I'm still flabbergasted that people read my story let alone like it. But without further ado, here's chapter 7 all 12,500 words of it.
Moments After Landen Jumped Immediately after Landen had jumped off the cliff, Nick paused for a moment before swiftly running back toward Judy, clutching his wounded shoulder painfully. He found her unconscious, still lying against the turned over tree as blood flowed down the bark. The surrounding was soaked with a deep red, and Judy eyes began glazing over.
Attempting to apply direct pressure to her wound, Nick found that his injured shoulder was not allowing him to do so effectively, regardless of how hard he tried.
"Come on, don't you die on me now" Nick spoke, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.
Judy showed no signs of responding, having already fallen unconscious, as Nick's words flowed into her limp ears. Help eventually came, when the rest of the team arrived from the bridge ambush that never happened. Wolford and the other officers were now at the scene, all looking at their fellow injured officers with regret.
"What happened here, where's the creature?" Wolford sternly spoke, as he ran towards Nick and Judy followed closely by a doe wearing and EMT uniform carrying a medical kit.
"What do you think happened! Judy's been shot and the creature jumped off the cliff!" he yelled back at Wolford. "We lost..." he growled out in defeat.
The deer set down the med-kit before kneeling down next to Judy and removing Nicks paws. Immediately, she began to work on the injured bunny.
Meanwhile, Nick was looking down at his paws, which were visibly shaking and covered in blood.
'Judy's blood…' the morbid thought only adding to his panic Rubbing his trembling paws off on his outfit, he found that the blood had soaked into his fur, and he only managed to successfully smear his uniform red. Noticing that his hands were still shaking, Nick tried willing them to stop, which didn't work. Seems like they would stay that way.
The female deer wrapped some pressure bandages around Judy's wound while another EMT, another deer, placed his hoof on her neck. "Her pulse is weak. We need to get her to a hospital now!" the male deer proclaimed.
Wolford tapped Nick on the shoulder, who looked back up at him. "You're bleeding" Wolford inquired with concern, noticing the trail of blood running down Nick's shoulder. Nick covered up his hurt shoulder with his paw.
"Don't worry about me, I'm still standing, which is already better than how the others are doing. Trust me, I'll be fine…" he proclaimed with his snarky attitude in an attempt to get Wolford off his back, which fell short due to the slight wincing he was doing as he spoke.
"You may be standing but you're not fine. You're bleeding and we need to get you to a hospital just like the others" Wolford said in a tone which implied that there would be no room for debate.
"She's not going to last much longer" The deer patching up Judy said with worry. Carefully lifting her off the ground, the female deer ran over to a female cheetah EMT and passed the unresponsive Judy over to her.
"Get her back to the pre-school there are ambulances waiting there; Run as fast as you can! " the deer commanded solemnly.
The cheetah nervously looked down at Judy and back up at the deer before determination crossed her features. She started running, and just like that, the cheetah darted off into the forest no questions asked.
As for Nick, everything was starting to go blurry, as the arm holding his wound lost strength and fell down to his side. He abruptly sat down on the log that they had previously hid behind during the fight.
Hearing someone scream, Nick quickly turned around and discovered that a wolf police officer had found the dead. The elk was still hanging on the tree by the metal blade running through his chest, his eyes dark as blood dripped from the blade onto the ground. The deer didn't look much better, with a metal rod running straight through her heart in the position where he died, splayed on the ground.
For Nick, time seemed to fly by, likely due to the disorientation caused by blood loss. The next thing Nick knew, the elk and deer were being zipped up in black body bags. The deer that patched up Judy was now walking up to Nick carrying the same small med-kit. Nick was back to clutching his shoulder where the bullet entered, and blood was still running down his arm.
"Wolford told me your shoulders wounded…" she stated simply. "Can I take a look?" she politely asked.
Nick lowered his paw off his shoulder to allowed the EMT access. Looking at his paw, Nick still couldn't tell if the blood on his paw was his or Judy's.
"Never seen a wound quite like that before, looks like it hurts" she said, eyeing the hole with a slight grimace. "Names Jeena by the way" She told Nick
Nick gave no response. He just stare straight ahead fruitlessly trying to grasp at his own chaotic thoughts.
"Well… we should stop the bleeding at least" she said, unperturbed by his lack of response. Retrieving some cotton balls out of her med-kit and some medical tape, she firmly placed the cotton balls on Nick's wound.
Nick unintentionally jumped from the pain as he quickly sat up straight and widened his eyes. He still couldn't stop thinking about Judy but the pain helped him to get a grip on reality.
