travis asks

"Faye" I tell him for the thousandth time. I'm too angry to care about my tone of voice.

"Right, you will be standing watch with John from now on." He says then spits almost hitting me and walks away.

"Why" I ask and he stops.

"Didn't you say that you wanted to be a Hunter? Well, who did you think would be teaching you? Dumbass" Then he walked away. 'It worked? I'm going to be the new Hunter?' I can hardly believe it.

I turn to look at John. Travis called the rest of the slaves into the wagon. I stood up and hesitated. I have never actually interacted with John before. I have heard others say that he has been a slave to Mistress's family his entire life. That he has never been free. I also know that he is the best fighter we have. He is worth 10 of the others. I get myself to move towards his wagon and climb onto the drivers seat and the roof from there. John was staring out at nothing. He didn't even turn to me. 'I have to do this.'

"H-hello." I hesitantly say.

"Hey" His voice is like gravel. I feel goose bumps form on my arms. "So you want to be a Hunter, huh? Have you ever even hunted before? Ever track something down?" 

"N-no." I admit.

"I didn't think you did." He sighs. "We will start tonight. I'll teach you to identify and track animals, monsters and everything else you will find out there every night from now on. It should be rather easy for you, considering you are a Fox-kin. I'll teach you to use a bow and how to set traps too, so you can kill what you find." He tells me.

"I-I already know how to use a bow. Its what Master made me use when he took me to level in a dungeon." I tell him.

"Oh? Did he show you how to use it? or did he hand it to you and tell you to use it?" John inquires.

"The l-latter." I say.

"Then you don't know how to use it. I will teach how to use a bow properly. Is that understood?" He asks.

"Yes" I confirm. "But can you really leave your watch like this?" 

"Those two will be replacing me while I teach you until you are good enough." He pointed out two people I didn't even notice before.

"If you know how to hunt so well then why aren't you doing it?" I ask him the obvious question

"Do you not want to be a Hunter for the caravan?" He asks with a laugh. Then says "Lets go" Then jumps off.

"Okay" He clearly isn't going to answer me.

My night passed with John teaching me all kinds of things. It turns out that I was quite good at tracking, but he wasn't surprised by this. He was surprised at how fast I picked up on what he taught me about the bow. Though I wasn't very good at making the traps he showed me. He isn't as scary as I thought he was and he isn't mean to me. Maybe its because we are both slaves. But he doesn't even talk down to me because i'm beast-kin. Even Anna does most of the time. When we got back I was pretty much sleep walking. I was still going to be staying in my cage during the day and I had already used the bathroom and cleaned so I headed for the wagon.

I didn't even get the chance to think about how to get her out of here any further. I was too busy learning all these new things and now i'm tired. I eat the bread that Travis tosses me then I fall asleep.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

I wake up to Travis opening my cage door. 

"Go on, get. Join John on the wagon"-Travis

I make my way out and up the wagon like last night. John has two bowls and two mugs with him tonight. 

"Here." he says pointing to one of the bowls and a mug. "That's your food tonight." wow.

"Uh, Thank you." I say

"No reason to thank me. Its to keep your strength up. Tomorrow we will make it to a village that has dungeon nearby. I'll be taking you there to level up. You will be getting a Slave Seal as well." John informed me. 'A Seal? Why?'

"Is Mistress really doing all of this to make me a Hunter for the caravan?" All of this is too farfetched. I mean yes she leveled me up a little that one time, but.. idk, something just feels off.

"Well, its for you and that new plaything of hers. Miss Kira will be giving her a Slave Seal as well as bringing her to the dungeon to level."John tells me. "That's why you will be getting your Seal, since there will be leftovers from hers, it works out." I perk up at this. I had forgotten Mistress also leveled Naomi. She is moving faster this time. I don't even know if it will work on a White Fox-kin. The myth's that mom told me never really went into any details, but I can't rely on any of that.

"Oh" I respond. I'm already lost in thought. We will both be in the dungeon together? This may be my chance!

"W-who else will be coming with us? To the dungeon?" I ask.

"Two guards and James too." John says turning his head to look at me. "Why?"

"Uhh, n-no reason. just curious." I stammer

 John is looking me dead in the eyes. His eyes look so cold. He just continues to look at me for awhile then turns away. 'He cant know, can he?'

