Chapter One Hundred Twenty Two

It took another week for him to calm down, although the guards seemed willing to dismiss it even after just a single day. Tension remained high for Joe until the end of the week when he was finally able to relax a bit. And return to the norm.

That tension was exacerbated by his desperate attempts to free himself from his collar, usually late at night. The attempts proved dismal. He'd first simply attempted to take a single ball off his collar, now certain that it was a collar with several balls, remembering how Gwenvair and the others spoke of his collar before. Release one ball. Joe thought with hidden glee, before reaching a hand up and finding his hand coming to a halt, shaking, even as his mind blanked. He came to a few moments later and grimaced, realizing the collar had blocked his attempt to touch his collar.

It took him a few nights of effort to finally touch his collar and attempt to pinch off a piece of the collar, hoping for a single ball to come free, but the effort was incredibly difficult. Any thought of attempting to touch his collar triggered the defense, but he had to think and want to release a single collar ball from his collar, which made him think about the collar in his attempt to release a ball. He was stuck in a catch twenty two for several nights until he found himself stuck.

That led him to simply attempt to brute force it after a little setup. He brought his hand close to his collar, itching in and around it, as he always now used that excuse and the collar seemed amenable to it. When he felt the collar, he would then reach around it with a thumb and index finger, scratching under it against his neck, but positioned now in a way that he could simply pull away while pinching and grasp the collar.

That took another half a night of effort in and of itself, just thinking about that having him drifting in a haze and having to recover. The recovery also heightened the collar's reaction and it would flee into his skin, becoming tattoo like against his skin and untouchable to him. He would then need to take another good couple minutes to calm down enough for the collar to relax and become a normal 'necklace' on his skin again before he could attempt it. Still, he was able to finally set himself up, and it was with jittery excitement that he began. Release one ball! Joe thought quickly even as his finger and thumb pinched down hard on the collar and pulled outward. The collar remained diamond hard in his grasp, simply pulling away from his pinch and then snapping into his skin, even as his mind hazed slightly. He fought hard against the haze, even as his pinch strengthened, but the collar did not even budge in the slightest, slipping from grasp and sinking into his skin even as his desperate attempt to keep his mind clear finally failed.

Joe grimaced, frustrated, when he came back from the hazy thoughts, but refused to give up. Maybe… gotta speak it? Joe prepared again, taking a bit longer to finally setup purely because of how agitated and excited he was. His hand slipped up, the collar finally relaxed enough again to withdraw from his skin and then had to start all over again as his excitement slipped from his grasp and the collar reacted instantly.

The next time, he prepared better, calmly, and then initiated, speaking quickly even as his finger and thumb pinched hard on the collar, "Release one ball."

The haze came much harder, punching into his resistance with overwhelming power, but he clamped down on his thoughts even as he struggled to grasp the collar. But despite his efforts, the collar remained as impenetrable as he'd always known metal to be, no small portion oozing off into his grasp. His mind remained focused on the task, scrabbling at his attempt to enact his desire, but his fingers slipped from the collar and the haze snapped down on his mind. He lost himself in it for a time before finally returning, but simply stepped to the next possible action. Maybe… doesn't work in English? Gotta try common, maybe...

Despite his new line of attack, Joe knew he was grasping at straws. The collar reacted to his thoughts, which were most definitely in English, and if it did that, it likely easily understood his speaking English as well. Still, he prepared and attempted one last time, swapping his language to Common, or Galga as he heard the word. After another half hour or so for the collar to reset, he began.

"Release one ball," Joe spoke out in Galga even as he pinched, but exactly as before, the collar remained hard as iron and did nothing.

His fingers slipped off from the hard unbending service even as his mind railed against the incoming haze. He fought off the haze easily enough until his fingers slipped off the collar without any change and despair ended up undoing his resistance, and he fell into the haze hard. He only came to when the nightly torture began. Huh… seems… early? Or… lost in the haze too long? Or… His thoughts shattered against the pain, and did not return to any form of coherency until long after they'd left.

* * *

Gunlan, Patriarch of Coushar, woke with a start when he felt a request from his newest slave, the eccentric Joe McConnell. As always, the request came through in a form incomprehensible, the box floating before him in an unknown request. But like all slave owners, he knew how to deny any request and immediately did so. The request came through several more times that night, and Gunlan simply denied all future requests from the eccentric, desiring only sleep.

"Why does the rejection of all requests not last permanently," he grumbled to himself before falling to sleep. Why do I have to keep denying… When I see him next, I will beat him until he knows not to ask requests!

Despite his ire, the absolute rejection would be enough to last possibly a day or two, maybe longer. And it would be enough for him to sleep the night.

* * *

Joe went through the morning muster quickly, ignoring it for the most part, and soon found himself sitting under the tree surrounded by his small crowd of followers. He settled in for the day with a small amount of nervousness, waiting with tension until he felt that things had calmed. Around late morning, Joe took a look around the whole area, taking in various guards and staff before leaning over and reaching for the collar of the nearest person to him. He moved quickly, finger and thumb reaching up to pinch at the collar and pulling.

"Release one ball."

The collar pinched between his finger and thumb then was yanked against the man's neck, drawing the man's attention. The collar remained solid rock, unbending iron, even as his fingers slid off it like oiled soap and Joe hid a grimace before snapping his hand back and waving the man away, offering a muttered apology. The man simply looked at him with expectation, even as the others watched on as well. But Joe turned away and fell back into his insanity, playing it up.

Didn't work… Joe thought, then muttered it out loud in English, beginning to speak to himself even as he considered the issue. In the end, Joe found himself frustrated, uncertain of where else he could go from here.

* * *

The slave master jerked up, coming to attention quickly, before calling over the house servant. A quick whisper and comment had the servant moving quickly but with dignity from the home to the nearest guard. The servant came to a halt, whispering to the guard for a bit before retreating to the slave master's home. The guard turned to his fellow guards and rapidly issued several commands. All guards came to higher alert and roused from their resting locations, nonchalantly traveling around the camp with searching gazes. They did not move quickly, nor did they move with any sense of urgency, but there was a purpose covered by an attempt to be nonchalant as the wandered the camp.

* * *

Joe fidgeted, glancing around him. A couple guards were walking across the field towards a large group of working slaves and Joe snorted. 'Bout time they actually do their work. He dismissed them quickly and took in his general location before finding his small group of people pretty distant from most others. He didn't have much time left before the next working period occurred and only he would be left, the other slaves that had glommed on to him would be called away to work. A last quick glance showed things pretty clear and he quickly swapped out his language skill back to Common. A soft whisper, firm but quiet, barely heard even by his own ears, passed through his lips.

