I waited while Xania retrieved some items from her cabin. And, when she finally beckoned, I walked over. “So well trained,” Xania said, visibly impressed. If only she knew. Xania approached me with what looked like a sock, with the bottom coated in thick leather—a very primitive shoe of sorts. Well ... at least a horseshoe. Xania began to slide one over each of my feet.

“It's no wonder someone was able to put clothes on you." Xania said as she worked, seeming ever-surprised that I was biting or fighting her. "Speaking of, I’ve now got provisional paperwork on you now. If anyone wanted to claim you, they’d have to prove both that they owned you and that they were not the ones who subjected you to animal cruelty.”

So ... legally ... I now belonged to Xania? I wasn't sure if I should have been horrified by this or just relieved that there was no chance Hask Farms could claim me.

Once Xania had gotten the second shoe on, she switched over to a leather harness. This one fell over my shoulders like a poncho. It did restrict my arm movements a bit, but allowed far more movement than the armbinders. “I don't usually do this on the first day ... but I'm now genuinely curious 'bout how well you'll tolerate the wagon.”

Feeling pretty confident I could handle it, I followed her to two small wagons side-by-side. Each had been loaded up with vegetables.

So this was how Xania made a living.

The first had a large handle that, while a little bulky for me, would have been easily pulled by a minotaur. The second and lighter of the two was attached to a hook that I assumed went into the back of my poncho. I found myself almost disappointed that it wasn't kinkier in design.

Almost as a prayer, Xania started to mumble as she fastened me between both of them, “Please don’t buck the wagon and bruise the produce, please don’t buck the wagon. I’ll give you so many treats if you just don’t buck the wagon.”

I had no intention of causing her any grief. Even if she’d been the person who had ... initially captured me.

“Good girl!” Xania said with a hopeful smile. She went to close the barn and then opened a smaller back door just wide enough for the wagons. Passing frequent glances back to check on me, Xania began to pull her wagon outside.

With nothing else to do, I followed behind. The load I was hauling was not particularly heavy, and my harness distributed the weight surprisingly well.

Soon, we were again walking through the countryside.

I watched the open fields as we went. There were, of course, groupings of guggles in many of them. These acted … well … much like domesticated livestock. Neither aggressive or traumatized, like the guggles I'd met before. They sat together with all their herd and grazed lazily on the oats and berries in their troughs. Of course, these herds were exponentially smaller than the masses crowding Hask Farms.

“That’s how guggles should be,” Xania said, having glanced back and caught me staring. “I sure wish there were a way to fix your new sisters.”

I ignored my initial reaction to gag at any assertion of relation to the guggles.

“But if you haven't been broken ...” Xania said, staring at me and letting her voice trail.

I ... I guess I hadn't been.

It had been a little touch and go for a while. And I wasn't sure I'd been acting entirely unlike the rescue guggles throughout the beginning of my voyage. But ... I no longer felt broken. So, even if Xania didn't understand me on some pretty fundamental levels, the acknowledgement was still affirming.

It wasn’t too long before we arrived at the edge of town. I felt relieved when didn't go through the gathered array of minotaurs congregating on the main street. Instead, Xania led me behind the buildings. Finally stopping at one with a ramp and double doors.

Xania took my leash from her wagon and hooked me to a post. “Keep being a good girl, alright?”

I looked around, a little nervous at being left exposed like this.

However, Xania was already carrying her crates of produce inside.

After a while, two minotaurs exited and began to unload more of the crates. One of them gestured at me and said, “Look at that, Xania’s managed to train another guggle to pull her cart.” He shook his head in wonder.

"If anyone could do it ..." the other replied and then let off a disgruntled huff. "Fucked what Hask did to her. And the boss is just ... buying more from 'em?"

"Careful," said the first one.

"Whose gonna tell, the guggle?" replied the second, as he hauled the cargo back through the doors of the building. "I’m getting too old for all this corporate shit."

