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SEVENTH PART

Grace-Winters
Avigail's eye's darted all around as they were forced into a large cage. She heard a loud creaking noise as the door was closed momentarily, a large lock holding it in place. She turned to look at Judas as the cheetahpard was forced inside shortly after. She snarled and slammed against the cage door, but the men were out of her reach. They only laughed at her, mocking the helpless cats,

"Think the boss will sell them?" One asked.

"Maybe, he might try and train'em to listen to him...But they look pretty mad right now." The other said.

"Yeah maybe, give them some food and cat's will be loyal to anyone."

Then a human body was thrown in. it was Rom! Avigail rushed over to him nudging his arm. She sniffed the young master. He was breathing, but he was bruised and beaten quite a bit. Nothing too bad though, but it looked like he'd be out a long while. She relaxed, seeing he was going to recover. She laid down next to the unconscious master, licking his cheek and trying to keep him warm with her fluffy body. "I think he'll be okay..." She said, looking over at her mate.

"Are you hurt at all?" She asked, worried about him too.

Firewolf-Anime
As Judas was released from the net he had been dragged in, he was shoved in a large, metal cage right after his mate. He had lost sight of the young master as they had been hauled through the forest and tossed in a small boat. The men that ambushed them had shortly after rowed them to a large ship, much like the ones docked at Massilia. Were these pirates??? Now Judas spun around as one of the men attempted to kick him in roughly with a boot before slamming the cage door closed behind him. The man squawked as Avigail slammed against the door, and Judas nearly latched onto his leg with a claw as he swiped through the bars.

After a short conversation, another man, Ogen came in, carrying something. The door was opened momentarily after the men struck the bars with spears to ward the two hunters inside away. Rom was half dropped, half thrown inside next to the two cats, and the heavy door was slammed shut once again. Ogen stood for a moment, eyeing the cats before turning and exiting the room. Rom lay motionless as Ogen's men chattered loudly and laughed as they left. One man slapped a ring of keys on a hook on the wall near the door before heavily slamming the wooden door closed.

Avigail rushed over to Rom first, nudging him to no avail. Judas looked on worriedly as she lay beside the young human and spoke.

"No, I'm fine, love..." He slowly shook his head. "He looks in rough shape... Those bastards..." He bare his teeth and snarled.

Looking around, the two could see they were in a large cargo room. A few other large cages were scattered around. By the smell of it, it may have housed captured or stolen, cats and other humans. Slaves... He blew air out of his nose in a futile effort to clear the scents from his nose before noticing a smaller, frightened, female lynx staring at him from another cage across the room before another cat, a sharp eyed, male ocelot mix, poked his head from behind her and glanced at the new prisoners. Judas glared for a moment before turning around and starting to pace, looking around for ways of escape.

Grace-Winters
Avigail relaxed slightly when she saw Judas was okay. She gave him a quick sniff around just to be sure anyways before turning her attention to their master as he laid on his back on the floor where they had thrown him. Their captors hadn't even bothered to remove the bindings from around Rom's arms and legs. She walked around and grasped the ropes in her jaws, carefully pulling them off of him and tossing them aside. Sniffing the human, she spoke, "He has a few bruises, including a nasty one in the head... I think he'll be okay though... No bleeding that I can see." She flicked an ear back, noticing a smaller cat looking at them from another cage. She glared at them before turning back to Judas.

"Those humans think they can put us in cages and treat us like cargo?!" She growled low, "They will regret this..." the red clouded leopard muttered. Her tail lashed behind her as she looked around. "That human put those keys up there...Isn't that how they open stuff?" Avigail wasn't sure, humans were weird. They shoved metal inside metal to unlock doors. What kind of weird idea was that? Either way, it was probably their only way out of the cage

She padded up to the cage shoving against it, biting the lock but to no avail except making her teeth hurt.

"You won't get anywhere like that," the small, yellow-pelted male in the other cage voiced.

"I wasn't asking for your input, thanks," Avigail snorted. She got a whiff of the cats scent. It seemed to be ashy like, but she wasn't sure. The other ship smells also filled her nose and it was hard to distinguish one cat from them all.

Firewolf-Anime
As Avigail rose and messed with the cage door a bit more, Judas moved over and lay down beside Rom. He glanced over once again at the cage that housed the two other felines. Just past Julii was the Fire Empire cat's territory. Chances were these two may have been wild cats from that territory, or stolen pets from the city. He suspected more the former as they didn't smell like Julii, but more like nature. The ship rocked somewhat noisily as winds outside picked up.

