Chapter 6

After sniffing out a safe spot to drop them, Trace left the two with her rope. Her scent would work better than most spells, at keeping wildlife away, and the fox had not caught the scent of any other, nearby humans.

The girl, Lita, did not cling on, in desperation this time. Instead, she just entertained her son, who had become a ball of excitement after the strange ride. The fox's smile looked kinder than its normal mischievous look, as she bolted off. The two humans watched in wonder as she, noiselessly, save the sound of the wind, tore across the rolling grassy plain.

'What the hell am I doing?'

She was feeling protective. It came out of nowhere. Trace was just acting on a whim, but she realized all too late that her whim was staying fairly on point. 'Get them somewhere safe' had become less of a whim, and more of a personal quest, a goal. And may whatever got in her way make peace with the watcher on their way to the afterlife.

First, she returned with a few small, and flightless, birds. Then with a bundle of dry sticks. They could feed themselves while she hunted for herself. She was aiming for a krowt, a large bison-like animal, with a pair of long, hard, and very sharp, horns.

The thought of one was making her mouth water. Trace definitely preferred it seared over a grill, but raw was fine too. If she could catch it completely off guard, and kill it before it could tense up…

Her mouth was salivating again.

After about half an hour of running around, Trace returned with a small doe – the deer being the only thing she could find on such short notice. She did not want to leave them alone for long either, and it was a good thing that she did not. The girl had no idea how to start a fire. But, in her defense, Trace had not left them much to work with – which she realized on her return.

The fox-demon really was out of touch with human common sense. Something that she was being reminded of constantly during the short time they had already been together. Humans were needy. Not that they meant to be, they were just too ill equipped to handle roughing it in nature and surviving the journey all on their own.

Another hour passed, and the two humans, Lita and Roe, had fallen asleep after eating the bird meat that Trace had cooked for them. The two were curled up together, near the still smoldering fire. It was not too cold out, but a cool breeze was blowing across the open plain, sapping heat from their skinny bodies. Despite the fire, she noticed the two of them shiver from time to time which, apparently, bothered the fox.

Trace was in her humanoid form, as orange light reflected off her eyes, from the steady fire. She sat, hugging her knees to her chest, as she watched the two sleep.

'Why am I so invested in helping those two? It's nothing more than a burden. They can't even feed themselves for gods' sake…'

The boy stirred a little in his sleep, as the fire let out a loud crackle, but Lita, the girl, the young mother, even in her sleep she hugged him tightly, calming him down.

When the two awoke, in the early morning, they were as warm and comfortable as could be. Not noticing, at first, the layers of fluffy fox tails that were covering them, like a blanket of fur. At some point, Roe, the young human girl's son, had ended up hugging the end of one of Trace's nine tails. Not wanting to disturb his peaceful sleep, the fox had allowed it.

Lita, a bit more energetic than before, stared in innocent wonder, at the fox that had curled up around the two of them, to shield them from the constant night breeze. Everything that the girl had learned about the vile acts of demons was being flipped on its head. She had been shown more kindness in the last half-day than the rest of her life combined.

Sold by her parents at an early age, she was now on the run. Despite the circumstances that led to her having a child, she still loved him unconditionally. His rapist of a father, and her prior owner was a cruel noble from the country of Mark. Slavery was still acceptable in all the human countries, unfortunately, and debt stayed with a family until every pence was paid off. Lita had inherited a relatively small debt, but it was still more than she would potentially see in her lifetime.

Trace woke up to one of her tails being squeezed, as the girl buried her face in it, to muffle her cries. Only opening one eye, to glance over at the duo. She did not want to move.

'Filthy humans! How can you treat your young with such blatant cruelty?'

The fire in Trace's heart had no need for more fuel, to keep her loathing alight. The selfish acts of humans towards all races, even their own, was a perpetually spinning wheel of cruelty. One that she would like no more than to raze to the ground, along with the guilty parties responsible for such, ironically phrased, acts of inhuman cruelty.

She would show their type what true cruelty was…

Unintentionally, the flew of her snowy muzzle drew back, revealing her large sharp canines, as a guttural growl built up in her throat.

Even at her quick pace, they were still looking at four to five days of travel if she were by herself. However, between food, sleep, and their unfortunate need to relieve themselves every hour or two, it would likely take half again as long. But it was likely to take longer still, as Trace had not been stopping to eat as often, or as much as she wanted, due to her passengers.

The lack of calories was making her cranky. Trace needed to fix that above all else, if she wanted to be able to make the trek herself. It was one thing to laze about, when she was not consuming her body weight in food every eight hours or so. It was another thing entirely if she were traveling in her true form. Just being in her full-sized form consumed more energy than normal.

With a deep grumble, her stomach announced its discontent to all present, bringing a light giggle to the crying mother.

Pulling one of her tails free from the boy's sleepy clutches, she stretched, pushing her front paws out before her, and then shook her head about, as if she were trying to shake herself free from sleep's inviting pull.

Looking over at the two again, after letting out a big yawn, she watched as Lita wiped at her eyes before waking up Roe, her son. They seemed to trust the fox quite a great deal now, as neither of them spoke in protest as she trotted off. They had not spoken much in general though. Hunting and sleeping, those were two things that Trace was incredibly good at. With sleep now out of the way, it was time to procure some more food, and a single little deer was not going to cut it this time.