There they were, the four of them, together in the presence of the Demon Queen. They were under question. Their lives were in danger. But for the life of them, they could not hope to guess what was going through the queen's mind. Why would she do this?

Blake's expression soured.

"Uh..." he said.

"Do not misunderstand. We did not do this of the good of our hearts, humans, but we are not cruel. We will not indebt you to a sum that you did not agree to pay. Nor will we accept repayment if you offer such. This is a calculated political maneuver that we have decided carries more value than it costs, and nothing more."

Silence.

Blake had to process this. This didn't merely mean that Riley was going free. That was always an option. It meant that they didn't have to hide from anything any longer. That was new.

"Free her now. Nullify the Dominion contract," the queen said.

Blake's shackles were released. Riley was brought in front of him, still bound. The other two were silent and still.

Riley stared up at Blake for a moment. He put his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm going to do it. Okay?" Blake said.

She hugged him.

"____."

"I can't hear you," he said.

"Yes," she said.

"Rewrite," he said.

WARNING: ATTEMPTING TO NULLIFY CONTRACT. ARE YOU SURE? THIS CANNOT BE UNDONE.

"Yes," he said.

----------------------------------------

The moment I said 'I am a Hero,' everything went black.

Then, I was reborn.

Behold.

A Hero.

----------------------------------------

The sun filtered down through the forest canopy. The undergrowth was sparse and scattered. It was well enough to navigate. Across the cold, wet ground, a wolfling ran barefoot between the trees. Her feet touched grass, moss, and brittle twigs, scraping by obstacle after obstacle, running away.

Would it be enough, she wondered. She was running out of breath, and it was starting to hurt.

Behind her, she heard shouting.

"Over there! Get her! She's a hundred thousand gold, don't forget it! We lose her and we owe big money!"

It didn't matter if it hurt. She had to keep on moving.

She found a shallow gully and dipped down inside. This would be a bad place to get trapped, but if she could break their line of sight for even a few seconds, she could at least buy some time. They'd have to split for a while and go in both directions until they knew which way she went.

Down the end of the gully and into a small run of valley she ran.

"Left, left!"

Damn it.

Her feet slipped and scraped on the damp ground under her as she veered right, though upright she remained. She should've tried to cross the gully instead, not follow it, she thought to herself. Humans couldn't climb as well as she could.

If only she wasn't so much shorter that she couldn't outrun them. Leg length mattered a lot, especially now.

She spotted a boulder covered with moss and specks of glossy red crystal, overlooking a drop in the terrain.

A boulder! And a cliff!

Another way to break their line of sight. It only had to be a few seconds. She slipped behind the boulder. Right afterwards, she tripped on something the size of a log. Face first into the ground, completely erasing her sense of danger. She was lucky she didn't go plummeting over the drop.

She got up into a temporary sitting position and rubbed her head.

What did I just trip on? Why...A dead body? What? All the way out here?

No, it was breathing. Why? Why was there a person here? It's a human person, too. Not what she wanted to see. Was this place dangerous?

The pursuit team caught up. Right for her arms they went, restraining her in place and tying her up.

"No! No! Get away! You monsters! You terrible people!"

"You're the monster, you brat. Stop struggling. You'll get hurt and lose us money."

She got gagged, reducing her screaming to a muffled whine.

Such was the life of a Companion wolfling in this world. Oh, so living in the imperial capital was supposed to be fun? Yeah right. Getting sold off to some random perverted nobleman in the next country to the southwest? Hell no. She'd make a run for it and try to get to Queensland as fast as she could.

Which was exactly the thought process that brought her to this point, getting restrained again.

The sleeping body turned over at the commotion. Still asleep.

"What? Is this guy still breathing? Not a jump-and-dump victim, huh. Doesn't look like he's from around here. Maybe he's a rogue bandit. Tie him up, we can turn him in just in case."

"Just in case, you got it, boss."

The man next to him started tying the man up, though, of course, he was already in the process of waking up. This much yelling and anyone would wake up.

"What—? Where am I? The woods?"

"No sleeptalking."

He got hit over the head and went unconscious.

The two were carried off back to the pursuit team's carriage, the wolfling girl screeching through her gag the entire time.

The rumble of the carriage wheels striking dirt. The creaking of its suspension, or what excuse for a suspension it had. The sound of twig after twig shattering beneath. The eversteady clopping sound of hooves pulling the carriage forwards ahead. The sad, gagged snoozing of a light-brown-haired wolf girl. Or at least, 'wolf girl' what he assumed she was. Aside from the ears and tail, she looked perfectly human.