"Sorry about that" she apologized, seemingly unimpressed by his response. Tearing off a strip of tape and laying it over the cotton balls, she continued "Was going to warn you, but you seemed kinda out of it"
"Sorry…" Nick softly spoke avoiding making eye contact with the deer
The deer tried to make eye contact to no avail "I'm sure your partner is going to be alright, Chita is the fastest mammal I know. Plus, there's already at least three ambulances waiting back at the preschool" she seemed to say trying to lift his spirits and give him a sliver of hope.
Nick didn't take notice of what the deer was saying to him. He was still lost in his thoughts.
'What could I have done? Why couldn't it have been me? What if I had caught up to Judy and just ran away? Why didn't we just wait for backup?' As the series of "what if's" in his mind, the worst one found its way to the forefront of his thoughts: 'What if she dies?' "Why Judy.." he whispered to himself as he shook his head, trying to shake the dreadful thoughts away.
"Well…you're all patched up, good as new" Jeena said as she had finished wrapping up Nick's shoulder with a smile. "Well, not exactly "good-as-new", you need to have a doctor look at it though" she finished, slightly chuckling at her own joke.
Nick looked down at his shoulder and saw that it was nicely bandaged up. "Thanks" Nick said trying to force a smile. The forest was full of chatter, with everyone talking all at once. Nick couldn't make out any single conversation, and just got lost in the blur voices.
Jeena put the medical supplies back in the med-kit box and clicked the latches down. "Well I don't have anything for the pain but the ALS team should be here soon. They will surely have something for that" the deer said to before leaving and walking back to the rest of the officers, who were still trying to figure out how to get the unconscious elephant out of here.
With nothing else to do, Nick looked around the scene. Glancing down at the log, he saw a small splatter of blood on the back side of it where Judy was shot with whatever weapon that creature had. He could see a red line of where he pulled her over the log and a larger red spot where he left her to lay.
Nick got up from the log to find somewhere else to sit. He found another turned over log which was conveniently placed next to a tree that he could rest his back on. Rest, however, was out of the question, plainly not possible with his heavy heart. After a little time of Nick sitting there, he heard the obvious sounds of a helicopter quickly approaching. looking up Nick saw it flying overhead. This one was much bigger than the normal singular propeller version. It had two spinning blades and was extra elongated like an ellipse. The helicopter started to come down and landed in the open meadow sending out gusts of wind that blew through everyone's fur.
A couple of medium sized mammals quickly jumped out after the helicopter finished landing, before the helicopter blades could even finish spinning down. They were carrying stretchers and other medical supplies in bags they were carrying. Chatting for a second with Wolford, he pointed to Nick and trio of paramedics quickly rushed over to him.
They ended up bombarding him with pertinent questions such as: "What was the pain on a scale of one to ten? How long has it been since he was shot? Was the bullet still lodged in his shoulder?" etc.
Answering all the questions as quick as he could, he was walked to the large helicopter and strapped into a chair before a needle was shoved into his arm. Nick looked at them with a questioning gaze and they and told him it was to help him relax.
He began to feel woozy as they loaded the other deceased mammals lying on stretcher.
They couldn't fit the elephant into the helicopter so they ended up laying him across a large stretcher which took almost every mammal on paw to do so. Tying large thick ropes around the elephant, they pulled them down and wrapped them around him tightly. Then, the mammals on call then tied the harness to the underside of the helicopter. Most of the crew of the helicopter climbed back inside and fastened themselves in. With a couple of words passed between the crew and the pilot the helicopter began to lift up.
Nick could feel the helicopter slightly jerk as it reached the end of the rope which snapped into tautness as the helicopter started to lift up the elephant. He could hear the engines straining themselves but the helicopter persevered, managing to lift off completely as the helicopter took flight, slowly but surely.
Nick leaned his head against the side of circular window as whatever they put in his system took effect, he let his eyes fall closed as he watched as the forest fly by.
Awaking to the sound of a slow beeping noise ringing in his ears, he opened his eyes to find he was lying in a hospital bed with a heart rate monitor attached to him and bandages all around his shoulder with his arm in a sling "Judy" he faintly mumbled still only half awake.
"Judy!" he yelled quickly sitting up, his heart started racing as the thoughts quickly rushed into his head, Judy lying unconscious in his arms bleeding out. The heart rate monitor started climbing, beeping along at an ever increasing rate.
A deer nurse threw the door open and rushed in to find Nick awake. "Sir, I need you to calm down" she told him placing her hooves on his shoulder and trying to lay him back was having none of it, shoving the nurse's hooves off his shoulder. "Where's Judy? Is she ok!?" he demanded to know.
The nurse was having trouble holding him back as Nick tried to get onto his feet.
"Sir for your own safety please calm down" she spoke still trying to control him.
