Talking

"What are you?"

As he asked the question he felt a movement in the air as the girl beside him flinched, he had asked simply because he was unaware but he felt that he may have dug into a sore spot for the girl. She didn't smell completely human, the scent he picked up from her was distinctly different from both the men who had captured him and the other people held captive. instead, her scent reminded him of his own, it had traces of human scent but, they were dominated by another unknown scent.

Surprising him however the girl, Alice, instead of answering his question, sat up, stared into his eyes from a higher vantage point, and responded

"You promised to answer my questions, not the other way around" she accused, her red eyes glowing slightly brighter than before, although only enough that he wouldn't have noticed had he not been staring back. "Tell me what you know…please" the girl demanded, although he voice took a more pleading tone towards the end of her sentence

"Alright," he said nodding after all a deal was a deal and trust had to go both ways if they were to be makeshift allies "I don't know a lot, however I can tell you that those men outside have been mentioning some form of portside market for a while now, both when drunk and when planning their destination"

Alice stared at a moment before placing a hand on her chin and beginning to think, he could practically hear her mind churning. After a few minutes, she paused in her thinking, turning to him

"Where did they pick you up from?" she asked her head tilting slightly "they keep a tarp over the wagons cage in order to keep us from knowing our location, so we don't try to escape as much"

"It was some kind of rotten forest," he said, remembering the terrain that he had explored after leaving the cave and during his unknowing search for the eye "everything was either dead or rotting, I was attempting to find my way out when they captured my while I slept and then I woke up in the cage," he said, summarizing a majority of the events that had happened since his birth while doing so

"The Fetid Grove!" Alice, exclaimed, her voice filled with a large amount of shock and awe before she quickly fell back into place next to him as she heard a voice from outside

"Ay harry!" a loud voice yelled from outside, he recognized it as one of his captors, "i think the girl got eaten by the crow dog haha!"

"Dammit! How much was the bet?!" Harry, as he was called yelled from further away "10 copper?"

"No! It was fifteen!"

"Get fucked, was not!"

"Was too"

They continued bickering for a few more minutes before eventually moving away from the wagon, allowing for Alice to continue talking, although she spoke in a far, more hushed tone now, as to avoid the men's attention

"The Fetid Grove is over a week's travel, north from my village!" she whispered in an alarmed tone, he could feel her hands shaking as she began thinking about their possible destination out loud "from my village to Westenshin, to Borin and then the Fetid Grove" she muttered aloud, ticking her fingers as she went and drawing a map he couldn't see on the dusty floor of his cage

"We're going to the western sea market!" she announced in an alarmed whisper, he could see the glow surrounding her shake and tremble within her as she seemed to panic slightly upon reaching her conclusion

"So what?" he asked, confused by her reaction

Seeing his neutral reaction, Alice gave him an incredulous look before explaining, taking a tone that a parent might when explaining why talking to strangers was bad "The western sea market is well known for its corruption, its main exports are illegal substances, cursed magics, harvest organs and… slaves" she finished drawing a line between them

"And that's bad for us" he summarized, nodding at her words

"Very bad"

***

For the rest of the night, they simply talked about trading information and conversing. He learned that Alice had been sold by her villae a week ago and had since been trying, without success to learn all she could from the other sold and captured inhabitants of the wagon. However, whenever she did so all she got was looks of disgust or even violent reactions due to her race

Alice, he had learned, was a half-elf

Now while it might not make sense to him, the practice of mixed breeding between the races was extremely looked down upon whenever humans were concerned, humans were despised and untrusted by a majority of the population of all the races, and aside from trade and hiring of labor, human contact was kept to a minimum.

Although Alice herself was unsure of the reason, due to her obvious lack of formal education, a similarity they shared, all she could tell him about the reason why humans were hated so much was what she herself had been told, time and time again

"The Sons and Daughters of Ravis deserve no treaty nor trust and neither do his halflings" was a phrase that was often said whenever she was mistreated by others. Be it Elves, Orcs, Eaglites, or Sea Folk, the majority of the people had a deep mistrust towards humanity and so far he was inclined to agree

After all, his first encounter with humans had resulted in his capture… not exactly a stunning introduction

However, after all their talk, they were left with one key agreement that he and Alice agreed upon completely

They needed to stick together if they were to survive