A cold wind blew through the trees announcing the newcoming autumn, animals scrambled through the treetops, squirrels hurried with their stocking of food, while the other foraging animals took care of their own, with a slight shiver Bendek shifted in his sleep, his eyes were half open, and he was squinting as hard as he could, he couldn't go to sleep, the tension was keeping him from the sleep, and luckily he was not feeling tired, he had in his mind how he would act if they were captured, since he did not want to raise suspicion he would try to fight back a little but still allow to be captured, a drop of fear overcame him though, what if they werent sent to the castle, this could probably create much trouble for him, he pushed it out of his mind, luck had been on his side many times and hopefully this time also.
His ear twitched, he heard a sound of moving leaves. Could it have been an animal of the woods? It wasn't his father and those guarding them, for the sound came the opposite direction. He felt eager, and he couldn't decide if it was scared eager, or anxious eager, either way he was eager... The suspense of what would happen to him disturbed his mind, the more the wait the more it made him want to raise up and shout. How was Chiara handling the situation? As far as he knew her she was always quiet and nervous, only openning up for them once in a while, his ear twitched again, the sound of leaves rattling by movement, it unnerved him, stupid humans why don't they jump jump out and get them? they are asleep...

Suddenly as if from nowhere, nets flew over the three sleeping kruvnir, startled but not surprised, Bendek lifted himself from sleep, looking around in a fake sort of surprise, and began to try and take the net away from him, but it was of no use, the net was heavily planted on the ground, and as he looked around he noticed Chiara and Elnair had been caught in the same trap, and sudden laughters were heard from behind the trees, as a few humans jumped out to meet their recently caught bounty.
"Oy look at that! We caught ourselves some fresh ones!" A scrawny human spoke mockingly "Look a' this beau'y!" he groped Chiara's face and turned it to face him, she looked in disgust the human lacked teeth and smelled like alcohol, obviously not a well built citizen... Another one came closer, and slapped the scrawny one away from Chiara. "Don't touch the merchandize." He said bluntly this one was more of a noble appearance, and seemed to be slightly bulky, he took the scrawny man away from the three kruvnir, and pushed him over to the forest. "Tie them up and bring them to the cart, tonight we drink!" He shouted to the other men who gladly yelled with a victorious bellow, taking the kruvnir by the arms, they took the nets off, and tied their arms back, tightly and uncomfortably, they were taken away, it took around three men to hold Elnair down, as he seemed to be faking his capture quiet well, while all Bendek did was shake his hands away from time to time, growling lowly to the strong men that carried him.
To his pleasure the men did not care to rip their clothes off, even from Chiara, they seemed to keep their hands for themselves apparently, and the bulky man from before, watched them closely too, as if making sure no one did it, it was for mere greed though, this man seemed to like money much and had a pompous act to his image, they were tied to a carriage that was pulled by two horses, Bendek looked behind and spotted his father over a tree, he gave him a slight nod, but his face held a worried glance, as if he would spring out to help his son, but Bendek gave him a smile of confidence, he would not let the mission down, he would do his best, no matter what happened...

They walked through much forests for some hours still until they finally reached a large and spacious field, small hills covered the area, and far into the distance he could see the tallest tower of the castle, the city of Mera just bellow the large castle, and walls circled around it, large and robust they were, obviously the work for the human capital, the city was large, as they entered the gates the true size of the city was revealed, men and women walked around the streets, some merchanting with others, and at some of the houses there was house wives taking care of the clothes and cleaning their never clean houses... Bendek looked around with interest, but tried to focus on what was happening, the carriage ran through the streets until they finally reached what he noticed to be the slavery market... Hundreds of kruvnir were standing, some nude others still intact, but all held their heads down, pure sadness and longing filled their sad face, Bendek could hear the dealing men shout aloud for the crowd to hear the prices, over to a more quiet corner he saw an auction going on, three lined kruvnir looked over the spectating crowd of nobles that offered their bid for the sad kruvnir.
Humans are deplorable sometimes... He thought to himself with a face of disgust. He was taken aback as he heard the carriage come to a stop, and looked to see what was happening, they had reached a small area, this one was empty, and the bulky man had begun to speak with a more elderly man, though he seemed to be fit the elderly man greeted the bulky one.
"Back already Simon? My you are a fast hunter!" The elderly man spoke in his raspy voice.
"I found these in the outskirts of the city..." Simon said smiling to the old man. These men had just ruined three living being's lives and they were laughing and talking to eachother so happily as if nothing had happened? Bendek's fury was calmed however when he remembered that his capture was intentional...
