Chapter41

Guild Business
Juna watched Hajin from a few steps behind while they moved through the capital streets, her eyes staying on him almost as much as they stayed on the people around them.
She still did not trust him, not really, but the longer she stayed near him, the harder it got to match what she expected from a human with what he actually did.
'He smells weirdly nice,' she thought, annoyed the second the thought crossed her mind, 'does that mean he isn't bad?' Her ears twitched once before she flattened them a little, glaring at the back of his head. 
'No, don't be stupid. I just need to keep watching him. Humans always show what they really are eventually.'
That was the plan she settled on while they headed toward a large building near the center of the capital, one with a crowd moving in and out, armed people laughing too loudly near the entrance and a crest hanging above the doors that made it obvious this was some kind of public guild.
The moment they walked inside, she felt the shift.
Heads turned toward them fast, then slower once people really started looking, and the whispering began almost immediately.
Some man near the front desk leaned toward his friend and said, "Is that a slave?" while another looked her up and down with open disgust and muttered, "Why is she dressed like that?"
A third man's eyes stayed on her a little too long before he gave a crooked grin. "Forget that, look at her face," he said, and someone beside him laughed under his breath and added, "Yeah, she'd be fun in bed."
Juna felt her whole body tense up, her fingers curling under the blanket she had wrapped around herself, and for a moment she felt the same old urge to bare her teeth, claw someone's face open and bolt before any human hands got close.
'I knew it,' she thought, feeling her stomach twist with disgust, 'humans are all the same.'
Before that feeling could turn into movement, Hajin suddenly reached back and grabbed her shoulder, making her freeze up.
He looked at her and spoke in a tone so normal that for a second her brain did not catch up.
"Let's sell these so we can get you a nice outfit," he said, giving the bag at his side a small shake. "Sounds good?"
She just stared at him without answering.
That was not what she expected him to say, not with the way the room was looking at her and not with the way humans usually looked at beastkin girls.
Part of her wanted to pull away from his hand immediately because it was still a human touching her, but another part of her was too confused to even react properly.
'What is wrong with him?' she thought, her pulse unsteady now for a completely different reason, 'why is he acting like this?'