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Two and a half hours later, the human male stopped, panting and sweating, in front of one of the houses in the 'rich' part of town Tarizira was panting heavily as well, being unable to sweat. The muzzle was making her really overheat, though, but she would never ask to have it taken off of her.

"You... know..." he panted, wiping his brow, pushing his light brown hair out of his eyes. "This... would have been a lot easier. If you hadn't made me drag you here. You're tired too. You know."

She snarled at him through the muzzle, causing a bit of drool to escape and splatter on the cobblestones.

"Go stick your head up a dragon's ass, human. If you think I will make anything easy for you, you are wrong. I don't care how tired or beaten I get, I will never submit to the likes of your filthy kind."

The male stood up, having gotten more of his breath back and sighed slightly.

"And here was me thinking we could have a civilized relationship. Ah well. We can talk more inside. Please don't struggle much as we get into the house, I'd hate to damage the garden. You might like it, since your kind likes plants, right?"

"I would spit on you if I could for that insult. Civilized, indeed. And those plants of yours are as much a slave to you as I am. They are not a part of the forest. And a good thing for you too, otherwise I would disappear and you would have lost all your precious coin you spent on me."

He sighed again, and tried to lead her into the house, then rolled his eyes when he had to drag her the rest of the way.

Another human male, older, wearing a dark suit opened the door and stared in shock at her, then at the male who was leaning at nearly a fourty five degree angle, struggling with the fact she had managed to latch onto the short stone wall as they had passed it.

"Damn it, Metrus, help me out here. Go call one of the others to help me get her detached. And I want a couple stiff drinks in the lounge when I get in there."

"Err. Yes sir. Right away."

The servant turned and walked quickly back inside and within mintues, another human male, this time wearing a suit of chain armor and a tabard walked out. He took a look and started laughing.

"Well, you picked a live one, didn't you, Chester? So sure about your plan now?"

"Just shut up and help, Amery. I'm not paying you to laugh at me."

"Well, no sir, that's just one of them perk things."

The one named Amery walked over and dogdged a wayward kick at him. He looked over the situation, then grabbed her legs and lifted her off the ground.

The odd angle caused Tarizira to lose her grip on the stones and fall, her muzzle painfully clanging against the metal cage. As she was being dragged towards the house, she heard a thud, as the one named Chester, no longer having anything to strain against, also fell. Amery laughed at the picture, and waited for his master to get up and get into the house. He had to pause, as Tarizira now had a grip on the doorframe.

"Well, don't this look a pretty sight? Sorry, sir, I should have figured she'd do something like that.."

"No, it's all right. I'll get her this time."

He walked over to her front to try and grip her hands, and got headbutted for his trouble, although not as hard as Tarizira would have liked. He managed to get a grip on both of her wrists, and, her facing the floor, both of them managed to bring her into one of the rooms of the house.

"Just drop her here Amery. Gently, if you don't mind. And then you can leave."

"Yes, sir You sure about that, though? She might try something again."

"Yes, I'm sure. I can always call you if I need the help."

"Yes sir. Leaving now."

She had been dropped onto a carpet in a well-furnished room. She rolled and sat up quickly, in a crouched, defensive position. Chester looked her over, and she glared at him.

From what she had learned in her time of slavery, his clothes marked him as being very wealthy, although they had dirt and tears on them from the drag, His light brown hair was cropped longer then most human males, and had the type of facial hair in what she understood as a goatee. She also understood from the way it looked that it would be considered to look like someone was trying to grow one that couldn't properly grow facial hair yet. He had pale skin, from being rich and able to make a living indoors.

He reached his hand toward the back of her head, and as she jerked around, he backed his hands away and said "I was just trying to take your muzzle off if you'd let me."

She paused, and allowed him to do so this time. He smelled very sweaty, although clean. Less clean now that she had made him do so much work though. She also got a hint of that odd stuff humans put in their hair and on their skin, soap. She personally hated using the stuff, but without being able to magically cleanse herself off, it was either that or be filthy, so she had learned to adapt.

After unhooking her muzzle, he also unhooked her leash and tossed them both aside, then sat down heavily in a chair next to a table with a bottle and two glasses.

"Would you like a drink? It's Belshigar apple brandy, very good."

