'Hell yes! I'm like Forrest Gump! If he was a quadruped that is. But goddamn, I can run like the wind!' I could really get used to this. I feel... free. I just need Faye to yell out 'Ruuun Yuna! RUN!' Maybe I can talk her into it one day so I can die of laughter. I'll have to teach her a Southern accent too. I guess I'm stuck with Yuna as my name. I was kind of hoping it would have been blank again after coming back.

I get to Faye in no time at all. I know i'm in a hurry, but I feel like I arrived too soon. I just want to run some more. I'm not even tired. I must be nocturnal. Or, its the adrenaline from watching a man burned alive and running for my life... either or. Faye actually has her eyes open. I run right up to her still breathing out of my mouth. That can't be pleasant. I shut it and breath through my nose like a normal fox.

"Where did you go?" She asks in a weak voice. 'How does she expect me to answer her?' I just lick her face and then start to switch back. {Fox-kin Form}

 

When I regain my senses her eyes are closed again. (sigh) I wanted to ask her what direction we should go. I pull my shirt back on. Then look through my inventory real quick looking for pants.... you got to be fucking shitting me. 'No Pants! All of this shit and I don't have any pants?'

"Fuck!" I take out another shirt and tie it around my waist making a pretty shabby looking skirt. 'Does this count as my first piece of female clothing?'

 

I sit down next to Faye and activate my Heal spell again. I don't know if it will do any good for her, but it cant hurt. I use it until I start to feel the headache creeping up. I look up at the Horse.

"Thank you for staying." I say "Can we ride you for a little longer?" I ask. The horse just neighs at me and throws its head.. I don't know what that means. I'll just assume its a yes. I take out one of the apple looking fruits and hold it out to him? her? I haven't looked. It sniffs it then eats it out of my hand. "Cool."

I pick up Faye and struggle to get her to sit on the horse correctly then climb up next to her. Its very awkward because she is bigger then me. I reach around her forcing her forward so she is laying along the horse with her arms on either side of its neck. I lay over top of her and try to grip its neck with my hands while reaching around Faye to hold us there. Her tail is rubbing against my face. Its so soft.. Now I'm waiting for the horse to stand back up.

 

It goes a lot better this time. I was gripping its mane with one of my hands. Now that we are up I was going to readjust Faye so that she was leaning against me, but she looks comfortable laying there. I'll just focus on keeping her balanced. The "skirt" isn't helping me at all. This horse has some rough hair...

'Aren't assless chaps a cowboy thing? How the hell do they do it?'

Meanwhile, I direct the horse around the town walls. I'm hoping that there is a another road heading out of the town on the other side. I ask the horse to pick up speed a little. It takes off at a gallop... the ride has gotten alot worse, but I know its necessary. 'Bear with it ass!' I try to encourage my butt. We have to run away.

 

We come up onto a road and I tell the horse to head down it. Fast. I don't think we need to avoid the roads necessarily. Yes, we are slaves, but who's to say we aren't on an errand or something? Probably the fact that all of us (Horse included) are covered in blood.. but I still think its the fastest route.

 

I'm starving and i'm thristy. I'm tempted to eat one of the fruits, but what if one is poisonous? Just because this horse thing could eat one doesn't mean I can. 'What was it that dogs can't eat? Grapes or something?' I take out the jerky and munch on it. I keep one hand on Faye. Actually she doesn't look very comfortable anymore now that we are galloping along. I put away the jerky and lift her up against me, struggling to keep my balance. Now that she is leaning on me I can't see anything ahead. Wonderful.

__________

"God this sucks." I wanted to use this time to look at my status, but I have to put all my concentration in maintaining my balance as this horse tears ass (my ass!) down the road. (Sigh) I guess there will be a chance later. Faye matters more then my curiosity.

__________

You know, I just did a whole lot of sneaking and stealing, but no notifications came up telling I gained any skills. I wish I could still talk to that Laptop.

__________

"Whoa there!!" I hear a voice yell out. 'Shiit! I can't see anything!' The horse starts to slow down. 'What the fuck horse?!'

"No! Keep going!" I half hiss, half yell at the Horse. It ignores me and slows to a trot, before coming to a stop. I hear something ahead of us. I lay Faye back down along the horse and look up. There is a wagon being pulled by two oxen with 3 men and 1 women on horses blocking our way.

I see looks of shock on their faces. 'Maybe they didn't know I was sitting behind Faye?' They look to be heading the direction I came from. I look up and see that the moons have all set.. the sun should be rising any minute.

"Are you alright Lass?" calls out the same voice. Its the man sitting in the drivers seat of the wagon. He has a big red bushy beard. He looks very.. stout.

"Yes. May I pass?" I reply curtly. I just need to keep moving. I can't sit here talking with random people.

