"So are they behaving?" I asked Vadei quietly as I walked up to the idle woman. Her legs and arms limply hanging over the sides of the captain's chair. All the while her tail just gently brushed about in front of her. Briefly flickering towards me when I spoke.
"Yeah, they think I did not hear them but I did. The little one wants to escape but the father says no."
"Father?"
"Yes, the one called 'Paps' is Heiya's parent."
"Hm, I guess that explains why he was so reactive to me choking her."
"Should have just snapped both their necks and be done with it."
"Understandable, but, if I did that, then how would we get home? Well, how would I get home." I said to her before correcting myself. A shift in her eyes having been caught by mine just before I made the correction.
"It would just take longer, besides, we know the Anvil-Peak is on the way there. So all we would need to do is find that."
"It was still a short while travelling there from Tobaballe. If we don't get the start direction right when we get there we will still get lost. And, to just call out to Undwote before we did it, we might end up in another land full of magical monsters and arrogant shits." I say before ranting out my aggravations at a potential chance of getting lost.
"Not much happens in the lands around the Anvil-Peak, tracks should be quite easy to find."
"How would you know that?"
"I went through two trips in that barren wasteland, Nin. One to your home to become a slave, the other away from it to be re-educated as a slave. Thankfully, however, that second trip was interrupted."
"Right..."
"But I mostly remember just because I was in a cage both times. You are a lot more exposed to the elements and outside of its dustiness and general barrenness... It's a calm place."
"Desolate and calm? Heard of stranger combinations."
"Such as a human's mind in that of a bug's body?" she said to me with a small smile. Snorting in response to it while I thought of my own jab.
"More like something with a soft tail and a bad attitude."
"Hey!" she said somewhat loudly before her ears went down, "I'm pretty sure I apologised for it..."
"Don't worry if you did. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day."
"It might not matter to you, Nin, but it matters a lot to me. I was hostile to you, regularly insulting you and demeaning you and it turns out you were not playing a part in my enslavement. You were just another slave that was seemingly a free man."
"To think all I needed to do to stop the insults and being called a 'Ho' was go... Oh! Stop it! I'm a slave too!" I began to say before changing my tone of voice and bouncing about at the end. A soft giggle coming from Vadei before her eyes moved down to my neck. A brief quiet happening as I stared at the two slavers.
"So... This might be a little forward, but, what was it like to try and kill yourself?" she asked me with sullen eyes that stayed focused on my neck. The place where I tried to stab that knife into my throat, most likely.
"I don't really know, I have sort of forgotten about it."
"You just forgot about trying to kill yourself...?" she asked me in disbelief after shaking her head about. My own head looking behind as Lari was guaranteed to be that way.
"There are some people that can just do that..." I said with a small smile hidden by my mask. My heart thumping loudly as my gut felt weird.
"Well, I hope you don't mind being banned from the kitchen then. Can't have you trying it again." she joked, something I did find funny, actually. But, I wanted to see how well I could tease her.
"Shouldn't joke about that, I could have died." I tried to say with a dead-serious tone. But, I failed, as I burst out into chuckles by the end of it.
"Wouldn't be the first time..." she commented while rolling her eyes. Something that made me laugh harder.
"I regret saving you that one time in the aelenvari flower." I sarcastically commented before returning my attention to the slavers.
"I quite liked it, felt nice feeling safe for once. Even when I was travelling with Vapooliar, I just never felt as safe as I did then." she told me with a small smile and tail wave.
"Don't get the wrong idea, I only did it for the chance to stroke your tail." I tell her as my claws began to fiddle with the air near it. Yet, she was quite happy to let it brush against my bandaged up claw. Only to then take it away while smirking.
"So how has your magic come since then, Nin? We may be in the same dorm but we don't do much together." I was asked by her. My eyes looking down at my claws before I thought about my spells.
"Not much, really. I can't do anything with rocks and that now, but I can make what I guess can be called magical poles or extensions." I said just before letting one sprout out from my claw.
"Personally, I really wanted to learn some more fighty spells. Like, I guess it was just because I was angry about some things. But, as I spent time at the Academy it became clear I would not be able to learn spells like that."
"How come?"
"Because of how we oxfuine are raised in our packs. We are taught rituals that are pretty much our magic lessons so my body is pretty much hardwired to more ritualistic magic."
"So you can't really learn much beyond that language thing you do with your spit?"
