Talanis sat quietly in a small room, barred at the door with iron, he hated it when his master bought him to places like this. He hated to fight and he despised killing, in fact he was wholly unsuited to this life, but the problem was his master like the way he could kill. Being a Pyromancer using fire in the arena to heat weapons or against opponents in Talan's eyes was distasteful. He had learned to use a blade because the role demanded it, but embuing that blade with his gift in his eyes was cheating.
He had disobeyed his Master on more than one occasion and had his back well striped for the privelege. He had any comforts removed when he disobeyed which was fair enough he supposed and was not allowed to talk to anyone else which was horrible. Last time he had disobeyed the Master had sold on the only slave with whom he was friends....well more than friends...Goldeneyes had been an exquisite fair haired, goldeneyed elf male and in the depths of the night they had been lovers. When the Master had found out, he had tolerated it up until Talanis had refused to cheat at one of the outlying arenas and out of spite he was forced to watch as Goldeneyes was thoroughly whipped and then sold to a caravan. Life for the fair elf would be hard out in the desert.
He rose and went to the iron grille, carefully not to touch it, he hated the cold harsh feel of iron and it made his blood feel sluggish and prickly. He tried to see if there were any others out there, someone to talk to....someone he could perhaps get to know.
After a while Talanis went back to lay on the stone platform towards the back of the cell, the coldness of the stone did not bother him, his blood was always hot, with the magical fire coursing through it. He closed his eyes and his thoughts drifted to Goldeneyes, he wondered how the fair elf male was coping out in the harshness of the desert in the caravans. Their nights together had been heated and passionate, Goldeneyes had been the one to teach him of the pleasures they could share together, his own experience in this area...lacking.
He found himself wishing he could escape this life, he had tried once and had been hunted down like an animal and bought back again. His Master had been furious and whipped him bloody and he had been unable to move for days. It was shortly after Goldeneyes had been sold, he had broken out and tried to go after him but had not gotten far before he was returned.
He knew he was due to fight soon, perhaps tomorrow. He would be expected to use his fire and he found himself wondering what he would be put up against? Another magical fighter?
The Feari hissed as it paced on all fours around the small room. Back and forth, and back and forth. Never hesitating, constantly hissing under its breath, it's long tail waving about it the whole time.
Captured! The Feari looked up at the ceiling and around the room for the umteenth time, looking for a way out, but there was none. The door was tightly barred, and though the Feari could see out of the small window and into the arena, there was no way of escape, even it's long tail couldn't reach through the bars and unlock the door, a key was needed.
It hissed louder and stopped its pacing. It sat back on its haunches on the dusty floor. It bared its teeth, and it was indeed a fearsome sight, its wide mouth, lined with hundreds of small but razor sharp teeth. It was a wonder that it had even been captured, for a Feari's bite could crush bone in seconds, and its claws and the spines on the tail are extremely sharp.
The Feari's sharp hearing caught a noise through the will to the left. There must have been another cell there, holding another being, someone that the Feari may have to fight later on.
The Feari spat and hissed even louder in anger as it started, again, to pace.
The door to Talanis' cell banged open a scant hour later and his master stood in the doorway, hands on his hips and his huge frame filling the door blocking out any potential view.
"Might have a fight for you tomorrow boy!" He sneered.
"You gonna muck me around and be disobedient?" He said patting his whip as if in warning.
Talanis glared at him, his green eyes filled with absolute hatred.
"Ain't going to cheat if that's what yer wanting!" He snapped.
The man strode forward and forced his hand between the collar and Talan's throat and dragged him to his feet, the young man felt like he was starting to choke, the man's meaty fist between the collar and his neck felt like it was cutting off his air.
"You'll be doing as yer told this time or I am going to sell you like I did yer Golden Elf lover...but I will make sure it is to the worst type of person I can find....you hear me boy!" He shoved Talan back against the stone plinth.
Talan gasped for air, oh he heard him alright...but he heard something else too...hissing....or had it been his imagination?
