"Day breaks. The rising sun sets ablaze the canopy of a vast forest made up of giant, evergreen trees, an ancient, verdant city, its buildings and towers entangled with each other through thick, arching limbs. A lone figure transits on this web of branches, skillfully making its way along the green streets. It's a young fox, her fur as bright as the morning sun, and her hair, like a blue flame streaming from her head as she passes by. Light on her feet and lithe of body, her woodland glide gives off the nonchalance of being second-nature."
"I can hear you, you know." Said a young, male fox, dressed in boots and a red tank-top with a reversed letter F emblazoned on it. Tying up his blue hair in a ponytail, the fox peeked out from the dense brush he had concealed himself in. It took him a few seconds to register what he had just done. He scowled. "This sucks." He sighed, as his shoulders slumped and he lowered his weapon, a bow he was carrying. Behind him, standing much shorter than her victim, our would-be narrator had her own arrow pointed at the back of his head.
The vixen put away her weapon in one swift motion, making sure to add visual flair to the maneuver. "You completely gave away your position, Raven." Arms akimbo and shifting her weight to her left foot, she continued. "Your suckitude as a hunter truly knows no bounds, lil' big bro." The girl smiled blithely, jabbing her index finger into his chest with each syllable. "I'm. Better. Than. You."
Raven grabbed the offending finger with his left hand, squeezing and bending it back lightly. "Excuse you?" he asked incredulously, applying more pressure to the accusing digit. "And besides," he began, as he slowly bent his sister's finger further back, "just about the only thing you didn't tell me in your little tirade was your coordinates, Saffox."
Knees shaking, Saffox still managed to hold on to her smile. "Well," she said, with some difficulty, "the difference is, if I s-scream into your left ear… y-you still wouldn't know where it CAME FROM!" she finished screaming, launching her free hand towards his chest and locating her target.
Two howls filled the forest, breaking the peace that usually accompanies a purple dawn. Raven lay on his back, clutching his chest in pain. The Purple Nurple had made him see stars. He had valiantly tried to stop it by forcefully snapping back Saffox's finger to near breaking point, but nippular contact had already been established. They both lay on the forest floor, a bed of moss and dense underbrush, like fallen warriors, warriors whose nipples and fingers had been painfully twisted. As he lay there, waiting for the throbbing pain to recede, Raven couldn't help but wonder the tally on how many times their arguments ended in petty, middle-school violence. 'More often than not.' quickly passed through his mind.
Raven sat up after regaining feeling, and watched with subdued satisfaction as his sister alternated between pressing her finger into her fist with her other hand and flicking it in the air, two age-old techniques for pain-relief passed down throughout the generations. Raven blinked. 'That… That doesn't sound right.'
Saffox turned to her brother. "You know, just because you're jealous of me, doesn't mean you can pick on me like this. It's part of life." She shrugged. "The sky is blue, birds fly, water is wet, and I'm awesome- that's just the way things are." Clearly in no danger of running out of hubris anytime soon, Saffox got up, dusting off some leaves that had stuck to her bright orange fur.
Raven got up as well, and walked up to his short counterpart. "Sis, I know how much you get off thinking that you're a gift sent down from the heavens, and I'd hate to burst your bubble… Actually, no, I'd love that."
Saffox sighed and tsk-ed dramatically. "Dear brother… You're much too young to understand the subtleties, the nuances to my sheer awesomeness, let alone my incredible sexiness." Saffox struck a pose, failing to drive her point across her audience.
Raven crossed his arms. "Yeah, I'll bet that's why you forgot to mention your sexy, sexy flat chest in your little never-ending story, right? And, uh, I was born a minute after you." Raven always had good ammo against his sister's heightened sense of self-worth.
