[Soul Eater] “chewy on the in- nghhh!”

Blade seeming to come out of the darkness impacted against the soul eater, a wet squelch just barely heard among the other sounds of their impact. The monsters clawed front paw slides down my leg. Claws harmlessly unable to pierce right until it meets the ankle joint. It’s natural knives dig in, slicing into vulnerable flesh as it manages to grip into that slight opening in my body.

[Soul Eater] “fine! I’ll eat that one second”

[Blade] “ha! I’m going to earn my arms back for killing you beast!”

The two moved into their fight, the soul eaters claws sliding out of my ankle. Blade made the first move… well the first move since coming back to fight it in dramatic fashion, truly excellent timing. Though if I looked at it from a longer time span the soul eater made the first move in attacking our group. Then again our group coming- NO, no I needed to focus. I needed to get up and get running as blade sac-

I froze, the pain shot up from my left ankle, straight up the leg to my spine… there was no way I could run, not even walk. I had to get away, I crawled. One leg and two weak arms at a time I crawled as I could hear blade fighting behind me. To last this long meant he really was good. All the seconds bought did little good though. I heard the thud and crack of breaking carapace. A thunder heralding my doom. Barely catching something in the damn mewling tongue as I focused on the renewed threat.

[Soul Eater] “nghhh! Well now for the original treat, crawl all you like your time has come to an end”

The furred fury launched at me, a leap of certain and oncoming death. A breathless moment before a grey, candle bright translucence hit this beast in the face. I had my opening; I rolled to the side. A clubbing of pain on my ankle and a moment more of life was my reward.

[Soul Eater] “WHO!? You, how you can do that is a mystery that will never be solved now”

It turned to morgan, the human was foolish. But maybe they could be loyal? As it moved to her I knew I had one hope. I pulled out one of the potions I had, threw it as I grabbed the next. The first potion hit! Then bounced off of the body, for a moment my heart sank. When it landed it shattered and some of the fire leaped out burning the monster. I gulped down a healing potion, threw the empty glass aside and as the monster ran back at me threw a knockout gas to right below its face, the vapors entering its nose as it charged. The monster didn’t stop; it went right for me as I held up my right hand to keep its jaws from ripping my throat out. Its jaw clamped on my arm as I felt my small arm's muscles getting pulled and strained to their limits. As it was about to pull my arm off there was a thud and it went suddenly rigid, landing on top of my body… pinning me to the ground with its now inanimate weight.

“al, al can you help?”

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[Al] “oh no need, things are about to be taken care of”

I heard the shuffle of loose stones, the steps of something approaching… what was it? Who was it? I heard a howl in the distance. The steps were a run now, was it two legs or-

Morgan appeared from the darkness and her two hands pressed against its jaw. Just enough to force my arm out, bleeding and spent. She tried lifting with her arms, the body didn’t move… figures the weak soft-skin couldn- she moved to being on her back and pressed with her legs. Groaning and crying out, it woked!?

[Morgan] “MOVE! MOVE YOU DAMN BUG!”

It was a good suggestion and using my legs I pushed myself out while she held it up. With my legs clear it hit the ground with a thud. She panted like she couldn’t breathe while I held my breath in disbelieving.

“w-we, we didn’t die”

[Morgan] “no, time, to…. Ohhh gods. We need, to move”

howls of the other soul eaters reach our ears, cries of victory no doubt.

I reach out my left arm which she takes and once standing we moved with as little noise as possible. Hours of slow, tense movement later and we were entering the wastes proper. No soul eaters behind us it seemed as the first light of dawn was approaching. We didn’t stop, there was no way we would till our bodies refused to work.

“why?”

[Morgan] “no talking”

“we’re far enough. Now why? Why did you run then turn back to save me?”

[Morgan] sighs “more to save myself, didn’t think running across a desert to get eaten by one was a good idea.”

“why not hide?”

[Morgan] “that was my plan, but when our bodyguard attacked, I turned back to see if I could help kill it. Didn’t get close enough till after he died”

“so you screwed up your own plan?”

[Morgan] “pretty much, good thing you had a surprise of your own. Though I’m not sure why you haven’t healed yourself up again”

“I could, I’ve got two more of those but if we are going to be stuck out here a while...”

[Morgan] “Ah, keeping it in reserve then... you have no clue which way is right, do you?”

I shook my head “not the way I expected… anything. You’ve been, a good one. Much less trouble than the rest of your weak kind”

[Morgan] “you really didn’t think that through, you want me to keep helping I suggest you shut up”

She had a point, so I decided that for now I would keep my thoughts to myself. Saving me, even if to save herself had bought the slave some good will from me. It was actually somewhat impressive that such a smaller and weaker creature was able to easily keep up, as we walked into the days heat. Our limited water was gone before nightfall. As the moons rose we kept walking, if for no other reason than to keep some warmth going. With another day of walking I could feel my body starting to quit, vision getting blurred, sense of time ruined, I was barely able to make each step. Maybe she was doing just as bad though as she didn’t seem to notice. I thought of home, of my place as a scholar. My head hit the pillow, and I started sleeping, the mewling sounds of a soft-skin wouldn't keep me from it.

I woke to low light, almost darkness and the sounds of many mewling soft-skins. Looking with a bit more consciousness I realized I was on a wooden floor with wooden bars around me and a wooden roof, all covered by cloth. I was a prisoner, a crippled prisoner of vicious, evil soft-skins.