"Are you sure? I mean.. there's so much blood." He asks with a voice full of doubt. I look at the other guards to gauge if I can just go around them. I try to nudge the horse to go. It turns its head to look at me.

"Go! We have to keep moving!" I urgently whisper to it. It neighs at me and starts to move off to the side of the road to go around.

"What's going on Honey?" I hear a women's voice come out of the wagon.

"There's a couple of girls out here on a horse. They're soaked in blood." He answered. I heard a creak and I looked over. A women in a green dress opened a door on the side of the wagon. She was tall and elegant. She looked out of place here. She has blonde hair.

"They are slaves." She says. When I heard that I panicked and urged the horse to move faster. 'I should have tied some fabric around our necks! I'm so dumb!'

"Wait!" The women called out. 'I'm Not waiting for anyone.' I start to pick Faye back up in preparation for when the horse starts galloping. Unfortunately for me when she called out, the guards moved out in front of us blocking our way.

"You're going to run that horse to death like that!" The man yells out at me. I look at the horse, but it seems fine. I urge the horse towards the open plain. If they wont let us use the road we'll just head out there.

"Are you crazy!?! Stop!" I ignore them and push the horse forward. I hear Faye groan then she opens her eyes and looks around. She first looks back at me then at what's behind me. Then turns to see where we are going. She suddenly jerks forward grabbing the horses neck.

"Don't! We can't go out there!" the horse stopped at her words.

"Faye they won't let us pass! We don't have a choice. We're still not that far from Mistress!" I desperately whisper to her. "We have to keep moving!"

She turned back to me and must have seen something in my eyes. She readjusted herself so that she was facing towards me. Then she just hugged me.

"It's going to be alright."

{POV FAYE}

I remember waking up a few times. The longest was when I was laying down next to the horse in a open field. I was sure I had died. The wound on my stomach was gone. I was very tired though. Then I saw flashes of light and looked over. I saw a camp that I know all to well. The flashes were coming form it. I looked around and saw the walls of the Village. 'Did I survive? What happened to my wound?'

As I lay there trying to figure out what happened a Silver Fox came sprinting up to me. 'Its so pretty'. I can see that it has a strand of fur here and there that is golden in color. It looks ethereal. 'Is this Yuna?' I look into its golden eyes. It has to be. I asked her where she went, but a part of me already knows. I can see that she is more then a little terrified.

I'm so tired. I'm just going to close my eyes for little bit. I feel a warmth flood through me. It was very comforting.

________

I woke up briefly on the back of the horse when I felt that warmth again.

________

I hear someone screaming. I open my eyes and look around. I see Yuna. She has gotten bigger. She is starting to grow into her beauty. Her hair is now the same color as her fur. I wonder what happened for her hair and eye color to change. The gold strands stand out a more in her hair then her fur. Its also grown back to the length it was when I first saw her. She doesn't seem to be hurt anymore either. The only thing is that she is covered in blood. There is even some gross looking bits in the hair on top of her head. I need to clean her. The sooner the better.

'Did she heal my wound?' She must have. I feel a flickering warmth in my heart.

If she could Heal me... Behind her is a wagon and four horses and their riders. The wagon is stopped in the middle of the road and a women is standing in front of its open door. I can see panic in Yuna's eyes. I look at where we are heading. '!!!'

I grab the horse and yell at it to stop. Thank the gods I woke up in time. 'Why is she going out there?' Yuna tells me that they wouldn't let us by. That we need to get away from Mistress. I just feel relief that she wants to get away from her so badly. I turn around and I can see that she is crying again. I readjust so i'm sitting backwards and pull her into a hug.

I look over her head and study the people that wouldn't let us pass by. It just looks like a regular Merchants Wagon. Its just that.. The driver is a Dwarf and the women is an Elf. That's very weird. I look at the Guards, but they all seem normal enough. The Elf has most likely heard everything that Yuna has said.

"Why won't you let us continue on by?" I ask them. The Elf turns and looks at the Dwarf.

"Are you running?" The Dwarf asks.

"And if we are?" Yuna goes rigid in my arms. I run my hand down her head combing her hair with my fingers. I cast clean to start working the nastiness out of her hair.

The Dwarf looks at the Elf and nods his head. The Elf starts walking towards us slowly. I can feel Yuna starting to shake. I think its because she wants to keep moving. I didn't see any fear in her eyes for these people. I just keep running my fingers through her hair to try and calm her. The chunks in her hair are so gross.

"Whose blood are you covered in?" The Elf asks when she is a few feet from the horse.

"Mine" I say.

"All of this is yours? How are you alive?" I can't tell her that Yuna healed me. No one can know that.

"I drank a Health Potion." I tell her. I feel Yuna shift and look up at me, clearly confused. I just shake my head at her.

"I see.. Why were you injured?" She continues.

