Chapter 52: 052 An Odd Lunch

“At least they didn't try to kill us for defying them.” One of the cat women whispered when we were back in the assigned room at the large house.

“I wouldn't have allowed that.” I said and looked at the young wolf on the bed. She was curled up into a ball, completely naked, and her tail was wrapped around to keep herself warm. I went over and put a blanket over her.

“Thank you for what you said to my parents.” My favorite said.

“Even though I wasn't supposed to speak?” I asked, teasingly.

She let out a chuckle and hugged me briefly. “You were right to not listen to my request.”

“There was no way I was going to let you be arrested and...” I heard them hiss slightly at the English word. I guess arrested doesn't translate. I thought. “...I mean, held against your will and separate from your people.”

“Yes, it is... a horrible fate for...” She stopped talking with a gasp. “Savior! You must help them!”

“Help... oh, damn. I didn't think...” I looked at my armor. “I'll have to reveal my hands to cast the spell.”

“We can swear them to secrecy or just hold them facing the other way to make sure they don't see.” One of the others said. “Princess, can we get in there, somehow?”

“I don't know.” My favorite said. “Nothing like this has ever happened before.”

“Then lets go there, wherever it is.” I said and they turned to look at me. “Unless you want to talk to the Clan Leader again and ask for permission.”

They all let out low hisses and shook their heads.

“Let's go.” My favorite said and we left the room.

It took us nearly twenty minutes to run through the town, out the south side, and to the place where the others were being kept. When we got there, I saw that it was pretty close to being like a prison on my world. It had twenty foot tall walls with barbs and spikes on the top instead of barbed wire, guards patrolling around, and a compound inside.

To my surprise, every single person inside was female. There were also nearly two hundred of them. “How in the world are they feeding themselves?” I asked.

“Farms on the other side.” My favorite said. “I've toured it many times and offered support to increase the yield. Unfortunately, there is only so much land inside.”

“They should be breaking for lunch soon, so they should all be back in the main compound.” One of the others said.

“Is it a heavy labour camp?” I asked as we walked over to the main entrance.

“They work for their food, make their own clothes, tend animals, and cook.” My favorite said. “It's everything they could have done in the clan normally, it's just... the level of their lives is...”

“I understand.” I said and two guards at the gate came to attention.

“You do not have permission to be here.” One of them said.

“Am I not the First Princess?” My favorite asked. “You heard my declaration earlier.”

“You were captured and...” He started to say and then both guards stiffened at the sight of her tail as it swished angrily behind her.

“You will open this gate and admit us.” My favorite ordered in her best command voice. It worked. The guard gave her a weird salute that looked like he was pretending to claw at his forehead, then he turned around and opened the gate. Behind it was a long walkway with iron bars on both sides. My favorite led the way, with her three decoys behind her, and I and the Freemartin walked behind them.

As we walked, the cat women on the other sides of the bars saw us. The cat women with me were still dressed in their leather armor and expensive cloaks and face coverings.

That's when I noticed the difference.

It wasn't the expensive clothing compared to homemade. No. It was because none of the prisoners wore face coverings. All of their faces were exposed and that alone would beat down their spirit, since leaving their faces exposed in public was such a taboo. None of them had tails, either.

An old fashioned metal bell rang as a bunch of people returned from working in the fields, then to my surprise, one of the buildings on the side opened its doors and I found out that nearly fifty of the two hundred dots inside were children of various ages. A good portion ran over to the opening to the fields and the women bent down or knelt to pick them up.

The rest of the children split up and waited at various other buildings. Those doors opened and even more women came out to greet their children. They all gathered together, sharing conversations and the children they had, and walked to the same building we were heading to in the middle of the compound. The funny thing was, none of them noticed us, except for a single child and all she did was wave.

We entered the main building and stopped at the guard sitting behind a table. His face was covered and he didn't have anything at all on the table. No papers, no food, no anything. It actually made me question why he bothered to sit behind it if it served no purpose.