"Release one ball."

His hand whipped out and snagged the collar of a person facing away from him but even though he was able to repeat his action from before, his fingers slipped off the unyielding surface. Not a single dent was left behind and Joe pulled his hand back rapidly even as he grimaced in frustration. As rapidly as he could, he pushed for his language skill to return to some random Earth language, deafening his ears once again. Can't… do it! Joe grimaced.

* * *

The slave master whipped his head around again, a tingling of warning but no clarity spiked through him. He grimaced. Which jealous thief is seeking to steal from me again! He called for his servant again.

* * *

Joe hadn't seen anything new or different about the station at all over the several times he'd walked by the second week after the event. He'd marched over and took more leisurely and safer looks, nothing was really different between the times when the station remained empty and when the station was being used. In fact, it felt like a rather big waste considering that it was used only about once every three months, if his counting was correct. It was just a wooden platform with a table like desk positioned to the side and a chair with a stool situated in front of it. The desk was quite low but situated perfectly so that the box of balls could be sat on the desk and still be low enough to be easily reached into to retrieve the next collar ball.

The chair next to the table didn't face into the table, but towards the stool, with the table set to the left of the chair. The guard sat at the chair, placing the box of collar balls on the table to his left and faced the stool. The stool was for the new slave, set lower to the ground so the guard wouldn't have to reach so far down or lean so far forward to press the collar ball to the neck of the soon to be slave. That was essentially it, with the table, chair, and stool all nailed to the wooden deck where the collaring took place. Otherwise, it was rather plain.

It was even plainer as the box of collar balls seemed to be taken back to the villa after each collaring for safe keeping. Otherwise, the guards seemed to care little for the area, and so too did many of the slaves. If the station happened to be between a slave's destination and the slave, the slave would often regularly walk right over it, uncaring of it. Only a few of the slaves seemed to skew away from it, but they seemed to do so purely for personal reasons. The only day the guards proved jumpy was on the actual collaring day. Makes sense… guess if a collard slave can free any of the chained guys… or something like that… then hope to be freed in turn? Maybe?

Joe was pretty frustrated with himself now that he'd compared during and after, realizing he'd not really learned anything useful at all. The only thing he'd seen when he'd gone up there on the day of the collaring was the box full of collar balls; hundreds, possibly even thousands, of the collar balls rested in the box, and absolutely nothing else. There was nothing else meaningful in the box and Joe had kicked himself when he'd realized it but mostly struggled against the despair that came because of it. There had been no point to go up but luckily, the guards seemed uncaring since he did come too close and the slave master hadn't seemed to have seen. Nor had any of the slave guards told the slave master, apparently. Either that, or the slave master didn't really care.

Still, that avenue was thoroughly cut off and Joe found himself growing more despairing as option after option had failed him. He'd hoped there would have been some kind of other tool in the box; any kind of tool. A tool offered something to use and a tool in a box of collar balls likely meant a tool for the collars themselves. Granted, the slave master seemed incredibly intelligent, and keeping any form of tool next to the collars themselves probably was a dumb idea. His thoughts now turned towards the villa, and if failing to find a tool in the box brought despair, attempting to do the same in the villa terrified Joe.

The slave collaring location seemed useless. He was pretty sure any effort in that direction wasn't worth it. The only option was to focus on the villa, but Joe was rather certain that there would be significant security measures in the villa and little option for him to successfully infiltrate it. At the very least, it seemed to be a general rule that all slaves were not allowed in as even the guards remained outside the villa except the two times the slave master had ordered his slave guards to retrieve the collar box and the many times he called for Joe's collar control artifact. Don't have… much choice, though…

Despite his efforts, Joe finally gave up on that avenue, his despair at failing to find a tool and mounting anxiety in how to find entrance into the villa clawing at him. Breaking out of the funk proved easy enough as that next week the slave master brought out another set of cute pets, distributing them to everyone. This time, he did so at the mustering yard and accompanied the gift with a lot of flowery kind words obviously commiserating with everyone before ending with a rather serious warning. Joe had no clue what the slave master was saying, but the vindictive smirks of the slaves who didn't like him contrasted sharply with the bitter looks of the slaves that seemed to take his side. He wondered at that, uncertain, but kept an extra eye out for the others, watching them for what they did.

Even after the day had passed, Joe didn't notice or understand what the slave master had said, so Joe ignored it and continued as he had always done, rage driving him to ever aggressive responses. A stake and a leash had the animal in the field, fed but well away from his tent. He did notice several people staring at him, especially those who were his sycophants, with concern and worry, but he honestly didn't care. The pet was the least of his concern in every way possible. Another kid was coming and that, more than anything else, drove his immediate future concern. True, he wanted to escape, but he still had no concrete plan but to search the villa and saving this next kid was something he thought he could pull off, having learned from before. Makes sense…. So much sense… I was too naïve… but this time. His teeth ground several times before he forced them to relax. Donno how to save myself… yet… but the kid… yeah… I got a good idea. I can prep for that… pretty easy now… He glanced towards the slave master villa. Later… Right now… I still can wander anywhere… need to wander, but if I get caught in the villa… that control artifact… yeah… I'll probably be under house arrest after that!

Immediately after he'd staked his pet out to eat, he marched off into the woods; or the poor stumbles of a wretch without legs would be a better description, but Joe's anger railed against all else. He would not wallow, and he cared little for any and all else. His sycophants could not follow, all trapped by the magical electronic fence surrounding the camp and frankly, he would looked forward to the peace of being alone.

But, when he marched into the forest, several of the guards followed after him keeping up rather easily, but Joe cared not and traveled around the periphery of the entire camp, searching for just about anything simply to distract the guards. The travel wasn't a waste, Joe spending all of it on his mana manipulation, spell casting, skill practice, HP stat growth, and analyze. While he did all these things, he spent most of his effort on perfecting his spell casting on the move as all the others were very easy to do. He also spent his time carefully taking a look at all the trees in the woods and evaluating sight paths for extra-long straightaways. He also spent an inordinate amount of time convincing himself that he wasn't trying to escape the camp or the guards, trying to simply view it as seeking privacy. It also helped that his efforts really weren't for escape, and whenever he found himself suddenly being dragged back towards the camp when his thoughts turned just that little bit too rebellious, he could easily break free after truthfully revealing he wasn't seeking escape.

After taking a look around, he then sat on the ground. Gonna need … a lot of time… I think. Forced to a form of mediation, he turned his focus inward and drove his thoughts towards creating the mana construct he would need to infuse his stats and boost himself. It took much longer than he liked, the itch of the watching guards and their chatting interrupting his thoughts regularly but he finally felt prepared and turned his efforts from preparing to releasing the mana, flooding his body with it and engaging his system attributes.

