(Will clean this up a bit later)
The fresh smell of open sea air tickled his nose, though he didn't mind it. Traveling by ship had taken long, but Nicco had slept in worst places before. The wolf boy leaned over the edge and watched his reflection in the sparkling water. He was carefully aware of the ship's crew and how their sideways glances had peered his way wherever he went.
He had been different in many ways, both in short stature and dark bruise colored hair. Most of all, besides the fact that he appeared mostly human, he had a functioning pair of wolf ears and a tail. The bushy tail especially interested many into attempting to pull it and see if it had been real. As such, Nicco had learned to keep the tail closer to his legs long ago.
He had been dressed modestly, in a simple white tunic and shorts that reached just to his knees, which he had to adjust by making a hole in the back for his tail. Though the crew had been wary of him, he mostly kept in the shadow of the female cheetah. The collar placed around his neck bore a silver tag and on it, the Silversun mark, proving that he had been owned by the Silversun as a slave.
When the workers unloaded the cargo from the ship, everything from goods and wares, to slaves and pets, some of them even similar to Nicco, he had stayed out of their way and instead trailed behind the female cheetah quietly.
There, the port market boomed with various people and activity. There were stands and tables, merchants and buyers. Nicco saw others that appeared to be slaves like him, though their situation appeared to have been vastly different to his own.
While Cia had been doing her inspections, it gave Nicco time to look around for a bit. His fingers began to itch. As a thief, or rather former thief since his capture, the market presented itself to be full of opportunities. He saw dangling bags of coin, unattended foods, perfumes and imported silk. In his mind a plan had been forming, but just then the collar he wore felt tight around his neck. He wore the Silversun mark. Even if nobody had noticed him right away, it could cause trouble; after all, he had still been a slave. There hadn't been a way to personally remove the collar and he would have never gotten far with it on him. Despite that, due to his previously failed escape attempts, he had been taken under Alicia's care and became her personal pet, though still a slave. He didn't mind it. Unlike the rest who have been kept in cages as he once was, mistress Cia had allowed him to walk around freely, though within shouting distance. She kept him fed and safe, unlike his previous owners who dared to do as they pleased. Thoughts like that kept Nicco in line. Any thievery had been forbidden by mistress Cia when she had chosen him as her pet and allowed him to walk around. He wouldn't dare go against her rules.
On the market, he had noticed that the crew members had left some of the exotic furs out in the sun. Poor guys, thought Nicco, though he couldn't move them by himself nor was he allowed to. Right on cue, he could hear mistress Cia correcting one of the guys on just the thing. She informed him about properly addressing her and Nicco's lips curled into a small grin. He admired that his mistress had taken the initiative of being refereed to properly and it felt that had also been a good victory against the crew member. His wolf ears allowed him to pick up whispers most couldn't hear and on the ship, he had definitely heard a lot of the bigger crew members snickering behind his back.
Once the larger man had been done talking to mistress Cia, he walked past Nicco and if he had seen the wolfboy or not, Nicco wasn't sure, but the man bumped into him and washed the grin of his face. His tail lashed behind him and his ears went back, but there was nothing he could do against it.
Then, Nicco's ears perked when he heard his mistress call for him. "Nicco? Where are you, my wolf!". His mood had changed and he quickly scurried along the cages to her.
"Here, mistress!" he said and presented himself in front of her. She had been kneeling in front of the fox cages, the ones Nicco recognized as magical due to the bands placed around the bases of their tails. The youngest one of them rattled the cage so loudly that NIcco had to push his ears down at the sound. He quickly understood what had been wrong with them and why he had been summoned. He could tell the foxes had been scared, nervous in their new environment, but also in pain. Traveling with his mistress, Nicco had learned how to take care of the little ones and due to him being partially like them, they felt a lot calmer whenever he had worked with them.
"Their bands are too tight, mistress," he pointed out and reached into cage of the youngest fox and held him firmly. "Too tight and it hurts them, too loose and it could slip off." he explained and carefully readjusted the band on the fox's tail before he had tested the tightness and placed the fox back into the cage. "It is the same as if it were placed on the wrist. No more, no less."
After he had managed to adjust the first band, he then moved to the other two which had handled pain a lot better. Their bands had also been too tight and Nicco had been careful in readjusting them as needed while his mistress carefully observed him and the foxes. Once that had been done, Nicco took a small piece of bread from his pocket and rewarded the three foxes with them, carefully pushing his fingers through the cage bars and giving the foxes a few gentle strokes.
"All done, mistress." said Nicco with a smile and felt some pride in himself. Nicco had liked the work, he felt it more honest than stealing and in its own way more rewarding as well. He had been able to live modestly from stealing in the past, though as soon as he had been caught, the collar came on and that put a hinder on everything. Still, his skills had been useful for other things as well.
The wolfboy looked around the market carefully as he did before, though this time for another reason.
"Best be careful, mistress Cia," he said to the female cheetah. "I feel other pickpockets are nearby."
Other thieves and all kinds of danger had lurked behind even the warmest of smiles in all kinds of crowds. Nicco's tail idly wagged behind him. Perhaps he had been paranoid. He felt stranger's eyes on him and he had to turn away from the crowd and fix his gaze on the three young foxes. He too felt scared and nervous in a new place.
His mood changed quickly once more and the next thing he felt had been his belly rumbling. It had been high noon and the small piece of bread in his pocket was just a reserve he had always kept somewhere on his body just in case. Still, he looked at the female cheetah and lowered his ears slightly.
"Will there be food soon, mistress?" He had always felt nervous about asking questions, a memory his previous owners planted into him, but he had been hungry and it seemed like no big deal.