Chapter 2: Saved Then Enslaved

In the previous chapter, you read that this Wolf-man has thrown the knights and Prince into each other, making them go unconscious. Making his great escape with the hybrid child

Let's continue with his side...

...with his grip on the Prince's neck, he growls one last time before throwing him at his knights. He huffs while staring at the unconscious men, then looks down at the child in his arms.

'It's so small I could easily crush the child with one wrong move. They're cold too. I need to get to the horse and warm them up,' He thought.

He looks up and around at his surroundings, then walks towards the way he came. He gets down on fours while gently holding the hybrid in his mouth. Just like a mother would carry her cub in her mouth.

After getting the young hybrid settled in his mouth, he bolts through the lightly blanketed white woods. Getting a safe distance away, he looks around, ensuring it's safe. He sniffs the air, spins in a slow circle, then stands up and gently holds the child close to his chest, trying to warm the child up. With a closer look and a slight exam to see if she was injured, he finds out that the child is a female. In the process, she starts to wake up. With a quiet yawn, she looks up and sees that she's not in the cage but someone's arms instead. She looks around, then looks up, catching his eyes; in fear, she starts shaking.

"H-hey... little one." He tried to speak softly, trying not to frighten her. He then slowly walked while gently patting her head. He felt little ears on her head while trying to comfort her. Which was slowly working, making them both relax a little bit. After a little walking, he makes it to a horse that is tied to a tree. He spooked the horse as he walked out from behind a tree and a few nearby bushes. The sudden whine from the horse scared the girl, making her squirm in the wolf-man's arms. Her squirming made him almost drop her, making him reposition his hold on her.

"Shhh..." with a quiet voice, he tries to comfort her again and gently reaches out to the horse. "Hey... hey. Come on, girls. Everything is okay. Shh..." he gently pats the horse as he looks down at the girl and then asks. "You want to pat the horse?" He looks down at her to see if she'll respond. She looks back up at him with a slightly scared look in her eyes while shaking in fear. She stares at his golden brown eyes, then hides her face into his chest while her three white and fox red color tails wrap around her slightly. With that, he pats her head gently and steps closer to the horse for her to touch once she calms down.

As he moved, he untied the horse from the tree and moved the reins over its head. Letting the girl be closer, she didn't turn away from him. She stayed in that position in his arms instead. Not paying any mind, he tends to the horse. In the process, she stops hiding against his chest and looks at the horse. As soon as they look at each other, they stop making sounds. The horse didn't move, and the child stared at the horse with her piercing eyes. Sensing the change in the air, he looks down at the girl and then the horse in confusion.

He went to move but stopped when he heard a growl. He looks down at the girl as she holds her stomach and avoids eye contact with anyone. He moves to sit her on the horse's back. "Please, sit there for a moment..." he trailed off. He reached over to the pouch that hung on the back of the saddle. He takes his hand out and pulls out a small piece of bread in his hand. He then breaks a piece off and hands it to her. She sniffed it to see if it would be terrible. He smiles as he goes and takes a bite out of it to show her that it is safe. Instead of taking a bite out of the bread, he got a mouthful of air. In confusion, he looked down, seeing she was eating it, almost like she hadn't eaten anything in a while. He hides a sad smile while watching her eat, then grabs another piece for himself.

She finishes the bread quickly, then looks up at him and gives a quiet whine. She reaches up to him with a little pouty lip and watery eyes. In elvish, she spoke. "M-more...please," she whines as she reaches up, begging him for more. She didn't understand what he was saying until she spoke, making him realize that she couldn't understand common. He sighed and responded in elvish to her while rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm so sorry little one..." he trailed off, thinking of something else to say to her. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Jasper." He gave her a small smile to comfort her while watching her closely. She avoids eye contact while nodding a little bit as she responds to him quietly.

"I-I am subject 578801. A-am the fifth edition of year two. M-Mēkā said I am him-...important!" She struggled, then continued. "Mēkā said I cured her." She points towards the woods behind him, making him turn to see what she is talking about, then realizes that she is talking about the queen. She continued to talk but with a mumble, but he wasn't listening at this point. He was staring at the woods intensely where she had pointed, sensing someone was watching them.

In a flash, he catches an arrow in mid-air that's inches from his face. Growling, he throws it like a spear back in the direction it had come. In the distance, he hears a thud, a gurgling noise, and another thud. He took that as his queue to leave. Seeing Jasper catch the arrow, the little girl whimpers as she hears footsteps closing in. She then flinches as he gets on the horse behind her, with her in front of him. He trapped her between his arms to prevent her from falling.

