Timestamp: Summer 68, 509 AV Location: Kelvic Research Institution
Sashi knew no pain, nor sorrow, nor any manner of hardship. A mere fifty days old, her human body was perhaps the size of a two year old, though she spent most of her time as an adorable wolf pup. Her fur had not yet darkened to a solid black, and she was a dark grey, with hints of darker shades throughout. Sashi stayed in a kennel with other kelvics, not all of them wolves, but all of them as young as she was. Her parents were around often to feed her, and she had the joy of constant playmates. She didn't know that she was a slave, that she was just someone's property to be sold whenever it came time to make a profit. No, Sashi was content. Sashi couldn't have asked for more.
Then came Mister Blue, a giant of a man with skin like Sashi had never seen before. Of course that was not his real name and Sashi only called him that in her mind, never put loud. The tall blue man towered even over Daddy and Master, the two tallest men Sashi had ever seen. She was too young to understand that when the blue man walked up to the kennel and looked in at the kelvic children playing inside that he was there to take one of him away. She didn't know that when he pick her up, she was in her puppy form, and examined her that he was considering purchasing her. Sashi thought he was just playing with her.
"No defects," the blue man asked as he set her down and turned to speak with the master.
"No, none," he replied enthusiastically, "And though it's a bit early, she's ready to be weaned if you want her now. Just make sure to feed her soft foods and that she stays in animal form, I think her human half would have trouble still."
The akalak nodded and asked another question. "How long until she is ready to breed?"
"Oh, that won't be for quite a while. Not until she is at least a year old. Kelvics grow fast, but not that fast."
The akalak nodded in understanding, reaching for his coin purse and counting out the stacks on a table near the kennel. "I'll take her." Coin was exchanged, a bargain price, truth to be told, and Sashi was taken from her kennel to leave with the big blue man. It didn't occur to the pup until bells later that she might never see her friends and family again, and even then she couldn't fully comprehend what that meant.
Over time Sashi's young mind came to forget her friends and family, the kennel she grew up in, and the akalak soon became the only master she knew. They were always together, always traveling, though even in her adulthood Sashi could not have told you where all they went. The akalak, whose name she never learned and knew only as Master, was the only thing that was constant. He was the only interaction she had with anyone, and on the rare occasions when they were not on the road and dwelled within cities she was kept to her room at whatever inn they stayed in.
The akalak was a stern, sometimes even cruel, master and his punishments for disobedience were often very harsh. Even so, a bond formed between the two as tends to happen with kelvics, and Sashi was completely loyal to the man despite his treatment of her. He was her caregiver, for she was to youn to fend for herself in the wild, and she depended on him for everything from food and water to keeping her own sanity. The akalak taught her to speak, though he taught her little else of the civilized world, and he taught her to hunt so that eventually she might provide food for the both of them. It was not the best relationship, but it was all Sashi had. |
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