"No, I need to see her!" he shouted.
"Your friend's fine" a familiar voice said.
Nick stopped struggling to look down to see Dr. Nest walking in.
"Dr. Nest?" Nick spoke questioningly.
"You can let him go, I don't think our friend here is going to cause any more trouble" Dr. Nest politely said to the nurse who looked a little panicked. She released her hold on Nick and he laid back down himself.
"It's alright now, you can leave. Be a dear and get the door on your way out?" Dr. Nest asked her as she was leaving. The nurse rolled her eyes before leaving the room letting the door click shut.
"How is Judy?" Nick immediately inquired once they were alone.
"Stable… for now. Took five surgeons working around the clock to get her back. She had a collapsed lung, a torn diaphragm and massive blood loss. We really didn't think she was going to make it, it's quite the miracle that she did. She's one tough rabbit, I give her that" Dr. Nest finished.
Nick let out a sigh of relief. "She always has been" he said letting himself sink back into the comfort of the bed. "When can I see her?"
"She's not awake yet and I have some questions I would like to ask you…" Dr. Nest prodded gently.
"If I answer all your questions will you let me go see her?" Nick asked hopefully.
"I'll see what I can do, I can't make any promises though" Dr. Nest said as found himself a chair and pulled out a notebook and pen. "So where do you want to begin?"
Nick took a deep breath and stared up at the ceiling. "Thought I was supposed to ask you that…"
Dr. Nest clicked his pen down and crossed his legs. "How about you start just before your partner, Judy, was shot"
"The creature took down team three. We tried to radio them, they didn't pick up, that creature did"
Dr. Nest started furiously writing down every word Nick said.
"What did it say?" he asked with full attention
"It told us that it would no longer be playing nice. It then asked who was the hunter and who was the hunted... I really didn't know what to make of it since at the time I couldn't even make a rational thought. Before I could collect myself though, Judy just started to run as fast as she could to where team three was last…" Nick fist tightened. "I tried to stop her, told her it might be a trap, but nothing seemed to convince her. My words just flew right over her ears... I tried…" Nick was now visibly shaking. "I tried to stop her". Nick's claws dug into his own paw pads.
Dr. Nest looked up from his notebook. He clicked his pen again and placed it on his lap. "You know it's not your fault, she's her own mammal and you cannot blame yourself for her own actions. It does no one any good"
"Still, maybe there was something I could have done differently" Nick replied
"Maybe, maybe not but there's nothing that you can do that can change the past" Dr. Nest continued.
Nick loosened his fist. "I know… you're right" Nick took another deep breath.
Dr. Nest picked up his pen and clicked it down, ready to continue.
Nick resumed. "We arrived at team 3's location, one was dead, another one was unconscious lying on the ground with a wound in his chest. The elephant was laying up against a tree unconscious. Seems he was lucky. Speaking of which how is he?" Nick inquired.
"He's just fine. I believe he get a week off work" Dr. Nest answered.
"I'll have to pay him a visit sometime... Sorry I'm getting sidetracked" Nick shook his head.
"No worries, take your time, but please do continue" Dr. Nest said comfortingly.
"The helicopter arrived and a deer and elk dropped down from a rope, I ran up to meet them and told them about the officer's conditions. I heard a very loud bang coming from the forest and the sound of shattered glass. The next thing I knew, was that I was running away from a helicopter spinning madly out of control. I managed to make it behind the log where Judy was, followed closely by the deer and elk. The helicopter came crashing down into the ground and went up in flames, the explosion sending pieces of debris everywhere" Nick blathered everything, trying to relax as much as possible. The beeping of the heart rate monitor was still ever increasing pace.
"You think the creature took down the medical helicopter?" Dr. Nest asked with interest.
"Must have, only heard the bang and the glass shattering on the cockpit. For all I know, it could have been a bird traveling at the speed of sound that crashed into it… I would say it's a safe beat that the creature took it down, though"
Nick managed to get a slight chuckle out of Dr. Nest.
"The explosion killed both the deer and the elk but you already knew that" Nick spoke
"Yeah, I saw the bodies" the doctor confirmed
"After that I hid behind what was left of the log with Judy. We still had no idea where the creature was. I decided to take a peek over the log, but the creature almost took off my head as a I heard something wiz past my head, but at least we had somewhat of an idea of where it was. We still needed to know more, so I crawled over to the end of the log peaked through some tall grass and saw a bush shack and a heard a thunk from across the meadow. I crawled back to Judy and I told her we might be able to wait for backup, but I was mistaken" Nick heart rate spiked again.
"The creature shot Judy with that weapon of his" Nick said with a growl in the back of his throat.
