Moira quickly pulled her clothes back on properly and pulled her cloak around to ward off the cold, before giving her attention to the figure tied to the tree. She picked up her gun and switched the magazines, before getting unsteadily to her feet with the help of the nearby tree. Strangely the cold ache in her feet was overpowering the pain from the blows she had taken.

She groaned in annoyance, as she realized she would have to walk out of here soon with her now significantly battered body.

She shuffled her way over towards the bear-like being, and slowly lowered herself into a sitting position just out of its reach. At this distance the beings’ size was intimidating she realized. The being was easily three-four times the size of a large man and she found herself shoving down a bout of instinctual fear; that choked her momentarily when she looked into its bear-like face. The intelligence in the eyes only added to the effect.

She made sure to keep the unconscious Gnoll in her sight and to keep a firm grip on her gun. Remember they are called Gnolls. You never know what someone might find offensive. She reminded herself as an attempt to distract herself. She studied the Gnoll for a moment, it had fallen to the side, its head in the snow. Before concentrating on the bear-person.

She caulked her head to the side with what she hoped came across as a clear question.

“I dias. It is unadvisable to undress in this weather rof a namuh. Od you dnatsrednu em?” The being said correctly interpreting her look.

Moira sighed loudly with a put-upon frown. She held her hand out and tilted it back and forth; hoping they might recognize the gesture. I guess I just need to get them talking. I only got about half of that. Hmm. Them? She studied the creature more, but there was no clear indication whether it was male or female. Better safe, then sorry.

She touched her chest and said. “Moira.” Then pointed at it and used one of the words she had picked up. “You?”

The being frowned at her in confusion at hearing the distinct word in its language. “Gia.” The being said clearly touching their chest. Then continued. “Yhw are you gnitca the loof nehw you ylraelc wonk emos fo ym egaugnal?”

Moira smiled, shrugged, and shook her head. Hoping it would encourage Gia to keep talking. With a moment of inspiration, she tried a stilting greeting in some of the Gnoll she had picked up. “Good, meet you Gia.”

Gia’s look of confusion morphed, taking on clear signs of pity and horror. “Ho, sseddog on! T’nod llet me you werg pu with Gnolls! Oh, you roop gniht!”

Gia’s clear agitation and raising voice, made Moira shuffled back. A loud painful groan escaping her at the sudden instinctive movement.

“Right, apologies! Your Gnoll is pretty bad; must be because you head isn’t shaped for it.” Gia said in the barking and growling language of the Gnolls, clear enough that Moira got it.

Moira shook her head. “Need you say in your tongue, get after hear once.” She tried to clarify with her minute understanding of Gnoll.

Gia’s confusion seemed to grow as they processed this. “How is that elbissop?”

Moira shrugged and pointed at the sky.

They got the gist.

“Right, well what do you know about Gnolls?” Gia asked in Gnoll.

Moira tilted her head and shrugged again then said in Gnoll. “Nothing, please enlighten me.”

“Ok.” Gia said and started talking in a quick, steady and deep voice.

At first Moira only got the occasional word, but after a good half an hour she found herself listening to an in-depth treatise on the migration, habits, and traditional diets of the Gnoll tribes and why they might be migrating to this area. Which was not a normal area to encounter them in. The area was more known for small goblin tribes and orc hunter-gatherers which were significantly less dangerous.

Gia had adjusted their method and started repeating ever line they said until Moira was getting the majority of what they were saying. At which point they adjusted again, and Moira started indicating when she didn’t get a word.

Moira found herself deeply immersed in the subject, in large part due to her recent encounter with the beings. According to Gia, Gnolls generally hunted the large bison herds on the steppes south of the range they were currently near and wintered in their mountain caves for the winters; hunting the local long horn sheep and other small nearby game. They were often cruel to their prey but no worse than a small cat playing with a mouse. They gave their food about the same consideration. Goblin was considered a delicacy to them, but they rarely hunted and killed other sentients. Mostly because of the trouble such actions brought to the tribes: not some moral reason. They would do it when they felt they could get away with it. However, they did take slaves, like all sentients. What Moira had witnessed was a little out of typical character for Gnolls, but truly terrible tribes were known to appear occasionally. They also took on such habits when subjugating a new territory; which was part of what worried Gia.

The revelation on slavery brought Moira up short, but she decided to let it go, to be discussed later, as she continued to listen.

The Gnolls being here indicated that either some other force was driving them from their caves, or that the tribes have been multiplying and overcrowding had forced them out. They speculated that it could be a nearby conflict between a Human Kingdom and a Troll Nation that was causing the shift. Either way they probably needed to inform the local lord of the change, if possible.

