Bond between strangers

Loka, the tall fox girl with blue fur and blue eyes and Ash, a dark skinned beauty with dark purple eyes and pink and blue hair that was put up in two buns on her head walked through the market place of the great city of Edrydar, the air was filled with smells of sweaty bodies, food and exotic flowers. Everywhere there were shopkeepers that tried to get the bypasses attention. Ash skipped happily between the market stalls. She haggled over jewelry or capes. With a skillful eye she separated quality from junk and she quickly haggled the price down to ridiculous sums. All this she did with a big smile on her face. In her wake came Loka. She looked around, without much interest. She already had all she needed and she did not see the point in wasting her money on useless. It was a crowded day at the marketplace, everywhere there where bodies trying to get somewhere, soon Loka had lost Ash in sight and she came to a halt. Someone behind her muttered and pushed his way past her. She did not hear him. Loka looked around but she could not see her friend in the crowd.
Great Loka thought. Where did she take of now? With a slightly annoyed sigh she began to make her way in the direction she had last seen her friend.

Ash had not even noticed that she and Loka had been separated. She was busy doing what she loved most, shopping. She had just acquired a pair of gorgeous black leather boots to a fantastic price when she turned around to find her next conquest. Then she saw a man chasing a dirty boy in to a side ally. Ash bit her lip and then she started making her way towards the ally as fast as she could. When she finally reached it she was out of breath and had to lean against the wall for a second. She heard yelling form further into the ally and a loud thump. Ash's eyes grew wide and she rushed around the corner and in to the ally. She stopped a few steps away from the man and the boy, they had not yet noticed her. The man was large and looked muscular. He where dressed according to fashion, but the cloths where worn and he had long black dirty hair. The man had a firm grip of the shoulder of a young boy. The boy was skinny and so filthy that it looked like he hadn't seen soap for years. He had shoulder long hair, but Ash could not determine which color it had under all the dirt.
"I'm gonna teach you to poke about other people's pockets your little rat!" The man shouted and threw him on the ground. He kicked him hard in the ribs, the boy let out a yell of pain. The man then bent down and grabbed him by his shirt. Then he lifted up the boy with one hand and raised his free fist to strike. The boy sobbed.
"No! Leave him alone!" Ash yelled. She had clenched her fists in rage. All she could think of was to stop the man from hurting the boy.
The man dropped the boy to the ground and spun around.
"What have we here? Have the princess lost her way?" The man's voice sounded hostile, he took a step towards her. Ash took a step forward.
"Leave the boy alone!" she yelled again.
"And if I refuse?" The man smiled and showed rows of yellow teeth. With a quick movement he grabbed Ash's hand and pulled her closer. She shrieked and tried to get away from the man.
"Perhaps I should take you instead" he said and grabbed her other arm. He spun her around and forced her backwards till she could feel the wall towards her back. She screamed again and placed a knee in his crotch. He grunted and pushed her even harder against the wall. Behind the man the boy slowly rose. He stood and stared at Ash and the man, then he made his way towards the marketplace as fast as he could. Ash saw him leave with growing despair.
The man took a firm grip with his hand around her wrists and with his other hand he tried to open her dress.
"Let's see if the princess has any sweets" he whispered in her ear and loosened the lacing on the front of the dress.
Ash screamed as he started to open up the dress.
The man never got the chance to look at any sweets. He dropped to the ground with a dagger in his throat. A few meters away was Loka. She quickly walked up to Ash, stepping over the corpse of the man, only stopping to retrieve her throwing dagger. She used the man's shirt to wipe the blood of.
"Are you alright?" she asked her friend. Ash threw herself around Lokas neck and cried.
"I have told you that you should stay away from what doesn't concern you" Loka said and held her friend. When Ash had calmed down Loka helped her with the lacing of the dress and they began to walk away from the scene. Before they reached the end of the ally Ash turned around and looked at the body of the terrible man.
"Did you really have to kill him?" she said in a low voice. Loka did not answer her friend. She just steered her steps towards the inn they where staying at, dragging Ash by the hand after her.

