Arissa took a deep breath and said, her tone dripping with frustration.” Oh. Can you get them to walk faster? This is taking forever.”

  I rolled my eyes at Arissa’s impatience and replied. “ If I push them any more than I already do, I will exhaust them, and they will move even slower. Your complaining won't achieve anything but annoy me.

  “But they are so slow,” Arissa whined.

  “They might not be as fast as us, but they are still useful as a labor force. So have you thought about what you want to do with your human when we get home?” I asked hopefully.

  “ Huh? I'm gonna eat him of course. I thought that was obvious.” Arissa stated.

  I crossed my fingers and said.” Are you sure? I can think of a much better way to use your human. I want to keep mine, so I'm planning to train him to hunt for me. Instead of having one great meal once, I will get an extra meal every day.

  Arissa’s ears twitched and she gave me a curious look as she asked. “ You can train them to hunt for us? Do you believe they can provide an extra meal every day?”

  I smiled to myself and thought. I got her now. All I had to do was to promise her food. Hook line and sinker. I cleared my throat to hide my excitement before saying. “ Yeah, they seem like an obedient bunch. Training them to hunt should be easy, the difficult part will be to learn their language. But since I'm gonna learn their language and train my own human, it won't be that hard to train another while I'm at it. So if you want me to train your human for you I will gladly do it.”

  “How certain are you that you can train them? And how long will it take until I can expect any results?” Arissa said with a frown on her face.

  I considered her question and hoped I didn't underestimate my endeavor. And with internal doubt, I answered. “ I think I can teach them the basics in 20 to 30 days. As soon as the language barrier is gone, I'm confident that your human will be highly motivated to meet your requirements, considering the consequences of failing.”

  “That long? But I'm hungry now.” Arissa whined.

  I sighed and said. “ But it will be worth it. Imagine that every morning there will be a meal ready and waiting for you, all you need to do to meet with your human and receive your price. That is a great deal.”

  “ Fine. I will put my faith in your weird plans. But don't disappoint me now, if the human doesn't live up to my expectations I will eat him.” Arissa said flatly.

  I smiled, overjoyed to manage to talk Arissa around, now I only had to convince Naleighya and I would have three humans to converse with. I tried to hide my evil smirk before saying.” That's fine, he will be the one who has to face the consequences if he were to fail. But you seem restless, and I know that you are hungry, so give me the corpse and run off and hunt a little, I won't complain if we had something to eat. Remember to catch something for me too, or else I will make you watch the humans while I'm out hunting.”

  “Really?” Arissa excitedly asked.

  “ Yeah yeah, run off and catch something tasty for us,” I replied while waving her off.

  With that, Arissa put her corpse down and ran off. I held my paw up in a stop gesture, and the humans halted at my command. I slowly sat down while looking at them, and hoped they would do the same. After a few whispers between them, the three men put down their corpses carefully and sat down. They were visibly exhausted after being paraded around in the Forest for several hours without rest.

  I fumbled around in my new backpack and handed them a filled water skin, and some jerky for them to eat. Their spirit rose at the promise of food, and for a brief moment I felt a slight feeling of comradery with them. Forgetting for a brief moment that they were my prisoners. I groaned at the thought that I owned prisoners, and I couldn't help myself to feel like the bad guy in this situation. I must be the bad guy in their eyes, but if it hadn't been for me, they would have been dead for sure. I could argue that taking them prisoner was a much better outcome than to simply kill them.

  The humans sat together and kept whispering to themselves, and I was dying to know what they were talking about. This would be so much easier if I had only known their language. After the water skin had made its round, they handed it back to me with a bow. I made a point of drinking from it myself before I held it up to them, pointed, and slowly said. “ Water.” I shrugged my shoulders in what I thought was a questioning gesture. The men whispered a little before the man in the brown robe answered. The words he said were completely foreign to me, but I had to have faith that he told me their word for water.

  I repeated the word while pointing at the water skin. Overjoyed that we were finally communicating, I excitedly pointed at myself and said.” Lunaria” I then pointed at the robed man and repeated the questioning shrug.

  All three men stiffened from hearing my name. After a few whispers, the robed man stood up, and pointed at me, and repeated my name, he then pointed to himself and said. “Harvey” he then pointed to his two comrades in turn and said.” Finley. Kael.”

  I beamed out of happiness, and pointed around at the men, repeating their names and getting approving nods when I got their names right.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  This is going so well. I even have names for them now. If I can get a couple of weeks with them I might even learn enough to be able to have a verbal conversation with them. I can finally learn a bit about their human culture, and if I am lucky they might even be able to help me with a few things around the house I'm struggling with.

  _____________________________________________________________________________________

  Harvey was confused about the entire situation. Yesterday he was sure he was about to die, he had met something he was sure was extinct, and those monsters had utterly ripped apart their entire guard force without breaking a sweat. But instead of waking up in the afterlife he had found himself tied up and forced to follow the commands of one of the demon foxes.

  And now they had spent most of the day carrying their fallen comrades through the forest. He couldn't figure out what the demon foxes wanted from them, two of the foxes had only looked at them with disgust and hunger, while the third one seemed to be the odd one among them. Unlike the others, she was fully clothed and she seemed to take joy in feeding them. She had even given them breaks to rest and had on several occasions pointed at stuff, and wanted to know their word for whatever she was pointing at.

