Let me tell you this, being transported like a piece of furniture was the height of everything uncomfortable. Every time the mounts would hit a hole or something else would happen that made them jump up, my poor stomach was on the receiving end with a collision.
I've never had motion sickness in my life, but I feared that I might get it just remembering this damn trip. However, even despite the unkind way I was being treated, it was still nothing compared to what my mind was going through at the moment.
Mostly concerning my fate now that I was in the hands of these people. An image appeared in my head. I was tied to a stick over a campfire with an apple in my mouth while all the little animal people were waiting for me to get juicy just in time for supper.
I tried to banish this thought. I really did. But I hadn't asked these people if they were cannibals—well, not exactly cannibals because we belonged to two separate species—but if they considered me as something worth eating. In fact, the bunny girl's previous inspection of my form could have just been her way of checking if I was healthy enough for consumption.
At one point we stopped, which I considered a good moment to check if these people were man-eaters or not. My two 'hosts' parked their mounts in the shade of one of the walls of the valley. At first, I had no idea what for until I saw that it was feeding time.
Fortunately this wasn't the moment when I was separated from my tastiest parts. Instead, the bunny girl led the two creatures that were riding away from us and began feeding them with some kind of lizard creatures that she pulled out of her bag.
At first I thought that it was pretty messed up to feed lizards their own kind, but the two horse creatures didn't seem to mind, so I decided to not express my opinion. At least their food hadn't been alive.
Where they ate, I sat on a rock while the cat douche sat in front of me. Most likely to make sure that I wouldn't run for the hills with the first chance I got. This was also the moment when I decided to check what their intentions were towards me.
Since he was staring at me pretty intently, it wasn't hard to get his attention. I started waving my bound arms as well as saying, "Hey."
The guy in front of me tilted his head in confusion while saying something to me in his own language. I'm pretty sure he was asking what I was going on about.
I then made a motion with my hands as if I was pretending to drink something. My only hope was that this gesture meant the same thing in both of our worlds.
The cat douche looked puzzled for a second before I saw the metaphorical lightbulb flash over his head. He laughed and said a few things while smiling before getting up and walking towards the mounts.
However, he was still watching me as he did it. Perhaps the guy thought that I was trying to use this as an opportunity to escape.
He said a couple of things to the bunny girl before taking something from one of the bags that had been tied to one of the mounts and returning with it.
In his hand he now held a waterskin, which was a sign that I managed to successfully communicate with him. He uncapped it before handing it to me.
I took it gently, yet firmly, being scared of what would happen if I dropped it. I'm pretty sure that in deserts like these, wasting water was probably a crime worthy of death.
I took a sip from it and was happy to conclude that what I was drinking was in fact water. It had a bit of a weird taste, but other than that, my parched mouth was grateful for the liquid.
Still, I took less water than I actually wanted because I didn't want to seem greedy. I then tried to give him the waterskin back but he had a look on his face as if I had done something very disappointing.
He then took the waterskin back only to get on his feet walk towards me and shove the end of the waterskin in my mouth and then force me to drink until he was satisfied.
After being freed I coughed while the cat bastard said something and heartily patted me on the back. It was official; whatever good impression I had of him was gone and I'll hate him forever.
Still, I got what I needed. If they were trying to kill me, then giving me water was pretty counterproductive. That or they needed to keep me strong and healthy until the time when they eat me.
Our little comedy routine didn't last any longer because the bunny girl yelled something in our direction and the cat douche threw me over his shoulder and walked back to the mounts. It seemed that our break had ended.
We returned to the road, which meant that I returned to my very uncomfortable position. The fact that I now had water in my gut didn't improve the situation.
Something else that irked me was that the scenery was pretty bland. The only things I saw were rocks, sand and miserable-looking vegetation, which made me long for the generic plains that other Isekai main characters started their adventures in. I'm sure that at least there it wouldn't be so hot.
We entered a much narrower part of the valley, which I presumed was some kind of pathway when I saw something that actually stood out. Someone had carved out a statue in one of the rocky walls. It depicted some kind of beast man and it even had an altar in front of it where I'm pretty sure offerings were usually placed.
I wasn't sure if it was the same statue at whose feet I woke up because, unlike this statue, that one had been terribly disfigured. Still, if it was, this was the moment when I would've appreciated some extra divine favor.
Instead of that, a massive boulder crashed in the space where we had just been, blocking our exit and a bunch of heavily armored individuals descended from the top of the cliffs surrounding our whole group.
The horse creatures made some kind of screeching sound and two riders quickly calmed down their pets. The bunny girl then yelled something that I didn't understand, but she sounded pretty angry, while the cat douche replied something to her. I, meanwhile, eyed our new friends.
I was pretty sure that these were the bad guys. They were the same type of beast people as the two who were either escorting or kidnapping me, but they were dressed in large heavy plates of black armor that had sharp spikes protruding from them.
Also, appearance-wise, they seemed more "unruly." They had bloodshot eyes and the fur on them seemed wild and messy. Meanwhile, their weapons varied from deadly-looking scimitars to morning stars to even long pikes. Everything that I've ever learned from watching anime screamed that they were the bad guys. They were either bandits or minions of some evil overlord.
However despite what their origin was, they were more than us and had us completely surrounded. Two things that I found very worrisome. The cat douche probably thought the same because he sat me up and, after pulling out one of his swords, cut open my bindings. Frankly, a part of me had been sure that he was going to kill me with that sword. Boy, did I appreciate that I was wrong.
A different sound, however, then caught my attention. It was someone speaking, but their voice had a weird echo with it. I followed the sound and saw someone standing on the stone cliff of the passage. From my experience as an anime connoisseur, I could confidently tell that he was going to be an issue.
It was a person, who was covered from head to toe in large plates of heavy black armor. They had a helmet with horns on it and three slits in it that didn't reveal a face but a red light that came out of it. Overall his appearance reminded me of a walking furnace and I could wager money that his abilities were somewhere on that line as well.
He was saying something to my companions(?), I still wasn't sure what my relationship was with these people, and apparently what he said wasn't very pleasing to them because the bunny girl replied in an angry fashion. The black furnace's response to that was to make a low-sounding laugh that assured me that things were not going well.
A tap on my neck got my attention and I looked towards cat douche, who pressed something into my palms. It was one of the knives that I had seen on bunny girl. He then quickly turned his eyes towards the giant statue that was in the opposite direction from furnace guy and I got the gist of what he was trying to tell me.
I probably needed to hide there. Usually I would've considered such an action dishonorable, especially because I was an isekai main character; however, I needed to accept that this was a situation where I couldn't do a lot. So I nodded.
The cat douche smiled and focused back on the people surrounding us. More specifically, the ones that were between us and the beast man statue. The tension in the air was palpable until the furnace guy said something and all the goons around us roared while my two companions snarled in response. I figured that this was the moment I needed to start running.