Loka tried to walk back the way she and Ash had come when they arrived to the marketplace, but the crowd forced them to go around market stalls and street performers. Soon they found themselves in a different part of the marketplace. Loka looked around to try and locate where they were. Normally she had a good sense of direction, but the noise, the crowd and the stench of humans put her of. Suddenly she heard a terrible scream. She stopped and looked around again. It seemed like she had been the only one to hear the terrible noise.
"Why did you stop?"Ash asked a bit confused, she was still upset about the meeting with the cruel man earlier.
"I heard something" Loka replied absentminded while trying to locate where the sound had come from. She gave up and began to drag Ash with her through the crowd again, in a direction that felt right.
After a few steps Loka heard the scream again, this time she heard from where it came. Loka was not quite sure why, but she changed direction and began dragging Ash towards a crowd that had gathered in front of a small open tent. Loka made her way through the crowd and what she saw when she reached the edge of it shocked her. In front of her lay a creature about the size of a small dog. The creature had large feathered ears, its tapered head looked like one large beak, the creatures four paws all had long sharp claws and the thin body was covered so covered in filth and wounds, both fresh and new. It was impossible to se which where its original colors. Loka recognized the creature as a grimiden. A baby grimiden, but still a grimiden.
The grimiden was chained to a pole and close to it stood a man. He was short and fat with mean black little eyes, in his hand he held a stick with a sharp metal peak. The grimiden raised its head and gave of a faint screech. The man with the stick immediately poked it with the sharp stick.
"Down! Get down your beast!" The man shouted. The creature closed its eyes and lay down its head again with a wheezing pant, it appeared to be unconscious. Loka walked up to the man with silent steps.
"How much?" she asked in a neutral voice.
"He is not for sale" The salesman said proud and straightened his back.
Loka leaned down over him.
"How much?" This time she looked the man directly in to his eyes. Her gaze was fire and ice and her voice like hard, cold stone. Her ears lay flat against her head and her tail stood straight up. The man took a step backwards and put his hands up, palms towards Loka in a defensive gesture.
"I don't want any trouble" he said nervously.
"I will not repeat myself again. How much?"
"He was awfully hard to get by..." Loka narrowed her eyes and the man interrupted himself. He swallowed hard.
"He is yours for twenty gold pieces"
Twenty gold pieces was a small fortune. It would take Loka quite some time to earn up to that sum again.
Without another word she paid the fat little man. He gave her the key to the chains and she kneeled down next to the grimiden. She unlocked the chains and carried the creature away towards the inn, Ash followed close behind her.


Loka put the grimiden down on a blanket on the floor, close to the fireplace in the room she and Ash rented together.
She placed logs in the fireplace and lit them.
"Ash! Get me some clean rags and some hot water, hurry"
Ash ran out of the door and Loka could hear her disappearing down the hallway with quick steps.
The blue fox girl turned towards the grimiden on the floor. It had still not woken up. She sighed and began to examine him. She found several wounds, some new, and others much older. Loka feared that some of the wounds might be infected.
She heard someone approach and soon Ash stumbled in with a bowl of steaming water in her hands and the rags hung over her shoulders. She carefully put the bowl down next to Loka, only spilled a little. She then handed the rags over to her friend.
Loka started to clean the wounds, glad that the grimiden still unconscious. When she was pleased with her work she proceeded with cleaning the rest of the dirty fur and feathers. Two times she had to send Ash to fetch clean water before the grimiden and all its wounds were clean. Finally his true colors of yellow white and red was revealed.  

