Hey peoples! It's Nel here!
Sorry I haven't updated in a few. Schoolwork's been killing me, ugh. But I'm back with a new chapter! I'm afraid to say this might be the last. It honestly just depends on how much I write. Knowing me and my habit of overwriting literally EVERYTHING, I wouldn't put it past me to make a chapter five. *sighs* Why am I so difficult? Oh well, here's chapter four anyways!
P.S: I went to go see the movie IT with my sister and her boyfriend a few nights back; It was soooooo good! I loved it! Especially Richie! At first when I heard about I was like, 'yeah, uh, hell to the motherf*ckin no.' I don't mess with clowns. I hate them, in fact. Clowns and I, we don't have a very good track record. But then I started getting really interested in it and I found out Richie is frickin hilarious so I went with my sister and I was legit the only one in the theatre who wasn't scared at the jump scare parts and stuff. I was just laughing and I was like, 'guys this is in the trailer, chill.' I had to calm my sister down sometimes and she's like, almost 24 XD.
But yeah, I definitely recommend, I'm not usually the one for horror films, cause they almost kill my brain cells as fast as the kids do in my school, but meh and this note is hella longer than I wanted t to be so shoot. Imma just start now...
Enjoy!
"Cognates—say it with me now—C-O-G-N-A-T-E-S," Fitz said exasperatedly to his furry little friend. The fox just looked at him with the same unamused look ever since they'd gotten to the black swan. Fitz sighed, getting tired of pacing the room as Kaye glared at every step he took. Sophie and him recently just started to train to be cognates and Fitz couldn't of been more ecstatic about it—the same couldn't be said for the furball sitting on the couch with an everlasting look of contempt planted in its face.
Kaye was not having the idea of Sophie and Fitz having a mind link. In fact, he was completely against it. The reason for that, Fitz already knew: the possessive little piece of fluff was jealous—heck, Kaye didn't even deny it. When Fitz accused him of it, he just remained sitting there grumbling about how completely "unnecessary" the idea of "mind merging" as he referred to it, was.
"Dude, stop being a drama queen. Being cognates just means that Sophie and I have a special bond which can help make our telepathy stronger," he explained. Kaye chuffed irritably, causing Fitz to groan. "I know we have a bond too, but it's my the same as me and Sophie's!" He tried to reason with the stubborn fox. Kaye just growled. Fitz sighed. "Kaye, cut it out: you're overreacting," he said, flopping back onto the couch. Kaye's left ear twitched, and Fitz, knowing what that meant, groaned even more. "She's not replacing you Kaye! Honestly, just relax already…." he muttered, positioning himself so that he was sprawled out on the couch on his stomach, resting his chin on his linked hands.
The little fox hopped onto the nearby table and chirped angrily at him. Fitz frowned. "Kaye; shut up—I'm not choosing between you and Sophie," he said, "I care about you both equally." When the fox muttered to itself resentfully, Fitz just rolled his eyes. "Well it is, so stop whining," he retorted. Kaye hissed at him before jerking his head to the side, a scowl placed on the tiny animal's face. He refused to meet Fitz's eyes, despite having sitting on the table that was directly in front of the way Fitz was facing. Fitz exhaled deeply, and closed his eyes. "Kaye; you have nothing to worry about. Listen, I know you're worried that I will stop caring about you but that will never happen, okay? There's absolutely nothing that could ever make me love you any less," he told him sincerely. He knew by the way Kaye's tail flickered that the fox had understood what he meant but he was still facing away from him. Fitz shuffled forward so that he was now leaning over the arm of the couch, and offered him a small smile. "Kaye look at me," he said softly.
It took a couple of minutes, but eventually the little fox sheepishly turned its head towards Fitz, and although he made a show of averting eye contact, Fitz knew that he was still listening to him. "I mean it," he said, dipping his head to level with the fox's. Once again did Kaye act stubborn for a few minutes but when he sneaked a small glance at Fitz, his eyes stayed there. Kaye stood himself up and looked at Fitz, his head tilted slightly. Although the creature was still a little unsure, his eyes were much more open and trusting than before, and his demeanour, less terse. Fitz smiled, realizing that this meant Kaye was 'forgiving' him. Slowly, he moved his head down and closed his eyes. Kaye did the same and moved his head up so his fuzzy forehead met Fitz's smooth one—it was a tender act of friendship the two shared from time to time.