He had no idea what was going on. Utterly clueless. He figured he was in danger, given he just got knocked out and tied up. But what kind of danger? He hadn't a clue.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Hey," he whispered, trying to rouse the wolf girl as quietly as he could. "Please. Wake up. I'm totally lost here. What the hell is going on. Where the hell am I."

The last thing he knew, he was walking home from work. From the simple waitstaff job he loved so much, going home to order pizza and wings, drink, and watch TV until he passed out, and, twice a week, hitting the gym first. The dream, really. Heaven, even. But then, walking down that street—nothing. Just nothing. No more. It all stopped there. The next thing he knew he was in the woods getting knocked out, and then, after that, this. And what was with this carriage? And the wolf girl? He had to be dreaming, but no, this was too real. He needed answers.

"Please. Please wake up. Oh, how the hell do I get these ropes off me... Is this a fantasy world? Do I go abra-cadabra-untie-me-now?"

UNKNOWN SPELL, PLEASE CONSULT SPELL LIST.

Oh you have got to be kidding me.

"Spell list."

SPELL LIST:

(empty)

"For crying out loud, don't do me like that, man. Insult to injury!"

The head-knocking he got earlier was giving him a headache. It was hard to think straight. But he had to. Look, there was a lot of stuff in here, he told himself. Maybe he could find something.

Nope. Nothing. If he wanted to unbind himself he'd have to hope whoever bound him didn't know good knots, or that the rope sucked. Like, maybe if he just tried really, really hard to spread his arms apart, he could get out.

"Wait, this is working?"

The ropes started slipping. A little. And a little more. And with enough force, his arms were loose enough to slide out.

"What a mess."

Now his legs, which he could untie.

As for the girl... She was still sleeping. Curled up in bindings, but with her tail free and folded over her body.

He couldn't resist. It was automatic. It was like the concept of 'touch fluffy tail' took over his very will.

"Mmmphmphmmm—"

Instantly awake, eyes wide and open. Not happy, either.

"I'll unbind you, but be quiet. I have no idea what's going on or what kind of danger we're in. Don't alert anyone. Whisper like I am," he said.

He undid her bindings, and then her gag. It was simple.

"Who are you? You tripped me! And why did you touch my tail?"

"Be quiet," he said. "My name is Blake. Blake Jackson. As far as I know I'm not from around here. All I can tell is that I'm in danger."

"I'm Riley. I'm getting sold."

"Sold? Like, a slave?"

----------------------------------------

He looked closer at her. She had a metal... Collar? Shackle? Around her neck, with a chain connecting it to the carriage. He wouldn't be able to break with his hands if he tried, but it was pretty long, long enough that she'd be able to walk around a range of few yards on the ground outside if the door was open.

"Slave?" Riley said.

"Like... Uh... No rights? Treated as property instead of a person?" Blake said.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm a Companion."

"Being sold like property makes you a... Companion?"

"That's the word for it, yes."

Blake shook his head. Wherever he ended up, it was fucked up. He had a feeling that this terminology problem was going to keep coming up, so he might as well speak up now. Even if he might ultimately be powerless to change it.

"Bullshit. Calling yourself something other than 'slave' doesn't make it any less terrible," he said.

Riley shrank.

"Okay, look. I don't approve of slavery, I'll tell you that. I'm not one of those people. Let's get you out of here. Where are we?" he said.

"We're in a Transporter carriage," she said.

Riley thought it was obvious. Transporter carriages were always big, with full walls, not canvas ones, and lockable doors. You saw them everywhere, from the city streets to the middle of nowhere.

Blake could tell something was funny, but not what.

"Transporter? Wait, no, like, uh... where as in, like, where. Country? Distance between towns? Politics? Are there kings, or is it like, a bunch of old people, or...?"

"We're in Greenwood, a kingdom, part of the Empire. Four days out from Brass Town and two days until Coal City. I think."

Blake scratched his chin. "Are those... real town names?"

"Yes?"

"Okay, no, forget it. my head's gonna hurt. So basically we can't book it out the back."

"That's what I tried. I got caught."

"How'd you slip your neck-shackle thing last time?"

"I had to go to the bathroom, outside."

"Oh. I don't suppose you can do that again."

"You already untied me. If I asked them to take me out again we'd just be in even more trouble."