"Right then let's have a look shall we?" The old man took a step closer to the three, he held a pair of glasses over his eyes, they bulged with the large lens, looking as if he had huge eyes, and clasped his hands when he caught sight of the three young and strong Kruvnir, his eyes brightened even more when seeing Chiara, she retreated her body back, seeing the man glance at her eyes.
"Marvelous! I can see from here they are quiet healthy and strong!" The man said "But let's have a better look shall we?" He motioned to the men that stood around the carriage, and at that each began to untie the three, now four man held Elnair together so he would not react. It was in vain though, Elnair was surely not trying to escape, but finally after much fisical working they removed each of the three's clothings... Bendek rolled his eyes, humans just kept being so shameless...
"Must you undress them to inspect them?" Simon asked crossing his large arms.
"Why of course, if i am to inspect their fisique how will i do it with their clothes in the way?" The old man took a step closer to Elnair, his hands were tied to his back, three men stood beside him to make sure he didn't move. The old man extended a boney finger towards Elnair's arms, and groped it fully with both hands, squeezing and studying it with interest, nodding and mumbling to himself everytime he moved around to see the fur and muscles, he touched, poked and groped his chest and abdomen, trying to evaluate everything about him, finally pleased he backed away, and smiled.
"Quiet a young wippersnapper this is, very valuable you are lucky Simon very lucky!" Simon bowed to this, smiling. And the old man moved to Bendek who swallowed up his pride, as the man eyed him up and down, squinting his large eyes to see Bendek, he mumbled some words that even Bendek couldn't understand... And began his inspection, groping his bicep, and poking his chest, he lowered himself for his legs, and inspected them closely, lifting it and giving weak punches to his knee, it jolted with a weak pain, as his injured leg was punched, he gritted his teeth and emitted a soft wimper. The old man got up and shook his head.
"Well this one is a scrawny thing, and seems to be injured on the leg, though nothing serious at that." He crossed his arms and fondled his end-of-the-day beard "He can be quiet useful with message carrying and other sorts of running around." Satisfied he nodded and moved over to Chiara, taking a good look over her, his hand touched her hair and moved it aside, feeling it on his bony hands, this uneased Bendek, but he held himself for his sake. "Quiet a beauty eh?" The old man said happily as he moved his hand from her, now touching her arms and checking to see if she had anything wrong with her, satisfied he walked back and glanced over to Simon. "I'll give you twenty five gold coins for them." He said taking his large glasses of and wiping them on his shirt. Simon twisted his nose. "Twenty five? aren't slaves in a normal price of ten crowns each if healthy?" Simon retorted calmly
"Yes but the fox one isn't completely healthy and..." The old man walked closer to Simon taking on a wispering tone. "He is a bit... Scrawny i doubt anyone would want to buy him." He said. But Bendek heard the man, and frowned angrily. I am perfectly healthy and strong! He thought in his anger, who were these fools to judge his capabilities.
"Alright..." Simon said glancing at Bendek "I suppose you're right, twenty five gold coins it is then." He shook hands with the old man, and they walked over to grab the bag of gold, while the other men scrambled to take the three into the property of the old man, they were pushed into a small house, inside was a large bench, only enough to hold a few kruvnir, and they sat, their arms tied behind their backs and the men lef them,  talking amongst eachother what they will do with the money... Bendek looked at the two and smiled. "That went well." He said playfully. Chiara and Elnair shared the smile, and chuckled. "Could have been better..." Chiara said looking out the door to see if anyone was coming. "Quiet the old man is coming." She whispered to the others as they took a more quiet posture, the old man opened the door slowly and calmly, it creaked open by his frail hands and the man stood in front of the three. "Right then let's get you three washed up shall we?" he motioned for someone to come, into the house walked in a girl, she was young and her eyes seemed to emitt a sort of innocence and bashfulness. "You wolf go first" The old man said pointing towards him, Elnair complied, raising himself from the seat, he was much larger then the girl and she guided him out, her head lowered feeling a little overwhelmed with the big wolf that stood beside her, to their surprise he did nothing, except for Chiara and Bendek who knew he would not fight to run away. The old man eyed Bendek and Chiara, with watchful eyes, and left the house, Chiara and Bendek exchanged looks and then looked outside again, waiting patiently for what was to happen next...

