Here begins Part 2! (hehehehe)

She was sitting alone in that starlit meadow, wearing only a dress despite the chill he knew would become snow. She was crying, and the instant he realized it, he tried to make his way towards her, but found the air somehow thicker, impeding his progress.

He fought forward anyway, despite the fact that the air seemed to be redoubling its efforts. He thrashed his way forward until he finally won out, and found himself stumbling across a field of lavender. He could hear her crying clearly now, soft sniffles and gasps that sounded so typical of her he could almost chuckle. He went to say something, but lost his voice when she suddenly turned towards him.

Her eyes were gone.

Those eyes that held more fight than any two mammals could muster combined, those eyes that never seemed to rest for too long on anything except what was important, those eyes he had found impossible to deny despite trying every con-artist trick he had ever devised, were nothing more than empty black holes.

Despite every conscious objection he could manage, his own eyes were held wide open, his jaw hanging, unable to scream. She seemed to say something then, but even if she had, he wouldn't have been able to hear it anyway, not over the sound of his own heart shattering.

Nick sat bolt upright in what would have been a cold sweat, had his canine physiology allowed such a thing. In actuality, he gasped a multitude of ragged pants before managing to calm himself down. Just a nightmare. He'd had plenty of those, they were nothing to-

Who exactly was he trying to con here? Even the week after the Ranger Scouts incident hadn't been as bad as this. The soft light of the city lit his new abode with a soft orange glow, and he used it to stare hard at his right paw, using it as an anchor to steady himself once more. It didn't work that well, but he knew something that would.

After a quick glance at his bedside clock telling him it was far too early for anyone to be doing what he was planning on, he slipped on a black tank-top along with a pair of grey sweats and made his way to the basement.

The place was massive, just a little bigger than your average high school gym, and it was here that Nick had discovered how to hold himself together. He found his weighted vest and hard, digit-less gloves and put them on quickly before setting the lights to 'dusk.'

He stood for a moment to let his eyes adjust, then dropped to all fours and entered the array of fake buildings, alleys, cars, and rooftops.

His lithe form, slight but strong, flashed down fire-escapes, under cars, up gutter-pipes and in and out of windows at a pace no mammal using the conventional biped method of travel could ever hope to match. Every muscled moved in a perfect harmony that felt more familiar than he had ever thought it would, his eyes and ears moving of their own accord based on his surroundings, every aspect of his being straining together to achieve his goal.

It was bliss.

There was no time to think about anything except the running, and in that blank he found peace. And after he finished, panting and sore, he would be comforted by the fact that he had become stronger. But not now, now he was running.

He detected, more than simply heard, another mammal enter the large space, and silently made his way back across the false city in an attempt to catch them off guard. It was a futile venture.

"I see you're up bright and early." Remarked the maned wolf called Charlie Walker in his resonant tenor and pleasant tone. "Rough night?"

Nick appeared atop the fake building nearest the door. "Nothing different from every other night." He replied as landed a somersaulting drop to the floor, ending with him bouncing to his feet several feet from Charlie. They locked eyes for a fraction of second before the wolf's arm flickered.

Nick caught the hard rubber knife and ducked the offensive thrust in the same movement. He whipped his weapon up and forward, going for the quick finish, but Charlie simply twisted out to the left, effectively disengaging. Nick followed with a serious of quick jabs at his larger opponent, keeping his other paw back, ready for any counters, and was glad he did so, as several came and were defeated.

Knowing a break in offense would give Charlie more than enough time to riposte and gain the press, he kept on the pressure, knowing that Charlie was still far his superior in this art.

Charlie, unbeknownst to him, was surprised at Nick's already exemplary talent for the wielding of knives. He was already at the point where his own style had made itself apparent through the basics, and it was one that had Charlie struggling to keep up. Unlike almost any other knife-fighter, Nick used every inch of himself in the fight, while most used primarily little more than the upper-body. All except that left paw, kept close for defense. Nick had reached the point that Eli had reached after a year in just one month, and whenever he caught a glimpse of the fox's eyes, he knew why.

Charlie quick-stepped back, and before Nick could pursue, the wolf gently tossed his training knife into the air between them.

It floated up then down at an angle, obscuring for a fraction of a second the line between their eyes. Charlie was already snapping a sweeping roundhouse as Nick's eyes came back into sight.

They were still staring right at him. His ploy of diverting the fox's attention upward with the knife in order to catch him with the kick had already failed.

Nick took to the air, his strengthened legs easily compensating for the heavy vest he still wore, and his left paw shot down, catching the kick's momentum and channeling it upwards and forward again, right towards Charlie. The wolf fell back, leaning away and using his leg to keep balance, but Nick flipped his knife backhand and wrenched his airborne body into a spinning twist, his weapon flashing around and down across Charlie's exposed throat in what surely would have been a guaranteed kill had his weapon been real.

Nick's spin became a roll as he hit the ground and fell into a crouch, facing Charlie, who tottered for a moment before tumbling onto his back. Nick stood and made to help him to his feet, but stopped as Charlie began laughing.

"I haven't been had like that in long time," he chuckled. "How did you see through my decoy?"

"What decoy?"