Prince Joppa sniffed the air in the shrine up in the great hall, a sneer lifting his lip. The fire in the corner was still flickering and the scent of meat hung heavy in the air. Whoever had been here, it wasn't too long ago. "Captain Kaspar, what do you think?" A tall man with close cropped grey hair stepped up in response.

"Presumably, the same as you. Someone was here, very recently and either freed the princess or stole the statue." The older man said in a dry voice. He didn't like answering to this princeling and hoped that the plan of the king would hurry up so he could stop chasing this fool around. "Gera! Get up here and take a look at this place!"

A smaller man in leather armor with a bow over his back joined the pair in the room, though he walked much more gracefully than either. He crouched down, looking at the area, and picking up tufts of fur and hair. Moving about the chamber, he took note of a few other details before returning. "Judging by the footprints in the dust, one person entered, but a pair left. They were both cold and were using bear furs for heat in addition to the fire. Both also had black hair, though of differing lengths. No doubt they used some sort of a magical device to free the area around the princess, as there is a circular area around the altar where there are no pieces of stone, and many drag marks from rats that no doubt scavenged the new flesh."

Joppa swore inwardly. With the princess free, she would no longer look at him as if he were a savior. He might still be able to present himself as an ally in the overthrowing of his father though. He had originally planned on coming to the hall himself, though his memories of travel back to Winterhaven made him realize there could well be bandits about, so he took the captain and a dozen troopers along dressed as mercenaries that would fit the story. With the recent events, he was glad he did, as a tracker like Gera might be handy in finding Princess Inez now that she was no longer stone. "How did we not see them on the road?"

"Let me go scout the area Prince Joppa, I'll report back." The scout bowed and scurried out of the room.

"The plan is already falling apart," the prince muttered.

"It can be salvaged, but not until we find the princess and determine her plans and who freed her. There should have been no allies of her that knew of her fate. We may well have a traitor in the castle," Kaspar surmised.

"Prince Joppa!" Gera called out. "I found their tracks!"

Princess Inez was screaming and laughing with joy into Medya's ear and gripping her so hard that the smaller woman was having a little trouble steering the toboggan. They were flying down the mountain at a breakneck pace, with two of the little glowing orbs floating ahead of them to light the way. They had to dodge several large fir trees so far, but with Medya's Kittani reflexes, they had escaped those near misses unscathed. The good thing was that they were making excellent time thanks to their speed on the steep slope, and while the snow was deep the air was slowly getting warmer.

Suddenly, the lights illuminated a huge gorge directly ahead. With no time to turn, the pair flew over the edge, and Inez's screams turned to those of terror. Until they kept going, even rising a bit, right over the gorge. Inez looked down and saw Madya's left hand glowing with a pale blue light until they passed over the gorge, and the light dissipated as they bounced back down into the snow. There was one more yelp of surprise from Inez, and then she was laughing one more.

"You're crazy, you know what right?" Inez yelled over the wind rushing past them.

Medya didn't take her eyes off the trees in front of her but did chuckle in response. "Crazy might be just what you need to get your throne back though princess." Pulling tight on the right toboggan rope, and leaning into it, she steered them to parallel the gorge they had just jumped.

"Crazy and people with swords," Inez suggested.

"Swords would be helpful, yes!" agreed Medya.

"Do you know where we're headed?" Inez asked, noting the change in direction.

"Not specifically. I was going to take the road down and then take us through Appalya and then to Dallinia. But now knowing your story, and with the horses on the road, I have a new plan," Medya explained.

"Will you be sharing your plan? Or do I need to guess?" Inez asked with a chuckle. She didn't know why, but she trusted this Kittani, her past as a thief notwithstanding.

"I'm trying to get us to the east coast of Winterhaven. Then maybe we get a fisherman or smuggler to get us over to Southington. If we can make it there, then we can ride up to Tefra, which is where the lady who hired me is," Medya leaned left quickly to avoid another tree, and then began to relax. The trees were still thick, but the sky was becoming brighter. No doubt the sun was finally up, even if the trees were blocking most of the light.

"You think the gorge will take us east?" Inez wondered. Inwardly, she approved of the plan, though she didn't want to wait so long to strike back at Hudd. But this was a good way to regroup, find out who had hired Medya, and gather a force to take back her throne.

Medya just shook her head. "The gorge is heading south, but it is more downhill. There was also a small river at the bottom, and rivers usually find towns. If not, they provide a better pace to hunt, and we'll need food before long. Once we have better supplies it will make it easier to get to the coast."

Inez laughed out joyfully, a sound that made Medya's ears twitch with pleasure under her cowl. "I have to admit, the last thing I was doing when we flew over the gorge was look down. I might have just shut my eyes and hung on."

With the increase in light, Medya could see better. Being Kittani, she always could, but now she had a purpose. She wanted to make Inez laugh again. The trees started to thin out, which meant that there was more snow on the ground since the trees weren't blocking it. Deciding to make the ride a little more exciting, Medya crashed the toboggan though several drifts, causing the snow to burst all over the two riders. Inez seemed delighted every time she did it, and Medya couldn't help but be spurred on by the excitement of the princess seated behind her.