The grey lynx was still staring. As her companion called to Avigail, her eyes moved to look at the clouded leopard before flitting up to the set of keys hanging on the wall. "You need that,' she said in a soft voice, affirming what Avigail said, 'They stick it in the locks to open them.."

The male shushed her lightly. "Aelia, don't talk to them,' he said. 'They have a human with them. Suferue says pets are too snooty to listen so don't waste your words... Besides.. not like they can reach it."

The lynx, Aelia looked at the male, "There has to be something we can do to get out of here.. Besides, that human looks dead.. Xephos, I don't want to go back to the city," she said, trembled a bit. Xephos, the ocelot mix, crouched down next to her, giving a frustrated sigh but looking at her anxiously.

Judas snorted. "He's not dead..." He glanced at Avigail, still standing at the cage door. "Avigail.. rest for now.. we're not going anywhere.. Let's wait for Rom to wake up.. We'll think of something."

Grace-Winters
Avigail's ear flattened. "He's obviously alive. You can see his breathing," she snapped. If those dumb thieves had killed her master she would be sure to make every one of them pay. As it was, Rom was knocked out pretty hard, but he was going to be okay. Avigail snorted before getting down from the bars she was leaning on. Padding over and sniffing Rom once more just to check him, the cloudy paced a spot next to the human a few times before finally settling down and laying up against his side, resting her chin on his shoulder.

Firewolf-Anime
Both hunters could hear an irritated huff from the ocelot in the other cage, but no other words were exchanged between either party. Judas watched Avigail move back over, giving Rom a concerned check over before laying on his other side and laying her red head against the human's shoulder. Judas gave a soft smile. The situation would be so much sweeter if not for the unconscious human and an unforeseen fate looming over them. With a sigh, the cheetahpard lay his head lightly on the young human's chest and closed his eyes trying to will himself to sleep. It was going to be a long night..

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Grace-Winters
The boat's violent rocking woke the red clouded leopard. Startled, she jumped up before remembering she was still trapped in this cage. Her tail lashing, Avigail looked over at the wild cats in the other cage, seeing they had been awoken to. The boat rocked and moved, rain and thunder roaring dangerously outside. She shook her head to clear it a bit, blinking her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The keys! She looked up seeing the keys shake and move. Oh how tempting! They were so close to falling, sitting there on the edge like a tempting piece of fresh steak. She crouched down by Judas, nudging his neck with her muzzle and speaking quietly. "Judas, wake up!"

"Hey those key's are shaking a lot. Maybe they will fall off..." Avigail heard one of the smaller felines say, the one from earlier who had been nice to them. Avigail was still suspicious of them... But she was that way with all new cats actually. She flicked an ear back to hear better.

"It's not worth the trouble, Aelia," The other said. Avigail ignored them for now, swishing her tail, she nudged Judas again.

"Wake up!"

Firewolf-Anime
Judas gave a light snort as he was jarred from his troubled sleep. It had taken him a long while to fall asleep himself with all the noises around the ship. His head shot up from his young master's chest. "What is it?" He looked down at Rom before glancing around, taking in the sounds around him.

His ears perked, catching the last words from the ocelot mutt, Xephos, who continued, "Even if they fall, we're too far away. Unless somehow they slide all the way over here or those two...' The small male glanced over at the hunter pair, 'are able to somehow grab them.." The smaller male had stood up, balancing himself against the swaying ship. Both wild captives in the cage looked nervous with all the noise from the ship. Judas surmised they'd never been on one before. Before he could say anything to Avigail, he heard a light moan from below him. Rom flinched lightly before slowly blinking his eyes open and squeezing them shut as he became conscious of his headache and a few other things. By the door, a jingling clatter pinged loudly against the ground, muffled only by a well timed roll of thunder. Judas was too focused on Rom to notice the keys, but the lynx, Aelia, and the ocelot mix, Xephos seemed to perk up with some excitement.

Grace-Winters
"The ship is moving. There must be a storm... Also the key's over there," Avigail motioned with her head. "They look ready to shake loo-" She cut herself off, her green eyes looking down as Rom groaned in pain. Blinking a few times, she murmured to Judas. "Master is waking up," Avigail said, her voice sounding almost hopeful for once. She still wanted to tear apart that Teren guy for doing this to them, but her revenge would have to come later she supposed.

