Vivian inspected the cart. "We could use something like this."

"Whatever you want, just get me out of here." Isa said as she puffed up her feathers impatiently. "This is humiliating."

Vivian stifled a laugh as she wedged her staff into the gate and forced it open. Reaching inside, she opened the nets holding Isa in place.

"You're not going to say anything to him?" Isa asked as she perched on Vivian's shoulder. The two of them looked over at Jaden as he was deep in thought.

"Jaden is the reincarnation of a god." Vivian shook her head, "What could I say to one such as that?"

"You've already said plenty." Isa replied with a shrug. "God or not, you're his mother in this life."

"Life to a god has little value. But to you Vivian, life is more precious than the stars." Isa continued.

"I have my morals, he has his logic. He created my race, I gave him a second life through an extreme set of circumstances." Vivian replied. "Mother and son we may be, and I wanted to be for as long as possible; but there is no doubt about his origins."

"His divinity is long gone. He's just a child." Isa argued, then she pointed out, "His frown is the same as yours."

"A child with a vast knowledge that I can't come close to comprehending. Just looking into his eyes I feel the infinite depths of the void are trying to swallow me whole. He's capable of making this decision, and living with it."

Meanwhile, Jaden was turning the dagger around in his hands.

You seem conflicted. Can I help?

"I'm trying to decide what to do with that woman. She shouldn't be allowed to live she'll just cause more misery, and yet Mother has been teaching me that life isn't to be taken lightly." Jaden said with a sigh.

Logically, whether she lives or dies will not change much.  Plucking a single weed from a field just means a weed will replace it. Do you value your identity as Vivian's son?

"Yes." Jaden replied without hestitation.

Then live in a manner she would be proud of.

"Thanks, Sasha." Jaden replied as his frown vanished. "You there, furless feline with the broken nose."

The woman in question snarled and glared in response.

Jaden chucked her dagger into the forest and retrieved his staff from the ground.  "Only yourself to blame for your current situation, really.  Get out of here before you get hurt any further."

They think I'll just walk away after all that? She gathered her body and prepared to pounce.

Jaden turned to face her as she leapt towards him.  His face was devoid of joy, fear, anger, hate; there was a sadness on his features, but that too faded into nothing.  He raised his staff.  A quick flurry of blows.  Thuds of wood hitting flesh followed by a momentary silence.  Bones broken, she vented her pain to the forest and fell to the ground in a heap.

Jaden looked down upon her, pity was the only thing in his eyes.  Will Evan tread the same path as you?

"Be careful now, you don't want to make your injuries worse." Jaden cautioned as he turned his back on her.

At the sides of the trail, the two males had been watching.  Waiting for their chance to strike.  Those thoughts were abandoned when they saw their leader defeated and defenseless.  They strolled onto the path, the looks on their faces suggested they had plans for their defeated leader.  They wordlessly picked her up and started carrying her away.

"Hold." Jaden interrupted.

"She needs healing.  I have no idea what your intentions are, nor do I care.  But I can tell you don't have her best interests in mind.  She's in a fragile state, and any one of her broken bones could prove deadly.  In any case, get out of here."

"You know they're..." Isa's voice faltered seeing Jaden's expression.

"I don't care.  What they do now is their business.  If they kill her, that's not on my hands."

Vivian looked conflicted, but ultimately said nothing.

"Now then," Jaden turned to the prone Liralau woman on the ground, "Tell me something."

"Y-yes?" she meekly responded.

"What would have happened to us had we lost to you?" Jaden's eyes pierced into her soul.

"We'd have sold you into slavery." the woman responded.  Jaden remained emotionless, Vivian remained calm, Isa took a sharp breath as she'd been captured.

"And what would you have gotten for that?" Jaden asked.

"Money?" the woman wasn't sure why he was asking such a basic question.

"What's money?" Jaden asked, "I've never heard of this before."

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

They don't use money?  The woman was despondant as she reached into her pouch and pulled some shiny objects.  "This is money, and it makes the world go around."

"No... I'm pretty sure the world turns regardless of that." Jaden quipped, "What does it actually do?"

"...you trade this for food, clothes... whatever you want or need."

"And that includes people?" Jaden didn't like this 'money' thing and the more he heard of it, the greater his disgust grew.  It was beautifully crafted.  And shiny, but that was as far as it's good qualities went.

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

"I can't go back to not knowing, can I?" Jaden asked.  Vivian shook her head.

"There's a lot of dark forces in this world, we don't need to be one of them." Vivian stated.

"I'm starting to understand why you hold life so preciously.  But, is it possible to remove those dark elements?"  Jaden asked.

Not too far behind, the Liralau woman was tailing them and eavesdropping.

"Do you think you can?  Money is a root of one such dark force, and breeds more.  People everywhere succumb and add to the mess.  Can you rip money out of all its foundations, everywhere at once?  Can you cure envy and greed in every person simultaneously?  You are destined for greatness, but neither of us knows what that entails.  But I think this falls short."

Are those two for real? The Liralau woman thought to herself.

Vivian sighed and Jaden fell into thought.  Isa was pulling the cart as she listened to them in silence, her own thoughts on the subject were a mystery.

"What do you hope to gain by following us?" Jaden asked suddenly, "Or was our conversation just that interesting?  Yes, we know you're there.  You're also attracting some hungry predators."