"I don't know how it managed to get to us so quickly. We were caught completely off guard. I jumped over the log and pulled Judy behind me to safety... I watched as she stopped breathing... The next part after that is all kind of a haze. I remember being kicked in the chest and rammed into a tree, but that's about it"
"So that's where your broken rib came from…" Dr. Nest spoke, still scribbling down on his note pad. "You remember anything else after that?"
"Yeah, a sharp pain in my shoulder, I remember the fear that overtook me as the creature walked towards me. I was paralyzed couldn't move a single muscle. The creature just walked right up to me before holding the weapon to my head. It stared me down, and I was sure the creature was going to kill me. It very easily could have. I noticed the creature flinched a little, I focused my eyes on Judy who was holding up her dart gun. The creature pulled a dart out of its lower leg"
"So Judy hit it with a tranquilizer?" Dr. Nest asked.
"Yeah, I didn't even think she was still alive at the time" Nick responded
"That's not good. You told us it jumped into the river? That further lowers its chances of survival" Dr. Nest said while biting on the end of his pen.
"You're actually worried about its survival?" Nick yelled with disdain in his voice
Dr. Nest jumped back in his chair a little, pen fumbling out from his paw landing on the floor. "That thing… those things have killed ten mammals so far in the span of two days and you're worried about it!?" Nick yelled a little too loudly once again. Feeling a felt a sharp pain in his side from his broken ribs, he continued. "It took us all out mercilessly with high precision and made the ZPD looks like cubs running around with squirt guns. We might as well have been, considering what we were up against"
Dr. Nest reached down for his pen. "If it puts your mind at ease, the creature is most likely dead" he turned his head to the doorway where he saw the deer nurse peering through the small window. Giving her a small nod, she backed off. He turned back down to his notebook and began writing again.
Nick took a deep breath and apologized. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lashed out"
"It's fine, I don't like to hold grudges, I would however like to know more, so that if it's alive we can better fight it. Maybe next time, we will bring something a little bit more effective than squirt guns"
"Truth be told, not much happened after that. The creature took the out the dart, pulled something some rope from its bag, tied the wolf to the other end and tied it to himself. He picked up the wolf and ran off towards the river. I pulled myself off the ground and followed it only to watch it jump off the cliff and vanish into the water below. This all occurred in the span of less than thirty seconds"
"How about we call it a day?" Dr. Nest said flipping his ring notebook closed.
The heart rate monitor beeping slowed back down to a normal pace. "Maybe grab a cup of coffee?" added.
"Is it alright if I see Judy now?" Nick asked Ignoring the offer for coffee.
"I'll see what I can do" Dr. Nest said, getting up out of his chair and walking out of the room letting the door latch behind him. Nick was left to his own thoughts.
Nick was still staring outside the window and listening to light sound of moving of the city, trying his best to ease his mind. It wasn't even ten minutes later when Dr. Nest came back in.
Dr. Nest made a gesture with his paw to follow him. "I got permission, come on let's go" He politely reported.
Nick leaned forward and pivoted to his right, placing his paws on the cold hard hospital tile floor. He walked towards Dr. Nest, his claws making clicking sounds against the hard tiled floor with every step he took.
"Hold out your right paw" Dr. Nest asked of Nick.
Nick held out his arm and Dr. Nest strapped a blue laminated band around his wrist.
"So, what does this get me?" Nick questioned.
"A visitor's pass. I had to ask her family if they were alright with you visiting Judy. They told me Judy always talked about you, and that they would appreciate it if you would visit her"
Both Dr. Nest walked down a long corridor where the ceiling was over 24 feet above them. Passing by them where many other many species of mammals, most of which were in medical gowns while others were in wheelchairs that ranged in size.
An elephant with a crutch under his arm was limping along with a horse walking close in tow behind him, keeping him steady. A rabbit with a cast on his leg was sitting in an oversized wheelchair being pushed around by a deer.
They kept walking till they came to a section of the hospital hallway that had a sign on the ceiling that read: Intensive Care. Making it past the sign, they turned right, entering another small hallway that was designed more for mammals of his size, the ceiling being about nine feet tall.
Nick watched as nurses ran back and forth scrambling around. A beaver on a stretcher was quickly rushed passed them being pushed by a deer. A pig that was running alongside them was holding up a I.V bag running along the side of the stretcher with a tube going down into the beavers left arm.
They made a couple more turns tell Dr. Nest stopped and turned to his right, he pulled something out of his pocket. Upon closer examination, Nick saw it was a small piece of paper with something written on it.
"This is it" the doctor said looking up at the number on the frame of the doorway. He opened the door and held it open for Nick.
