In a dark and damp room

A few weeks after the horrific raid of the the small village River Hamlet Cait woke up in a small room. It was cramped inside as it was filled with all the captivated women from the village. Day after day night after night the women were used like toys to entertain the soldiers an make their stay less uncomfortable.

They lived the lifes of slaves having lost track of time as it felt a never ending nightmare they were unable to wake up from.

Cait on the other hand was kept away from the rest of the soldiers to serve as entertainment for the rat-man and the mage but could nonetheless feel the burning desire in the soldiers eyes whenever she made her way to the capt'ns room.

Normally the two men would take her and then toss her aside when they quenched their desire.

Today was no different day. They had used her and tossed her aside where she would roll up into an embryonic position and try to find comfort in her sleep hoping to forget the feeling of pain and despair.

While she was trying to fall asleep she heard the heated discussion of the capt'n and the mage.

"Why the fuck are we unable to find the Nexus? It should have been a piece of cake to find it since the magical signature was so strong and we know that we are at the right place for sure. So where is it?!!!" the capt'n spoke with an enraged voice while clenching his teeth together as an expression of his fury.

"I don't understand this either. I will send an a raven to the academy to discuss with them our further approach and check if they have any theories which explain why we are unable to locate the Nexus." The mage said with a froan.

He truly couldn't understand this. This was not his first time locating a Nexus so his failed attempt to find it enraged him just as much as it did the capt'n who felt uncomfortable in this backwater village.

"Yes, do that. And tell those mages to hurry the fuck up. I know just too well that they forget the time when they brush through their tomes or do whatever you do down there in the halls of your Necropolis."

Cait was brought back to the "cage" as the women called the room and fell into a numbing, dreamless sleep.

As Cait was still indulding in her soothing dreams she was forced to wake up as she felt vomit rise in her throat. She rushed to the toilet and threw up. She never had to vomit in the morning before so she instinctively knew what this meant for her. She was pregnant.

Over the last few weeks she had seen a few women become pregnant and saw the tears fall down their cheaks. Now she was one of them and didn't really know how to handle this situation. In the past she had tried to get pregnant from her husband but failed and now she got pregnant from one of her rapists.

Walking back to her provisional bed she lied down and started to sort out her feelings for her soon to be child.

Over the past few months Caits pregnancy had become more obvious to the eye as her belly grew bigger and bigger.

But the treatment she had received from the capt'n and the mage before her pregnancy didn't diminish the least bit as if they didn't give a damn about the tiny life that took shape inside of her to begin with.

One day after they were done with her yet again, she heard them talk about the Nexus once more.

"I've received another raven from the academy. After I've told them about all the methods we tried to locate the Nexus and still failed they said that we should wait for the coming new moon since the magic would increase on that day naturally. Should we still fail then we are to come back to the capital to not waste any more time." the mage said to the capt'n while sipping some wine out of a silver cup and leaning back in his chair, still marveling about the woman he just had. Strangely he never got tired of her before by slowly did. As if she was enchanted to enhance his instincts for reproduction or something like that and now that she had become pregnant it was just gone.

What the mage didn't realise or more accurately couldn't realise was the slowly fading violet light which would have diminished fully by the time the new moon arrive. If he had he may have realised that he was subjected to a summoning ritual to get a certain woman pregnant. All the clues were given but he still failed to recognise it as if he was looking through a veil of mist clouding his perceiption.

Soon the new moon arrived and on this fateful day it just so happened that Caitlyns veins started and she gave birth to a boy.

Even though she new the boy was the child of one of her rapists she still loved him nonetheless. Now that she had become a mother and her son was lieing in her arms sleeping peacefully she reverted back to her past self. Her caring soul which had been suppressed by all the suffering she had to go through in the past months had regained its former light to illuminate the darkness that clouded this place.

A few hours later on the evening of the new moon a group of soldiers entered "the cage". As they looked around with gloomy eyes telling stories of their ill intentions the soldier at the front spoke with a rasp voice: "My apologies ladies but those are the capt'ns orders!"

Sounds of metal scraping against metal sounded as one soldier after the other drew their sounds and started walking towards the women who realised what was about to happen and began stumble backwards away from their impending doom.

Cait pressed herself into a corner on the far left the furthest away from the soldiers. With the eyes of a tigress wanting to protect her new born child she tried to think of a way to escape this predicament. As she saw the soldiers rush up to the women who screamed and pleaded for merci she saw her chance and made her way to the door in the back of the soldiers pressing herself against the wall and holding her son tightly.

