Travelling with Sara. Part 1; the recap. [Travel/Sara]

Sunshine blanketed the entire region with no clouds in sight, a gentle breeze made the weather delightful under the beating sun. Alexander stood before his master Ramses' tent, taking a deep breath as he swallowed his pride before entering. The slave walked through the slit, keeping the draping cloth parted with his arm as he went in. Ramses, a heliohaptian tamer, was sitting behind a desk with some glasses, looking at a ton of paperwork with Etanhol, a ginger magician. When they finally acknowledged his presence, Etanhol took his position behind Ranses, slightly offcenter with his staff in hand. Ramses propped his chin up with his fist and gave a dissatisfied look at Eight. "So you're going to Imuchakk, right? Why are you doing this again?"

As Alexander went to open his mouth to explain that he was travelling to get a supply of imuchakk slaves, a new market that would be amazing, his cover to get some time away from his personal hell, Etanhol explained it with more eloquence than the slaver could muster. Ramses was breathing heavily and waved Alexander away with the flick of the wrist. Before Alex turned away to leave, his master grunted a few times and grabbed a hold of something beneath his desk, and that's when he caught sight of Dokidoki, the petite Imuchakk boy he had caught in Kou, evidently going down on Ramses this whole time, the same treatment Alexander got when he was first enslaved.

He walked out as if nothing happened, but out of view, Eight's teeth sank into his own lips til a crimson fluid spilled out. Eight went to one of the caravans to collect some supplies for the trip. First Life, a little cat that had come to grow fond of him, followed behind him and nuzzling his shins to try to cheer him up, seeing the pain in his face. Here he saw Octavia, a ranger Fanalis that shared the same name as his mother, being taken care of by Shantoto, a mute? Imuchakk who seemed to have experience as a doctor.

As Shantoto wrapped a bandage around Octavia's arm, the fellow fanalis yelled to him. "OH HEY SQUIRT! Is today already the big day? Damn, they grow up so fast." She pretended to have tears in her eyes and faked wiping away a tear with her uninjured arm, jokingly. "Hey, just take whatever you need and make it back." Shantoto just nodded staring at Alexander as Octavia spoke.

He filled a large duffel with backpack straps. Inside he carried with him, dehydrated meats and fruits, as well as grains, enough for the trip to the Great Plains coast, several meters of rope, a flint knife, some herbal remedies for certain ailments and wounds and a sleeping bag. Outside the bag, he had a few maps and sheets of papyrus along with writing instruments and a compass and his water skin. And in another section, he got what he needed for a tent.

He went to go see Castor to acquire the horses for the trip. When he made it to her location, he saw Castor disciplining Pollux, twin sisters of different heights, who did the same things for different reasons. "Ah yeah, I think Tsuki and Sharram are making sure they're good to go. Why don't you catch them at the end of our caravan?" Pollux didn't care so much and was talking to Castor again about nonsense, and they got wrapped up in their own world once more.

Eight hiked out to the caboose of the travelling party, with his gear in tow. Sharram, a heliohaptian priest who had a pack of dogs, bowed his head to Eight, while Tsuki, a conniving Kou-born exotic tamer, gave him a wave. These two were the source of his taming knowledge and the main reason he was competent. "The horses are great, they'll make it to the Plains in no time, but they will be returning after they reach your destination, so make sure you figure out how you're coming back." Tsuki snuck up behind Eight and patted him on the back, and they went their separate ways, as Eight went back to the inn to meet Sara.

Somehow through these grasslands, someone had snuck up on him and tapped his shoulder. Maiyou, a blunt human assassin with a missing arm but cared more about others and the whole picture, turned the boy around. "Do you know what you're doing? Are you sure you want to bring this girl with you? I could come, we have slaves." Maiyou waited in silence, but the lack of reply spoke to her more than his words ever could. "I see." She walked away from him and never looked back.

