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After clearing the city gates, Kar'na turned to Kiri and Wraith and said, "Go and inform the others what's happened. Also take the Fireroot and give it to Stin. I'll get our friends acquainted."

The two nodded and took off. He hadn't allowed his two friends to interact with the other two for the twin reasons that he didn't want them giving away their cover to the city guard and he enjoyed the mysterious atmosphere.

"So," Kar'na said, still in his Falskin accented voice. "I bought you from the market for a reason. We'll get to that in a second, first..."

He threw back his hood.

"I am not your enemy."

Svara gave a strangled gasp and Tyra's jaw dropped to his feet. The expressions on their faces were priceless.

"Kar'na?" Svara asked.

"In the flesh," the assassin bowed, switching back to his native accent.

"Who is he?" Tyra asked, looking Kar'na over. "And how do you know him?"

"He's a friend," Svara said, though the expression on his face said otherwise. He looked like he was trying to swallow an oyster. "He works for an assassin's guild."

Tyra's eyes widened and he looked at Kar'na again.

"I've never met an assassin before," he breathed.

Kar'na quirked an eyebrow. Svara hadn't told his friend his true occupation yet? Seemed a little long to hide a secret of such minor importance, but who was Kar'na to judge?

"Well, now you have," Kar'na said. "Now, you two are coming with us to Arlea. Svara, you have people that need you back. And Tyra...well, I can't imagine why in the universe you'd stay here."

"How do you know my name?" Tyra asked as Kar'na drew his knife and severed the bindings keeping their wrists together.

"Them," Kar'na said, jerking a thumb behind him at the group that was running towards them. Tyra and Svara both squinted, trying to ascertain the identities of this new group.

The former slaves mobbed the newly freed duo, revealing identities and hugging their old friends. Svara didn't quite seem to know what to do as the large group seemed to love and hate him in equal measures.

Kar'na, Myra and Aryn stood by the side, watching the reunion with a profound sense of peace. These people, who had been captured and bound, tormented and oppressed, now had found something again. They'd found their friends.

A bit later, Kar'na cleared his throat. As touching as the reunion was, it couldn't last all day.

"Alright everybody," he announced. "We'd best keep moving. Svara, Tyra, until we can find robes for you, it'd probably be best if you went under the guises as slaves. At the next city, we'll look for robes. We've spent too long here already. Would you be willing to go on in what you have?"

Tyra and Svara both nodded, though Svara seemed none too happy of it. The rags they had about their midsection, while still keeping them decent, were far from good.

"Then let's go," Kar'na said. "I cannot run, so the longer we stand here, the longer our trip will take. As would be in any situation, I suppose."

Svara rolled his eyes.

They travelled onwards for a couple more nights, doing their best to avoid discovery or detection. Though this meant several soggy trips through bogs and marshes and a few detours down roads that were more paths, it also meant that no one ever saw them.

Svara was more than just a little unhappy to have to travel with two Falskin among them, but he stayed quiet. Tyra was a different story.

When he found out that it was Myra and her younger brother Aryn with them, he was pleasantly surprised. He apologized to the female, admitting that he was apparently wrong not to have trusted her and that he hoped they could still become friends.

Myra responded by wrapping him in a hug.

It was about three days after leaving Simil that the next city came into view. The city was big and powerful, with tall towers jutting into the sky and an imposing fortress in the middle of the complex. Guards in ornamental armours patrolled the battlements, strong bows slung over their shoulders.

"Juxtpa," Svara said in awe. "The most powerful city in Parai."

The others nodded. Even from the exterior, it was obvious that this place was where the rich lived in luxury and comfort and the poor were downtrodden. A city where only the powerful prevailed.

"Are we going in?" Kiri asked, a slight tremor going through his voice.

"Much as I hate it, yes, we're going in," Kar'na said with a scowl. "This city sits directly across the Swamps of Min. The swamps are said to be impassable and I've tried before. The city is the only route through. While we're in there, we can pick up some robes for Svara and Tyra."

"Good," Svara muttered. "I'm about ready to get out of these rags."

Kar'na chuckled and together they walked to the front gate and passed through without incident. The guards barely glanced at them as they sauntered through.

Inside, huge crowds of Falskin wandered around, loitering in groups conversing, walking somewhere with a destination in mind. Many grouped around market stalls, eyeing the wares and haggling the price, despite the fact that the sun was just peeking over the horizon.

