Chapter 2: Catnapping

Aisling was now an older sister and she herself was very happy with this. Her little sister was around 2 years old and looked five. She herself looked 6. After all three years had passed since she was reborn.

It was Aisling’s Third birthday, and she was rather happy by this. She still hadn’t gotten her speech to be any better, but at least her family could understand her.

They had baked a cake for her. And by cake it was simply a stack of flapjacks on top of one another. But it was the thought that counted. And it was at this age that she was to be taught how to read and write.

She already knew how to read from what old man spirit had taught her. But she had never had the chance to write letters before.

Her father had worked very hard to save up for a stack of paper and a charcoal pencil. Paper was very expensive as it had to be imported from a very faraway place, China.

But more to the point, she could finally put pen to paper and write something. As every kid knows, parents love it when you make art for them. Even if the art sucks the big one, they will love it.

Many kids could make money this way at family gatherings. Ask anyone and they will tell you about how bad they were at it and how much they made.

But getting back on track, she wanted to draw something nice for her parents after that. It just so happened that she was supposed to go with the rest of her family during the harvest festival.

This was a festival that took place for a whole week. Many traveling merchants would come and go to peddle their wares. This was a plus for Aisling. She was very much looking forward to this.

Not so much the interacting, as she had become somewhat of an introvert. No, she was looking forward to different pigments. Unlike in her earth during the Middle Ages, pigments were cheap.

Since there was a large amount of spirit magic wielders, people could get the plants that produced the right pigments to grow during any season. Well, other than winter. But then who would want to dye stuff if you hadn’t gotten the pigment beforehand.

Flags in this world often times had colors that would be uncommon on earth’s flags, like purple. that’s the only color the author can think of.

They had their cake and decided to eat it too. Wtf is that line supposed to mean. Well, whatever. Throughout the rest of the day Aisling wrote and drew. She decided to write a short little story about a cat and draw her adventures through the land.

This was awfully childish, but she didn’t care. She simply wanted to see the parents who were raising her in this life happy. In her past life her parents only stayed together because of him and his sister.

While these two parents seemed to actually love each other. Aisling had never felt the true love of a parent before and for the love that she felt everyday now, she was thankful.

Back to the story of this little cat, the story was nearly finished. All she needed was paint. She had a lot of practice with painting in her past life and she wanted to put that to the test.

Later that day they went to the festival.

…

It was rather late as the sky was about to darken. Aisling was walking with her mother’s hand in hers and she wanted to tell her mother where she wanted to go. She had found some coins on the side of the road earlier that year and she wanted to use these coins to purchase some color.

“Mama, can we go and get some pigment? I need it for a story I am Writing,” said Aisling.

Her mother looked at her and nodded. She, like any mother, wanted to grow her child’s interests. So, she was rather happy that her daughter was interested in art.

In all honesty, she was rather happy since if she got good at painting then her husband of the future wouldn’t have to worry about his wife. Aisling’s little sister was back at home.

She was currently being looked after by old man spirit. While the rest of the family save Kaelin didn’t know he existed, they always left their younglings and home under the care of the guardian spirit.

If you are wondering what Aisling’s little Sister’s name was, it’s Alise. Yes it is, after all, a new song that was sweeping the nation made by a old man in his forties wanting to marry a girl of 18.

This is not Beethoven, in case if you are wondering. This was made by a man named Quincy Frugal. He was a very famous artist in this world. People were just realizing he was just a down-bad Neet.

But other than that, Alise was named after his song. Yes, Aisling’s parents were fans of his music. But other than that, she was a normal girl. She often cried at night for unknown reasons.

Aisling had a small inkling of why though. Sometimes, a Farseer Beastkin would be born after a Spirit Beastkin was. These children often died young due to self-harm.

For they could see the future. But this meant that these kids could see every future. Every moment of their and their family’s day. Every waking and sleeping dream.

Alise sat in her room often and simply cried. For she could see the paths of anyone in a 40ft radius. This was utter torture for the child. Aisling always slept in the same room as her simply because they lacked the room in the house, but this only made her crying more intense.

Finally, one night Aisling decided weave a sleep spell that would cut off this power of her sister. This worked by placing a shield of the opposite polarity magic that her body emitted.

This stopped her crying till the spell ran out of energy.

…

Aisling looked at all the different powders and sighed. These weren’t the right colors. There was no deep blue, only light aqua. There was no light red only crimson red. It wouldn’t look right if she used these colors.

She looked over to the other stall and sighed in happiness. They had all the colors she wanted. The color of her paint was no longer an issue. The man at the front of the stall looked nice and as she and her mother walked over Aisling heard a scream.

The two of them looked over to where the sound came from and they both gasped. There was a woman and a man in the middle of the crowd. Said man and woman was Kaelin and the neighbor, Sarah.

Kaelin was on the ground clutching at his crotch as he let out small whimpers. It seems like he had told her about his feelings for her once again and been rejected.

Aisling looked over to the stall owner and pointed to the pigments she wanted. Her mother used the money Aisling had found and paid for it. They then both went over to Kaelin.

