As they walked through the woods, Yore and Lucas told Fanner more about the escaped slaves. They had started as a single unit of escaped Soldiers, but over the last few years they had been freeing more slaves and adding to their ranks and now they numbered in the hundreds.
But they were more than just an army. They were a community. They had rescued some slaves simply because they needed help, and over the years several children had been born into the group.
They wanted for it to be a safe place, but they couldn’t guarantee that it would be. One day the humans would gather an army and come to try to stop them once and for all.
Lucas wasn’t really part of the group, though he worked with them. He lived with human bandits who had raised him since he was a baby. That explained why he acted nothing like a Companion. His appearance and behaviour were an odd juxtaposition, but it made Fanner more comfortable than if he’d behaved like a typical Companion. It was hard to trust Companions when one had so readily betrayed him after Fanner had saved his life.
That was why he wasn’t too eager to find out which of the boys from Milaine House had ended up with them. It sounded like it was someone who had mentioned him because they knew he would never be sold, but if it wasn’t Duran then it was nobody he had been close to.
If he were honest, he hadn’t even truly trusted Duran or Danya. He’d loved them dearly, but trust them? No. They’d had their training. If they had found out what Fanner could do, who knows what they would have done. Would their love for him really have been enough to overcome everything they’d been taught?
Yore was also not directly part of that group, though his pack lived nearby and they worked together often. He would be dropping Fanner off and then going back to his own people, and Fanner would be left to figure out where he fit in with a whole new group of people.
Not that he truly understood where he fit in with Yore yet. He had started this whole adventure working under the assumption that Yore was human and had treated him as such, but now that he knew that wasn’t the case, he wasn’t quite sure how to conduct himself. He had been taught very strict rules about how to interact with humans and other mages, but werewolves had never gotten a mention.
Honestly, Fanner wasn’t even quite sure when it came to Lucas. He looked like a Companion, but he didn’t act like one. It made Fanner feel like he ought to treat him with extra respect.
They had told him they were going to an inn, that it was nearby, and that it wasn’t a human inn, but Fanner was surprised when it was just suddenly up ahead tucked in against the mountain. There were some spots where the ground had been worn bare, as though this area received frequent foot traffic, but other than that there hadn’t been much sign of civilisation.
Yore and Lucas led the way inside the inn, and they were immediately greeted by the sounds of music, laughter, and conversation. Fanner’s eyes skimmed the crowd and immediately locked on a very small woman with purple, sparkly wings. She was sitting on the edge of a table, having a conversation with the person next to her like this was all perfectly normal.
The woman with the wings may have been the most eye-catching, but as Fanner looked at each of the patrons more closely, he realised that most of them were at least a little unusual looking. Many of them were extremely short and stocky with thick beards. Individually he might have taken them as simply normal people, perhaps with some sort of medical condition that inhibited growth, but the sheer number of them led him to believe they probably weren’t human.
Something brushed against Fanner’s leg and he looked down, and then instinctively grabbed for Yore’s arm as he stumbled backwards. There was a… a creature, and it was… well, not looking at him, because it had no eyes, but it had touched him and now its face was angled in his direction.
It had hairless grey skin and though it stood on all fours the shape of its body suggested it could have stood up on two. It even sort of had hands. But not eyes. Not a nose. Only a mouth. Yore pulled Fanner back, putting himself between him and the creature.
Lucas, meanwhile, didn’t look in the least bit intimidated. He gave the creature a light smack on the head. “Leave him alone, you bully. He’s scared enough as it is and you know it.”
The creature shook its head like a dog and made a chittering sound. Despite its appearance, it didn’t seem aggressive.
The man tending the bar leant over the counter. He was similarly proportioned to most of the patrons. “Cookie’s not bothering you, is she?”
Yore’s eyebrows lifted. “Cookie?”
“Yeah, don’t let her scare you. She’s harmless.”
“They think it feeds off of emotion,” Lucas explained, giving the creature a shove when it tried to siddle closer to Fanner. “Maybe it’s drawn to Fanner because he’s scared.”
“Hm,” Yore said. “He could do with some of his fear being eaten.”