"We will head out after the camp settles." John states. "Also use this to cover yourself" He said throwing me an old blanket. "I don't like naked little girls laying next to me." I take it thankfully and cover myself.

I eat my food and settle down. As i'm waiting I see Master and the Minotaur head for Mistress's wagon. The Minotaur goes in alone with Master standing at the side. Is this where the Minotaur goes? She can't be torturing him. I wonder what is happening. I know it isn't sex. It would never be interested in that with a Human. After some time it comes back out and Master leads it to where the oxen are. It starts to mate with one them. I've heard of this before, but I didn't know if it was true. Apparently If they don't mate frequently enough they will go into a rage and eventually die and even Demi-humans like him need to be even a little bit attracted to whomever or whatever it is to mate. I look away when I see light come out of Mistress's wagon.

Mistress comes out with the girl behind her. I can see that she is favoring her right side. It's almost completely black and blue. Her face is a mess. Her wrists are bleeding. I don't even know how she is walking. Her legs are constantly twitching. Mistress walks away from her. The girl looks at me and waves. I wave back at her a little. Suddenly she gets a big toothy smile on her face and waves a little more enthusiastically. Tears are starting form in her eyes. I think she may be trying to cheer me up? She is smiling through her pain for me, a stranger. I'm actually starting to feel even worse seeing her smile through her tears. 'I'm going to save you.' I promise her and myself. 'I will save you.' I hear John shuffle. I turn to look at him. He is just overlooking the road like always, only, I notice his hand is griping the pommel of the sword in his lap hard enough to break it. I can actually hear it cracking.

"A-are you okay?" I cautiously ask him. It takes him a few minutes to respond. His grip doesn't loosen.

"You know that i'm a slave under a Slave Seal, correct?" I nod at him. "I cant help you. The only thing I can do is what im told to, and I've been told to train you. I'm going to do that to the best of my ability. Everything else is up to you. I will train you how to survive and hunt, and in the dungeon i'll teach you to kill."

"W-w-what are you saying? Everything else is up to me? W-what everything?" There is no way he knows what i'm planning. I haven't said or done anything. He turns to me with a look of ridicule on his face.

"I see a lot of things kiddo. I haven't seen you react to anything in years to the way you do to that girl. Not since that little friend from your town. I can tell from the look in your eyes that you wont be watching this time around." He declares.

"W-why? Why would you suddenly want to help me?" I question him. This is to hard to believe.

"Why are you willing to help her? You have been with us for so many years, yet now, all of the sudden, you are willing to risk the only thing you have left, your life?" John shoots back. "I'm sure you have your reasons, just as I have mine." I don't know what to say to him. I don't even truly know why i'm doing this, but I don't need to. I feel my heart ache when I see her injuries and an anger burns inside of me when I see her being hurt. That's reason enough. I haven't felt anything for such a long time and I don't want to lose that. And he's right. I wont watch it happen again.

I look back over at her she has just started walking back from relieving and cleaning herself, only.. she is still dirty. 'Why didn't she clean?' She is covered in dried blood and dirt. Mistress is going to punish her for not cleaning. She walks right up to Mistress, but Mistress doesn't look angry at all. I don't understand. They then walk over to the side and Mistress begins to wash her.

"What?" I accidentally let out. John hears me and looks over. I hear him grunt. It sounded like it was in disgust.

"I heard from James that the girl had never been taught the cleaning spell." John volunteered.

"H-how can that be?" The mystery of this White Fox-kin is just getting deeper.

"Don't know." John says.

"Do you know her name?" I would really like to know her name.

"James said something along the lines of that she refused to say what her name was." Even more mysterious.   

"D-do you know where she came from?" I venture for any information.

"She fed them some bullshit about there being a village in that patch of woods we were camping near when I caught her." He told me with a booming laugh.

"That's right. You're the one who captured her. Why suddenly help me free her?" I question him. None of this adds up.

"I didn't have a choice in that. It's set in my instructions to kill or capture anyone that enters our camp at night. There was nothing I could do. You don't know what a Seal is like until you have one." he says.

"Is it true you have always been a slave?" I want to know. 

"No." is all he said. I don't think he's wants to discuss it further.

This entire time I was watching Mistress wash her. They both seemed to enjoy it. It made me sick and angry. I think i'm starting to understand how Mistress twisted Naomi. I bet even is she didn't know clean she would still wash her herself. 

