Cellen would be off, safe now, she knew. Reisx knew Ai and the others, the children, they had to be safe as well. They had come to the settlement, she and Cellen, but Reisx, after he had gone, had double-backed, taking a moment to herself, taking a deep breath. This was it.
The lamp lights flickered in the night, the settlement it's own starry sky against the black canvas of the Akoya island. The buildings were their own mountains and hills, the streets, the valley's and ravines, the mokai, the wild, but no, the mokai there were domestic and had lost their inner selves. It was quiet, mokai placed in stalls, underground fights at a stand still, only the wind was heard whistling through the alleys, only the wind spoke tales of promise, and which way to go. Silver eyes looked to one area of the settlement where the wind had not traveled yet. The grime on the streets near that area were thick, the smell, intense, and her lips curled. Her old master, he lay there in wait for her, no doubt, waiting for the chance to go on a hunting party, a retrieval group, to get her back. But no, she would not allow it, risk Cellen's or anyone else's freedom. Her fur bristled, hackles rising, she would go to him, tonight was the night that would begin it all. Tonight was step one, as she could not do everything alone, but she needed this, these moments, to herself, to concentrate, gather her thoughts, and pursue the beginning. What was to come could not happen without a start, and she wished to start it on her own even if she needed help finishing it. She wanted to be able to go to Cellen to tell him she confronted her old master, but she wanted to be able to do that with confidence and pride.
She paced, back and forth, deciding on her plan, how to proceed. She didn't just want to go in and have no plan if Imnir was there laying in wait. She snarled just thinking of the male. Not all mokai were like that, he seemed to only exception to decent mokai. But, she shrugged, she could be wrong. Blinking, she looked to the flickering lamp lights again, and saw the light was dwindling and a smirk spread across her maw. She knew what she had to do and what she had to wait for now: she had to wait for the lights to go out. Then and only then could she sneak in the shadows and fully be enveloped by the darkness so that none other could see her unless she wished for them to peer in her eyes and find her. She leaned back on her haunches and decided it would be best to wait outside the walls before she went in. It would be better this way. But she needed to formulate her plan better. She needed to expose her old master for the horrifying individual he was, but how could she do that without drawing attention to herself? How could she do it without getting caught? Pondering she rubbed her nose with a paw and sneezed, sighing, and tried to contemplate her options.
Reisx could go in, go to where he kept her, and ruin the inner most areas of his house, if you could call it that. His workshop was in a slum area and it smelled like the inside of the brown bottles he constantly drank out of. She stuck her tongue out thinking of it. But what would that accomplish, what would it really do? She needed him to see what she had suffered, but he never showed emotion, never cared except for the prize, the money…and her eyes widened. That was it. She remembered he kept his money in a metal box, lock broken of course, he couldn't afford something else, under his bed near his gun.
It would be risky, but she had to try.
As the last lamp light dimmed, she went for the wall, the gates, and the fence. There was no scent tonight, and that made her feel calm but also have a tense urge on her neck. She felt like the eyes that may have been watching her, perhaps even helping her, being gone might be a hindrance rather than help.
As she went down the alleys, she came to stop at different intervals to make sure no one was following her, no one was coming too close, and that there were no guards hiding out around corners with mokai at the ready waiting to try and recapture her. Shuffling her paws and moving as quickly as she could, she passed houses, stalls, perhaps the entrance to some illegal fights her old master had put her in, but everything began to grow darker, have a stench that could not escape her nose and throat, and her eyes watered. Not from the stench alone, but from a fear deep inside that was questioning her actions with every step, but she had to do this. Swallowing her fear, trying to gain control of her strength, she continued until she came to a very familiar sector and stopped near trash that had been left out.
There were no lights on inside.
This was a good sign. She looked to the windows and did a once around the house, the workshop more likely called, and saw there was no movement, no fresh scents, and that no one was around. The door was locked, the windows were tightly shut, and there were no candles lit when normally there would be a few if he was up late drinking more or when he baited her, trained her he said, but she despised thinking of those times. This, this night and these actions would help her leave everything behind her. She had to embrace what she was about to do, she couldn't hold back, she couldn't let go of her determination, she had to give him what was fair, even if she couldn't give him everything she believed fair in her eyes, this would be a start. This was only the beginning.
She looked in the direction of where she and Dak had met, where she had taken him, to that area where men went to drink and become loud, Reisx knew her old master frequented that area. She smirked, looked to the nearest window and broke through, she had to act quickly.
((1085))