Nick walked in and saw a small rabbit almost completely covered in bandages lying on a bed, connected to various medical machines and equipment. There were so many, that Nick didn't even know what half of them did or what most were for.
"I'll leave you two be. If you need me, I'll be out in the hallway" Dr. Nest softly said.
Nick didn't even hear him. He walked closer to Judy, his lips trembling.
The door clicked closed as Dr. Nest left the room.
Nick slowly went to place his paw on her forehead but stopped with his paw just centimeters away. He curled his fingers back, pulling his paw away as he took a step back, almost losing his balance. He was breathing sporadically and his heart was throbbing in his chest, threatening to burst. Taking a step forward once more, he placed his larger rougher paw on Judy's small, softer grey paw.
"I'm so sorry Judy" Nick softly mumbled under his own breath. Exhaling deeply, he found himself a chair in the corner just under a window and fell into it. He leaned his body over and buried his face into his paw awaiting for her to open her eyes again.
Back at Adalas' House Landen woke up on the couch to the sound of birds chirping and the light drizzle of raindrops hitting against the roof. The T.V. was left on overnight, and from what he was hearing, it was on a news broadcast channel.
To him though, it was just white noise, and didn't bother him one bit. He was still in his full gear, and he figured he must have fell asleep with it on. His whole body still ached and hurt and Paco was still snuggled up next to him, asleep like a stone.
Looking at the T.V., he saw a moose and leopard talking about something, the volume was too low for him to be able to make out anything they were saying. He could just barely read the text scrolling on the bottom: Unknown mammal still at large. There was also a weather forecast 'Intriguing' Landen thought to himself. He started looking for a remote so he could turn the volume up. Finding the remote in a crevice of the couch, 'glad to see somethings never change?' he thought to himself.
Turning the volume up, he was better able to hear what they were saying. Meanwhile Paco woke up and yawned as he sat up on the couch.
"On a different note, we have obtained more news about these unknown creatures" the leopard said as a low quality image of him appeared on screen.
Landen gave Paco a scratch under his chin, one that Paco leaned into as much as possible.
"We have a new video of what appears to be another one of these creatures on a highway just outside of Zootopia" the moose added.
"What you are about to see may be disturbing, and viewer discretion is advised" the moose warned as the screen went to what looked like a dash-cam from someone driving down a road. For a split second, him and Paco were visible before the car started swerving and came to a stop.
"Let's rewind that" the leopard spoke. The video started to rewind and stopped on the couple frames that Landen was visible, and a red circle was drawn around him and Paco while the screen zoomed in.
"We still don't know what this creature is, but what's new is that this one seems to have a wolf with him down on all fours, like a savage. Rebecca what's your take on this?"
"Well O'Connell, me and a couple other have speculated that this wolf is affected by the Nighthowler or something similar, judging by how it walks, but was somehow tamed by this creature, possibly as a means of attack. However, to be honest, we still don't know for sure" the image continued to slowly zoom in.
Paco positioned himself on Landens' lap. Landen gently stroked his head.
"Seems like there's is a whole list of things we still don't know yet, but we know the ZPD is hard at work to rescue the wolf and find the creature" The image stopped zooming in right on Landens' face.
"Some theorists believe that this is an alien, while other, more religious mammals have decided that this creature is the devil incarnate, sent to drag their souls down into the pits of hell. Currently, the most popular scientific theory is that this creature is a descendent of a long, thought to be extinct, species. All of these are just theories, and we won't know for sure till the ZPD captures it. No official word about what these creatures are has been released. Till then here's the morning forecast" the leopard finished as the couple frames that Landen was in repeated.
"Seems like you have created quite the stir" Adala said turning on the lights. The bright light that the chandelier cast down upon him caused Landen to squint his eyes. Paco didn't seem to like it either.
"How long have you been standing there?" Landen asked, as his eyes throbbed due to the sudden change brightness.
"About two hours, couldn't sleep very well" she mumbled as she yawned widely baring her teeth.
"I know you're not a threat, I just had to make sure…" she said still partly yawning.
"Can't blame you, if I was in your shoes I would most likely do the same thing" agreed Landen
"But I don't wear shoes" she replied.
"It's just a saying that means that if I was you I would have done the same thing" Landen explained to Adala.
Adala rubbed her eyes with both paws.
"That makes sense" she said stretching out her arms and back. "Anyways, I'm going to go put on a cup of coffee" she said as she meandered on past him into the kitchen.
Landen could hear a banging of pots and pans as she was in there. Paco jumped off Landens' lap and rushed into the kitchen that quickly followed by Adala screaming.
Landen pried himself off the couch, his leg felt slightly better, but he still needed the broom stick to walk properly. Limping his way into the kitchen, he saw Paco sitting down on the floor looking up at Adala whilst licking his chops. Adala was in a corner holding a coffee pot over her head.
