Chapter 3: A Bittersweet Awakening

As Fox slowly awoke after a night of deep, relaxing sleep, he opened his eyes to the sight of the rich Morraian sunlight pouring into the room and casting its brilliant radiance onto the swimming pool in the center of the tiled floor. The sound of the desert wind could be clearly heard as it whistled through the permanently opened balcony. Yawning slightly, Fox sat up in bed and glanced at the sleeping Cerinian next to him. He had only intended to look at her for a moment, but he felt his gaze drawn to her the way a magnet is drawn to iron.

He was unable to pull his eyes off of the vixen's slumbering form as she slept. The sand-colored bedsheets came up to her neck and closely traced the outlines of her body while she repetitively inhaled and exhaled the fresh desert air, creating a quiet, almost indiscernible sigh with every breath. Her head was tilted sideways on her pillow; and if her eyes had been open, she would have been looking directly at Fox. For the moment, the vulpine simply watched her breathe. Everything about the vixen seemed to radiate an esoteric beauty that enveloped the space around him and completely enthralled his emotions— so much, in fact, that he realized that he was experiencing a mild euphoric high from merely being around her.

Her right paw was held out towards him with her palm facing up, almost begging for someone to reach out and hold it; and it was all Fox could do not to fondle her soft, blue digits and slowly trace his way up her arm all the way to her delicate muzzle. "What am I thinking?" he whispered to himself, mentally kicking himself for his thoughts while trying to avoid waking the Cerinian. Gently and quietly, he slid out of bed and turned around to look at the vixen once again. "Just one more look won't hurt…"

Two minutes later, Fox left his bedchamber and picked up his duffel bag, which contained his spare clothes. Taking it into his closet and closing the door behind him, he changed out of his dusty, damaged attire and slipped into a light pair of red pants and a taut-fitting, black t-shirt that would hopefully be more suited for the heat of Morraia than his outfit from the day before.

Wrapping his soft, red scarf around his neck, he left his closet and walked back towards his bedside, watching the sun's rays cascading off the water of the swimming pool. He would have liked to dive in, but he hadn't brought any kind of appropriate swimwear for himself; and as such, he didn't want to be humiliated if the vixen woke up and found him swimming naked. That would not be a good way to make a good first impression on her.

Before entering his bedchamber to check on the Cerinian, he walked over to her suitcase and opened it, checking the bag for any clothes he could place on the bed for her to change into. He dug through her clothes, awkwardly pulling out a pair of light pink undergarments for her before finding a white loincloth, of all things, neatly folded underneath a pair of blue pants alongside a copper-colored metallic bra. His mouth began to salivate as he pictured the blue Cerinian wearing the scant outfit, and he strongly considered placing it on the bed for her to change into when she awoke.

Fox realized that if the vixen woke up to find him looking through the contents of her suitcase, it would be almost as embarrassing as if she found him swimming in the nude; but regardless of this, he continued to check her bag for anything of interest. Trying to keep her clothes neatly folded, he pulled them out of the suitcase and placed them on the ground next to the tribal outfit he had found earlier. At the bottom of the black suitcase was a small, zipped bag containing the vixen's hygienic products; and to the left of it was… a stick?

The vulpine curiously snatched up the intriguing item, which seemed to be in a collapsed form. He noticed a button on the main shaft, which was decorated with a series of glyphic prints that matched those on the tag attached to the suitcase. Not wanting to make any noise, he pressed the button, causing the item to extend to its full length. It was then that he realized that he was holding a combat staff of some kind. It was made of a sturdy, lightweight metal that enabled the weapon to be effortlessly hefted and twirled; and there seemed to be a form of power cell on the blunt end of the weapon. At the moment, it was fully charged and ready for use, although Fox knew better than to try it out indoors when its owner was sleeping less than thirty feet from him.

Intrigued by the mysterious weapon, he collapsed it and placed it back in the bag the way he had found it. He selected a set of pink underwear, a white shirt, and a pair of light aquamarine-colored pants for the vixen to wear; and after returning to his bedchamber, he neatly placed the clothing items next to the sleeping vixen on the bed, where she would be sure to see them when she awoke. After Fox had put down her clothes, his eyes once again drifted over to the blue vixen's beautifully formed face as she let out a heavy breath and quietly groaned. In seconds, her soft, aquamarine eyes slowly fluttered open; and she awoke from her sleep with a small, adorable yawn.

