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Someone standing behind Tobi puts their hands on Tobi’s waist. A mouth close to his ear says in Ambolk, “We fuck kushir and kill kushir.”

Tobi looks around and spits back at them. “You die.”

Another man behind Tobi pulls him backwards, out of the grip that holds him and so his ass is held against the man’s groin. He can feel a partly roused cock through his alit. A voice snarls, “Fuck kushessa.”

“Don’t call me that,” Tobi snaps in Artemian.

Lymok steps forward. He touches Tobi on the cheek. “You know, I heard you used to be a whore with the circus.”

“I was not a whore,” Tobi protests as an arm wraps around him and slides under the alit to find his cock. “I was a beast tamer.”

Tobi swallows hard. He thinks of Baby, still on the cart. And somewhere in the dark he hears something. A familiar something that makes his heart leap. A low slow growl.

Baby. Baby is awake.

But what can she do? She is in a cage. And if the Exceli realise that she is there, under the sacking on Lymok’s cart, what would they do to her? Would they kill her? Sell her? Send her carcass to Attar as proof Tobi was dead?

But if she was out of her cage. She could defend him. Or she could run.

Tobi needs to get Baby free. With a grunt, he pulls out of the grip of the man holding him, who yelps in surprise. Suddenly, he is not being held. He only has a moment, a fraction of a moment, but he tears across the glade towards the cart.

Lymok drawls after Tobi, “What do you think you are doing kushir? You mean to run naked into the forest at night?”

But Tobi isn’t making for the forest. He reaches the cart, leaps up onto it and tears away the sacking.

Lymok, seeming to realise what Tobi is doing, calls out, “No! Stop him!” But his cry is swallowed up by Baby’s roar as she is revealed in the torchlight, rearing up, snarling.

“No,” Lymok shouts as Tobi senses the Exceli cowering away in fear. “She cannot be. I gave her sofi.”

“She’s a big beast, Lymok,” shouts Tobi. “How much did you give her?” thinking that Lymok was likely fool enough to only give her the dose that would have kept a man sleeping all night.

“The beast can’t get out of its cage,” shouts Salizi. “Get kushir away.”

Two of the Exceli race for the cart. Tobi knows he only has moments to free Baby. But his hands fumble on the bolts. They are stiff and his hands are cold. Baby is growling and snarling, sensing danger and growing more and more frenzied.

Hands grab hold of Tobi just as he starts to move one of the two bolts that hold the cage door closed. But he freezes as he hears a sickening sound. A familiar rush of air.

An arrow flies across the clearing. It sails through the bars of Baby’s cage, missing Baby by a hair and hitting the bars at the back. It drops onto the straw.

“Step back, kushir,” Lymok’s voice rings out in Artemian. “Get away from that cage or your beast will be shot dead before you.”

Tobi turns in the arms of the men holding him. He can see three Exceli archers with arrows nocked, ready to fire on Baby.

“Don’t hurt her,” Tobi says, voice shaky. “Please don’t hurt her. Don’t fire. I’ll do what you want.”

Then one of the men holding Tobi says in Ambolk. “We fuck kushir and beast too.” He laughs.

He’s a big man, meaty and strong. As big and muscled as Harok, but surely he would not be so stupid as to approach Baby in such a state.

He reaches around Tobi and sticks an arm through the bars of the cage to touch the snarling animal. “Fine beast,” he coos. But Baby is in no state to be played with.

“Don’t!” Tobi tries again. But too late.

Baby moves fast. With a snarl and a snap, her head turns and her jaws sink into the man’s arm.

The man screams and jerks his arm back. Blood flies everywhere, even torn flesh. The gore splashes onto Tobi’s alit. He sees the archers pull back their bowstrings.

“No,” Tobi yells in Ambolk. “No, no,” And then switching to Artemian. “He scared her. She is frightened.” He pulls free of the other man still holding him and stretches out his body to shield the cage.