Right… time to do this. Worry gnawed at him, shaking his efforts to form the mana construct, his thoughts easily distracted both by the presence of the other guards, anxiety, and by the obtrusive thoughts of the collar when it felt like he might be attempting to run. Almost, he considered only using his physical capabilities, but quickly recognized that he would need the mental speed to keep up as well, so with no small amount of fear, attempted to remake a full mana infusion. After almost ten minutes of effort, he was able to finally focus on developing the mana construct, taking dozens of more minutes to finally create a very poor and ultimately weak version of his mana infusion but it still proved more than enough.

After the mana was flowing through him, he rose then suddenly vanished in a flash of movement down a long very clear path between a good fifty or sixty trees before turning slight to the right, and away from the camp, and sprinting down another relatively clear path half the length before he came to the third and last long clear path he'd mapped out that would let him use his speed with relative ease. The wild scramble was bizarre, the speed incredible despite the fact that he was more crawling on his stumps and hands through the forest than even running. He had no calves or feet, yet the guards were left behind relatively easily. That said, running without forelegs and feet was incredibly difficult. He found himself just as often throwing himself from the ground to tree or from tree to tree rather than attempting to run on his thigh stumps.

The cries of the guards behind him vanished just as quickly as their slow stumping efforts to follow after him and he found himself alone in the woods once again. He didn't stop his speedy travel, however, and continued to run, although slowing significantly so he could weave between all the trees. Or more correctly, throw himself from tree trunk to tree trunk. First stop! And… a plan… where was th… ooh! There it is…

A soft growl came from the right and he angled that way a bit, having gotten off course just slightly, but it was enough for now. He came upon a rather terrifying beast he'd noticed before, marked and ready for him. Originally, in his wanderings, he'd stayed well enough away mainly because he had no desire to tussle with the beast, but it would be perfect, at least for what was to come. He came to a stop next to its small home nestled in under a fallen tree trunk. Staring in at it, Joe approached carefully, caution spiking when it began aggressively hissing in rage. The animal looked like a cross between the worst kind of alley cat and the angriest badger he'd ever seen. And it seemed quite intelligent. It did not attack or throw itself at him, but held its ground as Joe hovered outside the small cave-like home the creature had made for itself.

Cross between a cat and a badger… that's… pretty cool… Joe cut off his thoughts and grew a bit concerned. The thing hissed and backed up and quickly went into a threat dominance display. It seemed to balloon to almost twice its previous size, fur spiking out in a poof ball like proportions but instead of looking really cute like most animals on Earth that inflated, either bodily or by straightening their fur, this thing seemed to puff out with a deliberate image in mind. The best image that Joe could think of to describe the effect was a body builder suddenly tightening his body and whereas before, the body builder's body looked softer and hinted at sharp lines and angles, the body suddenly took on flat planes and cut lines, ivory and marble muscles and definition suddenly carved out of marshmallow.

The cat badger swelled, its chest suddenly taking on a shape a bit like a pit bull, or a bulldog. A massive wide chest with wide spread fore legs that seemed enormous in and of itself. The fur between the legs puffed down turning the sleek chest into a massive bellows that spoke to strength across the front but not simply in a round display of poof but into defined shapes and planes that revealed powerful muscle. The fur on the neck and around the jaws swelled to shift the look into a massive powerful jaw supported by a neck that suddenly could now easily support the substantial bite. Along the back and traced down the sides, the fur swelled out to match the torso to the now incredible chest, neck and head. Surprisingly, even the torso fur was flared in such a way as to show the cut of ribs and the fold of well-defined muscle across the core; the belly. It then flowed into the rear legs where the fur enhanced the impression of legs offering a powerful leaping ability.

A visceral fear shivered through Joe at seeing it and he found himself surprised. There was some kind of immediate horror that kind of slithered across his skin like oil and Joe pulled back a step to reevaluate before staring closely at the animal. The two faced off, the creature staring back directly in his eyes without fear. Joe stared back before sighing and reaching forward.

"Sorry, buddy. Not going to hurt you, but you don't know that and it's not going to be fun, but…"

He prepared and mana swelled through him, increasing in volume, flexing down the paths already created into his thighs slightly to offer a base of support but the majority of it flowed into his hips, torso, arms, neck and head. He'd never released the infusion state, maintaining it ever since he'd fled the guards. It was easy to maintain once he'd gotten into it, but his mana continually dipped. His status flipped up at the thought and he took a quick glance at his mana before frowning a bit. His HP was now also dipping down a bit. Not much to be a concern, but enough to counteract his regen rate and it was dropping slowly. Only … maybe ten percent right now, but… And my MP has only lost about ten percent… not bad. I can keep like this for a good … maybe even an hour? Or… Oh! Time had slowed to his subjective perspective, and he grinned in chagrin. Can't tell how much time, huh… subjective feels like almost ten minutes… maybe five? But to the others… donno… Joe glanced at the frozen trees, then blinked in surprise before glancing back at the badger cat thing. It's still moving!!! Pretty fast! This… Joe was shocked, then flared his mana, watching his mana drop much faster, although with a bit of bitter annoyance. Time slowed even further. Joe sighed and allowed the mana to swell through him, slowing time further and eating into his mana. His HP also began increasing its rapid decline. Man… really need to learn this better!

Joe ducked in quick, stumbling slightly as his grip on the tree trunk above ripped the branch from out of the trunk because of his now incredible strength. He quickly settled his hand against the trunk instead and continued ducking into the creature's home. His hand came in and around behind the back of the animal but as he moved in, he felt shock echo through him. The creature still reacted, capable of seeing Joe's movements. Its eyes widened and fear seemed to spike through it as it hunched and a paw came up to bat away his hand. Fast! Way too fast! How…? Joe turned his focus up to full, his system stats eking out just a bit more power and speed, but even that wasn't quite enough to overwhelm the animal.

The creature's reaction wasn't enough, however. He leaned down even further, although not too easily without his forelegs, losing his grip on the trunk above to bring both hands into play. His first hand came in to draw the creature's focus but he didn't allow his hand to take the hit from the animal. Twenty years of instinct demanded he protect his hand and even though his system HP and even personal HP would likely immediately heal the damage, his instincts were too ingrained.

