Vyrne the taguel slowly opened his eyes to the sweet scent of roasting meat. "I'm . . . alive?" The fact remained that Vyrne was surprised that he could open his eyes at all. After all, the last thing that he remembered was being hurled off of a cliff by that insane horse. As Vyrne's mind reminded him of last night's mishap, he looked to his left and right in search of the horse and wagon; both of which, were nowhere to be found. But that's a problem for later, Vyrne thought to himself. Right now I have got to find out where that smell is coming from. Vyrne's stomach began to growl. So he figured that it was time to set off in search of breakfast. However, as Vyrne tried to move, he found that his body wouldn't budge.
Vyrne looked down-or up rather to find that he was tightly bound by rope and hanging upside down from a tree limb in a forest clearing. Vyrne also found that, other than the rope that bound him to the tree, he was completely naked. Oh Man, Vyrne thought as he squirmed back and forth attempting to free himself. What if They know I'm Taguel? What if they're poachers? What if I've been captured by poachers? They'll cut my fur off and sell it! There's no way I'll grow all of my fur back by winter! I'll freeze to death!
"Help!" Vyrne cried as he squirmed. "Somebody help me!" Suddenly, his ear heard a rustle in the bushes and he was relieved to see the horse slowly trot out from the forest. "Thank Naga it's you," Vyrne sighed. "Now be a good horse and come chew me out of these ropes. The horse proceeded to take a few steps over to the left before sitting down and resting. "Hey!" Vyrne yelled. "you can rest later Come and get me out of these Ro-" Vyrne's heart dropped as a second figure emerged from the forest. He recognized her instantly from the scent. She smelled of both human and gold.
"Hey so you're alive," said Anna as she stepped out from behind the shrubs. Her words were slightly muffled as she was hungrily munching on a roasted deer's leg. "You know, " she said as she lazily approached her captive. "You almost caught me by surprise with that cliff Dive. That was pretty stupid. Plus I had originally planned to fry your brains out." Anna reached down and tapped the Levin sword that was strapped to her right thigh .
"Wha-What stopped you," Vyrne asked, finally mustering the courage to speak. Anna kneeled down in front of Vyrne so that their eyes met and pressed her breakfast against his cheek. The smell of the meat was driving him insane with hunger. But the meat was too far for his tongue to reach. He tried his best to keep a straight face throughout his torture. Apparently, he wasn't doing very well because the merchant woman only gave him a sadistic smile.
"Well actually, if you had died I would've just skinned you and sold your fur. But since you're alive, I'm kind of curious as to what a Taguel kid is doing around here."
"Taguel?" Vyrne responded, attempting to play dumb. "What like in those bedtimes stories or something? Never heard of em'. " He was hoping that his routine had some effect. Heck, at this point, he would have taken any effect at all. But all the merchant did was stare at him with an unamused look.
"You've got fox ears kid," replied Anna. She violently yanked on of Vyrne's ears to prove her point. "Plus," she said, reaching into a pouch on her belt. "This thing fell from the cliff along with all of my inventory." In her hand, the merchant woman held Vyrne's orange beast-stone. "Useless now though," she said. Anna held the stone up to Vyrne so that he could see the deep crack that ran through the stone, severing its power. "Although I'm sure it could still be worth something if I market it right."
"I'm not a taguel," Vyrne insisted, sticking to his story. "I lost my ears when I was young so my father found fox ears and sewed them onto my head. My mother put a spell on them that allows them to work. As for the stone," he said, confident in his lie. "I just found it on the beach one day. I've carried it with me ever since."
"uh-huh," Anna said, still unamused. She lifted her hand and yanked a bush of fur from Vyrne's head and held it in front of his eyes "Then why is it that where everywhere human hair grows, your body grows fox hair?" Anna stood up and walked around her captive. "And I do mean Everywhere."
"Ok oK, I'm a taguel" admitted Vyrne as his skin burned bright red. "Just stop looking at me you old pervert!" Anna's eye twitched and she drew her Levin sword. With a flick of her wrist she gave Vyrne a small, but painful shock.
"I am not old," she insisted, completely ignoring the fact the she was just accused of being a pervert.
"S-So what do you want from me?," Vyrne wheezed. "I won't steal from you again. promise."
Anna returned to her former position on the ground, looking into Vyrne's eyes. "What do I want?" Anna asked with a smile. "Why, I want what you want. I just want to cut you down from here so that we can go on our merry way."
"Really," Vyrne asked. his ears perked with joy.
