The Slavers - Part 8

They had found them.

They had found all the people that had been taken by these men and made into slaves.

As far as they could tell, there was more than what was on the carriage they had seen as they entered the village. They either got another shipment at some time while they were figuring out their plan, or there were a few still in the cage from before it had arrived.

Whatever the case it didn't matter. The only thing next, however, was figuring out what to do next.

…

Making their way over to the cage where all the kidnapped people were, they saw that a good number of them were awake. It was likely that the men having left the room and all the fighting that had happened had woken them. Some still managed to sleep through it, how they managed to do so Octavia did not know.

Looking around at all of them, they were as she had expected. The majority were beast-kin of various races. She could see bunny, fox, cat and dog-kin along with some she had no clue about the race of. But amongst these, there were some elves, dwarves and the odd member of the demon race, who was secluded in the corner of the cell.

It would seem that even in such a horrible place where the common enemy was the slavers that took them, the prejudice towards the demon race was still prevalent. That wasn't something she could fix, but what she could do was help these people out, saving them from a life of forced servitude and closing down this slavery ring.

The question, however, was how would they get them out of here.

…

"Who…what?" one of the older beast-kin started to say as he saw them approaching the cage.

"We are here to help. We have been looking into this slavery ring, and have come to save you and shut it down." Octavia managed to say before even more of the group started voicing their concerns.

They then went on to tell them to keep their voices down, just in case there were more people around or someone from the abandoned house had ventured down here. All manner of things could still go wrong, so they needed to prevent as much as they could.

After that, only the older beast-kin who had spoken before continued to talk, speaking up for the group, as it were.

"How did you find this place? How did you get down here? And what about the men who were here before?"

It was understandable that he had a lot of questions. It wasn't every day that you found yourself being rescued from slavery by two very attractive girls, Octavia's words. With all the fear and suffering, it was possible that some of them thought this was some sort of trick. Just these slaver's way of giving them some hope, before snatching it away and breaking them.

So much so that even when they realised they themselves were beast-kin, it hardly made a difference. They could be slaves themselves, doing what the slavers have asked. Or they could have very low morals and are being paid to do it. Either way, some trust would need to be earned.

So, Octavia and Sylvia told them everything thing they wanted to know. As much as they wanted to just get the cage open and free them, it wouldn't help if they all suddenly panicked fearing they would be killed or that this was a trick, and decided to attack them. So, patience, for the moment, was needed.

They ended up having to prove that the men from before were dead. They both sighed at that but ended up doing it to get things over with. Surely seeing the hulking man with a stab wound in his head would be enough to show they meant well.

"…"

Turns out, it was.

Octavia was still nowhere near one hundred percent. Maybe not even fifty. And so Sylvia had headed off and dragged the man's corpse back. If anything, she would have had to have gone with Octavia if she had been fine, night vision and all. But, it all worked out in the end. Sylvia got some more exercise in for the day, and the prisoners all went silent, before asking what they should do next.

And that was a good question.

They still needed evidence. As much as they wanted to just get these people out right now, and they would be soon, they still needed to prove as much. So, first and foremost was taking a picture to commemorate the horrible situation that they were in.

Once that was done, they opened up the cage using the key that had grabbed before.

As the prisoners exited, they made sure to tell them to remain where they were. They would need to sneak out of here, and they couldn't have them all fleeing for freedom in a panic.

The now freed prisoners all huddled to the side, awaiting further instructions from the girls.

"Right, let's see what else is in this place about their slaver activities."

They then proceeded to search the room. It was rather large, which made sense due to the large cage and all. But even then, there was still a good amount of space. Just enough that there were a few chairs and a couple of tables, which is likely where the men from before had been sitting. Towards the back, by one of the tables against the wall, were a few chests of drawers according to Sylvia. Very clearly something they would need to search.

It only took a few minutes to go through everything in the room. Opening up the drawers they found numerous documents, piled together and not much else. With the darkness, reading what they were was not possible, so they just grabbed them all and placed them in their bags. They would have to check them out when they were free and clear, in order to send them to Lord Desmon.

With that out of the way, they now needed to escape.

…

On their way back to the entrance that they had come in, Sylvia managed to spot another hatch in the roof of one of the rooms that they passed by. If anything, that was likely to be the one that led to the store above. While they would have taken it, they had no clue what or who would be up there. And besides, it was sure to be locked. Why bother going that way when they had already broken the lock in the abandoned house?

So, they headed back the way they came, Octavia still needing to lean against Sylvia as they did. Once there, Sylvia took the lead and slowly opened up the hatch, just enough that she could see around.

Octavia also stood by, peering through, using her vision to spot any heat signatures. Of which they were very thankful that they could only see one. The demon that she had shoved into the outhouse.

With that out of the way, the coast was clear, so slowly pushing the hatch all the way open, and propping it against the boxes properly using a branch nearby, they slowly made their way out into the courtyard.

Again, more checking around the place, they found no more heat signatures, and so moved over to the abandoned building, and opened up the door nearby leading into the house.

Sylvia knowing the layout and having night vision, headed in first her blade at the ready just in case. Octavia remained by the door, as it was quite hard to manoeuvre oneself with all these people around and in the darkness. So, she remained where she was to allow Sylvia to get them out of the house first.

Before long, she saw all of the prisoners heading through the first door, and then out through the front door, still being as quiet as can be.

There was still the issue of not knowing how high this whole thing went in this village, so they told them to remain nearby and out of sight of the guards. Who knew if any of them were involved? They would have to figure out how they were going to get them out of the village a little later, as once they were out of the house, the next thing to do would be to get the crystal and any other information to Lord Desmon.

Once Sylvia had seen them off and sent them to a place to hide, she came back to take hold of Octavia, allowing her to lean on her once again, in order for them to leave as well.

Or at least that is what should have happened, as once Octavia took a quick look back at the courtyard, she noticed something.

"Why is the outhouse door open?"

Those were the few words she was able to get out before she saw the silhouette of a man in the corner of her vision, coming right for them.