There was a chill that coursed through the air and brought a shiver down her spine. It was hard not to hear the soft curses as the woman clung to the sad excuse for a cloak. It was tattered beyond repair and in the end was more of a torn up blanket wrapped around her. She was not sure how she ended up this far into the wilderness but there she was.  The mountains grew around her dramatically and she could not see level ground as fair as her emerald eyes could see. Even with the cloak around her, the wind blew stray strands of bright red hair into the air. It was hard for her to stay hidden for long.

The woman could see the puffs of mist with each heavy breath. She had forgotten how long she had been traveling up. She could see strange entrances etched into the mountain that called to her curiosity. While the small voice in her head screamed murder at her to not go into them, her feet held other ideas in mind. She slowly began to creep into one of the passage with her back towards the wall.

She had forgotten how long she had even been traveling down the strange tunnels. At first, she was curious if maybe this was one of the tunnels towards the temple of one of the deity. She had heard rumors that some of them used strange tunnels to allow entrance to their world. The idea only made the hairs on her arms stand but was not enough to stop her as she took slow steady steps through the dungeons.

‘This is starting to scream a bad idea. What am I thinking?’ Her thoughts wavered with fear, although it was too late to turn back now. She fairly doubted she would even be able to find her way back even if she had wanted to. The tunnel grew damp the deeper she traveled and it appeared they were forever going down as if traveling further into the mountain.

Clang.

The noise caused her whole body to freeze in place. Her back pushed rougher back into the wall and her whole body shivered. She just needed to remain silent. Whatever was there would hopefully not hear her and continue down, right? Sadly, the noises grew and soon she was face to face with orcs. They yelled out in a language in she could not understand, but she was not about to stop and ask them what it meant. She could see their sharp weapons and knew she had done something wrong.

She ran as fast as her tired feet could take her. She found herself slipping on the slick earth and tripping over rocks but she was still ahead. It was then that she found herself plummeting to the ground. There had been a root that she had not noticed and, sadly, it had won. She could feel her forehead hit into the hard ground and the little light in the darkness disappeared. Just like that, she was out.

“What’s a humanling doing down here? I thought we told them to steer clear!”  one of the orcs growled as they finally caught up to the unconscious girl. He poked at the prone female with his spear.
“She don’t look like she’s got much on her… besides that rag she’s wearing. It looks like it will fall apart any minute,” a second orc grumbled, while a third, significantly smaller than the other two, got down on his knee and began looking over her.
“She ain’t movin’. She must be dead. Can we eat her?” this one asked, his voice high and nasaly, as though he had some sort of goblin blood in him.
“No, you idiot. We did away with that practice decades ago. Bad for the digestion. Besides, she ain’t got enough meat on her to even make a proper stew,” the first orc said, knocking the shorter third over the head with his spear shaft. The smaller orc growled at swatted at the spear.

“We can’t just leave her here,” the second orc grumbled. “She’s blocking the path… but I don’t want to have to deal with taking her to the cells…”

“I’m with you on that. That’s a long way off our patrol to get to, and then there’s all that stupid paperwork that the mages have started insisting on when we throw a prisoner in there. Just too much a hassle,” the first agreed with a nod.

“Well, what we gonna do then? Pawn her off on someone else?” the third questioned. As if to answer the question, they heard an odd sound echoing off the walls, high and shrill, a sound that typically orcs weren’t the kind to make.

“Damn it all. There’s Bat whistling again. He must be on his way to take his shift at the prison,” the first growled, waggling a finger in his mottled green ear. The three of them looked at each other, and a grin split across their faces as a fourth individual rounded the bend. He was taller than most human men were but short by orcish standards, lacking the stiff black mowhawk or dreadlocks that were sported by many of his kin. His skin lacked the green or black pigments that most others had, but his face was still patterned with scars from harsh trainings and a life spent mostly underground. He had a long, slightly hook like nose that had been squashed and broken a couple times and a very sharp, square set jaw that suggested a hint at his possibly trollish heritage. His arms were thick with hard sinewy muscle, and he wore a chest plate fashioned of animal bone and hardened leather, and pants made of animal hide. A bow and quiver were slung over his shoulders, as was a particularly lethal looking axe.

