Kon shivered, feeling some water drip from his still moist fur. He''d been quickly guided from the private room upon the sale being completed and brough into a large bathing area.
It was then he realised that since the moment he''d be shoved into that mass of twisting flesh, bone and sinew and being taken by the knight and elf he had been completely nude. The thought hadn''t really hit him in the rush and constantly intense events as he was dragged to this place.
He glanced downward, but his mixed emotions he found nothing. Just a smooth expanse of the blue fur that covered the rest of him. He shifted his arm, which he had resting on his side, the black scales of his limb smooth as it rubbed against his outer thigh.
He turned his gaze upward, back towards the crowded rooms before him. The scents and sights of water, herbs and both cleanliness and muck assaulting his senses.
The fat man let out a huff. "MAIDS!" He yelled into the hustle of the room. A few of the people who were walking around carrying bundles of fabric and water quickly finished their duties and hurried over to stand before the fat man.
The all bowed in unison. Seemingly trained to do that. The fat man dragged his gaze over them before shoving Kon forward. He stumbled, not expecting the sudden push.
The maids turned their attention onto him, sending a shiver down his spine as the weight of several gazes fell onto him. He straightened up, standing before them while an awkward silence hung.
"Go clean it up, its been on the road for a while" The fat man said, his voice growing distant as he turned away and walked towards the exit of the bathing area.
The maids seemed to consider Kon before what seemed like the leader of the impromptu group gestured at a smaller, more softer maid with deep rich brown hair that was bundled up behind her head in a bun. Two dull green eyes set into a weathered face.
She grabbed Kon''s hand, tugging him to follow them as they navigated through the bathing area. They moved around bath''s and people getting hosed down. Screaming and begging as they were splashed with water and forced to wipe themselves down.
The lead maid stopped before an empty tub. Gesture for the other two maids, the softer maid tugged Kon forward and wordlessly gestured at the tub. He climbed into the tub. Cold still water lapping at his ankles as he stood in the wooden bowl.
The leader who had a almost motherly tone to her, but the side of a mother that would beat and teach her child through violence and punishments instead of a warm almost inviting figure. She had greying hair and a cold almost indifference air to her. The silver-gold eyes set into her thin face seemingly focused on nothing but the job before her.
The third maid, a younger one compared to the other two. She came carrying a bucket of steaming water. It was clearly heavy but she didn''t complain or stumble. Making her way to the tub in which Kon now stood before dumping the contents of the bucket into the tub.
The water was hot, almost boiling but quickly cooled down upon contacting the cold water left inside the tub. The other maid dumped a bunch of herbs into the water, rubbing them together between her hands as it produced a thick lather. The tub was quickly filled with soapy water, white bubbles with an iridescent sheen to them bobbing upon the surface of the water.
The maids pulled brushes and wipes from their aprons. Setting to work. Kon shivered as one grabbed his tail, a long thin structure that was thickest at the point where it joint at the base of his spine, just above his rear.
The sensation of the maid drenching his tail in wet soapy water was unpleasantly strong, it seemed his tail was very sensitive. The other maids had already started to work on the rest of his body. The leader maid dumped a bunch of water upon his head, he shiver. An urge to shake his body hard to dry himself of rising up.
The maid grabbed his snout and started to scrub, the bristles of the brush unpleasant and grating against the fur of his face. The other man worked upon his legs. Cleaning off the dust and sweat in the mattered fur there from the long ride to this place.
While the sensation of being cleaned wasn''t pleasant, all rough and forceful without care of personal space, Kon could admit that the sensation of being clean was nice.
It felt like decades of filth was being pulled from his flesh, stains that followed lifetimes being dredged out of his soul and washed away.
A splash of cold water against his chest shakes him from his thoughts. The water had lost its warmth and the shock had shocked him as the maids dragged him like a sodden cat from the tub. Bundling him up in cloth to dry his fur.
They rubbed towels and cloth over him until his fur was standing up, soft and fluffy from the rapid drying. He blinked, feeling oddly warm as his fur slowly smoothed down, returning to the glossy pelt it was before.
The maid''s grabbed him, dragging him towards another area. This one had piles of clothing of different types and shapes. It seemed this place often dealt with creature far different to humans or only partly human shaped.
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They grabbed some loose flowing shorts and shoved the linen into his hands, crossing their arms as they waited for Kon to dress himself. He hesitated for a moment, looking at the shorts clutched in his claws before lifting a leg and sliding it through the pant''s leg.
The cloth was uncomfortable, like a second skin against his fur as he pulled it up and loosely tied the knot at its front. The maid''s grabbed him the moment he''d gotten the pant''s secure. Pulling him out of the bathing area and into a hallway.
After several turns through several more hallways they arrived at their destination. Opening the wooden door revealed a stark stone room with little else but crude bed and a window. The maid''s shoved him inside before closing the door with a thump, leaving him alone in there.
