Amusement and Escape

Freya

I listened as the boy slowly woke from sleep, the very fitful thing; the entire time he'd slept, he'd moaned and shuddered in pain. I slowly reached out to him, trying to soothe the maelstrom that was his dreaming mind, without attracting his attention, and eventually, the fit passed, and he fell into a dreamless slumber.

A degree of telepathy had its advantages.

I watched him, and he, I. He was obviously not a ghost with blue eyes, despite a stupid thought I had had in the middle of the night, But then again, he not doubt thought the same. However, even in daylight, I wasn't sure that he wasn't. He face was beyond pale, ghostly in his appearance. I could see the blood pulsing through his veins, so pale was he. Pale blonde hair, roughly shoulder length, fell around his face, partially shielding him from my stare.

And he was thin, very thin. The fact that he had to be pushing seven feet only exaggerated that fact.

I became content to watch, not really seeing, and dozed.

No, something was wrong. Convulsions, his eyes rolled back into his head.

With no thought, I breached his mind once again, and was almost consumed by black madness. With practiced ease, I built every mental barrier I knew to protect myself from the roiling water, trying to break this fit. I searched, and searched for any conscious thought. Goddamn, where the hell was he?

The black waters beckoned, and I dove into their embrace. In that blackness, I found some remnant of thought, a sliver of white-silver in a sea of black. I called, dragging that sliver of sanity from the sea of madness, to the surface, only to no avail. In horror, I saw the shell of sanity beginning to crack. In a last ditch attempt, I entered the last hold of sanity. Inside, voices, so many voices….memories, brutal memories, broken person, broken mind…beating against sanity's shield. They threatened to shatter my barriers, to intertwine, to become mine.

Keeping them out was taking all that I had, no offense. Gathering the last of my strength, I attacked, silencing the voices, and pushing out the encroaching memories. Silence, blessed silence.

Within that last stronghold, I realized I could feel every breath he took, feel the pain in his arms, and lower…And for the first time, I fully understood what was done to him. And would no doubt continue.

I carefully exited that sanctuary; thankfully, the madness had quieted and receded. For now. I entered my own body, grateful for it; yet it somehow felt odd, like it wasn't mine. I honestly don't know why- he was nothing to me… Tired, damn. So tired.

They came back not long after the sun poked through a small window that I hadn't noticed earlier, in the pitch-black of the night. It was the some two from the night before, the ones who had brought in the boy and another.

The first two wore the garbs of a priest, the other remained hidden out in the hall. But I could smell his lust, and growled. The boy looked up at the men, a dazed look in his eyes, and resignation to the fate that awaited him.

Rage filled me- why submit to that, of all things? Submit to them, these rats of men? And those same men, force that onto someone else?

As they carefully, scooted around me over to him, they kept their eyes on me. That was, until they had to turn around, to unbind the boy. And as the larger one did, he crouched, leg extended slightly behind him.

And for whatever it was worth, I took it.

Fast, so fast, I moved, teeth slicing through skin, muscle, blood, bone…Before he could scream, I arched back, dragging him, and with the ease of lifting a rag doll, threw him against the wall, away from the boy.

Screams filled the room as the two other men fled for their lives. But I didn't give a rat's ass about them.

I backed away, growling. The man whimpered, covering his face with his hands as if that would do him any good. Between his fingers, panic-filled eyes watched. The bitter scent of his panic was exciting, so very enticing…

No. Being overcome by the hunt was what had got me into this. This time, I would not be drawn in so easily.

But rage was a completely different thing.

Before he could act, most of the fingers of his on his left hand were gone, and the majority of several of fingers of the other hands were gone. His mouth opened in a silent scream as blood, his blood, coated his face.

I drew close, backing him into the corner, so close I could feel his breath and warm blood covered my muzzle. I touched him with my nose-what a terrifying thing, looking up the length of two-foot long muzzle, lips pulled back to reveal four-inch long fangs coated in your blood, and into blazing eyes? I could only imagine.

Got it sure as hell got the desired effect. His bowels released, much too my cruel amusement.

The whipping that followed was sure as hell worth it.

Agito

I was awake, not long after the first rays of sun slipped into the room. I looked over to my 'roommate', for the first time actually getting a proper look at it. The animal was a huge wolf, easily four hundred pounds. Its paws were easily three or four times the size of my hand, eyes the size of my fist, and had to be last least fourteen feet from nose to the tip of its tail.

And its fur was jet-black, and it almost fed on the sun-light, the long guard hairs of its ruff almost silvery in the light. And despite any fear I had, it was a beautiful creature.

As I watched, one of its ears twitched in dream.