She nudged Rom, even licking his face a few times, trying to get him to wake up more. "Maybe he can reach the keys...?" The red clouded leopard said glancing up at her mate. When she said that, she noticed in the corner of her eye that the female cat... Aelia was it? Seemed to get excited. Aelia looked at Xephos, who seemed slightly less hostile then before. That was a start at least, not that Avigail cared much. But if they could help them escape then maybe having their friendship would prove useful, if only temporary.

Rom rubbed his head with a hand, gently pushing Avi away as she licked his face. He rubbed his eyes.

"Wow...I think every bone hurts right now..." Rom mumbled to himself as he slowly sat up, giving both his cats a loving pat. Normally he'd pull them into a hug, but just sitting up had taken a lot of energy. His head was pounding loudly like his heart was in his ears.

Firewolf-Anime
As Rom sat up, he looked around. His expression went from tired, as if waking up from a nap, to shock. "Wha- Where..?" Memories flooded back and he struggled to rise, grabbing onto one of the iron bars of the cage for support and getting to his knees. "Where the hell are we..?" he asked his cats rhetorically. Glancing to the other cage, he saw the wild cats, both puffing up a bit as they saw the human looking at them.

As Rom tried to stand, Judas grabbed the hem of his shirt in his mouth to keep the human from fully rising. "He seems unwell.. He did take a good hit in the head.. It's probably not a good idea for him to be moving around much," the cheetahpard spoke around the cloth. Thunder roared loudly outside and the ship swayed.

"We're on a boat..?" Rom said to himself and turned as her heard something click against the cage. On the other side was a long pole that had come loose from somewhere and rolled closer and closer to the cages until it tapped against the side of the cage the human and his cats occupied. As the ship rocked, it slowly started to roll back away from them, toward the wall. Rom reached out and barely was able to grab it. "Maybe this will come in handy.."

Grace-Winters
Avigail nudged Rom's leg, flattening her ears. She didn't want him to hurt himself more, but Rom seemed distracted by all that was going on. The young human picked up a pole before it rolled away, and looked around. Eventually, with one hand holding one of the cage bars tightly, and the other one holding the pole, his eyes fell on his two cats.

Avigail suddenly remembered seeing the keys had fallen with the sway of the ship. Rom almost fell again but they helped him to stay standing.

"Maybe he can reach the keys..." Avigail motioned with a paw and made a noise. Rom obviously didn't understand her.

"I know it's scary but we're gonna get through this...." he said, still getting his bearings and thinking Avigail's meow was one of fear.

Avigail tried again, pulling on his shirt with her fangs, then pointing with her nose. "Look!" She meowed. This time Rom's gaze followed her.

"The keys..' He said. 'I can reach then with this!"

The other wild cats, Xephos and Aelia both perked up with excitement as the human reached for the keys with the long pole.

Firewolf-Anime
Judas stayed at his young master's side as Avigail directed the focus to the fallen set of keys. Of course! Humans were very handy in these kinds of situations, not that they were in them often. Judas watched as Rom almost drunkenly tapped the long, wooden stick on the keys, flipping them up a bit but pushing them away at the same time. Giving a sigh of irritation as the room swam, Rom attempted again. He clumsily dragged the keys over in a repeated process of losing hold of the keys and regaining them. Judas went rigid as the sound of thumping and talking reached his ears from behind the door. Rom seemed to have heard them too as the human held his breath. After a long moment though, the voices and clomping faded. Rom pressed his head gingerly into the bars as he slowly moved the key ring closer until it was in grabbing distance. "Get it girl, get the keys," he whispered urgently and in an attempted playful voice to Avigail.

Avigail watched intensely as he pulled the keys closer and closer, her green eye never losing sight of them in that predatory way cats tended to do. Her ears perked up at the sound of his playful voice. He wanted to play at a time like this? Avigail didn't find this situation to be the best time for play. But the keys were really close, so she reached a paw out, trying to grab the key ring. Unsheathing one of her claws she dragged the keys closer until they hit the edge of the cage. She tried to pick them up, but her paws weren't really made for that. Her ears flattened in annoyance as she tried and failed to pick it up over the edge of the cage.

She gave up sitting on her haunches and giving Rom a grumpy look. Maybe his more nimble human hands could pick it up. Rom chuckled slightly and rubbed her head gently before gingerly leaning down and grabbing the keys and moving to the cage door. The human fiddled with the lock and keys until they all heard a loud clink and the door slowly opened wide.

