Wolf sat across from squirrel inside of a small and slightly vacant coffee shop. A warm cup of coffee steamed in his hands, he took a small sip, the liquid warming his body until it hit the bottom of his stomach. He sat quietly and listened to Squirrel as she explained the rest of her story, he gave the occasional nod to show that he was paying attention.
"And now I'm here. This is the last place I'm going to visit before I head home to the Valley." Squirrel said while she added a little sugar to her ice tea. She really wasn't in the mood for caffeine.
"The Valley huh, it certainly sounds beautiful. Yet you haven't ever spoken with its inhabitants?" Wolf asked.
"No, aside from my master and a few select others no one even remotely knew of my existence. Not that I don't wish I couldn't have fit in with the rest of them, I was to….different."
"Different, you mean like you…. should we say 'developed' differently?" Wolf leaned back in his seat in an attempt to get more comfortable.
"I think 'developed'," Squirrel used her fingers to imitate quotation marks before she continued talking. "Is probably the best word you could use to explain it. Aside from the few 'obvious' details," Squirrel motioned toward her chest area, "I also grew hair on my head and was much more connected with the modern world than any one else was."
"I see, so your master sent you out into the world so you could find yourself. Very interesting, anyway I'm sure you have some questions."
"Yes I guess I do." Squirrel thought for a moment. "Why don't you tell me some things about our history?"
"My minds kinda fuzzy on the whole story there but I can tell you we don't know very much about where we came from. I've heard theories about every possibility ever thought up before. Things like aliens from a different planet, to animal mutation. The most logical explanation that I've heard of was probably natural evolution. Though there are several holes in that theory as well. Humans are basically evolved from apes right? Well if we were following the same evolutionary ladder why didn't we lose our fur and evolve different features as well, it just doesn't make much sense."
"Maybe that's something I should look into." Squirrel said thoughtfully, more to herself than anyone else. "Can you tell me something about reproduction?"
Wolf choked on his coffee, he started to cough.
"Oh sorry, you don't have to answer if the question makes you uncomfortable." Squirrel stated noticing his reaction.
"No, no….ahem," Wolf cleared his throat. "That is something I've read up on for sure. Well….for one if two different types of animal species mate theirs a large chance the child will be its mothers species. Though the child will inherit the father's eye color and other certain features, our species also has no sexually transmitted diseases so long as there's no interspecies interaction." Wolf finished, hoping that was enough to end the awkward conversation.
There were a few more questions and the two finished off their coffee.
"Well I should be getting back, I'm sure my friends are getting worried." Squirrel stood up to leave.
"Who are your friends anyway?" Wolf asked out of plain curiosity.
The question caught Squirrel off guard; she searched his facial expression for any sign of harm, yet picked up nothing. He'd proved himself friendly enough; he didn't seem to want to cause any harm.
"Why don't I just take you to them?" Squirrel offered.
"I suppose you could do that, I don't have anything better to do." Wolf downed the last of his coffee before following Squirrel out of the coffee shop.
Wolf and Squirrel walked along the street as cars sped by and people moved around chatting on their cell phones. Wolf and Squirrel engaged in some small talk as they went along.
"It's a longer walk then I thought, and cold too." Squirrel said while shivering and clutching her jacket around her.
"Yeah, sorry I couldn't give your car back, repair station has a one day limit to test the vehicle and make sure we have fixed everything. The cold must be a big deal huh?" Wolf replied seemingly oblivious to the freezing wind.
"I don't get it, you don't seem to feel the cold at all, and you aren't even wearing a jacket."
"Yeah, I guess my winter fur coat is doing its job."
"I forgot that wolfs change their fur coats depending on the weather."
"Yeah tends to come in handy, despite the shedding. Tanya's always angry at me about that." They turned into an alleyway.
"Tanya, who's that?"
"Tanya's a 'personal' friend if you catch my meaning."
"Oh, yeah I get it. Are you two close?"
"I can honestly say that I'm not sure. I would like to think so but, well….I occasionally see her with other guys. We said we wouldn't get to serious but I figured by now we would be changing that. What about you, anyone special in your life." Wolf asked desperate to get off the subject.
Squirrel thought about Donnatello, a certain ninja turtle she had recently been smitten by.
"Well there's a guy I like." Squirrel blushed a little. "But I don't think he's very interested in me."
"I see…"
Wolf and Squirrel came to a stop at what seemed to be the end of a long alley with a dead end.
"We should wait here until they get back, they probably won't like it if I show their hideout to a complete stranger. If you don't mind of course," Squirrel said leaning up against the cool bricks of one of the buildings that incased the alley in a long corridor of cement.
"Oh I don't mind at,"
"Woo! Would you look at these two?" A voice cut him off.
Wolf turned around, seeing a group of guys emerge from around the corner. Wearing ski masks and thick jackets, Wolf counted three.
"She sure is pretty hey bud why don't you just hand over your wallet and get out of here so we can have some fun with that babe over there, and so you don't get hurt." The lead guy said.
"I'm sorry but the way I see it that wouldn't be the smart thing to do for either of us. Now two things can happen here, one you turn around and walk away then I won't have to break any of your bones. Or you can keep pestering us and I will break your bones. So make your choice." Wolf threatened.
"Wolf maybe we should just go." Squirrel said, hoping that things wouldn't get violent. "I have some money, maybe we could just give them that and they'll go away."
"Oh no sweet thing, we want much more than money from you." The man on the right said while moving towards Squirrel.
Wolf stepped in front of him and with lightning speed his fist connected with the man's face. The man fell down, knocked out cold.
Wolf ducked a roundhouse and struck his second attacker in the ribs, using just enough force to bruise them instead of break them. The man keeled over the oxygen knocked out of his lungs, Wolf brought an elbow down on the back of his head. Wolf saw the third man come charging after him, tackling him and throwing him to the ground. Wolf felt the man clasp his fingers around Wolf's throat. The air was forced out of his lungs as the man pressed his body weight on top of Wolf. He delivered as many punches to the stomach as he could but the man didn't even flinch. Wolf heard a loud crack as the man's weight seemed to disappear.
Wolf felt the air flow back into his lungs; he looked around to see Squirrel get thrown to the ground by the man. Squirrel dropped her bow staff as she hit the ground. She stared up at the man; he pulled out a small knife. Sneering as he approached her menacingly, Wolf ran towards him. The man veered around and jabbed the knife at Wolf. Wolf dodged to the left and gripped the man's arm, driving his open palm upwards breaking the man's elbow. Wolf positioned his foot underneath his attacker and using all his might he tossed the man over his shoulder, and onto the cement, he gave him one last punch to the face to knock him unconscious.
Wolf ran over to Squirrel and lifted her up.
"You okay?" Wolf asked.
"A few scratches and bumps, but that's about it."
"What about you?"
"Nothing worse than the average days beating, thanks for saving my fur back there."
"Glad I could help. Is it always so dangerous around here or, Donnie don't!" Squirrel seemed to shout randomly.
Wolf raised an eyebrow and turned around, not nearly quick enough however. Wolf heard a large THWAK! As blinding pain shot through his head, his vision blurred as he attempted to put up his guard. A foot smacked into his chest sending him flying backwards into the wall, and then he saw no more.