"Hey Fitz, Mr. Forkle wants you to—aww!" A voice interrupted their silent moment and Fitz rolled his eyes, reluctantly turning his head to meet the eyes of his sister, who was grinning widely at the two of them. Behind her stood Dex and Sophie, along with Granite. As soon as Kaye laid eyes on Sophie, he started to growl. Fitz exhaled a deep breath, stroking the animals fur to calm him down. Luckily for him, Sophie didn't seem to notice the fox's animosity towards her. "Mr. Forkle would like you and Sophie to practice some more telepathy exercises," Granite finished for Biana, who as still cooing over the cute sight of Fitz and Kaye.
The news didn't exactly help Fitz's current situation; at all. Kaye turned and looked at Fitz, shooting him a look that pretty much spoke, 'you better not'. Fitz just sighed and shook his head. "It's not up to us, Kaye," he said as he got up to follow Sophie and Granite to the next room beside them. Kaye quickly jumped up, landing perfectly perched on Fitz's shoulder. He chirped something in Fitz's ear loudly but Fitz, having already been used to the shriekish cry that fennec foxes make, was unfazed by the loudness (A/N: fennec fox's are actually very loud, which is why I describe Kaye's noises as chirping a lot. They also don't growl when they feel attacked, the screech, but in this case I wanted it to be a growl to differentiate Kaye from other fox's of his kind). "You know what Kaye, you're right— it is up to me isn't it? It's just not up to you. And my decision is to go along with it and for you, to deal with it," Fitz replied dryly to his comment. Kaye hissed at him, grumbling angrily under his breath about 'blonde haired thieves'. Fitz just ignored him as he entered the second room along with Sophie and Granite.
Sitting on the couch waiting for them to arrive was Mr. Forkle. The man gave them a warm smile beckoning the two to sit down across from them. For some strange reason, Kaye hopped off Fitz's shoulder and left before he could move to sit down. 'He's probably gonna go and suk in a corner somewhere,' Fitz thought to himself with a subtle roll of his eyes. He and Sophie sat next to each other, waiting for Mr. Forkle to speak. "Mr. Vacker. Ms. Foster," he greeted them each with a nod, which they returned. "Since you two are now training to be cognates," Fitz couldn't contain the small, excited smile that slipped onto his lips, "we need you two to have the upmost trust in one another." Fitz eyed Sophie and she seemed a little nervous. Probably about the secret she wouldn't tell him. Fitz was dying to know, but if she wasn't ready, he wouldn't force her to tell him. "We understand that the two of you might be a little nervous about that," Mr. Forkle said, looking pointedly at Sophie, who blushed slightly, "so we're deciding to move slowly. Your task for today is to continue asking each other questions about one another." Both kids breathed out a sigh of relief. Neither of them really wanted to share any dire secrets.
Sophie and Fitz looked at each other, and Fitz smiled. "Sure," he said, "just let us telepathy books." He got up along with Sophie, walking back to the main room where they'd left their books overnight from yesterday's practice. "Glad there's no secret telling for today?" Fitz asked Sophie, though he already knew the answer. She sighed and nodded. "Let's just hope these questions won't ask anything too deep and personal," she said, shuddering a bit at the thought. Fitz looked down at her and smiled. "Hey, you now you can trust me with anything, right?" he asked her, obliviously missing Sophie's blush when he smiled at her. "Of course I do. I trust you more than anybody," she said, smiling back at him. Fitz grinned. "Good," he said, turning back around towards the table he'd left his book on, "Because these telepathy lessons would be a little hard without—" he cut himself off, gaping at the sight before him:
There on the table, laid his telepathy book; shredded to bits.
Fitz's eyes widened and his mouth gaped even wider. "What th—" he started but stopped when he saw Kaye walk across the couch and onto the table a little to smugly for his own liking. The fox disregarded the book—or, what used to be the book—as he walked past it. He sat down, licking one paw before rubbing it on his face. Then he looked up at Fitz, as if he'd finally realized he was there, and twitched his ear, his tail slowly swaying from side to side. Everything about this animal right now screamed defiance; and it was slowly driving Fitz to insanity.
Ugh, he should've known.
"KAYE, YOU INSANE, LITTLE FUZZHEAD, WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Fitz exclaimed, his hands clutching the sides of his head. In response, Kaye simply dipped his head down to the right of him, gesturing to the disaster scene that was once his telepath book. Fitz's eye twitched and he had to remind himself that strangling the little moron was considered animal cruelty, and that animal cruelty is wrong no matter how tempting the case is. He felt someone softly place their hand on his shoulder, calming his livid figure."It's okay Fitz, we can just share mine," Sophie told him softly, making him feel just a little bit better. But that feeling went away instantly as the minute Sophie turned around to retrieve her own telepathy book from a table nearby, she gasped and stopped in her tracks. Confusing flitted across Fitz's face and he followed her line of sight. When he finally noticed what she saw, his mouth dropped wide open. Kaye had obliterated Sophie's book too.
