Chapter 1: Hound and Fox

The silence of a dark snowy forest was frightening and very cold. All that can be heard were the sound of water hitting the ground by the harsh winds of rain. Near the region of Wolfling, weather here happens on many occasion mostly for reasons. Sunny means its normal, Snow mean it a sad and cruel day, and Rain for just pain. Now today was different because a single person was walking down a path full of wet grass and dirt and has been walking for about an hour now.

"Heh its been raining all day today. Seriously when is it gonna let up?" said the half human/hound hybrid.

The human hybrid's name is Dex. Dex grew in a small village outside Wolfling where he was looked at as different from his other people. His race were part of the dog family known as Hounds. Hounds were the most fierce and unstable people of the region because of their hunting habits where they kill their prey very viciously and leave nothing of it. They had a small village of their own after being labeled as dangerous to their own kind and were moved out of the land. Over the years, the Hounds settled and found peace at where they were at. Dex's parents mother died the day he was born and his father abandoned him at the age of 5 so he grew up on his own. He had a hard time growing up because of his appearance. Where he would looked like everybody else in his village he had an ability to shift into a full human. He was considered as a hybrid as his villagers called him and was always blamed for any trouble in his village. Today was no different, he was accused of hurting innocents for not controlling his urges to hunt. He had enough and decided to leave his so called home and is now traveling alone far away there as possible.

"Well at least I don't to go back to that god forsaken messed up place I call home." Dex said emotionlessly. Dex was glad he left, he could be finally be free of all the hate and blame that put on him.

The rain started pouring down harder and harder drenching his outfit. "Dang its coming down really bad. I better find an abandoned cabin or home or anything to keep me from getting soaked." Dex exclaimed.

He ran for the next 10 minutes and within distance he sees a small cabin up ahead and sprints as fast as he could to get inside. After getting inside the cabin he shouts to see if anybody was home."Hello, Helloooooo, anybody live here?" he shouted, but all that was heard in the cabin was silence. He check the place out and got a good look of how it look. The layout was with 2 doors front and back across from each other, in the middle of the cabin to his right was a fireplace and two sets of furniture that looks like a wooden chair and cotton made couch that looked like it hasn't been used for months. As he looks to his left he sees a kitchen with an oven below a microwave hanging up top. To the left of it about 5-6 feet from it was a sink that was clean besides all the webs in it. He sees two room next to the kitchen, within the first room was a dresser with a lamp and a bed inside it, there where no windows in it. On the other side of the room was a bathroom that was also dirty and he didn't want to think about how dirty is was. As he finally finished looked around he sighed exhaustedly and said " Well its better than nothing. The only thing cleaned was the bed and the couch other than that this place needs to get clean". He then looked at his outfit and realized how soaked he was and needed a shower. He wore greyish collar jacket with two small straps from the right that stops near the middle with a checkered black and yellow handkerchief around his dark-skinned neck. He also wears a black shirt underneath with orange yellow handless gloves with beige like pants with sky blue cuffs and black colored boots with blue outlines. Just as Dex was about to unpack his bag and take a shower he hears knocking on the front door.

His ears perked up from the top of his greyish-blue hair at the sound as soon as he heard the first knock. He thought it was nothing but the rain coming down and continued to go back to his original but then he heard the knocking again and it was louder than before. He then decided to get up and walk towards the door. As he grabs the handle and open the door he sees a girl about his age just as soaked as him. She shivers from the cold as she stands under the roof of the door and quickly asks him if she could come in. He moves to the side letting her step in and closes the door.

"Hang on, I'll start a fire so you can warm up." Dex says. After starting some sparks in the fireplace and giving off some heat, he got a better look at the girl from the small light in the room. She had pale ginger hair that was pulled up into a ponytail, tips of her hair were a dark maroon color and her bangs were swept to the right. She wore a red shirt and blue jacket trimmed with white and zipper undone and had sleeves going from fingers to the tip of her shoulders. She wore blue jeans that were cuffed up around the top of her black boots like his and had a blue and white checkered pocket handkerchief hanging from the left side of her waist. She was red lined around her blue cobalt eyes that looked amazing. He also notice her extra features on her head and back, she had fox like ears and tail. He wondered if she was a hybrid like him but he couldn't just straight ask her it would be awkward and strange since he just met hair.

"Hey can you please stop staring at me its getting a little embarrassing and it doesn't look like your face is doing so well either." She said with a blushed face. As soon as she said that Dex felt his face and she was right, he was flustered too. He let out a yelp and looked back at the fireplace instead. "Sorry" he says not looking straight at her.

"Its okay. Thank you for letting me staying in for the night although I think you could do a better job with keeping this place clean." She replied. Dex got confused at first but then understand what she meant.

"Oh this isn't my place, I was just looking for a place to hang out in until the rain let up." He says.

"Wait you mean this isn't your own cabin, I clearly thought it was since I was following for about a half an hour?" she asked. Dex then looked at her like she was crazy and said " Why were you following me, wait you're not a stalker are you?"

"WHAT no, I didn't follow you like a stalker ok that's just weird and..." she hesitates saying her next sentence "I followed because I had nowhere else to go" she finished.

Dex then looked at her and saw the expression on her face, it show pain, sadness but mostly loneliness, just like his. Dex calmed down and wondered how she change from being calm and talkative to being sad and hurt. He then notices that she is still shivering from the cold even with the fireplace lit so he gets up and takes off his jacket leaving only his black shirt and gloves on him. He walks over to her and hands her his jacket to wear. She looks at him and was about to ask him why he is handing her his jacket until he answers "Here, I think you need it more then me." Her eyes widened at his answer. This was the first time someone was being nice to her since she lost her father when she was little. She looks at the jacket and then back at him and accepts his offer and says "Thank you."She puts his jacket along with her hoodie on and feels the amount of heat it still hold after being soaked in rain.

"Earlier you said that you have no place to go, is that true?" Dex asks. The fox girl then frowns after he said that. Dex then realized what he asked and said "Sorry I didn't mean it like that, I want to help you get home or somewhere so you have a place to stay." She widens her eyes again at his words and wonders if he was different from all the other people she encountered in her life. She giggled and replied "You would really do that for someone you just met, wow your really nice you know. And cute. She said those last two words in her head with a blush on her cheeks and saw Dex's own cheeks light up as well. Dex then tells her "Well yeah I wouldn't want to leave someone like you to be alone without having a place to stay." She says "Well once again thank you for your kindness and for helping." Dex says "No problem."

" Oh right I haven't introduced myself to you yet have I? My name is Daina its nice to meet you" she says with a warm smile on her face. Dex then smiles back at her and replies "Nice to meet you the names Dex. Well I think we should get this cleaned up and find something to eat before nightfall don't you think?"

Daina asks "Yes it would be good to sleep in a clean decent cabin then a dirty one wouldn't it, how about we first clean this place up first and then find something to eat what do you think?"

"Sounds like a plan to me. Let's do it" Dex says with determination getting another giggle out of Daina. So Dex and Daina get to cleaning the cabin and while they were doing it they both had one thought on their minds saying the same thing.

"I finally made a friend. I hope he/she doesn't judge me for who I am when I reveal myself to him/her" they both thought.

Next Time on G.H.O: Hidden Blood Families

Chapter 2: Broken Masks