58

I followed behind the two birds, and my master quietly. I'd gotten pretty good at playing the obedient slave by now. We couldn't cut through the inner rings to get to the other side of the city so we had to take the long way around. It added a couple hours to our travel time. I didn't like it, but there was nothing I could really do about it.

We weren't noble enough to cross through the inner circles to cut down on our travel time. Once we exited the city we stayed under the watchful eye of the city guard, and their patrols for a short while. Balock was just beginning to come out of his stupor about the time we cleared the influence of the city entirely. There was more farmland, and less forest on this side of the city so we were unable to speak freely. We couldn't risk the slaves or their master's overhearing our conversations.

This late in the year the crops needed to be checked daily so that the useable ripe crops could be harvested. I kept on walking. I was slower then the birds at a walk so I occasionally had to up my pace to keep up with them. I didn't want to appear too strong or eager when I was in my slave persona. There was a small cabin next to the road ahead that worked as a save haven from the more lethal beasts that lived in the less populated areas.

We were going to cross into the wetlands so I expected some problems. The roads were surprisingly well kept out here. I suspected it had something to do with the fact that we were getting closer to the capitol. The capitol was close to the ocean, and the port there was the largest on the planet. Even if we moved as fast as we possibly could it would still take us two days to cross the capitol.

Sekka, and I planned to go steal some slaves tonight. Sekka could sleep while riding his bird, and my spatial senses combined with my sharp vision would give us plenty of warning when someone was coming our way. Time that I could use to wake Sekka so that he was good, and alert whenever we came across people. Sekka's emotional hues told me that he wasn't looking forward to it. I wanted to get as many slaves off this planet as possible, and our current pace simply wasn't cutting it.

We'd passed through quite a few smaller cities, and a few small townships by now. Many of which had a population of slaves. The poorer towns had fewer slaves, but the health of those slaves was dismal at best. I had a feeling that they had bought already ill slaves to save money. It made sense in a twisted way.

If you couldn't afford a healthy slave then you would buy what you could. I frowned to myself for a moment before locking eyes with the man on the road that was looking at the blades on my hip. My sharp gaze made him flinch a bit. I wasn't surprised. My gaze had that effect on the more perceptive people.

It was almost as if they could sense exactly how deadly I was, and that they shouldn't draw my attention. Sekka urged his bird faster so we could get away from the eyes of strangers. He wanted Balock to be able to sit on the bird properly without drawing attention, and get some sleep while he could before our night time activities began. I was planning on wreaking some havoc tonight. We were going to go back to one of the first cities we crossed through, and steal every single slave we could.

My spatial dominance would allow us to bounce around unpredictably. The only problem with that was I had to make sure I had enough mana to both lay false trails, and not leave a trace of our presence on time itself. We didn't have to worry about bandits or anything like that this close to a city so tonight was ideal for ransacking. I accelerated to match Sekka's speed since I was starting to fall behind again. Balock looked sick as he bounced around on the birds back while on his belly.

He was probably regretting every ounce of food he'd put down before I knocked him out. I debated on grabbing him, and putting him on my shoulders like a little kid since that would probably be more comfortable then what he was doing now, but decided against it. I wasn't a pack animal, and I wasn't about to start acting like one without really damn good reason. Maybe if one of my actual bonded were here they might be able to convince me otherwise, but they weren't so it wasn't happening. I snorted to myself.

Then realized it was probably a good thing that I didn't say this kind of stuff aloud. Some of the things I thought to myself would greatly anger some people if I said it aloud. Sekka's impatience was getting to me. I wanted to sprint away from all the eyes that were following us, but appearing odd or inhuman wasn't a good plan while I was still in my slave persona. Sure a show of strength was ok once in a while, but doing it constantly would have every slave owner questioning how exactly I was able to do some of the things I was capable of.

I watched every single mounted rider with suspicion, and every person on the side of the road was treated with the same caution that I would treat a lethal enemy. Any one of them could over hear something we said, and spread that information. I glanced over to Balock who was looking thoroughly uncomfortable by now. A part of me wanted to help him get properly in the saddle so he wouldn't be so ill while riding. Another part of me knew that any act of kindness that I wasn't ordered to do would be out of character.