"So i guess i can't ask you for a key then, right?" I asked John.

He let out a belly laugh and said "No, no i cannot. But i can tell you your best shot at getting one is in Old Rastlin's wagon tomorrow. He keeps them in one of his desks, I don't know which one." I'm not sure what to think about John. A part of me is afraid that he is going to tell Mistress what i am trying to do. I just don't understand why he is helping. All this time he has never helped me before. Not even Naomi. But for some reason my heart, it tells me to trust him.

Soon everyone is asleep other then the two guards to cover the watch for John.

"Lets head out. I have a lot to teach you in a limited time." John says jumping from the wagon.

"Right." I say following, but climbing down. True to his word he taught me even more things tonight, but this time it was more about some healing herbs for poison and hiding my tracks. How to stay hidden. He also gave me a list of things to practice and learn in the future. It was another long night and i felt the pressure weighing on me more and more as moon after moon set.

When the night was over and we were heading back John said-

-"Don't worry, you should still have a day or two left while in the dungeon and i'll teach you about combat in there. For now focus on getting a key." He consuls me. I must look worried. "Remember everything I've taught you tonight. If you succeed you will need to keep on the run, but we won't chase you forever or even that far. Even if you just cross into another country you will be fine from having to worry about us coming after you. Both of you will always have the Seals around your necks unless you get it removed. Which costs 10 times more then the Seal itself. So you will need to be careful around others or be marked as runaway slaves. It wont be easy." He tells me "Also when you try to escape try to do so unnoticed. I won't be on watch while in the safe zones at night. Don't waste any time and run. I will be sent after you when they discover you are gone. I can try to drag my heels as much as I can."

"Thank you, John. For all of this. Whatever the reason." I tell him sincerely. He doesn't say anything else. I go towards the slave wagon to get as much sleep as I can.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

I wake up to John shaking me awake. He has some dried meat in his hand and a cup of water.

"Time to get you some armor. Nothing fancy since you are going to out grow most of it within the first day anyway." He jokes.

I look around to see which Slaves they are trying to sell in this town. Rebecca and Anna are gone as well as a few others. I'll kind of miss Anna. I can't even tell her goodbye. One way or another I won't be back here again. I eat and drink what John brought and follow him out towards the storage wagon. On the way we run into Master. He tells us to do what we are already doing. We go in into the storage wagon. I follow john and he throws a shirt and pants at me along with a belt. They are just stupid baggy on me. I have to roll up the sleeves and pant legs just to move. he then gives me leather plates to strap to myself. I suspect he is giving me enough for two people. One set for me and one for her.

He finally stops strapping things to me and he hands me a bow i'll be able to use, if just barely. I'll grow into it as we advance into the dungeon. Master has just been moving things around a lot. I think he was trying to organize this mess and failing. As we exited the wagon we bumped into Mistress and mystery girl. Mistress and Master start talking to each other. I'm just looking at her. She is looking at me with a silly grin on her face looking at my armor. I can see that a good amount of her wounds have been healed. They must have given her a healing potion. This is a good development. If she isn't as injured then the chances of getting away are even higher. I just need to get that key.

Suddenly she gives me a big smile and waves.

"Hi Faye" She says. It pulls me out of my thoughts and i smile a little. I can't help it. 

"Hi" (SMACK) I start to say when Mistress rounded on her and slapped her to the ground. John grabs my hand and starts pulling me away. I should be thankful Mistress isn't paying attention to me.

"Thank you, John." i say.

"Don't be stupid and ruin the slim chance you have." He hisses at me. He's right. I need to get the key. That's what i can do.

"John wait out here." Master says as we walk into the wagon. It reeks in here. 'Oh gods' There are so many desks. Master walks up to Rastlin who is messing with something at another desk further in. I head straight for the nearest one to me on the left. I open the top drawer. In it is weird instruments. I close it and move on. I end up searching the whole desk and I didn't find a key. I can hear Rastlin complaining about Mistress being stupid. Something about trying to create a stronger Seal without the proper ingrediants. I get to the next desk over and start opening the drawers. The first one has weird jars with things floating inside. I shut it and keep searching. I'm becoming frantic. 

