Three years have passed since that day. Mia and the others were transported to the holy kingdom, directly to its capital of Eldaha. Mia did not get to see much of it from inside the carriage and was soon sold off to a slave merchant.

The world as she knew it shrank, as she spent the next few years inside cages. At first she was the top exotic merchandise, the last to be sold during a grand auction, where she was forced to wait in the backrooms hearing the excited yelling as her fellow villagers were sold off before her. Then came her turn, finding herself presented in front of a crowded room filled to the brim with humans clamoring to claim her.

Her final price was set to five million gold.

Her buyer was a fat noble who lived on the outskirts of the capital, living off the tax he collected from his sizable land. The noble was a pervert, a bastard who enjoyed physical ‘teasing’ the young Mia with his favorite whip. When he wasn’t doing that in his backroom, he had her as his trophy maid. Showing favoritism despite his beatings, this confused and angered Mia but due to the collar and strict orders, had no way to vent.

To add onto this, the other maids who only saw the favoritism, would play pranks on the poor fox. Often messing with her uniform or blaming messes on her to get her into trouble, this would often lead to more ‘teasing’ sessions that got worse as the months went on. But all that changed one night.

The master was drunk, and in his drunkenness gave a sloppy order to Mia during a teasing session. He got tired of her lack of emotion, frustrated at the collar for limiting it and in the moment forgot the importance of it. He gave one simple order “Come my dear! Scream! Let me hear your screams of joy from my love! I order you to be free to express yourself as much as I love you!”

Mia, finding herself free from her master’s order leaped at the chance and assaulted him, clawing away at him until he regained enough soberness to reinstate his control over Mia. After a swift beating, the next day Mia was returned to the slave dealer covered in scars and bruises.

One month in a dark cage and undergoing slave education, along with some healing magic to cover some of the scars, Mia found herself back on the auction stage, this time displayed second to last with the top prize being a mermaid from some far-off land. Still, the merchant was clever. Promoting Mia’s strong points while avoiding the topic of how she was returned goods, the last noble hiding his shame of being overpowered by a mere slave helped in that matter. Still, there were a few that recognized her from the last time and held their bids for the mermaid instead.

Her final price was two million gold.

This times buyer was a rich old noble woman, who in her old age required help getting around but found others as untrustworthy so chose someone who couldn’t betray her. She purchased Mia and another handful of slaves and had them do chores around the mansion, with Mia herself directly in charge or keeping the old woman company.

Mia was treated as another trophy maid, or a better way to put it in this case was she was simply nothing more than a pet to the women. She hardly did any chores, rarely left the women’s side, and often either fed her or got fed by her. She found herself in the unique position that a lot of slaves hoped for, to be in the lap of luxury.

She expected this seat to be the ire of her fellow slaves, but due to their own well-off positions did not seem to care. The only downside to this owner was the strict orders preventing action outside of what the women told them to do, but besides that it was good living… if they ignored the fact they were slaves.

But all good things must come to an end, a year later the women fell ill and quickly perished. All slaves returned to the merchant. Mia was back in a cage waiting for the next auction.

Her third auction was not as great, Mia was now a known face at the auctions and having two previous owners didn’t do the merchant any favors. Mia wasn’t even in the top 5 to be sold that night, and despite the merchants’ efforts the untimely death of her last master had rumors developing around the girl.

Her final price was five hundred thousand gold.

This last master was nothing to write home about. He was a small time noble who had a particular fetish towards beastmen, something he made clear on the way home while eyeing his prizes in the backseat. He had purchased 3 beastmen that night and was proud of the diversity of his catch. A fox, rabbit, and cat who he was looking forward to ‘breaking in’.

Once inside his mansion the first thing that was noticeable were his numerous other slaves, all lined up near the front entrance that greeted their master with a “welcome home master” and a bow. Mia however, noticed their dead eyes, void of any hope. This sent a shiver down her spine as she was lead with the other new slaves to a master bedroom.

