We walk for a long time, crossing all sorts of landscapes in silence. Days pass with the land, mountains and barren wastes, through a forest so dense we need to keep a hand on each other so we don't get separated.

We cross mountain passes, where She fights off giants and cuts down a group of ambushing bandits. From time to time, she is injured, but she keeps walking. Her bright red fur has grown dull and shaggy, from months of abuse in the wilderness.

I lose track of time, the mountains and valleys, roads and rivers all blending together. I don't think She knows where She's going. They probably don't keep careful track of where the human towns are.

So we keep walking, until one day, there's a large road. We stumble out of the woods, right onto the road. It's made of dirt, but it's wide and cuts a path straight through this particular forest. There are travelers spread across it, humans and elves.

As we right ourselves, they all stare. They don't look like adventurers, just ordinary people. All eyes locked on her, they slowly back away.

“Here, humans...” She mumbles, looking so, so tired.

Then the red fox turns back to look at me. I tremble at the sight. Her face drawn and gaunt from our travels, beautiful fur matted and dirty. With rough spots, bald spots, patches of dried blood and filth.

Even her eyes look tired.

Exhausted.

Old.

This isn't...

This isn't her.

Her.

Her.

Her.

Master.

...Liina.

Like a kick to the head.

I take a stumbling step toward her, and she pulls me into a hug.

I bury my head in her chest and cry, “I'm sorry!”

I get it now.

I'm so stupid.

All the things she did for me!

Who cares how much it hurt?!

She failed one time!

How could I give up on her after one failure?!

How many times did I fail her?

“Ahhh!” I scream at myself.

She's tried so hard for me!

How could I do this to her?!

When she promised, she meant it!

That doesn't make her a liar!

My fingers dig into her back as I scream and cry my heart out into Master's big, heaving chest.

“Come on Yumi, don't be like that. Let me see you off with a smile.” She sounds tired. Voice cracked and old like paper left far too long in the sun.

“I don't want to go. I want to say with you!” I tell her through my sobs.

“I'm glad.” Master lifts my face look look at her, and I can feel her ragged, unfiled claws nick my chin a little. I blink away my tears, and she looks down at me with her tired, sad, wonderful smile, and says, “There's my good girl.”

My breath catches, heart in my throat as she runs her filthy hand over my filthy hair. “Please.” I whisper.

“Release Slave: Confirm.” The collar falls from my neck, bouncing in the dirt underfoot.

“No...”

“Yumi, I'm so glad I got to be your master. Even through the good and the bad. Even when I failed you. I'm so glad that in the end, I could be a good master, worthy of respect.” With a sigh, she looks up. “Right, Mom?”

“Master...”

“Go on, Yumi. You've still got your whole life ahead of you.”

“Why...” I ask through tears and trembling lips. “Why can't I stay?”

Her hand brushes my cheek. “I don't have much time left.”

“No...”

“A year, maybe two. I want to put you somewhere better before I go. So go with them, the humans aren't that bad when you get to know them.”

Still sobbing, she takes me by the shoulders and turns me around, to face toward the few confused, scared looking humans who haven't run off yet. “Whether you live free or find a new master, take care of yourself out there, Yumi.”

Then she pushes me gently from behind and I take a few stumbling steps forward.

“Goodbye, Yumi.”

Still staring ahead, I answer, “Goodbye, Master.”

With a swish of brush and crunch of footsteps through fallen leaves, she vanishes into the past, and I slowly walk toward the new people here now.

They eye me warily, even as I bow and after a little stumbling, ask, “Which way is town?” One reluctantly points off down the road, so I thank them and go that way.

I walk for a while... alone. There are other people on the road now and then, but they avoid me, and I have a pretty good idea that it's because I'm utterly disgusting from my ceaseless travels. It barely registers to me at this point though. I hardly feel the rawness of my feet or the burn of my muscles. The ache of thirst and hunger.

In time, I reach a town. The gate guard takes one look at me, an area naturally having cleared around me because no one wants to come close, and calls me to stop.

“You, who are you?” he asks.