When they got to him Sarah seemed to be contemplating something. While Aisling didn’t much care for Sarah her brother loved this girl, so she put up with the abuse.

Sarah then nodded her head and went back over to Kaelin. She whispered something in the boy’s ear, and he perked up. Aisling didn’t know what she told him, but it seemed to have lifted his spirits.

Her father then came over to the Aisling and her mother. He picked her up and gave mother a kiss on the cheek. As he looked down on his first-born son he sighed.

“Boy, the same thing happened to me when I was your age. All I did to make up with the girl was do as she said,” he told his first-born.

Aisling looked on in shock and awe at her father and mother. She had heard how they had met before but nothing like this. It appeared that this reaction made mother laugh a little.

Father set her down and helped Kaelin up. This got him to blush from the embarrassment. People were now starting to disperse. Then, all of a sudden, multiple spilt off from the crowd and walked over to the stall that Aisling and her mother had been to.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The family really didn’t care at all about this.

That was until one of them ran forth and grabbed Aisling. The man rushed through the family, departing the square with Aisling in his arms. Father gave chase and a hunt for her ensued.

The men stopped save the one carrying Aisling and tried to stop father. He halted his chase and kicked one in the groin. The other pulled a knife on the man and tried to stab him.

Father simply pulled a sheathed sickle from his back and parried the blow, cutting the man’s wrist in the process. The man who had been kicked stood up and pulled the other with him.

They pulled back and ran after their compatriot. The man carrying Aisling pulled a cloth from his pocket and pushed it to her face. She involuntarily inhaled the fumes from the cloth and passed out.

…

After an unknown amount of time, she awoke to find herself in a cage. Said cage was in a dingy room in an unknown place. She looked around to find her cage wasn’t the only one. There were a multitude of cages and people inside them.

She now looked inside her own cage and stood up. Inside the cage were a basket of staler than normal bread, a bucket of water, an empty bucket, and a sleeping girl that looked older than her by about 5 years.

Next, outside of the cage was a table with a sickle on it. The blade looked dull, and the edge seemed to have dried blood on it. This was probably used for torture in all honesty.

Aisling looked at the cage and back at her arms. She then got an idea.

‘What if I used body strengthening magic on myself to break these bars?’ she thought to herself.

She did so. In case one was wondering what body strengthening magic was, the answer is quite simple. It uses the expansive nature of mana when it degrades from chi to mana.

This basically floods the body of the castor with mana, fueling a short-lived burst of strength that didn’t degrade the body.

Aisling cast the spell and reached out her arms to the lock. She grabbed it in both hands and clenched her fists. The lock was crushed in her grasp. Now that she was thinking about it, she didn’t need to do that.

Her body was already strong enough to break the lock.

Now that she was thinking back on it, those men seemed to not know about any of the local customs, and they didn’t look like locals. They also didn’t talk like locals. From what she heard and picked up right before the kidnapping, they didn’t even know her own name.

It seemed like this was a spur of the moment decision. These men had no idea the kind of power or mental capacity Aisling had.

She opened the door and looked at the front of the room. There seemed to be no one guarding the door. That was until it opened to reveal a well-built man. He stood 5ft 9in. which is awfully tall for this world.

In his hand he had a bottle of booze and in his other he held a collar. The man seemed shocked to say the least. He probably wasn’t expecting to see aisling out and about.

He darted forward well, as fast as his inebriated legs could carry him. He stumbled and tripped. He landed on his face, causing the girl in the cage that Aisling was put into to wake up.

“What is happening?! Has someone come to rescue me?” she asked herself out loud.

She wasn’t correct but Aisling was more worried about the man that was getting up than anything. She grabbed the sickle on the table and ran at him.

He looked up only to see a blade coming towards his face. It penetrated his skull and came out the back of his small head. A scream came from the young girl in the cage and that elicited a question from the door.

“What’s all the racket… oh,” a shorter man with similar features came from the door and he seemed shocked.

“What did you do to my brother you little shit!? I’ll skull fuck you!” he shouted as he charged forth.

She used her body strengthening magic to fuel herself past her limits and dodged his fist. She then lacerated the back of his knee. He toppled to the ground and wailed in pain.

The girl in the cage still cried. She huddled herself in the corner and cover her own face. That was for the best as Aisling then cut open the man’s throat with a sickening slice.

The other man came in. upon seeing the carnage that was the room he elected to pull out his slingshot from his back pocket and shot a ball at Aisling. He missed on account of her being small and she leapt at him.

He caught her and as she writhed in his grip like an angry cat, he realized something. This girl wasn’t worth it. If she could use body strengthening magic, then the cheap collars that they had bought weren’t going to work.

While he was thinking about his options, Aisling got out of his grip and cut open his ankles. He yelled in pain and Aisling silenced him with a slice of the neck.

…

It had been five days since the catnapping. Aisling had walked out of the room, only to find herself in a cave system. She was still in that cave system. It was simply too large to large to find oneself around.

