That was the reaction I expected from everyone: sheer shock at the sight of me, the freak that I was. And while it hurt, it honestly came as a relief. Better they knew what that deranged asshole had turned me into now than later and be pissed about it.

“Balls, I almost pissed myself. How long were you there?”

‘W-wait, what? Is that why she was horrified?’

“Take a guess, Vara - the whole time,” the other Guardswoman spoke up, obviously used to her colleague’s folly.

“Bullshit...I am not blind?”

“That’s the sad part about it.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh, nothing? Well, then maybe it will be nothing if I tell “Sergeant” here about your date last night."

“Don’t you dare!”

“Yes, don’t, and that’s an order,” Hakhe chimed in, heaving a sigh. “Just take the gal and get out.”

“Not until the Miss Perfect City Guard here tells me what she meant.”

The fairer Guardswoman tucked an unruly strand of golden braided hair behind her ear and rolled her blue eyes. “Nothing, really. Just that when you get a whiff of prey, you’re like a hound and see nothing else.”

A shiver ran through my body. Those words cut way too close to the heart.

And they especially hurt since the sturdier Guardswoman with the short-cropped auburn hair looked nothing like me. She bore no antlers on her head, no huge sail-like ears, just the regular round human ones. From what little I could see of her white skin, not a bit of it was covered in fur or feathers. All in all, she looked like a normal human to me.

“So, you take me for a hound?”

“That’s not what...”

“Don’t get all tits up, Elira. I like it.”

“You do...?”

“Hear that, Elias? You better watch out for me, or I’ll bite you.”

Couldn’t they bloody well use any other metaphors? Or was comparing the other to beasts common here? Perhaps because of the Terr’dens? Either way, the more they talked, the more I wished I had stayed in Esulmor.

“What you ought to be doing, Corporal, is your damn job and not barking at your superiors,” Sergeant Hakhe said, not breaking her stare despite being tired of the woman. That was until he glanced at the other city guard. “Seriously, Eli - take her and go.”

“You mean Vara or...”

“Both of them,” the man gushed, making no bones about him trying to get us all off his hide. “You have your orders, so follow them.”

“Yes, sir,” the blue-eyed Guardswoman saluted and jabbed her elbow into the brown-haired woman’s ribs just as she was about to protest. “Come on, Vara. If we hurry, we could still make lunch at the barracks.”

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“Balls! You’re right,” the auburn-haired Guardswoman cursed, stricken with realization. Then, as she fixed her gaze on me, the hairs on the back of my neck bristled. “Grey, was it? Come on, get your ass up.”

Flinching at her booming command, I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart and, after hitting my mind with [Indomitable Will], got to my feet. Doing what she said might have left a bad taste in my mouth, but there was no way out of it for me now. Either I would go all the way with it, or...actually, I didn’t know, and that was the rub. Apart from living like a beast in the forest, there was nothing else I could pin my hopes on.

“Good, now out!”

“Take it easy on the gal, will you, Corporal? If you had read your orders, you’d know you’re not escorting a prisoner.”

“Fuck you, Elias,” the auburn-haired Guardswoman growled, rushing me out.

“Sir,” saluted the other woman, to which Sergeant Hakhe merely dismissed her with a wave.

“Just go, Eli.”

Thinking, naively, that I was ready, I whimpered as soon as we were back on the street. The noise hit me, arguably even harder than before.

“Oh, fuck me. What now, half-Terr?”

“Vara!” the blue-eyed Guardswoman shouted at her colleague from the gatehouse doors. Her voice might have been sweet otherwise, but now it cut into my ears sharper than the street noise. “Oh, sorry, my bad. I didn’t mean to.”

“Then why the fuck are you yelling?” the auburn-haired woman sputtered, wiggling her fingers in her ears. “Besides, it’s not like I called her a half-beast.”

“I know you didn’t.”

“So, what’s your fucking problem? Oh, wait, let me tell you: that you salute to your brother and call him sir.”

“For the hundredth time, Vara, he’s my superior now, and he’s yours too. But that’s beside the point. Don’t you see her?”

“Of course, I can see her; I’m NOT blind. Oh! Oh... her fucking ears,” the auburn-haired Guardswoman said when she finally noticed me pressing my fury sails to my head. “Damn. I’ve always been a little jealous of Terrs for all they could hear or smell, but... I guess there are two sides to every coin.”

“That’s the most sensible thing you’ve said all day,” the blue-eyed one remarked, holding out her hand with what looked like earrings. “Here. I use them when I have to sleep in the same room as this buffoon; her name’s Vara, by the way; mine’s Elira.”

“Not my fault you’re a light sleeper.”

The blue-eyed Guardswoman, apparently named Elira and Sergeant Hakhe’s sister, rolled her eyes, and ignoring the comment of her colleague Vara, gave me an explanation on the earrings: “Noise mufflers—adjustable, meaning pretty expensive, so I’m gonna want them back once we escort you to the barracks.”

“Th-thank you,” I stammered out and, somewhat puzzled, took the earrings from her. Scoresby was one thing; the old merchant was just plain nice and sadly long gone, but why the bloody heck was she willing to hand me her stuff? Sure, she was only letting me borrow the earrings, yet knowing how I looked: dirty and smelling despite my best attempts to scrub myself with dew-soaked moss - and though it pained me to admit it - like a wild beast, she had to be damn confident I wasn’t going to run off with them. That, or she was stupidly kind - like the old man.

Either way, I was left scratching my head, trying to figure out how to put the earrings on. After all, it had been a while since I had lost my human ears. AND there was still the question of whether I should wear them at all. They were covered with runes, much like the shackles and the slave collar.

“As great as it is to hear you talk, can you hurry up?” the auburn-haired Guardswoman, Vara, said, rushing me to put them on. “Like this, we’ll arrive at the barracks after everyone’s finished eating.”

‘Wasn’t that a good thing? No queues and stuff?’

“Vara’s enjoying lunch at the barracks for all the gossip going around,” the blue-eyed Guardswoman, Elira, explained after seeing my confusion. “Do you need help to put them on?”

“N-no,” I blurted out, taking a reflexive step back as she reached out to help me. To prove the point, keep my pride and stricken with a touch of guilt, I took my ear by what could be considered an earlobe and pierced the earring through. The same with the other one.

Nothing happened, though. Despite the pain and a few drops of blood, the street noise kept assaulting my eardrums at full force.

“Damn, you must have been through some crazy shit. Call me intrigued, Grey.”

“Give it a break, Vara,” Guardswoman Elira grunted at her fellow city guard, reaching up to her earlobes. “Touch the earrings. Both at once.”

Once again, doing as I was told, I couldn’t help but gasp. As soon as I touched the earrings, the whole world fell into complete silence.