“Yumi.” I... have no other idea how to answer at this point... “I'm just... me...”

“Ok...” He looks concerned. “What brings you to Miselka?”

I have no idea. I shrug at him. “I guess I just... need a place to stay now.” A new place to live, alone...

“Alright, then, uhh, where are you coming from? How long have you been traveling?”

That question at least sets off some warning bells, despite my half-dead, sinking feeling, like mud in my brain. I shouldn't tell a human guard I'm coming from an altraskan town, should I? “Thanifa.” I answer with the only human city I've been to before. “I've been walking for.... uhh... I have no idea.”

“Thanifa?” The guard looks over to another, asking, “Wasn't that town destroyed like, over a year ago?” The other man offers him a shrug while he talks to someone else. “Alright girl, it looks like you've been through hell. Go to the adventurer's guild, they should be able to get you patched up.” Then he gives me directions, and waves me through the gate.

I do as instructed, soon arriving at the Miselka guild. As I walk through the doors, cutting through the crowd of adventurers jostling about on all sides, feeling deaf to it all, I take note one thing: all the guilds have almost identical reception counters.

It's funny, somehow.

When I reach the reception desk, I stand in front of an ordinary, human woman with a cute face and her brown hair all tucked up into a messy bun. So... normal.

“Good day, how may I help you?” she asks, her voice betraying a note of worry.

“I don't know.”

“You... don't know?”

“The gate guard said to come here, and you'd help me. With... I don't know... life...?” I mumble stupidly.

I have absolutely no idea how to live on my own...

Somehow, my response makes the woman realize something, and she has me wait a minute while she gets someone else. This one is a somewhat older man, with dark, piercing eyes. “Yes, this is the one,” she says, referring to me.

“Alright, excuse me, Miss,” he addresses me, then I feel waves of awful, cloying grope through my being. I stand, confused, listless, and somehow not able to get angry at the random violation. When the Scan goes on far longer than normal, I realize what's happening.

Another person who can Scan better for more information, I guess that's why she needed to go get him.

While he stares, he writes, noting down my Status on a piece of paper. Huh, that's unique...

When he finally finishes, all three of us look down at the sheet of paper.

Yumi Slave Rank: 3 Race: Human Age: 24 Job: Offensive Magic Class: Synergist Style: Finesse Focus: Area Control Health: 74/108 Stamina: 0/146 Mana: 444/444 Status Strength: 48 Vitality: 72 Stamina: 125 Agility: 45 Mind: 394 Magic: 81 Remaining Potential: 140 Skills Speech: 92 Reading: 84 Math: 58 Logic: 67 Serving: 16 Cleaning: 22 Magic Casting: 18 Magic Weaving: 23 Mana Regen: 17 Mana Absorption: 9 Rapid Casting: 15 Multi Casting: 15 Magic Control: 9 Mana Cleansing: 1 Mana Channeling: 7 Cooking: 18 Massage: 6 Sex: 4 Appraisal: 12 Diplomacy: 4 Maintenance: 4 Grooming: 9 Walking: 15 Fasting: 15 Traits Work Ethic: 83 Self-Esteem: 6 Loyalty: 45 Devotion: 50 Adaptability: 34 Integrity: 32 Obedience: 44 Restraint: 45 Sincerity: 35 Respect: 41 Charm: 23 Pride: 4 Trust: 64 Anxiety: 28 Hope: 21 Fear: 14 Dependency: 25 Servitude: 25 Resentment: 6 Hatred: 2 Vengeance: 3 Depression: 40 Misc Slave Rating: S Warning: Depression

Oh, I guess he's able to get all of my information, even without a slave crest.

However...

“Uhhh....”

They both have the exact same response.

Then, “This Status, it doesn't make any sense,” comes from the woman.

“No, look. Look at the Traits and Slave Rating,” the man comes back. “She has a high rating and didn't pick up Resentment until later. I've checked a couple captured beast-bred slaves before, they followed the same patterns. She's also a Synergist, not a class we train, so the beasts probably made her take it. Only Rank three at that.”

