Author's Note:

Hey guys, it's Grimm here. It's been so long since I've last been here. Wow, hehe. To be honest, I've really missed you guys. I've had a lot of things happen in real life. For those of you who don't already know, I was displaced from my home in January (aka since my last update) and lost my father the following month. Since then, it's really just been a task of getting life back on track, and I've been working on getting my way back here. You guys really do mean so much to me, and I'll start off small with this fanfiction and we'll see how this goes.

I plan on updating once every Saturday as I do on the Wizard101 Amino, and for my darling fans who don't know this universe, don't be deterred from this story. There might be a few occasional terms you may be unfamiliar with, but knowledge of this universe isn't actually necessary. I implore you to check this fic out, and if you haven't ever tried the MMORPG Wizard101, check it out.

For you new fans just joining into my little universe, make sure to hit that favorite button and follow both here and on my new Twitter account rugrimm16.

Thank you all for your support, and now, without further adieu:

Woeful Calamity

Chapter 1: The Dungeon

Hate...I've never felt it so strongly as I do now...

It's a deep hate...festering...bubbling...boiling my insides in a cauldron so deep I thought it could never be filled. But now these feelings are tickling at my brim, and I fear that it won't be long until it creeps over the edges of my soul and spills out onto the nasty stone floor beneath me-a floor that matches the walls and complements the steel bars that confine me to this hell.

I can hear the whimpers of others in the cells next to mine, hungry and begging for mercy...for some relief of these dull grey walls and for the chance to taste the sun on their skins. But I know better...and I sure as Artorious have more pride than to grovel at the feet of a wizard.

Wizards...

They're revolting, lying creatures that bend the wills of hapless creatures to bathe the souls of their enemies in blood all for their so-called-quest to become the strongest. They have no remorse...No thought of the consequences of their actions. They end lives with no hesitance. We all know the stories of even the so called: 'Bringer of Light'. The wizard who 'saved' the Spiral...and ended the lives of nearly half of Khyrsalis, disturbed the rest of the undead from their graves only to destroy their souls in the quest of a few items, took the souls of hundreds of creatures to create copies of them to fight and kill at their leisure, and the King knows what else.

I remember the dying scream of my brother, Sir Agravaine, as That Wizard mercilessly slaughtered him and left him to die in the lonely tower...The blood pooling onto a floor not unlike the one I crouch upon now is fresh in my mind, the sharp smell stinging my nose and the red crept across the floor to greet me like an old lover, staining both my clothes and my memories as I rushed to his aid only to hear his dying wish of a perfect kingdom for his king.

They're all sick, demented, and twisted beings...

I shake the memories from my thoughts, instead looking exhaustedly at the bars in front of me. My arms are aching from being held above my head for so long, and I fear I can no longer feel my wrists that are so brutishly chafed from the metal chains that keep them pressed against the cold stone. I try to stretch my jaw to relieve the pressure on my teeth, but the tight leather that bounds my muzzle is unrelenting. However, above the uncomfortableness of my restraints, I must say that the most unsettling is the cold of this room. It's a constant chill that sets in through my bared fur, and whatever clothes I might have had to shield me from it were taken when I arrived. I suppose they figured I might have made use of the buckles or hid something in my clothing, but regardless of their train of thoughts, my bushy tail is nothing more than a comfort to my modesty instead of a makeshift shield from the cold.

"Is that the one, Valerian?"

My gaze snaps toward the barred door, and a low growl rumbles in the depths of my throat at the familiar sight of my captor beside a strange man in even stranger clothing. It doesn't take long to deduce that his companion is also a wizard.

"Yeah. She snuck into my home about a month ago, and I caught her poisoning my food with Nightshade Berries. She tried to take off through the window, but I managed to stun her and throw her through the magic mirror," muttered my captor.

Valerian Legendmancer: my brother's murderer and a renowned storm wizard in the spiral. I hadn't been prepared for his ice attack, nor had I been prepared for him to port into his home so suddenly. His uniform has changed since the last time I saw him, but it's still the same trademark purple and yellow, and his wide-brimmed hat still sports an obnoxious feather.

"You think she's from Avalon?" asks the new wizard. He's about Valerian's height, decked in a yellow and blue cloaked doublet and lacking in a hat (his hair sticking up wildly like the grasses of the Wild).

With a chuckle, Valerian gestures to me through the bars. "Look at her! She's a humanoid fox, for the love of the Spiral! Where else would she be from?"

"Dunno. With all the crossbreeding and spiral travelers, you can never know anymore. But why would someone from Avalon be after you? I mean, you saved the King, for crying out loud!" He huffed at Valerian's shrug of an answer and then dared to press his face closer to the bars in order to get a better look at me. "Whatcha going to do with her? She looks mighty scares, she does."

With my ears flattened against my skull and the gutteral growl echoing off the walls of my cell, I figure I do make an awfully threatening image, and I can't help but feel my bosom swell with pride at his statement.

"I guess I could just tweak one of my spells to collect her animus. She'd probably make a good opponent in the monstrodome."

Everything froze. My chest became tight with horror, eyes widening in their sockets as I fell silent and my breath caught. He was going to extract my..?

NO!

I snapped from my sitting position against the wall and quickly leapt to my feet, lunging toward the bars with a muted roar fury. I didn't think about my restraints.

I didn't think about the bars. I didn't think about anything. The anger inside me had boiled over, and I suppose it was that anger that had allowed me the force to snap the chains from the wall and once my hands were free, they seemed to find their way to the fabric of Valerian's robe. Within seconds, we pressed against each other through the bars, both our eyes wide for different reasons but nonetheless locked together. I could feel his warmth through my thick coat, feel his puny chest heaving as he took each panicked breath and his soft human skin as slowly ripped through the delicate fabric of his robe from the force of my hold on him.

I imagined that if I could rip off the leather from muzzle I could bury my teeth into his throat and feel him squirm as the blood poured out as it had from my brother. I imagined his screams in my ears as I took his life to repay for the many he had taken. But all I could do was barely lift my lips in order to hiss through my teeth: "Don't touch me, murderer.."

"VALERIAN!"

The brutal blast of the other wizard's wand hit me in the side, throwing me back against the wall with a dreadful SMACK! Valerian tumbled back against the ground, landing on his back and slowly getting to his elbows as he watched me crumble to the ground with a dead weight. My head was spinning, throbbing even from the force of its impact on the stone wall. Nausea set in, and the room grew darker as I watched Valerian's friend rush to his side in order to help him stand. He was obviously still dazed from my attack, and he swallowed nervously as he gazed at my limp form gasping on the ground.

"I'm fine...I'm fine..." he muttered, blinking stupidly as he got to his feet and stared.

"Holy shit, she's freaking crazy man!"

Breasts pressing against the cold ground with every strained breath, I shuddered and managed a tired grin despite the leather.

Crazy, huh?

And then the world slipped into a dark darker than anything I had ever known...