His tension quickly settled as his hand continued to bat out quickly and easily even as he cautiously and quite slowly, in comparison to his perceptual speed, pulled out the creature from its home. As soon as the hind legs left the ground, the fight left the creature. Fur deflated and it seemed to even shrink, becoming a small creature almost about the size of a kitten. Joe frowned at that, but noticed no real change to the weight. That's… a lot of fur! And a pretty massive change?! It curled up much like a kitten held by its mother and Joe felt some relief knowing that his guess was true on this matter. Guess a parent has to have a way to care for and move their children no matter the planet… back of the neck seems like the safest easiest way. Kind of a parallel evolution? Or?

A quiet mewling growl, not really a meow at all, came from the creature in his hand and he glanced down at it. It looked towards him with what Joe was certain was a mix of fear and piteous harmless cuteness and Joe seriously considered its intelligence once again but then heard a loud crash and the cries of his guards behind him. He glanced back but found nothing except the reminder that they were there. Joe cursed, annoyed.

"Sorry, little one. I have no desire to harm you, but I have no time to stay. Maybe what I offer you will be recompense for what I'm doing."

Joe turned and sped away, cradling the creature in his arms. He kept his grip on the back of its neck, but cupped his left hand under the rump of the creature and held it protectively. After a few moments, Joe even had it cuddled against his chest, but the creature did not move nor did it really fight against what Joe was doing. Joe, however, wasn't foolish and still kept a firm grip on its neck, engaging its instinct to remain still in the grip of its parent. As he sped away, a thought brought up his stats and he frowned bitterly at his current HP and MP. Almost lost half… maybe just under three quarters… kinda half between three quarters and half… definitely closer to half left… a bit more HP, but … man…

Joe cannoned through the forest, finding having to run on his thighs only a deeply frustrating experience. He often found his legs slipping out from under him and added the need for some form of grip on his prosthetics for grip. His biggest frustration was angling his thighs so he could get them over brush, rocks, and small logs. With no bending knee, his thighs coming forward regularly found themselves caught in the way of other things. He was soon running and leaping over things much like a hurdler and hobbling badly to race away.

That said, it was a rather comfortable ride for the animal until he reached the tree house he'd built for Johnnie. The rope ladder was down and Joe felt rather certain that it was still empty. Climbing the ladder proved a challenge, holding an animal in one hand and with no feet. Rope ladders were not conducive to single handed climbing, especially without forelegs and feet, and the first danger came just a few rungs up as the ladder as it swung from his weight and shifted his entire body to the side and back. Mana swelled out and flooded through him again. Time seemed to slow and his hand moved with blinding speed to catch the next rung before safety had him trembling from adrenaline. Right… that's… Joe firmed his grip on his infusion, wanting to maintain the system enhanced stats. It would make it much easier when he could react with preternatural speed.

Soon, he was at the top and pulling the ladder up before taking a look around. Joe glanced at his MP and HP before grimacing, seeing how they were both dropping rapidly. He sighed as he turned to his task. Some of his cloaks were still there, shredded and ruined, but not all of them were. Obviously taken… but this is enough. He took the cloaks and settled them into a semblance of a nest then went about cleaning and repairing the place a bit before releasing the animal. Hope it likes it's new home… although… probably not? Wonder if it can climb trees… but… if it could… wouldn't have made a home on the ground.

Joe took a look around then grinned. A good surprise for any idiots that come here next… but… He turned to look back at the animal before grimacing. Gotta come back to feed it a couple times, so… but was going to do that for the boy anyway, so…

Joe sighed and looked at the animal dangling from his grip in his right hand before he began speaking, "Right. I hope the food and new home make up for what happened before. This is probably a much safer place than the other place you had. I'll be back to check on you. Or… yeah, whatever. You can defend it if you want as well. Anything that'll come at you will come through that hole in the floor."

Joe muttered mostly to himself, not having talked last since the boy and for months before that as well. Joe took half the cloaks before he fluffed up the rest and dropped the cat badger in it. The thing backed up away from him and hissed growled up at him a bit, but did not attack. It simply burrowed back into the cloaks then quieted and watched warily. Joe ignored it with that and turned back to the poor tree house, cleaning things up a bit and taking back his chess pieces and the set.

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Other than that, it was rather bare but had been decently well cared for before it was abandoned. That thought returned the memory of why and Joe grimaced, clenching his teeth hard and breathing deep for a moment before finally calming and standing, turning his thoughts from Johnnie. He looked around then stared down at the cat badger which was now sitting, calmly if warily, watching him. Joe stared back but did not move then sighed and turned away. Gotta come back and make sure things are ok after…

Joe stopped talking out loud to himself and turned to fixing things up some more, now distracting himself. What else… what else… I should just go… so… He paused when he heard a noise, taking a moment to cock his head to double check but quickly dismissed it. Guards not here yet… but not much time left… Joe quickly turned back to his work and finished by pulling out a couple of large chunks of meat which he dropped on the floor. The creature reacted almost immediately as soon as the meat came out, tensing and staring at the food but did not move at all. Joe stared at it for a bit before huffing with humor.

"If you want it, it's yours. Think of it as payment for the next couple month's work, if you're willing."

The creature jerked in surprise at the noise from Joe's comment and Joe smiled a bit before turning to head out. He walked to the rope ladder hole and tossed it out the hole. Behind him, the creature's head whipped over to stare at Joe and Joe glanced back at it before smirking with some humor. Well… time to go… Joe scrambled down the ladder and then glanced up to see the cat badger staring down at Joe from the top.

Joe felt the urge to wave, then did so, then felt like an idiot before scrambling off into the forest, struggling to maintain his enhanced state using the system stats. He stumbled for a few moments across the forest floor, his mana fluctuating wildly from his control before he clamped down upon the mana. Come on! Focus… The mana settled and he regained his enhanced capabilities. Soon, he was bouncing from tree to tree with ease, leaving the floundering guards behind.

Over the next several hours, Joe went rather crazier to the guards' viewpoint. The sound of lumbering echoed through the forest time and time again as the guards chased after Joe. Joe would fell about ten or so trees before silence would return to the forest for a time as he bent to begin stacking the felled trees into a pile, delimbing the trees only enough to allow them to stack into a semi pyramid shape. Things would remain silent for maybe about ten or twenty minutes before Joe raced through the forest once more, his stumbling through the trees a precursor to the sound of more trees being felled ringing out once again, further on into forest along the plateau's edge. Sometimes, Joe would hear the guards arrive at the location of Joe's previous work, finding a pile of logs, six or ten high, layered up in a long pyramid. Their curiosity, or cries of confusion would ring out for a time then fall silent as they chased after him again. He did wonder what they thought, seeing a pile of logs being left as if prepared for some future construction, piled up in in storage pile.

