It was quiet after what happened earlier. For once. I wished they would try to tell me some silly story to pass the time. Mostly because of the guilt after the fact drifting through my mind. But what was there to do? What could I even say? I’d set this path myself. So I tried to distract my thoughts away from Kay and what I'd said.

It was after dark when the door opened and the man returned his simple shirt and pants worn with dirt. He had the appearance of a long day of work and he was simply tried and ready to call it a night. Maybe a nice shower… and a comfortable bed to end the day. Hopefully, he wanted me to curl up with him! Too bad, I doubted I would make a good pillow.

“You're ready?” He asked me, his disposition only feeling more tired than when I’d spoken to him earlier.

I nodded holding up my leg which my shackle attached for him.

He knelt down and inserted a small key into the small metal loop around my ankle. With the twist of the key, the metal itself seemed to grow in size and relax away from my flesh, allowing my foot to slide out. I couldn’t help but stare a little at that, so that was why it had been so tight...

“Don’t bother running.” He said a hand on my shoulder.

“I’m not… besides I’d make it five steps before you’d catch me.” I replied. I was confident in my own feebleness.

“If that.” He stated firmly.

He was either quite confident or an ass. I didn’t really mind, either way, I liked both of those to an extent. “Where are we going?” I asked as he led me down from the room that I’d stayed in since I was captured. “Your cabin?” I asked.

He sniffed, “I don’t have such luxuries, only the captain does.”

“Ah…” I replied as he continued to lead me through the camp.

“You know I don’t trust you, right?” He offered.

“Obviously, you have no reason to.” I agreed.

He grunted as we meandered from one side of the camp towards the far side. I wondered where he was going to take us if he didn’t have a private space to himself… Maybe beyond the wall? Behind another building? I couldn’t help but be a bit curious about what he might pick.

We reached a building larger than the one we were housed in and stepped up and inside. A man sitting there was looking over a piece of paper. He glanced up at us as we both entered.

“That's the one you said was making trouble?” The man asked.

The man guiding me nodded, “That's right. Which one should I throw her in?” He asked.

“Ah…” I grimaced, I’d been tricked!

The man at the table gestured to a door, and I was guided over and gently shoved in.

Before I could even turn to look the door was pulled closed behind me.

“Maybe a few days on this side of the camp will teach you not to take us lightly.” The man said firmly through the door. The sound of his footsteps was the only other sound until he left the building.

Lightly!? When did I ever do that… Sure I wanted to escape but I’d have settled for a warm bed… and one or two strong men… Fine… one! I’d have settled for one man! I’d even give up on the bed! We could do it in the middle of camp I don’t care!

I paused my internal rant when I realized that my priorities seemed off, well whatever… I sighed and leaned up against the door. I had only gotten a brief glance inside. It was basically a closet, entirely empty, with the outer walls logs, the inside however had been sawed planks, and of course the wooden door I was leaning against. Still, they were rough feeling just like the building I'd stayed in before.

I didn’t expect they would have some kind of solitary confinement… Then again who would? There had been another door, so they had two closets to shove people in? What the hell was the point of this!?

“Hey…” A voice came from the other side of a wall.

I leaned closer to the door, pressing my ear against it.

“Hey… you hear me?” A voice came. It wasn’t from the door. I moved over to the plank wall, gently knocking on it.

“Yeah… over here.” A man replied.

“I hear you…” I replied.

“… A woman?” He asked low.

“That’s right.” I agreed.

“Well shit, that's not helpful.” he sighed.

“No?” I asked a bit of anger bubbling inside of me that I’d been dismissed for such a reason.

“I was hoping you were the sort that could free yourself and we could make a break-” He began to explain.

“Quiet down in there!” Came a harsh voice from the beyond the door. “I can hear your whispering. Cut it out.”

“Sorry to disappoint…” I added then leaned back against the wall, my anger simply popping into nothingness. I too wish I could crash through the door and charge from the camp.

So much for my plan. Maybe my instinct that men only used their brains when their cocks couldn’t point them into my pussy wasn’t so sound after all. Not like I really had a good working knowledge of that, most men I knew prior to coming to this camp had stuck their cocks in me. Minus three goblins of course. Honestly, it hurt my ego a bit more than I expected. Was I so prideful? I definitely had the impression that men should want my attention… Then again I didn’t know the context for that… Maybe I’d once been incredibly beautiful? I had a mixed gut reaction to that, maybe I was the only woman in a world of men! That was dumb, but I couldn’t help but drool at my own fantasies. Still, they were that, and nothing more, I wasn’t getting anywhere this way.

The night was long, and in the morning a knock came at the door, “Get up.”

I didn’t really know if I’d slept, or if I’d just stared into the near darkness of the confinement room. Either way, I managed to stand up before the door opened.

On the other side stood a bear of a man, for a fraction of a moment I thought he might have been of the beast race. His face was all beard and mustache though his head was cut short to match. The hair wasn’t the only resemblance to a bear either, he was massive, maybe half a foot taller than the man who had led me here the day prior. His arms were like tree trunks. What was with all the hunks? I had a not so sneaking suspicion that this was some form of military camp, and with every moment I was starting to feel more secure in that theory.