Firewolf-Anime
Judas watched Avigail attempt to grab the keys, pulling them closer to herself. Between her and the young master, they were able to get the keys and unlock the cage. Rom let go of the door as it swung open. Judas moved to the wobbly human's side, fully intending on supporting the human in case he fell over. Allowing Avigail to exit the cage first, he stepped out as well. The wild cats watched tentatively as the human exited the cage.

"Hey..! What about us?" the lynx female called hesitantly to the hunters. Judas glanced over before turning his head away, snorting. "What about you..? Rot in there for all I care.. Let's go Avi.." Judas turned toward the door, ears perked forward alertly as the door suddenly shoved open.

A man faced backwards, pushing the door open with his shoulder while he held a plate of raw meat with both hands. He stopped suddenly, turning just in time to see an angry cheetahpard leaping toward him.

"Oh, what the hell...!!!" The man squawked and then yelled loudly, dropping the plate on the ground and clumsily reaching for his weapon. Judas's teeth snapped on his arm, biting into the flesh. The man fell backwards, striking his head against the ground and going limp. Judas released the human's arm, turning toward the open door as he heard someone call questioningly from somewhere beyond the frame. He didn't hear any other sounds of approach as he figured whoever it was decided the sound he heard was negligible.

"Dammit..." he muttered, turning back around. "We need to get mo-... Young Master!" Judas gawked in surprise as he noticed Rom had moved over to the wild cat's cage and began to unlock the cage, making soft sounds to the hissing cats inside. "What is he doing???"

Grace-Winters
Avigail snorted, sniffing the fallen guard to be sure he was unconscious. "Smell like rat dung to me," she stuck her tongue out shaking her head to clear her nose of the smell. She stayed close to the young master, helping him support himself when needed, but the second she turned her back on him, he had walked over to the other cage.

"Master why are you freeing those cats?!" Avigail was shocked! Who knew who those cat's were? They weren't hunters that's for sure. They smelled of ash, but she wasn't sure if they were empire cats either. She had no idea, but if they weren't hunter they had no part coming with them. She tugged on the edge of Rom's coat, "Master!" She meowed, Rom gave her a pat on the head but otherwise ignored her. After setting his pole against the cage for a moment, he pulled the door open, letting out Xephos and Aelia. Xephos stood in front of Aelia's protectively. Avigail lashed her tail, stepping in front of the master and letting out a growl.

"Look, we both want out, you don't hurt us and we won't hurt you. We can help each other..." Aelia tried to say Avigail cut her off with another growl.

"We don't your help!" She snapped, glancing at Judas, then back at them.

Firewolf-Anime
Judas clicked his teeth together in an aggressive manner as Rom used a gentle tone with the strange felines, who puffed up at the human. The human didn't make a move to touch the wild cats, but instead had opened the cage door all the way. "Come on kitties," he spoke soothingly as the yellow ocelot mix spat threateningly at him. He looked down as Avigail grabbed and tugged on him. "Come on Avigail.. We can't leave them here. Especially with those bastards. What if they're someone's cats?" He said, thinking out loud before grasping the wooden pole again, hoping it would come in handy.

Judas huffed, irritated as he glared at the strange cats. "Whatever.. Don't get in our way.. We need to get moving Avi.." He turned back to the door. "Quickly!"

Grace-Winters
Avigail snorted, "Fine, I guess having some extra help won't hurt. But only because Master is okay with it.. If you hurt him, I'll shed your hide and sell it on the market...." She let out one last warning growl before turning and nudging the master towards the door. Rom seemed to understand they had to move. They were finally escaping from this place. Avigail stayed close to her human's side just in case, but Rom seemed to have somewhat gotten his sea legs now and stood pretty sound.Avigail took the lead of the small band of mostly smaller kitties through the door and to the upper deck of the ship.

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This page features to curioius wild cat's, Xephos owned by Nythero and Aelia owned by uasho-lynx

This story is a collaboration of RPing and Art between myself and Firewolf-Anime !

(This story occurs in the beginning of the month of July, and goes on over the course of about 3 weeks)

Judas and Avigail depart from the city of Massilia on a short trip away for a few weeks from the city with their masters. Thought to be an easy little journey away from home, things do not go as planned...

(+ 10 EP?)

