Eika listened to the rabbitkin's tale, her eyes round as saucers. On the other hand, V was concentrating, trying to sort the facts in his mind. V knew that normally there were three sides to every story, the first side, the second side, and the truth. For example, both stories paint the demons to be a great scourge, but if the God of Honor was telling L the truth, the demons were created by the Gods out of boredom. If that was true, why would the church believe them to be some great enemy, considering they were creations of the Gods they worshiped. If the answer was "Because their Gods told them so." Then why did they do that? Secondly, still assuming the God of Honor was telling the truth, his words insinuated he was one of the oldest living deities, and that he took part in some great act that he regrets. Something that most or all of the other Gods participated in. Could it be related to some part of this story? If so, one would assume it was the slaughter of the four Gods that assisted the rabbitkin. V was unsure however, as it was implied to him by the Mother Goddess that there were a whole lot of worlds out there that the Gods fought over. To assume the event that upset the God of Honor happened on this world is presumptuous. On the other hand, this prison they were heading toward was also clearly somehow related to the God of Honors regret's about said event, so it likely did take place on this planet. Third, although V was no stranger to political corruption, his own worlds history was rife with it. Would the church really have turned against the "hero" if their Gods had not told them to? And if the Gods turned on the "hero" first, and the church followed, why? Supposedly the Gods struck the hero down. The story paints it as the God's simply responding to the church's cries for help, but if that was the case, the slaughter of the four deities that assisted him/the rabbitkin does not make any sense. V doubted the Gods would kill each other simply because a few mortals asked them to.

"Don't believe my people's tale?" Spindle-leaf spoke to V, disgust heavy in her voice. "You look as if you have been force fed sour grapes." V shook his head "No, it’s not that exactly. I am just trying to reconcile the story with other... stories... I’ve heard. I believe that your story represents part of the truth. It is not that I don't believe you, I just think there is more to the story. Or perhaps it has been warped over time. You yourself admit that much of your culture was lost to your people." Spindle-leaf simply shook her head and looked back at Eika. "Miss Spindle-leaf. Do you think we can ever get along with the other races again? We did not do anything wrong right? And even if we did, it was so long ago that we might not even have the story right! They don't need to keep hating us. Right?" The rabbitkin woman looked down at Eika disapprovingly. "Girl. Hatred for our kind has been the way of things for an untold number of years. It will never change, not until the people are forced to respect us. We were born prey, and we remain prey." The woman snarled as she looked into Eika's eyes. "No! There has to be a way to change everyone! Eika cannot stand the thought of more mommies and fathers dying to protect their babies! We cannot abandon our hope." As the rabbitkin started at Eika, a strange look passed over her face. V would have called it a confused expression. After a moment she turned away and stomped off to one of the tents. "I am exhausted. I am going to rest before I have to herd those women back to the city."

V stood there pondering for a time, Eika setting quietly next to him. After some time had passed, she spoke up. "Do you think it’s true? Will we... Will Eika be hated forever?" V snapped backed to reality as she spoke. "Well, I don't hate you." V offered. He knew that was not what she meant, but she looked so sad. He hoped his reply would at-least make her start rambling energetically about how he did not understand. She just shook her head sadly. "Ya I know, but I mean like... everyone else. When I was running errands in the city, when we were trying to make money, so many people ignored me, like I was not even there. Those were the nice people... the mean ones probably would have kicked me when I passed, if I did not have this collar." V rubbed Eika's head. "I don't know Eika. On both worlds I have lived on, people hated one another. Sometimes it was your political party, sometimes it was your race, sometimes it was how much money you had, sometimes it was even just because of the place you were born. People will always find a group to hate. On your world, it just so happens that it has been consistently your people. On my original world, we liked to believe that we would move past it someday." V smiled to himself darkly. "I never bought into that myself. Our history had always had hate, and I saw no reason to believe we would ever advance far enough to eliminate hate. Interestingly, I used to think it was because of the inherent inequality that existed in my world. Now however, I wonder if it is because we are created by Gods who hate each other." V's smile twisted into a rueful one. "On my world, we said that pets often reflected their owners. Perhaps we reflect our creators?" A sad sniff came from Eika. For the first time in a long time, V felt disgusted with the world, or rather, universe. As tears began to slide down Eika' face. She muttered "I don't want it to be like that. We never did anything wrong. I don't want to be hated... I don't want my people to die anymore...Why can't we just get along?"

Sighing, V grabbed Eika and lifted her up to eye level. "Wawa!?" Eika made a surprised noise as she was easily hefted upward. "I know it’s hard, but you cannot focus on the people who hate you. If you do so, your sadness will eventually turn into resentment. You will hate them for hating you. The only thing you can do is to move forward. I don't hate you; L does not hate you; I don't think Luna is capable of hate. You are traveling with people who like you." Eika, still being held up by V, wiped her eyes. "You and L like Eika?" V shrugged "Well, I don't know about L, but ya, I guess I do. You're nice to have around. My entire life I’ve had to worry about the people around me. I was always worried they would stab me in the back, or steal from me. You were the first person I met here, and you were also the first person I felt I could really trust to turn my back on. It's nice, to have someone like that." Eika started crying, V quickly set her down, confused. He looked around, hoping someone was able to explain Eika's behavior to him. "Eika is so relieved. I thought maybe when I was no longer helpful you would sell me to make some money back..." She hugged V, arms wrapping around his waist. V stood there, unsure of what to do. Normally people only cried around him for... uh... other reasons. He gingerly pat her head as she sobbed, all of her clashing emotions no longer able to be held in check.