He was riding the brown mustang, holding the reigns to a black mustang for Sara, carrying his pack on his back. Alex settled his equipment on the floor and tied the horses to a hitching post and walked into the inn. As he arrived at Sara's door, he knocked the same tune he had knocked when he had just met Sara the night before. It was almost astounding that he had finally arranged his trip to Imuchakk, seemingly on a whim after meeting this woman.
His rats were with him, and leading his rats was his cat, First Life.

Name: First Life
Type: Non-Combat Pet
Appearance: A brown cat with a plush coat, measuring 30cm tall and 50cm long. Has a plain aesthetic.
This is a non-combat pet and cannot be used in any type of combat or as a mount!

Name: Mischief
Tier: B
Type: Swarm
Species: Rat
Appearance: A group of 75 rats, 15 cm long and 5 cm wide, with 15 cm long tails, about 1 cm thick.

Sara sighed it was finally time to go as she began to look for something to cover herself so she could go get some new clothing, the current ones were quite large on her smaller frame. She had some contracts as she would whistle with a woman leaping to her second story window and stepping inside. She would smile and begin to explain she needed new clothes to fit her, she understood seeing her new looking giving her a coy smile and licking her lips making Sara blush a bit before she would vanish. This was one of the women she had saved from slave traders and she always watched in a distance. If anything happened to Sara she knew to report this to Lagi, even if his name was changed she had the information Sara had given her to find him and inform him of things.

She waited patiently for the woman to return laying on her bed and covering her eyes with her arm, she was doing something after so long and she was quite nervous. She had to survive for Lagi and her son's sake. She really did need to meet with her son more but right now she was not ready for this. She abandoned him and she was sure he would feel resentment toward her, she ran away scared because of the political upheaval at the time she ran in Reim.

After several hours she heard a small pebble hit her window as she opened it with the woman jumping inside and handing her the new clothing. She would smile and wink at Sara almost suggestingly saying if Lagi and you ever break up we can be together as she leaped out the window and left. Sara would begin to remove her baggy clothing as she began to change her clothing out letting out a sigh of relief, this clothing fit a little tight but it was fine perfect for combat.

"Perfect now I am ready for combat, I can't wait to kill that slave master... I will cut him apart rip is limbs off his body and scatter his remains and pike his head, I will crush all slavers with my might."

She would look into the mirror and nod, she certainly would not be recognized in this form. She would burn the world in order to make a world perfect for her and Lagi as well as her child, she would forge a kingdom with Lagi and rule the entire world at his side. Her black Rukh spiraling out of her body, it was clear she had started to change personality wise as well as her thought process, she would do anything for Lagi and herself future even if it meant the entire world would burn for it.  

She would sleep well for the night as she woke to a light knock on her door, she began to scurry around trying to get herself ready. She was always a bit bad about waking up in time, Lagi used to complain to her when she was his guard. After several minutes she would open the door and smile as she grabbed her bag, behind her would appear to be a shadow leaping out of the window, he had never asked what her skill set was and he had never seen her beast before.

"Alright I am ready let us go on this journey, it will be nice to stretch my legs and not have to be covered in a cloak, I highly doubt anyone would recognize me in this form, I hope you know I will show no mercy for your former master it will be very gruesome what I plan to do to this man."

When they had left the inn he had offered her the reigns of a black stallion, she had almost never used a horse but she was not to worried as she would walk up and look into its eyes with her running her hand along its neck encouraging it and showing she was not someone to fear. It was like when she had tamed her beast, that was quite hard but she had done so with a lot of work and many nights of failures.

After this she would step up onto the horse and grab the reigns, the horse seemed very calm despite not knowing her, it was like she had a natural talent with animals, she was ready to go as she waited for Alexander and the two prepared for their journey.

Alexander organized everything for the time being, but when she claimed there would be no mercy for his master, he spoke in a plain tone with no worries. "Ramses is mine." After mounting his horse, he flicked the reigns to make his horse giddy up.

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Alexander and Sara had made it past the border by midday. The pair were riding with relatively few spoken words exchanged between them over the last month of travelling. He had been leading the way and consulting with his maps, compass and the stars to get the shortest route possible, saving months off the journey as an experienced navigator would.

