2 Chapter 2 - Elf This Place!

The forest was otherworldly, with stunning trees and plants. Everywhere she looked was remarkable. The more the sun ascended, the more she realized she was not in her own world.

Part of her hoped she would recognize something, anything, to tell her she was just imagining herself in another world, but no. As Damon weaved through the forest she had to admit the truth to herself.

'Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.'

This new worlds trees towered like skyscrapers above her. They resembled evergreens with stunning lime-green needles rising several hundred feet into the sky. The roots, however, were more along the lines of swamp trees, protruded from the ground to rise over twelve feet tall and extending several yards turning the forest into a huge maze.

Even the plants were large and odd looking. Several had huge dinner plate size leaves and all were colors that would make you believe they were poisonous. She may not have traveled much, but even she knew these were not plants from her world.

For a while now her monotone friend's face had been pinched in pain. It was obvious he didn't speak much due to his broken jaw. The pain had to be intense, but he still answered her questions, though he kept his answer short.

While he ran though the forest jumping and weaving through the obstacles, she couldn't hold back her curiosity any longer. "Are we on earth?"

He glanced down with confusion. "We walk on earf."

Not exactly what she meant. "No… umm… what is this world called?"

With slight hesitation, he dashed around a bush about the size of a bus and muttered, "Kotoran." After jumping down from a small cliff, he elaborated, "We in Feral Kingdom, go to Moral Kingdom am be save."

So that means, this world was in fact not Earth, but Kotoran, whatever that was, and they had been imprisoned in Feral Kingdom, how fitting, but they could be safe in Moral Kingdom, also a bit ironic. The names of the kingdoms fit a little too well…

About 3 hours later, he slowed his pace looking a bit relieved. When asked, he tried to smile, but grunted in pain. "We in Moral."

"How do you know?" She was twisting and pulling on a small seven-inch strip of cloth. It had fallen off his shirt, probably some tie that no longer worked.

"Ju' sense it."

Well, that was odd, but at this point, it didn't really matter, so she kept silent.

They spotted a small stream, well, calling it a steam was a stretch, it was about four inches wide and less than an inch deep. But water was water, and Damon spotted something not far off that he had been looking for.

He promptly placed her by a large pink bush with leaves shaped like fans. Each pink fan was topped with splashes of red, as if each leaf was dipped in blood. Oddly, it smelled like gasoline. So, she thought it smelled good, but Damon wrinkled his nose as he set her down.

When he pushed her to sit slightly behind it, he stated, "Chu stay save by bush." Then without a backward glance, he quickly disappeared into the forest.

Around her she could hear animals and bugs. It was about ten minutes of waiting when she first saw an animal.

It was a lizard about the size of a cat with teeth like a gator. The thing looked at her for several seconds even took a couple steps closer, then suddenly looked at her bloody fan plant and bolted away.

Could it be possible the plant would keep wildlife away? Was it even safe for her to be near it?

As more time went by, it occurred to her, he might not come back. She could hardly blame him. If anything, she was slowing him down.

But surprisingly, about thirty or forty minutes after he left, he returned. He had been hunting.

In his hand he held two rabbit-looking-animals. But instead of long ears, they had small antlers with rodent-like ears.

To answer her curious glance, he muttered, "Furrs."

'They were called furrs, not hares. That's kinda funny.'

He readied a fire and used his bare hands to butcher the furrs. If she wasn't mistaken, he extended a long sharp claw from one of his fingers and perfectly carved the furrs.

'How the hell did he just light that fire and that was a claw, right?'

There was no way this man was human.

After some time of her watching him, she realized his jaw was sitting oddly. The entire left side of his face was purple and swollen, but what caught her attention was the right side, his jaw seemed to move on its own.

When he stood from washing his hands in the small stream, she walked up to him, grabbed his shoulders and forced him to look directly at her. She touched the right side of his face. Her suspicion was right. "I thought your jaw was broken, but it's dislocated. I can help, but it's likely fractured as well. So, the pain will be intense."