"Haa!!" He shouts at the horse, making her run. He rushes them out of the area, trying to avoid the arrows as they flash past them. He makes them head towards the shipyard that is closing into view. A hundred feet. Sixty. Thirty. Ten. Crash. As quickly as they ran on horseback, an arrow shot her down, making her cry in pain. The little girl screams as she is sent flying off the horse, While Jasper becomes trapped under the horse. He growls as he struggles to free himself from being trapped. Jasper hears the knights on their horses running down the slight hill, coming out of the woods. He finally frees himself from being trapped. He whispers an apology to the horse with a whisper and then dashes toward the little girl. Picking her up in his mouth, running through the town's people to the shipyard. Making it to the ships, he stands up and pulls fifty-four silvers and two gold pieces. Walking up to a half-elf human who appears no older than himself.

"The first ship out to the next island" Jasper stares at the man waiting for an answer. The closest words he got from the man was of him pointing to the ship departing as they spoke. Jasper nods as he runs towards the ship, jumping over the water almost on the boat. In the process, the knights make it to the shipyard. They run towards him as he finally catches himself on the side of the trade market's ship. While climbing over the side of the ship and onto the ship's deck, he looks over angrily at the knights while flipping them off and catching his breath. Jasper then looks down at the girl, giving all of his focus to her. He holds her close as he walks away from the edge, then sits in the back corner of the ship, out of sight of peering eyes.

"Are you okay little one?" He asks as he stares at her while she looks down at their hands, seeing the vast difference between their hands. His is big enough to hold her head in one hand, and hers is big enough to hold a strawberry in one hand. He asked her again, trying to bring her attention to him, then stopped talking and looked up at what was in front of him. As he looks up, he sees that four men corner him.

There's an elfin mage who stood six feet tall, with platinum blonde hair braided back a little past his shoulders, emerald green eyes, and pale skin. A human rogue bowman who stands 5'10, with dirty blonde scruffy short hair, dark ocean blue eyes, and sunkissed tan skin color. Then a half-orc swordsman, who stood at 6'5 with a broad, muscular chest, had clean-cut short black hair, black eyes, and gray skin tinted with a dark green color. Lastly, there's a masked assassin; he also stands 6'5, and he had a similar build as Jasper, just he was more hidden. The masked man wore loose pants where he could run without restriction and a cloak with a hood that covered the top of his head. They all stared Jasper down and pointed their weapons at him. The swordsman spoke in a husky voice while stepping toward him.

"Hand over the child." He demands as he takes another step. In response, Jasper got up with a growl while hiding her behind him.

"You'll have to kill me to get her." He growls as his hairs stand on its ends, and his teeth bare with a snarl. With a yelp from the child, she is no longer behind him. He growls again, seeing her in the arms of the masked man. He didn't see the masked man move an inch. This makes him charge and then stop, feeling a sharp pain in his side. Looking down, he sees a dagger in him. He drops to his knees while pulling it out of him. He also notices something on the blade. He growls weakly and throws it, aiming it at one of the men while clasping it to the ground. He loses consciousness as he tries to threaten them, but words fail to form.

"I...I will...."

"That worked a lot faster than I thought it would," the bowman said as he turned toward the masked man.

"That's the point." The masked man said as he gave the child a sleeping potion. "Drag him down below deck, lock him up too. It will be a long journey on the seas to the next island. We have to keep them asleep for the time being." He starts to walk away toward the captain's chambers. The man puts the girl in a cage and locks it up. He walks out of the chambers and goes to the rest of his party, helping them bring Jasper to the ship's prison. Locking Jasper downstairs, they leave and return to the ship's deck. They all split off and do their duties on the ship. Every so often, they'll check on the child and Jasper, give them food, then put them back to sleep. This treatment lasted four months, one week, and three days. They finally made it to Arcadia West shipyard.

As they pull up towards the docks, a few men toss out their ropes for another man to tie them off to the dock's pillars. One man pulls out the steps to walk across and unload the ship. At the same time, the swordsman carries the cage off the ship, with the masked man in front and the other two 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. They walk through the shipyard and head towards the Arcadia trade center. The town was full of music, chatter over sales and possible trades, and people of many shapes, sizes, and species. The party weaves through the crowd and heads to the "Black Market."