Parth's deep, baritone voice grumped out in a husky command. "Keep up if you plan on having shelter or food tonight."
Fray, confused, was only three feet behind the male. She picked up her pace, regardless and ended up falling to his "right hand side," still not parallel with him but certainly in his line of sight. Or, at least, she believed she was. The older male had a glint in his eyes that made her believe he didn't have the best eyesight.
"Do you speak?" He grumbled again, short of being a snap at her silence.
Surprised to have been addressed again, she nodded. On second thought, a raspy, quiet voice answered. "Yes." She cleared her throat and answered more clearly. "Yes?" There was an inflection at the end of the word, forming it into a silent question.
He grunted in response, looking forward the entire time as they walked.
Fray was perhaps the second most confused she has been in her entire life. The first was when she was originally captured by this particular pride of lions. She was now what they called a thrall and had been in the... possession of a less than friendly family. The matriarch lioness in particular was cruel to Fray. And that was who had traded her for something this old man had offered for her... or at least that was what she had put together. She hadn't been paying close attention, more concerned with the throbbing pain on the side of her head after being struck by said-lioness. Her headache still ached behind her eyes as she followed this stranger, now... master. She grimaced.
Her expression shift caused Parth to glance over at with her a severe expression, layered thinly with curiosity. She met his eyes briefly before glanced quickly down to watch her steps. He was leading her from the common areas, towards what she believed was his den. She'd never met this lion before today--his presence was both unnerving and a fresh breath of air. He clearly wasn't the same the nature as the previous pair she was subjected to... but of course she couldn't quite know that yet. She silently hoped her instincts were accurate.
"Here we are." The lion's loud voice caused Fray to jump with a start. Wide-eyed, she looked around for a sign of a den. What she saw instead was a ratty sheet of cloth on the ground, beneath a scraggly tree that set against a rocky hill side, surrounded by miscellaneous objects that varied from old and rusted to new items that she had never seen before. She wondered if some of them were taken from humans. Unsure what to do, she looked to the male for direction.
He grunted at her lack of enthusiasm. "It's not much..." In fact, he looked almost embarrassed now as he moved about the small area and scooting some of his artifacts around as a way to 'tidy' things up. "But its going to be part of your job to help me spruce it up..." Parth had been a former Reaver. He had gone on several vikings in his time but it took a toll on his body that made him more of a liability to his fellow reavers. Of course, he'd never admit to that. Instead he claimed he wanted a break and to stay home for an extended visit. He'd toyed with the idea of pursuing himself as a law speaker but had yet to move on it. He struggled letting his days of Reaving go, and it was more lonely than he'd originally imagined. That is partially why when he saw this lioness, obviously underfed and mistreated, he saw the opportunity to gain help with future projects but also... it nagged him to see anyone mistreated that, to him, were apart of the pride--thrall or not.
Fray stared at the lion open mouthed. Realizing this was considered rude, to quickly shut it with a 'pop.' He continued to stare at her and realized he was waiting for a response. "I, ah--that is, no. It's-It's fine." She struggled to force the words out of her mouth as they tumbled one after the other. Taking lead from him, she began clearing items away from the sheet, what she assumed to be his bed, and organizing the objects in a stacked area. There was no clear sense of order and she assumed he'd merely thrown items that she'd collected over time, simply to get them out of the way.
Parth grunted in response, the look of embarrassment fading from his posture and giving way to simple awkwardness. He clearly didn't know what to do. "I, uh, will go to the market soon and get you something to make your own pallet with. Mine's filthy and you wouldn't want to, uh, use that I'm sure."
Fray didn't respond, and even if she wanted to, she had no clue how. Instead, she nodded, head low to the ground, and continued to "clean" the area.
Eventually Parth stopped and instead, watched her with a quirked eyebrow. After a pause, he asked, "What's your name?"
Fray froze for an instant. She guessed her former masters didn't tell him? She turned to him then, a shadow of smile on her maw. "Fray." It came out quiet and the lion could barely hear her. Of course, he was hard of hearing too.
"Fray." He made it sound a little foreign in his pronunciation. "Is that your real name? Or did they give it to you?"
This gave her pause again, her eyes wide with surprise. "It's my name." She shook her head, continuing, "I was born with it."
Satisfied, Parth grunted again and nodded, turning to survey the work he'd done "cleaning." In reality, he'd just made a harried mess into a pile of junk, but it had cleared enough of the space so that there was adequate room for another pallet to be made.
"If, uh, you could just..." He waved a paw at the pile he'd created. "Sort this, I'll return with food and something for you to sleep on for the night." Without making eye contact, Parth abruptly turned and began towards the market.
Fray, open mouthed again, watched him go as shock pulsed in her heart. Her own bed? And evidently better than the one he was going to sleep on? She eye'd his rather tattered 'pallet' with skepticism. She wanted to wash it but one, there was no soap she could see, and second, she didn't want to take it upon herself to change anything that he'd not told her to do... Instead, she focused on the task at hand, all the while looking over her shoulder.
This couldn't be real. This couldn't be her life.
Word Count: 1,131