Suddenly, two brilliant blues orbs were staring at me, and I started-any traces of orange that had inhabited them were totally gone. But this blue was just as enchanting, navy at its center, and fading to almost silver at the very edge.

Its great body shuddered as it huffed, throwing up dust from its breath. It stood and stretched lazily, bones cracking. Then it shook, and I took note of the lattice-work of scars running across its body, the fur not yet adequate to cover the whitish-pink of healing skin.

I tried to shift, only to be almost reduced to tears as the pain lanced through me, and memory…Or were they memory, or just dreams?….Crippling, in my legs, in my stomach, in my chest, head…Nausea followed…No, not with the muzzle….

Finally the nausea passed, as did the pain; I leaned back, sweat dripping into my eyes.

The wolf had carefully laid back down, muzzle resting on its paws. And still it stared. There was something…different about this animal. That look, far too…knowing…

And then came the 'priests'.

The larger of the two enter first, followed by his mouse-ish companion. A third man stood in the corridor, looking in; I shuddered- he frequented this place, and was especially brutal.

I didn't fight them; it would do no good, anyway. I had, at first…but that was long ago.

As the first of the restraints fell away, I looked over their shoulders at the wolf. For whatever reason, maybe….No. That was stupid. I looked down.

Suddenly, the larger of the two men was jerked back. Then, like he weighed nothing, was thrown against the opposite wall. Blood dripped from the wolf's fangs, and the back of the priest's right thigh was completely gone, shredded.

The other one squeaked, and then bolted, screaming out of the room.

But the wolf didn't even look. It had drawn closer to its prey, lips curled back, nose almost touching the priest's. All traces of blue were gone from its eyes- now they were dominated by orange.

In a futile attempt at protection, he'd covered his face with his hands. With a bite almost faster than I could comprehend, most of his fingers were gone, and the blood began to flow. I felt a dull feeling, akin to a brutal sense of pleasure. That one regularly beat me- now it was his turn to feel pain.

But instead of killing him, it stood there, their faces pressed together, snarling, ears pressed flat against its head.

The next moment a whip cracked, and the animal backed away, only slightly. The man bolted, or crawled, dragging his ruined leg behind him, trailing blood. Torn ligaments and muscle trailed like red snakes. He huddled behind the man bearing the whip- the wolf turned to face him, still snarling, eyes filled with rage.

The whip cracked again, and more blood splattered the walls. Yet it did not back down, not once. Only when it collapsed into a pool of its own blood, did the whipping stop.

"Damn beast." the man snarled, before turning to stomp through the door. However, movement stopped him- the damn thing had craned its head forward, tongue reaching to lap at the priest's blood leading towards the door. Its lips once again peeled back, in a hellish grin, a last act of defiance. Disgusted, he slammed the door shut behind him.

I watched the entire time, unable to look away.

Why, though? Why did it attack that man? It's not like it was threatening him, all their attention had been on me…so why?

Its eyes opened, breaking the mask of blood that had built up over them. It glanced over- the orange had once again receded. Now, it only looked tired. I slowly stretched out, and I realized something. The customary pressure of the straps on my legs was gone. In their panic, they had forgotten to replace them.

I debated with myself for roughly two seconds before I stood up and walk over to the beaten animal, stepping through still-warm pools of blood in bare feet. I sat down in that corner, and slowly extended my leg so that my toes barely brushed against the tips of its fur.

With a moan, it turned to face me. Those eyes, so knowing…

What a pitiful bunch you are, both of you? the voice spoke, its speaker not bothering to present itself today.

Shut up. For once, it didn't argue.

After a while, the pool of blood I was sitting in turned cold, and I began to shiver.

A chain rattled, and a mass of warmth that was the wolf settled next to me. I looked down; those bleeding marks were because of me-always, always because of me…

I first I didn't recognize it for what it was, only that it was there, tugging at the edge of my being. Gradually, it drew closer, closer. I retreated deeper, entrenching myself deep. But the other mind did not attack, only observed from a distance. I tried to probe from within myself, only to find a wall of seamless being, no faults, no cracks to take advantage of. I would have to venture out it I wanted any useful information.

And that was something I would not yet do.

And for as strong as the other's mind was, there were no words.

Freya

I had underestimated just how strong this boy's mental defense was. All I had done was present myself, and he instantly thrown up everything he had. And while maintaining that impressive defense, had sent a part of himself out to investigate my presence. It was easy enough to ward off his petty offense, but the fact that he could even do it while maintaining such as defense was impressive in and of itself.

It would do me well not to underestimate this boy again.

However, there were cracks. Voices constantly poured from these, whispering in the mental silence. I knew better than to try and exploit these- I would end up utterly insane.