She quietly whimpered a faint "hmm?" sound and sat upright in the bed after noticing that Fox was looking at her. The orange vulpine had thought of nearly everything he could have said to her when she awoke; but in the heat of the moment, his mind went blank, leaving him completely unable to form words.

Weakly, the vixen asked him, "Where am I?" Her voice was tinged with pain, and it occurred to Fox that she was still probably very sore from the crash the night before.

"You're in my room in the Oasis resort on Morraia," he softly replied.

The vixen frowned in pain and confusion, without the slightest idea of how she had arrived here. The last thing she remembered was a sudden impact that struck her ship; and after that, she only remembered the color black. Her friend who had been accompanying her on her journey was nowhere to be found, and her ship was gone. Frantically trying to find something that would bring her memories back to her, she looked around Fox's room and noticed her opened suitcase along with the clothes that Fox had laid out for her.

"Did you do all of this for me?" she feebly asked Fox while sliding back into a sleeping position under the covers.

In hopes that the vixen would appreciate him for his kindness, Fox awkwardly replied, "Um… yeah… I did."

Still lost and confused, the Cerinian examined the clothes Fox had placed beside her on the bed and softly said, "Thank you, my friend." She then paused and asked Fox, "Do you mind leaving for a few minutes? I want to take off this dreadful flightsuit." Noticing the swimming pool forty feet in front of her, she stopped Fox as he was preparing to close the bedchamber's privacy curtain and asked him, "Are my swimming clothes in my suitcase? Can you bring them to me, please?"

Fox's heart rate climbed noticeably after hearing her request as he anxiously bent over next to her suitcase and looked for something resembling a bikini. However, it was not until he came up empty-handed that he realized what she meant by 'swimming clothes.'

"Oh man…"

He quickly held up the loincloth he had found earlier and asked her, "Is this what you wanted?"

"Yes! Thank you!"

The orange vulpine presented the skimpy attire to the bedridden vixen, who thanked him and slowly climbed out of bed before realizing how badly her clothing had been damaged. "I'll be outside if you need me," Fox anxiously said, pulling the privacy curtain shut so that she could change into her swimming clothes without any unwanted intrusions.

The Cerinian slowly slid out of her flight suit and tossed the ruined garment onto Fox's bed without a care as she noticed her reflection on a large mirror that hung on the bedchamber's left wall. She carefully looked herself over and scoured her fur for any burns or noticeable injuries and found surprisingly few. It was nothing short of a miracle that she had escaped with only minor injuries, and she felt indebted to someone or something that she had not been injured more seriously. The crash had only left her with a few painful bruises, a generous headache, and a solitary burn on her left thigh where her flame-retardant flightsuit had failed to protect her from the fires created during her ship's uncontrolled descent into Morraia's atmosphere.

Feeling that a quick morning swim would help her overcome her aches and pains, she pulled on her white loincloth and attached the copper-colored top that accompanied it. The outfit was somewhat different from what she and the other residents of Cerinia normally wore, and it was most often worn while sleeping or while bathing publicly in Cerinia's many natural springs.

Before she opened the privacy curtain and stepped out into the open, tiled chamber outside, she thought about the fox who had brought her to his room. She had initially been wary of his intentions, but a quick glimpse into his mind alleviated her worries and proved to her that he had only the best in mind for her well-being. The blue vixen was perplexed by this because the elders of her Cerinian order had always warned her that offworlders were corrupt, lustful, selfish people who would only abuse her and take interest in her only because of her uncommon beauty. However, her host was not like this. The vixen could tell that he was attracted to her, but she knew that he could be trusted. He had already slept by her side and kept watch over her in the early hours of the morning—even going as far as to bring fresh clothes to her before she woke up.

It had been a small miracle that she had even been granted permission to leave her home planet in the first place. As a girl of only 19, she was still naïve and not completely sure of herself. She had only been allowed to embark on a week-long vacation because her friend Jasmine had offered to travel with her and provide her with advice and protection from any harm.

As she tugged at the beige curtain granting her privacy, she wondered what had become of Jasmine. From a young age, the yellow-eyed vixen had been her closest friend and associate. Even though she was only two years older than her, Jasmine had been her mentor and had taught her as much about life, love, and reason as she possibly could in the 19 years she had known her. The blue vixen shed a solitary tear for her friend, knowing that she most likely had not survived the night.

"She was the one who deserved to live, not me," she sadly mused, wondering why she had survived while her friend had died. "She had a future, unlike me… I never amounted to anything."

