Harvey slowly opened his eyes, but a sharp pain shot through his head at the attempt. He winced at the pain and tried to take his hands up to hold his head. However, his hands were tied together, and fastened around his chest.
He groaned and tried to open his eyes again. With care, he succeeded and he took in his surroundings. He was horrified by the sight of a large pile of corpses in front of him, he was about to call out for help, when he remembered his last memories.
A shiver went through his spine at the thought of Reginald's corpse hitting the floor and the menacing demon fox coming towards him. He suddenly heard someone call out something in an unknown language, and shortly after several figures moved into sight.
Harvey's heart was filled with dread at the sight of four demon foxes. There were actually four of those nightmarish creatures, how could such a thing exist in those numbers? All four were soaked in blood, making the fur not stained with blood sparkle in its brilliant white under the moonlight.
They exchanged a few words with each other before the only clothed fox came toward Harvey. It was the same fox that had killed Reginald, so why hadn't she killed him too? Harvey was sure he was about to die earlier, but for some reason, this fox had only hit him over his head.
The fox stopped in front of Harvey, she knelt down so her face was barely a foot from Harvey's own face and her red eyes were staring into Harvey’s own eyes. She then gave him a predatory tooth-filled grin before she patted his head with affection.
The demon fox kept her horrific grin on her face as she gave him a thumbs-up gesture before getting back up and went back to her half-eaten corpse.
“What the actual fuck was that” Harvey whispered to himself. How could such a monster simply pat his head, like he was some sort of pet? Harvey then noticed the other two men that were likewise tied up behind him.
Why had they kept three people alive when all the others had been murdered? Harvey was a well-educated person, he had studied at the Royal Academy, and he had enjoyed the history lessons. The early history of the old empire had been fascinating, and the gruesome way history depicted the demon foxes was horrific but it was interesting to read about ancient history.
From what he had read, the demon foxes would just eat their sacrifices. They wouldn't bother with the lesser races except for feeding on them, would he be forced to be their slave? Or would he just become livestock? A thousand disturbing thoughts floated through Harvey's mind while wishing he could wake from this nightmare of a situation.
Harvey sat deep in his own thoughts until the clothed demon suddenly appeared in front of him again. She held out a filled cup in front of his mouth, urging him to drink with her body language. Harvey took an experimental sip and realized it was only simple water. He drained the cup and tried to show appreciation by nodding to her.
She gave him a terrifying smile and held out a strip of dried jerky for him to eat. Harvey wasn't hungry after seeing so much death and the corpses of his colleagues, but didn't dare to refuse the demon fox. He took the strip in his mouth and chewed nervously, and the demon fox beamed at his actions and patted his head again.
One of the naked foxes suddenly said something loud, and the others gathered around her after she spoke. Harvey struggled to understand their hierarchy, he had thought the clothed fox had a higher status, but then he noticed their tails. The male and two of the females had two tails each, while the last female had four of them spread in an arc behind her. Does that mean that she is their leader? It does seem like she is giving them orders, but why is only one of the demon foxes wearing clothes then?
The fox group responded to the four-tailed woman, and then the male went down on all four and ran off into the darkness at an incredible speed, while the other three started to get comfortable on the ground. The clothed fox took her place only 20 feet from Harvey and the other prisoners, and every time Harvey looked in her direction he saw her ears twitching.
Nearly an hour later the other two prisoners started to stir awake, and eventually, Harvey heard a voice say. “ Man, my head is killing me, What happened?” Harvey’s pulse skyrocketed, fearing the demon foxes would take offense from the noise while they tried to sleep.
“Be quiet, we have been captured by the demon foxes, It seems like they are sleeping, so don't raise your voice, I don't want to find out if they are grumpy if we wake them.” Harvey whispered.
The other man stiffened hearing his words, and after a brief silence he whispered back.” Captured by the demon foxes? Why aren't we dead? They massacred the entire camp.”
“I don't know. I've been trying to find a rational reason for that, but no matter the reason, I doubt it is good for us. But be quiet, I don't want to piss off the demons.” Harvey whispered back.
Harvey glanced at the demon fox and saw her large red eyes staring at them. She suddenly got up and Harvey swallowed in fright. She disappeared for a minute before she came back, and then treated the other prisoner to water and jerky. She then shook the last man awake and treated him in the same manner before she returned to her spot.
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The prisoners whispered among themselves for another hour before they quieted down and fell into a restless sleep.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The next morning I woke at the first sign of dawn. I first checked on my prisoners, only to find all three snoring in the same spot I had tied them up. I got up and shook them gently awake before I gave them food and water.
it didn't take long before Arissa came over, and after giving me a short greeting, she asked. “ I take it that your pets behaved last night since all three are still alive.”
I mentally groaned at her pet statement, but it was the best description I could hope for. I took a deep breath before replying.” Yeah, they behaved well, they only whispered a little bit between themselves after waking up. I think that the fact that I fed them made them relax a little. I am surprised that none of them tried to run away, considering they saw what we did with the rest of their camp.”
