Chapter 3: The Black Market

Previously in the last chapter, you read that Jasper and the child made it on a ship that's leaving Arcadia North. Escaping from His Highness only to fall victim to a black marketing ship. Jasper and the little girl, now captured by these men of the ship...

At the time of getting off the ship, the swordsman carries the cage while the masked man is in front, and the other two are behind him. The bowman holds a rope that's tied to Jasper's neck. He has Jasper's hands tied behind his back, a muzzle on his mouth, and a collar around his neck that holds a cover over his head. As they walked through the crowd, no one paid any mind to them.

They make it to a booth with a back alleyway, with a few turns here and there. The masked man gives three gold, five silver, one copper piece, and a satchel with white wolf fur. As they make this trade, the masked man snaps his fingers calling the bowman and swordsman forward. He showed the wolf man and the hybrid to the marksman. He steps back with wide eyes as surprise flashes across his face once he sees the hybrid. He then nods as he quickly ushers them to the back and closes his booth. The men walk through the dark alleyway, through a sketchy doorway to the entrance of the black market.

"Maliki? You and Yinnuko...take the wolf to Ro's shop." The masked man ordered as he and the swordsman continued walking straight. On the other side of the market, his eye catches a particular salesperson while walking through the crowd of people. They make their way to the salesman. The other two walked to the right heading towards the shop like they were told to do.

"How much do you think we'll get for this child?" The swordsman asked as they started walking towards the salesman who was next to the shop they needed to go to.

"Give or take twenty gold pieces, but it's rare, so it might sell for more," the masked man responds as they come up to a door that says 'The pet shop.' They walk through the door as it swings shut, with the two walking to the back of the shop.

"Well, what do you know, the great assassin finally appears." A man called out sarcastically as he walked up to the two of them. "I wasn't expecting to see you all for another few months. What are you going to be selling now?"

The masked man turns to him and chuckles. "Well, wouldn't you like to know? I mean, it's a mighty fine surprise waiting to be sold," The masked man faced the man who was standing behind the counter. He handed the man three silver pieces, then walked away with the ticket he had bought.

"I will see you there." The masked man states while heading to the exit. "Thanks." He says to the man at the counter, then turns away, walking off with the swordsman following. They make their way to an inn nearby, looking for a room to stay in for the next few nights. The two of them walk inside and go to the front desk, asking for a few keys for a two-person room. After receiving the keys, they head to their room, waiting for the others. Once they enter the room, the swordsman slightly drops the cage off on the semi-large oak table. The room had two full-size beds with a semi-large table. At the table are three wooden chairs and a bathroom on the other side of the room, which is to the right of the beds. A window was also in the center of the wall between both beds.

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The other two men went to Ro's as they were told to do. With Jasper tied behind them, they walked in with a cheerful greeting from a woman across the room.

"Well, if it isn't the fairest witch in town." The mage joked while walking up to her. He takes her hand and gives a respectable kiss on her knuckles. This gesture makes her giggle as she pulls her hand away.

"Why, thank you, Maliki," she chuckles, then gets serious. "Where's the rest of your party, or is Alec in a mood?"

"They might be at the inn nearby. But little Ms. Ro, we come to give you a present." He smiles and then steps aside for Yinnuko to step forward with Jasper. She tilts her head to the side and then stands up, walking closer. She puts her hand on Jasper's chest, making him flinch, and he growls lowly. She chuckles and pats his fur while looking at the other two.

"Well? Are you going to stand there, or are you going to remove this bag on his head?" She smiles and takes a step back while watching them. Yinnuko nods as he takes the collar off and then the bag. Her breath gets caught as Jasper's face is revealed. She stops for a second and composes herself.

"Well... W-where did you find him?" She checks them out and then checks her nails, trying to seem the opposite of surprised.

"It was when we were just leaving Arcadia North. They jumped on the ship running from the elfin prince. Haha, it was great seeing his and his knight's faces when the two jumped on the ship-." Yinnuko shared

"They? Two?" Ro interrupted

"Hah yeah, he was holding a child as he had run away from the prince." Maliki chuckles as he pushes Jasper to his knees. "It was beautiful catching two birds with one stone. That hybrid will sell for a pretty price, though." he then gave the rope to Ro. "But this one is all yours. Alec even said so. We do not need him when we have the child." Ro took the rope into her hands while she gently patted Jasper's head, trying to comfort him, feeling him shaking in anger.

"I'll take excellent care of him" she smiled and then looked down at Jasper. "Well, I am gonna have to let you two go so that I can take this fantastic little pup to his new room," she giggled as she started to pull Jasper to his feet and towards a door at the back of the room. The men nod as they all bid fair wells.

As a few minutes passed, Ro rushed to the back of the room with Jasper close behind. "Why?" Ro asked as she hastily started to remove the muzzle and the rest of the restraints.

"I was on this mission!..." he huffed while glaring at the floor. "I miscalculated the problem." He mumbled with a quiet whine as he clenched his fist to his sides.

"I was unable to save them all like I was trying to. And the Prince showed up sooner than expected. I made a delay by distracting them and the child that those two were talking about; she is around six years old. They're going to sell a six-year-old a-and her life is ruined..." Jasper says in defeat as he falls to his knees while his wolf-like tail rests between his legs and his ears droop back.

