2 Why Is This Happening To Me?!

I'm suddenly roused when I become drenched from head to toe. Surveying my surroundings I see the same beastman from when I got knocked out earlier with a bucket in his hand staring at me.

"H-hey what's going on here? Do you understand what I'm even saying?" I asked, filled with bewilderment.

"$*!@&!^(" He replies with an angry look on his face.

Shit, I still don't understand what he's saying. What happened to the whole "people transported to other worlds understand the common language in the world" thing? Well.. if I think about it, my parents did have to learn the languages of Earth when they were transported there.. but would that matter here?

Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly I gather what wits I have and look around where I'm at. Apparently I'm in a cell of some kind..

To my left I see other humans who appear to be soldiers of some nation. Maybe they're prisoners of war?

On my right I notice what looks to be a small well? Or is it a bathroom? I don't want to know right now..

Of course to my front is the dog beastman on the opposite side of the bars.

Turning myself around looking behind me I see something I don't think I'd have ever seen in my life….

With my eyes open in horror I see a female beastman being raped by two other beastmen. The beastmen are middle-aged with some scars on their faces and arms, they look to be enjoying themselves. Disgusting….

I have to do something, I don't know what this beastman, err female beastman did to end up here, but being raped by other beastmen isn't cool.

Taking another look at the woman, you can tell she doesn't want it, but she doesn't scream. She just bears with it.

Why doesn't she fight back?

I stand up and head over to the beastmen.

"hey what the hell do you think you're doing?!" I scream at the beastman with his back turned towards me turning him around.

In no time flat, as he turns around I notice his fist at the last moment. It happened again…

As my consciousness fades again I'm left wondering why this keeps happening to me lately.

I feel a soft sensation on my face as I stir back into consciousness. Slowly opening my eyes I see the woman who was being raped wiping blood from my face with a damp rag.

"I-I'm sorry I couldn't do anything to help you during your… situation.. and to have you take care of me, it makes me feel beyond pathetic…. What am I even saying, you probably can't even understand me can you?"

Sighing again as I raise myself up from resting on her thighs, I face her again and bow my head slightly in thanks.

"It happens at times, I've come to accept my fate.. Don't mind it. It also wasn't what you think it was. It was payment.. " She said in a soft voice devoid of hope.

Wait… what?!

"D-did you just understand me?! Wait… Did you just say payment? What do you mean by that?"

"Yes, I can understand you, what's so strange about that? Judging from your appearance, brown hair, hazel eyes… you're a man from the Marbian Empire, aren't you?"

"I don't know about any empire… I'm not even from this world. Every time I try talking to someone no one understands what I say, and I don't understand what they say either. Which makes me wonder why we're talking right now. Why didn't you answer my other question?"

"I see.. another world huh? I can't say I believe you, but I have a skill that makes me able to understand all languages I hear. And haven't you noticed yet that your wounds are almost gone yet?"

While staring at her in amazement, I lose myself in thought for a moment.

Wait maybe if we can get out of here she'll be one of my companions? Maybe she can teach me this world language on our travels? I see.. That was payment for healing me… What the hell?! I mean I'm grateful but why..

"I see, I'm Jayson by the way. Sorry for the late introduction. Skill huh, does everyone have a skill or are you unique? Why won't you tell what you meant by payment."

She tilts her head to the side while looking at me before sighing and returning to her previous posture revealing her bushy tail.

"I'm Misrurri, and in case you did not notice, I'm a girl of the kitsune race. About skills, as far as I know, they're unique, but I'm most likely wrong. I've been a slave since birth, I never left this place before."

Score! This may be my chance to see if she would escape with me, if I can find a way out of this place. However why does she keep sidestepping my question from earlier?

I thought to myself with the corner of my mouth rising up into a slight grin.

"I see, I'm sorry for what's happened to you. If I can figure a way out of here, would you like to join me? Could you also not ignore my question from earlier?"

Sighing as she looks at me with her deadpan eyes before closing them and shakes her head indicating she won't come along.

Before I could frown and ask why not and press on about the question I've repeated multiple times, she spoke quieter than usual.

