She made to move but the world swirled around me and the Fox had turned into a white blur, with a blue hue, she pierced through the palisade and took to the darkness of the forest, her forest. The Last thing I saw was Mara’s face scrunched up in conflict and hate. Her hesitation had more than likely cost my life. “It’s Fine! I’ll be back soon! Wait for me!” I couldn’t judge Mara for her choices. I should have expected as much when I bought thinking people from what is essentially a slave trader. Why should she give her undying loyalty to me when, me losing my life means she gains her freedom? She can return to her once home then.

I now looked down to the Fox Guai, or what I could see, which was only her waist. From her fluffy tails, to her plump butt, her explosive thighs and her calves carved out of diamonds. She cut through root and stone, nothing could hinder her path, yet I could tell she was waning.

“I think you can stop now. They won’t chase me probably.” I spoke and got no response, only her hurried breath. “I am only a beginner you see, we only know each other for two days or something. They already fought well, putting their lives on the line for my sake, and my mission, so I can get money to buy food and clothes. I was already being selfish, acting as their owner. My girls, My Guai. I just can’t avoid it. I am a man abused by the Vices of Humanity, I bathed in them, I was beaten by them. I can’t escape them, and nor do I want to.” I don’t know what came over me, it could be the high of a dying life, of a bleeding head.

“I am yet weak, I want to feel power, power over others. I also want to be safe, I want to feel in control. That was the easiest way. But It’s not like I mistreated them. To some degree both Frey and Ingrid seemed willing. Mara herself, although she hides it, wants to get this quest done. Maybe more so to help you than that decrepit old farmer, but none the less.”

“I don’t wanna bore you with my talk. But… I want to live, I have food in my bag, but nothing else. So if you are to kill me, do so before eating me. Do not savor my pain.

She stopped in her tracks her bare feet left two trails in the dirt as she stopped whatever magic she was doing to pierce through the world itself. “I wouldn’t eat you, ever. Not only are you weak, but it’s also disgusting. You’re Human. I needed to get our of there, my arm is hurt. Once I heal they’ll come after you and I can kill them and eat them.” She dropped me down and I jolted in pain, but released no sound. I didn’t want her thinking I’m calling for help.

We were now in a clearing, she went over to some rocks with a crack between them and shoved half her body into it. She came back out holding a little leather pouch, she squeezed at its one opening and a thick, tree sap colored liquid, that was as thick as glue, came out. She took some of it and ate it, then some more and slathered it on her wounds.

She looked to me and then back at her sack, then to the forest around her with mounting sadness. Suddenly she felt so alone, I could see the child in her come out, the dirt I was laid on, the pouch she held, the trees around us, they held memories, emotions. It could be said that this forest holds the soul of her people. She snapped her head to me, her face was cast in shadow, half concealed by her long black hair, only her ice blue eyes pierced into me. She came close and turned me to my stomach before dropping a whole dollop of that stuff on my wound. It felt cold, and smooth. My pain disappeared, and I could feel my skin forming and sewing itself back up. She put some on my head as well.

I wondered if I should thank her as she tore away from me almost shocked that she had done me such a favor. She then sat down on a pillow of made of her tails, a mattress more like, with the size they were.

“But you would eat other Guai?”

“That’s nature is it not?”

“Huh.” I was really lacking in common sense. “I’m Andras. I came from another realm only three days ago, and I don’t know much. Nice to meet you. I guess.”

“Why did you come to this world? There is only suffering here.” She raised a knee to her face and placed an elbow over it, her eyes peered at me from behind. As if she had just built a wall to keep watch over this conversation from far away.

“There was only suffering there for me as well. Though I give it to you, this world seems more harsh. I was just unlucky.”

“I doubt that. I seriously doubt that. You’re human. You can’t know. Did you have your home coveted for this Tree Sap of Healing? Did you see all pray in the forest be killed, your own people fall into traps to be captured by those ruthless soldiers locked away in their metal armor? Did you see you father starve to death because he refused to eat when you and your siblings could? Did you see poachers grab a hold of your siblings in broad daylight, leaving you alone and hurt to fend for yourself, to protect this home that used to belong to so many, and to hold so much happiness. Do you even know what loss means? Do you understand what pain is? You’re a human. Weak, inedible, yet also gifted by gods with the leading role in the Guai-Human relationship. You can trample over us as you like, but dare we eat a damned chicken when there is no other option, and they can send a whole army to destroy us. How could you possibly know anything.