He blinked a few times then nodded. For some time now he hadn't spoken at all. The pain was probably too much.

Quickly, she washed her hands in the stream and demanded, "Close your eyes and I will count to three." She slipped the fingers of her right hand into his mouth and she gently pressed against his jaw. With her left, she cupped his jaw.

Once he closed his eyes she counted, "One."

As hard and fast as she could she popped his jaw back in place and he screamed.

Thankful he didn't bite her, she released him and gently touched his jaw near his right ear. It was back in place.

"Wha happ' to two am twee." He was shaking and looked like he was about to hit the ground.

"Well, I was hoping it wouldn't hurt as bad if I did it while you weren't expecting it." She was starting to feel bad. He had tears in his eyes.

"Oww." Damn, he looked like he was in a lot of pain.

Darn it, she was really feeling like an ass. "Sorry." She smiled awkwardly.

With tears on his dirty cheeks, he got back to his original task. He shoved the furrs onto sticks and used rocks to prop the meat over the fire. The meat cooked quickly and once he deemed one side done, he turned the furrs and continued to watch them cook.

Finally, they were done, but after handing one to her he didn't eat his. His jaw was too messed up to eat.

He set his furr on a rock near the fire and sat back, closed his eyes, and started humming. A black light rose up from his core and enveloped him. Only seconds passed before he opened his eyes and started eating his furr with gusto.

"What?" Shocked didn't even kinda cover it.

'What the fuck was that.'

With a slight chuckle, he said, "Thanks for helping me, I can heal myself, but the rules of self-healing still apply." His words were slightly slurred and he had a slight Scottish accent.

His voice was deep and masculine and the smile he had given when he laughed nearly knocked her panties off. Too bad she wasn't wearing any.

Done talking he dug back into his meal.

She had no idea what the rules where for self-healing or any of that, wait, could she self-heal?

Not wanting to look more like an idiot than she already was, regarding this world at least, she kept her questions to herself. Maybe later she would figure out how to ask without making it too obvious she wasn't from this world.

Once he finished eating, he looked like a new man. He was still covered in dirt and his long hair and beard were dirty and tangled, but he held himself differently. Having some nutrients and his jaw fixed, had worked wonders.

The swelling on his face was nearly gone and the bruising had downsized. He still had a black eye, but it was hard to tell if there was more damage under the bushy beard.

'I wonder what he looks like under all that scruff.'

When he started kicking dirt into the fire, she jumped to her feet. She wasn't sure what to do, so she just stood there like and idiot.

After the fire was extinguished, he looked at her half eaten furr and snatched it, broke it in half and handed back the uneaten piece.

That done, he tossed the bones, washed his hands and picked her up. With a small nod he started running again.

She gripped what was left of her furr in her hands and watched his face. The bruising had disappeared almost completely. He was looking much healthier, but for some reason she had a feeling he needed to eat more.

There was no reason, no sign that he was hungry, in fact, he had eaten his whole furr, while only half had filled her just fine. Heck, the piece she held, was almost twice as much as she'd eaten.

Picking a large piece from her furr, she raised it to his mouth, "Open."

It took a second for him to process her actions. Finally, he opened his mouth. She picked more off and fed it to him, repeating the process several times.

He stared down at her, but she was fascinated. Right before her eyes his bruises were fading to yellow, then lighted until finally they were gone.

By the time he had eaten the rest of her furr, he looked ten times better. His once pale cheeks were flush with color, even dirty, he no longer looked like a corpse.

"Wow, you look alive again." She laughed in surprise.

His lips quirked up in a half smile. He didn't say anything, but she knew he was grateful.

~*~*~*~*~

The moon was beautiful.

She smiled, the simple act of looking at the moon was a treat for her. It had been a long time since she had seen the moon, so this made her happy.

Her late master had been kind. He had allowed her outside at times, always supervised, but once a month she was allowed outside. Luckily, he had allowed her to choose day or night. So, she would switch every other month.

She liked both night and day equally.

"Miss?" The little girl who was using her lap as a pillow, looked up at her with scared eyes. "Why you smile?"