On the other side of the curtain, Fox had seated himself on the edge of the stone spa tub that was positioned in the middle of the entrance to the swimming pool. While the vixen—Krystal, if he remembered correctly—dressed herself, he thought about the miraculous circumstances behind her survival. Just like her, he knew that escaping from a crash such as hers was very unlikely; and he wondered if there was a reason that she had survived.

He quickly realized that Krystal's entrance into his life would certainly complicate things with Scarlet. The red vixen despised Cerinians due to their telepathic abilities, and he worried that the presence of the blue vixen would tear his developing friendship with Scarlet apart. More than that, though—it could possibly endanger his mission and spark a chain reaction that would have the potential to spiral out of control very quickly. However, Krystal's friend's dying wish had been for him to take care of her; and there was no way he was going to abandon the most innocently beautiful fox he had ever laid eyes on.

Soon, Krystal emerged from behind the curtain and stepped out onto the black-tiled central chamber, wearing the scant clothing she had requested. Fox attempted to remain respectful by resisting the urge to stare at her curvaceous body; and it took every ounce of restraint in him not to gawk at her as she walked up to him and seated herself beside him on the stone rim of the spa tub.

The vixen didn't seem to mind his occasionally-lustful thoughts about her—in fact, the vulpine's nervous and impulsive thought patterns brought a faint smile to her somber face. She turned her head to look at Fox as their eyes met for the first time in such close proximity to each other; and she masterfully concealed a giggle as she sensed Fox's increasing thought activity and his elevated heart rate. Attempting to play off of his thoughts, she suggestively turned her body towards him and sweetly asked, "What's your name, friend?"

"Fox," he nervously replied. "Your name's K…Krystal, right?"

A bit taken aback by his knowledge of her name, she asked him, "How did you know?"

"I read the tag on your suitcase."

"Oh, of course…"

The blue vixen turned around and slowly lowered herself into the warm water of the tub behind her, taking a deep breath and allowing herself to fully relax for the first time since she had awakened to find Fox staring at her while she lay in bed. It was still apparent that she was distressed about the loss of her closest friend, but Fox's presence seemed to partially alleviate her grief. The vast majority of the time, Krystal attempted to block foreign thought patterns to prevent any unwanted emotions from entering her mind. However, she enjoyed listening in on Fox's internal conversations with himself.

"Man, she's gorgeous. I'd love to… NO! STOP IT! She's probably listening to me right now!"

Krystal's back was turned to Fox, but the vulpine was easily able to hear her giggle behind him as she listened to his impulsive thoughts regarding her. With a sweet, gentle smile, the vixen turned around and partially pulled herself out of the water, resting her elbows on the stone rim next to Fox.

"Don't be so tense, Fox. I don't mind it," she kindly said to him. Fox breathed a quiet sigh of relief, but he was still determined to keep his thoughts on a tight rein. Trying to provide himself with a distraction to keep from staring at her, Fox asked the vixen, "How do you know my language? It's not native on your planet, is it?"

Krystal dropped down into the water and then floated on her back as she answered, "I had to learn it before I was allowed to leave Cerinia." She paused and comfortably closed her eyes while still floating in the water in an attempt to flee from the oppressive thoughts and emotions that threatened to stifle her enthusiasm for life. "What do you do, Fox?" she calmly asked, "Are you a soldier?"

"I suppose," he answered, trying to avoid using the 'M' word that had a way of turning most people away and lowering their opinions of him. Uneasily, he continued, "Most people would call me a mercenary." He hated the way the last word awkwardly stumbled off of his tongue as he said it. He knew that Krystal would despise him now that she knew that he was a soldier of fortune—a hired gun—a bloodthirsty killer with only a heart for money.

However, the vixen simply smiled and rested her arms on the tub rim next to Fox with an innocent expression on her lovely face. "You don't look like a mercenary to me," she murmured. "You're better than that."

Fox felt slightly offended by Krystal's offhanded comment, but he decided to take it as a compliment. At the very least, she didn't despise him for his career choice. As the vixen slowly stepped out of the tub, the warm water cascaded off of her drenched fur and onto the tiled floor under her bare feet in a way that was reminiscent of a small monsoon. Fox had a very difficult time maintaining his composure around her, because all he wanted to do was to stare at her and drink in her near-perfect beauty as the small water droplets slid off of her fur and clothing.

Krystal broke the silence and happily asked, "Towel, please?"

