The next morning Adrest felt a familiar warmth on his side. He slowly opened his eyes to a sight he was always happy to wake up to. Alissa was firmly hugging his arm, with a leg haphazardly thrown over his own. Her sleeping face was touching his shoulder, her mouth open and seemed to be laughing about something in a dream.

Adrest just lay in his bed until the sun was fully up, enjoying Alissa’s unguarded range of expressions. Eventually, he decided to wiggle himself free and immediately after getting up Alissa rolled over to the warm space he had just been laying in, going back to sleep.

On the other side of the room, he saw the little girl still deep asleep in Alissa’s bed and quietly opened the heavy wooden door going into the hall. He headed downstairs and greeted Rose before stepping out for a bit, quickly making his way to a merchant he remembered seeing through the last week.

He soon found the woman selling leather sandals that he had passed countless times the last few days. He looked through the stock before settling on a small pair of sandals that looked to be about the right size.

Happy with the purchase, Adrest made his way back to his room with a large platter of food and drink in hand, he fiddled with the door making it to the table and setting the tray down. As usual, the smell of breakfast alone was enough to get the sleeping dragon’s attention, slowly making her way out of bed.

As Alissa woke up on her own, Adrest went over to Isabelle, softly putting his hand on her shoulder. He patted her while softly speaking, “Isabelle, it’s time to wake up. Breakfast is waiting.”

With gentle coaxing Isabelle slowly opened her eyes and jumped upon seeing someone so close to her. But she seemed to soon remember where she was, greeting Adrest with a toothy smile and a small yawn saying, “Good morning Big brother Ady, Big sister Ali!”

The two smiled at the scene and returned the greeting. Adrest coaxed her over to the table of food, then poured her a cup of water, and himself and Alissa coffee. The trio ate their breakfast in peace. Finishing the meal, Adrest pulled out something wrapped in cloth he had stuffed in a vest pocket.

“I went out and bought these for you. I had to guess, so they might not fit quite right, but we’ll get you a proper pair later today.”

She hesitantly took the package and unwrapped it. When she saw the simple leather sandals, Isabelle's eyes turned glassy and Adrest was a little unsure of what to do.

Thankfully, Alissa moved over and put an arm around her girl while saying, "Let's see if this idiot got the right size.” With a teasing smile on her face and a wink, which made the child smile, Alissa took the shoes and gently helped her slip them on.

Isabelle got up and walked around the room with a huge smile on her face, before running up to Adrest and giving him a tight hug, burying her face in his stomach.

“Thank you, Big bro Ady!”

He patted her head in between her rabbit ears that were twitching as he rubbed her head reassuringly. And looked at Alissa for help but she was just sitting at the table, propping her head up with her hand and enjoying the scene in front of her.

Soon Isabelle let go of him and sat back down smiling. Adrest told her what their plans were for the day. She became nervous when Adrest said that they would have a very busy day, with a lot of stops to make, as they had to head out before curfew that evening.

The two adults packed the room, leaving everything by the door, and brought the dishes down to Rose who was sitting behind the bar as the breakfast rush was finally over with. She gave a warm smile when Isabelle in her oversized red shirt greeted her happily. However, she was disappointed to hear that this would be their last day here, it had been a lot had been very fun getting to know them every night.

Adrest noticed that Rose’s smile became noticeably brighter when they promised to stay and visit again soon. Like that, they walked out the door to begin running about the entire city.

First, they stopped by the Leaves store to buy an entire wardrobe for Isabelle. A few different types of shoes, a few casual tops, along with several pairs of pants, shorts, and a few styles of dresses for formal occasions.

Isabelle was true to her words last night, almost everything she picked were different shades of green, from most of her tops, to both dresses they'd helped pick out.

Isabelle was over the moon with her many bags of clothes that Adrest was carrying, but they didn’t stop there.

Then it was on to the blacksmiths shop buying some light leather armor that was still big for her now, but they agreed she would fill it out after a few weeks’ worth of decent meals.

Finally, it was on to a bookshop to buy whatever looked the least bit interesting to the tiny rabbit, leading to a small pile that had to be carefully arranged into an additional 2 bags for Adrest to carry.

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Before they knew it, it was late in the day. They headed back to Home and Hearth to collect the rest of their things before heading out. They stayed long enough to eat one last meal with Rose chatting with them, settled their bill, and headed back out the door.

They exited through the gate leading to the mountain path and walked for a while under the dimming sun and the rising purple moon. As they walked, Isabelle kept looking down over her new clothes, between the other two. She was holding one of their hands in each of hers.

They passed the time chatting about nothing, mostly Adrest and Alissa taking turns telling stories they remembered from childhood. Eventually though, the three moons were fully in the sky, and there was no one on this section of road as far as they could see in either direction.