Saffox twitched at the comment, and then crossed her arms, mirroring her twin brother. She furrowed her brow, and the fur on her tail puffed up slightly. "I've told you many times- I just haven't had my growth spurt yet." She averted her gaze to the left after her statement… It's hard to look somebody in the eyes when you know they know you've just served them a steaming pile of a lie. "Besides," she turned her eyes toward him while still facing away, "you've never beat me at anything. Ever. I'm a better hunter, fighter, pilot and mechanic than you." She turned her head to face him, her tail subconsciously wagging. "Pretty much the only thing you've got me beat at is how much time you spend preening."
The male fox scoffed, running his hand through his well-kept locks. "Beauty like mine is achieved. Earned. And I'm still bigger and stronger than you." He stepped up to his much shorter sister, as if to drive home his point. He looked down at her, and she looked up at him with a defiant stare. "Case in point: my draw with the bow is longer than yours will ever be. Let's see…" he turned his head from side to side, scanning the forest. "That dead tree over there." He said, pointing at a large husk some distance from where they stood. "We both shoot our arrows, and I can assure you mine lands a lot higher on that tree than yours will."
Saffox looked at the tree with a very unimpressed look in her sapphire eyes. "Is that a fact?" She unclipped her bow from the back of her belt. "You ARE a sucker for punishment, aren't you? All the prettiness in the world won't make you a better archer, you know." She nocked an arrow, and waited for her brother to do the same.
"It's a good thing, though, otherwise you'd be a lost cause as an archer." He nocked and drew the arrow. "On the count of three. One…"
Saffox did not appreciate the comment. When the count reached three and her brother fired, she quickly stepped in front of him and shot her own arrow in the direction of Raven's projectile, intercepting it and knocking it out of its trajectory. Her arrow landed high on the tree, but Raven's arrow fell short by a few meters. "Hmm. Such a shame." Saffox commented, as she put away her bow.
Raven blinked a few times. His mouth hung open, very inviting for any stray flies that might be transiting the surrounding airspace. "What the hell! What the hell was that?" he alternated between looking at his sister and the fallen arrow with a look of disbelief plastered on his face.
Saffox had a very smug aura surrounding her. "I've got more weight on my drawstring, so I would've won anyways. I just needed to put you in your place. Nobody likes a braggart."
It took a lot of effort for Raven not to back-hand her right then and there. He had a tendency to lose to Saffox whenever they got into a brawl. He settled for something more mature than violence. He stuck his tongue out at her.
Saffox's fur bristled. A challenge had been issued. The die had been cast. The first move had been made. A lingual bitch-slap. It was on.
The battle lasted for at least two hours. All sorts of facial contortions had been launched- from the kindergarten classic of the moose ears, to the potentially damaging pulling of the mouth and eyelids, to rather offensive hand gestures usually reserved for professional sports. Babbling sounds and 'this is you' comparisons had also seen extensive use and effective application. In the end, there was no clear winner, but such is the case in any war.
Growing tired of their game, they decided to retrieve their arrows and finish this another time. The sun was already well on its way up and the forest had already started playing its background music of random animal and insect calls, nature's play list. After picking up Raven's errant arrow, they continued to the huge tree carcass they had used as target practice. Raven felt uneasy walking towards the large chunk of fungi fertilizer, seeing as he could feel the lichen-covered ground underneath him soften up the closer they got. 'Probably rotted like the rest of the tree…' he thought as he reached it. Saffox climbed up on his shoulders to reach her arrow and started carefully removing it so as not to leave the arrowhead inside the bark. 'Can ground rot though? I don't think it…' Raven's train of thought was rudely interrupted by the fact that there was actually no ground underneath him. 'Seems to have given way… Hmm.'
Saffox got up dazed in a mess of arrows. 'Must have fallen out of our quivers… Guess it's good that I didn't land on any of 'em.' Some leaves were still slowly descending upon her from the hole they had fallen through. It was a sizeable drop, but fortunately her brother was underneath and took a good deal of the impact when he landed face-first. He probably didn't appreciate that she had fallen on her back on top of him, but that's life. "Thanks for breaking my fall, lil' big bro." she said, giving him a peck on the back of his head. She ignored the muffled "Thanks for breaking my back." reply she got.
