Chapter 18
Lord Mitten was still a day's journey from Minthral, at least by human standards. But since he wanted to remain undetected, he would have to bow to them for better or worse and adopt a more inconspicuous pace.
Sighing, he jumped from the canopy towards the forest floor. He followed one of the small, well-trodden paths, which, the closer they got to Minthral, led to wider and wider paths until they finally ended in wide roads with enough space for the merchants' carriages.
Lord Mitten had no desire for the hustle and bustle of the major trade routes and decided to stay on the smaller paths in order to be left alone. Left alone from the shrill giggling cooks who belonged to each trading caravan, the leaders of the guards who kept their troops in order with loud commands and, above all, from one kind of creature - dogs.
He grimaced at the thought of the barking creatures.
As Guardian of a continent, he felt obliged to all the creatures living on it. But that didn't mean he didn't get on better with some than others.
Despite their negative image, monsters were actually the easiest to get along with. The mind of a higher being coupled with the instinct of a lower animal meant that the more intelligent monsters got a sense of Lord Mitten's rank and power when they met him, even if he carefully held back his power.
They didn‘t let themselves be deceived by his small stature or his supposed race and treated him with due respect. If they didn't immediately run away.
The two-legged creatures were more complicated. One would think that they, too, would have to be sufficiently intelligent not to draw conclusions about a creature's strength from its appearance. The magical energy that surrounded and imbued his world Keleth dissolved such correlations. After all, a petite water element was a thousand times stronger than a human four times its size due to its vast access to energy.
And yet in the past, the short-lived, especially the humans, had difficulty connecting him with a powerful being of ancient times. But would he complain about that here and now?
Definitely not!
After all, that made it a lot easier for him to disappear.
And then there were the less intelligent beings. Animals without a magical spark in them. And there was one type of animal in particular that he had difficulties with - dogs. Creatures devoid of intelligence who saw it as their absolute mission in life to protect their owners from non-existent dangers.
Tsk. Lord Mitten wrinkled his nose.
Non-existent dangers like cats. As if they had any interest in taking the slobbering creatures' homes or attacking their masters. And since he himself took the form of a cat, past contacts with dogs had been, shall we say, tense.
Lord Mitten thought back to his time in Anaholm. An idyllic village with enough fish to eat and enough sun to keep him warm. An idyllic village with only one flaw, the village dog Mool. He belonged to the hunter, of course, and instead of helping him hunt game and actually making himself useful, he was chained to a lead and guarded the house.
From what, actually?
Lord Mitten had often asked himself this question, but had been too lazy to pursue it. And too annoyed. Mool was a very small dog with a very big ego and an even bigger lung capacity.
Mool was a constant barker. And Lord Mitten was on the verge of temporarily shutting him up several times, had it not been absolutely beneath him. The Ancient Being personally declaring war on a lowly animal and going down to its level.
Ridiculous! Outrageous! thought Lord Mitten again.
And so he had no choice but to keep as much distance as possible from the little monster and ignore him as best he could.
How had he actually come up with this thought? he asked himself for a moment.
Ah yes, the merchants with their dogs!
He would avoid them and the giggling, yelling and barking as best he could, Lord Mitten decided again and strolled further along the path. In his mind, he began to imagine his future life as a businessman. How he would pull the strings from the back room and how delicious delicacies would find their way to him from all directions. How he would enjoy life in inconspicuous mediocrity and celebrate idleness.
Lord Mitten smiled to himself. What a fantastic plan he had come up with, he praised himself. Satisfaction spread through him and a little bit of manageable adventurousness. Nothing wild, of course. Just the joy of a little moderate change in his life. His own store as a nice pastime. What a great idea that had been!
He picked up the pace a little to get to his destination faster.
I really need a comfy wing chair in my room, thought Lord Mitten and began to write a to-do list in his mind. Not for himself, of course, but for Kryll. In his mind's eye, he could already see himself delegating the underlings from his armchair.
WoOoh whHhhOo!
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Abruptly, he was torn from his daydream by an increasingly loud whimper. He pricked up his dark brown ears.
WoOoh WoohHh!
That sounded like a young animal and it seemed terribly sad. A few meters in front of him was a fork in the path, at which he stopped and looked towards the path running towards him.
“Stop howling, you stupid thing!” a male voice sounded from the forest.
Lord Mitten frowned.
WoOoHHh woOoooHhhh!!!
Instead of stopping, the whining became even louder and more pitiful.
“Quiet I said!”
Two riders on two restless-looking horses appeared on the path. The howling seemed to make the horses nervous and the riders angry. One of the two adventurers, for that's what they appeared to be judging by their equipment and appearance, struck a wire basket dangling beside him gruffly with his metal-clad hand.
!!! BANG BANG BANG !!!
“Quiet or I'll take the loss of value and skin you personally!”
Intimidated by the loud clatter, the trapped creature fell silent for a moment.