The little girl hadn't been a slave for too long, her hair was evenly cut and her fingernails were clean. She must have been snatched within the last few days.

"I'm happy to see the moon." She looked into the girl's eyes. "Sometimes you have to take the small happiness, to survive the sadness."

It was obvious she didn't understand. "Survive sadness?"

"Yes." It was hard to explain to someone who hadn't experienced the pain of being a slave.

The girl was about eight years old, not much older than her when she had been taken.

She glanced around at the sword wielding men guarding the small group of slaves. In total there were six guards and only four slaves.

The two older slaves, male and female, were sitting close together pretending to ignore everyone.

In her experience, slaves had one of three personalities. First and most common, those that had lost their will to live. Second, those that were submissive, but waiting for the chance to run. If the second were ever caught or threatened they would never fight, just submit. Finally, third and rarest of all, the runners and the fighters. They would die before ever giving up.

When she met the couple, she realized quickly they were the second type.

Several times since they were purchased from the underground action, she had heard them whispering quietly together. They were tempted to include her in their discussions, but stopped as soon as they saw her life collar.

That gesture alone was enough for her to realize they were planning to run. They just hadn't gotten the opportunity yet.

Since the elder couple were veterans like her, they knew slave code. When she tilted her head, glanced to the left, and coughed, they turned their attention to her.

Gliding her fingers along the mettle lock of the little girl's slave collar, she showed the other two what she could do.

Using all her strength she pushed her magic to her fingertips.

Click.

The small click didn't catch the little girl's attention, but the two older slaves stared in disbelief.

The older of the two slaves gasped quietly.

"Take her with you, get her somewhere safe and I will free you." Reaching around the girl's neck she lifted the lock and removed the collar from her neck.

As she felt the collar being removed, the little girls eyes popped open.

"Sshhh…" The girl nodded in understanding.

"Come, lie down to sleep." She said this loud enough for the group of guards to hear her.

They glanced over as the two older slaves laid their heads down on her lap. There was no way they would be comfortable laying as they were, but the guards didn't notice or care.

"Promise." She whispered.

"We will." "She will be safe." They whispered in return.

As she slid her fingers over each of their metal slave collars, she told them, "Lay here till I cause a distraction, then run."

"No, come with us." The little girl was sweet.

"Sorry, I can't." She touched the leather life collar around her neck. "This one is different than yours. It cannot be removed… Also, using magic drains me completely, very soon I will pass out."

"But…"

"Hush now, get ready to go." She quieted the girl with a stern voice.

As soon as she finished removing the collars, she moved each of them off her lap and stood.

She was already dizzy and a little nauseous.

Using the large amount of magic needed to remove the three collars was enough strain to knock her out for several days. Since she needed to cause a distraction she had to fight against unconsciousness, which made her feel nauseous. So, when she stumbled into the group of guards dry heaving, she wasn't faking.

It was a good thing she didn't have to pretend, she wasn't a good actor.

"What the hell?" One of the guards grabbed her before she fell into the fire.

She wasn't going to stay awake long.

The guards panicked as she dry heaved and fell to their feet. They stomped around in a panic.

"If she dies, we'll get killed."

"She's just sick stupid."

"Someone have a potion?"

They bounced around unsure what to do till the leader shouted for them to, "Shut it!"

He roughly grabbed her face and looked into her eyes. "It's a side effect of the Life Collar." He lifted her and set her nearly unconscious body into the back of the open carriage.

When he lifted her she got a view of three open collars laying on the ground with no slaves in sight.

Suddenly, she heard the guards panic. "The slaves are missing!"

They ran into the forest to find them.

While, his men ran into the forest, their leader walked up to her and growled, "I know you helped and you're going to pay for this."

As darkness took over, fear chilled her to the bone. The sad truth was she was the most common type of slave, he first type. Helping them had been the right thing, but now she was afraid of waking up.

~*~*~*~*~

Waking with a start, she gasped in fear.

Large hands held her down.

