LENA OF FOXKIN

How did it get to this? I thought to myself. How did they find us?

It was no use thinking about it. Our current mission was to observe the comings and goings of Boren to ascertain whether they were planning on launching an offensive against us, or any surrounding cities and towns. Unfortunately, we failed and were subsequently caught and brought to the dungeons.

They had separated us into two groups, one was taken away towards a different section of the dungeon and the other was in this cell. There were thirteen of us in the large cell. We could hear screaming from the direction the others were sent and knew that nothing good was to come of our imprisonment.

In human countries, beastkin were hunted and were either enslaved or executed. They deemed us as lesser than them and treated us horribly. Many a beastkin had lost family members to the humans and many despised them. Our reaction to seeing a human was to either flee and hope we weren’t spotted, or to kill them. No beastkin had communicated with humans in a long time, and none were likely to in the coming years.

Soldiers brought us pieces of stale bread and pitchers of dirty water occasionally. On one of the visits, a soldier laughed as he told us about our brethren. “They’re all dead!” He said and continued to laugh as he walked away. Even though all of our brethren were supposedly dead, we still heard screams from the same direction they had been sent. If the soldier had been telling the truth, who was the one screaming?

Roughly a week had passed, is what my body told me as I stood and stretched in my cell. Many of the others had lost hope to ever see the outside again, and to be honest I wasn’t that far behind. If I had to guess the time, I would say that it was night. I had no way to see outside, nor did I know any utility magic to tell the time. I just had a feeling, instincts maybe? I had thought that this night would pass like every other in this prison. Then, I heard screaming.

Soldiers ran towards the direction of the screaming. They had panicked faces and had already drawn their weapons in preparation for a fight. Sounds of clashing steel and screams rang through the musty corridors and reached our cell.

Then it stopped.

There was silence.

My hair stood on end and my instincts screamed danger.

A soldier staggered towards my cell, bleeding heavily from a wound in his stomach. He had a fearful expression and was trying to move as quickly as he could as if he was trying to escape. What is he running from? I thought to myself as the answer became clear. Someone or something was approaching the cell and the soldier; and its aura, screamed death.

A clawed hand sprang from the darkness and wrapped itself around the soldiers neck. The hand was attached to… a man? A beast? I wasn’t sure what I was looking at until it had come into the light. It was a man with sharp claws on each hand and foot. He wore tattered pants and no shirt. He had horrific scars all over his body. It looked like he had been cut a thousand times, then burned. All of the cuts looked as if they had been cauterized. He was covered in blood from head to toe, whether it was his own or not was another question entirely.

He held the soldier by the neck and stared at him coldly. The soldier squirmed and begged for his life. “Please don’t kill me, it isn’t my fault I swear.”

“Where was the mercy when you tortured me huh?” The man asked, his words dripping with malice. “You humans are filth, every single one of you. I am disgusted that I share the same race.”

“Please let me g-” The soldier never finished as the man squashed his throat. He looked at the dying soldier in his grip, then threw him at the wall opposite the cell where I could hear his bones shatter.

I watched the man closely. If what he said is to be taken at face value, he was a human who despised other humans. He didn’t look human, he had claws dripping with blood. Suddenly the man arched his back and screamed. The claws began to retract into his fingers and disappeared. He was breathing heavily and the wounds that had been burned shut, began to crack and blood began to seep out and down his body.

He staggered over to the body of the dead soldier and rummaged through his uniform. He then stood up and walked haphazardly towards our cell. I began to back away from the bars of the cell and watched as he approached the door. He pushed a key into the lock, turned it and with a click he pushed the cell door open. He looked at us warily and staggered inside, leaning against the wall. He looked us over, and collapsed.

Blood dripped from his wounds and began to pool around his fallen figure. I cautiously watched to see if he would wake up and move but he didn’t. I slowly started to walk over to him. “Lena! What are you doing?” I turned to see a hairy faced man with long whiskers looking at me. That was Rode of Tigerkin.

“I'm checking to see if he is alright.” I replied.

“That human is dangerous, why would you help him?” He made a valid point.

“He opened our cell door when he had no obligation to do so, and you heard what he said. He hates humans.”

Ignoring the protests from many of my brethren, I walked over to the collapsed man and looked him over. He had numerous wounds all over his body and many were dripping with blood. I was no magician, but there was a certain Tigerkin who was capable of lesser healing magic. I beckoned to Selce to come over. She hesitantly approached and squatted down next to me. “What is it?” She asked.

“Please use your healing magic to close his wounds. I know you cannot do more than that but at least stop the bleeding.” I told her. She started to shake her head and refuse. I grabbed her hand and said “Please Selce, for me.” She relented and began to cast her healing magic to close the wounds of the man who had saved them.