“State your business and get out.” The guard said.

“That's a little harsh.” I said.

“You shouldn't have gotten by the guards out front.” The guard said. “They will be punished.”

“I am the First Princess and...”

“Once you pass through those doors, you are what I say you are.” The guard said and slowly stood. He was nearly nine feet tall and looked like a hulking brute. I now knew the purpose of the table. It was to hide that a huge giant cat sat behind it.

“At least let me...”

“...and I say you have no business here.” The guard said with a growl.

“How much will it cost to go inside?” I asked and he turned his head to look at me.

“Your little finger.” The guard said and chuckled.

“I'll pay it, if you can wait until we go inside first and I can take my armored gauntlets off.”

Everyone froze at my words.

“What? It's just a finger.” I said. “I can grow it back.”

“Is he serious?” The guard asked the princess.

“Are you?” She asked back.

The guard stood there and didn't say anything for a minute. “Ten gold coi...” He stopped talking when they magically appeared on the table in front of him. He took a step back and looked at us. “How did you do that?”

“It's a magic trick.” I said and he let out a low growl. “I'm serious. I do it to amuse children.” I said and slapped my hand on the table and made the coins disappear, then spread them out, then made a stack. Everyone was deathly silent, I assumed because they hadn't seen anything like that before. I had done different magic tricks for the wolf cubs.

“You may enter.” The guard said.

“Thanks, big guy.” I said and made the stack of coins disappear.

The guard let out a growl and I laughed.

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“Check your pockets.” I said and opened the door to let the others through as the guard quickly dug all ten coins out of different pockets.

There was a smaller room beyond the door and a guard there handed us badges to wear to show that we weren't prisoners, as if we needed them.

“What's to stop us from giving the badges to someone else?” I asked and hung it around my neck.

“If you want to trade places with a prisoner, that's your choice.” The guard said with a shrug. “You can't leave without the badge.”

There were lots of ways I could leave without a badge; but, I kept my mouth shut and went with the cat women and the Freemartin through the door at the other side. We stopped walking, because in front of us were two lines of cat women walking by. Some with children in their arms and others walking beside them. They were also completely silent and all I could hear was breathing and shuffling feet.

“Keep moving.” A guard at the right side of the room said, quite unnecessarily, since the prisoners were moving at a steady pace as the guard on the other end of the room quickly checked them for some reason. I had to assume for contraband of some kind or weapons, which made me smile. Their hands and feet were natural weapons.

We waited for the last of them to pass and joined the line at the end. The one child that had seen us before turned around in her mothers arm and waved at us again. I waved back this time and the child giggled. The mother hissed and the child winced and ducked her head.

“It's all right.” I said.

“QUIET!” The guard behind us yelled and everyone hissed at me, even the cat women with me.

I opened my mouth to apologize and decided that speaking again might not be the best decision. I didn't get any flashes of Divine Sight, either. That meant one of two things. Either nothing I did here was going to cause any change in the circumstances of these people, or their fates were so defined that even if I destroyed the prison to free them, it wouldn't change how they lived their lives.

Once we were at the checking guard, he gave us surprised looks and didn't bother checking us. He waved us through and we were on the other side of the iron bars and walked with everyone towards where the food was being served. Their conversations started up again and the child that had been chastised a moment ago was kissed and apologized to.

“I'm sorry too, momma.” The little girl said and pointed at me. “The metal man waved back!”

“The what?” The cat woman turned and she let out a little startled meow. “Where did you come from?”

“It's a long story.” I said and every single cat woman stopped walking and turned to face me. It was a little unnerving, until I realized that it might be because of my helm that hid my face or that I was completely armored. “Would you all mind it if I joined you for lunch?”

They all stared at me and didn't say anything.

“I can share some meat...” I started to say and every single one of them started to purr and drool, even the children.