Moira found herself getting comfortable with Gia as they spoke with a voice that was clearly interested in their subject matter. The upbeat delivery helped. But as time passed the whole situation made Moira a little uneasy; it was surreal.

The cold was having a distinct tempering on her mood, but Dandy had joined her in her cloak which helped. His pleasure at being petted and additional warmth helped keep her relaxed. The cloak pooled around her crouching form and she enjoyed the warmth slowly returning to her feet as she listened. She made sure to shoot the living Gnoll the odd look. It seemed to be still alive chest slowly rising and falling.

“Alright” Moira said raising her hand to stop Gia. “I have a couple questions. First you haven’t said anything about being tied to the tree or the collar around your neck. Why? Second are you female or male? Gia sounds a lot like a female name from my home...” She trailed off as she saw Gia’s shocked and curious look.

“You’ve never met a Bearkin?” Gia asked making their last word obvious by touching its chest.

Moira slowly shook her head not sure how much to let out. The email had made her cautious.

“Huh, well I’m a female Grizzly bear-kin. It’s easy to tell once you have seen several us. Males are usually at least a third larger than females. Though it can be a bit confusing if you see a large black male and a female Griz like me, as we can be close in size, though our faces differ greatly. Mine is a disc shape, a black would be narrower. Unfortunately, we don’t have something as easy to spot as obvious breasts like a lot of other sentients do. Our young are easy to spot as well, but harder to determine gender, they have more downy fur.

She tends to give too much information, doesn’t she? Moira contemplated momentarily, before holding up a hand to halt Gia’s ramblings.

“My other question?” She inquired.

“Right, uh, hmm, well, about that. So, if I’m not mistaken you are not from around here. I’m not sure how Brands and Collars work where you are from.” Gia said looking significantly at the weapon in Moira’s hand.

“Pretend I know nothing.” Moira said following her gaze. I guess the cat is a little out of the bag. Will have to do my best to hide it, and maybe some other things in the future.

“Right, I’ll give you the sequence of events first. So, Harrold over there,” She indicated one of the dead bodies, “Was my Master. The bastard didn’t order me to help them fight, instead the idiot told me to keep myself and their gear safe. So, I couldn’t do much else or my stupid brand would have punished me. I watched as half of the expedition was killed before the idiot had the curtesy to die, removing his order so I could help. I managed to kill three of the Gnolls and remove that one's arm with her own axe before a couple managed to jump on my pack and bring me down and collar me.” Gia said bitterly, but in a weirdly upbeat tone, pointing out bodies as she spoke.

“Wait you’re a slave? But you seem so well educated!” Moira asked shocked almost coming to her feet. The pain made her rethink the movement and she flopped back onto her butt.

“Please let me finish. You need the whole picture.” Gia said slowly.

“Once they got the collar on me, they told me to sit here and tied me up. Which was easier since my Brand died with Harrold, and returned to the crowns’ brand, allowing me to move freely for a couple hours before I would be compelled to the nearest Kingdom administrator. These Collars don’t let you disobey in any way and have the side effect of making us happy with whatever we are told to do. They also deaden all negative emotions. The only checks are they can’t be used to make us do something we would never do, even on the pain of death. Orders to kill ourselves don’t work either.” Gia overexplained cheerfully.

“Ok, what aren’t you saying? You’re obviously avoiding something.” Moira asked sensing Gia’s hesitation.

“Fine. When you killed the large male,” Gia said pointing at the first one Moira had shot, “The Collar’s control band switched to you. Many consider the, you kill it, you keep it, function of the collar’s a flaw, but it is useful in some situations as killing the holder can stop large parts of a fight. Most legal owners have family brands like Harrold did, where the ownership reverts to other family members: Harrold had no family. Illegally obtained slaves are easy to track, because in order to Brand someone you need to use a Kingdom Ink mage and they always check providence with a mind mage; they are the only ones trained in such methods. The band should be on your right arm. In short I haven’t said anything about being tied up because you’ve been asking quite open-ended questions that I have to answer at length.” Gia explained in a rush not letting Moira interrupt her.

“What!! No. Oh no. Just no. Nu-uh. No!” Moira said rolling her right sleeve back to find a thin copper band around her wrist. “Get it off! How do I get it off! What's wrong with this place!” She shouted trying to pry it off her wrist.

“WAIT!... Please don’t.” Gia begged.

Moira looked at her in horror.