The Road to Freedom

  • Thread starter The Rainbow Cat Bandit
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"Yes, I am." Hannah replied with a half-smile on her face.
She stretched out and rested the knife down onto the cutting board, giving her hands a quick break. She must have sliced thirty carrots in a matter of minutes. Once her wrists felt a bit more at ease, she began to fill the bucket up again with pieces of sliced carrot. There had already been one bucket taken off not too long ago. She'd successfully filled that one to the brim. Now she was at work with filling the next one.

Katarina looked towards Sarah, trying to read her expression. She gave a simple nod and turned back into her half-human half-fox form in which she had the normal body of a human, but still had the ears and tail of her fox form. Staying in this state of limbo made it easier to transform into her fox form if she needed to. She wasn't the slightest bit scared of the tiger, even though she should have been. Though since Sarah was showing hesitancy, she didn't want to risk a fight that could end up poorly if she wasn't fully dedicated. Whatever the matter, it was probably best to avoid a scrap. She leaned against the wall, not really caring about what the puny weretiger would think of them for peacefully backing down from the fight, though it wasn't from fear.
 
"It is nice to meet you, though of course this is an unfortunate place to meet. Anyways, my name is Damian. What is yours, young lady?"the vampire man greeted politely as he chopped carrots.
Maria listened quietly and chopped carrots with as much ease as Hannah was. The little dog headed girl wasn't as fast, but she was also quiet.
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Sarah did the same by taking a half form. In this form she had her wolf ears, eyes, claws, and a tail hidden currently under her cloak. Even as a trained fighter, she knew she had some boundaries and enough common sense to know the giant tiger wasn't to be overlooked now. With her blades and in an open space, he'd be easy to pick off. But she had neither those things and was in a situation were a wound of any severity would be a major drawback.
The weretiger offered a final snarl before he took a half form too and sat down again with a glare and a huff.
Sarah sat a few feet away from the tiger in the other back corner of the cell, as the tier occupied the parallel back corner. He gave the werewolf a skeptikal look, but Sarah had only sat close to remind him that she didn't fear him, even though that wasn't entirely true.
 
"Indeed it is. My name is Hannah. Nice to meet you, Damian." Hannah looked up from her carrot slicing and gave the vampier a small sand friendly smile, returning the same politeness that he had given her earlier.

Katarina let out a small sigh and tilted her head back in boredom. There was nothing to do in this cell. She was starting to feel rather hungry. She hadn't eaten in a few days, this would definitely affect her performance in the arena. She just hoped that whenever they were eating, that it would be before a fight. That would be the most preferable of circumstances, though she knew not to put her hopes on anything. They were dealing with humans, afterall. Katarina laid down onto the cold stone floor and wrapped her tail around to her front, hugging it and curling up to where her knees seemed to be reaching her tail as well. She was rather cold, and began to shiver almost unnoticeably as she began to fall asleep. She didn't realize how much she took cuddling with Hannah for granted up until now, when she actually needed it....when she actually wanted it.
 
Damien nodded politely in response to the reply and continued his work. The workers went along with chopping for a while until the carrots were gone and were replaced with peppers to slice. Maria had a brief discussion with Damien and they decided upon how they should cut the peppers. They decided to slice them carefully, but not finely. Maria kindly instructed the dog girl, who nodded and went about her work with nimble hands. Then Maria turned to Hannah and with a simple look she seemed to question weather the girl knew how to cut them as it had been decided to do.
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Sarah was too worried to sleep, but leaned her head back a bit and thought. Oh geez...She'd never stop hating herself from being careless enough to get into this mess, but pitying and insulting herself wouldn't help. It was a waste of time when she could at least try to escape and keep her spirits up in any way, even if it did seem hopeless it was still better than wallowing. Her mind wondered to what her guild members and close friends would so once they discovered she didn't return. In her line of business they assumed the person captured or dead and moved on with life, ever hoping to find them again.
Her thoughts were int erupted when a guard showed up with a tray that had three bowls. The slave masters purchased food for their specific slaves and the guards merely delivered it. The cell opened only for enough time to slide in three wooden bowls filled with some sort of meat and carrot stew that was a bit warm as well as a chunk of grainy, hard bread. The weretiger got up quickly and grabbed his bowl, knowing better than to try to steal the food of the girls. He went back to his corner and sat down. Sarah got up and returned to sitting with the remaining bowls, setting one in front of Kat and keeping hers in her lap. She eyed the contents suspiciously. It smelled like meat, so she'd eat it. She had eaten tree bark and deer entrails as a meal, so she could probably stomach this stuff. Food was energy, and energy was vital. Hmm..no utensil though. Fine. They wanted her to act and eat like an animal, so she would. After all, she was partially one. She lifted her bowl to her mouth and took a sip.
 