"Why of course," Anna said with a smile. She drew her sword again only this time, she cut Vyrne's right hand free. Anna proceeded to remove a piece of parchment from her pocket and a bottle of ink from a pouch in her belt. She unraveled the parchment in front of Vyrne. "Just put a finger slash paw-print here and I'll let you loose. Hell kid, I won't even turn you in to the authorities."
Vyrne looked into his captor's eyes. After a moment her found sincerity. "Well ok then." Vyrne proceeded to dip his index finger into the ink bottle and place it on a line at the bottom of the parchment.
"Wonderful," squealed Anna with delight as she quickly put away the parchment and ink. She stood and cut Vyrne down with a single swipe of her sword. Anna ran over to her hose and removed a pair of clothes and a cloak from her saddlebag. She threw them down in front of Vyrne. "now go get changed," she commanded. "We leave in an hour."
"Excuse me?" Vyrne was startled by the merchant's choice of words. "Did you say 'we' ?"
"yes I did," responded Anna as she packed her saddlebag without even glancing at the taguel child. "As in both of us."
"I'm sorry miss," Vyrne started as he pointed in the opposite direction. "But I'm going that way."
"No," Anna injected, she reached into her saddlebag, retrieved the parchment, and handed it to the Taguel boy. "Until you pay me back for the inventory that you broke in that fancy cliff dive of yours, you go whichever way I tell you to go." Vyrne, not believing how blunt this woman could be, stumbled forward and took the parchment. As he read through what was actually a contract, his heart sank lower and lower. By the time he finished reading, Vyrne was paralyzed with shock.
"You're not serious!" Vyrne yelled. "This-This doesn't count!"
"Sure it does kid," replied Anna calmly as she smiled at the young Taguel and patted him on the head. "You signed it."
With a rapid flick of her wrist, Anna yanked the contract out of Vyrne's hands. As if watching his life slip away from him, Vyrne made several desperate clawing motions at the parchment. Sadly, his attempts at getting his "life" back were met with a swift but strong punch to the face.
As Vyrne waddled back in recoil, Anna gripped the boy's head with her fingers. Instantly stilled by the strength of Anna's grip, Vyrne stood motionless as Anna knelt down and spoke words that made his heart sink even lower.
"Listen kid," she started. "Let me lay down the situation for you. You stole my wagon, my horse, and my inventory. Then, you rode out into the night with my stuff, crashed my wagon, caused my horse to lose a shoe, and destroyed a good 25 percent of my inventory. If I count correctly that's three charges of thievery, three charges of possession of a stolen item, and three charges of property destruction. That's about 45,000 in gold and possibly some time in prison. Now, if you want, I could always alert the authorities and put you on trial. Would you like that?"
"No miss," yelled Vyrne quickly. He knew what happened to young boys in prison.
With that, the merchant released her grip on the Taguel boy and smiled. "Then in that case," she said. "You'll shut up and do what I say from now on. Ok?"
"Yes Miss," Vyrne replied. He began to size up the woman who had just threatened to kidnap him. She had returned to packing some things into her saddle bag and even had the audacity to whistle while she packed. If his beast-stone wasn't broken he could end this nightmare here and now. But it was. Vyrne figured that he would have to play along until he found a chance to escape.
"So, Miss," Vyrne began as he put on his shirt and trousers. "Where are yo-I mean 'we' headed anyway?"
"Well for starters," replied the red-haired woman. She threw the Saddle bag onto the horse's back and proceeded to adjust her saddle. "We're going to see if we can't get more of this Miracle concoction. It's about a week's journey north."
"Wait," Vyrne said. "The same concoction that required a perilous journey?"
"Yep," Anna replied . "That's the one." She turned to him and pressed her index finger to her chin as she spoke. "That's not going to be a problem now is it?"
"No Miss," Vyrne said quickly, faking a smile. "Of course not."
"good," Answered Anna. "then follow me." She grabbed her horse's reins and led it through the forest from which they emerged.
Now's my chance,Vyrne thought. He waited for the sound of footsteps and horseshoes to become faint. Once he was sure that nothing could be heard, Vyrne turned and took a step in the opposite direction. He had planned to sprint off in the opposite direction.
However, before his foot could touch the ground, a bolt of lightning emerged from the forest and struck him to the ground. Vyrne twitched in pain as electricity seared through his body.
"Nice Try!" The merchant woman's loud voice sounded through the trees. "We're in the clearing!"
Still aching from the strike, Vyrne pushed himself up. "Oh man," he groaned. "What Have I gotten myself into?"