"I have been here since I was born 18 years ago. This is all I know, even if I wanted to run away, the slavers would know where I am thanks to this. Also my mother taught me to do whatever was necessary to survive, and to help others. It's how I was raised. If you paid attention to the fact that while you have bloodied bandages on your head, and leg, you can move it freely. It was payment for using a potion to heal your wounds, you were really injured."

After she spoke she pulled down part of her shirt almost exposing her breasts revealing a brand of some kind. Is it a crest, a rune or something? If they know where she will be it's clearly magical in nature.

Wait.. if she has one of those, do I?!? What the hell am I going to do if I have one?! And to think she did something like that because of the state I was in when I was brought here…

Quickly shaking those negative thoughts out of my head, I slowly begin inspecting my body by removing my shirt. I notice there's no visible marks similar to what's on Misrurri's body.

"Is there a mark similar to yours on my back?"

Misrurri gives my body a quick once over and shakes her head.

Sighing in relief I put my shirt back on.

What's my next move since I haven't been marked yet? I need to get out of here, but the real questions are can I get out of here, and where am I in this new world?

"M-Misrurri can you tell me what country this is? Since I'm not from around here, I don't know the geography or anything like that."

I somehow manage to eek out the question while my head continues to swim in every direction possible.

"This country is known by the world simply as the Nortontan United Tribes since all the various races of demi-humans united under the five great Tribes."

Nodding my head at her explanation, the only thing I can think about is just how dead her eyes look when she looks at me while speaking. Judging by my experiences here so far, it's a harsh world, but I'm not even sure how many hours are in a day, what the calendar looks like. However I'm sure she won't know the answers I seek.

Judging by how much time has passed; I'd assume everything up until now has been roughly a day, assuming it's a normal 24 hours in a day, but my sense of time is most likely off… what to do..

">(@&#)!*#^@<"

The dog beastman says something as he hits the bars of the cell cutting off my train of thought.

I look at Misrurri implying that I want to know what he said, she apparently got the meaning behind my lurking.

"He said "time to eat then it's lights out. There's work to be done tomorrow."

After Misrurri finishes her translation she pulls Jayson with her closer towards the wall as the dog beastman opens the cell, and throws in some slop looking kind of food, having it land in a trough like container near the cell door. As he closes and locks the cell again he looks at the slaves with disgust prior to walking away.

Misrurri leads me over to the trough following the other slaves.

Do I really have to eat this? Man.. What is my life right now…

I swallow my pride and eat some of the food, if it can even be called that, from the trough.

It's disgusting, I may as well sleep for now and think of a way out of this place in the morning..

I move towards Misrurri after eating, and sit next to her.

"I didn't say it earlier but thank you for helping me multiple times now… You shouldn't have put yourself through that though for someone like me. You barely know me."

Misrurri looks at me with kind of a lonely smile before.

"My mother always said to take care of others. I'm sure I told you that already. Those beastmen were guards as well, so be thankful they didn't kill you."

"I-I see… I'll keep that in mind… I heard you say that, but what I can't understand is why. "

I really don't know anything about this world… There's no way I'm this stupid.. Just what am I supposed to do with myself in this place?!

What Misrurri said next stopped me from getting lost in my own head, again.

"When they brought you here, you were in and out of consciousness. One of the few times you were kind of, there, I guess you could say, I took a good look at your eyes. They seemed to be gentle, like someone who hasn't experienced hardships. Someone innocent in the ways of the world if you think that way."

"I see… Well my world is nowhere near as harsh, I feel really pathetic to have you save me twice in one day, but thank you nonetheless, Misrurri."

"You don't have to thank me, just be smarter about things. Especially in this country, the strong survive and make the rules. If you can't do anything for yourself, stay out of the way of others, so don't do anything reckless please. I dislike offering my body to others."

All I could do is nod my head in agreement, it seems the mental fatigue of all this has finally taken its toll. I'm exhausted after all this, how do I show her that I'm really grateful… I should probably sleep soon..

"Thank you again, and goodnight Misrurri…"

She says nothing and lies down near me along the wall. I lay down next to her and curl myself up and do my best to drift off into sleep.