“Finally,” the other human clad in armor said with satisfaction.
Lord Mitten's whiskers twitched. His tail whipped from left to right at the sight before him and his black pupils narrowed to slits. Not because it had suddenly become light, no. Such biological connections had long since ceased to have any effect on him.
He was annoyed.
The energy within Lord Mitten, which normally flowed through his veins like a sluggish golden river, was becoming more restless. It urged him to give it free rein to bring the culprits to justice. It would crash over them like a huge wave that would bury everything beneath it, it whispered to him.
Lord Mitten exhaled slowly and with his breath the currents calmed and the sea inside him quieted.
Apparently enough of his young self still seemed to live in his old bones, he thought, half amused, half resigned. The heroic part of him that was outraged by the injustice in the world and rushed to help had made an appearance again after a long absence. It was good to know that it was still around, he would have to keep an eye on it. Not that it would decide to reappear at an inopportune moment.
With his golden eyes, Lord Mitten looked at the riders and considered how he would proceed. The humans continued towards Minthral and it seemed they had not noticed him. They had been too preoccupied with themselves and their catch.
Lord Mitten followed them at a little distance and thought for a moment. As it stood, he had time to free the little creature until they reached one of the major trade routes. Then everything would become more complicated because of the many observers. Complicated meant more work and he would avoid that at all costs.
For a brief moment, he had been able to take a look inside the wiry prison and see what the two adventurers had captured.
A little fox girl.
Hello little cub, Lord Mitten said and telepathically made contact with the small creature.
Two fluffy ears with white tufts and two beady eyes peeked out from behind the rider's leg.
He-Hellooo? it whimpered towards him. A deep feeling of sadness struck him.
Lord Mitten charged a small portion of his energy with the concept of “comfort” and sent it as a small golden strand in the direction of the fox. It approached the cub gently so as not to frighten it. After circling around the little fox girl for a while, the strand transformed into a thin blanket that covered her.
Huhumm humm, muttered the monster cub.
Lord Mittens sighed. He had a soft spot for the newborns and young creatures who came into the world so innocently and whose naivety was often obliterated in the course of their lives by the harshness and injustice of the world. It was definitely too early for this cub to be confronted with the cruelty of existence, he decided.
I'll set you free, don't worry, he whispered to her calmly and let the golden blanket spread further over her. Sleep a little, little cub. When you wake up, everything will be fine.
Exhausted by the traumatic experience and comforted by Lord Mitten's presence, the voice in his head fell silent and a deep breathing sounded from the cage.
Good girl, he purred.
And now for the two of you.
Lord Mitten looked at the two riders' defenceless backs and wondered what he should do. Punish them, yes, but how? And were there more people who stole innocent monster children from their mothers?
He wrinkled his nose.
Lord Mitten had been very clear in past ages about his stance on enslavement and systematic capture of intelligent beings, whether monster, human or dwarf.
Not acceptable.
But it had been a long time since he had set an example to make this clear to all beings on this continent. And over the last few hundred years, he had lost touch with the political currents and developments of the human-like races. In the vast forests in the north of the continent one was far away from civilization. And even the small scattered villages were too busy surviving on a daily basis to concern themselves with the political and social changes in the distant cities.
So the big question was whether these two people were criminals catching monsters illegally or —,
Lord Mitten's heroic part rose again at the thought, whether it was actually socially acceptable to enslave intelligent beings!
He frowned. Guardian or not - he would not tolerate such behavior on this continent.
So he would have to bring himself up to date, Lord Mitten realized. And depending on what he would find out, the punishment of the two riders would be measured, he decided. He was a fair judge, after all.
Two small drops of energy left him and attached themselves to the necks of the two, so that he would find them again later to punish them.
Once he had made his decision, the actual liberation was a minor matter. Using his telekinetic abilities, he detached the wire basket from the saddle and let it float away into the inaccessible forest at a fast pace, guided by the small amount of energy.
“WHAT THE -!!!”
The riders brought their horses to an abrupt halt, jumped off them and ran into the forest after the basket.
Someone must have traded their brains for brawn, Lord Mitten thought incredulously as he looked after them.
How stupid did you have to be to follow a basket suddenly floating away into the forest without thinking? How had the adventures even managed to survive to this point? Had they never heard of traps and tricking monsters?
Disappointing.
Lord Mitten's rating of the adventurers dropped by 5 points and he decided that such stupid behavior deserved immediate reprimand, regardless of any further consequences. Perhaps a day's walk through the forest would help the two men reflect on their rash behavior.
He took a few steps towards the horses that had been left behind and cleared his throat briefly.
“BOO!”
The frightened horses neighed nervously and galloped away.
Lord Mitten wrinkled his nose one last time and set off into the forest in the direction of the hopefully still sleeping fox girl. It wasn't exactly pleasant to see trees rushing towards you with no control over your own speed.