“If that is what’s going on, it doesn’t seem to work like that. It might be like how mages syphon magic from humans. Or—” Lucas’ eyes cut to Fanner. “Most mages. We don’t take anything away from them, we just absorb what they naturally release.”
Fanner leant out from behind Yore to get a closer look at the creature. “So that’s why it looks scary? To try to make people afraid of it?”
Lucas shot him a grin. “Exactly. It doesn’t even have teeth.”
“Doesn’t even have a digestive tract, so she won’t be eating anyone,” the man at the bar added.
Yore frowned. “I saw it drinking beer earlier.”
“Ah, yeah, she’s gonna throw that up later,” the man at the bar said. “But it’s all right. She knows to go outside and we don’t give her the good stuff.”
Lucas shot Yore a smile. “I dare you to touch its head.”
“Okay?” Yore reached his hand out, gave the creature a perfunctory pat on the head, and then pulled his hand back and made a face. “Eugh.”
Lucas grinned. “It reminds me of a waxed testicle. Cool, clammy, and loose skinned. A little stickier, though.”
“Thanks, you just made it worse.”
“Do you think… can I touch it?” Fanner asked.
“Seems safe enough,” Yore said.
Fanner held his hand out towards the creature like he would a dog. He didn’t want to touch it if it didn’t want to be touched. It looked a little like a dog… sort of? Or maybe a large cat. It also looked a little like a person. And a lot like a monster.
It leant forward and rubbed the side of its face against Fanner’s hand, and then continued moving forward as it rubbed its shoulder and the side of its body all the way up Fanner’s arm. It… wasn’t pleasant. It felt clammy as Lucas had said and much too cool to the touch for a living thing. Fanner imagined this was how a corpse would feel after a few days of decomposition.
But it didn’t seem to be dangerous. It wasn’t even really trying to scare him, though it easily could have. Perhaps it was already getting such a banquet from him that there was no need to scare him more.
“Gross,” Lucas commented. “Anyway, Yore, how about you order us some food while I take Fanner upstairs to change into some clean clothes? He should fit into my stuff. We’re about the same size.”
Yore nodded and turned to Fanner. “You’re okay with going with him, right?”
“I—yes. I mean… to get changed,” Fanner said.
“I’ll be down here waiting. I promise.”
“Thank you, sir,” Fanner said, mumbling the last word because, well… maybe it was strange to be addressing Yore that way now. He didn’t really know. Lucas certainly didn’t seem to feel he needed to treat Yore as a superior.
Fanner followed Lucas upstairs and into a large room at the far end of the hall. It was fancy. The wooden floors in this room had been sanded smooth and varnished, and the cerulean blanket on a large, plush bed matched the curtains and the rug on the floor. Directly across from the bed sat a fireplace and to the side there was a table with enough chairs to seat four people.
Lucas shot Fanner a smile. “Nice, huh? Yore and I share part ownership of this place, so we have this room set aside for when we or any of our friends are passing through.”
Fanner nodded. “It’s very nice.”
Lucas led the way over to a large wardrobe. “Yore would have been happy with something simpler, but I wanted something nice. I play pretend Companion sometimes, so I get to go to all these fancy places, but I’ve always lived on the road, moving between temporary campsites. Even if I’m not here very often, I wanted somewhere to come back to that would make me feel the way this place does.”
“The places I’ve lived have been quite nice,” Fanner said. “Comfortable and clean. None of it has ever been mine, of course, and where I go has been at someone else’s whim.”
“Well,” Lucas said as he opened the door to the wardrobe, “Pick out anything you want. The clothes that are way too big for either of us are Yore’s, but you can take anything of mine you want and you can keep it. It can be yours.”
“Really? But…” Fanner’s eyes skimmed the clothes hanging in the wardrobe. There were some expensive looking robes in there… “I don’t want to take anything expensive or, or anything you really like, or—”
“Take anything you want,” Lucas insisted. “Keep in mind that you still have some travelling to do tomorrow and some of the robes might not be the most practical, but you’re welcome to take one to wear once you’ve settled in if you like. I know a lot of ex-Companions aren’t real comfortable in pants and shirts.”
