Chapter 2

With their victim's vision blocked and his hands tied behind his back, the kidnappers escort Sylfinas in the sewers. The smell causes him to stop a few times briefly to try not to puke, and each time someone forces him to move. "Move it" is usually what follows after. At some point, everyone stops, and Sylfinas can hear the keychain jiggle as one of the kidnappers fiddles around for the correct key to the locked door. The redolent of the sewers changes to a fresher scent as Sylfinas transitions over into an unknown chamber. The captors escort him further into this room and through a few more rooms. During the walk, his ears detect other voices greeting the group. After the door closes when he enters another room, he can hear another door open, feel his hands becoming free, regain his vision from the blindfold coming off, and find himself inside a locked cage.

Sylfinas gets a good look at his kidnappers; the group consists of five members. The first three are Humans: two males and one female. The woman has olive-colored skin, brown eyes, black hair, and jewelry hanging from her ears. Both virile Humans possess facial hair, although one has a mustache while the other has a mustache and a beard. The other two members are Half-Orcs, and they appear to be a set of identical twins. All the criminals are wearing leather armor and wielding a short sword, two daggers, and a crossbow with twenty ammunition.

"Come on. Let's go meet the boss and tell her we got another merchandise in place," the woman says to everyone in the group as she claps her hands.

They all leave through a different door, and Sylfinas is now alone in a dimly lit room. At least that's what he conjectures until he notices another being in a separate cell next to his. After his eyes adjust to the darkness, thanks to his Elven trait, he can discern the features of the individual. This person is female, and she's covered in black fur with flecks of silver, has a facial resemblance to a wolf, pointed wolf ears, amber eyes, brown hair, and has a tail. He also realizes that this wolf-person is completely naked, and only her hair covers her breasts and her legs cover the nether region.

"Hey. Do you have any idea what's going on?" He asks the feminine wolf.

"They plan on selling us into slavery," she answers without looking up.

"How do you know?"

"Because I've been held prisoner for a while. I've seen other people, like you, thrown into cages, and I've witnessed them get sold to wealthy people."

"Then why are you still here, and why aren't you wearing any clothes?"

"Because people don't like the fact that I'm difficult to control. Some male High Elf purchased me and returned me for a refund, saying he had a hard time telling me what to do. Since then, people have still taken an interest in me but changed their minds once they heard about the previous owner. As for my nude body, well, this is the group's way of punishing me for my stubbornness." Starting with the padlock in his hands, Sylfinas inspects his cage. The lock looks new and well-made. The metal framework is professional in its appearance. Upon scrutinizing it further, he beholds adamantium along with the steel. "I notice you are looking around at your cage. Forget it. We can't leave these cages unless someone decides to let us out. They're the best cages I've come across. My body aches from the multiple times I've attempted to break mine, but I barely did anything to it, and I'm more muscular than you, no offense." The words from the wolf do little to dissuade him as he formulates a plan.

The room has several other cages of various sizes, and all of them are empty. There are lanterns lit to provide some light, but they're beyond arm's reach. There is a wooden table with two wooden chairs to the left of Sylfinas's cage and beyond the bipedal wolf's cell. Hearing the door open, he pivots his head over and observes the two Half-Orcs walking into the room and over to the table after closing the door. One of them has a set of keys on his waist. Once they sit down, they start playing with a deck of cards.

Wanting a better point to survey the two Half-Orcs, Sylfinas sits down at the back corner of the cage, allowing him to see them playing cards with greater visibility and eavesdrop on their conversation. Since nothing is interesting in the dialogue from what he discerns, the multiple rounds merge in one bore-fest until they switch topics. All they ever utter is, "ġivaħni," with a knock on the table and shout in anger, "siżnex."

"I'm getting bored of playing Crossbones over and over again, Karigall," one Half-Orc enunciates as he stretches and yawns.

"Same here, Mukegall," the other Half-Orc responds as he, too, elongates his body and yawns. "Wonder how long we have on our shift?" 

"About three more hours."

"That long? Shit."

"You said it. Wonder what we're going to do now?"

"I have no idea."

"If it would be of interest to you, I know a few card tricks I can demonstrate to make time go by faster," Sylfinas offers to the Half-Orcs.

"Alright, let's see what you got, Half-Elf," Karigall says.