"I said did you hear me boy?" The whip had been unfurled and the man sneered.
Talan stayed quiet, he did not care about being whipped any more, sure enough it fell five times across his side and back.
"You do as yer told on the morra....you use what the gods gave yer...and get me a win!" The Master growled and then left the cell slamming the door.
Talan sat up slowly...tomorrow he was going to get out of this place, he was going to run when the iron was removed from his neck and wrists and he would unleash a fiery hell n a bid to escape.
The Feari spent all of that day and night in a heated rage, hissing and pacing the whole time, not stopping to rest until tomorrow came.
The cell door swung open with a bang, and the Feari retreated to the farthest corner, its eyes glinting threateningly and its teeth bared.
The man who stood in the doorway was tall and big, he had a long whip in his hand.
"You try any tricks and you'll be dead," the big man growled. "I've got three archers on you right now."
The Feari saw who he was talking about, the three men standing behind him with their bows drawn.
"I have a feelin' that this fight will be easy for you, you monster," the bug man said, laughing unpleasantly. "Your opponent is a human, and a small one at that, though he does have a few fiery tricks up his sleeve!"
He unraveled his whip and snapped it over the Feari's head. The creature crouched low, but the whip snapped over its back anyway, cutting a thin line through which black blood seeped.
"Now get out into the arena!" the man growled, snapping the whip again. The Feari hissed fearfully, and ran out of the cell and into the arena. It almost immediately tried to retreat back into the dark cell. The arena was brightly lit, and there were hundreds and hundreds of people on the bleachers around it, all shouting and screaming and moving around. The Feari liked the darkness, but the big man snapped his whi[ again, and the Feari was forced into the arena.
All of the people hissed and booed when it came out into the light. Some threw things, but the Feari just crouched low, making its already small form as small as possible. The guards with the bows escorted the Feari to the other side of the arena, so it could see its opponent straight on when he was let out.
Talanis had been sleeping fitfully when the door banged opened and his light armour was dropped in a heap on the floor. A thin leather breast plate, shin greaves and wrist braces all of the same thin leather.
"Suit up you piece of scum...show time!"
Talan moved stiffly to pick up the first piece and strap in on followed by the rest and then he was shoved out into the corridor and towards a bright light at the end. The iron collar and the manacles would not be removed until the last moment, just before he stepped out onto the sand into the arena. Already he could hear the crowds, cheering, baying, calling for blood and he hated them.
He was yanked to a halt at the iron gate and through it he could see his opponent, not a Human either, in fact he did not know what that thing was. It seemed angry and not happy to be there either and he did not even have a way to tell it what he was planning which would make escape all the more difficult. Could it even understand Human speech.
The portcullis was raised and he felt the collar and manacles removed and his sword shoved into his hand. Already his heat had started to flow like a molten river through his veins, slowly at first, but gathering strength.
He stepped out onto the sand and heard his announcement, it was bright, and the crowd large. This would perhaps help, an uncontrolled fire in one area would cause panic among the crowd and they would jostle and shove to get free. Attention would be on that...diverted for a moment from the fighters.
His eyes levelled again to the creature, one he did not want to hurt, one that was trapped and enslaved just like him.
The Feari saw its opponent, and knew that the man was as much a slave as it was. It didn't want to have to fight the man, but it supposed it would have to, just to live
There was a shout as the fight was supposed to begin. The men with the bows left the arena, and more stones and other objects were thrown at the Feari as teh peopel prompted it to fight.
The Feari slowly walked forwards toward the man. He was small, and wore leather armor, but the big man with the whip had mentioned a trick. Did this man have magic? The Feari didn't know. It stopped about twenty feet from the man and watched him. assessing him, trying to gauge what the man would do now.
Talanis raised his sword ever so slightly, it was a gesture to try and placate the crowd, but his heart was not in it. He hated fighting, he had barely tolerated it when he had Goldeneyes as his arena partner, they had fought well together and there was the promise of the evening at the end of it.