Then the two of them were gone.

It was another while before Xania appeared again. I wasn't quite sure what I expected her state to have been after selling her crops, but I hadn't expected the vacant stare I now saw. Xania walked over to me and mechanically began to undo the latch connecting me to my wagon. She then stacked my smaller wagon atop her own and took my leash in a trembling hand.

I wanted to ask or ... gesture to ask if she was okay. But the best I could do under current circumstances was mirror the inquisitive look Namali often gave me when asking an unspoken question

“You can tell something’s wrong, can’t you,” Xania asked, her eyes watering and her tone hollow. “Hask Farm has started raising crops … so the stores can buy ’em cheaper. We didn’t make enough off these, not nearly enough.”

So that was what the workers had meant. I quickly wrapped my arms around the massive minotaur.

Xania began to sob wetly into my shoulder. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I tried so hard and … I’ve lost everything.”

I knew the pain ... and wouldn't have wished it upon anyone. Much less someone as kind and hardworking as Xania. But all I could do was hold her.

After a few minutes, Xania wiped her face with her furred arm. Finally, she looked at me and said, “You're the one thing Hask can't take from me.” I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but Xania was already leading me to another building at the edge of town.

Once again, I was hitched to a post.

Xania stroked my head before disappearing into the back door. A few minutes later, she returned alongside another minotaur.

This one had gray fur and a leather apron over her clothing. She seemed far older than Xania. Peering at me over a pair of glasses, she said, “Oh Xania, you can’t be taking in another rescue now of all times.”

“It's different for this one, Tanen,” Xania said, petting my head affectionately

“Different is right,” Tanen replied with a smirk as she glanced ay my tail, horns, and finally my … 'extra bits'.

Remembering the Hask worker's comments, I also shot her a glare for staring.

Tanen furrowed her brow. “It really is almost like she understands what we’re saying.”

I rolled my eyes at this and sighed in a minor amount of frustration.

“Ornery too,” Tanen said, raising one of her eyebrows. “Yet … not aggressive.”

“I’d be a bit grouchy too if you talked about me like that,” Xania said, managing to force a small laugh. She reached into a pocket of her tan jumper and pulled out some papers. She handed these over to the older minotaur.

Tanen took these, studied them carefully with her glasses. Then she nodded and began opening up a wooden box at her side.

Before I could see what was inside, two furred hands were cupped at the sides of my head. It was Xania, blocking whatever else was happening from my view.

“And you’re sure we don’t need to tie her down?” Tanen said, sounding lower to the ground. Though I had been naked in front of the minotaurs for a while now, having a person so close to my body, doing something I couldn't see, did make me a bit nervous.

Xania used her thumbs to begin smoothing my eyebrows. “She’s alright. Aren’t you, Clover?”

Suddenly, I felt a burning on one of my asscheeks. I almost flinched away from it, but a firm grasp on my hip kept me from moving. Just as soon as it started, it was over. I could only turn and see what had happened.

Tanen was wrapping a small, long tool of some kind to return it to her box. It was like a metal stick with the business end covered in needles dripping something black.

I turned as much as I could to see where I had felt the burning. I could only barely make out a black mark in the exact same shape as the orange heart pattern naturally present on Xania’s forehead.

I’d been … branded?

“Make sure she don’t touch it,” Tanen said, now rubbing the same white gel substance on the tattoo as what Xania had put on my scratches earlier.

Though unnoticed with the wooden pegs in my mouth, my jaw was just hanging open. My mind raced to make sense of what had just happened. Much less how to feel about it.

“And … take care of yourself, hon,” Tanen said, suddenly sounding a lot more tired. “Things are changin’ around here. You’re a good person … but maybe this place ain’t a good fit for you anymore. Plenty of our people have moved out to the mainland. Maybe you ought to take your fancy new pet over there. Start a circus or teach people how to train their livestock.”

“What about … the Fog?” Xania asked.

