Prisoner and escort

Tally sighed. “Give me the collar,” he said.

Mi raised her eyebrows, and Brim made a high-pitched squealing noise that would have been loud enough to hurt Tally’s ears, if it wasn’t just in his head. “Really?” said Mi, surprised. “Well alright, if you say so… hold still, then.”

Mi fastened the leather collar around Tally’s neck, being careful to make it as loose as she could while still looking like it was restricting him. When she was done, she leaned back to take in her handiwork, and suppressed a laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Tally asked, with as much dignity as he could muster.

“Your face…” said Mi, “you just look so… begrudging.”

“Humiliated, more like,” said Brim. “Shh!” Tally snapped at her. Mi looked over to where Tally was looking and didn’t see anyone there.

“Sorry,” Tally said, “Brim was saying something annoying.”

“Oh… so you were being serious then, about there being a ghost with us?”

“Yes, I was” said Tally, “she’s standing right next to you making fun of me as we speak. Well, come on, let’s get going, I don't want to listen to that all day.”

It would look suspicious of Tally was allowed to carry his own gear, so he handed over his sword and his rucksack to Mi, who was easily able to carry all of his stuff- including the new goods from the looters- in one hand. In her other hand, she held the end of the leash. It wasn’t an overly long one, giving Tally an allowance of ten feet at best. It did not stretch either, so Tally had to be careful to stay very close to her to avoid being choked in the neck.

Tally and Mi strolled slowly out of the house and into the daylight, both trying their best not to look suspicious. “Move it, human,” said Mi, and gave the leash a light tug. “Alright, alright, no one can see us yet,” Tally complained, as he hastily got going.

The town had been nearly-abandoned already- but Tally hadn’t noticed how many people were still here until he wished they weren’t. The clinking of his suit of armor seemed so much louder all of a sudden, and he saw faces left and right peering out of their windows. Tally sheepishly lowered his helmet visor to hide his face, so that no one would see how embarrassed he was. The whole time, Brim was prancing around in front of him, teasing him for the compromising situation he had put himself in.

A couple times, Tally and Mi passed by some of Mi’s subordinates, who laughed and scoffed at Tally’s expense. “Nice catch, boss,” one of them said, as she spit a bite of the apple she was eating in Tally’s general direction. Mi nodded curtly and carried on.

Mi wasn’t having a very easy time either. It was surprisingly difficult to keep up this pretense. Every time she passed one of her own goons, she felt this fear that they’d somehow sense her betrayal. But no one did- she was just escorting another captured human, after all! Why would it be suspicious for her to be guarding this wonderful, wonderful man, protecting him from all who would seek to harm him… Mi snapped back to reality to yell rudely at a human man who was trying to cross the street and had gotten in her way.

Eventually, after about half an hour of walking, Mi and Tally came up to the town gates, beyond which lay freedom. After the invasion, the gate had been repurposed as a checkpoint to stop any humans from leaving on their own. There was a guard on it, who nodded respectfully to Mi as she approached. She barely even glanced at Tally.

“Good afternoon, general,” said the guard.

“Open the gate please,” said Mi. “I’m taking this human out for… uh… hunting practice,” she tapped the hilt of her sword.

“Very nice,” said the guard, fiddling with a ring of keys. But as she was searching for the key to the gate, another woman called over from the right.

“General!” It was another of the invaders. “General, we need you over here,” she panted. “We’ve got a human envoy from the queen, says he needs to talk to someone in charge. Says he has our latest orders.”

“That queen’s getting a little too comfortable giving us ‘orders’, if you ask me,” said the guard. “I think someone needs to remind her that our deal goes two ways.”

“Uh, can it wait?” Mi Iau asked.

“Sorry, no it can’t. He’s being annoying enough, I can’t guarantee that one of the gals won’t just kill him if he keeps whining about speaking to the manager.” Mi looked at Tally, a slightly pained expression on her face. There was no way for Tally to tell her what to do without breaking cover, so it was up to Mi to make the call.

“Can someone look after this human, then,” said Mi, “until I can get back?”

“You can leave him with me,” said the guard, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t escape.” Mi grimaced. “Alright…” she said reluctantly, and she handed the leash over to the guard. “But make sure he doesn’t come to any harm either! I want him intact… you know, so I can kill him myself.”

“Got it, boss,” said the guard. Mi could only mouth a quick ‘sorry’ as she was led away to deal with the envoy.

The guard wrenched out a great iron nail from the gate, and used it as a stake to anchor Tally's leash to the ground nearby. She then yawned and re-assumed her guard pose.