On top of that, she didn't think they'd take her out again even if she was still bound up and alone. She'd just tried to escape.

"Right. Can you fight?"

"Yes."

"Barehanded?"

"Specialty."

"Got it. Wait, this place is like, swords and stuff, right, can I assume that? Is that fair?"

"What are you even asking?"

"Things like guns and tasers. Do they exist here?"

"Uh..."

Riley took a moment to process the conversation and everything that Blake just said. Trying to figure out where he was from, what kind of background he had. By the time she finished, her face was covered in a very, very confused expression. Speechless.

"Forget it. Look, I'll use this broken chair leg thing. You use your hands, if any of them try to come up," Blake said. Then, he raised his voice as loud as he could. "Hey, slavers! Let me out of here!"

The Secure Enclave · Blake's Theme (Midi)

The carriage came to a stop. Then came footsteps. And then a pounding on the door.

"Stay quiet in there, you criminal!"

"I am no criminal! Never even pirated any games!"

"A pirate? What a catch! We're going to be rich! Turning in pirates is even better than transporting Companions!"

The door was unlocked and opened, most likely out of absent-minded idiocy. The next thing the man knew, Blake smashed him in the head with his makeshift club, sideways and down, right into the carriage floor. There go his teeth, Blake thought. Blake immediately pulled him up into the compartment, not letting him recover from being stunned, and scanned his body for anything interesting. A sword! Perfect. He pulled it right out of its sheath and kicked the man back out of the carriage, before he could do anything risky. The man then crawled on the road for a few seconds screaming as his mouth bled. A very sorry sight indeed, though the others were surely alerted by now if there were more.

"Here," Blake said, carefully using his sword to pin one the chain links of Riley's shackles to the carriage floor, and then pounding on the hilt with his fist. Not enough.

"Damn it, stupid chain, break already," he said, still pounding. Crack. Pop. Snap. The link was severed. It felt like complaining almost made it go faster, but that didn't matter, he was in a hurry.

"Thank you," Riley said. She could move freely. Just in time, too. There were footsteps.

"Rhad! What the hell happened to you?"

"That guy we found... He's dangerous... Run...!"

Blake hopped out of the carriage, sword still in hand. Everyone was fully on guard, not approaching, but not running, either. Now was the time to talk. Riley watched from the carriage doorway, tail wagging and in a crouched position.

"I've never fought like this before, but. Just to be sure. You guys are slavers, right? I'm not from around here. From my perspective, I'm fighting for my life. I'd like to at least know if you guys ruin lives or not before I maim you any more."

"Slavers?"

"Uh... People in the business of moving slaves around. Or do you respond better to 'Companion' than 'slave'?"

"Like those bandits, slappin' Dominion contracts on random people?" the tooth-knocked man asked, standing up.

"Yeah, that. Or just transporting. That counts as being a slaver too, as far as I'm concerned."

"Yeah, we're Transporters. It's legitimate business."

"Legitimate shmegitimate!"

Blake lashed out and cut the man across the center of the chest.

"Don't fuck with people's lives! That's like rule number one!"

"Gah...!"

It was clear now that Blake was a serious threat. If they didn't take him down now, all five of them could be dead. They jumped at him, weapons drawn. But one after the other, he kicked them away, stabbed them, or threw them over his shoulder.

The one he threw over his shoulder landed on the ground right beneath Riley. She jumped down on his stomach as he landed, putting as much force into it as she could.

"This is what you get, you monsters!" she said, screaming.

Between the two of them, it wasn't even a minute until they were all knocked out or dead. Blake stood where he was, panting. This was the first time he'd ever murdered anyone like this, at least outside of video games. But this wasn't a game. It was real. He was in a bonafide fantasy world, wolf girls and all, and he had to play by its own rules now, however brutal they might be. That was how he comforted himself.

Adrenaline was a hell of a drug.

Riley ran up and jumped into a hug on him.

"Thank you...! Thank you so much!"

"Woah, calm down there, I know I did a big thing, but I need the time to take it in, too," he said. "How are we going to get rid of all of this? You have any ideas?" He gestured at all the dead and knocked-out bodies.

"Burn it all," Riley said.

"Oh that's a good one. We should probably move them off the road first."

One at a time, he dropped them into the back of the carriage, slitting the throats of the ones that were merely unconscious to finish the deed. There was no turning back now. It was time to make a bonfire. A nice, big bonfire.