Hannah had already started cutting the peppers in the way that she'd been instructed. She had to make a mental note that she shouldn't touch her face anytime soon, otherwise she would have to work with burned eyes, and that would definitely be a catastrophe. She cut the peppers up to standard and began putting the pieces into a newer bucket that had been provided in place of the bucket of carrots that had been there recently. Due to the smaller size of the peppers, she was able to cut through those a lot quicker. Even though she hadn't been working long, she wondered when she was going to get to sleep. She wanted rest, though she knew her living conditions would probably be horrid. She also wanted a nice meal. She wanted home, that's what she wanted.

Katarina took the bowl in her lap and stared over at the bony hellhound in the corner, who hadn't really moved much since she'd gotten into the cell. She felt a medium amount of pity for the hound, not knowing what to do. Should she share her only food source with the dog? Perhaps not....she needed the energy. There was also the silent mental debate that went on in her head whether or not an all-bone hellhound would even have any use of food to begin with. Disgregarding any sort of pity she felt for the dog, she picked up her bowl of soup and brought it to her face, sipping from it. She had no problem eating like this, not even caring for the lack of utensils. It was quicker to eat this way, and this is how she often ate when the silverware was unclean in Hannah and her's house. In no time, the food was gone. She'd effectively devoured the entire bowlful of stew. It wasn't the best food she'd had to eat, but it definitely wasn't the worst. It was certainly a lot better than starving, that was for damn sure. She would take just about anything over the concept of starving to death in this concrete jungle of a prison. She had been thoroughly dissauded against any attempts to escape the prison when she'd seen how high the security on the place was. If they were able to contain this many mythics without any of them escaping, that was some sort of a miracle. Unless there was a some sort of careful and well-thought-out plan, Katarina decided that there was most likely no leaving this place. The only way you'd leave this place was dead. Whether that be from attempted escape or from getting killed in the arena was simply a case-by-case scenario, but she wasn't willing to risk it unless she knew that she could make it out.
 
Hannah wouldn't have to worry too much because the person that wrote about the peppers neglected to mention they were bell peppers and has also accidentally broken the fourth wall while clarifying this. Maria and the others worked in general silence, listening to the clutter and shouts of others in the kitchen speeding around in preparation for the last minute meal. Damien decided to make some more conversation, "So..where are you from, Hannah?"he asked, not looking up from his work. His red eyes were focused on his work still.
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Soon a guard returned and threw a large femur bone through the barred cell front and it landed with a loud thunk at the front paws of the withdrawn looking bony hellhound. Its spade tipped tail wagged slightly and it lifted its head, sniffing its prize. It seemed this creature had no real use for flesh, only bones and the marrow inside of them. He parted his jaws slightly to reveal a mouth full of large, thick teeth, the ones needed for crushing bones. Sarah had looked up upon the noise to see this and quietly noted how its teeth managed to almost dwarf the werewolf's own fangs.
The hellhound proceeded to bite into the bone and used its teeth to crush and grind pieces before it swallowed. Sarah disregarded the noise as she took slow sips of her stew, but the weretiger seemed ready to bop the half skeletal, half red, leathery muscled hellish hound. It looked to the feline with black pupil less orbs where its eyes should be. Then it returned to its crunching.
 
"I come from the forests of Zewanni. My twin sister and I had a cottage there. But yeah. What about you, where are you from?" Hannah asked with intrigue as she continued to cut the bell peppers. She was now just grabbing multiple at a time and cutting them all up, then finally shoving them down to the bucket which was now significantly closer to herself, all she had to do really was slide them off of the table and they would fall directly into the bucket.

Katarina began to feel a little bit less guilty now that the hound had something to eat. She observed as the hound and the weretiger seemed to have some sort of feud going on almost over the sound of the crunching of the bone. To be honest, it was quite intimidating. Katarina would wince at each crunch of the bone, trying to imagine if that was her own. She definitely didn't want to have any problems with the hound. If anything, she wanted it as her ally if there was to be any sort of escape. After observing the situation for a few seconds, she went back to eating, very quickly drinking the broth out of the bowl and then finally laying it down beside her. She now felt a bit more content and warm-bellied. Laying down once more, she began to try to go to sleep, but the ground was still very cold and she was having a hard time trying to sleep in such discomfort.
 