"What does he want?" she quickly asked with a slightly confused and scared voice.
"Paco come" Landen commanded.
Paco backed away from Adala and headed back over to Landen.
"He thought you were going to give him food, rattling pots and pans tends to make him do that" Landen explained to her.
"Why can't he just tell m-.." she took a second to look down at Paco who was happily sitting staring at her. "Never mind" Adala exhaled and lowered the coffee pot and went to the sink. Turning on the water, she filled the pot completely before and leaving it on the stove to steam.
"Will he ever bite me?" Adala asked nervously
"Probably not" Landen said shrugging his shoulders.
"Well that's not very reassuring" she deadpanned
"Truth be told, I'm surprised he didn't attack you on sight when you found m-" Landen looked at Adala, a female wolf, and then back down at Paco... his male dog and then back to Adala.
"Oh you're kidden me Paco" He said turning down to look at Paco with disappointment in his eyes. "Yeah, he's not going to attack you and I highly doubt he would even attack you if told him to do so"
"Well thanks for telling me that he's not going to bite me but how can you be so sure" Adala questioned.
"Paco is very simple minded. You must understand that by now Ms. Pots and Pans. You being a Ms. has a lot to do with it"
"Sorry, I'm not following you"
"I'll simplify it for you, you're female, Paco is male, and just like you could smell wolf on me Paco can smell female wolf on you; When he smells the female wolf hormones, his brain probably moved down in-between his legs"
"I get it, I guess. My smell is confusing him" she said scratching her snout.
"Yep, years of training gone in an instant. That also why he didn't attack you when you hit me in the head with a bat. By the way thanks for that" Landen remarked as he rubbed his head.
"I have already said sorry about that and it was your fault for scaring me" Adala commented.
"Yeah yeah, I not holding anything against you. I probably would have done the same"
Adala went for the pot of now brewed coffee; Paco was looking up at her, a hopeful look on his face."It's not even anything good, it's just coffee" Adala told Paco. Paco tilted his head and kept looking at her.
Adala opened some cabinets and pulled out two mugs, she tiled the pot of coffee, held the lid down, and poured it into both cups. She set one down on the floor which Paco came quickly scraping to.
Paco gave it a sniff, looked up at Adala, looked back down at the cup and back up to her. He sat down and continue to stare at her.
"Are you trying to give Paco coffee?" Landen asked incredulously
"That seems to be what he wanted but I poured him a cup but he just sniffed it and looked back up at me"
"He doesn't know what he wants" Landen chuckled to himself, hobbling out of the kitchen back to the living room, the wooden floorboard creaking as he stumbled along.
"Where are you going?" Adala asked.
"Give me one second" he spoke. Landen walked up to his bag, kneeling down and unzipped the zipper around his backpack and pulling out the bag of jerky.
He limped back into the kitchen and tossed the bag of jerky to Adala with an under handed throw.
Adala examined the bag. "I already told you I can't eat this"
"I do not intend for you to eat it, I intend for you to give it to Paco. He likes it far more than coffee"
"Why do you want me to give it to him, why don't you just give it to him?" she asked holding the bag with her two paws out in front of her.
"Cause I find the quickest way to an animal's heart is food"
Adala scoffed at his comment. "Seems like your world has at least one thing that's the same" she tore off the corner of the bag and opened it, releasing a wave of delicious scents.
"Damn this stuff smells good" She said taking a piece out of the bag and examining it.
Paco was waging his tail furiously kicking up dust on the wooden floor boards.
Adala tossed down a piece of jerky that Paco was quick to scarf down; Once he was done with it he looked back up Adala hopefully once more. She tossed down another piece, much to Paco's delight.
"Tell him to roll over" Landen told Adala.
"What?"
"Tell him to roll over, exactly what I said"
"Roll over" she said looking at Paco. With that said Paco was quick to lay on the ground and roll over. "What's the point of that?"
"First you need to give him another piece of jerky; he expects a treat after he does a trick" he explained
Adala did exactly what she was told tossing down another piece of jerk. A hint of a smile appeared on her face. "Now if I could only control children this well" she shifted her gaze from Paco to Landen who was still standing in the doorway with broomstick still underneath his arm.
The early morning sunlight was pouring in through the window hanging just above the sink, trailing across his face, just missing his blue eyes. There was something about the way he looked the was just unsettling, and she couldn't put her finger on what it was about him, it was just him as a whole.
Landen looked up from Paco to see Adala was staring at him. Their eyes only meet for a second as Adala quickly found something else to look at.