"Excellent, I'm sure my performance will be enrapturing to you." The two Half-Orcs get up from the table and ambulate towards Sylfinas's cage. The wolf also watches with a curious look on her face. "First things first, I need that deck of cards you were playing with. Otherwise, none of my tricks will work."

"Hand this Half-Elf the deck, Mukegall," Karigall ordered.

"Yeah, yeah." With more force than necessary, Mukegall hands Sylfinas the cards.

"This is superb. These cards will now spread out in my hands. The next step is one of you pick one card from the pile, stare at it, remember it, and place it back. Don't show me the card. I'll close my eyes and look away to make sure I don't observe your selection, and you place it back into the deck." 

One of the Half-Orcs pulls a card, takes note of the result, and reveals it to his sibling before placing it back. "Ok, we picked our card and placed it back," Mukegall speaks.

"Alright, now I'm going to shuffle the deck, and the top card should be the one you picked when I'm done. Go ahead and see if this is true." The other Half-Orc draws the top card. "Well, is it your card?"

"It is. I got three of hearts. Just the same one as you picked before. Right, brother?"

"Yes, it is, brother," Mukegall replies.

"Wonderful! Lucky for you, I know additional card tricks. I can display them to you if I still maintain your interest."

"Show us more!" Karigalll shouts.

"Yeah, show us!" Mukegall replies enthusiastically.

"Say no more; I love a captivated audience." With encouragement from them, Sylfinas shows the Half-Orc twins several more card tricks, and they relish every single minute, adulating as best as they can. Eventually, he starts to wind things down.

"Come on. One more card trick, please," Karigall pleads.

"Yes, please! One more", Mukegall implores also. They chant "one more" over and over again and sweet-talk him.

With effort hiding a slight smirk in his face that he has the brothers on the hook, Sylfinas succumbs from the cajole. "You want me to do one more card trick?" He asks.

"Yes!" The brothers exclaim.

"Well, with that kind of rejoinder, how can I refuse. Ok, this will be my last trick for sure. It just happens to be the best trick I've saved for moments such as this. I first need both of you to close your eyes and turn around so your backs are facing towards me."

"Why would we do that?" Mukegall inquires.

"Because this trick involves me putting several cards in one of your pockets, and I don't want to risk one of you seeing them and ruining the trick. How many tricks have I done previously that involved me not being able to see the cards? You can withstand this one time for me."

The Half-Orcs obey the command and turn their bodies and shut their eyes. Sylfinas proceeds to put five random cards in one of their back pockets. Before he can continue further, the door opens, and the woman steps into the room. "You two get up. The boss has called an emergency meeting and needs you to be there." The door shuts.

"Well, it seems we're going to postpone this for a while. Don't fret; we can continue this when you get back. Just don't look at the cards in your pocket. If you do, I'll know, and you'll never observe the best trick you'll ever witness for as long as you live."

"We won't. We promise," Karigall responds.

"Excellent." The brothers get up and head off to the meeting. When they leave and shut the door, Sylfinas starts to chuckle. "Imbeciles."

"What has you smiling all of a sudden?" The bipedal wolf asks. The array of keys swings around Sylfinas's finger and jiggle after he brandishes them from his pocket in front of her. "So that was your plan from the very beginning. Impressive." After trial and error, Sylfinas unlocks his cage and liberates himself, and then emancipates the lupine. The dimensions of the enclosure force her to arch slightly while standing to exit. Her total height actually towers over him when she has more breathing room to stand, and she stretches for a good bit of time, not seeming to care that she's revealing her entire naked body in front of him, but he turns his red face away anyway.

"You're taller than I expected," Sylfinas comments.

"I'm above average for my race, but trust me, there are others like me that are taller. Feels satisfying to be out of that cage. Way too cramped in there to be comfortable." Her bones repeatedly crack from stretching, and the sound reverberates everywhere in the room, causing Sylfinas to freeze in fear that the captors would hear the noise and investigate. As she has her back towards him, he notices a solid line of silver fur going down her spine.

"Whew!" He lets out a massive sigh of relief when nobody comes after a minute. "Well, let's get out of here and hopefully find you some decent clothing to wear during the process," he articulates. He still does his best not to look at the naked wolf. They both arrive at the ingress to the room. "Almost forgot, I'm Sylfinas," he speaks as he extends his hand to shake.

"I'm Kaera." the wolf accepts the handshake. They then proceed to go through the door and begin their escape before they discover what the meeting is about.

Feel free to comment. I'm always looking to improve myself.