This went on for the rest of the afternoon and close into evening. Several times, he had to take a moment to rest, his HP and MP running out. This was despite learning how to fluctuate the power of his infused state. He really burned through his HP and MP at the beginning until he learned he could throttle his mana use, keeping his use at a very low burn. This allowed him to keep in the infused state for quite some time, almost a couple hours at maximum. That, however, required him to pretty much keep his enhancement so low that he functionally noticed no difference. That also meant that towards the end of that time, for the last half of the time, if he were to flare his mana to maximum, he would functionally have almost no time in his enhanced state as he would be so close to empty on his HP and MP. He'd burn out quickly.

That said, being able to have his infusion running low burn in the background ready to flare into instant use was something that left him grinning with satisfaction. Can't run it full time… but maybe can do it every hour? His joy soured as he realized it took almost a half an hour to recreate the state, which meant he would be spending half the time each hour just sitting trying to get into an infused state. That didn't include having to regenerate all his mana. Although… HP should be real fast… but mana…Still… recuperate for a little bit then restart it? That … He glanced at his HP and frowned, grimacing. Hopefully get good enough I don't burn my HP out as well… He shook his head in annoyance. Never lost my HP before… but I guess that's what system help gets you… But practice…

Joe glanced up at the sun. Not much time left… can't waste it… so maybe... Joe quickly made the decision to recuperate his pools to maximum, first recovering his HP and MP before attempting to recreate his enhanced state once again. He took off, running away from where he'd last made a commotion felling trees but this time just on his basic stats. He ran to where he would work next before settling in to meditate and try to create the mana construction that would allow him into his enhanced state. Since he'd slipped away silently this time, the guards were left fumbling around searching for him and that gave him just enough time to carefully construct the mana. Without the guards there and the deep peace of the dappled forest, Joe found himself much more easily constructing the mana necessary, although when he finally chose to enact it, he saw he'd wasted a lot more time; close to an hour for this first time. That said, his HP almost didn't dip at all while his MP seemed to be significantly …

With the loss of a bit of time from having to recuperate once, Joe began cutting down trees with furious strength and speed, to the point that he grew concerned for the integrity of his axe. It still looked fine, but he restrained himself and slowed his speed and reduced the strength at which he was hammering the axe into the tree trunks. The trees still felled quickly, and soon Joe had piled up maybe eight or nine piles of lumber, each pile holding usually six or ten logs, depending on if he had a three or a four row base of logs. Some of the bigger trees he just kept to a pile of six.

His work efforts were interspersed with another two times of recuperation and recreating his mana infusion, but the second two times, he found himself much faster but still retaining the better HP and MP costs. He'd smiled with the last effort, hitting almost a perfect infusion state and only taking twenty minutes to do it. Probably can go the rest of the day with this… He finished his last pile and inspected it one last time before turning back home, the itch to return starting to become difficult to resist. At the same time, he was getting much better at being able to manage it as well.

Still, he was unhappy with what he'd accomplished and went home with the unpleasant realization he'd have to take a day tomorrow as well. He sighed as he walked into camp. He glanced around for a bit then immediately turned away from everything and simply went home. He didn't even stop by for the slop that was supper; a poorly made thin stew or soup that seemed primarily made of liquefied grains without much in the way of flavor. There were some other foods with it of a variety of vegetables and a single citric based fruit that was incredibly sour tinged with bitterness and quite unpleasant to eat as it was a mushy slime more than anything else. The meat, if there was any, was a bit light, but otherwise the meal seemed decently made for nutrition if not for variety since it felt like it was all they ate every day for every meal.

Joe was rather lucky to escape that since he had his inventory and he took advantage of it, going directly to his room to eat his own meal. He had a couple of skewers left he'd carved previously which he used to skewer some of the meat he had. Dropping those on his brazier that warmed his room had the delicious smell of meat already wafting up by the time he'd carved another have a dozen. He then spent his time pulling off a kebab to allow it to cool, leaning it against the tent pole, and making another kebab which he popped onto the brazier with another currently cooking. Then he picked up the cooled one to eat, enjoying the meal while he spun the other two cooking ones until he finished the one he was eating and began the cycle again, pulling off the one which had cooked longer to cool even as he skewered another set of meat. He ignored the obvious glances of some of the slaves encamped around him making rather blunt attempts to peer into his tent.

The meal wasn't balanced at all, and Joe actually missed quite a bit of other foods in the process, but the thin layer of cloth surrounding him offered him fantasy that he was simply camping out in the woods and that, more than the meal, offered him comfort. Despite the delicious food and the time of retreat, melancholy hit him hard that night and he found himself listing in bed before finally falling asleep.

* * *

Ilyelanralo was not happy as he listened to what had happened in the woods around his camp. Too many… strange things happening lately… Or to be more precise, he was very unhappy to listen to what he did not know had happened in the woods as the eccentric had easily sped away from his combat slaves guarding the camp. The description of the man's speed left him deeply concerned. Combined with the man's physical combat prowess and ranged capabilities made Ilyelanralo very unhappy. He is no simple man… nor clanner! The eccentric has a much more advanced job than… Ilyelanralo chewed his lips with deep concern and pondered plans half formed and useless. At least for now…. But he is coming… so… patience…

"Take the collar control artifact. He cannot flee the camp. This much we know. He would not have returned otherwise, but I do not like seeing his work around our camp. Do not let him out of your sight."

"Yes, master. And if he continues to work?"

"Watch carefully. I do not understand this insanity, but it is not… There is a meaning to his madness, and I will find it!"

"Yes, master."

* * *

As normal, he woke to the returned torture, his voice roaring out in rough pain even as he found himself unable to resist or fight back, the control and pain of his collar locking him in place. The healer now worked the artifact that immobilized him as the daggerman bent to his torture. That's new… Joe noticed before he retreated, finding solace in memory and thought than in the reality of his pain and body. Pain faded rather quickly to something barely manageable, the shock of waking to a finger being sliced off more powerful now than the pain of it.

After his fingers were regrown and the two men left, Joe came out of his faux sleep to take his fingers and regrow his legs before returning to his own katas, practicing hard and fast until exhaustion wiped him out. Despite his fatigue, he practiced one time to recreate his infusion with some success before he collapsed into bed asleep. Waking the next morning, he almost walked out of his tent before panic set in and he scrambled back in with surprise and angry frustration directed against himself. Dumb dumb dumb dumb! If they came back in the night! Or early this morning?!

Joe brought out his axe and immediately lopped off his legs, grunting hard to hide his pain before quickly sucking the legs into his inventory. He then rolled around on his bed of cloaks and stifled his moans as the pain dulled. It took almost ten minutes to recover before heading out, the stumps somehow much more sensitive now, even with the poor wooden clogs working as pseudo prosthetics. Still, he was able to make it to muster in enough time. Things continued as normal and when things were over, Joe did not immediately head out into the woods.