He looked to the creature in front of him and lowered the sword again, instead he raised his hand and turned towards a crowded section of the arena stands. His eyes turned amber as he concentrated, he was no stupid spell caster who needed to utter words to bring out his fire, he just thought about where he wanted it and it was there.
A sudden burst of flame caught a gauzy curtain and it started to spread until it reached the crowd. The sounds of screaming changed from excitement to fear. People started to move in a frenzy away from the fire.
He was acutely aware he had committed a cardinal sin in a fight turning his back on his opponent and if he survived this and if he did not manage to escape he would be well and truly in trouble. His Master would whip the life from him and then have him sent to be the block to be sold, he would make sure Talanis was sold to the worst possible type of person as he promised.
The crowd were moving now as flames crackled....guards were being marshalled to extinguish it. Talanis knew it was now or never and he looked for an advantage point where he might try and join the jostling crowd....or a place he might make good his escape.
The Feari's eyes widened as the man turned his back to it. This was its chance to kill him, and it would win, but it stopped, the man must have known it could attack, so the Feari waited. It leaped back in surprise as the man cast his fiery power over the people in the stands. They started screaming and running for the exits, guards were rushing to put out the fire. The perfect distraction for an escape.
The Feari saw the man looking around for a place to escape. The Feari knew that it would be able to scale a wall and escape easily now, but the man probably wouldn't be able to.
"Follow meee!" the Feari hissed at the man. "I know where we can essscape!"
Talan almost passed out in surprise as he saw his plan working and then he heard the hissed words from the other opponent. He turned suddenly to stare at the odd creature, not sure whether it might be leading him into a trap to please its master and get him punished.
"How can I trust you!" He called over the screams to the creature.
He glanced back to the portcullis which was slowly be wound open, he could see his master on the other side, whip in hand and the iron collar and furious did not start to describe his face. He turned back to the creature....shaking a little.
"Where...which way....hurry!" There was no time to make the trust decision....they had to get out of him before they were corralled and locked up.
"Here!" The Feari bounded off, straight towards the opening portcullis. It was about three feet off the ground now, and the Feari leaped up, grabbing onto the portcullis as it was raised. It saw the man on the other side with the whip, and the Feari lashed out its tail at the man, hoping one of the sharp spines would cut him. The spines were not poisonous now, so the man would hopefully just be left with a deep cut.
"Hurry!" the Feari hissed to the man who would have been its opponent. "We can essscape if we climb up this gate! Oncccce we're at the top we'll be able to climb into the sssstands and get awayssss!"
Talanis geared himself to run, dropping the blade and he leapt for the portcullis and started to climb after the odd creature.
As he started upwards he felt something grab his ankle and he was yanked hard, but he clung on. Glancing down he saw his master with a bloody cut across his chest.
"No you don't you little piece of scum.....I saw what you did!" He growled.
"Gonna sell you to a desert brothel and make sure the worst sorts 'ave you hour after hour!" He spat.
Talanis kicked out trying to dislodge him.
"Get off!" He screamed.
He turned his gaze upwards, the creature was higher up.
"I can't get free!" He shouted upwards.
The Feari looked down behind it when the man shouted, to see the bog man with the whip holding onto his leg. The Feari looked up, there was only a few more feet to go and it would be able to get free. Any other Feari would have kept climbing, and this Feari considered it, but then it turned around and leaped off of the portcullis, down and onto the man with the whip. The Feari clawed at the man's face to distract him. Then it aimed to bite down on the man's shoulder. If it bit him, there was very little chance the man would be able to dislodge the Feari. A Feari's bite is stronger than nearly any other being of its size, and after fifteen seconds of biting a deadly poison is injected into the victim, but only if the Feari chooses. This Feari would not inject the poison if it did manage to bite the man, the Feari only wanted to injure the man enough so they could escape, not enough to kill him, though the bite may break a bone.
The man gave a sudden cry as the other fighter leapt at him, clawing and he let go of his slave to fend off the one attacking him. There was a nasty sound of bone cracking as the thing bit his shoulder.