"I'm from the outskirts of Zewanni in the Blood Tooth mountain range. I ran a potions shop there with my family..."Damien said before sighing. "My family..bless them. Anyways, is your twin sister somewhere here with you?"Damien added, covering up any traces of sadness he may have shown.
Maria worked silently, eyes occasionally looking upwards to look at Damien and Hannah. Occasionally she'd also make sure that the little dog girl was doing well because Maria seemed to watch out for most everyone.
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The hound finished up its bone and the weretiger seemed to relax. He closed his eyes, but the whiskers on his face as well as his ears twitched on occasion to indicate he was still alert and not to be taken advantage of. Sarah finished her stew and picked a bit of fat from the meat from where it had been temporarily stuck near one of her canine fangs. Then she leaned back and sighed. She didn't get too much peace because a guard approached the cell and rapped on the metal bars with their iron capped knuckles.
Sarah looked up and offered a low growl and the weretiger hissed. It seemed though the two werecreatures had their disagreements, they still shared a common enemy. "Calm down, cat. I came for the wolf bitch and the fox one too."a voice rasped under the dark face mask of the guard.
Bitch? who did he think he was? Sarah was no female dog, a wolf...but there are many differences. She growled a bit louder, lips pulled back.
"I will have no more trouble. Come to the bars and let me handcuff you."the guard ordered.
Of course Sarah didn't budge.
 
"I have no idea where my sister is." Hannah said with a regretful sigh. Hannah's knuckled turned white from the intense grip she had on it as she continued to cut the peppers and slide them off of the wooden chopping/cutting board and into the iron bucket just beneath the table. "I haven't seen her since we were seperated at the.....wherever the hell we were before I was transported here. She could be dead for all I know." Hannah was talking as if this were just another conversation, but her body language and her mental status at the moment were obvious contradictory signals that everything was in fact not okay with her. Though she had a feeling that there were those here who had things far worse than her. Afterall, they had all been here longer than she, it seemed.

By the time that the guard had arrived at the gate, Katarina had long since given up on sleep. As the guard insulted the pair, Katarina got into a poised fighting position on her palms and the tips of her toes, as if she were ready to pounce at any moment. A loud and threatening growl could be heard from the back of her throat. However, within a moment, a loud bark of sorts erupted from her lungs and exited out of her mouth, her sharp teeth bared. Katarina's tail was stuck out straight behind her at a horizontal angle; her ears were perked up as well. It was quite obvious that Katarina wasn't exactly going to go willingly, and it was apparent to her that Sarah didn't seem to be all for the idea either. As long as Sarah was down for fighting, Katarina would follow her into the brawl and fight by the girl's side, even if it ended poorly. Katarina realized that that wasn't the best of options and would probably be at the bottom of her list, but loyalty was important to Katarina. How else was she to show that she could be trusted and be selected as a worthy ally of the werewolf? She would have to prove through fighting, for here, there would be no other way.
 
"I am sorry for your loss. If you would ever like to talk of such things, I am here."Damien said with a kind smile. He would provide support for most everyone. That is why Damien didn't really have enemies in this awful place. Most people couldn't help but appreciate his kind personality and his tendencies to care more about others than himself. He did know, however, that not everyone wanted to talk of such grim things. That's why he now went back to silently doing his work and cutting the peppers.
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Sarah did appreciate that the fox girl seemed to share her views on this situation. She got to her feet, lips pulled back into a snarl. The guard sighed from within his face mask. He pulled a small gun from his hip and raised it. It was loaded with tranquilizer darts. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Your choice. You either come willingly to fight, or you are knocked out and have to fight with half of your senses. Ever fight half conscious?"the guard threatened.
 
"I'm just focusing on that and trying to turn it positive. You know? Use it as inspiration to keep on moving. Because, even though this is my first day, I can already tell that this is going to be rough. Horrid would probably be a better way to describe it. But I think I'll be able to stay strong as long as I have that in mind." Hannah nodded as if to affirm it not only to everyone else, but to herself as well.

"You ever tried to fuck a woman when you don't have testicles? You come anywhere close to me with a tranquilizer dart and I'll be sure that you're fucking castrated you putrid piece of human filth." She practically spit the words out of her mouth and took a very cautious stance. She knew that she'd probably hit a nerve with that and was prepared to evade something if she were to be put in harm's way. She was not about to let a human tranquilize her, and she sure as hell wasn't going to let it take her willingly, not now that she could walk at least.