"Another Slave was told to kill me if I tried to escape. Which I did. And they tried." I answer her.

"And did you kill this other Slave instead?"-Elf

"No"

"Is she the slave that was told to kill you?" The Elf asks indicating towards Yuna.

"No" This is getting dumb. "May we pass now? We are in a hurry." I release the Clean spell letting the water fall to the side.

"I bet you are." She mumbles with a slight smile. "What if I told you we could help you?"

"Unless you can teleport us to Gaia, I highly doubt it." I tell her. The Dwarf has gotten down from the wagon and has walked over. Yuna has turned her upper body in my embrace to look over at them. Our horse is stamping its front hooves every now and then. When I mention Gaia I see a twitch on the Dwarfs face.

"You don't want to go to Gaia." The Dwarf says.

"Yeah? Would it be better for us to go to Dhaulagiri?" I ask sharply. The Dwarf winches.

"N-No! I didn't mean anything like that." The Dwarf raises his hands trying to placate me. "Gaia is at war with the Aegon Empire." He says bitterly. "And they are losing. You don't want to ge-"

He stops talking as we hear hoofbeats coming towards us. We all look in the direction they are coming from. Yuna's arms squeeze me tighter. 'I can't tell who it is yet, can Yuna?' As they draw closer I recognize them. I can see why she was so worried now.

"Ho-how did they catch up so fast?" Yuna says in disbelief. There are two horses. One rider is Master the other is John. As they draw near I can see a grin on Master's face and a grimace on John's. 

"Thought you could get away, did you?" Master says with scorn. I look at John as he approaches. The grimace has been changed to a look of disbelief as he looks at me. He then looked down at Yuna and he just looks shocked. John looks to be missing an ear. It must be punishment for not being able to stop us. Master comes right towards us ignoring everyone.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" The Elf women asks. The Guards start converging around Master and John.

"Oh? Yes, of course, forgive my manners. Its been a chaotic night. I'm James Revnum and these are my slaves." James gives a slight bow in his saddle. "They have escaped by killing a guard and releasing many other slaves, causing quite a lot of trouble for us. I have to thank you for stopping them here or surely we would still be chasing after them." Master elegantly says, but he can't hide the disgust in his eyes. He hates everything that isn't Human.

The Elf arches one eyebrow then glance's over at me as I look down at Yuna. She must feel me looking at her because she looks up at me then shrugs.

"I'll explain it to you later. If I get the chance" She whispers. I look back up and the Elf is looking at Yuna strangely. Then she turns away.

"It truly sounds like they are troublesome slaves. Perhaps we could buy them from you?" The Elf asks. Now its Masters turn to raise his eyebrows.

"And why would you want such violent Beast-Kin?" Master asks disbelief.

"My Husband has certain... tastes" The Elf says mysteriously. Master's real smile is brought to the surface.

"Well to be honest, I would be willing to sell her. I was just going to kill her right here anyway." Master says. "How about... 3 gold. She's a pretty girl." Hearing Him say that gives me goosebumps.

"3 Gold? That's quite a lot." The Elf says in disbelief. "And what about the other one? You rather kill her?" I have listened to people barter over me before. It always ended the same way.

"A lot? With the damage she caused and the joy of killing her with my own hands lost to me? My offer is actually quite cheap if you ask me." Master advises. "The other one isn't for sale." He adds in a no-nonsense way. Its like we are not even here. 'Does he really think we won't fight him to the death? We pretty much have once already after all. Did John not tell him?' Charm only works so far.

Yuna shifts in my embrace to look at me. I can see her mind working at something then.... clarity.

"It's okay. Leave me." Yuna whispers to me. 'Gods!! I'm going to Strangle her!'

"If you ever tell me to you leave you behind again, I swear i'll.. i'll.. y-you won't like whatever it is i'll do!!" I yell at her loudly. Too angry with her to whisper. Everyone looks over at us. Yuna just looks away from me and sighs shaking her head.

"Hehehehe" The Elf is giggling lightly behind her hand.

"There you have it then. We will be taking both of them." The Dwarf says. Master looks at him. His anger and disgust beginning to slip into his voice and onto his face. John is just sitting there watching.

"I said that only ONE is for sale." Master says through his teeth. The Dwarf Laughs at him. Then he must have signaled the guards somehow because they all drew their weapons. John drew his as well. The women among them has drawn a bow and is taking aim.

"How are we to know you own them to even be able to sell them?" The Elf asks in a mocking tone. Master's face is starting to turn red.

"This Seal proves that i'm bonded to that one!!" Master proclaims as he pulled back his sleeve showing two Magical Seals on his wrist. One for me. The other for John. Then pointed at me.

"Truly? And what about the other?" The Elf asks in a uncaring way.

"She is Bonded to Miss Kira Chrysos." Master says in the most smug voice I've ever heard.

Silence...