“Hey! Bat! Stop that infernal whistling and get over here. We got you a present!” the first orc called to the newcomer whose whistling promptly stopped and he joined the other three circled around the unconscious girl. The first orc pointed at the girl.
“Caught her wandering around in here. She took off running and fell and hit her head. You’re headed to the prison. Take her with you. I bet the mages could probably find some sort of use for her,” the first orc ordered.

The one called Bat sighed and looked at the girl, and her flaming red hair the was splayed out over the ground like a veil.
“A human? Wonder what she was doing this far down here…” he wondered out loud.
“Don’t particularly care. She was probably just lost. She ain’t got any weapons or nothing, so she shouldn’t be a problem for  you unless she bites.”
“She’s kinda cute.”
“Don’t get all soft.”
“I’m not. Just making a statement.”

“Whatever, just get her squared away. We have a patrol to be doing.” And with that, the three orcs turned and walked away, leaving Bat alone with the fallen femme. He stroked his stubbled chin thoughtfully before he shrugged, bent down and hoisted her up over his shoulder and carried her to the prison cells deeper in the cave systems and put her in a cell before going about his duty as a guard.

There was a sharp pain that echoed through her head as she slowly shifted into life. Her hand reached up and her fingers pressed into her skull, trying to rub out the pain. Her eyes opened slowly to take in the scene around her. It was dark deep in the caves, however with the simple lighting she could make out what was around her. Was she in a cell? Shifting a little, she tried to take in more that was around her. Her face paled with fear and confusion as she stared the thick bars of the cell. Where was she?

Her mind struggled for a moment before regaining the memory of what had happened before she lost consciousness. She had traveled through a cave in hopes to find a way out of the mountains and found herself traveling deep underground. She had caught sight of people and tried to run. There was an audible sigh that escaped her lips when she remember the last part of what had happened. She had tripped on something and fell face first into the ground, which for a woman with strong senses it was a pretty pathetic move.

Kineko slowly sat up. She checked herself over but found that nothing seemed to out of place. She had no items for them to take to begin with, but they had even left her tattered cloak. She really could not call it much of a cloak now that it was not only tattered but covered in a dark mud, or what she prayed was mud.

There was no doubting her predicament now. She was, in the best terms, unlucky. Her hazed eyes slowly traced the cell around her. It seemed that there was no one in her current cell but she could hear the whines of others. She was far from alone. Pulling her knees to her chest, Kineko curled up into a ball and began to try and plan her way out of this place. She was not going to let this be end of her story.

Bat had done his rounds about the prison twice before he figured he would go and take another look at the new acquisition that he had brought into the prison. He had yet to fill out and send his report about her to the mages, but the way he saw it, there really was no hurry. If they really wanted anything, they'd send down their runner minion down to find out how things were going, or if they were going to need a test subject for something or other. Bat never asked what happened to the prisoners who went missing from the jail. It might have been that he didn't really want to know, or that he had this nagging feeling that if he asked too much, he too could go missing. 

The troll-blooded half-orc came to the red-haired humanling's cell and peered inside. He was pleasantly surprised to see her awake and looking about her, as if she was trying to determine a way out of her current predicament. Even in the dim light, he could see the intelligence in her green eyes. 

"Ah, you are awake," he commented in orcish as he came to stand by her cell. "I was beginning to think that the knock to your head was a much more serious one that I had been originally told," he added. He turned and picked up a thin tin plate of hard biscuit and a cup of water and pushed it through the bars of the cell. 

"Sorry I can't offer you much more than this, though it will keep you from starving," he said indicating to the plate. He adjusted his bow on his back and watched the woman for a moment. 
"What's a thing like you doing wandering around down here, anyway?"

There was no air that circulated through the room. She could feel the damp chill that drifted and rested in the cells. The area was silent outside of the trickling of water from a crack in the ceiling. She knew there was no light that perched through the stone around them. They must have been too deep in the mountain now to ever see any daylight. The thought made her heart skip a beat. Would she never be able to see the day light again or watch the sun set? Her heart began to race in fear of what would come from everything. It brought a cold chill down her spine and her hands gripped her legs tighter as she watched the hall.