Talan had continued upwards and then looked back to his would be comrade and called out.
"He is down....come on....climb!"
There was a certain satisfaction seeing the man rolling on the floor screaming, but he knew that he would be hunted down now, just like when he had run away to try and find Goldeneyes. If he were caught it would not go well for him, his master had made that very clear...he would end up bent over in a brothel for the rest of his viable days being used by all that could pay for it.
He called to the creature again.
"CLIMB!"
The Feari bit the man's shoulder a moment longer, the blood starting to flow. The Feari leaped off of the man, its long black tongue licking the blood from its lips as it grabbed the portcullis and scampered up after the other man. It passed him and climbed up and into the stands, looking down on the man.
"Hurry!" it hissed. "They will be after usss ssssoon!"
Talanis pulled himself up into the stands and glanced about briefly and grabbed at a discarded cloak on one of the benches and slung it over his shoulders and yanked up the hood. He found another a short distance a long and threw it to the creature.
"Cover yourself....we need to blend in." As if to demonstrate he slipped into the fringes of a crowd of jostling people.
He did not know whether it would follow him or do what he had suggested. He had no doubt it could find him in the crowd, probably had a very good sense of smell. The stairs downwards were close now, and hopefully so would freedom. There were already soldiers and workers dousing the fire, but the frenzied crowd fearing being burned were still leaving. He did not know where he would go, perhaps to find Goldeneyes, but not straight away, the Master would expect that and would know where that caravan was and would have the roads watched.
He looked about, being carried along by the throng of people....where was the other escapee?
The Feari covered itself with the cloak, but its four-legged bound would most likely give it away. But the fear rushed after the man, and it yanked at his cloak.
"Follow me!" It hissed, and it went the opposite way that all of the people were running. The people were running towards the exits, but the Feari went in the other directing. It didn't stop to see if the other man followed, if he chose to follow, they would both most likely escape, if the man didn't follow and went after all of the other people, he was most likely going to his death.
Talan looked anxiously towards the stairway and the back to the creature which was running in the opposite direction. How could that way lead to freedom? Perhaps the creature was in league with the owners and this was all a trick to punish him somehow.
He took one last look towards the stairs and started to run after it in the opposite direction. He just prayed the thing was leading him true or his life was going to get very miserable ver quickly.
The Feari was glad too see the man had followed it, and it bound up the bleachers and to a wooden wall. A seemingly dead end. The Feari could hear the shouts of the colosseum guards, but none were yet in sight. The Feari pulled back a wide board on the wall and climbed into the small space beyond. There was a hole in the floor of thy tiny crawlspace, it was just big enough for a man to fit down into, and the rungs of a ladder were visible. The Feari started down the ladder, headfirst, its waving tail the last thing to disappear into the pitch-black darkness of the hole.
He stopped dead as the creature pulled back a wide board and vanished into a hole. He watched as it disappeared down a ladder.
He looked down into the inky black needing to see something anything, but what he actually heard was the sound of guards down below in the arena, they were listening to the pained protests from the Master who was giving them his and the creature's description.
He hastily climbed in the hole and started downwards, he hated the dark and his progress was slow. He didn't know how far ahead the creature was and he definitely did not want to tread on its tail.
The bottom of the hole was about forty feet down, and the Feari leaped off the ladder and onto teh stone ground when it reached the last few rungs. They were in a tunnel, the ceiling about a foot higher than a man, but everything was pitch black. The Feari could see in the dark, but it wasn't sure if the human could, it didn't think so.
There was the sound of dripping water, and the ground and stone walls were damp.
"The sssewersss," the Feari hissed. "The tunnel up to the arena wasss made long ago by essscaping ssslaves. I have lived in Essssyrn for my whole life, and I know placccesss. . ."
The Feari started forward, then it stopped. "Can you sssee?"
Talan almost fell for the last two rungs and he felt dampness all about him.
It was dark and he felt some what boxed in, the darkness cloying all about him.
"I cannot see a thing!" He said, an edge moving into his voice.
