Hello my darling readers. I am sorry for the long wait but I have been so busy with school and work. I will try and make this as long as I can. Anyways on with the story.
Chapter 10:
Obaa-chan and Sonya stand beside me as we watch all of the nobles leaving to gather their armies. Sonya is calm and not as twitchy as she seemed to be when she came here as if she now as a better purpose for being here. I bow my head and smile at each of them not showing any emotion as would be good while being around any kind of noble for they will always try to use it against me. As Raj starts to leave, he stops right in front of me with a servant girl close behind him. I smile at him and politely greet him and he returns the favor although I can see this dislike in his eyes.
"Kitsune, I would like to gift you with this servant," he tells me motioning to the servant girl behind him.
I look at the girl and can tell that some abuse has been done to her even though she seems to be the subservient type who would follow all orders to a tee even if it meant the end of their life. I can tell that Raj is cruel to his people even though they may be very loyal to him. The thing is that the girl isn't even a dog but a wolf which is even weirder because wolves are of a completely different tailed lord. That can only mean one thing. I look at the girl more carefully and can see that she has a hole in her ear.
"This girl is no servant, Raj. You dare to insult me by giving me a slave and trying to fool me into thinking that she is a servant so that in a court you could say that I owe you a debt. That is very dishonorable especially of a lord of your stature. I expect to have a good payment for this try at trickery," I growl in a very pissed off voice.
Raj growls back at me but his daughter growls at him in return. I look at her in surprise what is on the girls mind that she would do such a thing. Has she really changed that much over one night? Well one night is enough to change ones way of thinking, I know that personally. I have been forced to change my ways twice before and all of it had to be done immediately and with no hesitation. I glare at Raj and dare him to try and challenge me for my demands. He just shakes his head and motions for one of his soldiers to come forward. The soldier brings a scroll with him and gives it to his lord. Complete silence surrounds us as Raj takes the scroll with a growl and passes it to me almost throwing it at me to get it to me. I look down at it before opening it with one of my tails. Ah, so these are the girls papers good if he tries to go against me in a court I can use these as proof that he gave me the girl.
"Have the bitch she is just as worthless as you are," he tells me turning to walk away.
Sonya lunges at him but a motion with one of my tails causes the girl to stop. I sit down knowing that he was the last one to go because he wanted to make things less known so that there are fewer un reliable witnesses and I bet he was thinking his daughter would side against me but she was a truly unknown variable. Sonya could have gone either way but I am glad that she decided to side with me in the end.
Once Raj and his entourage have passed through the gates, I turn to face the girl who is now the slave of a slave. Oh, the irony of this situation. I hate nobles such as him who find amusement in the demeaning of others especially to this level. I look the girl up and down and realize that she is a four tail wolf meaning that she is one of the more powerful of her kind. Wolf demons have up to five tails and serve under the demon lord Gobi. I wonder if he is missing any of his nobles or children. I will have to look in on this after the war. A sigh escapes from me as I see all of the harm done to the poor girl. She could be no more twelve years old and yet she was already abused and a slave.
"What is your name child," I ask the girl in a sweet and calm tone not allowing any of my disgust at her situation be voiced in my tone.
"Opal, if it pleases my lady," the girl replies laying her upper body on the ground in front of me.
"There is no need for you to bow to me Opal. I am in the same position as you just with a prettier name attached to it," I tell her with a smile on my face trying to get the girl to come out of her shell.
Opal just flinches but looks up at me with surprise in her eyes before quickly looking away from me. I sigh once more but I know that it will be a long time before the girl came out of her hardened shell gained by much time in slavery. I turn to look at Obaa-chan shaking my head sadly.
"Obaa-chan take Opal to my bathing chambers and bath her in Jasmine please. Afterwards place some healing ointment on those welts, cuts, and bruises," I ask in a calm tone but on the inside feeling ready to kill someone.
"Of course Kitsune," she replies before turning to go and walking towards the palace.
I start walking towards the training ground but soon realize I only hear three sets of footsteps. I turn back and see that Opal is still standing in the spot where I left her leaning a little bit. A low growl escapes from my lips causing Opal to flinch. I silently curse myself for doing that without thinking about what the consequences of such actions would have on the poor child's psyche.
"I am sorry for scaring you Opal but I want you to follow Obaa-chan. She will get you cleaned up and on the road to recovery," I tell the girl gently.
Opal nods before walking to follow Obaa. Looking after her I can see that she is limping more than walking. I will kill that demon the next time I see him even if it means that I will be on trial for the murder of a noble. I no longer care if that demon lives after our next encounter. A smirk crosses my face as I finish the final decadent details on the poor idiot's death and Sonya and I arrive at the training grounds. The soldiers who see my smirk shiver in fear knowing that look means a particularly vicious fight for whoever I choose as my show dummies for the day. Each of them comes out of their practice bouts with each other.
"Each of you has reached a stage in your training to where we can step it up another notch. Today we begin the real intense stuff. You can see that our surroundings have been changed to a more mountainous terrain. We start the ambush training today," I tell them with a smile on my face.
All of them sigh in relief knowing that since we are starting a new training they will be trying it out on their own to test how well that will do at it. This means that none of them will have to face me which makes them all very happy. I start a slow walk in front of them.
"You will be breaking into two teams. One will be the ambushers and the others will be the protectors. In the middle of this mountainous illusion there is a castle which the protectors must defend and allow no one into the main keep. The goal of the ambushers is to gain entrance to the keep. Good luck to you all," I say clearly dismissing them all.