Description
Previous | Next | Beginning

SEVENTH PART

Grace-Winters
Avigail's eye's darted all around as they were forced into a large cage. She heard a loud creaking noise as the door was closed momentarily, a large lock holding it in place. She turned to look at Judas as the cheetahpard was forced inside shortly after. She snarled and slammed against the cage door, but the men were out of her reach. They only laughed at her, mocking the helpless cats,

"Think the boss will sell them?" One asked.

"Maybe, he might try and train'em to listen to him...But they look pretty mad right now." The other said.

"Yeah maybe, give them some food and cat's will be loyal to anyone."

Then a human body was thrown in. it was Rom! Avigail rushed over to him nudging his arm. She sniffed the young master. He was breathing, but he was bruised and beaten quite a bit. Nothing too bad though, but it looked like he'd be out a long while. She relaxed, seeing he was going to recover. She laid down next to the unconscious master, licking his cheek and trying to keep him warm with her fluffy body. "I think he'll be okay..." She said, looking over at her mate.

"Are you hurt at all?" She asked, worried about him too.

Firewolf-Anime
As Judas was released from the net he had been dragged in, he was shoved in a large, metal cage right after his mate. He had lost sight of the young master as they had been hauled through the forest and tossed in a small boat. The men that ambushed them had shortly after rowed them to a large ship, much like the ones docked at Massilia. Were these pirates??? Now Judas spun around as one of the men attempted to kick him in roughly with a boot before slamming the cage door closed behind him. The man squawked as Avigail slammed against the door, and Judas nearly latched onto his leg with a claw as he swiped through the bars.

After a short conversation, another man, Ogen came in, carrying something. The door was opened momentarily after the men struck the bars with spears to ward the two hunters inside away. Rom was half dropped, half thrown inside next to the two cats, and the heavy door was slammed shut once again. Ogen stood for a moment, eyeing the cats before turning and exiting the room. Rom lay motionless as Ogen's men chattered loudly and laughed as they left. One man slapped a ring of keys on a hook on the wall near the door before heavily slamming the wooden door closed.

Avigail rushed over to Rom first, nudging him to no avail. Judas looked on worriedly as she lay beside the young human and spoke.

"No, I'm fine, love..." He slowly shook his head. "He looks in rough shape... Those bastards..." He bare his teeth and snarled.

Looking around, the two could see they were in a large cargo room. A few other large cages were scattered around. By the smell of it, it may have housed captured or stolen, cats and other humans. Slaves... He blew air out of his nose in a futile effort to clear the scents from his nose before noticing a smaller, frightened, female lynx staring at him from another cage across the room before another cat, a sharp eyed, male ocelot mix, poked his head from behind her and glanced at the new prisoners. Judas glared for a moment before turning around and starting to pace, looking around for ways of escape.

Grace-Winters
Avigail relaxed slightly when she saw Judas was okay. She gave him a quick sniff around just to be sure anyways before turning her attention to their master as he laid on his back on the floor where they had thrown him. Their captors hadn't even bothered to remove the bindings from around Rom's arms and legs. She walked around and grasped the ropes in her jaws, carefully pulling them off of him and tossing them aside. Sniffing the human, she spoke, "He has a few bruises, including a nasty one in the head... I think he'll be okay though... No bleeding that I can see." She flicked an ear back, noticing a smaller cat looking at them from another cage. She glared at them before turning back to Judas.

"Those humans think they can put us in cages and treat us like cargo?!" She growled low, "They will regret this..." the red clouded leopard muttered. Her tail lashed behind her as she looked around. "That human put those keys up there...Isn't that how they open stuff?" Avigail wasn't sure, humans were weird. They shoved metal inside metal to unlock doors. What kind of weird idea was that? Either way, it was probably their only way out of the cage

She padded up to the cage shoving against it, biting the lock but to no avail except making her teeth hurt.

"You won't get anywhere like that," the small, yellow-pelted male in the other cage voiced.

"I wasn't asking for your input, thanks," Avigail snorted. She got a whiff of the cats scent. It seemed to be ashy like, but she wasn't sure. The other ship smells also filled her nose and it was hard to distinguish one cat from them all.

Firewolf-Anime
As Avigail rose and messed with the cage door a bit more, Judas moved over and lay down beside Rom. He glanced over once again at the cage that housed the two other felines. Just past Julii was the Fire Empire cat's territory. Chances were these two may have been wild cats from that territory, or stolen pets from the city. He suspected more the former as they didn't smell like Julii, but more like nature. The ship rocked somewhat noisily as winds outside picked up.

