An unexpected deal

Kira continues to swim until she reaches the opposite shore, having to avoid some of the boats along the way. At least her fur no longer felt heavy from the mud and she was able to climb to the low pier. She shakes violently to get the water off her, becoming more or less clean before becoming human again.

"A bath will come in handy afterwards," Kira thinks when touching her hair and ties it in seven braids, she pulls up her hood, her suit was no longer totally white but almost yellowish. "Let's see if I can open this."

She walks a little around the harbor, passing behind boxes and large animals dragging boxes, hoping not to be discovered and generate uncomfortable questions. At last she finds a empty little warehouse near the end of the port, there is no one in sight at least. She opens the door and enters, it is also emptied inside except for empty boxes.

"Seems like a good temporary place," she say.

She walks a little until she sits on a small box, takes out of the suit the account notebooks, luckily and thanks to her suit they did not get soaked. With a quick glance he examined the lock, curses between his teeth and growls at the sight that the lock is made by a magic seal; he can only be released by the same one who did the spell or a curse breaker. Kira drops the books to the ground frustrated, she is stagnant again, waiting for that to open the way more, she found a wall.

A new idea suddenly came to Kira's mind and she picks up the notebooks, carrying them to her nose to smell them deeply. With some luck, she could identify Maldey's smell. She does not know the species of Maldey or how many hands passed through those notebooks but she has no other, she recognizes that of satyr and hers, but there is another more persistent: a faun.

"Let's hope that M isn't just adornment and Gaston a talker," Kira keeps the notebooks in her white backpack, though it's surely yellow like the suit but at least invisible from a distance.

She leaves the warehouse carefully, peeking out of the dirty windows first before leaving when no one is in sight. She sniffs the air until she perceives the distant smell of the faun and walks in that direction, trying to avoid being seen although it is still difficult because of the number of people who get on and off the boats. In the end, Kira has to jump back into the water, transforming so she can move faster and have more stamina.

Large and heavy ships pass by her side, she can see the large animals pulling them underwater, resembling eels or sea snakes, in that place she does not allow engines that use fuel or coal. Animals don't seem to bother noticing her presence or just ignore her.

After a few fifteen minutes, the smell of the faun becomes stronger when it approaches a red and gray cargo ship. Kira can hear loud growls somewhere inside, piqued her curiosity. She transforms back into a human when she reaches the wooden and steel hull of the boat. She transforms her two hands into wolf claws, a unique ability of the Lycan, starting to use them to climb.

"We're almost done downloading everything, Mr. Maldey," Kira can hear someone's voices on the deck.

"Beware of the blue boxes, they know very well that this is the most precious thing," replied who she assumed must have been Maldey.

Kira reaches the edge of the ship and passes inside keeping hidden behind some barrels where she can see the faun.

A goat with human features, including the face, chest, and hands, the body covered with a thick brown fur; the uncovered skin is marked by tattoos of Celtic symbols and other cultures. The most striking thing about the creature is its long curved horns that come out to the sides, protruding from its reddish hair.

"Hey! Beware of that, you don't carry cattle in those boxes!" says the faun hitting his helmets on the ground as he approaches the entrance to the warehouse, where they lift a huge net of boxes with a crane.

"Oh, Maldey don't be so dramatic, the merchandise has not yet descended and you are harassing them." Speaks a tall and attractive man with pointed ears, his skin is dark as wood.

"Given the business we did, Gildamen, you should be worried about everything being done right."

"You know that everything here is just what disguises it, camouflage, some very important substances and hallucinogenic plants," continues the forest elf without giving it much importance.

The faun's black eyes shine under the light of the ship's lamps, and a sinister smile was drawn on his lips. He walks to one of the boxes still suspended in the air and taps her knuckles slightly.

"I'll end this whole war and come out on top," the faun's squeaky laughter echoes on the deck, though overshadowed by a deep roar inside the ship, it's so loud that the ship vibrates to the point that it looks like it's going to fall apart.

"What the hell are they hiding here?" thinks Kira barely holding on to the edge.

" I think our little friend has woken up," Gildamen laughs.

"Well, what are you waiting for? It is not the right time for him to wake up, the other three have not yet arrived." Urge impatient Maldey hitting the ground with his paw. "Hurry up with the discharge, this day can't go any worse!" He growled, as he checked a folder he had on the table near the descent ramp, then descended through it.

Kira watches as the elf descends into the hold of the ship, from there she can perceive a horrible and sticky smell, the swamp she had crossed stinked but this is worse, she can feel that it burns her nose and eyes to the point of tears.

Only a handful of beasts can stink in such a way but at that moment it is difficult to say which one it is if she does not see it.

"Fuck, that stench is unbearable!" She growls, covering her nose with her fingers.

She walks along the deck quietly, avoiding a few workers before jumping down the railing towards the harbor, shaking her head in displeasure as she moves a little further away. Only she sits down when the smell subsides a little and she can breathe better, she knows she has to come back before they take everything from there. She takes out her smartphone and calls her godmother, maybe she can help her figure out what Maldey is hiding, but her phone drops straight into the mailbox.

She hangs up and sighs, she looks at the screen a little uneasy, nervous, really feeling that she is alone for the first time and in a new place. Without the safety of her family or her pack, you can call your parents; but they can't do anything at that distance. She can write to her friends for support, Aristide loves to cheat and Cameron is more of a strategist, a good match for her; but they weren't there and he doesn't know how much the time difference is.

Even in spite of that, she opened the group of her friends and sent them a long message, telling them a little about the adventure and that she missed them, sending the same message to her family. She saw that the message had been sent but did not confirm that it has arrived at the destination, she squeezes the phone against her chest before putting it back in one of her bags.

