Inside the shadows of the straw hat the man's eyes scanned the horizon alert for anything out of the ordinary. His eyes took in the wall surrounding the town contemptuously. Walls were not much protection against the stronger demons; the ones the walls were built to keep out. Eventually people would learn this, but until then they would just huddle behind the stone walls thinking themselves protected. At eight paces the wall was one of the smallest he had seen around a port town. Most demons would be able to jump over a wall that height. Protection from demons did not exist, and if it did it couldn't be found inside a wall. Especially when they opened their gates wide to allow demon's kin into the city whenever they asked entrance.

Heath dismounted his horse as he entered through the gates into the teeming mass of people. Samhain was the only holiday that people celebrated in this part of the world, but whenever there was a slave day everyone acted like it was Samhain. Work was halted everyone went into town to watch the entertainment . Children ran through the streets carrying treats to sell to the people in the village. Men and women came in from the outlying towns. Many places did not have a Stage of their own. People weren't the only commodity for sale during a slave day. There were stalls set up selling horses, weapons, armor, or clothes; there was even a stall selling love potions and demon repellant. Heath traced the mostly healed scar on the back of his arm as he glared at the old woman behind one of the booths. Most likely the love potion would work just as well as the demon repellant.

People made Heath nervous. It was dangerous in the forests, anything could jump out at you, but in the forest all you had to do was watch for movement. Inside the walls of a city everything moved and you never knew if there were any Slavers about. He should not be recognized in this demesne but it never hurt to be careful. He appeared to be taking in the sights of the city like any other traveler but his eyes took careful account of anyone who got too close. Most were people from Chandler 's Cove. Men and women dressed in their best clothes as if for a wedding. More often than not their best clothes were work pants that didn't have the knees worn out, or dresses that weren't threadbare. Here and there throughout the crowd were people who were just as dusty as he, likely from one of the surrounding towns.

He had to pass through the tightest group of people all standing in front of the Stage trying to get a good view. Like any such town Chandler 's Cove's economy was based on the Stage. The Stage was set in the center of the town much like any other Stage. Mayors of towns gave speeches from the Stages, towns held meetings and justice was meted out, but the primary purpose of the Stage was as an auction block for slaves. Men and women were bought and sold for less than the price of a mule. And the people of the towns thought it was a cause to celebrate. Heath's eyes narrowed in consternation every time he looked over at the Stage. If he had not run out of oats for his horse he would never have stopped in this town during a slave day. Waiting until tomorrow would mean staying another day and he had no intention of staying in this area any longer than he had to.

Off nearer the docks the crowd was moving aside. Four men were carrying a metal cage. They each gripped on the two long metal poles jutting out from the tops of the cages keeping the men just out of arms reach of the cages. This is a necessary precaution considering that the people in the cages were very rarely placed in them voluntarily. There were already nearly a dozen such cages placed along the front of the Stage. Heath had not seen them or he would have done his best to fight through one of the tighter groups of people. It's bad enough seeing the ones not in the cages but they don't look at you with eyes full of sadness praying you will save them.

Lost in his own thoughts trying to ignore the pleading of men and women in the cages-- wishing he had not noticed that some of them were to small to be considered more than children –Heath found himself in a clear space wider than the space normally left around the cages. Just as he began to turn towards the cages the roar of a beast was suddenly the only thing in his mind. His hand went for his sword as quick as thought, but before he could even touch the hilt he was jerked into the air by his horse. To keep tight control of the horse he had looped the reigns around his hand and now he was being almost pulled off his feet by Felix. All thoughts of being attacked were lost as he fought to control his struggling horse. If he let his horse take off at a gallop in the middle of a crowd someone could get killed. Being responsible for the trampling of townspeople was not the kind of attention he wanted to attract. With all the people here he could easily be tried and punished before the sun went down. It did not take much effort to change an auction into a hanging.

*****

Leila was miserable. She was trapped. The last few months had been filled with misery and pain. Her captors had kept Reth confined to his cage the entire journey. At least she was permitted a small room with three other slaves to fight over floor space. It was really only a storage shed built into the side of the hull. The room had not even possessed a window. For the first week she had been allowed out into the salty air. Slaves were allowed to walk the deck for exercise and sunlight. Healthy slaves fetched better prices. But it only took one look at Reth in his cage to send her into a frenzy. She was manacled but that didn't matter. She used the heavy iron as a weapon to fight her captors. Her eyes were blinded by the sight of her friend Reth in a captivity. They had been removed from their jungle where they hunted and he was confined to a cage. Leila fought against them wishing for her freedom and she lost.

