He was in a pickle? What about me, then?

What the old man was asking me to do was to trust him, to put my fate in his hands and hope that he doesn’t make my life shittier than it already was. The mere thought of him being my new master sent a shiver down my spine.

Yet, looking down at my shackled wrist and ankles, I couldn’t help but be pissed at myself for letting the supposed freedom blind me. No matter how unrestrained I might run in this Esulmor forest, many chains still weigh me down - and not just literally speaking. So, removing at least those three sounded bloody tempting.

But was it a good idea? I didn’t believe so.

While very irritating to deal with, deep down, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the shackles were the only thing keeping the beast from coming out. The pain caused by them when my feral instincts drove me lay still vividly etched in my memory. If it weren’t for my regeneration, back then, I would have lost my paws for sure. So...

‘...damn it! What am I kidding myself!’ I growled at the beast slumbering deep inside me, pissed at myself for being so weak. If not for the feral me, it wouldn’t just be the paws I stood to lose. That deranged asshole wanted to cut me to pieces to find out what makes me tick, and that shoelace bitch intended to give me to her kid as a pet. It was the beast that made me whine in front of the mossbear. It was the feral part of me that fought off the army of squirrels, made me understand them and kept me from starving when I struck a deal with them.

Besides, who was I to chain another, right?

“Um...Mr Scoresby, I...I have to warn you...”

The old man arched an eyebrow. “About what?”

“Me. I could...I could turn into a beast if you...you know, take off the shackles.”

»See, beast. Told you,« Lyl’ra, the younger mare, neighed. »We better go!«

»Beast here not to hurt us, it promised. Let Liam deal with it. He not fool.«

“Interesting. Are you a shifter, Korra?”

“...maybe?”

Scoresby smiled knowingly and explained, “That is someone with the due array and ability to shift into various forms. Of course, it’s not the array that matters as much as the weaves to which it gives you access. So, even someone like me, a Merchant, can have such a weave - well, if they find the aptitude for shifting. It’s rare, but I don’t see having it as a problem. You can always ignore the weave or put another one in your grid.”

‘I wish it were that easy.’

“Also,” Scoresby grunted, looking absently at the place where I showed myself to him. “I don’t think that shackle is suppressing anything.”

‘What the bloody hell could he know?!’ Did he have a feral beast inside him, too? I didn’t think so.

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“Wh-what do you mean?”

“What I said. Oh, forgive my bluntness. But...may I ask you to show me your wrist first? Just raise your hand so I can have a look at the shackle.”

Seeing nothing wrong with that, I lifted my hand over the wall.

“Ah, so I saw right. The runes are out,” the old man said, pleased with himself. “Glad to tell you that this shackle is inactive, girl. It doesn't suppress your strength, let alone your weave.”

“It’s more complicated than that...” I said, unsure of what to tell him. “Y-you see, I can shift without a weave.”

“I’ll be damned, a natural shifter. No wonder you ended up a Slave.”

“Wh-what do you mean by that?”

“Ah, forgive this old man, that came out wrong. But your kind, as far as I know, is rare to find, and what is rare is prized, and what is prized is sought after. It makes me feel older than I am, and I am old, but I’ll give you another piece of advice: don’t tell that to anyone unless you’re sure they can keep their mouths shut.”

“Three can keep a secret when two of them are dead, that sort of thing, r-right?”

»See. Beast wants to eat us!« Lyl’ra whinnied, panicked.

»Promised NOT to.«

“That’s certainly an interesting way of putting it, but you do get the point. Of course, I have no interest in making a profit off you, Korra - however, I’m afraid you’ll have to trust me on that.”

“Y-yeah...” I agreed, biting down on my lower lip. The amount of trust I already placed in the old man didn’t sit well with me. That said, I wasn’t blind. The trust thing went the other way around, too. To him, I had to be a freaky girl with almost twenty sigils more than him running around in the forest where normal people apparently didn’t dare to step into. He couldn’t know if I was just lost or if I intended to rob him or even kill him.

“H-here,” I stammered after making up my mind, sticking out my hand over the wall. “I’ll try not to turn, but...no promises.”

“I believe you are underestimating yourself. Like I said, the shackle does not suppress anything. However, it begs the question of why anyone saw a reason to put it on you. Those are used in the taming of hard-to-control beasts, strong beasts,” Scoresby said, worry seeping into his voice for the first time.

‘They surely underestimated me.’ I thought to myself with a smirk, eyeing the remains of the torn chain hanging from the shackle on my wrist.

“What kind of beast are you turning into, if I may ask? I mean, you stay in control, right? You don’t go feral?”

“I...kind of. Well, I don’t know.”

The truth was, I was aware of everything I was doing and why. I just couldn’t stop myself. Was I feral, though? Pissed off, if anything.

“I think...that as long as you won’t want to hurt me, you will be safe.”

“You think?” Scoresby asked, eyebrows raised, but then a smile replaced the frown. “Either way, if anything, I trust my judgment of folks. And you haven’t bitten me yet.”

Then, to my startle and considerable concern for both my and the old man’s safety, he walked over to my outstretched hand with lock picking tools in his. Honestly, forgotten keys my ass. Sure, for all I knew, being able to handle those tools could have been a common skill in this world, but the old man sure made it look like he had unlocked more than a few locks in his life. In no time, my hand was free of the iron.

“See, I told you it did not suppress anything.”

Lost for words and, most importantly, not turning into a beast, I nodded. Then, spurred on by the prospect of being completely free of the damned chain and reassured by the silence of the beast within me, I wrapped Sage around my waist to cover my privates, lifted my wings to hide my modest chest, and stepped out from behind my hiding place the second time.

“D-do you think you could take these off me too?” I asked the old man, showing him my shackled ankles.

“I see, you’re quite resourceful, Korra,” he remarked after staring at me with undisguised wonder for a while, chuckling at my use of the cloth he had wrapped the sweet bun in.