It also didn’t help that the girl from the cage was constantly asking questions. The only reason Aisling hadn’t gone insane from all of it was the fact that there was plenty of food and drink in the bunkroom.

They couldn’t find a map and Aisling was getting tired of all the girls bugging. The girl hadn’t even told Aisling her own name yet. Then again, she hadn’t said her name either.

So, it was kind of even. But even then, she hadn’t spoken at all. She had only used some paper to write on to get her messages across.

Now, they were walking back to the base that the catnappers had set up. The girl seemed to know something about them, but she didn’t tell Aisling anything even when she asked.

It was in fact, starting to get infuriating. The girl didn’t even seem to want to get out of the cave. Maybe she thought that there was a search party for them and if they stayed there then they would be safe?

That wasn’t that bad of an idea. In fact, it seemed rather good. If they kept moving about then they would simply burn too many calories. They would run out of food quicker if they kept searching.

Yes, that was a marvelous plan. If the both of them simply stayed there…

When they got to the base, it was swarming with things… Aisling didn’t know what the hell these things were but better safe then sorry to stay hidden while she checked them out.

She hid behind a rock at the end of the tunnel that the both of them were looking down. The girl seemed strangely quiet and as she looked to see what was wrong, Aisling’s body stiffened.

The girl was staring at the things with sparkly eyes. In fact, she would have to say, if the girl was ten years older then she would say the look was attractive. But more on her looks later, now was time to finally ask what was going on.

“Do you know what those things are?” Aisling asked in the clearest voice possible. She had practiced really hard to get his voice.

“Yes, they are what’s called a ‘Broken one’. They are a sign of immense statice among the nobility of Francia. They have handlers train them to act as workers and hunting partners,” she explained.

“How do you know this?” Aisling asked yet again.

“I have studied Francia and her culture for some time now. Oh, and I’m a noble by the way. My father rules over Westport,” she explained.

By the time she was done explaining herself and what those things where they had left. The Broken ones had left a mess in their wake. They had toppled over tables, chairs and bookcases.

If they were here, then their handlers would be nearby. If Aisling and the girl grabbed their belongings and some food, then they might be able to escape. Though, it was a gamble, the Broken ones could come back any time.

They both made their way to the door of the bunkroom. There, they spotted their things thrown all around the place. Aisling had grabbed a blade from one of the catnappers and hidden it in her bed.

By the way, the beds smelled like body fluids, and not the clear kind. She had to stack old clothes that smelled better than the bed to mask the smell. When she was done grabbing the short sword under the bed, she looked over to see the noble girl looking at her with unsure eyes.

She tilted her head in confusion and the girl started to speak.

“I wanted to tell you, my name. if we both get captured by the Broken ones then we’re probably going to be sold into slavery. So, my name is Sylvia, it’s Sylvia. What’s yours?” she asked.

Aisling was hesitant for some reason. This girl was nobility yet didn’t tell Aisling her last name. ever since surnames became law, most nobles grew incredibly proud of their middle names, which was the name of the first person of their lineage.

But then she remembered. The Baron of Westport, the place where Aisling lived and Sylvia’s father worked and governed, had recently become baron. Why wouldn’t she want to brag about how cool his name was.

She would probably love to say her accomplished father’s name. After all, she was a rather young girl who seemed to be happy that she was a noble. If she wasn’t, then she wouldn’t have used that status as a way to gain information about Francia.

All of this was a long-winded way to ask; why wasn’t she proud of her new status? Only until recently did she even tell Aisling her name and the fact that she was a noble.

That was rather answer didn’t come easily to her. Then again, it would grow the trust that Sylvia and she would have to grow during their trek into this cave.

“Aisling, my name is Aisling,” she finally told her after much deliberation.

…

Venator was rather intrigued. He had never seen such gumption in such a young girl before. She was only 3 years old, as his senses told him. Yet she could mask her presence from his pets.

How very intriguing. This needed further investigation. Or rather, hunting and stalking. If the girl could sense him then she would be easier to keep to himself and train.

After all, he needed a successor. A person who would guard the royals and do as they say. That being said, these royals that he worked for were probably the most bigoted, bloated, and downright stupid people he had the pleasure of working for.

And I do mean pleasure. It was rather funny to see the king get worked up over the eye color of his newborn child, born from his mistress. Of course, Venator had slept with the girl in an effort to get this reaction and have the excuse of finding a new girl to pleasure the lord.

But he was getting off track. He needed to get his pets to follow the girl. If she was lost the king would have his head. And then he would have to escape and find a new employer.

That wouldn’t be good, he was starting to run out of people to do so, employ him, I mean. At the end of his mind monolog, he no longer had any sent of the beastkin girl.

FUCK…

Oh well, he could still follow the other one. But that wasn’t the safest option, they could separate, and he would have to only give the Barron’s daughter to the king of Francia.

That would be troublesome to say the least. Well then, he better get to tracking. He looked to the cave entrance and started to casually walk down the well-beaten path.