In the mental silence, I began to wonder how long the castle he'd built would stand before it sank into the black waters of his madness. I did not use words to communicate, not yet. He was skittish, at best, and extremely vary, and with a mental defense like that, his mind had no doubt been invaded before.

I hoped to, at least, gain some semblance of recognition, before I openly communicated with him. Trust was something that had to be gained, but not now. There would be a time for that later.

So, I contemplated, only allowing my presence to be felt, as I thought on how best to proceed.

Then, my body made known its hunger, and I had a perfect thing. At first, I built an image of a roasted turkey, sitting on a round table, beautifully garnished. I could taste its smoke-y flavor in my mouth, and added that too, and along with everything else, every detail I could recall, from the heat, and the steam rising from its crisp skin, and its smoke-y scent.

So I presented the mental image, and I felt his mind contort in a moment of confusion. At first, I was sure he wouldn't respond, but then, slowly, clumsily, he created his own image, presented like a flag upon his castle. But it lacked, colors and sensations dull, because he lacked any first-hand memory of it to draw upon. It was like trying to visualize a person's face with only a written description.

I felt pity- sorrowful thing.

And I replied in kind, and we communicated like that, in images and senses. The things we 'discussed' were of little importance- mostly different foods, which then shifted to animals, after both of our stomachs growled. I felt his guarded amusement at that, and that troubled me more.

Small talk was all this was, but it gave me grounds to stand on, something that I had in common with his boy, whose name I did not even know.

Then his mood, already guarded and wary, deepened. I felt the question forming, with the use of words. Carefully, an image formed of me, as he perceived me. The unasked question hung around it like a cloud.

I felt my mind slipping away back into a body that was too tired to remain. Before I could answer, I was sleep.

Agito

I felt the other mind start to slide away, slowly at first, and then, in an instant was gone. But before, it was completely gone, it sent forth a fragment of thought, coming to rest against my mental barriers. I watched, wary. I would have to leave the protection of my stronghold to retrieve it. And leave myself open to attack, as well. Yet I couldn't sense the other mind, at all?

Maybe it was safe…but still I waited.

However, as always, my curiosity got the better of me-after making sure this fragment had trace of sentient thought, I brought it inside. It was a paper swan, brilliantly white.

I carefully unfolded it, and written in elegant black script was a question- 'What is your name?' I pondered that question- should I answer; I decided that it knowing my name would do no harm, and I set it back into the mental silence, to await its retrieval.

All of a sudden, the silence of deafening, and I shuddered. I was always alone; why did it affect me now?

Suddenly, the wolf shifted, and I found an azure eye looking up at me. A warmth like sunlight lanced through the darkness, a ray of bizarre contentment. After a moment of utter shock, I, too, basked in that warmth, for a moment content.

Then the paper swan flew back. Written below my name, 'Agito', was written in the same black writing- 'Freya.'

Freya. What an interesting name.

"What matter of products do you have for sale?"

"Well, good sir, a number of fine subjects, ranging from very young to the early twenties and in all manner of appearances are available. "

"I also have heard that you have, in your possession…a certain creature, which has captured my attention."

"No, no, no, that thing if far too dangerous for one such as yourself…"

"Dangerous? You misunderstand my intentions- I want it for the very sake that it was dangerous."

"…Alright. But, if you'll permit it, your men must handle it, from beginning to end of the process."

"My men are trained in such things; very well." Hands shook, and money changed hands.

"That is for the beast. I'll no doubt purchase a number of other subjects."

Freya

In the dark. Again. At least, this time I was alone. Different men from the priests, men trained in the handling of dangerous animal, had taken me from the cell, and placed me in another one; two heavy chains ran from my collar to rings embedded in the floor. I pulled, but, just as I thought, did not give way at all.

I looked around; the room was round, glass on every wall. Behind the glass sat people, and above the glass, hung bells.

Suddenly, I light flared to my far left, illuminated a small girl, chained to the floor. Then, a voice stated- "Bidding will start was one hundred pounds." The bells immediately began to toll, as the buyers placed their bids.

An auction, a fucking auction?

Then, as quickly as she was there, the circle of light went dark as the bid completed. A second light flared to life, and other bidding cycle went around; dark, light, dark, light, moving quickly down the line, each poor soul being sold.

I closed my eyes- now was not the time to concentrate on them. But then the light flared on directly to my left, and of course, shivering, was the boy, blue eyes far away. The bidding commenced for him; and the man that won, I could smell his lust bleeding out from the booth.

Dammit.

I only had a few seconds, and I took it. Then the light went out, and a voice spoke, "Now, for those of you into…our wilder merchandize, I present you with this!" With that, the light above me flared on.

I could hear the gasps in the booths and from the announcer. I lowered my head and the collar fell to the floor.

And too late did they realize their mistake.

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