"How long does this darkness last?" He said his words choking a little....he had spent time locked in small dark places as punishment and he hated it.
"Please just keep talking....let me know you are close!"
The Feari hissed in frustration and walked back over to the man. It extended it's wing out and up. "Take the tip of my wing, I will lead you through the sssewersss."
The Feari looked around, there were three tunnels branching out from where they were, and the Feai chose the one to the far left, it knew where they all led.
Talan reached out to feel the wing tip, his warm hand touching it lightly and so they started foward in the pitch black. Slowly the sound of uproar above faded as they traversed the stone tunnels further and further away.
It was done....an escape made.
It was true the first instinct was to go and search for his lover, but they would expect that.....so where could he go....where might he hide? He thought about the creature that led him.....where did it come from? Had it a place to go to? A family?
Slowly as they walked through the dark Talan thought he could see a pinprick of light in the distance.
"Where does this lead to?" He asked.
He hoped it was far enough away from the Arena to make good his escape and for the creature to make theirs. It felt good to be free of the iron shackles and collar, to feel the warmth of the fire in his blood once more. It had felt even better to release it in the Colosseum and see the place start to burn.
He hoped the Master would lose his arm....serve the pig right....he had suffered enough beatings and worse at that man's hands.
"Thessse are the sssewersss," the Feari hissed as it continued forward. "They go all around under the cccity."
As they neared the light up ahead they could see it was where a manhole cover had slipped aside, letting a thin shaft of light down into the darkness. There was a ladder here, but the Feari passed it by. Up on the streets shouts could still be heard through the crack, they were still to close to the Colosseum.
How much further would it be in this dark and stinking place?
It felt like the walls were closing in about him and he wanted to be out, out in the fresh air, preferably some place far from him, perhaps by the sea, laying on the warm sand with Goldeneyes next to him. They would be free, free of their cruel masters...free of the whip....free of the chains.
What did the creature next to him want?
Where did it want to go?
He felt somewhat sick, the smell of the sewer starting to turn his stomach, he swallowed and tried not to breathe in the stench.
"How much further?" He asked tightly.
"Not far," the Feari hissed in answer, then it stopped and sniffed the air. It had smelled the rotting stench before the man had, but now it looked around for the source. Its black eyes fell upon a human corpse. The Feari stepped forward, sniffing at it. It had been down here for a while, by the smell of it, and under normal circumstances, the Feari may have taken a bite, for even though it wouldn't kill humans to eat, if here was a dead one, what was the difference?
"A body," the Feari hissed, to tell the man why it had stopped. Then it started walking again. "Humansss have namesss," it said unexpectedly. "What isss yoursss?"
"Talanis.....most call me Talan." He said in response to the question.
He tried not to think about the corpse and whatever else might be laying down here in the dark.
"What about you? I have not seen your kind before coming here?"
He wished desperately for fresh air, bathing might be a good option to after leaving this stink hole.
"How did you end up back there?"
"I have no name," the Feari hissed. "And my kind are not easssily captured. They would rather die than be captured. I do not fear death, but I do not welcome it, though many of my kind are indifferent, they do not care if they die, but before they die they want to kill asss many beingsss asss they can. But I am not like them, I am not quite as bloodthirsssty. I was captured, though I did manage to kill ssseven men before they managed to sssubdue me. . ."
The Feari hissed softly, as if relishing the memory.
Talan contemplated what the creature said, it was a creature of death indeed.
"When we are clear I need to to try and track one who was taken from me and sold on." He said softly.
"Goldeneyes was a fighter too, the Master sold him out of spite because I defied him."
He wondered whether the creature understood this, about bonds between others.
"I love him and will not leave him to a life and hardship....he does not deserve it."
"There are many who do not dessserve the livesss they have," the Feari said. "Sssome are evil, and live in luxury, othersss are innocccent, but are ssslavesss."
The Feari looked back at Taking, even though the man couldn't see it. "How are you going to find thisss Goldeneyed one? Do you know who he wasss sssold to?"
