Reni was in shock when her heard Odette's plan. Though he didn't like the circumstances, he really did hope that he would be given the chance to at least help raise his newborn daughter. But it seemed like Odette was more than willing to sell their own child into slavery. And that just didn't quite set right with him at all.
"Why don't you just let her grow up like the rest of the nobles children? " Reni asked cautiously.
"Because it my decision. Not yours." She said sternly.
"But that's just not fair! Especially not to her. Are you really going to just sell off you daughter to make a couple of livre? Why not just sell me instead? She deserves a better life than this. " Reni said to the lioness.
"Who. In the hell. Do you think your talking to?" Odette growled as her hand begins to wrap around Reni's neck.
"I don't care what you think. All I care about is you doing what your told and not getting in my way. Understand?" She asked as her grip tightened around Reni's throat.
"Y...Yes. I...I understand." he whimpered.
Odette then slammed his body across the room leaving a small yet noticeable trail of blood from the violent impact.
"Now get the fuck out of my room." She growled.
Reni hastily stumbled out of the room into the hallway. He was used to Odette's violent spirts over the years, but for some reason this one was different. She drew blood. Still a little uneasy from the situation and with a mild concussion Reni stumbled down the hallway to his room and laid in his bed.
"Why did I think Odette would listen to me." He thought to himself.
He already knew the answer. Slaves don't have any say so whatsoever when it came to making decisions in terms of how they raise their children. But for some reason he felt there was a little bit more to the situation than that. Afterall, over the last few years, Odette had been selling of the field slaves and the house slaves which was very unusual. And yet she would rather sell their own child instead of him. It just didn't seem right to him. He knew he was treated better than the other slaves that came and went over the years. After all, they would say that it was odd for him to be treated like a regular person even as a houseslave. He had his own room. He could eat whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. And as long as he had a guardsman with him he could also go into town to take care of whatever tasks he need to. Those things alone were just enough to make the other slaves jealous towards him. Which explains why he could never could befriend any of them. He would have been completely alone if it wasn't for Guillaume.
Suddenly Reni heard a knock on his door.
"Come in." He said.
The door slowly open to reveal Guillaume carrying a bag of what seem ed to be candy.
"Hey Reni! I was in town and I saw this new candy store just opened up and the had your favorite candy in stock. Well. Kind of. It's your favorite flavor but its a foreign candy from Yaken. It's pretty good." The large bovine said to the quiet hyena.
"Thanks." Reni said quietly.
Guillaume was a bit taken aback by his response. Usually Reni would be excited to try out new candy. As he looked for a place to sit down he noticed a pungent yet faint metallic smell coming from Reni.
"Reni?" Guillaume asked.
"Yes?" He replied.
"Why are you bleeding?" Guillaume asked cautiously.
"I don't know what your talking about." Reni replied anxiously.
"Yes. You do." Guillaume said plainly.
"I just had an accident. It's nothing to be worried about." He assured him.
"Let me take a look." Guillaume said as walked to Reni's bed. As he tried to get a better look at him he noticed a small trail of blood coming from his pillow.
"What the hell happen to you?" Guillaume asked
"I told you. It was an accident."
"You said that part already. It doesn't answer my question." Guillaume said firmly.
"I fell. Besides, how did you know I was bleeding."
"I've caught you cutting yourself to many times to not know what blood smells like." Guillaume said crossly.
"Of course."
"So. Are you going to tell me the truth or not?" Guillaume asked with a stern expression on his face.
"It was Odette." He mumbled.
The news of Odette shifted the bovines facial expression from stern to frustrated. Not only was he furious that Odette hurt Reni again. He was more furious at himself that he once again failed to protect him from her.
"Come on. I'm taking you to the hospital." Guillaume said taking the covers of Reni's bed.
"You don't need to do that. It will get better in the morning." He assured him. And failed to do so miserably.
"Get up. Now." He huffed.
"Fine." Reni said as he slowly got out of bed, only to loose his balance. Guillaume seeing that he could now barely walk decoded to pick up the dainty hyena and made their way into town.
The estate wasn't too far away from the hospital. It was about a kilometer or two away so they should make it in about a hour or two. If Guillaume could keep up his pace. Bovines like him aren't really know for their speed but their strength. But for today he was going to have to change that. He noticed that Reni was passed out on his back a few minutes after they left the estate. Guillaume was no doctor, but even he knew passing out with a head injure like that was anything but good.
