The cold winter wind whistled by the ears of those who traveled by the desolate white woods. It breezes through bare trees that stretched out into the distant trees.
Laris had already traveled quite the distance in only a number of days. The closer he got to the border, the less biting the cold became. Eventually, the road lacked the white crunchy snow that stuck to bottom of his shoes, but rather the gloomy sky and muddy road had met him. He had roughly estimated the time by counting the number of days—he had been immersed, more or less four months, in the wilderness.
The climate at the west side of the continents border, near Sorcerers' Nation, didn't have winter. Rather, they only had two kinds of weather—the hot and sunny days, and the gloomy weather that came with the rain. On rare occasions, when the rain had been exhausted yet the sun hadn't totally returned, there'd be breezy bright days.
Laris clutched the side of a tree. His sight felt blurry and his consciousness was barely there. A loud hunger-cry came from his stomach. He ran out of food yesterday morning. There were no longer any small animals he could hunt, hibernating or not, and the trees he had passed by were all bare of leaves; not a single fruit present.
He had gathered a lot of food previously. It could have estimated to last for many months or barely pass the winter, however, he left most of it at Atlas' cave...
Laris' lips pressed together in a tight line at the thought of his mate. He took a deep breath, and then determinedly walked further. He just couldn't bare it; leaving his mate and then taking the food with him. In a way, it felt like he was willingly embracing his own set punishment for himself.
Trekking through the trees that gradually became sparse, he found tracks upon the ground—it was a commonly used dirt road. Before he could even be happy, his body swayed forward and his consciousness retreated as he fell. He had clearly reached past his limit a long time ago, and so at the briefest emergence of a tiny spec of relief, Laris fainted. He even hallucinated the sounds of hooves.
A lot of time had passed like this.
On a bright and sunny morning, Laris' nose twitched at the many scents of people that mingled in the air. A slight jolt suddenly shook his entirety, causing Laris to disorientedly awaken, and yet he did not move an inch. His face held such a tranquility that nobody noticed he was already awake. By the sounds of things, he was with a group of people inside a horse cart.
"Why are there so many people in line today? Didn't you say there'd be no one if we came early?"
"How should I have known? If the Ministral Mage did not pass on an order to temporarily forbid travel by broom, we could've just hitched a hike on Felix's broom like usual. We wouldn't have had to waste so much time riding this ox cart!"
Oh. So, rather than a horse, it was an ox cart instead.
"Don't insult the ox! What did Roxy ever do to you?!"
"Roxy? Who the heck is that? The ox? Why did you name it! You'll get attached to it! What are we going to do when broom travel ban has been lifted?"
"What are you talking about? We're responsible for Roxy now! We can't abandon her!"
"We only borrowed this ox cart! Your Roxy doesn't even know how to avoid the stones on a clean road, much less a bumpy road! I've been so uncomfortable the whole ride with all that jerking! Besides, why would you even name a male 'Roxy'? It doesn't make sense!"
"You! You don't make sense! That's not even the point!"
"Then what's the point? We have so many problems already and you one-sidedly decided to adopt an ox and a stranger! Why do you keep picking up these useless things!"
"Roxy isn't useless! What about you? You've been sitting there the whole time. I haven't see you do anything useful!"
"I have clearly fended us of from those wild beasts in the forest two days ago!"
"What 'fend'? That was all Felix's doing!"
From their bickering, Laris could already infer a lot of information. First, it seemed that these group of people are from the Sorcerer-kind. They must have picked him up by the side of the road. So the hooves he hallucinated before passing out were actually real, and it might have been them. The only thing he didn't expect was that it was an ox instead of a horse. The heavy sounds seemed the same to him that time.
The second thing he learned was the broom travel ban that those head magicians at their government have approved. He didn't know since when this happened, but this did force everyone traveling thru the border to pass through the gates of Sorcerers' Nation's fortresses.
The third fact was that they were already lined up at the said fortress.
Additionally, at the front of the cart where the driver sat was where these two people should be, judging from the distance of their voices. Though they vaguely talked about a third person, it seemed that they traveled separately. However, this means that they may have other comrades with them if they had to separate into another cart.
"Can you guys stop yapping?" A voice nearer to Laris uttered, making him tense up but for a moment. He hadn't detected the third person's presence until he had spoken. He hadn't even perceived their breath as if he wasn't breathing, or maybe it was concealed?
"It's her that's been unreasonable, Felix!"
"What do you mean it's me?! Felix, don't listen to her!"
"You're both just as noisy. Pipe down, we're almost at the inspection point."
The cart moved all the while the talked and soon enough, the smell of another Lycan-kind permeated Laris' keen sense of smell.
Laris had been lost in the woods for a long time; his hair was dyed black by the mud he had smudged both intentionally and not beforehand; his scent was mostly covered by the moldy smell of beasts from the worn fur coat that he had barely sewn together. He really did not look anything like his usual self and his scent might not be as noticeable, and yet he was agitated.
He planned to dash away at the slightest alarm or indication that he had gotten found out.
"Next."
"Hello", Felix said to the guard. "How unusual to have the Lycan-kind guard Evidna borders. Is there anything interesting that happened?"
Evidna was the small border city that existed beside Salciorne. It was a buffer city that was built near the Fortress. There used to be two fortresses at the east and west if Sorcerers' Nation, however, the east fortress was destroyed in the last Great War and the place became an open market by the port. By this description, many sea farers simply called it Port City; a place to trade, buy and sell multivariate goods at the border, or midline center of the whole Pangaea continent.
The guard chuckled. The Lycan-kind and the Sorcerer-kind's two races had always maintained a friendly relationship with each other. One was the source of its supply and military advantage, whilst the other was its backer, and source of security and income.
"Who's this?"
Laris internally sweated. He could feel the gazes of the people around staring. He wanted to tug his hood to cover more of his face and yet he could only stay deathly still and act dead; his heart palpitating.
"Oh. He's with me", said Felix.
"Another slave?" The guard looked back at Felix, a hint of teasing upon his voice. "You already have two pretty Korrigan slaves, and yet you pick up another. And this one looks to me like a half-Lycan at that."
"Oh? I remember telling you clearly that I don't keep slaves. They stay with me on their own accord—you know this", Felix nonchalantly answers.
"Sure", the guard didn't seem to believe him. "I'll keep quiet about you keeping a half-Lycan slave. In exchange, don't forget to recommend me a feminine male slave once you find a good looking one. Any race is fine as long as it's not a half-Lycan, and the face is good."
Felix smiled at the guard, who took it as some sort of silent agreement. Very soon, the ox started pulling the cart through the fort gates and into the commercial streets of Evidna.
"I cannot believe them!" One of Felix's companions exploded, "How dare they slander Felix like that! They can clearly see that we don't have slave collars anymore—how are we still called slaves?!"
"Calm down Ann. It's not like what we say can change their minds and their way of conduct."
"But Mina", the person called Ann weakly retorted, only to be cut off by Mina again.
"It's better for us like this anyways. If they think we're claimed slaves, then they won't bother with us either. Remember to wear your slave collar when you go to town later to return the ox."
Ann completely shifted gears and started defending Roxy the ox once more. Exasperated, Mina could only turn to Felix once more for help, however—
"Until when are you going to pretend to be sleeping?"