"Oh! Sure!" Fox quickly replied, standing up and sprinting into the bathroom, where he snatched up a white, cotton towel for the vixen to dry herself with. "Here you go," he said, handing her the white cloth.

"Thank you, Fox," she gratefully replied, taking the towel and firmly matting her fur with it until it was mostly dry. Then, with a sly grin, she returned it to Fox and vigorously shook out her fur, sending hundreds of water droplets into the air and onto Fox, who unhappily grimaced as the vixen began to giggle at him. He was not pleased after having been doused by the Cerinian, but her laughter was infectious; and before long, he found himself laughing along with her.

After walking back into Fox's bedchamber and pulling back its privacy curtain, she changed into the clothes Fox had brought to her before she stepped back into the room's central area and suggested that she and Fox find something to eat. Having eaten nothing for more than 18 hours, the vixen was famished and ready for breakfast. Fox readily obliged and led her out of his hotel room and into the elevator, which took the two vulpines down to the base level where a complimentary breakfast had been provided for each of the hotel's guests.

It was five minutes 'til eight in the morning as Fox and Krystal leisurely walked into the large lobby where breakfast had been laid out. The dining area was busy, although it was not swamped by any means. Fox could tell that Krystal was feeling nervous, although he was clueless as to why she was acting this way. The blue vixen clung to his arm as he neared the food-warming units where sausage, eggs, and pancakes could be found. "What's wrong, Krystal?" Fox compassionately asked, taking a paper plate from a large stack next to the sets of plastic eating utensils.

The Cerinian nervously replied, "I don't feel comfortable in here, Fox. I feel like they're all staring at me."

"Why shouldn't they?" he asked in response. "You're foreign to them. Don't worry about it, Krystal—it's nothing to be concerned about."

He could feel the vixen's tender hand nervously shaking as she gripped his arm as if to provide herself with some kind of security against the curious individuals around her. The young Cerinian felt completely and utterly lost in the unfamiliar world she found herself in. She failed to recognize anything similar to Cerinian cuisine in the dining area's buffet line, and some of the eating utensils didn't make sense to her, either.

"Fox, I don't know what to do here," she softly whimpered, halfheartedly taking a plate from the stack in imitation of Fox.

"Just follow my lead," he warmly spoke, hoping to instill a sense of confidence in the fearful Cerinian vixen who would have much rather not been here at all. After timidly mirroring Fox's meal selections, she followed him into the dining area, where he selected a secluded table in the corner of the room to give his uncomfortable new friend as much privacy as he could.

Taking a quick bite of the eggs he had placed on his plate, Fox looked across the table at Krystal and barely managed to stifle a laugh when he saw her trying to cut a bite out of her pancakes. She held her fork with a clenched fist while furiously cutting away with the knife she held in her other paw. To the casual observer, it would have seemed like she was trying to injure her food before she ate it.

With a quiet laugh, Fox said, "Krystal, you're doing it all wrong. Watch me."

The vulpine properly secured his food with his fork while efficiently slicing through the syrup-covered hotcakes before lifting the bite to his mouth and devouring it. "See?" he mumbled through his food as he chewed it.

"I suppose," she weakly replied before examining her fork and asking, "What do you call this thing with the spikes on it?"

Trying not to laugh, Fox answered, "That's a fork. Don't you have anything like that on Cerinia?"

"No," she replied, "Most of our food is liquid. We usually drink it from a bowl."

"So you're a vegetarian?"

"Not exactly," Krystal explained, "My mother and I eat fish from time to time."

Curious about the vixen's family, Fox asked her, "What's your family like? Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

The vixen looked down at the table and twirled her plastic fork as she murmured, "No, it's just me and my mother. Father died when I was young."

"I'm sorry," he disconsolately replied. "I shouldn't have asked."

Now, more than ever, he wished that he had never asked about her family, because he knew that she would present the same question to him very soon. However, the vixen remained silent and brooded over the loss of her father while Fox glanced away from her and resumed his breakfast in an attempt to avoid further conversation with her. Krystal had intended to ask Fox about his own family, but she immediately sensed his reticence regarding the topic and decided to uncover the truth behind his family without asking him.

The vixen placed her eating utensils on the table in front of her and closed her eyes, allowing her mind to drift freely while her consciousness slowly faded out. The noise of the dining area almost completely washed out of her ears as she attentively began to search for the source of Fox's thought patterns until she located it. She vaguely heard his concerned voice repeating her name with a resounding echo that resonated inside her mind for seconds at a time until it slowly dissipated, leaving near-silence in its wake. Mentally following the sound of his voice, Krystal tightened her focus and subconsciously entered Fox's mind.