"No, I can do a few things, it will just take time. For example, I have been trying to see if I can apply my saliva spell into a breath spell. So, I can just breath on someone rather than kiss them or spit in their drink to get them to speak my tongue. Or just a tongue I know at all."
"Nice to see I got the better option then, back at the camp."
"No, you didn't. A kiss from me would be unforgettable."
"I'm sure it would be." I said to her with an enthused huff.
"I would say I would prove it, but you aren't getting a kiss that easily."
"Alright, fine! Never wanted one anyway." I joked some more before I was lazily kicked.
"But, yeah, I am hoping to do something with those spells. I have made some progress, but, I also need to learn some more languages to make the best use of it."
"Fair, anything else you have been able to do?"
"No, outside of that I have only really been able to put some magic on to my claws here and make them somewhat decent weapons... And then there's just what I have been trying to do when I get down on all fours."
"So, just a lot of stuff involving your body and that?"
"Yeah, but, sometimes, when I am watching Vapooliar do her spells. I just get jealous."
"Is she doing alright? Vapooliar that is." I then asked her with a sigh. My recent memories of the woman with soldiery manners not being good ones...
"She has seemed foul of mood recently, but she's been a little fouler since she, you know."
"I suppose that is fair." I replied with while a single claw went across my chest scar. The scar that proved I was cut into two.
"And what about Dandel'lhia? I notice her seed hatched."
"Yeah, she's doing alright. She wouldn't know magic if it weren't for this Academy, though. But, she has learned some spells in order to look after her son. But, she does worry for him and is easily scared."
"Well, as long as she is doing alright. But, I think it might be safe for her to go home now that Rose is no longer at her flower."
"She came here with you, didn't she?"
"Yes, when I came back from the dead... As this... She wanted to stay with me and all that. It was rough at first and we did quite a few things together in our travels. But, it all sort of fell apart up here. Back at the Academy."
"Aelenvari fickleness?"
"Indeed, but, she seems to be distressed over something. Of course, I don't know what given how she avoids me as if I have a curse of some description."
"It might be because she still harbours feelings for you." Vadei said while raising a finger at me.
"And how would that be the case? Aelenvari just go after the strongest male they see, right?"
"Yes and no. I got curious with Dandel'lhia as she shows no interest in any of the men at the Academy. So, I looked it up and it turns out when aelenvari..." Vadei began to say before she blushed slightly.
"Have sex?"
"Don't say it so loud!" she snapped at me before nodding, "But, yes, when they, you know... They become a lot more loyal. It's why they have special outfits for their first time as it is meant to be a sign of transition. Of course, they can still switch to new men and that, but, they often find themselves wanting their old one back."
"Except me and Rose have never had sex. Well, never went through with it technically. But I died shortly after I nearly did."
"That might be why then, the process was started and she has just clung to you somewhat. Of course, there might be another reason, after all. If you two were travelling together you surely did a lot, no?"
"Yep, I saved her from a sadroobell, from valley-riders holding her hostage. I saved her special outfit, took her up the mountain the Academy is on in a bag. We saw the big windy mountain for the first time together..." I explained before growing sad with each word. We had done quite a bit together and yet she still just left me alone in that place before Lari came along...
"If that is the case then, she probably is trying to hold out hope for you in a strange, aelenvari way."
"Wouldn't that be nice." I bitterly commented as I also started remembering her sudden change to hostility over adoring... Love. Even if it was more akin to lust.
"No, I am serious. If you did all those things with her then she likely sees you as the better partner. She just isn't capable of saying she wants you to improve so you can take her back."
"So I can take her back? I didn't give her up." I groaned out as that made it sound like it was a choice of my own making. Her abandonment of me.
"I never said you did, but, sorry if it was implied. Like, even though I hate her as she is a horrible woman. Vile and vain and all other kinds of behaviours I hate... For yourself, try to bear it all in mind. At some point, you will have to address it."
"Sure." I then said to her in what must have been a surprisingly calm tone. But, that was because I knew I would not have to. I was never going to see her again once I got home.
"At the very least, Nin, even if it does fall through. You will have people there to care for you and help you out." she said to me as one of her nails gently stroked my bandages.
"I suppose I will, I suppose..." I said while looking down slightly. Nearly sighing in frustration as I began to think once again about my lonely life in Tobaballe. Friendship was a convenience there, a childhood dream. But here, in these mountains, it has very much mattered.
And I was going to throw it all away just so I could have a chance to go home...