Instead, he went home and completely rebuilt his prosthetics, making a new pair specifically for forest traversal. They were essentially identical but included a bit more height to them, returning him to about three quarters the height he'd lost. It did leave him a bit on stilt like prosthetics, but the feel felt more natural to him. He also carved the bottom of the prosthetic with fat deep spikes, much like cleats, to give him a bit of grip upon the forest floor. It did mean that Joe wasn't going to be able to reach down and pick anything up off the ground, the height of it making it almost impossible for him to bend over to pick things up. He would topple over forward if he tried to, and he wasn't able to get the attachment needed to tie them to his thighs well enough so that he could essentially bend far enough to reach the ground. If he tried, his prosthetics would be at such an extreme angle to the ground that it would make it look like he was pretty much sitting or squatting to reach down between his legs. The latter would simply cause the prosthetics to rip off from his legs.

Still, it would make movement through heavy terrain much easier. He didn't wear them, putting them in his inventory instead. Swap out in the forest… don't want to show them off too much. He came out of his tent and immediately marched out into the woods, the guards following immediately after him. Joe didn't try to race away instantly, leading them out as he had before, pulling up strange objects and collecting useless things.

However, when he'd gotten further out into the woods, the guards got more and more jumpy. Joe noticed it and replied in kind, growing more and more nervous and concerned until he finally decided to take off a bit earlier than he'd planned. Let's do this… He sat on the ground and closed his eyes, focusing on trying to recreate the mana construct but less than a few seconds later, one of the guards shouted loudly, obviously at him, and tossed a small stick directly in his face. Joe opened his eyes with a growl, staring at the men, and even though they were obviously a bit nervous of them, the stood rather firmly. His stare lasted for a few moments as the guards fidgeted before he closed his eyes and began again. The response was even quicker and more extreme, and Joe snapped open his eyes in anger. The two guards took a step back before firming themselves and staring back. Why? Oh…

Realization hit and he had to fight to hide his grimace. They don't want me running off again… and that means… they know I need to meditate to flip off into the woods… but… Joe pursed his lips and dropped his head back with a thunk, staring up at the leaves far above. Well… then… It took much longer this time, Joe struggling to visualize while his eyes were opened, which added another good thing to practice to his list.

When he was interrupted yet once again, Joe grimaced and then had an idea. Hiding a grin, he turned over and began crawling on all fours, turning his head side to side to scan the floor. He did this for a few moments until he simply closed his eyes and turned all his focus upon recreating the infusion mana construct. He tried to continue his crawl across the floor, moving randomly even as he kept his head swinging back and forth. It was so much more difficult, but he didn't need it for long, so allowed a bit more intent to slip into his efforts to ease the creation process, before enacting the infusion and grinning with happiness when the construct formed and worked very well. That grin quickly vanished when he noticed how much more time he took and he saw his MP dropping much more rapidly. Too much intent and not enough skill… Still, it would be enough to get away and do what he needed to do for today. Only need to go to that one site … then I'll be done for today…

He then stood up and began walking again, wandering while searching the ground. He brushed close by a tree before latching on to it with his arms then launching himself away with his thigh stumps. He flew through the air, rapidly escaping the slave guards, landing against the tree he'd aimed for and bent down to launch again in another direction. He made it three tree jumps before pain ripped through his body. He was able to resist it, though, gritting his teeth hard and focusing on his next leap. The jump had twisted him off course just slightly and he would just miss the tree he'd aimed for unless he could get a grip on it with his hands. He'd had misses like this before and easily recovered from them, his bonus system strength and dexterity making it almost laughably easy. However, he found his body locked, the pain only a minor inconvenience and one easily ignored compared to the muscle lock paralysis that kept him trapped and unable to move. It was almost like a full body cramp, every muscle in his body tensed and wrenching against one another so tightly that it even interrupted his breathing, his diaphragm knotted into uselessness, unmoving.

Joe struggled, everything in his body fighting to move himself but only allowing his limbs to inch along, snail-like in their speed and fish-on-land like in their jolting uncontrolled shuddering. He barely got a single arm in place to grasp the tree and that proved rather useless, his hand catching the tree trunk and simply causing him to spin off it like a crazed top. He hit the forest floor and tumbled along it like a wild broken gyroscope spinning down. His system stats flared wildly at that, his entire focus slowing and entering a steep time dilation as he put everything into saving himself.

He spun wildly but ever so slowly through the air, and Joe began rapidly constructing a map of his position and where he would likely fall even as his surroundings seemed to dim. It took only a single spin to get most of it down and mentally reconstructed and another couple more before he was certain of everything's placement. The adrenaline spike and fear over the outcome had him rapidly seeking information but when he began assessing options and solutions, he grew shocked to realize that he hadn't even arrived at half his trajectory. Time had slowed so wildly that he could leisurely evaluate everything. The forest around him shifted in darkened shadows and dim lighting as tension continued to ratchet up as he came closer and closer to hitting the ground.

When he finally did, he felt relief more than anything else. The hit was done, and now his mind raced to evaluate his damage, but even as he did so, he was shocked to find almost nothing. Only a small scratch dead center down a growing bruise along his right shoulder where he'd fallen with his full body weight upon that shoulder against a pointed rock, although not exactly sharp. That simply tilted him and shifted his movement slightly to slam into the ground before spinning wildly back into the air, now in a much higher trajectory, his thighs slamming into the ground with the wild spin his body had and converting much of the spin into launching him high into the sky almost four meters up. His thighs, shockingly, were not hurt at all, from what Joe could see. And before he'd even got a half a meter off the ground, everything was healed.

A quick glance at his HP showed it easily over ninety percent and any fear Joe had quickly settled as he realized he would get out of this pretty much unscathed. Killed my MP with using too much intent… but my HP is still good. It was terrifying, however. The uncontrolled wild spin faster than anything he'd ever experienced screamed at the danger, but he quickly came to realize that his instincts were informed by basic Earth human standards, and he was quickly stepping into ridiculous superhuman standards. His stats, currently, were a good hundred times his previous, putting him at impossible levels. The leap over the clan walls was more than proof of that, and seemed to point to a relatively equal relationship. He wasn't much of a jumper and martial arts didn't put too much focus on the height of leaps, but he was rather certain that his standing vertical was about half a meter. His strength, now a hundred times his previous, put his vertical at around fifty meters, simply going by the stats. His jump over the wall seemed to verify that, although he went up and over the wall as well.