The man stops and scratches his head. “Ok, yeah, the rest of this doesn't make much sense. I'm seeing the Cooking, Massage, Sex pattern that I'd expect from a slave, but why does she have so much combat experience at Rank three?”

“It's not just that. She has such low abilities, but her free potential has hardly been touched. Except her Mind. How could beasts possibly raise a bred slave with Mind like that?”

They just keep going back and forth, pointing out one thing after another about my Status, like I'm not standing right here. Throwing slurs around the entire time. They definitely think I'm a bred slave, despite the numerous issues with the theory.

One of the main question marks is how I picked up Resentment, Hatred, and Vengeance, but they're all so low now. “Maybe she killed the slaver somehow?” one offers.

After discussing for a few minutes, they finally point out the indicator of what brought me here.

“She actually got the Walking skill...” the woman says, shuddering.

“At rank fifteen no less, and Fasting to go with it...” They both look at me with pity plain in their gazes. Given all the walking I already did as an adventurer without getting it, I have an idea why...

“Yumi,” the woman finally addresses me by name. “Follow me, please.” I nod. It still feels really weird, talking to people...

The receptionist takes me to a back room and has me sit down. As soon as I sit, I'm immediately uncomfortable. It's all I can do to keep from standing back up again.

“Yumi, could you please explain what brought you here? We think we have some idea based on your Status, but there are a lot of question marks,” the woman requests kindly.

I just... tell them. Some small part of my mind wonders whether it's a good idea or not, what they might think or do based on what they hear.

The rest of me just doesn't care.

I don't bother with the details, cutting to the main question.

“I was a slave. My master didn't have much longer to live, so she brought me nearby to release me.”

They blink, uncomprehending. “What do you mean, release you? The beasts don't do that.”

I shrug. “It's a really long story. We went through a lot together, and she wanted me to live a better life. That's why she did it.”

“Hmm, I suppose it just got attached to its slave?” the man guesses. The way they're referring to her irks me, but there's not much I can say. I already know how racist humans are. It's not their fault, not really. They just never learned any better.

They're hesitating, unsure how to proceed. Well, I may as well tell them and set things straight. “Also, I'm not a bred slave, I'm an otherworlder.”

That immediately gives them pause. Of course they have no idea if they can believe me, or how to feel about it if they do. Or, the implications if I'm lying.

Switching languages to prove my point, I say, “That's why my Mind is so high, and why I'm fluent in English. It's also why I'm so suited to slavery, but that's a long story too.”

They fumble a moment with my sudden switch, before it looks like it sinks in. They start to get angry over the altraska enslaving me of course, but I set them straight that it was after I'd decided to stay in this world and lost those protections.

But I think I'm at my limit. I'm not used to talking to people, this is starting to make me really anxious. I look up at the man, he feels more in charge than the woman. “U-umm, can I please, uhh, sit or lie down somewhere? I'm really tired...” I request awkwardly.

“Yeah, sure. You've had a long journey, I'm sure you could use some rest.” Then he waves for me to follow, and the receptionists lead me into different room where there are a couple cots set up.

I'm not actually that tired, but I need to at least sit for a while before I think I can deal with people more. So I lie down on one of the small cots, only seeing one or two others in the room already in use.

With a couple small waves, the receptionists leave me be. Just staring at the ceiling and breathing, it's really starting to set in. Now that I'm not focused on walking or forcing myself through conversations, I'm starting to realize how alone I am.

It's just me, no one else. No one to help me or take care of me. I sort of have some idea of what to do, having learned by watching Master, and she taught me stuff like how to cook, but can I really do it all myself?

What about keeping myself fed and clothed? A permanent place to sleep? Clean and groomed and dealing with my periods? I already screwed all that up when I first came to Verilz.

Will I be able to do any better this time? I still had really high dependency listed on my Status when that man looked at it.

Can I really get by without anyone?

I don't know, but lying here, I'm quickly starting to realize that I actually am tired after all. And the little cot feels so much softer than the ground. I don't know if that makes it better or worse, but I don't think it really matters...