Blinking a few ones in disbelief, Fitz turned back to look at Kaye, who looked very amused by this whole ordeal. Fitz's hands slowly clenched into tight fists and he glared at his companion. "Kaye, what on earth were you thinking?! Those books are important!" He exclaimed to his fuzzy little friend. In response, Kaye just screeched about how their bond was just as important in a high pitch tone, making Sophie jump a little—which was reasonable, since Kaye didn't screech usually. He only did it when he was really mad. This was one of those times.
Fitz narrowed his eyes at him and crossed his arms, shaking his head. "No Kaye," he said, his voice steely and cold, "not as important as this one."
Kaye's little eyes widened, and the fox looked genuinely hurt. He made a pathetic little whimpering sound, hopping over to Fitz and scratching his paw lightly at his pant leg. But Fitz just turned away. "No Kaye: not now," he said, stepping away from him as he put nodded towards Sophie, who was watching the whole exchange a little uncomfortably. "D-did I do something? Is this because of me?" She asked self-consciously. Kaye was about to snap out that yes, it was all her fault, but Fitz shot him a look that told him to shut up. "No Sophie, it's not your fault that Kaye can't handle his own jealousy," he said, walking towards her. Then he threw a glance at Kaye. "Or himself for that matter." Without another word, Fitz grabbed Sophie's hand and the two walked out of the room, leaving Kaye there looking taken aback and frustrated.
Sophie screamed out in horror, which finally put a halt to the chaos that surrounded. All eyes landed on Fitz's body, wide eyed and twitching violently with the stupid large bug's tail impaled straight through his chest. Councillor Zarina had zapped one of Dex's gadgets and only Fitz had heard him yell for everyone to get down. He grabbed the cube and threw it away only to be blown backwards by the after effect of the cube, leading him to fall right on the Arthropleura. While Councillor Zarina kept blubbering out excuses, and the Black Swan and Council continued to argue, Sophie ran over to Fitz. He had now stopped twitching but he was dangerously still. Dex unhelpfully mumbled on about how he "killed Wonderboy", while Biana paled significantly at the sight of her brother. But what Sophie was really worried about, was Kaye's reaction.
The fox had somehow convinced Fitz to let him come along, and Fitz had put him on the ground before running towards the cube. Naturally, Kaye followed him, only to watch his friend bounce back right through the large bug's tail. Now the little fox was standing beside Fitz's motionless figure with great concern. He squeaked out a panicked little whimper, and desperately started to tug on his cape, hoping that would cause him to move. Nothing. Sophie watched broken heartedly as Kaye continued to whine, nudging Fitz's face with his over and over again. Eventually, the creature gave up and settled on lying it's tiny head on Fitz's chest, still whimpering and crying. He looked absolutely crestfallen, and a little bit guilty about the fact he couldn't do anything to prevent this. All while this was happening, Sophie noticed with slight disdain as Councillor Clarette soothed the sulking beast, assuring it that it's tail would grow back. Kaye too saw this, and his eyes gleamed with vehement fury at the monster that had hurt Fitz—his Fitz.
Everyone's voices quieted down when the most ireful growl by far, invaded the entire area. Sophie, Biana, and Dex looked down to see Kaye snarling fiercely at the Arthropleura. His teeth seemed longer and much pointier than usual, and his nails had grown to triple their original length. All in all, despite its tiny size, the little angry creature was absolutely terrifying. "What on earth is it doing?" Sophie heard Dame Alina pipe up crudely, only to elicit a horrendous scream when Kaye lunged at the Arthropleura, scratching and clawing its way to glory at the ginormous thing. The bug hissed angrily, and bucked Kaye off of itself, but the nimble animal just landed on its feet and gm ashes its teeth even more. The Arthropleura went to slap the rest of its long tail at him, but what happened next shocked everybody: instead of getting hit, Kaye's jaws widened enormously and clamped down onto the tail. The insect made a sound of discomfort, but before it could try and tug its tail away, Kaye moved faster than anyone had ever seen him move before, and with one violent wrench of his head, ripped the tail right off of the bug.