Here and there, minimally-clothed Ch'kiliil slaves rushed to and fro, on errands for their masters. Whenever they drew too near to any Falskin, the lizard-people would bat them away as if they were some kind of stray pet begging for food.

The sight sickened them, but the group pressed forwards through the market. They had an errand to complete before they could just get out of here.

They located the appropriate stall and walked towards it. At the stall, a young jaguar slave was talking to the merchant.

"I'm here to pick up a package for Menven Sor'a," the slave said, handing the clerk his receipt. "A new set of robes?"

"Alright," the clerk said, taking the receipt with an expression of disgust. "That'll be fifty talons."

"Right here," the slave said, unclipping a coinpurse from his belt. All of a sudden, a Falskin in ratty clothes raced up and snatched the small bag of coins from the startled slave.

"Hey!" the young jaguar called out. "Stop!"

But the thief was already gone, ducked down an alley. The distraught Ch'kiliil turned back to the shop as the merchant took the package he'd been about to hand over and slid it out of sight beneath the counter.

"He just took the money," the jaguar said in disbelief.

"Not my problem," the merchant shrugged. "Now get out of here. I have other customers."

Tears shimmered in the jaguar's startling green eyes as he turned away. The merchant beckoned Kar'na's group closer and they walked past the slave, except for Kar'na, who grabbed the slave by his upper arm and leaned over to ask him a question.

"How much did that thief take?"

"F-f-fifty, my lord," the slave stammered, obviously surprised and frightened by this turn of events. "M-m-my master was expecting me to pick him up a new set of robes. He'll be most displeased at my failure."

He subconsciously rubbed his back and Kar'na sighed. Though he was easily the most talented and capable killer in the guild, he still very much had a soft heart.

"Wait here," he told the slave. "I'll be back in a minute."

The slave stared at him in confusion and curiosity, but stayed put. Kar'na turned and went to the merchant.

"How can I help you?" the merchant asked. "We have plenty of clothing for sale."

"First," Kar'na said, his fake accent in place. "I want you to give that slave the package he came here to collect."

"Sorry," the merchant said, though he didn't sound it. "He doesn't have the money."

"But I do," Kar'na said, placing the coins on the counter. "I'll pay this slave's debt."

The merchant stared at him before giving a little shake of his head. He reached under the counter and set the package up top.

"Thank you," Kar'na said civilly. "I'll be back in a moment."

The assassin turned away and went over to the young slave, handing him the package his master had sent him to collect. The slave stared at him in confusion.

"But my lord," he protested. "I have nothing with which to repay you."

"Deliver this to your master," Kar'na said gently, resting his hand on the jaguar's shoulder. "Do not think of repayment. This is a gift for you."

"A gift?" the young slave asked, staring at Kar'na's masked face in confusion.

"Something given without expecting to be given something return," Kar'na smiled. "Now, get back to your master, he'll be expecting you back."

"Yes, my lord," the slave bowed.

He turned around and ran in the general direction of the palace and the rich district. Kar'na smiled at the fact that he just vastly helped to make that slave's day.

The Ch'kiliil assassin turned away and went back to the merchant, who was giving him a hard, calculating stare.

"Why'd you do that?" he asked. "You didn't owe that animal anything."

"My reasons are my own," Kar'na said, sternly but not unfriendly. "Now, my friends and I are interested in a purchase."

"Of course," the merchant said, immediately pushing the incident out of his mind. "What can I get for you?"

Later that afternoon, when Kar'na and company were all bedded in for the day, they had little idea of what was going on in the tavern below them.

"It was weird," the cloth merchant they'd talked to earlier exclaimed. "They came to my stall and helped pay for a package...for a slave! The stupid beast had gotten robbed and the hooded guy paid his debt."

"This hooded guy," the member of the city guard whom the merchant had been telling his story to said. "What did he look like?"

"I don't know," the merchant shrugged. "The guys with him were all angled as if to prevent identification, but he himself had a mask over his face. All I could see were his eyes."

"What colour were they?" the guard asked, interested in this Falskin's tale.

"Yellow, looked like. But they weren't shaped like any Falskin eye I'd seen before. They had round pupils!"

"Round pupils?"

"Yeah!" the Falskin exclaimed. He hiccupped once, a sign of the amount of drinking he'd been doing and chuckled. "Those eyes actually scared me. They looked like a killer's eyes."

