Seluvia
Legacy Name: Seluvia

Seluvia set her shoulder against the boulder and shoved, hard. It didn’t budge, and she whined a little in irritation, lashing her long tail and dropping her front legs to peer beseechingly at the big lump. It was no use, of course; rocks weren’t known for being moved by pity. She sighed, nipped at the air next to the stone, and started to dig in the sand beneath it.

"Did you say something, Seluvia?"

The sound of Daemon’s voice brought her up short. Her paws stilled their digging, and her tail froze mid-lash, sticking straight out behind her. She took a deep breath and hunched her shoulders forward as she resumed digging.

"Not a word, sir. Just working."

"That’s what I like to hear."

Daemon was the demon who acted as Merana’s foreman, flunky, and only friend. How smug he sounded! With some effort, Seluvia overcame the urge to turn and bite him; that would serve nothing but...to get her killed. Now there was an idea. But no...no, no matter how bad it was, she wasn’t quite ready to turn to what amounted to little more than suicide. She kept her head down and her paws moving, digging around the boulder that she had been ordered to move.

"What...?" She glanced quickly over her shoulder to see if Daemon had heard her, but he was a hundred yards away, cuffing a sickly keeto who couldn’t keep up with his workload. She scratched carefully at the sand, curious. "A chain...? Huh."

She set her shoulder against the boulder again, for balance this time, and pawed at the tarnished chain. She kept one eye out for Daemon as she worked, leaving her woefully distracted from the task at hand. The last pawful of sand and gravel holding the chain captive was also all that was holding the stone in place.

"Oh...oof!" She grabbed the chain in her mouth and rolled out of the way as the boulder rolled two feet in the wrong direction. She ended up sitting abruptly on her backside, all four paws at odd angles before her. "Mmph ow."

That had caught Daemon’s attention, and everyone else’s besides. She spat out the chain--and some sand--got her feet back under her, and smiled sheepishly.

"Got it loose, didn’t I? Piece of cake to get it in place now."

Her tail wagged nonchalantly, scraping loose gravel over the chain to keep it out of sight. Daemon glared at her for a moment, but everyone else had already turned back to their work, and he had more hapless victims of his Mistress to berate. Seluvia smiled and went to see about moving the stupid boulder.

It wasn’t until much later, under the silvery light of the moon, that Seluvia was able to go back to the sea-quarry and find that curious chain again. Slipping past the guards was difficult but she’d done it before, and she got by them without incident. Moving from shadow to shadow, she traced her steps back to where she had fallen so unceremoniously on her bottom and ran one claw across the sand.

"Ahh, there you are. Now what in the world are you?"

She drew the chain up out of the loose gravel and smiled at what she found. Whether it was silver or gold or some baser metal she couldn’t make out in the moonlight, but the beauty was visible even through the tarnish and poor light. She had found some kind of medallion, and it was her little secret.

"Well, my little friend," she whispered to it. "You might just buy my way out of here one day. Let’s find you a safe place to hide until that day comes."

"I’ll see your emerald and raise you...three pearls."

"Too rich for my blood." The antlephore dropped his cards unceremoniously and they floated slowly down to the floor. "I’m out."

"How about you, Tex?"

"I’ve got your pearls right here, honey."

"Don’t be crude. You in or out?"

"Both." Tex leered and Seluvia growled, rising to all fours, her hackles rising. The kumos’ grin slipped away and he flicked some pearls into the pot. "All right, all right, I’m in. Settle down."

His threes and sixes couldn’t beat her three queens, though, and this time it was Tex who growled. Her lip curled in disgust as they both rose to their feet. The antlephore scooted backwards, eyeing them both warily and wanting no part of their squabble.

"Leave it alone, Tex," Seluvia growled softly. "Win it back next week, if you’ve got the balls--and the money. You don’t want to start anything."

"The guards will come if you two don’t quiet down," the antlephore fretted. "Please!"

"This isn’t over, bitch," Tex snarled, glancing at the doorway. "You’d better watch your step."

He skulked out and was out of sight in the next moment. The antlephore let out a relieved sigh and gathered up the remainder of his stack before following. Seluvia was alone with her treasure, and she didn’t waste any time before scraping it all into a leather satchel, cards included. Tex wasn’t going to leave her alone, and it was all too likely he’d call the guards down on her.

"Back to the vault, babies," she muttered, slipping out of the barracks herself to hide her winnings with the rest of her buried treasure. "Hey, why don’t you rub against each other and see if you can breed?"

Wishful thinking, of course, but not too far fetched. One more win like that, and she’d have enough to bribe a guard and get away from this awful place. Away from Daemon, away from Merana, away from the islands and all that had happened there.

On the other hand, one more run in with Tex could blow the whole thing out of the water. Literally.

Disgusted, she shook her head and made her way back to her little nook in the barracks. She went to sleep on her hard bed, one ear cocked to listen for trouble, and dreamed of the times before slavery.