Had it been hours, days? Na'el couldn't keep track. The only passage of time he could make sense of was his life draining from him.<span style="font-style: italic">How long does it take to die?</span>he though to himself several times, wishing for it upon him. His mouth had been a dried husk for ages, and his stomach was past crying for a meal. His body hurt everywhere, his mind was weak, and he could feel blisters at the shackles and cuts all over his body from where he had been whipped and tortured.<br/><br/>He wasn't sure if he was hallucinating when they raped him and beat him near to the end of his life. He saw images of Malora, his mistress of long, her beautiful blond hair and blue eyes, her devious but stern smile, pushing him out of her life like a stray she didn't want anymore. She ordered Sarah to do with him as she pleased, then to leave him in the animal pens, locked up, and waiting. For what? He could only assume death.<br/><br/>He'd seen Sarah and Malora in the pens, alongside many of his lovers and torturers. They weren't really there, he knew that, they were just his mind playing tricks on him. He had a strong mind, and he was able to keep it sane in the world of insanity that he lived. So when he began hallucinating, despite his best efforts, he knew he was near death.<br/><br/>Then he saw another hallucination, this time a gentler one. A fox girl, like the one he had met as a boy, except grown up and beautiful, cradling his head and giving him much needed water. She had asked him something, but his mind was already far gone, he didn't hear it. He wanted to believe there could be someone capable of caring for him, of showing some sort of compassion, but he knew there was no such thing for a pet like him.<br/><br/>He tried to fight the hallucination. He'd rather face despair than false hope. He turned his head away from the water dripping into his mouth, and hoped it would go away. Except it didn't, and he could still feel her soft hand on his outstretched elvish ear, cradling his head. Perhaps this was real. This woman was actually there, giving him water. He licked his lips, feeling the cool drops still there. He looked into her striking green eyes.<br/><br/>He mustered up the few words he could say through his cracked dry voice, "are you real, or are you an angel?" He hoped it was the latter, because then his pain would soon stop.