He enjoyed spending the day with the majestic horses, but he was missing out on the human connection that he could forcefully extract from a real slave. They were riding under the stars, with not a cloud in sight. The only celestial body that shard the sky with the gleaming twinkles of starlight, was the moon. Together they seemed to paint a picture, and after debating if they could save even more time, Alexander had decided they would set up camp for the night.

"Sara, we'll stop here."

He got off his horse and pulled off the horses saddles, gathering his equipment for the night. He toiled away without asking Sara for any help. He got his rats to bring branches and twigs of varying thickness for the flame as he worked on the tent.

As he finished setting up the tent, Alexander started a flame right outside of their temporary home. The navigator took some of his personal jerky and dried fruits from his bag and offered it to Sara along with a canteen of vodka.

"So why dont you tell me about yourself Sara? How did the slave life treat you? How did you escape it? I am a little jealous." There was a warmth in his voice that matched the bonfire. His horse was neighing behind the tents until it eventually fell asleep. His rodents and his cat gathered around the flames too, his rodents slept in piles near him but his new cat seemed to try to snuggle by Sara and quickly fell asleep.

Regardless of her reply, he would continue to prepare for the night and put their two sleeping bags in the tent on separate ends. He would get in and try to get some sleep before they would have to continue their journey, but perhaps still willing to answer a question or two.

Sara and Alexander had traveled together for a while though they did not speak much she had not developed a hatred for him yet. It had become late at night as Alexander said they would stop here, Sara simply nodded as the pair would stop and make sure to secure the horses so they would not rush off.

She watched as his army of rats grabbed wood for the fire and Alexander began to set up the tent. As he started the fire they would gather around the pair with the cat-like creature coming close to Sara before snuggling close against her with her hand lightly petting its head it was clear she had an affinity to animals.

He then offered her some dried meat and began to eat some with him once again asking about her slave life. She was sure she answered this question before as she would take a swig of the vodka and let out a deep sigh.

"As I said before I threatened my way to freedom, he signed my release papers and let me go. Once that happened he was too proud to admit it happened so he never tried t get charges against me, plus I am pretty sure he knew I would kill him if he did. As for how I was treated I was treated like trash, beat and hit every day nothing about the day was fun it was like torture to even be alive. I was rarely fed and even when I was I would not call it edible. So I began to catch rats in the barn and other locations and eat them raw, at first it was gross but after a while, to me, it was the only way I could survive and build up my strength. "

She got quiet after that and took another swig of Vodka she waited to see what he would say, the truth of course was she did have a hard slave life but she had been sold to Lagi and he had set her free, naturally she couldn't talk about that relationship considering how it could effect Lagi currently and the world even. She deeply missed him as she really wanted to be at his side, but she had to get stronger, without strength she would only be a risk for him, people could ntarget her and force Lagi hand in bad ways.

Alexander nodded, making note that she maintained her version of events. So she was at least smart enough to do that, and perhaps she might have been honest, or a great liar. "I see, that's pretty bad too. My master, as you'll come to know, has an affinity for younger, effeminate boys, so that was my fate for my first years of slavery, luckily I got too old for him by fourteen." He paused but his eyes and his tone were lifeless as Eight recalled the imagery as he gazed into the flames. The flickering embers imitating those thoughts vividly.

"You tell me how you suffered, but the one thing I don't get is why you waited for all the suffering to do something if it was that easy to escape. I still don't have my freedom... it seems so far away for me. Anyways, I'm going to sleep." He explained his suspicions in depth, because he wanted to connect with the woman. Every fanalis woman seemed to remind him of his mother, he shook his head and walked into the tent to get some sleep, just like every night they had spent on the plains so far.

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TIME SKIP

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Alexander turned to Sara with a smirk and he whipped the reigns on his stallion and kicked his heels into the beasts ribs, spurring it to gallop at full speed into the distance. He was heading to a large port, and behind this port, was the northern ocean. He turned back to Sara to see if she was willing to play the game with her. Alex turned his attention to port and began to treat it like a race against Sara. He got into a proper riding pose, staying low the horse while keeping his weight mostly off the majestic equine.

