### Chapter 17

A demon took possession of me. For I screamed myself awake with bloody madness. Whichever horrors I had experienced on my sleep, they were soon forgotten as soon as Joanne gave me a hug.

“Shhh, you’ll wake her up,” Joanne said.

Carefully, she pointed at the half-naked demi-human taking most of the bed space.

“After your fight with Leah was over. I healed you, so you shouldn’t have any wounds. I am thankful to the holy mother for allowing you to be awake right now. I was deeply worried that despite my healing you wouldn’t come back.” Joanne said, almost whispering.

“What exactly happened after I passed out” I said. Trying to keep my voice down myself.

“Well, as per demi-human tradition. It seems you became Leah’s servant-maid by right. As for me… I refuse to participate in bloodshed so I just surrendered. But you know, I honestly don’t mind that things turned out this way for me. I am sure that the opportunity to talk Leah out of this will appear at some point.” Joanne said.

“I am more worried about Allisa. She didn’t seem happy about the outcome of your fight. After you lost. The demi-humans treated her really unfairly.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“Well…”

Joanne averted her gaze. Her innocent blue eyes were filled with shame. She clearly resented herself for not being strong enough to do something about the situation that we were in.

“I tried to stop them but they didn’t listen,” she said. Her whispers became more difficult to hear. It seems she was trying her best to not wake Leah up.

I looked around the bed we were in. The place was rather dark but I could tell that we were inside a big tent. There was a big wooden pole on the middle of the tent, and there Belfar laid chained to it. He seemed fully asleep however.

The rent had no furniture other than Leah’s bed and a multitude of rugs covering the entirety of the floor.

Neither Joanne or I were chained. with Leah fully asleep. It was a good opportunity to run for it. Perhaps go back into the badlands and look for help. If there was any humans settlements around… I was unsure.

I signaled to Joanne to keep quiet. She nodded. I carefully slid out of bed, by slowing sitting on the edge. I was very careful indeed. But as soon as my toes touched the rug below, I felt a warm tongue much my ear softly.

“Joanne, is that you?” I whispered. Perhaps she had lost her sanity.

The only response I got was a bored yawn. That was not Joanne.

Leah pressed one of her claws against my neck. It was the most clever way for an uncivilized beast to communicate in a civilized manner.

‘Move and I’ll slit your throat’

“Meow.”

Leah slid her other hand underneath my clothes and she rubbed my belly.

I refuse to acknowledge that I blushed. Instead, my face turned red because of the fear of my throat getting cut.

Soon after this, Leah laid me back on her bed, and henceforth softly munched on my ear as she used me like a pillow.

Leah’s body was warm in what seemed like a rather cold night.

Before I knew what truly was going on. I got too comfortable with Leah’s arms and legs all round me and I fell asleep.

***********

The following morning as soon as Joanne and I woke up, they threw us with another group of demi-humans, which apparently were in the same situation as us.

It was becoming apparent that demi-humans had no problems slaving one another.

We were forced to clean and pickup the tents. Do laundry. Cook breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Clean and Polish weapons. and at last clean the dishes. Then, carry baggage as we marched further north through the badlands. Only to set up the tents again and collect water from the nearby river. Every time I screwed up, a demi-human hissed at me. There was a lot of hisses through the day.

At night. Joanne and I were instructed to prepare a bath for Leah and help her shower.

“You better don’t peek,” I said.

Belfar who was on the opposite of the makeshift bath, maliciously smiled.

“I wouldn’t be a man if I didn’t peek,” He said.

I was the only person in the bath that was covering their chest. I might be a man in mind and spirit. But I was not ok with this. Unlike Leah who didn’t care at all and had her breasts fully exposed as she slept in the middle of the bath.

Meanwhile, Joanne was so embarrassed that instead of covering her breasts, she was covering her face in shame.

“How come I can’t peek. Yet you been staring at Joanne’s tits nonstop,” Belfar said.

Joanne’s ears went from pink to red. She shook a bit but said nothing. I doubt it was possible to be more embarrassed.

“Joanne, why don’t you tell that bastard to shut up,”

“I don’t know Joanne. I would be careful. Your friend Berry is a pervert. I am at least an honest man, and I can tell you with full honestly that I enjoy my view. Blame the holy mother for blessing me like that.”

“well, maybe you are compensating for something else,” I said.

“You bet,” Belfar said. “I can pull it out of the water right now,”

“Stop, you idiot,” I said.

Pulling his dick out of the water seemed like something Belfar would do.

“Have some decency,” I said.

“Bet.”

Belfar pulled something out of the water and by the time my brain had been able to process that what I saw was merely a finger, I had already flashed my breasts to cover my eyes.

“You are a fucking asshole,” I told Belfar, as I threw water at his face.

He began laughing.

Joanne who had remained quiet through the entire interaction, suddenly began whispering to herself. “Forgive me holy mother, forgive me holy mother.”

Meanwhile, Leah was too busy relaxing to care about the humans around her and their social norms.

“Belfar, cut the crap and be honest for once. A man like you could not possibly be happy in this situation,” I said.

“Why would I not be? This is a magnificent view.”

“No. I am not talking about the bath. But about the whole, being imprisoned by wild demi-humans part. You seem strong enough to defeat Leah, so why do you just sit idle?” I asked.

“Berry… your brief moments of intelligence seem to always be awfully targeted at me, what happened to the cute, innocent goat that I saved from the crutches of the church a mere week ago.”

“Plenty of shit has happened since then,” I said.

“Very well. Then a lot of things will happen since now!” Belfar said very loudly.

“You just wait. Leah has been taking her tribe north. We have long passed the point of no return and we are actually venturing into uncharted parts of the badlands. My brother told me once that he heavily suspects that the reason wild demi-humans might be able to be domesticated so quickly, is because of the existence of dragons,” Belfar said.

[Lore Check Failed]

“Dragons?” I asked.

“Yes, dragons. The last sighting of a dragon was 200 years ago. But they might very well be alive within the badlands. Somehow through their interaction with Demi-humans, they were able to pass knowledge of Common.

[Religion Check Failed]

[History Check Failed]

“If I were to stop Leah now, not only would we lose the opportunity to learn more about the dragons, but there is no guarantee that we will not be attacked by a bigger demi-human host on our way back. Wild Demi-humans normally kill humans on sight. But they would never kill the property of another demi-human,” Belfar said.

He gave me such a big explanation that I felt like an idiot.

“I-”

I had nothing to say. The demi-humans made me and Joanne repeat our maid routine for days, until we ran into a settlement with more than twenty demi-human tribes.

A city of tents…..