He stood in the middle of the room before wandering over to the bed. It had a metal frame, the bedding was little else but straw shoved into a vaguely rectangular shape.
However it was a softer surface then the stone against his feet so he crawled onto the bed and curled up. Hugging his legs against his chest as he stared at the door on the other side of the room.
The events of the last day didn''t feel real. The memories of dying were blurred, faded like it had been an ungodly amount of time since them, and the memories of his time in that strange place between places was oddly vibrant yet patchwork. Like he could recall parts, yet others were simply not there.
The memories of the bird-headed figure as it created his body and shoved his soul into it before being dispatched by the knight was strong, he was still digesting what that figure was, so far people had called it a god. But not the word god, it was like they were saying a word which didn''t have a meaning to him.
Like he was hearing the closest translation. Other words had also had that odd duel quality to them. The layered meaning. Things like element or law. They seemed important. But why and how he didn''t have the faintest clue.
He shifted, rolling over to lay on his back, the stone''s above him were dusty, likely they hadn''t been cleaned in a long while. His mind shifted to what would happen now. The fat man had bought him and it seemed he was to be a gift. A gift to a emperor but who knows what they are like in this world.
So far, god, monsters and people with powers far, far beyond anything humanly possible existed in this place. Likely things far separated with anything he had ever even imaged existed here. The massive city in the sky was also something different.
This world clearly had magic, or some form of it. How else did they build a wall which had no seams? Or raise stone so high into the sky you could build a city upon it. The nagging problem was that Kon didn''t know what that mean for him.
Could he use magic? And if so how? Did this world follow the classical rules and you have to have some special thing to use magic? Well so far he seemed pretty special. The fat man had paid a fortune for him and wanted to use him as a gift to the emperor. So clearly he was special or at least whatever he was now was special.
But what if magic different? What if it was able to be used by everybody expect you needed special manuals or to be taught by masters who lived in some cave hidden in a mountain. With his status as a slave there was no doubt he was never going to be able to learn magic if that was how it functioned in this world.
He sighed, raising a hand before his face and opening and closing his fingers. It still felt surreal to be alive once more, let alone no longer human. He felt human, most of him. He still had two legs, two arms and most of what made a human.. well human.
But he also had a tail, a snout, claws on the end of his fingers and toes. He had ears not on the side of his head but almost on the top. His hand drifted to gently touch the sensitive structures. They felt soft, much like the rest of him.
It didn''t feel odd having fur, almost similar to having hair you didn''t notice it really. It felt like just another part of you that was there. Not separate or wrong, just there. The tail was a similar thing. He could move it willingly but most of the time it just did its own thing.
At the moment it was curled around his leg. He could feel it and his brain rejected the sensations it sent. Refusing to accept the strange signals it was getting from something that to it shouldn''t be there. Moving it also felt like using a limb that didn''t exist. Like if you grew an extra thumb, it was there. You could see it but moving it was deeply unpleasant.
A sigh escaped his mouth. He hadn''t spoke since utter a swear all the way back when he was dragged onto the saddle of the elf''s horse. It had felt wrong to speak, his vocal cords felt different and his voice unfamiliar.
He mouthed some different words, feeling how his different mouth made forming them difficult.
"Hello. No. Yes"
He said slowly, working through each syllable. The voice that reached his ears was deeper and wrong. It sounded like he was forcing himself to make the wrongs sounds. With the strain he felt on his vocal cords it was likely he was indeed making the wrong sounds.
What was the right sound he didn''t know. Consider the cry that the other god made had made before it was easily killed it likely wasn''t anything close to language.
He rubbed at his face, he felt lost. Out of his depth. He was used to working late, drinking coffee and struggling through the day only to do it in the next. This whole thing felt like more of a fever dream then his new reality.
He didn''t want to be a god made, he didn''t want to have a tail have a snout and have fur and scales. He didn''t want to be a slave. He didn''t want any of this.
But it didn''t seem the world really cared. He stared up at the celling again. Tracing the cracks and grooves of the stones with his eyes. He wondered what he looked like, his face at least. He''d gotten a look at the rest of him, but he could only guess what his face looked like.
He''d felt his face and he had a stubby snout, his teeth were oddly blunt yet sharp. His tongue was long, far longer then it had any right to be.
He opened his mouth, yawning. A sense of weariness overcoming him. He stared at the celling for a while longer.
Wondering as time slowly passed, the passage of light coming in from the window slowly growing weak. The shadows in the corner of the room slowly deepening until darkness had swallowed up the room.
The weak light streaming in slowly turned silver, making his fur glow slightly, points of light almost like stars dotting him. Giving his body the image of a stary sky. His fur dark enough that the lack of light made him merge with the darkness.
He played with the light for a bit before letting his hand fall to his side.
Exhaustion finally caught up with him and dragged him into the dark.