Faun’s POV.

I shuddered in the cold wind that blew through the gaps in my prison. I did not like feeling cold. It was not something I was used to. Shivering and chattering teeth did little to actually warm up a human body. But did that psycho care? No! Of course he did not care, if he cared I would not have been locked up in the cage for so many months. 

Even worse than that, he had started to neglect me recently. Not that I wanted his attention but you should look after those under your care. Humans think they are so great but wolves are much better hosts. If it was not for the one guard who actually came and checked on me a few times a day I think I would have died from exposure once the season started to change. I doubt I could really die from exposure but I was using what little spare energy I had to support the animal side of my nature. The guard had seen me shivering in the cold and had given me a wool coat and blanket. They were warm but they were so itchy. How could humans manage to take the fluffy hairs of a sheep and ruin them to this extent. I really wanted to transform and grow my own real wool coat. But that was not going to happen. 

The cold wind of last night even had me wishing for my original cell back. When I first woke up here I was in a magically warded cell deep in the dungeon. Cut off from all outside energy I soon had no choice but to eat the food. It is a good thing that I was taken instead of Laurel. Being an animal spirit I can sustain myself as long as I have food. But the food was also a trap. I am not sure trap is the right word since I knew I should not eat it but my choice was to eat the food or vanish. It only took a few bites to confirm what my nose had been telling me for days. Something in the food stopped most of my power. It did not take long before I was no different for a beastman. That was the name that I had decided to give to those animal eared humans living on the far side of Laurel’s woods. 

Once I started eating the food Maximus knew he had won. He brought me out of the cell and put me in this cage to torment me. He laughed at how close I was to freedom but I just could not get there. 

Every few days Maximus would give me clean food. The first time he did this I thought it was a mistake. I did my best to hide my growing power waiting to have enough so I could turn into a mouse and get out of the cage. But I soon found that this clean food was always a bad omen. 

No... do not dwell on it.  I shuddered, casting the nightmares from my mind. 

It was after I had been here three months and the seasons were starting to turn to fall that I finally got a respite. Maximus left for several weeks. Everyone in this place seemed glad that he was gone. But I sank low at this time. I no longer had Maximus’s torturous presences to fight against. There was no way for me to get out of this cage. It was just me and my dark memories. I spent most of my time curled in a ball. 

This is when the one guard started to stop by. From the conversation that I overheard-human ears are really bad-it seems like he lost the bet to be the one that had to bring me food while Maximus was gone. He would just hurry into the courtyard, drop the food and run away. It took several days before he was even willing to look at me.

I do not remember now if it was out of frustration or mirth, maybe a combination of them, that I forced the silence to break. “Am I really that ugly that you can not even look at me?” I called out to him as he dropped my meal off one morning. My words must have shocked him because for the first time he looked at me and froze. “Are these ears really too much to bear?” I asked, twitching them, making it all too clear that these were not some tribal costume. 

“They said you are a powerful spirit. And could bewitch me.” He said nervously.

I had to laugh at this. “There is a very small smidgen of truth to that. But right now I am nothing more than a pitiful human girl locked in a cage.”

“How can you be nothing more than a human with ears like that?” he said in obvious disbelief, pointing up at my ears. 

“You humans really know so little of this world. Out past the land of the elves on the far side of the forest there are many tribes of ‘humans’ that are only different in their ears and tails.” I said with a smile. 

“Tails? But you don’t…” His words trailed off as I turned enough for him to see the red and white tail sticking out the back of my clothes. I usually kept the tail covered. These clothes that I was given, rags would be a better term, were not designed with tails in mind. If I wanted to have my tail exposed it caused me to show more of my skin. The red tint to the guards face made it clear that trying to keep my tail covered was the right choice. 

I did my best to suppress my snicker seeing his color change, but in the end I could not resist a small barb. “I am glad to see you do not find me completely ugly,” I said, giving him the most charming smile I could. 

“I… I… I must be going now,” he said, turning quickly and bustling away. But before he got out of reach of my ears I heard him say, “She really is going to bewitch me if I am not careful.”

In the end those last words must have either been in jest to himself or he decided to not care about being bewitched. Because he no longer fled from me after dropping off my food. We did not talk about much for a few days. Until out of the blue he asked me. 

“You say that you are a spirit. I find it really hard to believe that a little cage like this would be able to keep a spirit in.” He didn’t quite ask the question as I leaned against the door eating the meal that he just delivered. As usual the food was barely enough and the filthy taste of the toxin that suppressed my power permeated all of it. 

“Normally I would agree with you,” I said and sadly held up my food, “but I am being poisoned. I really am nothing more than a human girl. A rather weak one right now.” I eyed the food in disgust. The food was really just enough to keep me alive. But barely. 

“Poisoned! Then why do you eat it?” He, Michael, I found out his name a few days ago, called out in shock.

“Simple really. Maximus trapped me here. If I was to stop eating, by the time my body cleared enough of this poison to use my power I would be too weak from hunger to escape. He moved me out here from the dungeon just to torment me with how helpless I am.”

It seemed that this information was more than Michael was able to process because after watching me eat my meal for a few moments he turned and left without another word. 

It seemed like things with Michael would be left on a sour note since Maximus came back that evening. I do not know if his mood was foul or good but he went after his ‘research’ with more enthusiasm than ever before.

Katuwarrior

For those who read the spoilers in the comment section (I have only ever done a few on Maple's request). Here is the long awaited Faun Chapter, or rather part 1 of 3. Part 2 is all but ready and will be out tomorrow. I will work on getting part 3 ready for Monday (my time). You will have something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving a bonanza of chapters.