Anger and Authority

Chapter 1: Another Like Me

It had been a week since Lloyd had parted company with Madison and Julian and he had finally arrived at Regina. Unlike his first attempt to travel by foot, Lloyd had not had any problems surviving this trip because he knew more about the world he was in and also thanks to the money that Julian had given him, which he still had plenty of, which allowed him to afford the supplies he needed to survive. Surprisingly Kero had not blown their cover on this trip so far which meant aside from the stares he got from his odd appearance, the trip had been relatively uneventful.

At the moment Kero was asleep in his backpack at the moment; the backpack was devoid of food as they had eaten the last of it for lunch a couple hours ago. Knowing he'd have to get supplies here, and considering it was already the mid afternoon, Lloyd decided that he'd try and find a place to stay for the night. Not having anything better to do for the moment, he decided to look around the city for a bit.

After a while of wandering, and receiving a few odd looks, though less than he had gotten in other towns; the bear wandered for a while until he found himself in a relatively empty part of the city.

"Considering what time of day it is, and the fact that no one is around, this must be a residential area. Huh?" Lloyd caught wind of people yelling a short distance off. Deciding to investigate, he followed the sounds of them yelling and eventually he could pick out what they were saying.

"Take that!"

"That's what you get for what you did!"

"Just try and beg for mercy!"

It was apparent to anyone, especially Lloyd that the people shouting were ganging up on someone. It because even more obvious when he rounded and alley corner and found half-a-dozen people surrounding and attacking someone, who was obscured from view. Feeling a strong desire to aid the suffering person, Lloyd raised his voice.

"Hey, what are you doing!" the small group promptly turned, one of them, a muscular teenager, said.

"Look, another one."

"He must be this guy's friend, get him!" Without knowing why, the group charged at Lloyd. Most would have been frightened by this, but the years of training Lloyd had been through meant he was well prepared for this sort of situation. When the first boy came at him, Lloyd dodged and delivered a swift punch to his chest, bowling him over, the next one came in lower and Lloyd tripped his up with a low kick. The next two came at him together, Lloyd ducked and knocked them down but striking their legs with his outstretched arms.

Seeing how easily the newcomer took down their friends, the last two stopped trying to attack and instead one of them shouted.

"Let's get out of here I don't want to deal with this little freak." Though the thugs were in pain, Lloyd's assault had caused no permanent harm or left any marks and the six people quickly ran off.

"That was boring now let's see how this victim of theirs is doing." Lloyd was in for a major surprise when he saw the victim, who was standing up and dusting himself off, because it was a small red fox with a heart shaped nose on the end of his muzzle, species and color aside, he looked just like Lloyd. Wondering if this was what his sense had led his here for, Lloyd walked over to the fox.

"Are you alright?" Lloyd asked. What he received was a snap from the fox.

"I'm fine! I could have taken care of them in a just a couple moments. I had them right where I wanted them." Lloyd was both surprised, and ticked at the fox's attitude.

"Really, from the looks of it you were their punching bag until I came along," Lloyd replied, trying to keep the anger out his voice.

"Well you could have just kept moving," the fox looked up at Lloyd, "you sort of look like me, who are you anyways?"

"My name is Lloyd Terada, and who are you?"

"It's Alex Kitun," the red fox replied.

"How did you get like that?" Lloyd asked.

"If you mean like you then how should I know? I've been like this as long as I can remember."

'My father said that I would find others like me, I bet that Alex here is one of the ones he was talking about,' Lloyd thought to himself. Considering that Alex seemed uninterested in continuing the conversation, Lloyd turned and walked away. Alex noticed this and said, rather calmly.

"Do you have a place to stay?"

"No, I'm new here in Regina," Lloyd replied.

"Then why not come and stay with me, I've got a lot of space." Lloyd smiled, maybe Alex wasn't so bad after all.

The walk to Alex's home was uneventful and silent as the two of them refrained from talking. When they arrived, Lloyd noted that the house was in a fairly good neighbourhood on the corner of a street that was near a school, a fire department, and a couple of convenience stores. The house itself was situated on a wide rounded corner of a street called Knight Crescent and had the number 15 in gold lettering next to the door, which was situated about a meter off the group on the wall with stairs leading up to a small front deck in front of the door.

Once they reached the door, Alex pulled some keys out of his pockets and unlocked it before letting the two of them in. Before they entered, they heard the boom of thunder from the west and they both looked in the direction of the sounds, seeing dark clouds rapidly coming to cover what was currently a clear sky over their heads.

"'The Land of the Living Skies' strikes again," Alex said, a bit miffed. Lloyd felt a tingle in the back of his head, the kind he felt whenever a Clow Card was nearby. Ignoring it for the moment he asked.

"The Land of the Living Skies?"

"It's the motto of the Province of Saskatchewan, it means that our weather patterns can be quite random, especially in the summer. We better get inside before the storm starts."

The inside of Alex's house was sparsely furnished, the living room (which the front door lead straight into) only had a couch which was under three large windows each divided by a metal bar, a coffee table the looked like some sort of chest and a fairly large television situated on top of a small but sturdy table.

"I have cable so we can keep ourselves occupied for a while," Alex said, but Lloyd wasn't listening, instead he was staring out the large windows over the couch at the incoming storm, he knew there was a Clow Card behind it and he hoped Kero had sensed it as well.