They all know not to ask any questions for all questions would be answered the next day. They leave for the center quickly not wanting to wait and see if I would change my mind. Sonya goes as if to go with them.
"Sonya no, you are not ready to go into this training. These demons have been training for this moment for a little of three weeks," I tell her.
Sonya sighs instead of talking back to me like I thought she would. She turns around and faces me before walking back to my side. She bows her head in respect as she stops ten feet away from me. I look her over before sighing. We will have to work hard in order to get her ready in time for the fighting. I take off at a nice medium pace sprint planning on taking a few warm up laps.
"Do at least five laps and then I will let you quit," I tell her as she tries to keep pace.
By the end of the first lap she is ten feet behind me. Towards the end of lap three she is half a lap behind and by the time I am on my sixth lap she is half way done with her fourth. At least she has stuck with this and not quit on me. I stop at the end of my sixth lap and see her waiting for me out of breath and looking as if she would heave.
"Next is weaving. I want you to do this for five minutes," I tell her as I run for the forest now that I am warmed up.
I bob and weave around trees at amazing speeds but always circling around to make sure that Sonya is alright and keeping with it. When I had done this with the soldiers many of them had quit within two minutes thinking it not worth their time. For doing that, I made them do it for ten extra minutes after that they never thought of disobeying me. The point of this is to increase reaction time and the ability to move easily through tight areas. After this warm up, I allow her to relax for a little while.
"Alright enough time relaxing. We need to get onto the real stuff," I tell her moving to the fighting area. She joins me in the area. "Okay, come at me with all you have."
Sonya charges at me and I dodge out of the way swatting at her. She hiss at the slight pain and mostly because of her already sore muscles.
"Too slow and do not think to leave opening to an enemy it will get you killed," I command in a deadly tone no longer holding a calm and relaxed tone.
Sonya nods her head and starts to circle me looking for an easier way to get at me. She finds what she thinks is weak spot and goes for it. I dodge out of the way and rush forward pushing her to the ground and have my teeth at her neck in less than a second.
"That would have been good against anyone one else in a one on one fight but never try and use that tactic on an actual battle field it will do nothing but get you killed," I warn her as I allow her to come up to her feet.
Sonya is breathing hard but nods her head before coming at me once more. This time she fakes left but comes to my right at the second to last second. I move slightly and throw her against a tree with my tail. She stands up once more and comes at me with a bigger burst of speed nearly ramming me in the side as I move to the side once more.
"Nice, but reckless at the same time, do not use such a method unless in a dire situation or you know you will catch your opponent off guard," I tell her.
About this time, I sense the approach of three energies. One of them is Kyuubi, and the other two are Obaa-chan and Opal. I motion for Sonya to stop for a moment as Kyuubi reaches the edge of the training grounds. As he and the others appear. I bow to the ground as I should. I can hear the slight gasp of Opal as she finally gets a good look at me and can see my bell pierced ears marking me as a slave.
"Hello, master," I greet him.
"Who is this girl, Kitsune," he demands nearly growling.
"Her name is Opal and she was given to me by Lord Raj, master," I reply bowing my head nearly to the ground.
Kyuubi's growl increases in volume before he says, "He dares give a slave to one of my people especially my own slave. How dare he. He shall pay for such insolence. "Kyuubi-sama pauses as he thinks for a moment. "You will take care of her am I understood, Kitsune?"
"Yes master," I reply getting up slowly from my bow.
He lashes out at me with his tail and I allow it to hit knowing he is only venting frustration on me. I was not expecting for him to put enough force behind it to throw me through three trees and make a huge dent in the fourth. He turns to look at me and I can see the shock in his eyes. Did he think that I would not allow him to take out his frustration nor did he think I would dodge him?
"Kitsune, no sparring match tonight," he tells me.
"As you wish master," I respond as I stand up enough to bow.
What he said, is the closest I will ever get to an apology from him. Once he is gone, I limp towards the fighting area once more. Opal and Obaa are staring at me in shock while Sonya is gaping. I can only heal my broken leg slowly because after healing my bones so many times the healing is harder therefore taking much more time. That is one of the down sides to healing so much after so long it stops working and must heal at a natural pace.
"This is enough for now. Let us head to my room. Obaa-chan have dinner delivered to my room for two. Sonya you may do as you please for the rest of the day," I command in a calm tone not wanting to scare Opal any more than I have.
"Yes, ma'am," Sonya replies before her and Obaa walk away.
Opal follows me quietly even her steps are as quiet as those of a mouse. When we arrive at my room, I motion for her to go inside first. She looks around my room in awe of the beauty but soon realizes that she is a slave and will most likely only in squander.
"Opal, I would like for you to stay in my rooms," I tell her. Sonya gasps and I can tell she wants to ask a question. "Never fear to speak your mind around me. I will never beat you and you will always have a choice. I will only ever ask you to do things never order unless it is absolutely necessary."
"My lady why would I be staying here," she asks me?
"Because I understand that a wolf is never very happy or sane without some sort of pack structure. Lay down and get some rest I can tell that you are tired," I order as I lay down on the cushions that form my bed.
Cautiously Opal approaches the bed and lies down trying to get comfortable. I walk closer to her and curl up around her as she falls asleep. This is how a pack sleeps and this is how it should have been for her but I feel that this is one of the ways Raj broke her. I fall into a deep sleep soon after getting comfortable.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It is a full five pages and near 3000 words long. Wow I think this is the longest chapter yet. I hope this at least somewhat makes up for the long wait. I hope to update soon. Please review and until next time bye.