Karl cast some sort of spell on the door, causing it to glow purple in front of my eyes, and a panicked shuffling to erupt from the other side.
"I’ll go first, don’t want the poor bunny thinking you’ll eat her up" he winked at me and I laughed softly.
"Just go already, I want to see what this place looked like before the orcs trashed it"
With that, Karl softly swung the door open to be met with the wild swing of a silver dagger and a shouted battle cry.
Catching the hand holding the dagger easily he rolled his eyes at me in amusement before turning to face his assailant. A 4 foot tall rabbit eared girl in what appeared to be a pink silk nightie.
"Blijf achter jij smerige wolf." she shouted at him, before turning to look at me with a deep anger.
"I don’t think she likes you" Karl laughed with tears in his eyes.
"You understand her?" I shouted back louder than intended, quite shocked at his reaction.
"It seems their language is similar to Earth’s Dutch, and she’s not fond of wolves"
"Wat is hier gebeurd klein konijn" Karl asked her, then repeated in English "What happened here little rabbit"
Stunned she just stared at him for a few moments before asking in broken English "How do you speak the languages of both the slaves and the Royalty when you are obviously neither? And how did you get a wolf into this palace? The King has forbidden all beastkin except Bunnies."
Thinking a moment on how best to respond, Karl began with "The castle has fallen to the orcs. No living soul remains here except you"
Nice Karl, very subtle and not at all likely to cause the survivor to panic. And there she goes, running for the door with a steady stream of tears flowing, but easily caught by Karl’s strong hands.
"No, no I must get out of here! It’s my only chance! With the masters all gone I can escape home before anyone comes looking for the spoils. Wait, you’re not here for the spoils are you? I swear I’m a terrible bed slave, totally inept, yep, you wouldn’t want me at all. Please let me flee" The tiny bunny panicked.
"First, tell us what happened, then I’ll find you a good safe place to go. Everything we’ve seen of this kingdom has been razed to the ground" Karl persuaded her. Disingenuous possibly, as we’d only seen the view from the castle, but it seemed to reassure her somewhat.
"The wolf doesn’t have a collar on, do you not keep her enslaved" she asked conspiratorially in Dutch.
Karl broke into laughter at this and I shot him a confused look, not speaking the language.
"No, where I’m from we haven’t kept slaves in well over a hundred years" he responded in English, likely for my benefit.
Wanting to set her mind at ease a little I asked "Hi, I’m Kat. Might we know your name, if not my partner Karl here will keep calling you Bunny forever."
The bunny’s bright red eyes lit up with mirth "Hello, wolf named Kat. My name is Lala, a general use bed slave at this Brighton castle"
Disturbed by the thought of grown humans doing any sort of sexual thing with this tiny girl I barely managed to resist the urge to slap the smirk off her white furred head.
"Not anymore. Karl, no matter what else we do here, we’re taking this child with us"
At this Lala looked at me confused. "Child? I’m 31 summers old this year. Bunnies don’t get much larger than I am. Where are you guys from anyhow?" and still that size? Maybe I’m not that mad at the orcs for destroying this place if that’s what they’re into.
"A portal to another world opened on the main floor and the orcs went through. We’re from the defence forces that met them on the other side" Karl informed her.
"So you’re soldiers? Did you win? You’re here so you must have won right? That’s the best news ever!" Lala gushed
Karl gave me a somewhat evil look and picked me up by the shoulders, placing me directly in Lala’s line of sight. An offering to placate her constant stream of questions. Giving him a look that promised retribution I began filling him in as he looked around the room for any sort of clues that might aid our search.
A few minutes later he returned with a letter in hand, waving it at Lala "Have you read this? And if you have, why are you still here?"
Lala gave him a confused stare "It’s a capital crime to teach a slave to read, I have no idea what that says" she started. "I was napping in my cage, but when I woke up 2 days ago everyone was gone and the door was sealed"
Snatching the letter from his hand I began to read:
To whomever should find this letter
I, the grand and mighty Archmage Zolbert, high council to Queen Beatrix of Brighton Castle, have evacuated the residents of this kingdom to safety in the Kingdom of Atamos. Left behind are only the generals, one brigade of the Most Loyal Royal Palace Guard and a few loyal servants.
The Kingdom has been razed at Queen Beatrix’s order, nothing remains but what the villagers took with them. The orc hordes number in the tens of thousands, hopefully starvation will keep them from crossing the western passage and reaching beyond Brighton.
To the one who find my letter, I bestow all remaining contents upon you. Though it is not but worthless baubles to a great Archmage such as myself, perhaps you shall find some value in it,
As I finished reading, the letter shot out of my hands, up to the roof, shining an intense golden light upon Karl and a series of illusions dropped, revealing a set of bookshelves along one wall and what looks like alchemy tools on the other.
As the light faded a resounding clang sounded and Lala’s face faded to horror. Connecting the collar on her neck to Karl’s wrist was a chain made of light, which faded after a few seconds.
"Okay, Lala, want to explain what just happened" I asked her softly, seeing her shaken expression.
"That letter, Master transferred ownership of everything he left in this room didn’t he?" She asked.
Nodding in the affirmative I prompted her to continue and she looked at me with pleading eyes "I’m a thing he left in this room. My slave contract has passed to your huge Human"
A human who had yet to even notice anything wrong, as Karl was still happily perusing the bookshelves before stuffing the contents into a duffel bag. Bag full and shelves now empty, Karl turned to face us.
"What? Why are you looking at me like I’ve done something horrible?"
I poked Lala in the back and gestured for her to explain the situation, leading Karl to a moment of deep thought.
"I have no clue how to break a magical slave contract. They’re nothing that our world ever used" he frowned at Lala who shook her head sadly.
"I don’t think they CAN be broken, without killing one or the other."
"Well that settles that then, I’m keeping the Bunny" Karl nodded in satisfaction.
SMACK
"Hey, I’m joking! Kind of. I really am gonna keep the Bunny, but not like that. We’ll bring her back to the safe house with us" with this Karl raised his hands in surrender.
"Fine, but I’m watching you. I know how you are about fluffing tails and patting heads" This comment unexpectedly caused Lala’s face to turn as red as her eyes.
"You let him fluff your tail?"
"Drop it, don’t wanna talk about it"
Lala continued to blush furiously while Karl stifled a laugh.