When i started to reach out for the last drawer in this desk i heard Master call for me to come over. 'No! i need to find it.' I look over and neither Rastlin or Master are looking at me. I finish reaching over and open the last drawer. No. No key. I go over to Master. I failed. Master then reached to his neck and pulled on a chain. On the end of it was a piece of metal. Its the key i've been looking for. He removed my Collar then we completed the Seal Magic. I felt a searing pain encircle my neck. Rastlin looked at my neck and Masters wrist and grunted then told us to get out. Master put my Collar back on. He headed out ahead of me. I have one more chance. One more drawer. I look back and see that Rastlin is sitting down reading something. I move to my left towards the opposite side I searched before. This desk has a small drawer in the middle at the top. I reach it and pull it open. It's completely empty. 

I don't know what to do now. All of my plans were hinged on getting a key from here. When I get out of the wagon John shoots me a questioning look. I shake my head no. His eyes briefly flash in anger at me. I know, I failed. Where were the keys? What could I have done? I checked two full desks. We are walking over to the horses. When we get near, Mistress walks up to me with the Control rod for the Collars. She unbinds it from my Collar. She does the same for mystery girls. Then hands it over to Travis. I move over to stand near her. Suddenly she reaches out and grabs my hand. She scared me a little. 

"Hi Faye" She says to me. "I've been wanting to talk to you for awhile." Those simple words broke the dam in me. My eyes opened up the floodgates.

"I'm sorry" I almost sob at her. It just comes out of me. I feel so defeated right now.

"Uhh.. what are you sorry for?" she asks me while bringing up her other hand to hold me as well. She is still trying to comfort me. I can see her eyes starting to mist up. She is doing it again. Just like when she smiled through her tears.

"I f-failed." I confess to her. "I didn't get it. Now there is no way, no way for me to get you out of here." Her eye's widen into complete circles when she hears me. Mistress comes over to us and Binds us to another Control Rod. She says something then walks away. I see everyone start to ride away so I hurry after them. I know I can't give up, but I don't know what to do and my emotions are running out of control.

"So umm.. Faye. What did you mean by all of that?" I hear her ask me after an unknown amount of time. I need to tell her everything.

"I-I couldn't find the key." I begin. "The only way to get away is to get the Collars off or get the Control rod. The Control Rod is out of the question, but there are a few keys. Mistress has one along with Master, Rastlin and John. Only Rastlin should have more then one. When I was in his wagon I tried to find one, b-but-" I lose my ability to talk. I'm trying to wipe away my tears when I feel her tugging on my shirt.

"Faye its okay. Please stop crying. It'll be okay." I hear her say. Did she not understand what I just said?

"How will it be okay?! I have to get you away from h-her!" I yell at her. Does she really think that she is okay? Has she already been so manipulated? Twisted into Mistress's pet?

She then shushes me. No. I refuse to think that its already to late. I look around and realize what I just said way to loudly.

"Oh" I gasp. We are falling behind and I hurry forward. Thank the gods no one heard me.

"So all we have to do is get a key then, right? We have three of them in front us." She says to me. She is right in a way. It's not over yet. I don't know how she can be so positive. I wont give up either.

"Yes, that's true, but Mistress's isn't possible to get. John probably doesn't even have his with him since its unnecessary for him to. Master's.. well it would be possible, but we would need a miracle to get it." I think it over seriously out loud.

"We can just wait until another time, right? We just have to bide our time until we can get a key." I need to tell her the truth.

"N-no." I start. "We would still need to escape and the dungeon is the best possible way. The only way. I was going to look for the opportunity inside to sneak you away, but with the Collars on we won't be able to lose them. Mistress only has to stay put and our range will be limited. They will easily catch us. Even if it is a maze floor." I explain.

"Mistress said that she would always know where I am after that weird magic ritual thing. Did you have a plan for that? Also, can't we just wait until we go to another dungeon?" I can't help but sigh inwardly. She doesn't seem to know very much.

"That is the effect of the Slave Seal. It links you to her, but just barely. I have one now too with Master. It doesn't work the way it should because we are Beast-kin. We are free to run and the further we are the better. As for another dungeon, that could be years. I'm going to this one because they are leveling me to be a permanent hunter for the caravan. You are here because Mistress wants you to grow bigger. Neither of us is ever likely to come back into a dungeon together." I clearly inform her of our situation.

I need to find a way to get a key from one of them. I'll ask John when I get the chance. We have entered a forest and are now bunched up together. I can no longer talk to her. I didn't even get the chance to ask her name.