She was scared, but she was a fighter. She threw her arms up and clawed at who wanted to kill her.

"Stop, your safe, calm down." A deep voice yelled at her.

Like she would just believe that. She would never allow anyone to hurt her again.

With practiced ease, she kicked out and got a grunt in return.

Finally, she blinked the darkness way and saw gold eyes glaring down at her.

Oops…

Those gold eyes and the glaring edge were familiar. So was the hairy dirty man crouched beside her holding his balls.

Double oops…

Where the scratch marks and bruised balls her fault?

She glanced around and realized, they were still near the river they had stopped at to eat dinner and sleep.

Since they left their cells, Damon had carried her through the forest none stop. When the sun begun to set the night before, he finally stopped to rest.

He had looked exhausted, but since she was basically useless, he went and hunted down another furr, this time to share, then passed out once he finished.

"I am so sorry! Are you okay?" She sat up and tried to fix something, but she was too flustered to really do anything.

"It's fine, just careful where you kick." He groaned as he stood up.

Then froze, for several seconds he just stood there, touching the new scratch marks on his neck. Her scratch marks were on the opposite side of the claw marks.

Slowly, he slid his fingers over the scratches and looked at her, his eyes were glowing. Just another reminder that he wasn't human.

He continued to stare at her.

Feeling uncomfortable she tucked her messy hair behind her … large elf ears. Oh, and there was the reminder that she wasn't human…

She sighed and stood to her feet. Unsure what to do, all she could do was apologize again. "I'm really sorry, I had a nightmare and clawed and kicked you… Sorry."

Okay, it hadn't exactly been a nightmare, but a memory of a past that wasn't hers. That was more frightening to her, than the fear the nameless elf had felt.

"It-It's fine…" He stuttered? Even when his jaw was messed up, he hadn't stuttered once.

"Umm… did I maybe hurt you worse than I think?"

"What?"

She stepped closer and looked at the scratches. They were surprisingly deep and seemed to already be healed but scared. "I'm so sorry! … How? …"

When she reached out and touched the marks she had left, he flinched so hard he virtually teleported away.

Now she was frozen with her hand out, but no idea what was happening.

Shaking his whole body like a dog shaking off water, he turned to the river. "We should be going now. The town I want to get to is still over a day away."

He moved to the river and was about to step into the shallows to cross, when she interrupted him.

"Actually, I was wondering." She waited for him to turn around, but when he didn't, she continued. "Well, the thing is, I stink… real bad. And I want to wash off."

"This water is cold." He still didn't turn around.

"Yeah, I figured, but if we can spare an hour or two, we can both wash our clothes and ourselves. The clothes should be dry by then, well, if we hang them properly… I'll wash your cloths too if that helps…" She was starting to ramble.

Slowly, he turned around. "You wanna wash my clothes?"

"Umm… yes? …" She was really starting to feel insecure. "If you are okay with that."

"… Okay…" He removed his shirt and started on his pants.

Okay, she was no virgin, but even she ekked and covered her eyes as his parts swung free.

Had she really seen what she just saw?

Peeking through her fingers she ekked again when he was suddenly closer holding out his clothing.

Oh yeah, she had seen what she thought she saw. It was, haha… yeah… very nice, very nice.

He shook his clothes with impatience. "You wash up and I will go hunt."

"Oh!" She took his clothes and tried, tried not to look down. "Kay!"

Heaven help her, her eyes drifted… lots of muscles, chest, nipples, eight pack, outie belly button, v-cut sex line, and holy long-n-wide.

'Damn it, I may be a red-blooded woman, but I am not a pervert… Wait, was my blood red?'

With a curt nod he turned his perfectly muscular ass and disappeared into the forest.

Once that, wow, was out of sight, she came back to her senses. Oh right. "Hey, you should wash up too."

Oh well, if he didn't want to wash up, it was his choice.

But yay! Now she could wash off some of her stink.

…

Damn it, as she walked to a more secluded area of the rivers, all she could think about was the Adonis hunting for breakfast.

Good thing she was about to get the cold shower she so desperately needed.