On the surface of it, Crotos Quillus had lead a rather eventful life. Orphan. Thief. Gladiator. Slaver. Yet incompetent all the way! As great as that sounded on a resume his life had been singularly miserable. Honestly, the porcupine wasn't really sure why he was so attached to it…
He doubted he was going to any kind of heaven- not even a God of Stupidity would be stupid enough to let him in- he'd probably bring the whole place crashing down. Somehow he doubted he'd fit in in Hell either. He'd get thrown back out after falling into a pit of lava one too many times. Perhaps whoever was in charge of that section of the afterlife would pity him- but he doubted the ruler of a literal underworld took much pity on anyone. Not that he had any idea what either place was like. To him heaven was a giant pile of gold to lie in, with all the food he could eat and Licky's companionship. Nothing more, nothing less. His definition of hell, on the other paw, was pretty close to what he now had to deal with.
Strapped to a board and surrounded by toads chanting literal gibberish in tune to the horrifically-painted, cleaver-wielding Putana. It might have been more bearable if he wasn't crying, and wasn't so scared. If only Licky were here with him...
Despite how hopeless this all looked, death had other plans… and probably didn't want him anyways.
"Why are there always toads!" Green-eyes whined- so loudly that Putana was wrenched from her trance-like state of meditative destruction.
"You do realise it's always the same bunch of toads, right?" Splintnose asked, turning to the much larger wolf.
Blacktooth, who was chewing an apple (ironically one that would have ended up in his mouth one way or another) widened his eyes in surprise. "It's always the same frogs?"
"Toads!" Hissed the Prophet, trying to stare down the combined might of Dianbo's scowl and Shade's… expression…
"Yeah." Splintnose continued to explain. "See I can tell coz their always repeating the same gibberish."
"You're so smart." Tian Yi said, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.
The white sable gushed. "Y-you really think so?"
"Enough talk!" Snapped the high priestess. "Let's fight!"
ItIwas less of a fight and more of a microscopic inconvenience. Charging forwards the toad ran right into Shade's waiting kick. She hit a wall and before she could begin to understand how the power of the Gods had failed her Shade had knocked her out.
"Where are the kids?" Dianbo asked the remaining toads, all of whom seemed confused by the sudden turn of events. Only a few seconds before they had been mid-sacrifice!
"Um…" They looked from one to the other- unsure if they ought to make something up or be honest and admit that they had absolutely no idea.
"I can tell you!" Quillus piped up. "I'll do better! I'll lead you to them!"
"Aren't you like, the chief slaver?" Green-eyes pointed out, showing perhaps more intellect than ever before in his life.
The porcupine shrunk under Dianbo's scowl, and tried very hard to curl in on himself as the jackals drew closer.
"T-t-to be f-fair i-it was more of a group effort really. I had very, v-very little involvement."
"Weren't you bossing everyone around until they captured your bear?" Blacktooth asked from around a mouthful of apple.
"No! You're t-talking about my- my- my identical twin!" Shade rammed a fist into his gut so hard that the surrounding toads winced. Pulling the porcupine from the board, almost without effort, the black jackal dragged him to a barrel of water, before submerging the upper half of his body. A few moments later he lifted the spluttering porcupine from within.
"What was that for!?" Quillus barked, only to once more be held under the water.
"My own entertainment." The black jackal replied, sounding utterly bored. "Drowning is a rather pleasant way to go- comparatively speaking of course. Cross us in any way shape or form and you'll find that I can be very creative- messy too. Understood?"
Failing to surpress a whimper, Quillus nodded.
"Oh yeah, I wanted to ask why you're wearing a vest!" Blacktooth exclaimed, slapping his forehead, as if this was a very important thing he should never have forgotten to ask.
Shade dropped the spluttering Quillus upon the ground. "Ask me anything stupid and you too will meet a sticky end."
Blacktooth swallowed audibly.
Dianbo lifted Quillus to his feet, before firmly holding on to the chain attached to the porcupine's collar.
"Alright. Lead us to the kids and we'll go easy on you. Fail to do so and we'll give you to Shade."
"I got that the first time." Quillus snapped. A partially raised eyebrow on Shade's part forced him to improve his manners. "I mean- yeah, sure. Just let me get my bear… bearings."
"What about us?" One toad asked.
"Yeah, you kind of incapacitated our leader."
"Might've even killed her!" Another said hopefully.
Dianbo tapped his foot against the ground, deep in thought. What was he supposed to do?
Splintnose however had a very good idea and hollered at the top of his voice. "Does anyone have any slave collars I can borrow?"
It was honestly rather worrying how many spare collars there were. Equally worrying was that the combined weight could very easily crush the albino sable.