The guard leaned back with a smile. This was a good load of information and it checked out with what other people in other cities had been saying.

"What of the people he was with?" the guard queried. "How many of them were there?"

"Oh..." the merchant had to think for a moment. "I think there were six of them. And two slaves. One was a cat and the other a fox...I think."

"Thank you for the story," the guard said. "Good way to eat up some time."

"Yeah," the merchant slurred drunkenly. "I've got to get home."

"Allow me to escort you sir," the guard said politely.

The merchant acquiesced and the guard took him outside. They walked in silence for a while before the guard mentioned that he knew a shortcut and led the merchant into an alley.

One discreet knife-thrust later and the guard emerged from the alley. That lizard had been a goldmine of information, but now it was time to make his report. He ran off to the keep.

The party of Ch'kiliil and Falskin awoke when the sun was on the decline. By now, the entire group had acclimatized to the fact of night travel, which was a good thing considering how much of it they did.

Kar'na usually insisted on getting up about three hours until sundown. Sometimes he let them sleep in a little, but the Ch'kiliil assassin was still on a deadline. He hoped to be back in Ch'kiliil lands by tomorrow and at the guild the day after.

"Do you have any idea how much better it feels to be in these?" Svara asked Kiri and Kar'na, proudly showing off his new robes. "Those rags itched like the devil!"

The fox had gone to bunk in the same room as the other canids, while Kytra, Ari and Wraith grabbed the room across the hall. The third room Kar'na had purchased held the Sanvar'a siblings and Tyra, who was eager to get to know them better.

Kar'na, knowing of Svara's heavy dislike for Falskin, had almost considered putting him in that room just for laughs, but had decided against it. He was smart that way.

"That's why I wear robes," Kar'na smirked. "And not some crummy rags."

Svara _hrrmphed_and turned away, still enjoying the feel of his new robes. Kiri smiled, willing to completely forget the splitting incident. He was just happy to have Svara and Tyra back.

"How much longer to Arlea?" the young wolf asked. "I really can't wait to reach our species' home!"

"I'm guessing around a day," Kar'na said, donning his own robes. "We might - might, be able to reach it by tomorrow morning. But that means going cross-country. The Falskin have no roads to Arlea. Our people are enemies, after all."

"True."

"And for good reason," Svara said, turning around to face the other two. "They have a history of kidnapping us and dragging us here to work as slaves. As you're both well aware. Also, our history tales hold almost no stories of these guys before the last hundred years. The last one being-"

"The Fall of Manilia," Kar'na nodded. "The last great war between our two species. After that, both kings decreed that neither side shall ever meet, for strife was just too common. After that, they passed into legend. We sent explorers down there to see if they were real, but none returned."

"Probably captured as slaves," Svara said. "So they learned of us again first. Then they started enslaving us, revealing themselves again."

Kar'na nodded. Kiri pondered over this little bit of history and speculation before Kar'na nudged the young wolf and asked him to go gather the others.

Kiri nodded and ran out of the room, making sure to don his hood for the short trip.

"Kar'na," Svara said quietly when the door was closed. "What will happen to me? When we reach Arlea? I failed the guild."

"That you did," Kar'na agreed, not trying to mince his words at all. "You took a mission you were not ready for. As a result, you failed. You're lucky you weren't killed!"

Svara hung his head and nodded meekly. The fox looked crestfallen and Kar'na's gaze softened, just a bit.

"However," Kar'na continued. "You _are_young. I think Grandmaster Khej will be a little more lenient. And I will vouch on your behalf."

Svara looked up sharply.

"Really?"

"Absolutely," Kar'na said. "If you can help me get these ones back up north and re-adjust your attitude, I'll put in a good word with Khej."

"I...I don't know what to say. Thank you Kar'na."

Kar'na smiled as a knock ensued on their door. Kar'na and Svara pulled their hoods up and Kar'na called to let them in.

It was indeed the group they were travelling with.

"We going?" Kiri asked, oblivious to the conversation that had just occurred.

"Let's," Kar'na agreed.

They headed down and out through the inn door, completely unsuspicious. Unsuspicious, but to one burly Falskin at the bar. Seeing the group exit, the scarred reptilian smiled grimly and followed them.

As he exited the building, he waved over to a plainclothes Falskin loitering by a building and gestured to the group he was following. The other one nodded and ran off.

Night was falling.

"So, you sure it was them?"