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“Yes, fox. Suffering. Your father died for you, my father beat me to death and back, I don’t even know how many times. And I was only a pitiful little twig of a child back then. I had no flaming powers, or magic that can pierce through wood and stone, I had no magic at all, no escape. I had no forest to roam, to hope. I breathed in the smoke of his cigars, the smell of his defecation, I saw no stars in the sky, and no way out of that locked security door. I tried to take my life. How many times I can’t remember either. It’s all a mess locked away.”

“Yet that sick old bastard had no life at all. A wastrel through and through. He never left the house, so He’d catch me, patch me up, and beat me black and blue, for even daring to take his control over me, for trying to take my life into my own hands. I was never allowed control, even as a last act, an attempt to welcome death, he wouldn’t allow it. After every attempt he’d punish me by locking me to the radiator for a few days without food and water.”

“My mother didn’t even die, she just left me with her own abuser, she had to save someone’s life and she chose her own. At least your parent died so you could live, horrible as that may sound, It’s the truth. I’d rather my mother have died at his hands, maybe then I would have felt love for once. And here you are stealing from a chicken farmer with more money than wit who sent for your capture or murder. For what? I’m sure you could have gone elsewhere, left this forest. You could have run away, built something new, fresh, from the very beginning.”

“Why couldn’t you run away? Now your father’s death will have been for naught. You are given such privilege and you waste it! Why is it wrong to run away!? I DID!” I was standing over her as I spoke, holding onto my left hand, a torn up piece of leather, scarred from top to bottom. My breaths were short, my eyes little pinpricks. I’d gone to a bad place, there. Hate and Fear had consumed me.

It felt weird addressing such weird details with someone I didn't know. It also felt cathartic. She couldn't hurt me for being vulnerable because she was just letting her feelings flow like a stream as well.

She needed someone to talk to. God knew I did. But God did not give me that person. I had to work hard, to slave away and lose so much sleep just to find the right psychologist.

When I did everything was clinical, progress centric, methodical. Like how someone would teach you to win at chess. I was like the problem that needed solving and our talks there were the formula with which we'd do so. I've never broken out like that, screamed and raged, spoken the truth. It came out now.

I did not know why. It could be that I had just been afraid for my life. It could be that she had hurt my growing pride, it could be that I've gained courage since coming here or I've grown unhinged. I can't tell, and maybe it doesn't matter right now.

What mattered was to come back alive and live ti see another day, what matter was capturing her, and saving her to live for the future her father gave her in exchange for his life.

'What is capturing? It would probably not require beating her up till her eyes turned into dizzy lines. Maybe it has to do with capturing her heart?' Not sure what to do I did the next best thing to making someone falling in love with you. I went in for a hug.

She pushed me away as inched closer, but it was week. I took her arm and pulled it aside. She was crying, gone was the ferocious hunter, the starving witch. She was but a father’s daughter, shattered from his death, a tribe’s child now left alone, with no one to listen to her, to share her burden.

I crumbled to the ground, I squeezed her in a hug. At first she seemed choked, she didn’t know what to do with all that emotion. Then, her tails spread around us both and closed us in a cocoon of warmth and safety. Everything but our breaths was shut away. This cage was comfort, a warm blanket to wrap yourself in, on a cold winter’s night.

“Was it hard… Running Away?”

“I don’t know. I’m still in the process. Why do you think I came here? It was a big bet, but when compared to actual gambling, it’s much better. Because I can grow here, more than I ever thought possible. I wish to become strong, not only as a trainer, but really strong in mind and body both."

"What would that fix?"

"Can the dead be brought back from death with taking revenge? I don't think so, at least not in my world or without consequences" She shook her head.

"Then the best you can do is grow enough to move past it, and if you want you can teach them a lesson. To show them that you have the freedom to do what you want and that you now stand above them. Yet you still don't act the way they did, you are the better man, woman, guai, whatever."

“Maybe I should try that as well.”

“Maybe you should.”

Silence fell once again inside the comfort of the cocoon, like a cloud up in the sky, floating in silence, carefree, away from the problems of the mortal coil, just minded its own business, meandering through the field of blue, eternally wondering yet never pondering. In its own little adventure.