Alexei and his new slave couldn't get out of the slave tent fast enough.

After handing over a few pieces of gold from his pouch, which thankfully was still looking pretty full, he took his beastkin girl by the hand and led her back the way he came.

When they emerged from the tent the fox-girl couldn't help but blink in the morning sun. It was as if she had never seen the light of day in all her life, and considering how dank and dingy it had been inside the slave tent that may have been the case.

"What's your name, girl?" Alexei asked, stooping down to undo the shackles that she had no doubt been bound with for most if not all of the time she had been in that tent.

She looked at him, confused, and tilted her head to one side but didn't reply verbally at all.

The clasp around her neck came away with a click from the key that the slave master Mr Myx had given him. He wouldn't need the leash that she had come with. He was sure she wouldn't try to run away, she looked terrified of the world around her.

"Can't you speak? Your name, out with it," Alexei pressed, but it only caused the girl to look away in shame.

He sighed, she probably couldn't speak. She was young and he doubted Mr Myx would have spent much time teaching his quarry things like that.

"Very well then," He said, standing back up before tossing the chains onto the ground, "Take my hand and do not stray from me, the marketplace can get very busy very quickly and it would not do for you to be whisked away from me by a stranger."

Those words seemed to terrify the girl, who latched onto his leg like a barnacle on the side of a ship.

"Now, holding my hand will suffice," He said, offering it to the girl.

She looked up at him shyly, detached from his leg, and slipped her hand into his. She held on tightly, surprising him with the strength of her grip. She was a beastkin, and they tended to be stronger than their pure human counterparts, but she was a small nothing of a girl who looked malnourished. Strength was the last thing he had expected.

With his slave acquired Alexei's day had taken a dramatic shift.

It was clear that the girl needed three things, as well as a name. New clothes, a good meal, and a hot shower- though not necessarily in that order.

The meal would come first, and since they were in a marketplace, street food would suffice.

"Come along, Neave," He said, pulling the girl along behind him, "We're going to get you some food and then a fresh set of clothes."

He wasn't sure where the name for the girl came from, but it felt right, and by the slight smile on her face he could tell it felt right to her as well.

In the short time that he had been in the slave tent, the marketplace had filled up with people considerably.

It had become a hustling, bustling and noisy filled with people buying all manner of foods and items, both magical and mundane in nature.

He caught a few odd glances as he wound through the rat run of the market. It wasn't often that someone would be seen tugging around such a young beastkin, especially not a pretty young girl who was wearing nothing but an oversized, dirty and torn nightshirt.

He didn't care.

If people already knew who he was

She was a fox-girl, and that likely meant that her physiology would prefer meat over anything else, so Alexei followed his nose and made a beeline for the nearest place selling anything grilled.

It just so happened to be a grilled fish stall, serving whole eels impaled on wooden sticks that had been grilled over an open flame.

"Come get your fried Alandrian eels! Freshly caught this morning from our own rivers!" The man behind the stall, a wiry and bedraggled sort, yelled out.

Alexei blanched at the idea of eating something that had been caught in the rivers of Alandria. They may have looked pretty, but they weren't the cleanest of environments. By the look on Neave's face, however, it was clear that wasn't going to be an issue. The girl was almost openly drooling at the scent.

"It's been a while since you've had meat to eat, I would imagine," he remarked, noting the shy way that Neave looked down at the ground.

He shrugged, it wouldn't be him eating the grilled meat after all. If she wanted it, who was he to say no? Well, her master of course, but besides that.

He tugged her along to the stand, "two eel sticks, thank you," he said, keeping his voice gruffer and lower than it usually would be.

"Here yah go guv," the eel seller replied, handing over the meat sticks, "That'll be a copper each."

Money and meat exchanged hands and the desperate look on the fox-girls face only grew.

He wasn't about to give the meat to her right away, though.

Instead, he led her away from the marketplace to a more secluded spot, a small patch of green grass along the edge of one of the many rivers of Alandria.

"Sit down, and you can have your meat," Alexei said, plopping himself down on the floor crosslegged.

A purple haze misted over the girls eyes for a moment, and then she responded to his command, dropping onto her bottom so fast that he knew it must have hurt.

She didn't complain or even wince, though, instead she just looked at him expectantly.

He was concerned about the haze. No doubt it was some slave spell the slave master had weaved to make his quarry subservient whether she wanted to be or not.

He handed over one of the eel sticks and watched as she greedily tore into it. He thought, for a moment, about telling her to slow down. But he didn't want to take away her willpower like that, not if his hunch was correct.

He sighed and watched his new quarry eat and wondered at just what he had managed to get himself into.