“I guess I don't need to come up with a good way to introduce you.” My favorite said and waved me forward. “Everyone, this is Day Man. He apparently has enough meat to share with you.”

“It might take a while to prepare, because it depends on how much you want it cooked.” I said as I walked forward and they parted for me.

“Cooked? You cook meat?!?” One of them asked, shocked.

“Medium rare it is.” I said with a chuckle, remembering that was how the cat women with me preferred it. The food building was only something like a cafeteria with no indoor eating area. Their food and vegetable storage was in the same room, with no special precautions or even a cool dark place to keep them.

“Do you really have meat?” One of the women asked me as I entered the already opened large double doors.

“I need to borrow a large cooking area and some frying pans.”

“Some what?” She asked.

“Um...” I looked around and found something that looked like a skillet. “...three more of these if you have them.”

She let out a hiss and a short meow and the other two workers quickly found three more of them for me. I stored them and paid the silver to clean them, since they looked like they hadn't been used in a long time, and she pointed me to a large cooking area.

I used Fire to light the stove-like thing and the top warmed up right away. I put all four skillets on and let then warm up a bit, then took out some oil and put a bit in each pan. After that, I took out a large wrapped bundle of meat and opened it. The three cat women let out hisses of surprise, then they mewled with pleasure as I put two steaks into each of the skillets and the smell of them cooking filled the cafeteria.

I looked at their vegetables and found something that looked like an onion. I cut into it and nodded, then I grabbed a bunch and quickly chopped them up and added them to the skillets. I flipped the meat over and the smell spread out into the area outside and nearly all of the cat women mewled in pleasure, too.

“Don't mind me. Keep making what you were making.” I said to the three cat women that stood there and stared at me.

“Not on your life.” One of them said. “I'm trying that as soon as it's done... to make sure the meat is good enough to serve.”

I chuckled and nodded at the stacks of wooden plates that were at the side of the room. The three of them grabbed a stack each and brought them over to me. I stored them and made them disappear, which surprised them, then I put a plate down and added a steak and some onions to it. I did that eight times across the counter and then put eight more steaks on and added chopped onions.

“By the Moon's Silver Light.” One of them said as she bit into the steak and blood ran down her chin. “That's so good!” She said and her purr was pretty loud, as were the purrs of the other two cat women.

“It really is.” I said and waved to outside. “First five, come and get it. The next eight in two minutes.” I said and flipped the next set of steaks over.

The first five women came in and looked at the plates and then at me.

“Please eat it with my compliments.” I said and pointed to the cooks. “They've approved it.”

No further coaxing was needed as all five of them grabbed the plates and walked away. A moment later, they let out loud purrs as well.

For the next hour, I worked hard and served everyone the most delicious meat they had ever tasted. I served my little group and myself last and we walked out to the middle of everyone that sat on the ground to eat. We enjoyed the meal as much as they did.

I think this was the best ice breaker I could have had. I thought as all of the cat people's eyes looked at me, especially the mothers. I was pretty sure that was because I had given the kids the same sized steaks at the adults. They had given me a lot of approving looks. It wasn't until one of the guards approached us that their eyes changed from me to him.

He really felt the scrutiny and looked uncomfortable, even with his face covered, until he spoke. “The other guards and I would like to request a serving of meat.” He said and his head turned to look at the cat women around him. “Please.”

“Sure.” I said and stood. “Give me a couple of minutes.”

He stayed there and didn't try to follow me as the cat women stared at him.

I came back over with the plates stacked on top of each other and handed them to him. “There you go.”

“Thank you.” He said and made a hasty and very careful retreat.

“That... was delicious.” One of the prisoners said from nearby.

“Thanks.” I said.

“That's not what she meant.” My favorite said. “That guard was scared.”

“Of us.” Another prisoner said with a feral smile. “We scared him.”

A ripple of very hushed and amused laughter went through them.

Yep, definitely a great ice breaker. I thought and softly laughed, too.

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