"'Excuse me. Your Guillaume, Right?" A somewhat familiar voice asked behind him.
Guillaume turned around and saw a Spider drawn carriage being driven by an elderly lion.
"Mr. La Croix?" Guillaume asked in confusion.
"The one and only I'm afraid. I see that were both headed into town. Would you like a ride?" The old lion asked kindly.
"Absolutely!" Guillaume said as he and Reni boarded the carriage.
"I guess Reni was exhausted from the walk?" Alban asked the tired bovine.
"Not... exactly." Guillaume said.
"Oh?" Alban asked.
"We were on our way to the hospital to get his head looked at." Guillaume said as he showed Reni's wound to the old man.
Alban was taken aback.
"Why, what happened?" He asked with concern.
"All I know is your daughter cracked his head open sir. And I have no idea as to why." Guillaume said frankly.
Alban stared at Reni in silence for a moment.
"Let's get him to the hospital as soon as possible." Alban said as they made their way into town.
"Guillaume?" The lion muttered.
"Yes, sir?" He replied.
"Do you know if Reni would be better off as a freed slave?" He asked sincerely.
"What kind of fucking question is that? Would he better off not being raped and beaten by a fucking psychopath on an almost routine basis? Of fucking course, I think he'd be better off away from that fucking hell hole. Shit. He's the only reason why I still work for that bitch you call a daughter." He said lividly.
"...I just wanted to be sure. It's nice to know that I wasn't the only one having the same thoughts." He added to the conversation
"Reni's a kind soul. What did you and your wife even do to Odette to make her that fucked up in the head anyways?" Guillaume asked.
"We didn't do anything. That's part of the problem." He said shamefully.
"So she just became a psycho out of the blue?"
"No. That was something we all can thank her grandparents for." He said with a hint of bitterness.
"I don't understand." Guillaume said.
"Her mother and I were never really around much when she was growing up. We were busy trying to carry on Sorne's work. Lobbying governments, and setting up escape networks. The whole show."
"Who's Sorne?" Guillaume asked.
"Reni's mother. She was a well known abolitionist who moved here from Yaken." Alban explained.
"...are you sure?" He asked
"Of course I'm sure. I owed her my life after I got caught messing around with Joceline and got her pregnant. Her parents really wanted to lynch the hell out of me for it too. Good times." Alban said quite fondly.
"That raises more questions than it answers." Guillaume said as he stared at the lion confused.
"Well. What did you wan to know?" He asked.
"How did you mange to get out of that?"
"Sorne and Joceline helped me escape the estate and kept me hidden from the search parties for a few weeks. After they gave up looking for me Joceline had already been given control of the estate and was able to file the paperwork needed to set me free. " He said causally.
"Sounds like every thing worked out for you then." Guillaume responded.
"Somewhat. There were times her mother would try to cut off my ... parts when she thought she had a chance." Alban recalled fondly.
"Ah. I see where the psycho part comes from." Guillaume said understanding the family's dynamic.
"Pretty much." Alban concluded.
"But what happen to Sorne? And wasn't she free? How did Reni end up becoming a slave then?" Guillaume asked.
The cart suddenly came to a stop.
"Looks like we're here." Alban said the the confused cow.
"When did..."
"I guess time just fly's right on by when you with good company." Alban said as he gave Guillaume a pat on his back.
"Huh. I guess so." Guillaume concluded.
"Your a good man Guillaume. And I know that you and Reni are ... close. So I know that I can trust you when I say that you and I are going to figure something out." Alban assured him.
"I just hope by the time we do, it won't be too late." Guillaume said with a hint of worry in his voice as he carried Reni out of the carriage.
"I'm pretty sure your boyfriend is a lot tougher than he looks. But it is getting late and I do need to check in on Odette so I will most likely see you both at the estate in a few." He said as the carriage begin heading back to the estate.
"Hey Wait a Minute!" Guillaume yelled.
Suddenly a nurse approaches Guillaume with a stern look on her face.
"Sir, can you please keep it down, we have patients who are trying to get some sleep."
Guillaume looked at her with a sheepish look on his face.
"Sorry ma'am. But my friend here hit his head real bad and he needs to be looked at." He replied.
The nurse notices the wound on Reni and proceeds to take a closer look.
"How long has he been passed out like this." She asked frantically.
"About an hour or two. Is something wrong?" Guillaume asked with a slight panic in his voice.