“Well if it isn’t a little girly.” He mused upon seeing me.

I glanced up and over him, “You want to come inside here and play with me for a bit?” I asked a bit too eagerly before I could think better of it. Then again could he fit?

The man let out a laugh clearly laughing at it as if it was a joke, “That's not going to happen.”

“Why not? Aren't you lonely?” I whispered.

“Enough of that, or you’ll be away from your tribe folk for weeks.” he said firmly with growing intensity. He raised a hand and for the first time, I glanced down to see he was holding a ball and a length of chain, in a single hand. His hands, and forearms were covered in tattoos geometric patterns that were built-in on themselves, circles, triangles, and shapes I wasn’t even sure had names. It was somewhat mesmerizing to look at.

On second thought maybe I shouldn’t be trying to seduce this man… He was kind of terrifying. The more I actually looked and observed him, the more that notion really started to sink into me. Like some primal part of me decided to finally peek its lazy ass up and tell me. I was a tiger kin! Where were all my fancy animal instincts!?

“Your ankle.” He stated, gesturing to his free hand.

I decided to do as he said without further resistance. I held myself up with one hand on the wall while offering my dainty foot to him. Of course, rather than kiss it like I would have liked, he moved it into the iron loop, then using nothing but his hand, he somehow bent the metal inward.

I barely could process what I’d just seen, “How…” I asked stunned.

He just chuckled, “You don’t see much magic in your backwater tribe eh?”

That probably was meant as an insult? I wasn’t sure… I shrugged, not wanting to get into the complexities of such a discussion at this point.

He lowered the ball down and gestured for me to come out.

When I did I found a much more reasonably sized man holding his larger metal ball in his arms. Standing next to me, no doubt this was the man who had whispered at me through the walls.

He was unkempt, a messy brown scraggly hair on his head, but he had muscle. He was perhaps a foot taller than me, which put him roughly a footer shorter than the lord of the bears who was standing in front of us. He was certainly a man, leagues above a certain collection of goblins. It always came back to that for me didn’t it?

“Grab your shackle. You’ll be helping out with chores today.” The bear-man stated.

My ball was incredibly heavy, I could barely lift it with both hands, even then to walk with it I basically had to press it to my chest just and walk slowly just to manage properly. Even my tail which I could only assume was trying to help with my balance was helpless before its mass!

We were led outside, then past the walls, and down to a stream.

“Alright, Nothing much to this, clean the dishes. If you try and run away or cause problems and the boys with the bows over there will use you as target practice instead of those dummies.” The big man explained.

I glanced to the side, and I saw three men with bows. One even waved with a malicious grin on his face I could barely make out. Alright, that guy was definitely off my list. I drew the line at people that enjoyed shooting me with arrows!

“Snap to it.” He said.

The man I had followed set down his ball, and I followed his lead. The pile of dishes was somewhat ridiculous, it was at the point where you wondered if they had clean dishes left. Also, I suppose dishes were a bit of an exaggeration, it was a handful of pots, wooden bowls, and spoons. How many men were here? I glanced around when I stood up and I saw a big block of men in the field behind them. Probably over a hundred people there.

“Shit!” I grumbled at the sight of such a huge group of men just looming beyond the walls. Scout, what the hell! Then again Scout was a goblin, he might have known… “Fuck…” I added under my breath for good measure.

“That any way for a lady to speak?” The guy who had already taken a seat on a log conveniently placed by the water stated.

Not sure what else to do, I took a seat next to him. “I’m not much of a lady.”

He looked at me, “No? Is that why you were drooling over the captain?”

“That was the captain?” I asked.

“Yep… Captain, Dragon Smith” He noted as though everyone should have known.

What the hell kind of a name was that!? Maybe a title? A big shot huh? “Is that the kind of name you get as a smith that makes dragons? Or maybe a blacksmith that can make a sword that can kill a dragon? Or maybe the type of name you get by killing a dragon?” I rambled off each idea as I had them.

“That's the kind of name you get by being a blacksmith, that's killed a dragon.” He offered even as he began washing dishes.

I gulped. I didn’t want to get in trouble so I joined, though as usual, I felt that scrubbing dirty things with my hands in water wasn’t the best cleaning method. “So what did you do to get into trouble?” I asked.

“I joined this expedition to set up a camp, and then in the dead of night I tried to steal a very valuable sack.” He noted.

“As in the sack was valuable, or the contents were?” I asked with a bit of sarcasm.

He chuckled, “The contents. It's how I got branded a thief, though as far as that goes I’m clearly terrible. What about you?”

“I wandered into the camp thinking it was a town. So they put me with the other beast kin. Thinking maybe I could improve the situation I offered to let the guard fuck me…”

He laughed, “Bold.”

“If only… I must confess that I’m just impatient and stumble into problems easily.” I sighed.

“Well, we’re two birds of a feather then. Two risk-takers with bad luck.”

I nodded, “Seems like it…”