Every pair of eyes widened to the size of saucers as the Arthropleura howled in agony, shaking in pain. Kaye just glared at the mighty creature, tail still in mouth, and was seething in pure, unbridled rage. Dropping the tail, Kaye went to lunge at the giant bug again. Councillor Clarette tried to communicate with him and make him turn back, but Kaye just looked back and snarled viciously at her, causing her to back away. Dame Alina scoffed and shoved everyone out of her way. "Move! I'll handle this," she said, summoning the little fox with telekinesis into her hands. Kaye started to flail, but Dame Alina started to beguile him, saying words in an extremely soothing tone. If she thought this would calm him down, she was sorely mistaken. While this entire commotion had been going on, Dex had used this as a chance to light leap Fitz back to their hideout. So when the little fox looked back to check on his companion and saw him gone, he lost it.
Kaye screeched, furiously clawing at Dame Alina, causing her to scream in fright and drop the animal away from her. Kaye quickly scrambled to where Fitz's body was and started to chirp distressfully until Biana came and picked his up. Kaye squirmed in her grip, clawing at her and snapping at her (although not nearly as harshly as he had done with Dame Alina), but she stroked his head until his cries of anger turned into scribes of worry. Though he let Biana hold him—being one of the very, very few people he allowed to do so—his ears drooped and he continued to desperately look around for Fitz, crying out in distress as he did so. Biana shushed him soothingly (Dame Alina was not amused by this, claiming the whole ordeal went against the laws of elvin physics) and carefully assured Kaye that Fitz was in safe hands.
Though this calmed him significantly, Kaye was still worried out of his mind and he was begging to see Fitz. Seeing how Sophie and The Black Swam were now gambling with the cache, Biana, not wanting the little fennec fox to be upset anymore, obeyed its wishes and secretly light leaped away.
.
"Ow, ow, ow! Okay, okay! I promise that I'll try not to "almost die" again," Fitz had proclaimed in exasperation the first time he'd woken up, and had been trying to swat away the pillow that Kaye couldn't stop smacking him with. Kaye had chuffed at him with a look full of skepticism, but had dropped the pillow either way, much to Fitz's relief. But it didn't stop the animal from going into extreme defensive mode because of the whole scenario. It had been a few days since the Arthropleura incident, and Kaye hadn't left Fitz's side since. On the occasion of anyone going to meet or check up on him, the fox would viciously growl instinctively, readied in a position to strike at anyone who got too close. It had gotten so bad that eventually, Fitz needed to keep him in his arms for most of the time. The boy also tried his very best not to move around a lot. Seeing as it hurt to even shift over a little bit, he would sometimes grunt or moan in pain, accidentally concerning the life out of the little fuzzball, who would whine and nuzzle him until he was able to convince the creature that he was okay—which would take a loooong while.
Right now, Fitz was just lying down on the bed, a book in one hand, the other absentmindedly petting Kaye, who was curled up beside on his stomach. The fennec fox yawned a bit, making him smile. Kaye hadn't been sleeping the past couple of days as he was keeping watch all night incase something would try and attack him. Fitz had tried to persuade the fox to take even a little bit of a nap, but the stubborn thing blatantly refused. It was good to see that he would now be succumbing to his fatigue.
"C'mon Kaye, I know your tired. Just sleep," Fitz murmured to him, his eyes never leaving his book as he spoke. Kaye made a sharp little squeak of defiance, but his point was overshadowed by the yawn he let out soon afterwards. This time, Fitz did look down at the fox to give him a, "you were saying?" look. Kaye just glowered at him and hissed lightly, turning his head to the other side. Fitz chuckled at the stubborn little animal's actions. "Yeah, alright. You're not fooling anybody you little puffball, I hope you know that," he said, causing the fox to chirp at him angrily, but despite its exhausted figure, it still refused to sleep. Fitz sighed, knowing that the protective bundle of fuzz would not relent, so he chose to use this time to address another thing that's been bugging him for the past week and a half. Putting down his book, he in took a deep breath before speaking. "Listen Kaye," he said softly, "About what I said before—about our bond—that wasn't right; I wasn't right," he looked down at him, "it's just as important." The fox, although still not facing him, started to perk its ears up in interest so Fitz at least knew he was listening. "You know that I'd never actually think that our bond is bad, right?" He got no reply, but Fitz knew what the answer was anyways, and an aching pain clenched in his gut; an aching pain of regret. "I'm really sorry if I ever made you feel insignificant, bud—your my pal—my companion. And I meant what I said before," this time, Kaye did look up, his beady black eyes staring into Fitz's teal ones, "I do love you a lot: and I will always care about you," Fitz offered the fox a small smile. "You're my best friend."