She steered through three drifts, each as fun as the next, until she picked one that had a log under it. Luckily, the log wasn't too big, so it didn't do anything other than launch them into the air like a ramp and give them an unexpectedly hard landing beyond it. Inez, caught by surprise by the landing, lost her grip around Medya's waist, and quickly grasped her again, though higher than intended. Medya let out a quiet combination between a gasp and a purr at the feel of Inez's hands on her breasts, even if Inez hadn't realized what she'd done. In fact, they travelled for several more minutes, before realization set in. Medya was avoiding drifts now while biting the inside of her cheek to avoid making any more sounds, when Inez finally noticed that her hands were gripping a much softer part of Medya. Inez's face turned scarlet, and she was glad that Medya couldn't see behind her, but she finally released her grip, sliding her hands lower. She was too embarrassed to even apologize, but buried her face in Medya's back instead.

By the time that the toboggan finally ran out of hill to travel down, both women were feeling hunger pangs, as well as sleep deprivation. Medya hadn't slept in over a day, and the toll of being returned to flesh was wearing on Inez's stamina. The gorge had finally ended, and the river provided them a good source of water, so they set up camp at the base of the mountain. There was still snow, even in the lower elevations the winter was hard in Winterhaven, but it was more tolerable. Inez grabbed firewood from the underbrush around them to pile up for a campfire, while Medya used her little glowing electric spheres to shock a few squirrels. It wasn't much, but it was food.

One small flick of the wrist later, the campfire was lit, and the squirrels were roasting on the spit hung above it. As they cooked, Medya rummaged through the backpack, pulling out a good-sized tent and getting that set up next to the fire. They needed some sleep, and it didn't matter to them that the sun was up. As Medya hammered the stakes into the ground, she glanced over her shoulder to see Inez staring at her butt.

"So, you grabbed my breasts, and now you're staring at my ass. Anything you'd like to talk about princess?" she asked with a smirk.

Inez broke out of a daze. She had indeed been looking at Medya's slim hips and backside, but for a completely different reason. "I'm sorry, I was just... I mean... Fine, I was wondering how you managed such tight leather armor with your tail." Her face turned beet red yet again after the admission. "And the breast thing was an accident!"

Medya didn't answer at first, and she hid the look of sadness that swept over her face. Once she got the tent set up, she joined Inez by the fire, where they sat on a log that Inez had rolled closer to the heat. "In Tefra, when a human thief is caught for the first time, they cut off their right hand as a warning. But if the thief is a Kittani, they cut off their tail."

"But, why? That seems extremely harsh!" Inez exclaimed. Inwardly she was cringing that she had brought up such a painful subject to the person who had just rescued her, while also hating a justice system that would do such a thing.

"It is. But the magistrates say it is to teach the thieves a lesson," Medya scoffed.

"And did you learn your lesson?"

"I did. Don't get caught." Medya said with a wink.

Inez gasped at the thought of losing a body part like that. Medya had seemed much too nice to have had that happen. "So, you were a thief?"

Medya nodded slowly. "My parents were taken by slaver when I was eight. They would have got me too, but I went out my bedroom window before they got to my room. I followed them for a bit, so I knew which clan house took them, but then my parents were put in shackles with the rest of the slaves, and I lost them when they were put in the slave quarters. I assume they are slaves somewhere, but part of me hopes they're dead so they're not being abused."

Inez looked shocked. "Wouldn't you rather they escape?"

Medya's face fell at that. "Kittani don't escape slavery. We're worth a fortune. Our species has never been plentiful, but we're highly desired, so a single young Kittani female could easily fetch 2,000 gold in the market. More if she had unique markings, and more feminine features. Once you're sold, no master is going to let you escape. Your only hope is the rare master who is nice, or taking your own life."

Inez could only shake her head sadly at Medya's admission. She didn't even feel the tears slowly trickling down her face. "So, you were on your own at eight?"

"I was. I lived on the streets, hand to mouth as a thief. That lasted until I was twelve before I was caught stealing a mango from a fruit seller. I was lucky, I could have been sold right there, but they took my tail instead," Medya said blankly. "I could have been sent to a pleasure house. It isn't unheard of for them to take in a child."

"Why your tail?" Inez wondered, shuddering at the thought of Medya being used like that.

Medya snorted harshly. "Humans say it is because we're not as sneaky without our tail, and while it does affect our balance, they're full of shit. What they don't say, but is widely acknowledged, is that a Kittani's tail is an erogenous zone, one of the reason's that we are so desired in pleasure houses. Many people consider the tail to be an aphrodisiac, so they dry the tails and powder them and then either snort the powder before sex or mix it with a mulled wine. So somewhere, my tail was probably ingested by some perverted old man who may have been raping another of my kind."

Inez felt her mouth drop. She'd never heard any of these stories from her mother when she told stories of her homeland, but she had little doubt that Medya spoke the truth to her. All she could do was pull the slim girl into her arms and hold her as some sort of an apology that would never be enough. She vowed to herself that nobody would ever take Medya like that while she could stop it.