He was so happy to see the ocean for the first time, despite traveling from Reim to Kou, he was completely blindfolded the whole way across the ocean, in a cage below deck. He would finally travel on the sea, as a real navigator. Navigation was a hobby he took up because it let him imagine being free, to leave his slave life behind.

As they arrived, slowing down from his full gallop, he turned to his companion to see who had made it to the gates first, enjoying the friendly competition. Alex nodded to Sara and dismounted his horse and gave it a pat on the back and the horse began to ride away back home, he did the same thing for Sara's horse once she dismounted.

"Follow me. so I can take you to the meeting place."

Alexander spoke cheerfully, this was the first time he was actually happy since he left Kou, hell, since he became a slave. "I can't believe it, we're here..." The fanalis took out a smaller map of the port town and navigated his way all the way to the dock, seeing a lot of tanned people, wearing furs. The weather was chilly and there was a cool sea breeze to make matters worse. As he arrived at the dock, he felt a nice gust of air, rustle up against him. He tossed his armed to the side, and his head back as if he were receiving the breeze, taking in a deep whiff of the briny sea. "Freedom, this must be what it smells like." Alex turned back to Sara. "We'll meet here in the morning. You can do whatever you want, but we're leaving at dawn, okay?"

With this, he left Sara to her own devices, but not rejecting her if she would follow along with him. His first mission was to inspect the ship before the trip. He got on board to inspect the vessel from head to toe. The ship had 2 floors, the deck and one floor below it. It had two masts with sails. The stairs to get below deck and the shipwheel were on the stern side of the ship. Alexander stood in front of the wheel and began to spin it, extremely comfortable and his fanalis strength gave him a lot of power, but he could feel the limitations of this ship, if he were to turn the shipwheel at full force, he would destroy the steering tool. "Man, this is fucking great. It's time to celebrate!"

After inspecting the ship, he went to an inn that served alcohol and partied the night away, getting way too drunk for his own good and slept at the inn, reserving a room for Sara with his own money.

She heard his response to her answer as he asked why she did not escape sooner if she really had gone through that it was obvious she would have been scared as a child. The thought of being killed for trying to get free would have been far too hard for a child to escape.

It seemed Alex had been used as a sexual tool which caused a frown on her face, she was certainly going to enjoy killing his master, a sick freak like him deserved more than death he deserved the worst type of suffering possible. After many more days of travel, they could see the port at a distance as she smiled she was traveling farther than she ever had in her entire life.

It appeared he wanted to race causing a smirk to cross Sara's face, she was more than accepting of this, with her being lighter than he was she had an advantage as she also did not snap the whips but lowered her head and whispered to her horse asking for it to beat that arrogant man. They were side by side the entire time as they both appeared to reach it at the same time it would have had to be a photo finish to see who would win as Sara lightly brushed the back of the horse's neck as it would begin to slow down.

It seemed he had plans for the night, Sara also had plans she needed to meet up with her beast that had remained in the shadows and at a distance and explain to him he needed to board the boat with her. She would lightly bow to Alexander as she would walk off into the town, she had a place to sleep as she was sure he was reserving her a room at the inn close to the port.

As she headed off about five minutes later she would slip into an alley and make a light whistle as her beast would appear before her side, it was a very large black looking wolf with her running her hand along its head and along its ears, she would pull it close for a hug and let out a sigh she was quite nervous despite the demeanor she was putting off.

After she explained to her beast the plan she would dismiss him as he would once again vanish from sight. She would eventually make her way toward the inn which had a bar with her taking a seat and ordering some vodka. She would slam a shot down and let out a sigh, she felt more relaxed now as she saw Alexander was drinking far too much but that was fine as long as they got on the boat on time.

She continued her heavy drinking as she was quite tipsy she would head toward her room as it was next to Alexanders she was unsure which was hers as she took the right door and entered seeing the bed in front of her she would fall face first onto the bed and fall fast asleep. Hopefully, this had been the right room, he might not be too happy if she was in his bed as she was out cold with her beast watching quietly in the corner of the room in the dark shadows. He would watch and protect her in her sleep if this was his room he would get the first-hand view of the large beast she had and figure out what she specialized in.