“N—no, it’s okay. I wasn’t, but I’ve been dressing this way for a while now. It is more practical.”
Lucas nodded. “I prefer it.”
Lucas went and sat down at the table to wait and Fanner was left alone, staring into the wardrobe. Lucas had told him he could have whatever he wanted, but Fanner was still hesitant.
Perhaps he could just decline the offer. He could clean and mend the clothes he was wearing. That was something any Companion was more than capable of. He only hadn’t been because he had been low on energy, but after taking so much from Yore and being mostly healed now, he could surely spare it.
But was that what Lucas wanted from him? For him to decline the offer and let him keep all of his clothes? Fanner didn’t feel like that was the case. He felt like Lucas pitied him and wanted to do something kind for him.
Fanner didn’t deserve the pity or the generosity after all he’d done, but he couldn’t tell Lucas all of it and he wasn’t sure Lucas would condemn him for his actions if he did. These people freed slaves. It was hard to imagine they always found non-violent ways to do that. Would they blame him for killing someone else to keep them from killing him?
No. They would praise him. They would want him to do it again. They would tell him that he’d been willing to do it to save himself, so why would he not do it to save others? But he hadn’t meant to do it at all and he didn’t want to do it again…
“Is this too much?” Lucas asked and Fanner’s head jerked around to look at him. He was supposed to be doing something, but he had just been staring into the wardrobe for several minutes, lost in his own thoughts.
Fanner gave a sharp shake of his head. “No. Sorry. I—I get distracted sometimes. Sorry.”
Lucas nodded. “We were told that about you.”
Fanner swallowed. “I suppose that is what I was best known for.”
“Was? What are you known for now?”
“Nothing, I suppose.”
“Where have you been for the last year? From what I know, there wasn’t any evidence that you’d been sold, but you weren’t at Milaine House anymore. Nobody knew where you’d ended up.”
“They realised I wasn’t a normal Companion and—and I couldn’t be legally sold. Or kept at all. But they were curious, I suppose, so they were—they were testing me. What I could do.”
“And what can you do?”
Fanner shrugged. “What I did to Yore. And then—and then I can use that energy I take, like—like I recover from injuries more quickly, so they hurt me sometimes, and…”
“Did they tie you down?”
Fanner swallowed and nodded. “While they did that. Yes.”
“Ah. Yore didn’t know about that, did he?” Lucas asked, and Fanner shook his head. “He wouldn’t have tied you up if he’d known.”
“He had to. He couldn’t trust me.”
“Well it’s over now anyway, so we don’t have to worry about what he would have done. Yore and the people he’s taking you to really do just want to help you, you know? Nobody’s going to hurt you anymore.”
Fanner nodded as he turned back to the wardrobe. He believed that, at least on a surface level. He didn’t think they were tricking him. He just knew what happened when people realised his ability was more valuable than he was.
He had known Mr Burrows his entire life. Mr Burrows didn’t live at Milaine House, but he’d visited frequently and personally checked in on them. He had insisted they never be beaten or punished cruelly, and even slaves who failed to sell for so long that they would never bring in a profit like Fanner and Danya were never sold off cheaply for less savoury purposes.
But, in the end, it had been Mr Burrows who had instructed a man with no surgical experience to attempt to cut out Fanner’s kidney while he was fully conscious. Any values he might have held had meant nothing when there had been something else he wanted more.
“Here,” Lucas said, and Fanner jumped when he realised he was right beside him. He offered Fanner a shirt. “These pants as well.”
“Oh, um… thank you.”
Lucas put his foot next to Fanner’s and nodded, satisfied. “Take those leather boots in the corner there as well. They’ll serve you well. The ones you’re wearing weren’t made for this kind of terrain.”
Fanner looked down at his shoes. Lucas wasn’t wrong. The soles had started to come unstuck on both of them. They had been good shoes, just not for this.
“Thank you,” Fanner said again. “I just, I wasn’t sure…”
Lucas waved away his concern. “No, I know that was a bit much to throw at you. You were trained as a Companion. It’s hard for you to put yourself first.”
Fanner shook his head, but he didn’t say anything. If only Lucas knew just how much he was doing exactly that.
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