It took not long for Elnair to walk back in, and to their surprise he was smelling awfully well, there was a slight bit of cherry mixed with coconut to him, and his fur and hair was well dried not to mention his hair and fur was brushed to a perfect and neat state, he rolled his eyes and sat down again, he now pointed to Chiara signaling her to come, and so she did, walking out of the small house, she followed the old man... Bendek shifted his gaze to Elnair who seemed to need to scratch himself.
"You look nice" Bendek said playfully
"I hate this!" Elnair said gritting his teeth
"Why?"
"They used bad soap now im all itchy!"
Bendek laughed. "At least you don't mind baths...".
"I can imagine you'll be thrashing..." Elnair said unpleasingly
"I might."
Soon enough Chiara walked in smelling the same as Elnair, her fur as bright as ever, which made Bendek's eyes sparkle with her renewed beauty, but he was interrupted as the old man whistled for his attention, he got up, walking behind the young girl who avoided contact with his eyes, she led him into a small shed, it was covered but it had space for a large tub filled with soapy water, around the tub there was two other women, these seemed older then the girl, and they looked at Bendek.
"Do get into the water." A blonde lady montioned for him to the tub, Bendek looked at the water fearfully, and took a step closer, gulping hesitantly he put a trembling paw into the water, it was cold, he shivered and retreated his foot from it, looking at the dreadful water, the maids laughed and took his hand, and pulled him into the tub, he fell into the blistering cold water and gasped as he felt every inch of his body become wet with it, the girl yelped as a splash of water almost hit her, the women grabbed Bendek tightly, making him sit still on the tub, but he tried to get away from their grasp. "Feisty little one" The blonde woman said, Bendek stopped suddenly as he felt the hands rubbing his head, he tried to relax, letting the water flow through his fur, the maids seem to smile at that, and began to scrub him with the sponges, the cherry smell was entering his nostrils, invading his mind, and calming him a little on the wet ordeal.
"There we go that's much better." The other woman said, her hand carressed his head calmly, apparently was a skill she had learned to calm kruvnir when bathing them, the bath was not enjoyable to Bendek nonetheless, but he allowed them to wash him, the probing hands rolling around him, filling his fur with soap and bubbles, he shuddered as the hands reached his secrets, and the more lower parts of his body, the women didn't seem to hesitate to wash even the most intimacies of his body...

Finally the wet torture had come to an end, they wrapped him around with towels, rubbing him into a dry state, the bloonde woman brought a strong comb, and began stroking his fur, and hair into place, he murred a little as the rythmic movements soothed him, and after much rubbing his fur stood just right, the women chatted as they wroked with him, but he paid little attention to their useless gossiping, finally done, he was taken by the young girl again, her shy way of acting was interesting for Bendek.
"Are you afraid?" He asked as they walked. The girl seemed to be surprised by him suddenly talking to her.
"I... um... n-no" She said in a low voice.
"There is no need to act so shy around us, we won't bite you." Bendek, looked around. "We have more reason to fear you then you us..."
Her eyes looked at him, she blushed a litle and walked away, letting him into the small house, where Elnair and Chiara, were chatting with eachother, they changed their gaze to him, but their face was unchanged.
"How was it?" Elnair asked mockfully
"Terrible..."
"I figured." Elnair smiled.
"How long do you think it will take for us to be... uh... bought?" Asked Chiara.
"You two will most likely be bought..." Bendek said grimly " You heard the old man, im a 'scrawny and weak' specimen..."
Elnair slapped his back laughing. "Don't let it get to ya, you know how humans are. their minds work with money."
Bendek groaned, this didn't help, but at least he felt better that at least Chiara liked him... "What do you think?" He looked at her.
She looked confused at him. "About what?" She asked tilting her head.
"Am i that scrawny?"
"Uh... no... not really." There was a sure hesitation to her voice.
"You think so too huh?" He asked grimly.
"No! Not at all, i like you just the way you are!" She would place her hand on his shoulder but they were tied on her back.
"I'll pretend that was true..." He said mournfully.
Suddenly the door opened and the old man walked in calmly, looking towards Chiara, he beckoned for her, and called her, she responded and followed him outside, Bendek hoped it was not someone trying to buy her, and sat nervously... The minutes passed, almost half an hour... This was bad, what if someone had truly bought her? To his pleasure she walked in again, her eyes were lazy, and she was breathing hard, obviously with lack of comfort for something, and she walked sloppily as well, she finally took a seat, and closed her legs in her discomfort...
"What happened?" Bendek was first to ask.
"N-nothing important..." said she.