The sound of feet made her eyes focus closer on the hall. Kineko knew well this was one of those men that she was running from before. As the figure moved closer to her and walked into her eyes, she narrowed her eyes to see exactly who they were. To her surprise, the figure in front of her did not exactly look like the men that she had tried to escape from. He had similarities to them but there was a lot about them that made him look rather bizarre. 

The creature began to speak out to her but it was in that same strange language she did not know. Emerald eyes watched him with confusion as she pressed her nails into her leg. He must not understand the difference in language between stupid. Was he dumb or just doing it on purpose? She had heard that orcs could be rather selfish and centered on their own lives. It would make sense they would just assume that anyone in the area would speak the language.

The man turned and came back with a thin plate with a cup and biscuit. As if her body was trying to tell them something, the moment her gaze caught sight of the biscuit and her stomach let out a large grumble in hunger. He pushed the plate through the cell as if offering it to her. Her eyes darted from the plate to the man as she tried to decide if she should trust this food. Her stomach let off another loud growl before she finally scurried to her knees.

Shaky hands reached out and quickly grabbed the biscuit first. It did not take it long before she was was shoveling the dry substance into her mouth. Any normal person would have probably spit it back out the moment the flavors touched her touch but it did not stop her. She had been traveling for so long with very little food. Anything was better than nothing at this point. Her eyes shifted to the glass and she gripped the glass to take a long gulp. The water felt wonderful down her throat. When had been the last time she enjoyed actual water. 

Shuffling back to the back of the cell, she let her eyes watch him with the same narrowed gaze as before. She acted a lot like a beast, like the actual race that she was. Her hair was a mess and she was eating the food like it was her last. It could have actually been her last but that was the last thing on her mind. She would find a way out of her. It was only a matter of time.

Intelligent black eyes watched the pretty red head inside the cell. She seemed quite feral all things considered, which was actually rather odd for a humanling. She was clearly half-starved judging by how she had devoured the rather hard biscuit. She looked liked she could have done with a proper meal and not just that little bit he had offered. She seemed to be gauging him, looking for anything she could use to escape, or at least that's the way he translated the harsh and narrow gaze she gave him. 

He looked down the corridor of cells and sighed. Most of the cells were empty right now. There were a couple others that were filled with other oddities; a drider that had ventured too far from the Umbral Depths, a mangy werewolf, and a djinni offspring that had come peddling wares. They were races that the mages would be interested in using for tests. This humanling though, would probably either die unnoticed in her cell or escape. It was a good bet no one would care either. Just one more feral human in the dangerous peaks of the Highlands. There weren't many, but they weren't horribly uncommon. He looked back at the woman in the cell before he pulled up his chair and plopped rather unceremoniously into it. 

"Don't worry…" he said this time in the Adelunian Trade tongue. "Chances are that the mages won't find you of any use," he muttered. 

There remained the sharp stare down between Kineko and this strange orc. She was ready for anything. She had nothing to actually protect herself but she would not go down without a fight. She would let her facade vanish and let the fox take over if she needed to. Her hand reached out and quickly snatched up the last biscuit on the plate and started to gulp it down. She had been traveling a long time before she even ended up on the mountain. She could not remember the last time she had a good, home-cooked meal. She had caught a couple of rabbits, but the further she traveled the colder it got. It was not long before there were barely any animals in view. It snowed so much that her view was barely a foot in front of her face. Truthfully, she should have listened to the voice in the back of her head telling her that traveling down the cave was a bad idea.

Her dagger gaze followed his eyes as he let out a sigh and looked towards the darkness. It appeared that maybe he realized that she had no idea what he was saying. She was not exactly sure what he was doing but he had taken a seat in front of her like it was nothing. She was confused by his actions. They made little sense to her that he would take the time to seat with her. Was he supposed to be guarding the cages and decided to be lazy? He was an orc that seemed to be pretty horrible at his job if that was the case outside for being a fool that thought she would understand the strange language coming out of his mouth before. She knew very little about orcs outside of the stories that had been told to her as a child.