A while later, V and L were discussing the trek north. L was anxious to continue, and there was no real reason to delay any longer. V had rested, and the women they had rescued were not going to improve much more than that had already, in the short term anyway. They started to pack up camp, ready to move northward. The man who had recovered from the drugs helped where he could. "I cannot wait to see home again. Although I’m not looking forward to telling mother about the death of my brother..." the man spoke, his voice was steady despite the sadness held within it. V sighed "I suppose something like that would be tough. Is your guard going to be ok? He has been quietly sitting alone and quiet for a long time now." The man nodded "After a while, probably. Now that we are out of immediate danger, reality has set in for him. He was supposed to protect me and my brother, and he obviously failed. As the only surviving member of our escort, the guilt weighs heavy on him." Across the camp, L was speaking with Spindle-leaf. "If you betray us, and abandon these women to the wilds before you see them to the city, I will make it a point to hunt you down before I die." The rabbitkin spit, disgust on her face "I am not one of your kind. We keep our oaths." L narrowed her eyes at the rabbitkin, the implication of being an oath breaker was one of the few things that could sometimes get a quick rise out of L. "Oh? If you never break your oaths, then maybe you should have sworn an oath to protect your Clan. Since they are dead and you are not, I can only assume you never swore to protect them." Eika, who was nearby, sprinted over just as the rabbitkin had placed her hand on the dagger she had been given. "I SURE HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" Eika loudly said as she stopped between L and the rabbitkin. "Boy I sure enjoyed those stories you told me, next time we see each other could you tell me more? We will see each other again, right? Well, Eika is going north on a difficult journey so maybe it will be a long time, but I would really love to see you again." Eika nervously babbled on for a time.

"Good luck out there." V said to Spindle-leaf as they stood, camp packed up and ready to go. She did not respond, instead just turning and leading the group of women away. One of the elves looked back "Thank you again for rescuing us! I’ll never forget you!" Luna turned to Eika "She said she will never forget us! Do you think she will think of us every day? Do you think she will think of us every minute of every day?" Eika looked at Luna and shook her head while squinting her eyes. "W... why would she do that?" Luna shrugged "I forget stuff sometimes, so I thought maybe you would have to always think about something to not forget it." Eika shook her head again, this time to herself. "Well, let us get moving. Staring at their backs is a bad omen." L gestured northward. As V turned and began to walk, he tilted his head "A bad omen? I never heard that particular one before." L explained "Well, to be honest, I never put much stock in omens and superstitions in my old world, but now that I know Gods and magic and all manner of things exists, I sometime wonder if those old wives’ tales may have had truth to them. It was said that a lingering goodbye between travelers invoked a spirit of longing. Over time it would make you long more and more for home." V shrugged "We had a lot of weird ones, there was a superstition that throwing salt over our left shoulders would ward away the devil or something." Eika giggled "What?" Luna looked scandalized "Why would you waste salt!" L raised her eyebrows "I’m fairly sure that would only help you if you threw it directly into my eyes." Eika giggled again.

The next few days of travel were peaceful enough. At one point V thought L was going to get into a fistfight with the merchant and his guard. The merchant had been telling V a story, but it involved some shady business practices. L interrupted, stating that nothing good could be gained from lying to one’s business partners. The merchant staunchly defended that lots of good things, mostly money, could be gained from lying to business partners. It almost spiraled out of control, but V intervened. Other than that, it was easy going. After a week and a half of travel, the two men indicated that they were getting close to their hometown. "I would like to invite you to take a short detour with us. We are going to have to part ways now otherwise. If you’re going further north, our city is more northwest. My mother would certainly reward you for rescuing me." V liked the sound of that. That had enough money to operate day to day in a city for a while, but little to spend on extra things, it might also be possible to buy weapons or magical items to assist them, if they had enough money. On the other hand, he looked at L. She had become ever more certain and resolute as they traveled north. She claimed that as she got closer to the "feeling," it became stronger and more difficult to ignore. "Perhaps on our way back south. If we survive, I’d love to visit your town. However, our business northward is... urgent." The man nodded "Well, be careful. Depending on how north you plan on going, you might run into a rather dangerous race. Ice orcs. No one really knows if they were ever one of the civilized races or not, but they certainly are not now. They are violent and cannot be reasoned with. They only live in the frigid north, never venturing outside of their frozen homeland. They are extremely powerful, some say they cannot be killed, only incapacitated." The man shrugged "Not much is known about them, as there is little reason to go that far north anyway." V thanked the man, and after a few more goodbyes. They parted ways.