Taking a few steps into the darkness of the cave they had fallen into, Saffox didn't have to wait long for her eyes to transition from cones to rods as she got farther from the only light source, their fox-made intrusion into the grotto. Her nose was a different matter though- the smell of old and dank was nearly making her eyes water. 'This isn't a natural hollow.' she looked around, noting that the walls of the small cavern were comprised of the immense roots that once supported the now-rotted tree. 'Doesn't seem like digging this hollow was what killed the tree though...'
'Is somebody… somebody there?' A voice.
Saffox quickly jerked her head, trying to find the source of the unfamiliar voice. "Who said that?"
Raven stirred in the small crater he had made, but still remained face-down in the dirt. "Groan… Who said what…?"
Saffox shushed her brother, as her body tensed and her ears perked.
'Please… I need your help…'
"Well, if I knew where you were…" Saffox said, relaxing her body and placing her hands on her waist. "And, what am I getting out of helping you, anyways?"
'Please… I… I am trapped… Step forward…'
It almost seemed like the voice was originating from within her head. Either way, she complied, and after walking forward a few meters, she could make out what looked like a large, black gem, set on a pedestal. Saffox squinted. 'Ok, a talking gem?' she voiced internally.
'Please, step closer… I am trapped… Inside…'
Saffox hesitated for a second. Curiosity killed the cat, not the fox. As she closed the space between her and the gem, her mind was going a mile a minute, wondering how one would manage trapping oneself inside a mineral. 'Seems like it would require equal amounts of supernatural skill and stupidity.' Saffox thought honestly, as her hand reached for the gem.
'Or, maybe I'm not trapped as much as I am imprisoned.'
Before Saffox could register what the voice had said, the gem glowed intensely, completely dazzling Saffox, whose eyes were already used to the dark. Just as quick, a bolt of black energy shot from the gem and into Saffox's outstretched right arm. Although showing no signs of external damage, Saffox howled in pain as the energy enveloped her; her eyes rolled back and she started foaming at the mouth. Ok, so we can agree that not only is curiosity an effective cat killer, but it also screws over foxes really well.
"Saffox!" screamed Raven, rushing over to his sister and grabbing her. The energy quickly engulfed him as well, but not before he managed to throw his sister's light frame away from the pedestal. Not a moment too soon, as Raven quickly succumbed to the onslaught and collapsed to the ground, convulsing.
Saffox, still trembling and almost blinded by the pain, quickly got up to aid her brother. She ran at top speed, nearly tripping twice, and with that same momentum grabbed the gem from the pedestal, and swinging it around for added force, smashed it into the ground with as much strength as she could muster. The energy exploded and discharged into the air, running up the walls of the cave and then dispersing and disappearing. Both siblings collapsed.
Saffox felt besides herself. She felt like she was watching a movie, as many images played before her. They were not pleasant images, most of them involved death, general destruction, and in some cases, torture. The way the images played, it seemed to her that she was the instigator, but that couldn't be. There were many people she was sure she had never met, and others that she recognized, but much, much younger. For example, an unmistakable blue hedgehog was looking at her with pure hatred in his eyes, and in his arms, a yellow flying squirrel with his face a bloody mess. Looks like somebody shot him in the face. The hedgehog gently put his friend down, and before Saffox could react, a spinning blue blur had very, very quickly closed the distance between them.
Saffox woke up with a gasp and a small scream. She looked around nervously. Ah, yes. Cave. Gem. Smash. Boom. 'A dream. Figures.' She mused, calming down. She patted herself down, glad to find herself uninjured. Chills suddenly ran down her spine. She could feel a third presence in the hollow. It felt very… ubiquitous. Slapping away the remnant drowsiness, Saffox rose to her feet. "Bro? Bro, are you alright?"