"Jasper..." She whispered, then got on her knees and hugged him tightly. "It's not your fault." He wraps his arms around her waist while resting his head against her shoulder, trying, with all he can, not to cry. "We'll save them all," she sniffled. "I promise..." she whispered as she rubbed his back.

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At the hotel, Yinnuko and Maliki finally make it to the room. They make their way into the room only to be greeted by daggers that had been flung across the room. This made the two of them fall back into each other as the swordsman started laughing at them while standing up from the chair. Maliki glares at him; then, with a flick of his hand, he makes him fall back into the chair. Once he falls back into the chair, he can't get back up from the chair.

"Shut up, Mizu!!" Maliki stands up angrily and walks to the washroom to clean up. He ignores Mizu; while Mizu demands to be released. Mizu then turns and starts yelling at Alec for causing this situation. Alec also ignores Mizu and sharpens his other daggers that had not been thrown like his other few. Yinnuko stands up and heads to the table where the cage is. He listens to the even breathing under the blanket.

"What time are we leaving?" Yinnuko asked as he tapped his finger on the table. Mizu stopped yelling and turned to him in silence as Alec spoke up.

"In two hours... go get prepared," Alec said while standing up and grabbing his bag. He kicks Maliki out of the room while receiving a little bickering. Then starts to prepare a bath after that. He stripped from his clothes, climbed into the wooden tub, and washed up. In the process, he got lost in thought, thinking of what he should do when they finally sell her.

'I need to have this go smoothly. I won't be responsible for that mutt's mistake and failure. He shouldn't have been there!' Alec growled quietly to himself in frustration. 'Jasper, you idiot, why did you have to be on my ship? He better be grateful that Ro is in his presence and not master Ko. He can't find out it's me; this mission is too important, and I'm so close to finding out who the underground trader is... I'm sorry, Jasper.'

~flashback~

Alec walked out of the captain's chambers, headed down underdeck, and walked to the ship's back. He walks past crates of food, barrels of water on one side of the ship, then barrels of gunpowder and canons on the other. He stopped before the ship's prison and opened it while looking down at Jasper's unconscious body.

"You idiot...why are you here?" he whispered while sitting down on the ground beside Jasper. He pats Jasper's head and sighs while looking up at the window. "Jasper, what were you doing in the North?" he questioned, as his wolf-like tail curled up slightly next to his feet. A quiet grunt escapes Jasper's mouth as he stirs awake, feeling a hand on his head.

"Markus?... Br-brother?" he mumbled, then fell back to sleep.

"You're.... You're an idiot." Alec whispered as he suppressed the urge to cry, knowing what would happen if the others found out who they were. "You're going to Ro's when we get back." he stops petting Jasper's head as he gets up. He straightens out his long black jacket while heading towards the exit of the ship's prison.

Alec closes the prison door as he leaves and starts to head back upstairs. He makes his way to the captain's chamber and glares at the cage that is hidden by a sheet. Alec removes his mask and long black jacket, dropping them onto the couch while walking toward the cage. He rips the sheet off, making the child flinch at the sudden noise. With panic in her eyes, she looks up at him and presses herself closer to the back of the cage in fright.

"You! you are the reason he is here!" Alec growled as he showed his face to her, making her shake more in fear. With the left side of his face covered with burn marks around his eye, up to his ear, then down his neck. With his left eye being burnt, it is now a white color, as his other eye is a golden brown. It burned with rage as his wolf ears pin back with a growl escaping his mouth.

"You are going to be sold to the highest bidder, and I'll make sure it's the worst person, too," he growled louder, then opened the cage and grabbed her by the neck, dragging her out of the cage. She cries out in pain as she struggles to breathe, feeling his nails pierce the skin on her neck. He stops growling, hearing footsteps approach the door. Alec throws her back in and shuts the door to the cage; he walks out of the room after putting the sheet on it. While walking out, he calms himself down and pushes the door open. He looks down to the side at the ground feeling a little guilty for getting angry at the child who has no idea what's to happen to her. He shakes it off as he continues to walk over to his party.

~ end of flashback~

Knock. Knock. Knock. Alec snaps out of it as he finally gets out of the tub, then responds as he dries himself off.

"What do you need?" he responded in a slightly hoarse voice.

"Uh...the hybrid is awake and is freaking out. Where is the key?" Maliki asked

"I'll be out in a second," he called out.

"Okay, sir," Maliki said.

After a few more minutes, Alec came out of the bathroom without his mask on. He walked toward the cage and removed the sheet with a growl.

"Enough from you! Your pathetic attempts for help will amount to nothing. Just shut up and accept your fate." Alec growled louder, making the air in the room feel thick and intense. The others stepped back and looked elsewhere from the scene in front of them. The hybrid flinched as she curled up into the corner of the cage, hiding herself with her tails, going quiet. She almost looked like a fox at this point, being curled up like that. Just slightly different, instead of those honey-brown eyes, she had the golden color like a wolfs but with specks of blue, then ears that are as long as a lynx cat but similar in structure to a wolf's. She has the hands and legs of a human and a child's body but with the extra body features of three tails and animal-like ears. He huffed as he turned around and finished getting dressed. The other three move away from him as he passes; they go separate ways to get changed and ready for the Black Market.