A twitching fit set in, and Dianbo was filled with enough righteous fury to melt through metal. Despite the fact that his eyelids' near-constant motion left him half-blind, Dianbo had to be held back by Shade, lest he unleash destruction upon the surrounding slavers- and bring the rest of Ashtar down upon them.
A few minutes later Dianbo relaxed slightly, promising himself to reap justice another day. The toads, all safely collared and in line, trailed behind the now even more mottled motley crew of rescuers as Quillus lead the way.
A thick sheen of sweat began to spread through the porcupine- for in all honesty he did not know the streets of Ashtar that well (Licky did most of his walking after all) and was even less familiar with some of the buyers. Still, Ashtar couldn't be that big, and although he had gone from fire to frying pan, he was still alive and very much intended to stay that way. Now all he had to do was help find the missing kids- and of course, Licky.
And maybe, just maybe, he'd finally get lucky.
The she-wolf and her tigers lead Padma far away from the main streets of Ashtar, to a villa far removed from the main city. The young fox would have found it easier to admire the beauty of the place if her brother were at least with her. But no, Surya was held in the paws of another slaver, and the odds of them ever crossing paths again were slim to say the least. Tian Yi and Shade were coming, as well as the nice foreign jackal, but how would they find her in so large a city? Despair nagged at her like an old crone and all the strength she had left was busy fighting off an incoming flood of tears.
The doors of the villa creaked shut behind them, and for a short while she was in darkness. Then candles were lit and flickering light bounced from wall to wall.
"You hungry?"
It took Padma a short while to realise that she was the one being addressed. "Oh- um-" She was tempted at first to say yes, but thought better of it. From what Quillus had said this she-wolf was crafty and cruel. "N-not really. I d-don't eat much."
"At ease child." Came a strange kind of rasping voice. Scuttling into the light on all fours came a new figure. She did not know the exact species but it looked rather like a skinny scale-less pangolin covered head-to-tail in tattoos. Inkling. Quillus had told them a lot about him…
"Go on Inky. Scare her off, why don't you? She's already terrified. Poor child. Come, you must be starving."
Padma obeyed and made to follow at a distance- but her tiny paw was taken in Vera's much larger one and the next thing she knew she was faced with a large platter covered in all kinds of fruit. Bananas and mangoes! Coconuts! Papaya and cashews! Her stomach rumbled loudly, but she hesitated. These people had poisoned Quillus, who had been their friend. She was a stranger- would they even hesitate?
"What is it? Do you not like the fruit? I took you for a smart little girl, surely you know the importance of fruit! Eat! Go on, eat!"
Having little choice in the matter Padma bit into a piece of mango. The wonderfully sweet flavour danced upon her tongue and filled her cheeks with the succulent juice. Poisoned or not she could not resist swallowing and taking another bite. Then another. And yet another.
"Hungry are we? Can't imagine the slavers fed you much."
"No." She said, wiping her mouth clean on her wrist-fur. "But they weren't so bad." Or at least, they hadn't killed them.
"Humph. Guess you got lucky. But not lucky enough seeing as you're here." Vera smiled. "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm-"
"Vera Darkrose." Padma said before she could stop herself.
The she-wolf grinned. "Quillus told you all about the 'she-devil', eh?"
The porcupine in question had used far more vulgar vocabulary, but Padma nodded anyways.
"Maybe he's not far off you know?" Vera shook her head. "But if I were nice I wouldn't be here, now would I? What's your name?"
"Padma." The fox replied.
"Indian, eh? Beautiful country I've heard. Hopefully I get to visit it one day."
"Yeah, it's nice." Padma rubbed at her wrists awkwardly.
"Miss the place? I know what that feels like. Crotos loves to mope about his life, doesn't consider that some have been through just as much and worse." The she-wolf smiled and shook her head. Silence came for a while, and more for something to do than due to hunger, Padma chose a papaya.
"Well, make yourself comfortable. Inkling'll show you to your room when you're ready."
"M-my r-room? B-but aren't I a slave?"
Vera smirked. "Maybe you are. But not here. Here you are a sweet child, saved from slavery by eighty or so caesars. The villa is at your service, as am I."
The fennec leaned in slightly, her voice shaking with hope and fear. "S-so Surya… could you?"
"I cannot save everyone sweet child. But I am glad I could save you. I'd advise forgetting your brother, hard though that may be it's much easier in the long run." Bowing her head slightly the she-wolf turned away and left Padma, who was torn between relief and heart-break.
Footnote: Bet you didn't think Vera would play such a big role, eh? Well she's going to be important in the next few chapters so pay attention to her. Inkling is less important, but what character is good without a support base?
Next time we head to Surya, Jamal and Ganga and see did they get as 'lucky' with their masters as Padma did.