Rakan Everitt Ka'zulri

Rakan is in a slow burn romance with Xagales 

Rakan is a beast-human who had been kidnapped for trafficking purposes, and ended up in the hands of a slave master. He went through some pretty traumatizing things.

Rakan made a run for it when he was about to be sold to another trafficker. He was blindfolded, hands bound, but his legs were unshackled. He scrambled anywhere he could feel and hear and eventually made it out of the property and ran as fast and as far as he could go. He was too weak to undo the shackles on his hands, but managed to nudge his blindfold off. He found himself in a lush forest. His heart began to swell with the realization that he was finally free, and he started to cry. But that was when he saw the dart in his arm. He knocked it out of his arm against a tree, realizing how weak he was feeling from the adrenaline beginning to tank. He started to feel dizzy and not half a minute later, he collapsed. The last thing he heard was the crunching of the dirt under someone's rapidly approaching footsteps.

When he woke up, he was met with a searing pain in his head, then his entire body. When his eyes adjusted to the shock, he saw a fire in front of him. He heard the firewood crackling as it burned. He felt the warmth of the flames, gentle and comforting. The light from the fire bounced off of the rounded, uneven walls around him. He looked down at himself and saw that a heavy, yet soft, mound of cloth and fur had been laid on top of him. Under it, his body, covered in bruises and cuts, was wrapped with linen in places. His mother had done something like this for him, when he was still with her.

A shifting sound snapped him out of his memories. He pulled the cloth tighter around him as he trained his eyes on the sound coming from around a corner of the cave. A shadow began to emerge on the ground, followed by a hooded figure with a collection of things in its arms. It stopped a moment when it saw that Rakan was awake, and staring at it. It spoke.

"Hi there, sweetheart," came a gentle voice. It shocked him. Perhaps he hadn't expected the figure to speak. Rakan's ears flattened and he backed further into the cloth. The figure crouched slowly and cautiously emptied its hands, placing what Rakan could now see were fruits, herbs, and a lump of fur on the ground. The figure began to approach slowly, taking off its hood. Rakan saw that it looked like him, yet strange. He had never seen protrusions like it had on its head. It wasn't a beast or human. It was a woman, maybe. 

"It's okay, you're safe, i won't hurt you. You have my coat on you," she pointed to the cloth Rakan had gathered around him, "nice isn't it?"

Rakan thought about it. It was nice. This was hers? Is she nice? 

"Look," she picked up some berries and held them in Rakan's direction." i got these for you. Do you like blueberries?"

Rakan wasn't sure what blueberries were, but they looked delicious. He tilted his head at the berries, and nodded. The girl smiled.

"That's great! I've got a lot more things i hope you'll like. I'll bring them over to you now, okay?" she cooed, picking everything back up and made her way over to the fire. She set the pile in her hands on the ground in front of Rakan. He could smell them now. They smelt of freshness, sweetness and hints of...metal? He finally felt the ravenous hunger in his stomach and reached out for one of the berries that he was shown before. He put it in his mouth and chomped down on it. It was the most delicious thing he had tasted in years. He did the same with another berry, then another, and another. He began grabbing handfuls and shoving them in his mouth. He grabbed one of the bigger fruits and wolfed it down. He was so engrossed in the fruit that he didn't notice that the figure was watching him bemusedly. 

He filled his belly full of all the food that had once been in front of him. When they were all gone, he remembered the lump of fur he had seen. He could now tell that it smelled of blood. It was a small, dead creature. His right ear flicked involuntarily as he stared at it.

"Oh, do you not eat meat?" the girl asked. Rakan looked at her, remembering she was there. He stumbled on what to say.

"N-no...i do. I did. Sometimes. I just never had the chance to hunt for myself, so i've never uhm...had to...I don't know how to..." he trailed off.

"Oh, you don't know how to eat from a fresh kill?"

Rakan nodded. She looked like she was thinking.

"Uhhh, i don't know how to teach you to eat from it, other than you...bite it. And just chew. Same as all the other stuff you just ate."

Rakan decided to try what she suggested. It reminded him of what he was given as a slave. Except this time it tasted fresh, and the blood made a mess on his face. It tasted good. He couldn't eat much more so he only took three chunks out of the creature. The girl knitted her eyebrows.

"You don't like it?"

"No, i do. I'm just stuffed."

She beamed.

"Oh is that so! I'm glad to hear that. Watching you eat made everything look so delicious, it felt like i could taste it too. I'll have the rest of that if you won't have it," she said, reaching over and lifting the remains of the creature. She lifted it to her mouth and opened up. Her jaws were lined with razor sharp teeth that bit into the carcass and bones like it was a melon. A melon that crunched. She had gulped it all down in a blink of an eye, licking her chops at the end. Rakan piped up.

"T-thank you, for the food."

"Oh, no problem! I'm just glad you liked everything. I was worried you wouldn't."

A silence fell over them, save for the crackling of the fire. Rakan felt like he should say more to the person who most likely saved his life.

"Thank you, for saving me, too. And for," he gestured at his bandages, "this as well."

"Oh you're welcome. I'm not the best at patching people up, but i hope it gets better soon. You...were in pretty bad shape, huh? You had a thing in your arm, right over here," she tapped the part of her upper arm where Rakan had seen the dart lodged into him, "I took it out for you, i don't think it was meant to be there. I still have it, if you need it back."

"No, no i don't want it. You were right, it was hurting me."

"Ah good, good. Yeah then i'll get rid of it next time i go out. Come to think of it, what happened to you? I don't see someone in a worse shape than you often."

Rakan's ear flicked, and he looked down at his hands, frowning. 

"Ah sorry, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to," the girl blurted.

"No, it's okay, i owe you that much after everything you've done for me. I was running from some people. They're the ones who shot me with the dart. The thing in my arm..."

Rakan told the girl the rest of his story. He watched her face take on expressions of concern, pity and horror. By the end of it, she looked as if she were about to cry. She scooted closer to Rakan and swept her hand over his cheek. He hadn't realized that he himself was crying. She held her arms open and Rakan dug himself into the crook of her shoulder, burrowing his face under her chin, crying out loud now. She picked up her cloak and bundled both of them in it. She rubbed small circles on his back and soothed him with gentle words. 

By the time he was all cried out and started to calm down, she was hugging him tightly, patting him comfortingly. It almost put him to sleep. He would have, if she hadn't spoken right then.

"Rakan, my name's Xagales. Or Aga. I'll take care of you for a while, if you'll let me. I can't stay forever, but i want to make sure you get better. I can teach you things, too. Would that be okay?"

Rakan could feel tears prickling behind his eyes again. He nodded silently, gripping tighter onto Xagales's coat.

"Thank you," he croaked.

>

After that Aga take care of him, teaches what he can and cant eat, saves him from getting mauled by a mother bear because he got too close to its baby, gives him new clothes. He heals up and becomes stronger. It's been a number of months now. 

So eventually i, will have Xagales dismantle that trafficking ring.