"Fox McCloud, please report to the principal's office."

The young vulpine shuddered in his standard-issue school desk at the mention of his name. He despised his visits to the principal's office and preferred to avoid them at all costs. However, an order was an order; and he had no say in the matter. With great resignation, he slowly and unwillingly slid out of his desk and nodded to his friend Slippy, who was seated across the room from him. The amphibian's face reflected the same feelings of uneasiness and worry that his vulpine friend's possessed. He watched as Fox exited the schoolroom, the metal door clicking behind him as he entered the Academy's main hallway and began the agonizing walk to the principal's office.

"What did I do this time?" Fox wondered to himself as he listened to his shoes quietly clapping against the tile floor. Apart from himself, the hallway was completely devoid of activity and was silent apart from the sound of his own two feet. He attempted to deduce the cause of his summons to the school office and assumed that it couldn't have been due to anything he had done to break the Academy's notoriously strict rules. "Maybe the principal wants to congratulate me?" he hopefully mused.

As he neared the heavy, oaken door of the office, he caught a glimpse of Peppy Hare through the sliding glass windows bordering the enclosed space which he had been summoned to. In years past, the middle-aged hare would occasionally drop by the school to take his godson out for ice cream or another unexpected treat; but as Fox matured, visits from him or his father became less and less frequent. This was the first time in more than a year that Peppy had set foot in the Academy.

Somewhat reservedly, Fox opened the door to the office and stepped into the room, where he was met with a somber glance from Peppy and a worried expression from the large badger who worked as the Academy's administrator and principal. Curiously, Peppy was wearing his pilot's outfit, as opposed to his day-to-day attire which Fox normally saw him in.

"What are you doing here, Peppy?" Fox anxiously asked, afraid that his visit to the principal's office may have been of a grim nature.

With a bitter expression that scarcely concealed the fact that he was on the verge of bursting into tears, Peppy replied, "Fox… your father is dead. Pigma turned on us over Venom—and your father didn't make it."

"NO!"

The frantic, heartbroken screams of Fox McCloud echoed through Krystal's mind as she pulled out of her trance and returned to a state of consciousness. In the Oasis Resort's dining area, Fox was worriedly staring at her, concerned that she had inexplicably fallen into a coma or something of the like. He began to ask her, "Are you alright…?" but her sad, contrite expression told Fox everything he could have wanted to know about what she had been doing.

Remorsefully, he looked into her sad, aquamarine eyes and softly told her, "I'm sorry you had to feel my pain for yourself."

"It's okay, Fox," she whimpered in response, "I shouldn't have tried to find out about your family. I'm sorry that I intruded on your memories—that was very rude of me."

Fox reached forward and gently gripped Krystal's extended arm, feeling the softness of her plush, azure fur as he slowly rubbed his fingers into it. The Cerinian still remained disheartened by what she had found in Fox's mind, although the vulpine's soft touch seemed to be providing a sense of healing therapy to her injured soul. "I don't mind you being in my mind," he kindly spoke. "It doesn't bother me."

Krystal made no audible reply, but Fox could faintly feel her presence in his mind, thanking him for his kindness with the purest of emotions. As a faint smile appeared on her small, white lips, Fox stared deeply into the soft, sea-green pools that passed as Krystal's eyes, feeling himself being drawn into them in a way that he was unable to express. He found himself unable to pull himself away from the Cerinian as she returned her gaze and delicately sighed, nearly causing Fox's heart to flutter. He began to feel the same quasi-euphoric sensation he had first experienced in his room that very morning, and he wondered if she felt the same air coming from him.

Suddenly and without warning, the trance imploded. Fox worriedly readjusted his eyes to his surroundings before looking up and to his right, where the source of the disturbance could be found. Next to the table was Scarlet, maliciously scowling at both him and Krystal with her fangs bared in sheer anger and frustration. Her ears were pinned back against her skull, and her furious expression was more than enough to communicate to Fox that he was about to be violently chewed out.

AUTHOR'S NOTE(S):

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to write as much as would like to recently; and as a result, I'm falling behind on my self-imposed schedule for writing this story. My other SF fanfiction, The Iridium Chronicle, will continue to be posted in its regular 10-day interval. However, future chapters of The Oasis will be posted as they are completed. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

...And as always, reviews and comments are welcome.