As Joe spun in a slow lazy twirl up into the sky, then hit the peak, and spun lazily back to the ground, Joe allowed his thoughts to ponder the epiphany and he glanced at his stats and considered the ramifications. He hadn't even opened up many jobs at all, and the numbers were staggering, if he was guessing right. There were thousands just amongst the combat jobs, and it appeared that the priest and magical lines had similar as well, especially if there were a dark, black, and holy versions of said lines. Hmm… is there a holy magician? Seems counterintuitive. Maybe… Joe caught a glimpse of very slow movement out of the corner of his eye and dismissed his thoughts, putting them into the incredibly long pile of questions to figure out for later.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the movement of the guards chasing after him and turned his focus towards them. His head turned at an incredibly slow pace, struggling against the paralysis of full body tension. The men were chasing towards him wildly while the one holding the artifact pointed it at him and pressed two of the buttons. Joe stared long and hard at the artifact and memorized the two buttons. Good to know…

He tumbled and the guards shifted out of sight but suddenly the paralysis left him, if not the pain, and Joe was incredibly grateful as he began to get his tumble back under control. Pain had long lost any meaning to him, although there was a burning hatred and visceral rejection of it that Joe realized left him a bit unhinged. Revenge and hatred burned deep within him, sparking in furious friction against memories of his family and Earth. There was no peace in this place, he'd long learned, just as there was no peace within, and he warred within himself. And as he stared at the two guards racing towards him, rage flared wildly and beat violently against a will that rejected violence rooted in hatred and rage.

He closed his eyes and breathed deep, calming himself several times before he finally opened his eyes and could look at them without burning eyes of hate. His blank face stared at them for a time while he twisted through space, tumbling through an upside down cartwheel facing the two guards before he turned to controlling his fall. Twisting, flaring his limbs, and then tucking in tight, Joe controlled his tumble until he slammed to the ground, hard, on his thigh stumps. Unable to cushion his fall by compressing his knees, he took the fall with a backwards tumble, rolling once across his back and over his shoulders before climbing back to standing upright as best he could on his thigh stumps.

"Seriously! What were you thinking, you stupid pissant?! Do you not even understand how dangerous…"

* * *

He watched with shock turned awe as the eccentric grabbed the tree and seemed to disappear, violently flying away. He'd never seen a power move before, and a power equal to most eccentrics' were rare. Incredibly rare. Still, the stink of foreign mana wafted off the eccentric, something that always bothered him; foreign mana. He was a deviant. He knew that. Most people did not care for any form of mana, one way or another. But some, such as him, were bound to the mana of the plane they existed upon. Luckily, his binding was only ephemeral and related to a personal dislike of foreign mana. Even rarer were those would could not abide foreign mana, making travel to foreign planes impossible. For him, he could travel there, if he could abide the stench.

Still, it was surprising how long this eccentric had stayed an eccentric. From what he understood, the eccentric had been on the plane for quite some time. The eccentric's mana should have long assimilated to the planes, but the stench that rolled off the eccentric was still as strong as the first day the eccentric arrived at the camp.

Seeing the eccentric's power, however, taught him to keep such dislikes to himself. And if such power exists… would the simple smell of foreign mana be enough to leave me trapped? His thoughts worried through this new realization and he began to seriously reconsider his natural inclination to travel the planes. It took strength, immense strength, to travel to other planes and now he wondered.

Even before he was able to raise the eccentric's control artifact and look at it to figure out which button to press, the eccentric had already bounced off several trees and then disappeared further into the forest.

"Hurry, god fodder! Press the button!"

"I'm trying! He's way too fast…"

"I don't want to have to chase after him too far! Push…"

"Shut up! I'm getting…" the man floundered for a bit before finally pressing the two buttons to instantly suppress any slave; incapacitation and pain, "… there! He's not moving anymo…"

The two men trailed off as they heard a loud thundering thump of a tree being hit then a booming crash of the ground being punched by a monstrous strength. The two loud crashes almost brought the two men to a halt, but they pressed on after they slowed and stared at each other in wonder and no little concern. They feared what they would find and they feared repercussions from the slave master if any damage would come to the slave eccentric. But when they ran around the last tree and caught sight of the man, they slowed in shock to see the man tumbling high in the air, spinning wildly. The eccentric caught sight of them and slowly turned his head towards them. And the guard with the control artifact shivered in fear. I'm pressing two buttons… both buttons! He should be… But the man moved.

Fear swelled and his thumb slipped, pressing harder on the pain. It did nothing. As soon as the incapacitation was released, the eccentric whipped his body in the air in complicated twists, curls, and flares before he landed on the ground easily, both leg stumps taking his fall with grace even as he fell back, slipping back and around before standing again after the roll backwards.

He meant to do that… that… The guards mind stuttered, unable to comprehend even as the eccentric marched towards them and began screaming at them in a wild rage. Anger ready and obvious. The guards had slowed when they caught sight of him but then immediately stopped at seeing the man's expertise in landing once again.

"Push the buttons?!"

The guard with the artifact replied with terror, "I am! I am! Nothings…"

The guard next to him punched him, cutting him off, "You aren't… push the buttons!"

"I'm pressing the pain as hard as I can! He's not…"

"Incapacitate then!"

"He moved while incapacitated! That's…" the guard trailed off and brought his other hand up before jamming down on the incapacitation button hard as well.

Relief flooded them as the eccentric's march towards them stopped, then fear came again as the eccentric pushed through, rage spiking and anger driving his anger. His words lost their smooth flow, coming now as short staccato bursts of single syllables and the march turned to a desperate crawl against an oncoming current as the eccentric continued marching towards them, screaming at them.

The two guards took a step back, then another, but the eccentric, despite his incapacitation, was able to close in on them, albeit incredibly slowly. Fear burst out like wild fire and the two guards even turned to flee when the eccentric stopped and began berating them with anger. Both guards paused, then watched on with stunned fear and no little awe as the man lectured them for a good bell or so.

By about half way through, one leaned to the other and asked softly, "Know what he is saying?"

"No clue. But… I'm not going to move!"

The other nodded in agreement as shallowly as possible, not wanting to irritate the eccentric any more. The two took the man's angry tirade like quivering kids before their master. It wasn't pleasant, but they could only feel relief when the man ended it and simply turned away, no harm or pain accentuating the lesson they did not understand.