Every step hurt since it was just a few hours ago that she had given birth and was thus greatly weakened but nonetheless she clenched her teeth and endured the pain.

Just as she was about to pass through the door she saw one of the soldiers who just had struck down a woman in front of him turn around and make eyecontact with her. Not hesitating any longer she sprinted out of the door only to hear the soldier scream that one of the hostages had escaped.

"After her, come on guys. If the capt'n hears that we let one escape then we are bound to get one hell of a punishment. So move your asses and follow me!!!" the soldier yelled at his companions who winzed at the thought of the punishment.

Who would want to go through this rough treatment for nothing more than a damn sex slave!?

Cait sprinted to the village entrance holding her son tightly to her chest while her heart was hammering in her chest as if trying to burst out and run away as fast as possible.

She kept on runing and runing ignoring the stinging pain in her chest but still feeling the breath of her predators in her neck. She accelerated yet again only to trip and nearly fall to the ground. She caught herself and kept on running. Just away from here!

She heard the soldiers screaming in her back: "Stop right there you fucking slut!" but she ignored the cursing and yelling and just kept on running. The trees became mere silhouttes in the night seeming to guide her in a certain direction even though she knew that was not possible.

After around 15 minutes she reached the river the village was build at. She knew it was impossible to cross it for her so she looked around to look for a way to make the impossible possible. As she looked around she saw a wooden trunk lieing there with a hole in the middle. As she looked at the naturally build basket a crazy idea started to take shape in her mind. She grabed the trunk and dragged it over hoping that she was doing the right thing.

She kneeled down near the river with the trunk placed in front of her. She looked down at her child that was sleeping peacefully in her arms reluctant to part with him and yet knowing that it was the only way for him to survive.

She gave him a gentle kiss on his tiny head while tears started to fall down her cheaks knowing she would never see him grow into a young man and maybe have a family on his own one day. The pain she felt when she had to leave him alone in this big and unforgiving world was nearly unbearable for her as she careully placed him into the wooden trunk.

One last look and she pushed him out onto the river while trying to suppress the cry that was about to leave her lips to not wake him up and let him be discovered.

She watched the trunk slowly glide down the river while hearing swords being drawn in her back but she ignored them. All she saw was the trunk carying her son to safety.

She felt a sharp pain on her throat and as she looked down she saw her blood flow down her neck. Struggling to breath she collapsed onto her side while still keeping her eyes on the horizon where her son had disappered to.

In her last moments she heard a calm and soothing voice whispering into her ear saying: "Do not worry for your son for he will be taken good care of."

Somehow she knew that she could trust the words the voice spoke to her and with a smile on her face she closed her eyes drifted into the mists joining her husband to watch over her son from the next world.

The child gilded down the river in the wooden trunk accompanied by the soothing sounds of the wind playing with the nearby leafs fallen down from the trees and the gurgling of the water down below. The child now awake looked around with wide eyes taking in all the wonders and the beauty that surrounded his little ship. Giggling it felt the wind touch his face and felt the cool sensation on his skin that seemed to play with him. Relocating his vision it looked up at the stars to see the shimmering firmament enlighten his way and surrounding drowning it in a gentle white light.

After satisfying its hunger of looking at the stars the child turned its head slightly to the side in the direction of a tiny hill.

The new moon was here and the ancestral ritual had led Lyca through the wild forests of the old lands once again until she reached the hill where she was told to wait for the boy she was going to raise in the future.

She gazed at the moon and the stars taking in the gentle soozing light and observed the vast plains of the border region looking for any signs of a little human child.

Just as she was about to take a walk to look through the surrounding to not overlook the child she cast her eyes on the river to her left and caught sight of a tiny wooden trunk that was gliding above the river. She focused her gaze on the trunk and discovered a pair of light blue eyes staring at her in amazement.

She truly was not used to the shape of the humans and had a dislike for their race just like the rest of her pack but this human child looked so innocent and untainted of the worlds dirt that she couldn't avert her eyes. After a few seconds she caught herself again and started to walk down the hill. She walked into the river and used her nose to guide the trunk to the shore which seemed to amuse the little human since it started to giggle. A little hand grabed at her nose and curiously ruffled her fur only to giggle once more.

Lyca being amused and starting to like this little human boy pushed his little trunk onto the shore and grabed the linen clothes the child was wrapped into with her mouth carefully not to hurt her little protegee and carried it off and disappearing into the forests of the old lands.