"True love has no boundaries"

Chapter One

"Sleep, Todd."

"May you sleep long."

"Forever sleep."

"Yes! Sleep!"

"Never wake up!"

"You dare close your eyes!"

"Eternal sleep!"

"Let me be your own!"

"Fall into my grasp."

"Write down the memories!"

"Use Me!"

The fox sat up as fast as a slash from a blade. His eyes, covered by circular shades, peered through the dark lenses, reaching onto anything that gave off any source of light. Suddenly, he breathed a sigh of relief. He put his hands onto his face as his shoulders sunk down to a relaxed stance.

"Almighty," he whispered. "What's happening to me?"

Re-parting his hair down the center, he pushed the bangs away from his eyes. As he raised his gaze upward, he noticed the moon, waning in a bitter dance of darkness and light, floating above him. Her light cast shadows down to the forests below – the Unonian forests, the forests all too familiar to him. He had no reason to fear the landscape, yet the fur on his tail told a different story.

"What is this curse?" he spoke again, though louder. He had no idea who he was speaking to, but an answer from anyone or anything would soothe his spirit for nights to come. "Why must I carry this burden?"

Next to his side was a bundle of cloth. His brow furrowed under the protection of his shades as he reached a hand over, but then quickly pulled it back.

"I hate you."

With a black-booted foot, he shoved the bundle aside. He wished he could destroy it – burn it in hellfire, or slash it to pieces with the impressive weapon on the opposite side of where he lay. Yet none of these options were feasible, at least not in his case. The only comfort he had was that it was covered.

"Todd?"

Looking over his shoulder, the thin vulpine male peered into the darkness. "Yes?"

"What's wrong?"

He breathed slowly out of his nose as the freezing smoke kissed the night air. "Nothing."

"Just because I'm blind doesn't mean I can't tell what's going on. What is it?"

With a jerk, he wrapped his thin black leather trench coat closer to his body. The many studded bracelets that adorned his arm clinked along with the buckles on his black boots peering from the cuffs of his pants. Coupled with his pants – loose and dark brown in color – and his sleeveless black t-shirt underneath, he was a prime example of urban poverty in Uno. "Just a bad dream." He moved over, but suddenly paused. He sighed. "And…"

"You miss Elena." A hand extended from the mooncast shadow and grasped his shoulder. "She misses you too, Todd."

"No she doesn't. She's content without me. Probably threw away that crucifix necklace I bought for her eighteenth birthday." He moved a spidery finger in the grass-laden dirt. "What do I have that she'd want anyway? What do I have to offer her?"

"Fair heart never won fair maiden."

"But losers don't stand a chance against any task."

"Loser?" The body scooted closer until it was in full view. Another fox, just as emaciated as Todd, wore a sleeveless leather trench coat, brown shirt, and black pants. Though he was blind, he managed to keep his appearance to high standards despite his long, straight black hair. "A man who's defeated droves of men in a matter of minutes? Who uses the heretic guardian staff and whips it faster than the torrential Unonian storms? A man skilled in the ancient arts of the Chaljsko? Impossible."

Todd grabbed his long staff, checking the axe-like blade and the dagger-like blade positioned at opposite ends. "What drives me to fight anymore? With Fox gone and half our nation destroyed, what can I do, Joshuo?"

As Todd swiped the staff in front of his companion, Joshuo grabbed it in mid-swing. "You fight. Because you can."

"But why? What's the use anymore? Any battle from here on out is only in vain."

"Then you fight in vain! You fight for what is good, or you succumb to evil. You have the choice: to be a patriot or a bastard to your own nation."

"I am a patriot."

"A patriot never gives up for his people."

Clenching his teeth, Todd blinked hard. "But the longer I prolong it, the more my people die."

"Your people?" Joshuo flung the end of his staff back at him. "You're giving up on them and now they're your people?"

"I don't want them to die!"

"Then you'll fight for them!" he shouted. "You'll fight because you love them! You don't want them to be slaves to this evil!" He paused, searching the ground with his bare hands. "After all, you were a slave to evil before! You remember!"

Todd looked at the ground, turning to the bundle of cloth next to him.

Finally, Joshuo's hand met Todd's arm. "You remember. Against your own will, but you remember. And may you never forget it."

"Enough!" Todd blasted. "I can't ever forget it! It's with me until I die!"

"And you want to give up on the people?" He shook Todd's arm. "Fight! Do it! Do it because they may suffer the same fate as you!"

Todd turned away. "They must never feel that kind of pain."

"Then you will fight for them," he hissed. "You are a slave to goodness now."

"The Almighty's words state good sets one free."

"Then may you earn your freedom."