"You don't look good..."
"They... probed me..."
"In what..."
"It doesn't matter... They probed me..." She was obviously not well with the subject, so Bendek dropped it. Her legs were uncharacteristically together, she usually sat with her legs slightly open, but now they were tightly together, as if she wore a skirt...

The day hadn't gone for more then a few hours into the afternoon when they suddenly heard a certain commotion, horses whinnied and men scrambled, until the old man jolted into the house, three men walked into the shed and took the three young kruvnir out, walking with them swiftly through the rocky street, finally making them stand against a wall, that faced the main street that passed through the slaves center... Trumpets sounded, the annoying sound invading Bendek's ears, he grimaced at the horrid sound, until they finally ceased.
"Presenting your royal highness, king Alovar high lord of the human country and ruler of the five clans!" A man shouted, Bendek could not see the source for it came from behind the wall that divided the shop next to the one he was, there was a silence, and he heard a single footstep, walking slowly through the corridor of shops, each step made a terrible grattling sound, that unnerved Bendek, the suspence was horrible for him, until finally a man appeared from behind the horizon of the wall, he's eyes probing around the crowd, inspecting each shop for something, until his eyes met Bendek's, those penetrating green eyes, looked at him, a thin moustache was over his pompous mouth, and he wore large robes of royality, atop his head was a shiny gold crown filled with gems and other precious stones, the king stopped suddenly, looking at Bendek's blinking eyes.
The captivating innocence, that familiar determined look, who was this fox boy he had just seen, turning in one gracious movement he walked into the shop, looking at the poor establishment, but his gaze changed towards Bendek again, his piercing eyes meeting with this fox, he had never seen and yet was so familiar to him...
"Tell me... What is your name?" The king's voice was soothingly graceful, and apparently calm but low and powerful at the same time.
"B-bendek sir..." He said nervously. Suddenly a hand slapped him, hitting him across his face, and making him stumble to the ground, there was a gasp coming from both Chiara and Elnair, not to mention the crowd that stood behind the king. "Adress your kind properly!" A shorter and more silly looking man said angrily, he wore a purple and yellow clothes, they looked stupid on the man, and looked down on Bendek, who was laying on the floor. A hand was placed onto the man's back. "Abak, did i ASK you to come here and beat this kruvnir?" He asked with an obvious annoyed tone to his voice, the silly dressed man shivered. "n-no your highness, i-i was just teaching this..." The king lifted his hand. "Get back behind me and don't do anything without me saying it..." The man bowed and walked behind the king, shivering with pathetic submission, the king took Bendek from the floor, lifting him bluntly by the shoulder, and cleaning the dirt from his shoulders.
"Now then..." The king began. "Who is your father?"
Bendek realizing his father was well known he thought twice. "I.... I never met him... he was killed by a human when i was very young..." His face took a sad look obviously faked but very well produced. The king scratched his chin, thinking as he inspected this fox, he was surely familiar, but why? why was this fox so familiar to him, shaking his head he came back to reality, and looked back to see the other two kruvnir, a cat and a wolf, they averted their gaze as he looked towards them, both seemed to be nervous, he stepped closer to the wolf, looking at his fierce eyes, the wolf was strong, and he seemed like someone that should not be underestimate, satisfied the king now looked at the cat, her eyes were looking away, making sure to not meet the king's eyes, surely she must be shy, he took her cheek and moved her to face him, her eyes trembled as they changed towards him, he smiled.
"You are quiet a beauty for a kruvnir." The king spoke with a joyful tone. His eyes rolled about her body taking in her whole appearance, she was indeed quiet adorable, he had never seen one as her, this pleased him, and he lifted himself, walking towards the old man, he asumed was the owner of the three kruvnir. "I will take the three, Abak pay him so we may leave this place." The king gestured for the silly looking man, and walked off to his royal stand, a comotion began in the crowd as his decision was made, gossiping and talking the voices were too many that ended up in a scrambled bunch of random wordings, Bendek, Chiara, and Elnair were taken and placed behind the line that was followed by the king, the old man bowing to the king and saying thank so many times Bendek thought he would stay all day thanking, if they hadn't begun to walk, away from the slave market, and onto the city, every part of the city was taken with talking and gossiping, as the king passed by, Bendek felt as the center of attention, it felt ironic their objective was not to take the attention to them, feeling confident though he straightened himself as they walked, and looking back he saw Chiara smiling, Bendek smiled as well, the plan had worked and things were working perfectly as planned...