Talan tried hard to remember the details.
"He was sold to some sort of travelling caravan...the master said he would be sold as a whore to them, having to please both men and women of the camp." He said softly, he hated the thought of it...his beautiful Goldeneyes at the beck and call of any and their guests.
"I saw the emblem of the caravan on a saddle blanket, it was a star over a palm tree...does this mean anything to you?"
If the creature knew this and the routes this caravan took he might find his lover once more.
The Feari listened as the man described the emblem, and a smile spread across the Feari's face in the darkness. "It meansss much to me," the creature hissed. "But why ssshould I help you? I already sssaved you life onccce. . .
Talan glared back in the darkness in the direction he thought the creature might be.
"I think that goes both ways...thanks to my interference you were able to escape....now tell me about the insignia....who are they!"
He felt the heat rise in his veins, there was no iron to hold it in check now, it raised with his temper as the creature taunted him with the vital information.
"Who are they?" He snapped more angrily this time.
The Feari hissed menacingly at the man's sharp tone, and it pulled its wing out of his grip sharply, so h was alone in the dark.
"Thessse sssewersss are filled with all manner of thingsss I am ssure you would not like to meet, human!" it hissed. "The floor is riddled with holesss, large enough for you to fall into, ssso I would not advissse that you move right now. One falssse ssstep. . ."
The Feari trailed off. "Ssso," it continued. "If you want to get out of here alive, I sssuggessst you do not tessst me. I could kill you now if I wanted to."
Talan balked at the threat, he had not left one master to be threatened and bullied by another. The creature had pulled away its wing and he stood alone in the darkness, he hated the dark and the first reaction was to want to bring forth the fire and shed light about him, but he refrained from it.
"Fine...if that is the way you feel....kill me then!" He snapped.
"Leave me in the dark if that is what you choose....but make no mistake I am not defenceless."
He straightened and glared in the direction he thought the creature was.
"Tell me about the insignia please." He tried to soften his tone a little.
The Feari stepped closer to the man, and nudged his hand with its wing. "I do not wishhh to kill you," it hissed in a softer tone. "I jussst did not like your tone."
It was silent for a moment, then it continued. "The insssignia belongs to a rich lord named Fisssan Threemsss. . . I know of him jussst from hearing about him, and I have ssseen him a few timesss in passsing. He hasss two large manor houssesss, I heard. One here in Esssyrn, the other in a sssmall town on the edge of Adela. From what I know he isss on hisss way there now. I asssume that your Goldeneyed one isss in the manor in Adela, sssimply becaussse that isss the grander mansssion. If you want to catch them, you ssshould hurry."
He took hold of the wing again.
"My thanks for your information." He said simply.
What would this Fisan Threem want with a golden eyed elf male as a slave in his household, surely only as some sort of exotic amusement and the thought of it made him feel sick.
"Do you know what sort of man this Threem is?" He asked gently remembering to be polite, the creature seemed to respond to that better.
The Feari nodded, then it remembered that Talan could not see it. "Yesss, from what I have heard, he isss cunning, and cruel." The Feari started forward again as it continued to speak. "He isss tall, and thin, with long black hair. But all I know isss from hearing it on the ssstreetsss, it may not all be true. Do you aim to go and find your Goldeneyed one?
Talan blanched at the response, cunning and cruel, the thought of Goldeneyes in the clutches of such a man made him feel sick to his stomach. Who knew what foul deeds that man might enact upon him or force him to partake of.
"If you heard it on the streets then it is all true and likely worse." He saaid quietly.
"And Yes I am going to find Goldenyes and bring him back to me...then we can find somewhere safe that we can live in freedom without the fear of being enslaved or being parted again."
"Who exactly isss this Goldeneyed one?" the Feari hissed as they continued through the sewers.
They were nearly to a place where they would be able to leave the darkness of the tunnels. Personally, the Feari preferred the dark, and it usually only left the sewers at night, but it knew that Talan didn't like the dark as much as it did, and if the human was going to find the Goldeneyed one, then he would have to leave.