Kaye didn't say anything at first. Then he made a soft, almost purring kind of chirp and nuzzled his head into Fitz's hand (A/N: Incase you're all wondering, he said, "I love you too" (:). Fitz smiled warmly at him, picking him up in his hands. The little fox looked at him soberly for a moment, before closing its eyes. Smiling wider, Fitz mimicked his actions and the two rested their foreheads against one another's. The minute they touched, a little glow of light formed in-between them; it was something that happened from time to time, when the two of them really connect. It actually happened the first day that Fitz had met Kaye.
The two continued their touching embrace, until the sound of a door bursting open was audible. Kaye's eyes snapped open and his pupils dilated. Fitz opened his eyes a little calmer, but the minute he saw the state of his friend's eyes, his own almost popped out of their eyes sockets. "Kaye, you can't do this here, I haven't told them yet," he hissed quickly at him. Kaye looked back at him but he knew that they both knew it was already too late: "Mr. Vacker—" Mr. Forkle's voice was heard in the room, and Fitz barely had time to glance over to his right side to see that the entire collective was standing at the door before Kaye sprung out of his arms. Everyone looked in vast astonishment as Kaye's small body was immediately engulfed with white light, his figure gradually started to enlarge as he fell towards the ground. It wasn't until has hand touched the base of the floor that all the white light left his body, allowing people to see what had become of the infamous fennec fox; but there was no fox in the room.
Crouched down in Kaye's presumed place of landing, was a boy: he looked to be around Fitz's age, and had messy blonde hair and gleaming, ice-blue eyes. He wore a navy blue tunic with a brown sash loosely around the middle, dark pants and greyish coloured boots. His face bore a fiercely protective expression, and he was borrowing his eyes with distrust at every single person looking at him with shock in the room. Getting up slowly, he snarled lightly at them, as if warning them not to make a move. He wouldn't have to worry about that; everyone was too shellshocked to even think at the moment. The only one who seemed the least affected by this whole situation was Granite. He peered over the blonde kid's shoulder to give Fit a look of confusion, who was sitting on his bed with a sheepish expression on his face. "Fitz…?" He questioned, but the single word voiced all of their thoughts: what the hell is going on?
Chuckling nervously, Fitz moved to get out of his bed, hissing lightly when his body protested. Though his week of healing was nearly over and he was starting to feel much better, he still was a little sore from sitting still in basically the same position all the time, let alone with his injuries and everything. The blonde boy whipped his head towards him when he emitted a grunt of pain and little zipped to his side, helping Fitz stand himself up. At the random boy's inexplicable amount of speed, everybody raised their eyebrows even higher (if possible) and by this point, both Biana and Dex were gaping—well, so was Wraith, but nobody could really tell with him for obvious reasons (A/N: ;)). Taking in a deep breath, Fitz looked at everybody in the room. "Guys; this is Keefe," he then turned towards Keefe, "Keefe, meet the Black Swan. Although you already know them, so please, don't kill them," he said. Keefe scowled and crossed his arms. "I wasn't going to kill them," he protested. Fitz just gave him a pointed look and Keefe turned away. "...That much…." he added, muttering under his breath.
The only person this entire thing seemed to be clicking with was Sophie. She widened her eyes and gave Fitz a look of disbelief. "Wait a minute;" she said, and looked at Keefe, who stared back, "Fitz, is this….?" Fitz gave her a small smile. "Kaye? Yes he is," he said, draping his arm around the blonde's shoulder, only to grimace in pain afterwards. He concealed it the best he could though, and pulled it off as a grin instead. "Hold on; wait, WHAT?!" Dex exclaimed in absolute shock while Biana just continued to gape unbelievingly at Keefe. Fitz laughed lightly at their expressions. "Yep…" he confirmed, running a hand through his hair.
All of them just basked in total astoundment until Physic walked in, holding a jar of who knows what. "Hey, what are you doing put of bed?" she asked Fitz, initially tuning in on her patient only (source of habit). Then she seemed to notice everyone else's awestruck faces, including the blonde, teenaged boy standing right beside her patient, whom of which she'd never seen before in her entire life. Glancing back and forth between the collective, the new kid, and Fitz, something finally seemed to connect with her. "….Did I miss something?" she asked confusedly.
(-(\)
Okay, so a part five there will be, apparently.
Ugh. Why am I always like this? Hey guys, Im sorry for the longevity of this stupid chapter, but I hope it didn't turn out as bad as I perceived it to be while I was writing it. Hopefully Y'all can forgive me for my nasty habits, and don't forget to review!
As for me, I'll just be sitting in my room, in a corner, eating some kind of food, i don't know what yet, wondering where everything went wrong.
-Someonewhodoesntcare.
(P.S: I think I'm gonna go with Oreos…)