"I get sent to a lot of places alone Goth. Many of the places I go to, and things I have to do, are very dangerous. I won't even bring other adults or even soldiers with me most of the time."
She pouted a bit.
I sighed, "Goth, you've had a rough life these last few years. You deserve the chance to just have a normal life and grow up without fears or worries."
"But I won't have any fears if I'm with you," she said looking up at me hopefully.
"No, but I will," I sighed. "Go to sleep, we have to get up early in the morning and we have many days of riding yet."
She looked around at the bedrolls we had laid out. There were four of them of course.
"Which one is yours?" She asked looking at them.
"The one I set my pack by." I pointed to the one next to it. "That one is yours Goth."
"I don't want to sleep alone," she said looking around the camp into the darkness.
"You won't be, I'll be sleeping right next to you."
"Okay," she said and yawned, then went and got in her bedroll, but not before moving it right up against mine.
When she was finally asleep I looked up at Corporal Peers. "Okay, ask."
"Where's her mother, dead?"
I sighed and shook my head looking at Goth. "Her mother is a pampered slave of a rich man who has a stable full of lovely women who she claims he treats very well, both in and out of bed."
"You couldn't save her?"
"Oh, I could have. Problem was, she said she preferred the life of a slave and didn't want to be rescued."
"What about her daughter?" He said looking shocked.
I lowered my voice, "She said her daughter was my obligation now and that I'd probably do better by her then she had."
"Wow, that's pretty cold." Joe said looking at her.
"Yeah, I know."
"What did you save her from?" Peers asked.
"A nasty tavern where they were whoring her out when they weren't working her to the bone."
Peers sat back and blinked. "I can't... they did that? To a child ?"
I nodded.
"I have a daughter a few years younger than her. I can not understand how any male could do such a thing."
"That's because Hilanders are a decent people," I said. "Barassans are not," I spat in the fire. "I'm going to sleep, if any of you have any ideas on what I should do with Goth, let me know. This whole situation is new to me."
"It's new to all of us," Peers said and Joe agreed.
I sighed and nodded and crawled into my bedroll. I woke up sometime later at night when Goth woke up and crawled into mine with me, and snuggled up against my back. I curled my tail around her and she fell back asleep rather quickly.
The rest of the trip back progressed rather well, Goth started to talk to Peers and Joe the next evening and rarely stuttered anymore. She asked questions about what Hiland was like, what Feliogustus was like, what the Corporals did when I wouldn't go into any details about what I did. We reached Rivervail after more than a week of travel and spent both the afternoon and evening there at the local garrison. Goth was surprised to find out it wasn't the main Hiland city. I told her we'd be there in a few more days, and that there was a small town between the two that we would also stop at.
I took her out and bought her new clothes, a brush for her hair, and another for her fur. After almost a week of real food, she was starting to look a lot better than she had when I first saw her, but I suspected it would be weeks, if not months, before she looked like a normal healthy child should look.
When we got back to Hiland I took her with me to the castle, Rachel met me at the door and we embraced and kissed. I smiled at her, and looked her over; I always did whenever we'd been apart for any length of time. I still couldn't believe I was married to her.
"So how did it go?" She asked.
"About as expected."
"Who is your new friend?" She asked curiously, looking at Goth who was standing behind me, holding on to my tail and looking a bit nervous.
"One of the unexpected things," I said softly, then took a step back so