The Fog? Like ... the Mist? For a moment, I forgot about having been branded. Those worries replaced by my need to know anything I could about the last obstacle keeping me from home.

Tanen shook her head. “Never you mind that. If anyone can get through it, it’s you. At least think about it, alright?”

Xania nodded and took my leash.

So the minotaurs knew how to get around the Mist. This was important, even more so than the supplies I was supposed to be gathering here. Something which ... I had made no headway with since I'd arrived.

More than anything, I needed to get Xania to realize that I was not a guggle.

I considered how to do so as we began our hike back to the farm. Like before, this took a while as we meandered slowly along the dirt roads. Soon, the house and barn were in sight, and I thought I would finally get my chance. Maybe to write something in the dirt or ... something.

However, Xania had frozen in her tracks.

It didn't take me long to realize that nothing looked the same as they had when we left. While the barn door for the wagons had been left open on purpose, the one connected to the field was now thrown open as well.

A quick glance revealed that all the traumatized guggles were long gone. Not only that, but farm tools were scattered along the lawn.

The house was affected as well. One of the windows was busted, the door hung open. Clothing, blankets, kitchen supplies, and every other manner of thing was strewn in front of the house just like the barn.

Both had been … utterly trashed.

All Xania could do was stare with her jaw hanging open. Grievous insult to grievous injury. All she could do was drop the handle of the wagon.

Then came a sudden movement came from the house. A pack of guggles, with crazed looks in their eyes. No doubt, escapees from Hask Farm menacingly approaching us.

They were covered in bite-marks and cuts—likely from climbing through the broken window. And when they opened their mouths, I saw that there were no wooden gags. Instead, they had mouthfuls of jagged, broken, and bloody teeth.

Xania finally woke from her stupor. She pulled me behind her, began clapping her hands and shouting, “Git out of here, you pests. Git! Go! Go on, get lost!” However, there was no missing a fear in her tone.

The guggles seemed undeterred by the loud sounds. They all continued to circle around us. Salivation mixing with the blood in their mouths as they stared at the both of us like prey.

Keeping an arm protectively around me, Xania slowly began to backstep. However, this only seemed to trigger something in the guggles.

Immediately, they went into a full sprint toward us.

Xania used her free arm to swipe and hit the first hard enough to send it rolling along the ground. However, a second guggle grabbed onto her arm and bit into it with gnarled teeth. Xania screamed, unable to shake it free no matter how she thrashed. Her movement only ripping the wound open further.

Adrenaline flooded through me.

I ducked under her arm, slamming a heavy fist into the guggle's throat.

It finally released its grip, gasping for air. Seeming caught between instincts. Fear, betrayal, and its apparent instinct to submit to the most powerful of its kind. Finally settling on wrath, spitting its chunk of fur and flesh, and baring its teeth at me.

"Clover!" Xania screamed, trying to pull me back.

But something dark fell over my vision. For a moment, I didn't see a guggle. I saw President Derk. Human. Prey.

Magic raged through me like I had never felt it before, and I released a torrent of power.

The ground shook.

The guggles were tossed like they weighed absolutely nothing. Crashing into the dirt with sickening thuds and cracks. It took a moment for them to stand again, clutching broken limbs and bleeding wounds. Terror in their eyes, the guggles scrambled away desperately.

Finally ... I seemed to wake up, unsure what exactly I had done.

Xania was staring at me, absolutely unmoving, blood pouring from her arm. The wound was too deep. I could use my magic but ... just a mist in the air ... even direct application would not be enough.

In a hurry, I lifted Xania’s hand and pressed it to the bar keeping the wooden pegs in my mouth apart. It took a moment before she twisted some mechanism inside. First the top and then the bottom pegs released my teeth.

Then the whole device fell to the ground.

I rubbed my jaw, trying to get used to being able to fully close it again. “Xania … I know there’s a lot to process here … but you need to let me take care of your arm.”

Xania could only shake her head.