“My name’s Jack.” The snake man said.

Jack. It’s more normal than I expected.

“I’m Ai.”

He gave a crooked grin.

“It’s nice to meet you Ai.”

Ai stared at him. He was bent under the weight of her dead friend and saying it was nice to meet her? Something in him was clearly broken. She certainly couldn’t act so casual about carrying a dead person on her shoulders.

“What are you doing here?” Ai asked shortly. She wasn’t in the mood for games.

“I’m helping you carry your friend back to wherever you came from. Where is that, by the way?” Ai gave him a hard look, her blue eyes dark in contrast to her pale face.

Jacks upper lip curled back slightly as he spoke, revealing the pointed tips of his teeth. “I was a slave. There aren’t a lot of people that look like me, and people payed to experience the ferocity of the half-breed.” He looked her up and down. “They’d pay for you too, but I doubt it would be for fighting.”

Hot coals burned in Ais stomach. “I doubt they pay just to see you fight.”

He gave her a feral grin. “They tried, but you don’t crawl into bed with a beast without getting hurt.”

“Unless the beast can’t fight back.”

Jacks mouth got pinched and his eyes dark.

“What would you know?”

Ai looked away, hiding her expression of surprise. She had been making jabs, but she hadn’t really expected any of them to land.

“What were you doing in the cart?”

“Am I under investigation?”

Ai resisted the urge to grit her teeth. “No, but there were lots of dead people there.”

He raised an eyebrow, angry Jack turning once again to the one who didn’t seem to take things seriously.

“You think that I’m strong enough to rip people in half? That’s mighty flattering.”

“That’s not what I- if you didn’t do it, who did?”

He rolled his eyes, which looked plain wrong on his reptilian face.

“I think you mean what. I have no doubt you already knew there’s a monster in this area, you seem like a local.” His eyes lingered on her hide clothing.

“And what did it look like?”

“Lots of teeth, wings. Angry. The usual.”

“You don’t seem very upset.”

“I’ve seen worse.” He shrugged, Ermines body shifting on his shoulders. “Besides, it did me a favour.”

Ai sighed, letting go of the tension in her shoulders. There was no reason to be so suspicious, except that he was so casual about death, but if he was some sort of gladiator slave it would make sense.

“What are you going to do? Once we get back I mean.”

“Well, I was hoping I might impose on your generosity. I don’t have much, and I doubt I’d survive in the wild.” His gaze went distant. “I have nothing.”

Ai nodded, well aware he had nothing. Her eyes were having trouble staying above waist height.

“Do you- where do you come from?”

“I have no idea.” He drew out the O, not sounding upset at all.

“Not even a hint?”

“Well, if the humans are to be believed my mother was cursed to give birth to a monster, half man half snake. There are lots of theory’s, but none have really struck true with me.”

Ai nodded understandingly. It was the first time she had met someone who could sympathise with her own situation, even if they did have very different backgrounds.

“The villagers…” Ai paused, unsure that she wanted to share. “They say that my mother was rutted by a beast.”

“Yup, I’ve heard that one before. I’ve yet to meet any of these mythical, cursed mothers that fuck animals though.”

There was a moments silence between them, filled with the rustling of leaves and their footsteps on the undergrowth.

“Are we close?”

“Yeah. We’ll be there soon. What’s the first thing you remember?”

Jack took a moment to respond. “Waking up in a cave.”

“How long ago?”

“Don’t know. I didn’t count. Too busy trying to stay alive.”

“Right.” Ai cleared her throat. “So you were some sort of gladiator then?”

“Something like that. What sort of place are we heading to?” Ai allowed the change in subject.

“A village. The villagers call themselves the spirit people.”

“Ahh, I’ve heard of them. They were usually called less flattering names though.”

“Have you met a lot of people?”

“I saw a lot. I was in a city, and on my way to another one when my owner went under.”

“I can’t even imagine.” Ais voice went slightly dreamy.

“It wasn’t that great. And it smelt.”

“Right.” Ai said, letting images flow through her head of great stone buildings with smooth glass like the ones she sometimes saw in dreams.

“I assume you’re the same as me. No past, part animal waking up in the middle of nowhere.”

“Yeah.” Ai grimaced. Those first few days hadn’t been the best of her life.

The village appeared behind a group of trees, and she heard somebody cry out.

They had been spotted.

Up until that moment, Ai had been doing a great job of ignoring Ermines corpse, but now she couldn’t help but stare at it.

His body was limp and his whole head was red with blood. It must’ve been seeping out of his neck as we walked. He looks terrible. I so didn’t think this through. Maybe we should’ve cleaned him first.

That’s ridiculous, and it would’ve looked suspicious. Why would it look suspicious? It’s not like I killed him. I didn’t exactly help him either.

Her stomach clenched.

Will they blame me?

Questions started to flood through Ais mind. She wasn’t ready for this. Any of this.

“Are you OK?” Jack was giving her a funny look, which made her worry what she looked like.

She felt like all the blood had drained from her face, and her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. She shook them, but nothing changed. Irritated, she fastened them together.

“I’m fine.” A greater lie had never been told.

They kept walking, and Ermines head swung back and forth with each step. She could feel Jack staring at her out of the corner of her eye but she ignored it.

Oddly, he felt like a comfort to her now. She had barely known him five minutes. A guard ran from the gate, heading for them.

Ai steeled her nerves. I can do this.