They were brutal creatures but were not very smart. She just needed to trick him and find her chance to run. She was unsure how to get to the point of being able to escape, but she needed to think of something that was for sure. Her mother would not be proud to see the situation she had gotten herself in if she were alive. Sadly, humans did not live as long as kitsunes and had died a long time ago. It left a small fox to spend the rest of her life alone and traveling from one forest to another. It was partly the reason she only knew the basic language. Maybe, in the end, she was the dumb one out of the two as he finally spoke again.

Kineko blinked at his words. Was she able to understand them this time? He was actually speaking words she knew. Her back pressed back into the wall more. The idea of him being able to talk in her own language only brought more worry to the fox. Her mind was reeling at it all and her lips just parted a few times as she tried to say anything. He told her not to worry but in the same breath talked about chances and mages. They were both words that when combined did not come up with any good situations in her head. What were they going to do to her? She sucked in roughly and tried to calm her nerves letting her eyes stare daggers at him again.

”You are one of them. Why should I trust you? You are on the other side of the bars.” There was no missing the venom in her voice as she watched him. She wanted to sound serious, dangerous. Her voice came out with a soft growl as her natural accent chimed in softly. Her eyes watched him, trying to make sense of what he was doing. He was most likely trying to test her or gain her trust so they could do things to her without having to fight her and knock her unconscious again.

"Oh, so you speak the trade language then do you?' Bat said, perking up slightly. He might actually get a half decent conversation while on duty for once. "By all accounts, it would make sense if you didn't trust me," he said frankly. "However, I know what happens to be in the other cells, and they would be of far greater interest to the mages than a humanling like you," he replied. "Driders, Lycans, and Genasi are far more magically intriguing, of course, I mean no offense," he said giving her a slight hand wave. 

"The long and the short of it is, at this point, I am probably the best friend you have right now. I'm the only one on this job, which means I am the only one who relays to the mages who we've got in here," he pointed out. "So if I don't say anything, no one knows you are here," he said. "You got a name, humanling?" he asked casting a glance her way. 

The fox studied the orc as he spoke to her. He seemed to perk up when she responded to him. He must have figured she only knew a strange language. He probably would be less interested to find that was the single language she knew. She did not even know her own races language because she knew none of them. A cold and sad place covered in a lot of blood. Her mother always said that it must have been something horrible that had fallen upon her. It was one of the few reasons her past remained shrouded with a thin fog that only bits could escape from. Her face never twitched from the stern anger to her capture, but she did find it interesting that he thought she was of little interest. She probably did not stink of her race like many others. Being a kitsune of pure blood had its perk. She appeared nothing but a mire human with the small hint of magic on the outside. She could easily just been another human mage.

Maybe her lack of connection with her race would actually come in handy for her? She could not remember the last time she had let her form shift back into her natural form. She could barely remember what her face looked like, except that her hair matched the color of her main fur shade. Perhaps it was because she never shifted that she did not stink of the demonic fox scent. She was beginning to wonder if her luck was changing. She could be steps away from leaving this dreaded cell. It did require her to deal with this strange orc. He was right that it would have been foolish for her to trust him, but really what else could she do at this point?

Her lip twitched when he made it almost clear that she would need to put some faith in him if she wanted to leave. He had asked about her name and she wanted to snarl back a response that it did not matter to him. Her lips parted to speak the words but her mother’s words echoed in her mind. She needed to play nice if she wanted to make a friend. Kind words were always more pleasant than rude ones. She just loved to rude ones more.

“Kineko.” She grunted out sharply. It was the first time her head darted to the wall as she huffed out. She was horrible at hiding her distaste at falling into his wants. She would play his little game for now. If it meant life or death, she would need to make sure to play nice. Even if it just might kill her to do so. “If we are sharing names, what about you? What must I call you?” Her eyes stared daggers at the floor as she shoved the last of her food in her mouth. If she could just find her tools, maybe she would not even need him.