A searing pain along the left side of his head brought Jay to consciousness. He grunted, lifting his head slightly and opening his eyes. He struggled through a dry, flaky mess that was covering the left side of his face, and glimpsed a bare gray room, covered in unidentifiable stains. It was too much, though, and the pain forced him to drop his head back down to his chest. Trying to bring his hand around to feel his head, it is brought up short by a rope tying him to a chair that he is sitting in. Oh god, he thought, what the hell is going on? What happened? He tried to think of what happened in the lead up to his present situation, but the pain made it too difficult to concentrate. Unable to do anything worthwhile, he instead sufficed to sit and swear softly into his chest fur.

An undeterminable time later, it was hard to tell with the lighting, Jay woke up again. He didn't even remember dozing off again. This time, however, there was another figure in the room. Through his half open eyes, he couldn't tell who it was, but that was soon rectified.

"Oh grand, your awake. I thought the blow had put you in a coma for a while there."

It was that damn wolf again! His voice was softer this time, almost apologetic. Jay struggled to form the words he wanted to say.

"Why... what the... where... what happened?"

At least, that was what he tried to say. What came out was more of a mix between a slur and a groan.

The wolf leant in closer, crouching down in front of Jay, and said, "Speak up, I can't make out what you're saying. Spirits, that blow must have been worse than we thought..."

Jay focused for a second, making sure to speak more slowly this time, "What... happened... to me?"

The wolfs voice turns sour, a far cry from the soft tone he had before, "I was trying to talk to you, about what you were carrying yesterday, when my 'buddy'," He spits the word out, and gestures behind Jay "Here, thought you were going for a weapon, and decided to smack you out for the count. Though he was a bit too enthusiastic..."

Jay grunts in response, and tries to spit out some more words.

"Mother...fucker... nearly took my-"

The rest of the words were lost in an almighty cracking noise, and the pain in the left side of his head erupting in a greater pain than he ever felt from it. He barely registered the impact with the ground, as his vision swam and faded to black, his hearing went fuzzy and echoed, and he teetered on the edge of unconsciousness. He could barely hear shouting above him, a far away voice bellowing,

"GROT! Get the FUCK out of here, right FUCKING NOW!

A short series of thumps, a slam and then silence. Jay couldn't help a small sob escape his lips. The pain was too much for him. He didn't want this at all. It was hopeless, they were probably going to kill him anyway. And what for? A bottle of something he had never seen before. Content to lie there and try not to cry while he was left alone for a while, his senses slowly returned to normal, and the pain dulled down to a low ache that was ever present before the blow. Before he could get too comfortable, however, he felt a soft paw on his shoulder. Squinting up, he could see the wolf looking down on him. His voice was soft again, softer, in fact. It was like he was making up for his anger before. "Are you ok? Grot tends to get angry easily."

Jay tried to grunt out some more words, but that set off a new pain in his jaw, which must have hit the ground hard. He could taste blood as he moved his teeth. Another groan escaped him before he could stop it. The wolf made a frustrated noise, and said "Are you alright to move? I can't keep you down there, it'll just make things worse..." Without waiting for a reply, he grabs Jay under the arms, and shifts the chair quickly onto its four legs. The pain was bad, but not as bad as from the blow. Still, Jay whined and gritted his teeth against it, eliciting a quick and embarrassed "Sorry" from the wolf. Letting the pain drift from his mind, Jay waited for the next attack.

"Look, you shouldn't even be in this mess. If I had my own way, you would have told me what you knew in the streets, and you would have been back at home, asleep. But seeing as you're here... I'm Kodiak." He sat down next to Jay, legs stretched out on the floor. "I... Well, we, needed to talk to you 'cos that guy you're working for? Grin, isn't it? He's stepping on some toes out there. Likely hood is, him and his boys are going to get wiped in the next few weeks." He taps Jay on the leg. "Unfortunately, that means you too."

Jay groaned again, the hopeless thoughts he'd suppressed from before rising up to claim his as their victim, the panic beginning to form again. Something must have got through though, as Kodiak started speaking again, "Look, man, I wish there was something I could do, but you're with his boys now..."

Jay tried to speak, and found it a little easier now his jaw wasn't pushing against a solid stone floor. "I was just... paying off a debt..."

Kodiak perks up at this, his ears twitching Jay's way. "Your debt? Where'd you get that from?"

Jay coughed, and carried on, stronger this time, "My brother. He had a lot... of gambling problems. Owed the wrong people... too much money. Got trampled by a... ground car. Grins folks thought to... shift the debt over to me. Been paying it off for months... with their jobs."

Sat in thought for a moment, Kodiak stood up. "I think I might... Look, I'll be back later. I'll see what I can do about... something, I don't know." He walked over to the door, and stopped for a moment, before turning back and pulling something from his belt. The bindings holding Jay to the chair fell away, and he rubbed his wrists to try and get some circulation back. "I can do this much at least. Try to get some sleep, I'll be back when I know more." He stepped out of the room, and pushed the door shut, sliding a bolt into place. The bang of the bolt in the room echoed for a moment, before fading to nothing, and leaving Jay in utter silence. Deciding to take Kodiak up on his advice, he sat down in the corner of the room, curling his arms and legs around himself to try and stay warm. They had taken his coat, it seems, and his shirts and trousers weren't doing much to keep the warm in. Despite the discomfort, sleep came easily, and he drifted off into a world of pain and nightmare.