Focusing on the ground dotted with leaves, grass and roots, Todd bit his lip, unsure how to retort his adopted brother's response. However, with a pound in the soil, he knew he was right. He sighed dejectedly.

"Don't you understand?" Joshuo barked. "You've been chosen to do remarkable things in your life. Things no one else can do, and no one else ever will do. You hold the future now."

"But Fox?"

"What about him? He's gone, isn't he?"

Todd's face hardened into a grimace. "No. He's not gone. Our king would never give up on any of us. Ever."

"Where is he now?"

Biting his lip, he was surprised at how his "brother" was reasoning with him. He was even more surprised to feel his fists tighten, like he was readying himself to strike him in the misty night. "You don't know Fox like I do, Joshuo."

"And no one knows you like I do, Todd." He paused to take off his shades. "Ever since we were nine, when your parents accepted me into your house. You are the one now, and you know it!"

"No!" Todd shouted. His tone made his adopted brother cower slightly. "I'm not like that!"

"You are!" he hissed. "And you have in your possession the one object of power you can use to destroy McRasko, the Mafia, and any other threat to Unonian freedom!"

"No! It's not like that at all, Joshuo!"

"Yes!" he screamed. "Yes. If you would only use it!"

Todd shook his head. "Never. I must never do that. To do that would be pure evil. I would never be the same again. I would become what I want to destroy!"

Immediately the blind fox crept up on all fours, sensing the ground with his hands. His broken eyes opened slightly as his eyebrows moved up and down in intense thought. "If you won't, then I will make you!" His last word was coupled with his hands grasping the cloth and its contents. "Now!"

Todd reached over and stabbed his adopted brother in the hand with his staff. As he screamed and groaned in pain, the bundle fell to the ground in a slight tumble. Todd completely ignored the cries and sprung over a pile of decomposing roots to nab the fallen package. Scanning it with his eyes, he breathed a sigh of relief as the strings tying the cloth together were still intact.

"You fool!" Todd shouted. "You don't know what this is!"

Joshuo wrung out his hand as crimson blood trickled down his arm, displaying his unusual tolerance of pain. "Neither do you! You only know what it has done to you before. But now, now that you're in control of it…"

"It is irrefutably evil!"

"Then how will you free Uno, eh?" He whipped his hand at Todd as blood spattered on his leather trench coat. "How?"

"I must never give into it."

Joshuo gritted his teeth. "Fine."

As the blind one continued to nurse his hand, Todd stood from where he sat, using his impressive staff, complete with blades so strong and so sharp they looked able to cut the very soul of a man with a single swipe. Stretching slightly, his cold face gazed up at the moon, lighting the area with a satisfactory glow.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to save Uno," Todd replied. "And… find Elena. I must find her again." He sighed. "I hope she forgives me. Heck, I hope she remembers me."

"Well, I hope you still have time for a blind man to tag along."

Todd held out a hand as the man grabbed it. He brushed himself off, then turned to Todd, who put thick shades back on the blind fox's face. "You must trust me. Fox McCloud trusted me before he even knew me, but I never gave him a reason for him not to. All I ask is that you listen to me and trust what I say is true."

Joshuo nodded. "Don't forget your… your past."

Todd blinked under his circular shades as he bent down to pick up the bundle of cloth. "I won't ever do that, because I can't." Turning to his left, he noticed a young jaku tree stretching next to where he stood amidst a sea of vegetation, vines and wooded sprawl. In an instant, he grabbed one of the branches and tore it off the trunk.

"You forgot it for months, until I finally delivered it to you in the palace."

"No," Todd said as he shook his head. "I never forgot about it. But I knew I would find it again. I also knew you'd give it back to me." Using his staff, he sliced off the outlying branches from the limb, hacking away at the cut knobs and trying to make it as smooth as possible.

"How did you know?"

He handed Joshuo the stick. "I knew because I am always reminded of it." He started walking through the grove of trees, carefully stepping around any obstacles missed by the guiding stick of his adopted brother. As they came to a low-lying branch, he displayed a more gentle nature as he lifted a branch slightly out of the way, making sure the blind fox passed with ease.

"Where are we going?" inquired Joshuo.

"To Cavask," Todd replied. "We need to unite the Chaljsko fighters. You may not like us, but we truly do protect all Unonians. Mafians tremble at the thought of one in battle, image five thousand! Imagine what we could do if we finally came together!"

"Unite the order of old," Joshuo said with a hint of awe. "The Holy Order of Chaljsko fighters? Perhaps even the Da'velu? May you do it."

"It will be done."

- Picture of Todd McEdek (done by Kusari): www.hostpic.biz/uploads/fbdbebd1f1.jpg