Unfortunately, when he went to go to sleep he saw the Fanalis woman in his bed. Alex glanced at her body eagerly, but then realized Sara was simply fast asleep without a care in the world. This is when he finally noticed the watchdog in the room; a literal dog. Alexander approached the dog, staring into its eyes to see what kind of beast it was, but it was quite peculiar, it seemed like a special wolf. He was going to have to do a bit of research on the beast.

Alexander turned and left the room, going into the room he got for Sara and let his rats and his cat get the free bed. He also stole the pillow and sheets and went back into his own bed nude with his own sheets, A knock was at the door. "Hello, this is your wake up call. Have a safe trip and thanks for coming."

Waking in a daze, forgetting the situation that he went to sleep in. He groaned as he sat on the edge of the bed, with the white linens across his lap, then looking to the beast as well as Sara, amused to see her reaction.

OOC: This seemed a bit too funny to timeskip through it.

Sara awoke from her deep slumber with her stretching before holding her head, yeah she had far too much to drink. She would sit up at the sound of the wakeup call looking over and blinking several times before realizing Alexander was in bed next to her naked. She looked at herself as she remained fully clothed and let out a sigh, she was sure nothing happened between the two plus her beast still waited in the corner if it felt she was in danger it surely would have killed him or at least tried really badly to do so.

She sort of smirked at him playing along with acting like she understood what happened. She would stand and stretch as she walked close to Alexander to whisper in his ear, it was more of a tease to see how he would react.

"I hope it was as good for you as it was for me."

She would wink before getting ready to head off, her hand still going to her head, yep everything hurt her head the bright sun any loud noises. Still, she felt more relaxed and also realized her beast was still there.

"His name is John I know not creative at all, he is my beast I tamed long ago. He always has been watching from the shadows and at distance, because a lot of people in the cities freak out over a jet black wolf walking around."

She would walk over to him pulling his head close to her with her snuggling into his fur and letting out a sigh, she was unsure how she felt about being on a boat this would be the first time she could remember after all.

"Okay I think it is best he went out the window and got onto the boat without being seen, I am just uncertain they would let him on the boat. They could also refuse to let us on as it is bad enough we are Fanalis they may find even more reason to fear and not trust us."

"Ah, don't worry. I'm a navigator and it's a small ship. I can do whatever I want with it, and your dog can come. I've got my pets coming, so its no worries. It's only gonna be you, me and our pets." His pet cat went to the wolf and pranced around it, but when it got in front. The kitten rolled to the wolfs feet and gave it a pretend cat bite on its forepaw, then exposing its belly and waggling her tail.

"And it was your pleasure."

Alexander got his things in order and led Sara to the ship with his rats and cats in tow, he got behind the shipwheel and waited for her and the beasts to board.

TIME SKIP

Alexander was at the helm, with a shipwheel before him. His hands firmly gripped on the wooden pegs, as the sails were filled by the ocean currents. The water was serene and beautiful, the only disturbance being some light ripple from the gust that propelled them and from their ship floating along. His rodents were below ground and his cat was nowhere to be seen.

He was having a good time with the briny breeze, sweeping through his hair as the sun beat against his fair skin. He referenced a map and compass from time to time as they travelled, but eventually he pulled out his telescope and he saw land. "SARA, WE'RE HERE!"

[END]

After what felt like forever the boat arrived in the new land, this new land was the destination they had been aiming for as she felt relieved. She smiled as she looked at the land on the shore breathing on the air, it smelled very different here as her beast stood at her side ready to get off the boat and lurk in the shadows as to not spook the people of the land.

As they got close to the shore she would leap off and land on the dock stretching her legs. Her beast was already on shore and out of sight as she began to look around, this new place certainly would be fun the race that lived here was very strong like her race as they seemed to not mind Fanalis at all waving and being rather friendly toward her. He had things he wanted to do here but so did she, she would find ways to get stronger while in this land and return strong enough to be at Lagi side.

-Exit Thread-