Arissa blew a raspberry and answered with a chuckle in her voice.”Maybe these humans understood how inferior they are, and that any attempt of escape would be utterly futile. But what did you feed them? You didn't go out and hunt to feed these creatures?”
“I rather think the fear of witnessing us slaughter their entire camp dispelled all reckless behavior. And no, I didn't go out and hunt. The humans had their own food with them, It was some kind of dried meat. Humans can eat it, but it seems completely inedible for us. I had a tiny taste of it last night and it tasted so horrible that I had to spit it out.” I said while holding back my gagging reflex, remembering the awful taste of the jerky.
“I wonder what they do to their food to make it taste so bad,” Arissa asked in a curious tone.
“I’m not sure, but I don't recommend eating it, it must only be for human consumption,” I replied in a dismissing tone.
We were interrupted when Naleighya joined us, She gave the living humans a disgusted look before returning her attention to us and said. “Lunaria, let's see how your genius plan works in practice. I’m curious to see how you will make them follow your orders.”
“ It will be fine, I just need a little time with them,” I responded, while actively trying to figure out the most effective way to make them understand.
Naleighya gave me a disapproving look before she said.” Don't waste too much time, otherwise I will just kill them all and eat the one I claimed yesterday. I'm getting pretty hungry after all. You two should get the humans to move as soon as possible, Nalcor should be returning with more people to help carry this bounty within a few hours. I will stay here and wait for the others while I'm cleaning up all the traces of this camp.”
Arissa's mouth fell open like she couldn't believe what she had just heard. With annoyance in her voice, she blurted out.“Why should I help to move these humans? It was all Lunaria’s idea, I didn't sign up for transporting living humans.”
Naleighya smirked and replied.” Through luck. You claimed one of the live humans, Nalcor is getting more people and I have to clean up this mess of a camp. That leaves you as the only one to assist Lunaria.”
Arissa crossed her arms and retorted in annoyance. “ I don't like it. These humans are gonna be so slow, I don't know if I can stand watching them slug along for too long without eating them.”
I disguised my nervousness behind a fake laugh before I answered. “ It will be fine Arissa, we will make the humans carry one corpse each, while we can swap between watching the humans and carrying another corpse. If this works we would have transported a total of seven humans in one trip. We might be a bit slower than normal, but overall it will be more effective.”
Arissa perked up and said. “ Wow seven humans in one trip, I hadn't thought about it like that.”
I waved dismissively at Arissa and said.” It will work out, and this would have been a lot more effective if we had kept even more of the humans alive.”
I went up to the humans and held out my paw while slowly extending my claws to their maximum length. Showing the humans how easy it was to summon our natural weapons. Their eyes went wide with fear at the sight of my claws, and I tried my best to move toward them in the most non-threatening way I could.
I cut off the rope I had used to tie their hands and bodies while leaving the rope around their necks. They could now move, with the only restraint remaining was the rope tying them together by their necks, they had about 5 feet of rope between them, something I hoped to be enough to let them do some laboring.
I made a gesture for them to stand up, and after hesitating for a few moments they slowly got to their feet. Seeing them understand my simple gesture, I made a point of it to clap my paws together, hoping applause would transcend cultures.
The three men seemed surprised to get applause from a fox, and I had to hold my amusement back, they all seemed utterly horrified to stand in our presence.
I made a point of holding my arms out and went over and made one of the men hold his own arms out in the same way. He flinched the second I touched him, showing me how afraid he was that I would hurt him.
I sighed and made a point of clapping to show my approval. I simply pointed at the two other men before they held their arms out in the same way. I clapped again before I picked up one of the corpses and put it in the outstretched arms of the first man, making him carry his dead comrade.
He immediately dropped his corpse and fell to his knees as he vomited. I tried to hide my annoyance over the squeamish human, but I tried to be patient while holding back my own revolution from the horrible smell of his vomit.
When he was done, I made a point of giving him water and another strip of jerky and put the corpse back into his outstretched arms. I gave the two remaining men a corpse each and picked up the rope connecting my human mule train and pulled gently on it to make them follow.
Without any argument, the humans followed me, fear and disgust written clearly on their faces. But I had achieved what I wanted, I had made them follow my orders without verbal communication, and I was overjoyed that this might actually work out. I put on the backpack with my personal loot together with the water and food for the humans.
With a face-splitting smile, I turned to Arissa and Naleighya and said.” See? They seem obedient enough, I said I would make this work. So get ready Arissa, we are ready to go whenever you are.”
Arissa snorted at the sight of my little mule train, she then picked up her own corpse, and said.” Impressive, I hadn't thought you would make them listen to you that easily. Let's go then, I hope they can keep up with us. “
And with that, we started heading north, carrying the bounty for the next communal meal and several living humans. I was so excited about my future prospects that I nearly forgot about my hunger.