Talan answered that question about Goldeneyes.
"He was a gladiator like me, he had been with the Master much longer. A golden elf with hair the colour of the sun and eyes like golden honey....he is so beautiful. At first we were rivals but one night whilst we baited each other it became something more." He said wistfully.
"The insults fell away and we were in each others arms...kissing and before I knew it we were taking pleasure in each other in the deep of the night....we hid it from the Master....but he guessed."
"I love him and the Master took him away from me...because I defied him. He made me watch as he sold Goldeneyes and then he tied me up and whipped me until I could not stand. He told me that defiance was punished and I had cost him a good fighter and then...." He trailed off, he would not speak of that shame.
"I have to find Goldeneyes....I can not let him suffer.....I cannot."
"Ssso, he isss your mate?" the Feari asked. "And you love him?" It was silent for a moment. "Feari do not often love," it hissed. "But humansss and elvesss and other beingsss sssometimesss do.
"Are you going to go after him now?" it asked. "Asss sssoon asss we leave thessse sssewersss?"
Talan did not quite now how to answer the first part of the creature's question. Goldeneyes and himself were lovers...not mates in the truest sense.
"We were lovers...." He started....and then trailed off....it was likely the creature would not understand.
"I hope to find him when I manage to get out of this cesspit. What about you?"
The Feari as it called itself had not spoken much about itself other than its prowess and that its kind did not love...or not often any ways. Surely they chose mates though....and procreated? Did they procreate in the normal sense of the word.
"I do not know what I will do now," the Feari hissed. "Feari. . . Feari do not often love, asss in feel the emotion of love, but we do reproduccce. . . Though in a, different way than what humansss and many other creaturesss do."
They walked on a while more. Then the Feari spoke again. "I will help you to sssave your Goldeneyed one, if you would like my asssissstanccce. . ."
Talan could not believe what he was hearing....scant moments ago this Feari was threatening him, no it was offering to go and help save Goldeneyes...what manner of creature was this.
"I would be grateful....you have knowledge of this Threem and where he might be...where he might be holding Goldeneyes." He said softly.
"I take it this man has wealth and power....guards....houses....where would we start?"
"We ssshould ssstart by going across the desssert to hisss mansssion in Adela," the Feari hissed. "It would be posssible for me to go acrosss the desssert without a caravan, but if you have to go with a caravan we will have to pay. Can a human like you get acrosss the desssert without a caravan? Feari are muh different from humanssss." Then it added, "We are almossst to a placcce where we can leave thessse sssewersss."
Talan felt a surge of hope, he had not felt such a thing since he had first felt Goldeneyes kiss. deep commanding, wanting.
"I will cross the desert. you are right we do not need the extra expense of a caravan nor the unwanted attention to us, likely are descriptions are being spread as we speak." He said firmly.
"Runaway slaves are not treated well."
He saw some light up ahead, it was a welcome sigh indeed.
"There isss the exit," the Feari said when the light came into view. "Onccce out we will have to get sssuppliessss for the journey acrosss the desssert. I do not need much, if anything at all, but even ssssuppliesss jussst for you will cossst money. Neither of usss has any money."
The Feari was not complaining, simply stating a fact that needed to be addressed, and soon.
Money...he had none...the Feari had none....they needed it.
"Well we could steal money or supplies but if we get caught we are in for it." He said softly.
"I could work for it, but if I am recognised it is game over for me....I would be dragged back to the Colosseum."
He shrugged and grinned offering a flippant comment.
"Guess there is always my body...Goldeneyes said it was pleasing." He had made that comment in jest.
Selling his body for any man or woman to take a turn on was not the option he would choose anyway. He was not a riding pony at the end of the day!
"What do you think?"
"I can sssteal," the Feari hissed as they came to a ladder. "I can be quite good at it, dessspite my appearanccce."
It started to climb the ladder. It emerged soon into sunlight, but they were in an alleyway, closed off from the bustling street and market that could be heard just around the corner.