"I don't know, sir," the Falskin bowed to his superior officer. "Gryph was following them, but I don't believe he had any confirmation."

"Hmm...get the Hound."

"Yes sir."

He ran off and returned a minute later with a brown-furred wolf, dressed only in rags and trembling before the powerful Falskin before him.

"So," the Falskin, a captain in the city guard, said menacingly. "You have a good nose, am I right? Or was I misinformed?"

"N-n-no sir," the young wolf said. "You're right."

"Good," the Falskin growled. "Then I need that nose of yours for identification. Come with me."

The Falskin led the frightened wolf to the market place, where the group they were concerned about was just entering.

"You see that group over there?" he asked the wolf, pointing to the group. "We're going to head over there. I want you to identify them."

"Y-y-yes master," the unfortunate slave stuttered, following behind the Falskin, until they were not far from the group.

The slave took a deep sniff of the air, sampling the many scents.

"Two otters," he quietly said at last. "Male and female. Siblings. Felines. Male and female. Young. Two Falskin siblings, also young. A fox male. Two wolf siblings, one an adult and the other still a teen."

"Good work," the Falskin said, taking him back to the others and addressing them. "Take this one back to the fortress and give him extra food."

The wolf beamed as he was led away.

"Now we've got you," the Falskin chuckled, watching as the group wandered through the market.

Kar'na and the group were wandering through the markets, seemingly perusing the wares at the market. In actuality, they were heading for the city's far gate to make their breakaway. Kar'na didn't want his young charges in this city any longer than they had to be.

"Kar'na," Kiri said softly. "Look."

Kar'na looked in the direction his friend was gesturing and noticed that the clothing merchant they'd visited earlier wasn't at his stall, but two guards were.

And they were looking directly at them.

Kar'na felt his fur stand up, but he casually pretended not to notice them. His practiced eye searched the crowd and noticed more guards. A group was blocking off the way to the south gate, while another group was blocking the north gate. The alleys even seemed to have guards guarding them and the archers on the roof kept a vigilant eye.

"Svara," Kar'na asked quietly. "Do you see them?"

"I do," Svara answered, equally quietly. "It's a trap."

A group of guards emerged from one of the roads leading in the direction of the keep. They were heavily armed and armoured, with a few hulking giants of guards among them.

"The Specials," the assassin heard one of the nearby Falskin gasp. "We need to get out of here."

"Everybody stay calm!" one of the brutes yelled. "This is a mission to arrest some fugitives!"

He looked at Kar'na and his group and the citizens melted to the side, opening a clear path to the group. Kar'na could smell his companions' fear.

"Well met, assassin," the brute said, sauntering forward. "You're wanted across the entirety of Parai! Glad we caught you first."

Kar'na stood silent. They had no proof yet, but if they were asked to take their hoods off, they would.

"We're not assassins," Kar'na said, adding a little fear to his reptilian-accented voice. "We're just a group of travellers."

"Funny story," he growled.

Kar'na knew that there was no way he was going to get out of this, so he whirled, black robes fluttering, concealing the dagger he threw underhandedly at the brute's neck.

The guard twisted his head and the dagger flew past him.

"Don't try that again," the brute growled as two of the archers on the roof toppled backwards, daggers protruding from their stomachs. "Or I will be forced to have you all turned into Ch'kiliil pincushions."

Kar'na stood still a moment, before dropping his hands from their "ready" stance.

"Good," the brute laughed. "Guards, bind them. And show them to the public."

A ring of guards closed in and swiftly shackled all their hands together and to each other. One of the guards, a Falskin with dark red scales, stepped close and grabbed Kar'na's hood, throwing it roughly back and revealing the white wolf's visage to the public. Gasps and curses rang out as people beheld the almost flawless white fur and golden eyes of the assassin.

The other's hoods were thrown back as well, though none produced quite the reaction as Kar'na. When Myra and Aryn's hoods were thrown backwards, fierce whispers began running through the crowd.

"Behold, the beasts," the brutish guard cried dramatically. "These outsiders...these monsters...were here to kill our beloved Lord Malis!"

More gasps and cries echoed from the crowd, but this time there sounded to be anger mixed in. The Ch'kiliil group were receiving many hateful glares.

"Now, to the keep!"

The guards jabbed their swords into the group's back, forcing them forwards, after the large guard. And one thought ran through Kar'na's mind.

I failed them.