The grey lynx was still staring. As her companion called to Avigail, her eyes moved to look at the clouded leopard before flitting up to the set of keys hanging on the wall. "You need that,' she said in a soft voice, affirming what Avigail said, 'They stick it in the locks to open them.."

The male shushed her lightly. "Aelia, don't talk to them,' he said. 'They have a human with them. Suferue says pets are too snooty to listen so don't waste your words... Besides.. not like they can reach it."

The lynx, Aelia looked at the male, "There has to be something we can do to get out of here.. Besides, that human looks dead.. Xephos, I don't want to go back to the city," she said, trembled a bit. Xephos, the ocelot mix, crouched down next to her, giving a frustrated sigh but looking at her anxiously.

Judas snorted. "He's not dead..." He glanced at Avigail, still standing at the cage door. "Avigail.. rest for now.. we're not going anywhere.. Let's wait for Rom to wake up.. We'll think of something."

Grace-Winters
Avigail's ear flattened. "He's obviously alive. You can see his breathing," she snapped. If those dumb thieves had killed her master she would be sure to make every one of them pay. As it was, Rom was knocked out pretty hard, but he was going to be okay. Avigail snorted before getting down from the bars she was leaning on. Padding over and sniffing Rom once more just to check him, the cloudy paced a spot next to the human a few times before finally settling down and laying up against his side, resting her chin on his shoulder.

Firewolf-Anime
Both hunters could hear an irritated huff from the ocelot in the other cage, but no other words were exchanged between either party. Judas watched Avigail move back over, giving Rom a concerned check over before laying on his other side and laying her red head against the human's shoulder. Judas gave a soft smile. The situation would be so much sweeter if not for the unconscious human and an unforeseen fate looming over them. With a sigh, the cheetahpard lay his head lightly on the young human's chest and closed his eyes trying to will himself to sleep. It was going to be a long night..

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Grace-Winters
The boat's violent rocking woke the red clouded leopard. Startled, she jumped up before remembering she was still trapped in this cage. Her tail lashing, Avigail looked over at the wild cats in the other cage, seeing they had been awoken to. The boat rocked and moved, rain and thunder roaring dangerously outside. She shook her head to clear it a bit, blinking her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The keys! She looked up seeing the keys shake and move. Oh how tempting! They were so close to falling, sitting there on the edge like a tempting piece of fresh steak. She crouched down by Judas, nudging his neck with her muzzle and speaking quietly. "Judas, wake up!"

"Hey those key's are shaking a lot. Maybe they will fall off..." Avigail heard one of the smaller felines say, the one from earlier who had been nice to them. Avigail was still suspicious of them... But she was that way with all new cats actually. She flicked an ear back to hear better.

"It's not worth the trouble, Aelia," The other said. Avigail ignored them for now, swishing her tail, she nudged Judas again.

"Wake up!"

Firewolf-Anime
Judas gave a light snort as he was jarred from his troubled sleep. It had taken him a long while to fall asleep himself with all the noises around the ship. His head shot up from his young master's chest. "What is it?" He looked down at Rom before glancing around, taking in the sounds around him.

His ears perked, catching the last words from the ocelot mutt, Xephos, who continued, "Even if they fall, we're too far away. Unless somehow they slide all the way over here or those two...' The small male glanced over at the hunter pair, 'are able to somehow grab them.." The smaller male had stood up, balancing himself against the swaying ship. Both wild captives in the cage looked nervous with all the noise from the ship. Judas surmised they'd never been on one before. Before he could say anything to Avigail, he heard a light moan from below him. Rom flinched lightly before slowly blinking his eyes open and squeezing them shut as he became conscious of his headache and a few other things. By the door, a jingling clatter pinged loudly against the ground, muffled only by a well timed roll of thunder. Judas was too focused on Rom to notice the keys, but the lynx, Aelia, and the ocelot mix, Xephos seemed to perk up with some excitement.

Grace-Winters
"The ship is moving. There must be a storm... Also the key's over there," Avigail motioned with her head. "They look ready to shake loo-" She cut herself off, her green eyes looking down as Rom groaned in pain. Blinking a few times, she murmured to Judas. "Master is waking up," Avigail said, her voice sounding almost hopeful for once. She still wanted to tear apart that Teren guy for doing this to them, but her revenge would have to come later she supposed.