Adala eyes lit up and she walked out of the kitchen, Landen could hear her rustle about before she came back with something in her paw. She handed him what Landen though was a boring piece of wood with a strap attached to it, that was until he turned it around. It was a wooden wolf mask made of a dark oak wood with engravings running down it, swirling all around the mask. It was an absolutely stunning piece of wood work.
"Why are you giving me this?" he asked holding it up to the light getting a better look at it; It had a slight polish on it that gave it a small shine when light hit it.
"I don't know how I can say this kindly, I just have trouble looking at you"
"Well that's just rude" Landen stated.
"That's not what I mean… it's, it's just something deep down inside of me is screaming at me every time I look at you. A little voice that I just can't shut off, no matter how hard I try to. Also you can't stay in here forever. Sooner or later you're going to need to go outside and that mask should help you blend in and as long as no one takes a good long look at you, it should work"
Landen never thought of himself as scary, but this was the first mammal that was even remotely nice to him, so he decided he would trust her word. Landen placed the mask on his face with his one hand and pulled the strap over his head with the other. It fit nicely, though it did limit his frontal vision. Still, it wasn't too bad. "How do I look?" Landen asked.
"Better, still gives me an uneasy feeling but it's better than before"
"Glad to hear that. Can't see much but I think I can make due" What was he doing, he was talking to a wolf like it was a normal occurrence. It was making him feel like he was losing his mind. He wanted going to pinch himself, but the amount of pain he was already in confirmed that this was reality "Dammit" he mumbled to himself.
"Why did you say that?" Adala asked him.
Landen forgot how good wolf's ears are. "Nothing, just trying to wrap my head around everything" Landen legs were starting to get tired and he stumbled forward into the kitchen, leaning down to picked up the cup of coffee Adala had tried to give to Paco. Paco, however, was still hoping for her to give him more treats.
"Didn't know you drink coffee or knew what coffee was" Adala said.
Landen used the side of the mug to push up the mask so he could take a sip; It was a very dark roast that had a burnt taste to it. Nevertheless, coffee was still coffee.
"I had to be up and ready every day by 4:30, sometimes even sooner, so yeah, I love coffee" he turned back around and started making his way back to the couch. Every step still hurt.
"What's it like where you come from" Adala said following him into the living room followed by Paco. Adala sat in the large recliner across from Landen. She was holding a cup of coffee with both of her paws and taking sips Paco figured out that she was no longer holding the jerky and went back over to Landen. Jumping up on the couch, Paco turned in a circle before laying his head on Landens' lap.
"What do you want to know?" Landen said as he got as comfy as he could.
"What are wolves like? Are they like Paco?"
"The wolves where I come from are nothing like Paco; They are wild, untamed and have been known to kill people, but they normally only attack if we invaded their territory and are perceived as a threat"
"Have you ever been attacked?"
"Nearly"
"What did you do?"
"To explain that, I'll give you some backstory first. I was positioned in Eielson Air Force Base as a pilot in training. Me and my friend Mills' had a habit of hiking whenever we could. They were never very long hikes but we enjoyed it nonetheless. We were walking along, and everything was normal with fresh snow on the ground. The day was cloudy, typical Alaskan weather. On one of our hikes, something that I thought to be a dog approached us from out of the forest and stared at us. We kept walking forward tell we both came to the realization that it was not a dog, it was a wolf, and a very large one at that. It had to be at least 4 feet tall down on all fours and it was staring directly at us. We had both heard about a mauling that resulted in a death a little less than a week ago and the wolf's appearance brought that knowledge back into our minds"
"What did you do?"
"Had a standoff for what felt like forever but must have been less than five minutes. We made ourselves look big tossed stones near it and I swear, it never took it's gaze off of us even for a second. At that point the wolf started walking towards us so me and Mills hightailed it up the nearest tree; Mills was the first up, and the wolf was biting at my ankles as I climbed. We were completely stuck"
"How did you get out?"
"Neither me or Mill's brought our phones and I didn't have my gun with me, so for about 30 minutes we sat there before another wolf showed up. Now there were two wolves sitting under our tree. They got up every once in awhile and walked a little further away from the tree while keeping an eye on us. We waited another hour before the wolves had walked completely out of view. We were still not sure if they were hiding in a bush waiting for us to come down, till we heard another group of people walking towards us on the same trail.
We yelled at them warning them that were wolves in the area. They asked us if they needed to climb a tree as well; the wolves were still nowhere to be seen so we decided with a group of four people it was safe to come down. The wolves had simply left, and we made our way back to base with a story to tell"
Adalas' jaw was hanging slightly open. She shook her head quickly. "That doesn't sound like it was much fun" She took a sip of coffee and set the mug on a small table positioned next to her recliner. "You must have never went on that hike again"
"No, went back out the very next day" Landen took another sip of his coffee.