"Now this won't do at all…"
Saffox turned around, facing the voice's general direction. "Raven? Are you ok, lil' big bro?" Saffox stepped back a bit as the origin of the voice rose to his feet. He was between her and the opening they had recently added to the roof of the cave, which served to bathe his outline in light while the rest of him remained pretty much obscured. She'd applaud the cool-looking effect if it wasn't for the fact that there was something very wrong going on.
"I believe we aren't finished here." Raven said, almost wheezing the sentence out.
Saffox stepped back, very quickly running into a wall. 'Wow,' she mused, 'not even enough space to really get some suspense going.'
Raven's outline seemed bigger, even though he was walking hunched over and in a very awkward manner, almost as if he was learning to walk again. The fact that his eyes glowed red instead of night-vision blue was also very disconcerting. "You know, you were right, Miles." Raven grinned toothily. Even his fangs seemed bigger.
Saffox very seldom heard her given name. Her fur bristled as she bared her fangs and changed her stance lightly, adopting a more aggressive position. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Raven started regaining his composure. "What's with that attitude, sis? I'm just saying you were right about you being better than me..."
"Go on..." Saffox replied, trying to gauge her chances of making past her brother and making it to the cave's exit. Somehow, his presence made the opening seem much more farther than it really was.
Raven took another step forward. "Stronger than me, faster than me… No doubt about it, I didn't stand a chance before…"
The short vixen was really, really wishing the wall hadn't come so soon. "Good to know you're finally realizing your own short-comings, lil' big bro… Now, why don't you back off? I don't really want to beat you for the third time today…"
"You know what," he paused, "'lil' big sis? I'm feeling pretty good about my chances right now. Can't say the same for you, though."
Saffox twitched. She hated her abilities being questioned. "Oh please, you KNOW that you'll nev-" Saffox never got to finish her sentence, as Raven took a forceful swipe to her side, sending her careening into another wall. Saffox gasped loudly, the wind and a couple of ribs knocked out of place, and she quickly half-crawled half-ran towards the opening, where she tripped over herself and face-planted where her brother had first fallen into the cave.
"That's a nice look for you sis…" Raven chuckled throatily, calmly making his way to where Saffox had scurried. "on your knees, begging for mercy…" He stopped, centimeters from where his sister lay. Of course, he didn't expect a back kick into his crotch. Certainly didn't expect Saffox to quickly get up, stab him in the shoulder with one of the arrows, and give him an uppercut.
Not missing a beat, Saffox leaped over him and used his head as a step to help her jump clear of the opening. As soon as she emerged from the cave, she kicked away from the tree and landed in a heap a short distance away, completely out of breath. She couldn't feel anything but pain. Even so, she quickly got up and ran like hell. It hurt to run and it hurt breathe, but there's no better morphine than fear, and Saffox was pretty high on that right now.
She was sure she hadn't taken even ten steps when she felt the excruciating pain of an arrow piercing through her. In fact, she even saw as it came out of the side of her abdomen and continued flying in a straight line, propelled by unnatural forces. She swore it happened in slow motion, as she replayed the arrow puncturing through her many times as she fell over. She thought she had seen a movie with stuff ripping out of people before, but she couldn't remember the title.
Saffox cursed herself for leaving her bow and arrows behind at the cave. No sooner had she propped herself up that she found herself being slammed into a tree. She would have screamed, had it not been for the fact that some of her blood decided the quickest way out of her body was through her mouth. She lay in a mess at the base of the tree that had so kindly stopped her uncontrolled flight, her entire body throbbed with pain, especially after that last hit- it stung like all kinds of hell. She managed to barely open one eye to see her brother walking towards her with her now-broken bow in hand. 'So that's what he hit me with…'
Raven stopped in front of the shattered vixen, ready to deal the last blow. He raised his claw, savoring the moment.
'Funny,' thought Saffox. 'I don't remember him having such large claws.' she meditated, closing her eye. Then, she heard her brother let out a yell.
End Chapter 1