She nudged Rom, even licking his face a few times, trying to get him to wake up more. "Maybe he can reach the keys...?" The red clouded leopard said glancing up at her mate. When she said that, she noticed in the corner of her eye that the female cat... Aelia was it? Seemed to get excited. Aelia looked at Xephos, who seemed slightly less hostile then before. That was a start at least, not that Avigail cared much. But if they could help them escape then maybe having their friendship would prove useful, if only temporary.

Rom rubbed his head with a hand, gently pushing Avi away as she licked his face. He rubbed his eyes.

"Wow...I think every bone hurts right now..." Rom mumbled to himself as he slowly sat up, giving both his cats a loving pat. Normally he'd pull them into a hug, but just sitting up had taken a lot of energy. His head was pounding loudly like his heart was in his ears.

Firewolf-Anime
As Rom sat up, he looked around. His expression went from tired, as if waking up from a nap, to shock. "Wha- Where..?" Memories flooded back and he struggled to rise, grabbing onto one of the iron bars of the cage for support and getting to his knees. "Where the hell are we..?" he asked his cats rhetorically. Glancing to the other cage, he saw the wild cats, both puffing up a bit as they saw the human looking at them.

As Rom tried to stand, Judas grabbed the hem of his shirt in his mouth to keep the human from fully rising. "He seems unwell.. He did take a good hit in the head.. It's probably not a good idea for him to be moving around much," the cheetahpard spoke around the cloth. Thunder roared loudly outside and the ship swayed.

"We're on a boat..?" Rom said to himself and turned as her heard something click against the cage. On the other side was a long pole that had come loose from somewhere and rolled closer and closer to the cages until it tapped against the side of the cage the human and his cats occupied. As the ship rocked, it slowly started to roll back away from them, toward the wall. Rom reached out and barely was able to grab it. "Maybe this will come in handy.."

Grace-Winters
Avigail nudged Rom's leg, flattening her ears. She didn't want him to hurt himself more, but Rom seemed distracted by all that was going on. The young human picked up a pole before it rolled away, and looked around. Eventually, with one hand holding one of the cage bars tightly, and the other one holding the pole, his eyes fell on his two cats.

Avigail suddenly remembered seeing the keys had fallen with the sway of the ship. Rom almost fell again but they helped him to stay standing.

"Maybe he can reach the keys..." Avigail motioned with a paw and made a noise. Rom obviously didn't understand her.

"I know it's scary but we're gonna get through this...." he said, still getting his bearings and thinking Avigail's meow was one of fear.

Avigail tried again, pulling on his shirt with her fangs, then pointing with her nose. "Look!" She meowed. This time Rom's gaze followed her.

"The keys..' He said. 'I can reach then with this!"

The other wild cats, Xephos and Aelia both perked up with excitement as the human reached for the keys with the long pole.

Firewolf-Anime
Judas stayed at his young master's side as Avigail directed the focus to the fallen set of keys. Of course! Humans were very handy in these kinds of situations, not that they were in them often. Judas watched as Rom almost drunkenly tapped the long, wooden stick on the keys, flipping them up a bit but pushing them away at the same time. Giving a sigh of irritation as the room swam, Rom attempted again. He clumsily dragged the keys over in a repeated process of losing hold of the keys and regaining them. Judas went rigid as the sound of thumping and talking reached his ears from behind the door. Rom seemed to have heard them too as the human held his breath. After a long moment though, the voices and clomping faded. Rom pressed his head gingerly into the bars as he slowly moved the key ring closer until it was in grabbing distance. "Get it girl, get the keys," he whispered urgently and in an attempted playful voice to Avigail.

Avigail watched intensely as he pulled the keys closer and closer, her green eye never losing sight of them in that predatory way cats tended to do. Her ears perked up at the sound of his playful voice. He wanted to play at a time like this? Avigail didn't find this situation to be the best time for play. But the keys were really close, so she reached a paw out, trying to grab the key ring. Unsheathing one of her claws she dragged the keys closer until they hit the edge of the cage. She tried to pick them up, but her paws weren't really made for that. Her ears flattened in annoyance as she tried and failed to pick it up over the edge of the cage.

She gave up sitting on her haunches and giving Rom a grumpy look. Maybe his more nimble human hands could pick it up. Rom chuckled slightly and rubbed her head gently before gingerly leaning down and grabbing the keys and moving to the cage door. The human fiddled with the lock and keys until they all heard a loud clink and the door slowly opened wide.