He ordered the Mia and the cat to stand near the wall, issuing another maid to set the mood, the maid lighting several candles around the room as her master then ordered the bunny to lay down on the bed and prepare for the time of her life. What came next was far worse then the teasing her first master did, tools were brought out, knives, scissors, scalpels, and a thin metal rod with a heated tip.

Mia was forced to watch the scene set before her, as the man experimented with the girls body. Making cuts to her long ears then healing the cut with magic, testing how far they would stretch, how much they would bend. Then his experiments went more… internal… trying to find out the difference between a beastman and a normal human woman.

Mia seeing this, thought back to the maids by the entrance, their dead eyes… all of them have been through this and she was likely next in line. Looking at the insides of the bunny’s stomach and imagining herself in her place terrified her. Her collar tightened as she began to move, shocking her as she grabbed a nearby candle. She ignored all of this and through the pain and suffocation she threw the candle towards the bed, igniting it.

Screaming the man ordered maids to come into the room to put out the fire, he then became terrified of Mia, a slave who acted out against their master? He had no need for such a risk. The sight of Mia terrified him, and he ordered his servants to place her in the dungeon and then return her the next day.

The noble made a big scene at the slave house, demanding a refund despite what the contract he signed had said. Making a big deal of how his life was in danger, how he could of died, the beast is mad, or how he was now traumatized towards foxes. Eventually he got his refund, at the cost of his scene causing the rumors surrounding Mia to solidify. Marking her as a cursed slave.

Despite this, the merchant after a few months of education tried to auction Mia to no success. She was then placed as floor goods, by the front entrance in a cage when people walked in, when no one showed any interest after a few more months she was left in the back to rot. A few times someone who is looking for some cheap fun would come back there, pick a few broken slaves and spend the night beating them before returning them.

But Mia even got a foul reputation when it came to that, as she would fight back despite the collar, often managing to claw at her assaulter’s face, who would angerly beat her harder before returning her the next day, back into her dark cage in the corner. Unwilling to pay the fees for killing her.

That brings us to the present day, three years have passed since Mia has been a slave. Who is now laying down in her metal cage, the eleven year old awaiting her death. It had been almost a full year since she had last been bought, and her meals were progressively getting worse and less often. She scoffed to herself, laying face down she wondered back to that day. Wondered if her father and sister made it out? Were they looking for her? Or did they too, get captured?

She sighed, not like it matters now… but she hoped for the best, looking forward to seeing her mother soon. She closed her eyes, thinking to take a nap since there was nothing better to do when she started hearing yelling, one voice she recognized as the merchants.

“Sir I insist! We have better slaves up front! What are you doing?!”

Mia perked up. While having unruly customers wasn’t uncommon, the merchant sounded especially panicked. Which was unlike him, he knew how to deal with the unruly young noble or uppity merchant…

“No! It cannot be one of these! You have a back room don’t you? No point in hiding it from me!”

The next voice was male, by the sound of it young. So it was just an uppity noble? Still doesn’t explain much.

“Those are nothing more then cheap merchandise! Low rated or problem slaves! Not suited for someone of your status!”

“I still don’t understand why you are so persistent with having a slave… the kingdom can provide you with any number of strong companions…”

“Exactly! What I am looking for is there! And I cannot trust some random knight to protect me and fight by my side, he will only care about his paycheck! What I need is a companion that will stay by my side! Oh fuck this, its back here right? I’ll just go check myself.”

“Sir I insist the higher quality! Stop this at once!”

The first voice was the merchant, second sounded female? And last was the young man again. What is that, he cant trust so he is just gets a slave that is forced to listen to him? Hah, what a joke. Mia then notice the door open in the front of the room. A young man wearing a cape followed by the slave merchant and a bored looking woman in a fancy dress following behind him as he scanned the contents of each cage, ignoring the pleading of the slave merchant to stop.

Eventually the man stopped in front of her cage, a smile spreading on his face.

“Found you, my soulmate.”