“U-um…” Eleanor awkwardly replied, looking over at the man that just grabbed her.
“H-hey, can you—hic—can you help me find a place—a place to just…” the drunk man from before said, leaning over Eleanor and using her to stand up while he mumbled incoherently. “Somewhere to—hic—pass out.”
“Hey!” shouted the tall man from before, quickly standing from his spot on the table. “What do you think you’re doing?! Any of us could’ve tossed you out to the mud if you needed it!”
“Shuddup!” shouted back the drunk. “I ain’t—hic—trust any of you degenerates!” He then turned to look at Eleanor. “Just—Just toss me somewhere nice in the hallway.”
“U-um…” Eleanor hesitated, but when the man lowered his head, she resigned herself and nodded. “Okay…”
With half-steps and swaying from side to side, she tried her best to carry the man to the hallway. There wasn’t anyone else in it, and they continued to slowly move. Eleanor wasn’t sure about what to do with the man as she looked around for ‘somewhere nice’ to drop the drunk, but while she was looking, the man suddenly stood up straight, and pulled her head closer to his.
Eleanor yelped with widened eyes, but the look in the man’s eyes was severe.
“Calm down,” he whispered, his voice no longer as slurred. “Listen to me carefully… You can’t stay here. As soon as you can, you must leave this place.”
“Huh?” Eleanor asked back, confused about the man’s statement.
“It’s not a lie when I say that they’re degenerates. A pretty woman like yourself shouldn’t be here,” the man continued, sustaining his serious look.
“What are you talking about…? What does that—”
It was while she was trying to get him to be clear about what he said that a door was opened. A man was walking out of another room, and as soon as that happened, the drunk returned to his drunken act.
“Ohhhh…! How I miss my—hic—Brunhilda!” he loudly shouted, swaying to the side, and forcing Eleanor to keep her balance.
“Hmph! Useless drunk…” the man said as he passed by the both of them. “You better not get any strange ideas with our guest!”
“Hah!?” the drunk exclaimed, turning around, and forcing Eleanor to sway with him. “Who do you—hic—think I am?! Nobody can compete with my—!”
“Yeah, yeah!” Shouted the man, glaring back. “Just make sure you don’t put a hand on her, got it?”
“I ain’t no degenerate like—” Another door slammed shut and the man was gone. After looking at it for a moment, the drunk turned to look seriously at Eleanor again. “You’ll regret it if you don’t leave. You must go tonight and as soon as possible.”
“Eh? What does that mean? Why do you say that?” Eleanor asked with an anxious frown now painted on her eyebrows.
The drunk finally let go of her and swayed away. “You’ve been warned, and you know how the sayin’ goes: ‘Warned soldier doesn’t die in war, and if he dies, it’s ‘cuz he’s dumb’, or somethin’ like that.”
“Wait, can you explain what you mean?” Eleanor asked, taking a step forward, but as soon as she did, the man fell forward, and passed out on the floor. She rushed to look at him, pushing him from side to side, trying to wake him back up, but the man just loudly snored.
It seemed like this time; he actually did pass out. There was no way to know what he meant, but judging by the grave look that he gave her, it was better for her to heed his words… Or she could take it as nothing more than the ramblings of a drunk man who just wanted to get rid of her. Either way, regardless of what she decided to do, she would be in danger, since leaving could mean fighting alone in a strange forest, and staying could be just the same from the warning of the drunk.
Eleanor bit her lower lip and considered his words while looking at the snoring man. She turned to look at the closed door that led to the dining hall, and heard the chattering, laughing, and noise coming from the men. Then she turned to look at the room that the so-called boss gave her.
She finally stood back up and looked down at me. “What should we do…?”
“Kyun,” was all I answered.
Eleanor looked at me as she considered her next actions, but just shook her head and made her way over to the room that they gave her. I followed her, and once I walked in, she closed the door.
She created the same makeshift lock made out of rock on the door but stood looking at it for a moment. Realizing that it wouldn’t be enough, she created a completely new rock wall over the door, blocking the entrance completely from anyone that wanted to force their way in. Then she grabbed the simple bed, dragged it, and placed it in front to completely block the way.
It was after this that she finally seemed to settle down and sit on the bed. She refused to remove her dress or even the armor pieces as she laid down on the bed with the sword right next to her and close to her hands. Once she was done, she swiped her hand at the small torch in the room, sending a small gust of wind and water, to finally turn it all to darkness.
“Hey, Kyun,” she said with a whisper. “Will you… please watch over me?”
With all those protections, and a band of knights in this place, this seemed like a good place for me to finally let go of the cat-like summon and turn my attention back to the outside world… But I could understand her fears. I had grown somewhat fond of her, so I decided to stay here and do as she asked.
“Kyun,” I said, but since she couldn’t see me, I tapped her on the head a couple of times and left the paw there.
“Thank you,” she softly said, and soon after, fell asleep.
* * *
Hours passed and the noise from the outside eventually went down. Eleanor had been right in putting extra layers of protection over her door, as strange things happened while she was sleeping.
Men were coming to the door and standing in front of it. My ‘eye’ could see beyond the door and wall that she placed, so I could clearly see how they would mumble things to themselves, before turning to go elsewhere. A couple of them even placed their hands on the door while mumbling, and one even tried to force it open, only to find resistance in it, and leave while trying not to make too much noise in the process.
Some of them also looked at the passed out drunk man in one corner of the hallway, and the few that did, would look at him with disgust, with one of them even spitting on him as he walked past him.
This fort was a strange place, and I did consider waking Eleanor so she could do as the drunk man warned and leave, but since after a few hours the men stopped coming, I decided to leave it as it was and let her decide for herself when she woke up if nothing else happened.
What I didn’t realize was that there was more to this fort than it appeared when the floor right under Eleanor’s bed suddenly opened with a loud slam that caused her to yell in surprise and the bed with both of us to fall down the hole.
It didn’t fall for long, and once the bed loudly hit the floor, Eleanor quickly moved to reach for her sword, only to be stopped when the same bear-like man from the entrance gripped her wrists and pulled her back down to the bed. She struggled to stand back up, raising her legs to kick, but like the bear-like man, another one appeared on the other side of the bed, gripping her from the ankles and forcing her down on the bed as well.
“P-please, let me go!” she shouted, trying her best to wrestle away from the men, without success.
The bear-like man leaned over her, his face right next to her, licking her cheeks and then moving over to her ear. “Quit struggling. We said we were going to take care of you, didn’t we?”
“No! Please don’t do this!” she shouted back, only to get headbutted by the man.
“Quiet!” he shouted. “Don’t make things difficult for us.”
There were tears falling from her eyes as she looked with widened eyes at the man and then around her. There, she finally noticed the strange place that she was in. There were other humanoid women, but they were all beaten up, naked—or almost naked—and chained to walls, with a few of them barely moving or… just dead.
It seemed like she should’ve listened to the drunk man’s advice when he gave it to her.
After she gave a sweeping gaze at the place with her eyes widened and tears falling from them, the boss of these men walked in, followed by another group of them.
