The New Reality continued...

The moment he exited the cave he had to shut his eyes against the flaring sun, but it didn't really help as the sun came in through his eyelids. "Bright, isn't it?" a voice asked, close by. A hand fell on his shoulder.

He jumped away from the sound and the touch, reflexes conditioned by years of abuse. "Hey- are you alright?" the voice again, sounding concerned, like they all did. He squinted against the bright light and looked in the direction of the voice. "What's your name? My friends call me Wolf." Friends. Too many times he had heard that, and each time he had been betrayed by the so-called "friend". But maybe this one would be different. Maybe... The girl looked at him expectantly. "Orion," he said.

"Orion. Nice name." she commented, "Your eyes should be used to the light by now. Try opening them." He found that she was right. "Thank you," he mumbled, looking at the ground. "You're welcome. But try not to act as I'm going to hit you for giving me an answer that I wanted. Ok?" Orion's eyes were now plastered to the ground. "Hey." A strong hand gripped his chin, forcing him to look up. "No one is a slave here, and no one can hurt you. Lose the groveling attitude." Her eyes hardened as she continued, "I can't stand people with no back bone."

She let go of him, and he kept his head up. Looking around, he saw that it was nothing like his homeland. A lush green forest grew before him, with a river rushing through it. He looked tentatively back at his guide and inspected her more closely. He had already seen her eyes, but now they were out in the sunlight he could see that she also had scars. Not only scars from whips and chains, but also from swords and other sharp-edged objects. No wonder she hated slavery- she had been a slave.

"So. I have an offer to make," she said, drawing his attention away from her scars. "You can wander around for days and hope to finally reach someone or something that will help you, or you can come with me and join my gang. It isn't the best place to be, but it's better than the hell-hole you were living in. It's also better than wandering around here for months. But whatever you want to do..." He could see his path even before she had finished her last sentence. He finally had a chance to eat, even to have friends. "I will come with you." Orion said.

"Good. Then let's get walking." Wolf turned and began to walk down a path that led to the forest, and Orion followed along after her, thoughts clamouring through his head. Chief among them was "possibly even friends".