Alissa brought the group to a stop, and she crouched down and looked at Isabelle at her level saying, “Now Isabelle, we’re going to go to a secret place for just the three of us. It’s reeeally far away so to get there quick, Adrest and I are going to fly. It might be a little scary at first, but you’re as safe as can be with me carrying you.”

Eyes opening wide at the sudden announcement, all Isabelle could do was silently nod and then stare at the pairs of wings that her two new guardians sprouted. Both uniquely beautiful, one regal and imposing, the other dark and mysterious.

The pair got her ready for the trip home by throwing a thick jacket over the girl, along with a hat with slits for her ears, finally placing her on Alissa’s back. They double checked that Isabelle was okay with this and felt safe. Getting approval, they took off into the sky and Isabelle kept her arms wrapped around Alissa as tightly as possible, squeezing her eyes closed.

They took off towards the endless forest and home. Isabelle expected bitter cold in the night air, but with the extra layers of clothes, and a heat coming from Alissa’s back, she felt comfortable and was able to peek at their surroundings quickly flying by.

Over the sound of the wind Isabelle heard Alissa, “Are you okay Isabelle, is the wind too much?”

Looking at Alissa over her shoulder, Isabelle shook her head before speaking in her ear, “No, it’s really comfortable Big sis Ali. The forest is so pretty up here!”

Chuckling, Alissa looked around their surroundings, dyed in multi-colored glows from the three moons hanging in the sky and found herself agreeing with the child, it felt like home.

Hours passed, and after Isabelle had fallen asleep, they made it back to the near pitch-dark camp. The leaves had started retaking the fire pits again, and the paths he had cleared from place to place had been lost already.

Adrest got to work in the cool dead of night, opening the cabin and getting the woodstove burning to chase the dampness from the cabin. Quickly, it was roaring as they had two excellent fire mages available and put the dead tired rabbit girl in Allisa’s bed to sleep for the night.

Adrest had been about to get another bed but realized that there was genuinely no room. He was thinking about what to do when Alissa, done with tucking in Isabelle, came over and saw he was glancing around the cabin, she figured out his problem quickly.

“Umm…. If you want i can sleep with you for tonight, and we can do something about it tomorrow. It’s been a long day for us too, right?” Alissa said shyly in the warmly lit small room not looking directly at Adrest.

Thinking back on everything they had done today, he realized that he was actually pretty tired, and her suggestion sounded nice to his worn-out body. He smiled thanking her before they climbed into the slightly cramped bed. Saying goodnight in the not uncomfortably full bed, the pair fell asleep, happy to be home.

In the evening at the inn Nobles Rest, a group of guards were off shift and drinking while gambling at the bar, celebrating the fact that the auction run was officially complete. Beer after beer ran through the crowd and they were exchanging stories quietly about some of the rarer “goods” their various groups brought in.

“It’s true what they say, the beast tribes really are barbarians, they even tattoo their children. A little rabbit girl our group guarded had a massive blue flower tattoo on her stomach. I can’t believe they put their children through something like that.”

“That’s messed up, but it makes sense. Some of the big warriors we bring in are covered head to toe in tattoos, guess sometimes they start early.”

As the two discussed the oddest things they’d seen this season, there was a cloaked blonde man drinking in a private corner of the room, using his enhanced hearing to listen in on the latest gossip of the worker drones.

When he heard the one guard mention a tattooed small rabbit-kin, the man was interested, knowing that usually only the war tribes would tattoo themselves as the other man described, not the meek rabbitkin.

He rose to his feet, making his way to the table where the two straightened up upon seeing the man’s face and one shot to his feet.

“Mr. Zurk, what can I help you with sir?”

The man smiled to get the man to relax, “I overheard you saying a young rabbit beastkin had a flower tattoo, could you describe it?”

The man still stiff, replied “Yes sir! It was a blue flower with long, thin petals spreading in all directions.”

Mr. Zurk smiled at the answer and thanked the men, leaving a gold coin on the table as he went to his room with detailed files on all slaves they had brought with them.

After opening the chest and leafing through the files for a few moments, he found the one. On it was a description of a 13 year old rabbit kin they had bought from some shady characters on the way here. There were no outstanding features about her, and fetched an average price for her kind. He did not believe that the inspector’s would have missed the obvious marking, so she must’ve been blessed on the trip.

“Haha, interesting! We’ll need to get our inventory back.”

He headed a few rooms down to his assistant, knocked once and entered. There was a man sitting at a chair doing paper work who stood up as he saw who entered.

“Hello sir, how may I help you?”

“Alexander, I need you to take the slave contract for the beastkin Isabelle to the Dark Monastery pay for them to track her location. After that, go to the mercenary guild and hire a group to bring her back. C rank should be fine.

“Yes sir!” Alexander left the room with the sheet to follow his orders. Mr. Zurk was left alone to smile to himself at the massive profits this would bring. This might even be what cements their family alone as the head of the Randier group.