"Get inside and go to the third floor, room 1B. Myself and the doctor will be in shortly." She said as she ran inside with Guillaume following suit.
Reni had been knocked around a few times, but never had he felt like this before. It was as if he was simultaneously hot and cold. And the ringing in his ears made trying to sleep impossible. But be that as it may, he still couldn't seem to open them for some reason.
"Diastatic fracture on twenty four year old female hyaenidae..." He heard a unfamiliar female voice say.
"Um.. ma'am. I believe the patient is a male." He heard another unfamiliar male voice timidly respond to the female voice.
"Reality is almost always wrong." The female voice responded with a hint of irritation.
"Reni is a guy." The voice that sounded like Guillaume told the female voice.
"...I was wrong." The female voice said plainly.
Reni suddenly felt a sharp pain in his arm followed by the sensation of something being wrapped around it.
"Administer the vile of Propofol to the patent at approximately 40 milligrams every 10 seconds until onset of induction. Afterwards lower the dosage to 20 milligrams every 10 seconds and have one of the nurses check in every 2 hours to record the patients vitals." The female voice said with a tone of authority.
"Yes ma'am!" The male voice replied.
"Is he going to be okay?" Guillaume asked with worry.
"So far he shouldn't be able to feel anything once the drug as kick in. We gave him a very strong drug that serves as both a anesthetic and sedative just to make sure he won't feel any pain during the operation." She explained to Guillaume.
Guillaume was confused by the doctors statement.
"Surgery? I thought he had just needed a couple of stitches and he would be good to go in a few hours." He said in disbelief.
"With his injuries? Absolutely not We we're lucky that he was still somewhat conscious with decent vitals with the amount of blood he lost. " She tried to explain to the bovine who was clearly becoming more distraught with more details coming to his attention.
"I knew it was bad. But not that bad. If only I could have gotten him here sooner..." He contemplated.
"You did what you could. Now it's up to us to get your friend here in better shape than he came here in." She said to once again reassure him.
"How long do you think it will take for him to recover?" He asked as he looked at Reni slowly breathing in the bed.
"A few weeks if we're lucky. A few months if we're not." She said frankly. She never liked to give her patients friends and family false hope.
"So what do I do now?" He asked still looking at Reni.
"Just go home and try to get some rest. In the meantime were going to get him to surgery in about thirty minutes to take care of that crack and any other trauma that we find." She told him.
"I'll try ma'am" He muttered under his breath.
"Oh and one more thing I've been meaning to ask you?" She asked cautiously.
"Yes?" Guillaume Responded.
"Do you happen to know what happened to the patient. Did he get into a fight or something? We need to document the cause of the patients injuries regardless on if their a slave or not." She added.
"His master did this to him. And before you ask. I have no idea why." He said
"I see..." She said as she turned her attention back to Reni as Guillaume headed of to the estate.
The following afternoon Guillaume was surprised to see Reni conscious and doing well.
"Hey! Glad to see you doing better Reni! " Guillaume said as he made his way to Reni's bed.
"Yeah. The doctor said that I had a bad fracture and that I was really lucky that you got me here when you did. Otherwise I would have been serious trouble. Thanks for that by the way." Reni said sheepishly.
"Don't worry about it Reni. I'm just glad that your ok, that's all." Guillaume assured him.
"That reminds me. I've been meaning to ask you something Guillaume." Reni said as he looked at his friend.
"Yeah? What is it?" He said confused at Reni's slight change of demeanor.
"It's about Odette and the baby." Reni stated quietly.
"Oh?" This peaked his interest.
""I don't... don't want Odette to have her." Reni said calmly.
"Well no shit. She's a psychopath. I mean, look at what she's done to you. She literally busted your head wide open for no reason." Guillaume exclaimed.
"I don't think is was for no reason..." Reni trailed off before being interrupted.
"That the problem Reni. There is no reason for her to do that to you. So yeah, I can understand your concern about what she would do with the baby." Guillaume explained.
"She said that she was going to most likely sell her if she had a aptitude for magic like me. If she didn't she would just raise her as her own."
"But what about you?" Guillaume asked.
"What do you mean?" Reni asked confused at the question.
"What happens to you if she sell's her or raises her as her child. I figured she would at least set you free. Given the whole situation and the legal stuff." Guillaume asked.
"I don't know. I didn't really ask her." Reni said full of concern.
Guillaume took Reni's hand and stared in his eyes with an unusual sense devotion.
"We'll figure something out Reni. We'll figure something out."