The Non-Human Society

Chapter One Hundred and Ninety One - Renn - A Gentle Truth

      Reatti had arrived this morning. Right as the sun was rising, when the world was still more dark than light.

She had shown up not alone... yet not with Vim, or anyone I had known.

Turns out, no one had known the stranger.

"It's Wool," Fly said softly.

"Wool?" I perked up a little, to stare around the corner of the church building. Fly and I were hiding behind it, the both of us staring at the small crowd near the house. They'd been talking for awhile, but the crowd was now smaller. And not just because of those who had left the small group to go about their day.

Not everyone had gone up to greet Reatti and... the other woman. But that wasn't because they didn't care for her, or weren't happy to see her. There were still several people sleeping inside the church, which for some reason no one was willing to wake them up yet. Which wasn't too surprising, since the sunrise was still happening. It was morning, but early morning. Too early to be this noisy, even for our kind. We were being so noisy, the birds nested on the roof of the church were chipping loudly in complaint.

What I really noted from such a thing though was... well...

The others weren't like me. They weren't afraid to meet Reatti.

I had hid, like a coward.

Though, oddly, so had Fly... though obviously, for different reasons.

Fly nodded quickly, her feathers brushing against me as she did. She was in front of me, but I was leaning forward and over her a little as to look with her. "She lived in the sewers like I did... but I've never really spent time with her. She was always with others, and deeper below. I've never had a problem with her, but I didn't like the one who owned her," Fly said.

"Owned her...?" I asked softly.

Fly nodded and leaned back a little, which made me have to step back too. We couldn't see Reatti or the crowd anymore as Fly glanced around as if to make sure no one was listening. "She was owned by Ortho. A huge man with a flat face and claws. He was cruel, he killed for fun," Fly said.

"So not someone who we'd let join us," I said stiffly.

"I'm not sure about Wool. She was his, but that doesn't mean she was mean too. I never knew her well... I don't think I've spoken to her more than a few times," Fly said as she stepped back to the corner and peered around it.

I sighed, and wondered how and what happened. For Reatti to bring her here then surely that meant Vim had allowed it... but...

"She usually was hurt, though. She might be okay," Fly said lightly.

Right. Owned. She had meant that word literally.

That Ortho had owned her, like a slave. Like an item, not a person.

Humans did the same... just like with Lamp and her people... So it wasn't really that big of a shock that our kind did the same thing. Especially when one took into account our people's abilities and strengths.

For instance if Vim wanted to... well... force himself of anyone in the Society, I doubted anyone could stop him. If others who were stronger than most desired or wanted to be cruel in such a way there was little those weaker, like Fly, could do to stop them.

I gulped at the thought of my own family. Although they had not outright declared one another as slaves or property... well...

It was the same thing. The same cruelty.

The same evil, just by a different name.

"Are we hiding from Reatti or the sheep?"

Fly and I both jumped at the new voice. We spun, and were greeted by Liina's odd smirk as she leaned out of one of the Church's windows.