Kira scratches her head, needs a new plan of action and maybe some helpers, if she finds someone at all. Maybe there are more apprentices like her, the problem would be to identify them.

"Come on, come on, it's all loaded," she heard the faun approaching as she listens to a vehicle.

Soon Kira can see two electric trucks loaded with several boxes of merchandise, while a third carries a huge bundle under a tied tarp. All three do not have wheels but inflated rafts that serve to slide on the water.

Kira gets up and runs to the sliding trucks when they started the march and the faun climbs one of them, she jumps to the last one, managing to reach him in time without having to transform and using his normal hands now, managing to get on the rubber and then to the back of the vehicle.

She gets on the platform better, holding on to the ropes when the vehicle falls into the water later on the dock. She moves to one of the boxes, away from the view of the rear window of the cabin, and opens one of these. She frowns when she sees the inside, decorated and elegant vessels that remind her of Greek art, inside the same box there were more things of the same style.

Kira lifts the vessel and looks inside but it is empty, but she can perceive the strong smell of a forbidden substance, but where this is the question. She leave the vessel back in the box and look in another one after closing it. There are everything from handicrafts to clothes. In the end he decides to keep two things a white silk scarf with an embroidered phoenix and a cold porcelain doll, keeping them in the bags.

Kira checks others finding some fireworks and explosives in considerable quantity. She closes everything well again, looking around and realizing that they were approaching again the artisan market although on the one hand that she does not know.

Kira looks out from one side to the other truck in the middle, where the mysterious canvas with the figure is, she cannot jump towards it, since she will be seen by the driver. She looks up at the sky, the first one of the suns only begins to disappear on the horizon, the sky begins to be noticed with a grayish violet. Soon the festival will begin.

"Great, more pressure," she sighs holding the truck hard so as not to fall because of the high speed at which the truck is going. "Let's see what he plans exactly, so far what I understand is that this faun is a smuggler of some kind of substance and surely prohibited, if the other two have it under a war, it may be that they have discovered it or they do the same thing and seek to get more territory," She thinks.

She just needs to find out what she brings in that form, what kind of beast they brought.

"We almost reached the sales area, novice, be careful with the merchandise when you lower it." The driver speaks to his companion. "You will get used to it, son."

"Fuck it, Dad, we don't need to resort to these things since Mom leave us." A boy answers next to him.

"Nonsense, I'm not going to be a beggar and dirty vagabond, I have dignity and they pay very well here."

"Dirty and bloody money," the boy mumbles, receiving a blow to his head.

"I heard you! You're lucky That Maldey isn't here."

Kira frowns upon hearing the discussion, thanking the still lingering smell of the swamp on her clothes that prevented her from being discovered, approaches until she is a few boxes away. The two smell of hyena men, that is quite rare to see and less so far from Zambezia, the kingdom of hyenas, but the most important thing is that the younger one did not seem to agree with his father's work, perhaps she can use it to her advantage.

Trucks stop at a new port somewhere in the artisan market, it looks pretty unoccupied. Kira jumps out of the truck falling into the knee-deep water, moves away from there almost to cats until it manages to hide among the aquatic vegetation. She watches from her hiding place the unloading of products, but more specifically the boy who seems to be lengthening his time by pushing boxes away or kicking them gently.

"Dad and his business nonsense, does he want to end up in jail again?"

Kira approaches the ship again, waiting for the opportune moment. The boy ended up alone in a moment when the others walked away towards the dock. Kira climbs back to the back transformed, she only has a fraction of seconds to act and silence him. She doesn't think about it too much and runs to him, grabs him by the ribs sideways and accelerated at full speed to prevent the screams of surprise of the boy.

The boy begins to beat her and squirm before starting to transform into her hyena form, sticking her teeth into the wolf's jaw to let go. Kira roars releasing it to him and shaking her head from side to side, the hyena a little smaller than her jumps on her back swelling her teeth on the skin. She rolls on his back, crushing him off her weight, being rewarded by the hyena's moan.

The hyena gets back up growling, jumping on it again looking for the neck, but Kira did not intend to give in easily or impose herself at once, even though the nature of hyenas is to have alpha females. They are a matriarchal society.

Kira throws herself to the ground to leave him against it again.

"Calm down, I'm not coming to kill you," she says dodging the hyena's teeth again when she picked her up.

"The one who kidnaps me says it," growls, showing his teeth.

"You didn't look very happy there, you being a drug dealer."

"I am not a drug dealer, but an art merchant!" He growled although by nervousness rather released the laughter characteristic.

"You don't believe that, boy, I heard you arguing with your father in the cab of the truck while checking the boxes. Maldey is not an honest worker, my sense of smell does not deceive me."

The hyena keeps its mouth closed and gritting its teeth.

"Listen, I know that Maldey plans something serious and dangerous, something that will probably endanger the entire artisan market; but the exact reason, I don't know what it is just speculated that it is a silly war against two other merchants. You don't want be with your father or am I wrong?"

"No, I don't want to be like my father who survives as an outcast of society, because he wants to follow his own rules."

"You resent it, don't you?"

"Sure, my mother died looking for me and getting sick with worry."

"We could work together to unravel all this and make your father pay, don't you think?" She smiles sideways with a certain dark side, she likes to be somewhat mischievous and sometimes vindictive.

"Wait, you're being very kind," he looks at him suspiciously, "what do you gain?"

"I have a mission to fulfill and an adventure to live, maybe you can join if you are worth something more than an extra hand."

"Do you think I'm the only young hyena here?

"But they won't necessarily follow you, do we have a deal?

"Yes, call me Banzai."

"I am Kira."