Firewolf-Anime
Judas watched Avigail attempt to grab the keys, pulling them closer to herself. Between her and the young master, they were able to get the keys and unlock the cage. Rom let go of the door as it swung open. Judas moved to the wobbly human's side, fully intending on supporting the human in case he fell over. Allowing Avigail to exit the cage first, he stepped out as well. The wild cats watched tentatively as the human exited the cage.

"Hey..! What about us?" the lynx female called hesitantly to the hunters. Judas glanced over before turning his head away, snorting. "What about you..? Rot in there for all I care.. Let's go Avi.." Judas turned toward the door, ears perked forward alertly as the door suddenly shoved open.

A man faced backwards, pushing the door open with his shoulder while he held a plate of raw meat with both hands. He stopped suddenly, turning just in time to see an angry cheetahpard leaping toward him.

"Oh, what the hell...!!!" The man squawked and then yelled loudly, dropping the plate on the ground and clumsily reaching for his weapon. Judas's teeth snapped on his arm, biting into the flesh. The man fell backwards, striking his head against the ground and going limp. Judas released the human's arm, turning toward the open door as he heard someone call questioningly from somewhere beyond the frame. He didn't hear any other sounds of approach as he figured whoever it was decided the sound he heard was negligible.

"Dammit..." he muttered, turning back around. "We need to get mo-... Young Master!" Judas gawked in surprise as he noticed Rom had moved over to the wild cat's cage and began to unlock the cage, making soft sounds to the hissing cats inside. "What is he doing???"

Grace-Winters
Avigail snorted, sniffing the fallen guard to be sure he was unconscious. "Smell like rat dung to me," she stuck her tongue out shaking her head to clear her nose of the smell. She stayed close to the young master, helping him support himself when needed, but the second she turned her back on him, he had walked over to the other cage.

"Master why are you freeing those cats?!" Avigail was shocked! Who knew who those cat's were? They weren't hunters that's for sure. They smelled of ash, but she wasn't sure if they were empire cats either. She had no idea, but if they weren't hunter they had no part coming with them. She tugged on the edge of Rom's coat, "Master!" She meowed, Rom gave her a pat on the head but otherwise ignored her. After setting his pole against the cage for a moment, he pulled the door open, letting out Xephos and Aelia. Xephos stood in front of Aelia's protectively. Avigail lashed her tail, stepping in front of the master and letting out a growl.

"Look, we both want out, you don't hurt us and we won't hurt you. We can help each other..." Aelia tried to say Avigail cut her off with another growl.

"We don't your help!" She snapped, glancing at Judas, then back at them.

Firewolf-Anime
Judas clicked his teeth together in an aggressive manner as Rom used a gentle tone with the strange felines, who puffed up at the human. The human didn't make a move to touch the wild cats, but instead had opened the cage door all the way. "Come on kitties," he spoke soothingly as the yellow ocelot mix spat threateningly at him. He looked down as Avigail grabbed and tugged on him. "Come on Avigail.. We can't leave them here. Especially with those bastards. What if they're someone's cats?" He said, thinking out loud before grasping the wooden pole again, hoping it would come in handy.

Judas huffed, irritated as he glared at the strange cats. "Whatever.. Don't get in our way.. We need to get moving Avi.." He turned back to the door. "Quickly!"

Grace-Winters
Avigail snorted, "Fine, I guess having some extra help won't hurt. But only because Master is okay with it.. If you hurt him, I'll shed your hide and sell it on the market...." She let out one last warning growl before turning and nudging the master towards the door. Rom seemed to understand they had to move. They were finally escaping from this place. Avigail stayed close to her human's side just in case, but Rom seemed to have somewhat gotten his sea legs now and stood pretty sound.Avigail took the lead of the small band of mostly smaller kitties through the door and to the upper deck of the ship.

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This page features to curioius wild cat's, Xephos owned by Nythero and Aelia owned by uasho-lynx

This story is a collaboration of RPing and Art between myself and Firewolf-Anime !

(This story occurs in the beginning of the month of July, and goes on over the course of about 3 weeks)

Judas and Avigail depart from the city of Massilia on a short trip away for a few weeks from the city with their masters. Thought to be an easy little journey away from home, things do not go as planned...

(+ 10 EP?)