The grimiden opened his eyes. He had gained some strength during the time he was passed out. He saw something come towards him and still confused he launched out with his claws to defend himself. Then he crotched down, waiting for the strike. When it never came he opened his eyes and dared to take a good look at the creature that had tried to come near him. It was one of the two legged creatures. She sat next to him and looked at the wound he had given her. She raised her gaze and looked at him, the grimiden dodged automatically, but she did not move. Strange noises came from the creature, it sounded like those who had shouted and hit him before. No, there was a difference. These sound where gentle and soft and they had a rhythm, like a mother calling for a child. His vision became blurry and soon darkness swept over him. He drifted off to unconsciousness again.

When darkness fell outside the window the grimiden had high fever. His wounds were infected after all. Loka did what she could, but she was afraid that he wasn't going to make it. The creature moved restlessly in its sleep and Loka began to sing an old song she had learned as a child. When she had finished the song the grimiden once again laid still, only its chest moved when he breathed. Loka sighed and starred into the fire.
Ash, who had kept herself in the background walked up to Loka.
"It is not like you to let your mind wonder" She said with gentle voice. She kneeled next to the fox girl and continued
"Are you thinking of…?" Ash did not finish the sentence, she had never seen Loka like this. She seemed so troubled.
"Making a bond?" Loka asked tiredly.
"Of course I have thought of that, but you just don't run around bonding with random animals" Loka sighed and looked at the grimiden again.
"It might work, I don't know… He has to be awake, and even if he was he still have to accept the bond…"
Loka rose and walked up to the window looking out at the sleeping town. She knew what she had to do, something she had been warned to do in her childhood. She would bond with a stranger.

Loka sat down next to the grimiden again and carefully laid a hand on his chest. He opened his eyes and tried to move away from her touch, but the movement was nothing more than a faint tustle of his feathers. The fever still had a firm grip on him and every movement was a struggle. Loka moved her hand and took a firm grip of the grimidens head and looked deep in to its eyes.

He was still weak from the fever, but he was not going to give up without a fight. The grimiden felt the hand on his beak and tried to launch at his captive, but didn't even manage to get out of her grasp. He looked her straight in the eyes, sure that this was the end. Instead he felt a strange sensation. It felt like he was floating, surrounded by something he had never experienced before. He was scared, around him raged a storm of emotions, instincts, hope and dreams, but they were not his own. Suddenly he understood. The storm of emotions settled and he could feel them. They promised safety, food and shelter. A place with no pain. It was the strange two legged creature. The storm was her. Everything she was lay open to him.
With only a moment of hesitation he accepted the bond.

Loka closed her eyes when she felt the grimiden respond. All his fears, anger and pain became hers. She laid her forehead against his and whispered
"Your name is Elver" The grimiden, now named Elver, faded until there was nothing of him left and with that the bond was complete.
Loka felt how tense she where and forced herself to relax. She felt a hand on her shoulder and her heart skipped a beat. Then she remembered Ash.
"Is everything alright with you?" The dark skinned girl asked. Loka opened her eyes and looked straight in to Ash huge purple eyes, her friend stood bent over her with her hand on her hips.  
"Yes, just tired…"
"You should eat something" Ash straightened her back and looked at Loka with a worried look in her face. Loka did not answer her friend. Instead she spoke the summoning. Elver appeared on the spot that he had disappeared from, still weak and feverish. Loka spoke again, this time for healing. Elvers wounds closed up and his fever disappeared. His exhaustion however was still very real, and he fell in a deep sleep on the blankets.
Loka closed her eyes and laid down on the floor, falling asleep instantly. Ash sighed, but she knew her friend would prefer the floor before the bed any day. She took her mantle and spread it over Loka before muttering something and then she went to bed.

When the suns first rays found their way through the window Elver woke up. He looked around in the room. Next to him laid the two legged creature that had done something strange with him. She seemed to be asleep. He could hear someone else breathe too, but could not remember if there had been a two legged creature present the last time he was awake. Suddenly he discovered that he was not a capture. He was free. No not free, he could feel something that tied him to the closest two legged creature. Something that made him feel safe and at home. Elver made his way toward the girl on the floor and curled up next to her, once again falling into a deep, calm, safe sleep.