* * *

Joe's anger flooded through him as he raged against the two men and their stupid dangerous actions, fueled by a general rage at his own impotence. His rage took a sudden cooling when one of the men asked with a soft aside to the other over something and the other replied with his own whisper that realization returned. Joe struggled to find what to do but then decided to simply lean into it. He was supposed to be insane, so began to berate them in honesty instead of anger, his rage cooling allowing him control once again. He continued his berating a little longer to allow himself to plan a bit. Once coming up with some options, he ended it and turned away, leading them on into the forest. Please… please…

The guards stayed behind him, staring at him, but Joe kept moving, and this time with purpose and speed but not so obvious as to seem like he was attempting to escape. The men stared for a time then cursed and scrambled after him. They moved through the forest quickly and Joe quickly came to another problem: his axe was in his inventory. His thoughts ran wildly through possibilities before he realized he was going to have to a take a slight detour. He grumbled, but made the change subtly until he came to a pile of his logs he'd cut down yesterday.

Jumping ahead of the guards just a bit, Joe reached down and around the logs out of sight from the guards before he pulled his axe from inventory. It popped into his hand with the head nestled in his palm and he grimaced. He let the axe head slide from his palm to the ground pulling the handle on through his hand. Clenching his fist, he caught it in a grip then pulled it out and played with it ostentatiously, making it obvious he had it. The guards' gasp let him know they noticed so he turned away and dropped it over his shoulder, hooking the axe head against his shoulder so it rested there.

He spent some time pretending to care about the pile of logs, looking them over before nodding in satisfaction and heading on the way to the next location. He had no real location in mind, just wherever there was a convenient clearing and a decent group of wide trunked trees. He came upon the next likely location and looked it over before grinning and beginning his work.

He chose a smaller pile this time, felling only six before delimbing them. Since he wasn't trying to run away, he allowed himself to fall into his system stats, reving up his perception of time and the overall strength and capabilities of his body. The trees fell rapidly around the pair of guards, their movement molasses slow as the seemed to be trapped in honey, head swiveling slowly and body moving with increasing agitation. Joe didn't want to push them too hard, so stopped to rest against the small pile of logs he'd started, just four piled on top of each other. He looked over at them, mumbling and lost in his 'insanity' before returning to his work, emptying the last of the tree trunks of limbs and piling it up into a pyramid of six, three logs tall.

He then slowed his speed, frustrated that he had to but not wishing to push the guards. He also needed to play the farce and it wouldn't be useful unless the guards could see him doing it, so he had to slow down. He fumbled with the pile of logs as he looked it over for some imaginary purpose then nodded as if in satisfaction before standing and marching off into the woods again, axe over his shoulder and ready for the next location.

This continued for the rest of the day, Joe not allowing the guards any rest as he pushed himself from location to location until he'd cut and piled logs up into semi-neat piles of six or ten logs, three or four layers tall. And at each, he made sure to secure the log piles so that they would not tumble or slip, bracing each pile with thick heavy stakes made from the limbs of the trees punched into the ground to hold the sides of the pyramid. The logs would remain. And at each site, just as he did yesterday, the largest radius trunks were always on the bottom layer. He had to work hard to close the gaps between the trunks, making the pile tight and close together. But also, his frustration grew ever more as he found the day wasted, his true task stymied by the presence of the two guards.

By the end of the day, Joe had another dozen or so sites all ringing the slave camp in a rough circle. And when Joe felt satisficed, the sun falling heavy on the horizon bleeding shadows into the surroundings, Joe finished up the last site of logs. He couldn't push on much further as he quickly noticed the agitation of the guards. One interesting side effect he'd noticed, however, was that while he was with the guards, the collar seemed perfectly happy to leave him be. There was no increasing itchy demand to return to camp, just a contented quiescence that hummed happily in the background.

Joe found that incredibly interesting and overwhelmingly terrifying. The collar either networked with the other collars, which seemed possible, but for some reason Joe wasn't able to put a finger, Joe didn't think was likely. Or the collar was somehow aware of its surroundings and could even evaluate his position and relation to the others to ascertain his right to be where he was, doing what he was. The latter seemed most likely because of his meeting with Ransfernal, the slave that had given him his warning and advice for how to escape his predicament. Rasnfernal's collar hadn't reacted to his, or any other slave in the city as the man continued his never ending journey to ultimately maintain his faux freedom. But he was only able to do so because his master's command allowed for way too much freedom in interpreting it.

Grim with that realization, Joe rapidly finished the last pile of logs, limbing them all first before he began to pile them up. Carrying them while holding his axe was a pain, but he managed and as he piled up the logs, he kept an eye on the guards. By then, they'd grown quite bored of watching him work and Joe took advantage of that to suck his axe into his inventory out of their sight while he piled up the logs. He hoped the guards would assume he'd secreted it in the pile of logs somewhere and his hopes proved true when they noticed he no longer had his axe. He turned away, heading towards the camp, easily felt by the general satisfaction the collar felt when he settled on the idea of returning. Any direction not towards the camp left him feeling an itchy discomfort.

He slowed and meandered back to camp, now moving at a slow lazy pace as he inspected every piece of wood and stone on the way back. He took the time while bent over looking at the ground to glance behind him and grinned to see the guards scrambling over the pile of wood looking for his axe. By the time they were willing to give up, he'd almost wandered out of sight and the guards scrambled to catch up, angry but quiet as they walked behind him.

The trip back was quite long, but Joe didn't even notice it, losing himself in his plans, desperate to find a better way but finding himself fearing there really was none. He could only hope this would work. And… I'll have to finish tonight…

That night, he returned home and settled into his tent, once again ignoring supper and eating some strips of meat skewered on a kebab for the evening. He really didn't have much to do, but his agitation wouldn't allow him to rest until he was prepared. Maybe after I've gotten everything done, I can relax enough to return to the usual camp life… no! That... I have to… probably already suspicious. Growling softly at that realization, he made the decision to return to his regular activities tomorrow, partly because it was wise but also because after tonight, he had no other real options left. He'd done all he could.

And his mind whirled with impossible options and wishes as he carved a delicate needle about as long as his finger out of the hardest would he could find. He then polished it carefully, sanding it as best he could with whatever materials he had available. He couldn't allow any splinters. He desperately hoped for no splinters at all, and his fingers turned a bit bloody as he rubbed and rubbed and rubbed the thin needle, sanding it to a soft smoothness.

And late that night, Joe slipped out into the forest one last time, hidden in shadow and stealth, before heading to one of his largest wood piles. It was hard to work in silence, but he did so, and the camp was soon prepared. This wasn't anything that would help him escape, but it did give him a deep satisfaction and hope. As for what could free him, he had a desperate dream and a hopeful plan. It was a true, if slightly insane, hope he hadn't felt in a long time. Rage fueled by hope, a true hope, is a powerful thing. Forest… done. Tomorrow... Joe didn't let the thought complete, but his eyes flickered over to and wandered across the slave master's home for a few moments before he ripped them away. Soon… soon… don't give it away…