She was never permitted out of the room after that. For the last month she had not even glimpsed the sun. She would probably have been killed if the man she had thrown overboard had not been recovered. He had glared at her whenever it was his turn to walk the other slaves. The impression she got from him was that he would not mind buying her just to have the satisfaction of killer her. They wanted her broken and pleading for her sale, but they would never have that. It took everything she could manage but she was able to summon a vicious grin for the guard.

Now she had sunshine. The door to her prison had opened and in came four crewmen. They were there to subdue her ; the other women in her room were already cowed. She had been stuffed into a cage that she had only enough room to sit up in. It was metal and strong. It took four of the sailors to move it any distance. She did not resist. She had to find Reth; it would not do her any good to escape without also freeing him. But when she was carried on deck his cage was already gone. Holding onto the hope that they would take her to wherever they had taken Reth she sat quietly in her cage.

The resolve to go along quietly almost left her when they began to “bathe” her. She was walked into the ocean still in her cage and dunked in to where she could barely get any air even by pressing her mouth up against the top of the cage. Even in this she was thankful when she heard one of the shipmen muttering angrily about being denied the opportunity to “give her a proper bath” which did not sound in the least pleasant to Leila. Besides she hadn't had the opportunity to get clean in nearly a month. Trying to clean in the metal cage, while at the same time trying not to drown in the slowly rising tide, was difficult but she managed to remove the majority of the dirt before the sailors hauled her out and trudged towards the port town.

Slowly sound began to build as they neared the town. At first she could not identify it, but as the sailors rounded the corner of a building she began to see people: more people than she had ever seen before. Easily five times as many as were in her entire village. She had never heard the noise of this many people before, it was strange and nearly deafening. When her village used to hold gatherings there were always too many people for her to stand. Which is why she always avoided the gatherings and even the village, she didn't like people. The open space in this town was as big as her village and it was filled with people. She had never seen so many people before. Why would they be gathering in such numbers?

Men and women crowded the open space and she could see more walking in and out of the areas around the houses. It seemed like they were all talking at once, their voices seemed to roar in her ears. How could anyone willingly subject themselves to this cacophony? I can only imagine how Reth is managing; his hearing is much more acute than mine. She was tempted to cover her ears with her hands but the idea of showing any weakness in front of the enemy was not an option. Each person she passed was a new enemy, everyone who did not help her to escape. All of these people were now classified as enemies. Reth was the only one she could trust. Just like always. If only she could find him again.

The Sailors were taking her closer to a raised dais in the middle of the crowd of people. It was maybe a pace tall but big enough to hold dozens of people at once. That was where they were taking her: toward that dais. She could see other cages similar to the one that held her captive. All lined up around the Stage. And there were also bigger cages… one of which she could see held Reth. He looked sick. They had not been feeding him properly, his fur was matted and his normal thin frame was now reduced to looking gaunt and sickly. Being in a cage was killing him. She could tell just by looking that if she did not free him he would die. Under her breath she said, “Hold on Reth, just a little longer.” He could not have heard her she had barely spoken. And yet as she was finished speaking Reth looked up and met her gaze for the first time in weeks. Opening his jaws he let out a deafening roar that broke through the noise of the crowd. His roar was loud and strong, belying his sickly appearance and it unleashed pandemonium on the crowd.

Not many in the crowd could afford mounts but there were over a dozen isolated areas where the people had to scatter out of the way to avoid being trampled by the screaming horses. Right in front of Reth's cage a man was struggling to hold his horse from bolting. She hoped he was trampled to death. Every man and woman in the crowd deserved nothing less than being trampled for taking part in this.

They were taking her past the line of cages up onto the Stage. But she was not thinking about that. Reth had only roared once. It was an eerie sound, shattering the noise which was still muted as if in fear of the beast in the cage. Leila had been around Reth for nearly a decade now and had only heard that roar 3 times. He was normally a silent and deadly predator. That roar was for me. He's letting me know that he is alive. For the first time since being put in the cage she felt like crying.