Two days later, early in the morning Luna crept into V's tent. Well, it was more accurate to say she tried to creep into his tent. After the sound of the tent flap rustling woke him, he could hear Luna muttering to herself "Shhh gotta keep quiet. Can't wake anyone up..." V was sort of curious were this was going, so he pretended to be asleep as Luna "crept" toward him, tripping over an uneven spot in the ground. "Ah! No wait shhhhh!" Luna stood back up and walked over to V. Kneeling down she suddenly shook his head "Hey wake up! But be quiet!" V swatted Luna's arms off his head. "Yes yes I’m awake, what’s wrong?" Luna looked impressed with herself. "Ha! I woke you up and no one even knew!" V wondered for a moment if Luna did this just for fun, but was quickly corrected. "I have something important to tell you, but I cannot let anyone hear me!" Luna whispered loudly. "I think Eika was born today." V's brain took a moment to reorganize her words, he often still had trouble waking up, and he always had headaches for a few minutes after. "What? Oh... you mean it’s her birthday?" Luna nodded "Ya! That! I don't think she wants you to know. She accidentally told me when she was telling me how to count days." V sat up "Why does she not want us to know?" Luna shrugged "She just said not to tell anyone, but she did not say it was a secret. So I thought it was ok to tell you if she did not hear me." V glossed over Luna's massive failure to understand secrets. "Well, thanks for telling me... I guess." Luna nodded as she looked at V's face, which reflected softly in her eyes. "You should do something to celebrate. It's a special day...." Luna patted V on the head and ran out of tent. Tripping and wiping out on the same uneven ground that got her the first time.

V had sent Eika to scout the area in front of them, stating he had a "strange feeling." He then used the time to explain the morning's chat with Luna to L. L nodded "I overheard the rabbitkin telling the girl that her kind normally considered this or the next birthday to be adulthood, the number sixteen being derived from the humans of this world. Considering the girls recent obsession with her people, she might consider today to be extremely important. I am unsure as to why she would want to keep it from us." V shook his head "No, I get it. As a slave, and in this world perhaps even more importantly, a rabbitkin. I doubt that any of her birthdays were celebrated very much. Perhaps not even recognized." L furrowed her brow. "Would that not make her wish for a grand celebration? To make up for all the ignored ones? The girl never struck me as "calm" and "serene" and not a fan of celebrations." V shook his head again. "Not necessarily. To someone like that, it might feel dangerous to have hope for a celebration, or to get worked up for one’s birthday. For example, it was not until I was older that I understood why I never celebrated my birthdays. It was because it made me feel lonely. No one ever knew about mine, and rather than feel hopeful or happy, I preferred to treat it as a normal day. I secretly hoped someone would care, but I never would have said that at the time." L pursed her lips. "It concerns me that I seem to have had the most normal life out of the thr- four of us. I was called cold and detached even by other members of the court guard, but compared to the occasional descriptions of your lives, mine sounds downright normal." V nodded "Well, either way. We will celebrate Eika's birthday when we have dinner, we will surprise her. We cannot do anything super fancy obviously. However, we can make a large meal and wish her a happy birthday." Luna stopped in her tracks "A large meal?! Thank you Eika's birthday!" V turned to Luna "Luna, this is a secret. You’re not allowed to tell Eika. It is a surprise and a secret." Luna nodded "sagely." L looked at her dubiously, but there was nothing else they could do short of knocking the girl out.  

V had spent the day shifting through the items they had "appropriated" from the slavers. He had not actually looked through the stuff until now, mostly because he just did not want to deal with it. However, he realized they had gotten some fairly valuable things from them. A few golden statues of some woman, a few pieces of fine jewelry. Which V only now realized probably belonged to the two men, and a load of other odds and ends. He found a silver necklace and broke off the jewel hanging from the chain. At V's prompting, L relented and had created something for Eika. Luna was... collecting a lot of grass and stuffing it into her pockets. As they made camp, V deposited a bunch of camping supplies that had come from the slavers camp into one of their tents, and asked Eika to sort through it, putting anything broken or useless to the side, he also sent Luna to help her, which would surely slow Eika down. While she was distracted, L and V prepared a larger meal than normal. They usually ate meat cooked from animals they hunted, and sometimes fresh herbs they would find. This time however, V used the remains of their salt and a few spices he had acquired from the slavers camp to make a large stew. They also added the last of their vegetables. V idly wondered if there would be a town on their rout, restocking would be nice. Maybe they should have taken that detour after all? He also withdrew some stale bread, cutting it thinly. He figured they could use it as a cracker type of thing for the stew.

"Something smells good..." Eika said to Luna as she worked inside of the tent. Luna nodded "Ya, I really want to eat it!" Eika worked diligently. "Why did they keep a bunch of useless rope in their camp? It’s cut up so badly..." Eika had discovered that a bunch of the supplies that had gotten from the camp was below par. It was a slaver camp, so maybe she should have expected as much, but even as a rabbitkin slave, she knew how to maintain supplies. As she neared the end of her task, she heard V yell "Eika! Come quick! I need your help right away!" Eika jumped up. She doubted V was in trouble, he probably just saw some sort of animal he wanted her to help catch. Eika ran out of the tent as Luna ran out behind her, she had been thinking about birthday food for hours.