She grimaced again, panting a bit.

"I do not need to drink, and I would not take anything you offered me. I have been fooled far too often for that to work anymore."

He shrugged and poured himself a glass.

"Well, if you feel I'm going to drug you, that's your choice to decline my offer. I wouldn't do so, though you have only my word for it. So... what is your name? I don't think Sparky ever managed to learn it."

"Hmph. Trying to be nice to me will not get you anywhere either. If you truly feel you must know, it is Tarizira. Most humans that bother learning my name just call me Tari, since they choose not to learn our language."

"Ah, your language. You used to be... nature-bound, correct?"

"Used to be? I still am. I still would be, if I could be out in the forest again."

"Hmm. Tell me, what would you do to return to the forest?"

She did a mocking laugh, "Like I would tell you this. That insinuation that if I did what they told me, they would release me has been used on me too, human."

"I do have a name, you know. I bothered to learn yours."

"I know yours, Chester," she said, putting an insulting tone into her voice when she said it. "I am not deaf, nor am I as stupid as you must think me to be."

"No, actually, I don't think you are stupid. Actually, I wanted to offer you a proposition. I even have it all written up in a document, so I couldn't go back on my word if I wanted to."

"Your laws mean nothing to slaves. You must be more foolish then I am if you think that a promise of words on paper would make me behave."

"Well, behaving is one thing. And if we were married, you wouldn't be considered a slave in our household."

She glared at him, trying to read his face, seeing if this was some type of test for her. It wouldn't be the first time she had been tested. Failing was often very painful.

Chester continued, "You see, my parents; before they died, left a will. I get a set amount of money per year, but I don't get all of the family fortune, the businesses, nothing, until I'm married and have sired a child. I really didn't want to deal with having a family at the moment, but our businesses are getting worse, because while I can handle them as it were, I don't technically own them.

"The loophole here is, is that they didn't specify species for a child. And I figured, well, why not give one of those slaves their freedom in exchange for that? Unfortunately, you're the only Wufran in the city that's compatible to have a child with me."

He took another sip of his drink and continued.

"So here's the deal. We get married, you get the run of the household. You get impregnated with my child, with either magic or actual sex. I would prefer the latter of course, but I'm not about to force myself onto you. After nine months, they check to see if the child is mine, and you go free and take the child with you on your merry way. While you are my wife here, you get all the freedoms that a human would have on any of my family's property, and with the hired help. I couldn't even treat you as a slave, since that would be against our law. Sound fair? I do know that nature-bound hate being in the cities."

Tarizira, who had been listening silently up to this point, slowly rising, glaring at the smug human in his chair. When she spoke, it was with acid in her words.

"Hate it here? The word hate does not even begin to describe how we feel trapped in this, away from our forest. It is having your ears, your arms, legs, your nose; your eyes gouged out or cut off. It is being buried under rock, silence surrounding, no one able to see you, find you, hear you sobbing, hear you screaming. It is being more alone, more empty, more painful then you can possibly imagine with your limited mind.

"I have already tried to kill myself several times to get out of this constant nightmare. You humans have offered me my freedom, and I have hoped several times, only to have it dashed madly. I would have gone insane if I was allowed to, but my ticker also affects my mind, so I am not even afforded that luxury.

"You promising me freedom in your holdings is futile, and even if you are being honest, I have no reason to trust you at the moment, and every reason to believe that you are trying to play some sick and twisted mind games on me

"I have already had children, some who were ripped from me before I was finished with the birthing process. Letting me take one child, and a half-breed at that, does not forgive all the pain and suffering your kind has already caused."

She walked over, standing in front of him, looking down at his perturbed face.

"Perhaps, if you want this idiotic plan of yours to succeed, you will have to gain my trust first. I will be in this foolish law ceremony of yours if you want, but do not expect me to forget one crucial thing..."

She quickly swing at his face, and he raised his arms in automatic self-defense. The shock she got was not from him pressing the buttons on his slave band, but from her trying to attack him in the first place. She screamed and fell to her knees. She gasped several times while he looked at her with a mixture of confusion and fear on his face. She stood up and walked to a corner to sit down.

"No matter what your laws say, and no matter how badly you may wish to fool yourself, we are nothing but master and slave, and nothing will ever change that."