  Harvey could almost go as far as saying that she might even be nice for being a demon fox and he firmly believed she was the key to having any chance to survive this. She had taken an interest in them as people, instead of that hungry stare the other fox kept giving them. The clothed fox had even introduced herself by name and asked their names in return, that had to be a good sign. It hadn't helped his Internal hope that she had used the same name for herself as the notorious empress. Were there maybe some ties there? If the history was right that couldn't be a good omen.

  “I'm exhausted, I don't know if I can keep this up much longer,” Finley said between heavy breaths, his voice a bit louder than Harvey was comfortable with.

  “You have to endure it. We need to avoid anything that can anger these foxes. They might seem in a good mood right now, but we don't know how fast that can change.” Harvey whispered back.

  “I know. But every muscle hurts, and I'm afraid I will stumble, fall, and drop Frank here. Can't you ask for another break? That fox seems to have taken interest in you.” Finley whined back.

  Harvey gritted his teeth. Finley just had to use the name of the friend he was carrying. Harvey had tried his best to think of the corpses they had to carry as luggage, and not the slain comrades he knew they were. Finley did have a point though, if he fell and dropped his friend, that must annoy the fox more than giving them a little rest.

  He gathered his courage, halted his march, and said loudly. “I'm sorry. Miss Lunaria, do you have a moment?

  The clothed fox stopped and turned towards Harvey, her piercing red eyes fixed on him. She waited for a brief moment before she put her corpse down, she shrugged at him in a questioning manner.

  Harvey gulped in fright before carefully putting his corpse down and pointing at Finley. He then pretended to wipe his forehead and made heavy breaths before mimicking drinking water.

  The demon fox seemed to take in the state of his group before she gave him a firm nod. She then brought out the water skin and handed it to Harvey.

  Harvey let out a breath he didn't realize he had held in. He then drank from the skin before passing it to Finley.

  Finley drank his fill and said. “ See. This demon fox seems to have a soft spot for you. The fact that she is letting us rest when asked must be a good sign, right?”

  Harvey considered Finley's words and answered. “ Perhaps. There is something odd about this fox. The others were looking at us with hunger and disgust. I got the feeling they only wanted to rip us apart and eat us. But this fox seems to have intellect behind her eyes. It feels like she is planning something that requires us to be alive.”

  “ Maybe she only wants us as mules, and as soon as we reach wherever we are heading, she will murder us,” Kael said, speaking up for the first time in several hours.

  Harvey let out a heavy breath and answered. “I have thought that exact thought Kael, it might be that simple, but why would she bother to feed us and give us breaks? Seems unnecessary to treat mules that good.”

  “ Then try to ask her. You are the fox whisperer after all.” Finley stated.

  Harvey's face palmed at the simplicity of that. He wanted to avoid bothering the fox, in fear of displeasing her. But she had given them a break when asked. Maybe she wasn't as unreasonable as he thought. He turned to the fox, cleared his throat, and said. “Lunaria.”

  Her ears twitched at the sound of her name, and her eyes locked on him. Harvey swallowed nervously and pointed his finger at himself, he then pointed at her before he pointed into his open mouth and finished it off with a questioning shrug.

  Lunaria let out a soft laughter, then she looked Harvey straight into his eyes and firmly shook her head before she gently patted him on top of his head again.

  A wave of relief settled over Harvey, and he managed to give the demon fox a small genuine smile. He then turned to the other men and said. “ I think we are good, I don't know what she wants us for, but I don't think she will eat us. She denied that she would eat me, and I don't think she would bother to lie”

  “Ask where the other fox went. We haven't seen her in several hours. She scares me more than the clothed one, and knowing she is out there makes me uneasy.” Finley said with fear in his voice.

  “And how am I supposed to formulate that question with pointing and body language? It is difficult enough to ask simple things.” Harvey retorted while rolling his eyes.

  After a short break, the demon fox gestured for them to pick up the corpses and start moving again. They kept their pace for another hour before the nude fox showed up again. The two foxes exchanged a few words before the nude fox handed Lunaria a dead raccoon.

  Lunaria’s face lit up in joy, and a trickle of drool escaped her mouth and landed on her chest. With excitement she put the raccoon up to her mouth and tore into it with her teeth. The sound of the hide tearing from its flesh reverberated through the forest in a sickening way. Harvey had to hold his gagging reflex back to avoid emptying his stomach.

  Lunaria kept devouring the animal with great enthusiasm, her eyes rolling back into her head in ecstasy every time she bit into the thing. Nearly a minute passed before she had eaten the entire thing, and her entire face was smeared with blood, making her look the part of the bloodthirsty monster from the history books.

  Harvey felt a deep chill spread through his spine at the grotesque sight. He had just gotten comfortable enough to communicate with the fox, but the sight of her eating with such enthusiasm put his original fear right back into him.

  Lunaria threw away the remaining bones and noticed the men staring at her with horrified expressions, she turned and checked if there was anything behind her. With nothing here she took on a puzzled expression before noticing her blood-covered hand, her ears drooped and her earlier enthusiasm turning into a sad expression. She suddenly started wiping her mouth and then started wiping her hands on her pants.

  The nude fox suddenly spoke, annoyance clear in her tone, and Lunaria's attention shifted. She gave her response before picking the rope tying the men together and tugging on it, signaling them to start moving again.

  Harvey and his group were forced to keep walking well into the night. The men were exhausted and barely able to keep walking when they finally could see several triangle-shaped structures in the distance. Harvey was relieved when he understood they had finally arrived at their destination, but couldn't shake the fear of what would happen to them now.