"Just satisfying my own curiousity." the woman called back, she abandoned her attempt at stealth and entered the path as she ran to close the distance.

"And?" Vivian looked her over.

"Is he really the child from the prophecy?" she asked straight.

"I am." Jaden answered with a slight cringe.  They walked in silence, Vivian and Jaden periodically walked to the sides of the trail, picked some berries and put them on the cart, munching the odd one here and there.

"What are you doing?" the woman asked.

"We haven't had breakfast yet, we're hungry and so we're gathering something to eat as we go."

"The forest provides everything you need?" the woman pressed.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Jaden looked at the pile of berries in the cart.

"It... just explains how you have no concept of money," the woman replied, "I'm envious."

Vivian shrugged, "I wonder if our ancestors used money, and it was just forgotten when we were hunted."

"You're not what I expected either." the woman admitted, "I expected you to be bloodthirsty and cruel."

"Like you?" Vivian asked.

"...I suppose I deserve that." the woman sighed.

Vivian looked her over in silence.

Liralau: Nameless This woman's parents died from sickness when she was young.  When presented the choice of joining a slaver group or dying of starvation shortly after, she opted to live.  Since then, she's adapted to living with the atrocities she's committed; going as far as forcing herself to believe slavery was a positive option for the majority of their victims just so she can sleep at night.

When she lost in combat and had her life spared and then later witnessed the fall of her leader, she saw a glimmer of hope that she might be able to abandon this dark life she had lived.

"Jaden, what do you think?" Vivian asked.

"About?" he asked.

"This woman." Vivian made a hand gesture, and Jaden fell silent.

"How long had you been a slaver?" Jaden asked after several minutes.

"Near ten years." the woman replied with a frown, "Every day was awful."

"Why didn't you find something else to do for money?" Jaden inquired.

"I was honor bound by an oath." the woman replied.

"You're not now?" he asked in response.

"No, it's been broken.  There were two clauses that could nullify the oath.  First was if the leader perished, second was if I was abandoned.  In the latter event, if I chased after her..." the woman shuddered and opted not to finish.

"I suppose those two men were in a similar oath?" Jaden asked.

"No... but I imagine they'll be forcing her into such an oath now.  Such a cruel fate." the woman shivered, "Normally, she'll likely opt for death before she accepts their terms.  But in her current state, who knows."

"How are your oaths enforced?" Jaden asked.

"The system." she replied as if he just asked the dumbest question possible.

"And breaking the oath?" Jaden watched the woman shudder.

"There are worse things than death.  Much worse."  she turned away and fell silent.

Sasha, what do you know about the Liralau?  Vivian inquired.

Race: Liralau The Liralau are a people resembling a proud feline heritage. Through ages of surviving the harsh desert wastelands they've adapted to walking upright. Standing five feet tall(152 cm) on average, this proud race sports a mostly flat face with a rounded jaw. The irises in their eyes run vertical, expanding slightly to the sides into a slim four pointed star. Their fluffy ears sit high atop their heads, where they catch even the slightest sounds. Their skin from head to toe is covered in a short fur of various colors and patterns. Their social status is heavily determined by the complexity of the pattern and the brilliance of their coloring. Their bodies are slim, their arms and legs thin and short, giving them the ability to run comfortably on all fours should the need arise. They have a short tail of equal thickness from base to tip with a mind of its own.

"A desert wasteland huh..." Jaden said alloud, "That must have been hard to survive in."

"You have no idea." the Liralau's eyes turned wet at the memory and tears trailed down her cheeks.

"What I don't understand... Outside our clan why is almost no one named?" Jaden asked.

"What?" the woman blinked, "How many named are there in your clan?"

"Us included, there are eight." Jaden answered.

"Jaden... let's not advertise just how few of us there are to the world." Vivian warned, "We are 'kill on sight' to more than one race."

"Right.. sorry Mother." Jaden reflected.

"Honestly, you are a walking enigma.  So many times you make me feel like the child, and then cases like this, you behave as I would expect making childish mistakes." Vivian said as she ruffled his hair.

While Jaden and Vivian were having their moment, the woman collapsed and muttered incoherently.  "E-eight... mercy... I beg..."

Isa looked at the incoherent woman.  Then she turned to see Jaden and Vivian looking confused.  She sighed.  "Names can only be granted by special individuals, and... there's a lot more to a name than you both realise."

"So what your saying is I'm a special existance?" Vivian asked.

"Duh." Isa replied.

"I just gave them names because it was inconvenient for me.  I didn't know it only worked because I fit a qualification."

Isa locked her gaze on Vivian, "I-inconvenient?  Do you have ANY idea what you've done?  I thought you knew."

Isa started babbling to herself incoherently before her mind overloaded and she collapsed on the ground not behaving much differently than the Liralau.

Jaden and Vivian looked at each other and shrugged.  "What's the big deal?"

"No idea," Vivian responded, "I'm hungry, shall we just eat here while we wait for them to calm down?"

"Let's." Jaden replied with a nod.

"No wonder Daryl's oracle has gone nuts.  It can't keep up with the widesweeping changes." Isa giggled to herself in a fit of insanity.

"Will they be okay?" Jaden asked around a mouthful of berries.

Vivian only nodded in response.