"Why would you do that? weren't you afraid of the savage wolf's trying to attack you again?"
"No I just made sure to take my pistol and a phone with me. They may be faster and stronger but a 9x19mm bullet traveling at 1,200 feet per second is hard to beat"
"Have you had to kill a wolf before?"
"On the hike, no. I've never had to shoot one either. The most I have ever done was shoot at one's feet; The loud bang normally scares them away"
"You ever run into the same wolf?"
"No, but the pack of wolves had to be put d-" Landen stopped himself knowing that she might not like what she was about to hear.
"The pack had to be what?"
Adala leaned in.
Landen took as a deep of a breath as he could without hurting his bruised and broken ribs. "The pack had-"
An alarm clock went off somewhere in the kitchen, saved by the bell.
"I'm going to half to cut out chat short, I have a kit I need to wake up and get ready for school. I also have to explain to her why I'm keeping the monster in our house"
"Tell her the monster says hello" Landen said as he finished his burnt tasting coffee. "And maybe the monster will teach you how to make good coffee"
"I'm going to half to ask you to go back into the bedroom, at least until after we leave. After that, you are more than free to move where ever you want to. You're also more than welcome to whatever's in the fridge that you can eat, and you can make yourself some better coffee" Adala said as she got up from her chair, grabbed her mug and made her way through the kitchen.
Landen really didn't want to get up, everything still hurt. Nonetheless he took his makeshift crutch and grudgingly stood. He opened the creaky wooden door to the bedroom and flicked on the singular light hanging down from the ceiling that filled the room with brightness.
Landen's eyes were fixated on the full sized bed which was calling to him. He placed the broom that he used as a crutch on the wall and took his mask off, placing it by the side of the bed. Without any reservations, he then fell straight onto the bed, soon joined by Paco, who jumped up after him.
"Dammit" he thought to himself, why did he turn on the light? He rolled over to his side and looked at the light switch on the other side of the room; He groaned and rolled back over taking a pillow and placing it over his head. Good enough, he thought to himself. He heard a little chatter before his eyelids fell closed.
Landen woke up a little later. The house was dead quiet, eerily so. The light was still on much to Landens' dismay. It felt like it was shining directly into his eyes. He really didn't want to get up;
Paco was laying on top of him and the warm bedding just made it all the more difficult. He needed to change out his soiled bandages on his side and maybe find some ice for his torn calf muscle and wrap something around it.
He turned and put his feet down on the cold wooden floor. Paco was not very happy when Landen moved, as he had been rather comfy. "Sorry buddy but I need to move" Landen said as grabbed the broom and placed it under his armpit, putting most of his weight on it before taking a quick sharp breath and standing up straight.
Landen took his med-kit with him. He started looking around the empty house. He first went into the living room and rummaged through his backpack till he found extra medical supplies.
"Now they must have a bathroom somewhere" he mumbled to himself as he went back past the room where he was resting in, opening doors as he went, hoping one of them was the bathroom. On the 2nd door to the left he found it, quickly entering and shutting the door.
Opening his medical supplies up, he remembered he used the rest of his bandages on the fox he tied to the tree; What a waste that was. He took out the bottle of morphine and pulled a needle out that was hidden in a side pocket along with the syringe. Landen poked the needle through the lid and extracted some. Rolling up his sleeve, he pressed the needle into his arm and pushed the syringe top down and let out a deep breath.
After that, he carefully removed his sling holding up his broken arm and let his arm fall down to his side. Landen then pulled his shirt off right to left, so he wouldn't half to move his left arm very much.
Looking at his arm, he saw that it was bright pink and swollen as all hell. He opened cabinets that were to his left and found a roll of cloth. He tried to close his left fist, but there was no motor response. Nothing, not even so much as a twitch.
Using his one good arm, he wrapped the bandages tightly around the broken part of his left arm and used his teeth to tear the strip off. The wound on his side was a different story. The bandages were soaked through with his blood in three dark red spots. Landen reached down, found the end of the old bandages and started slowly unwrapping until he reached his skin where he slowed down considerably as he piled the bandage away from the dried on blood.
He turned his side to the mirror to inspect his wound, but couldn't see much since the blood was too caked on. He took a towel that he found in the cabinet and ran it under cold water. Turning off the faucet Landen and placed the wet towel on his side, gently moved it up and down until all the dried blood was gone and he could get a clear view of his wound.
There were three incisions just under his rib cage, the cotton balls he had shoved into in a quick last ditch effort to stop the bleeding were still in there and needed to come out.
He used his fingers to pull out the ones he could, but some of them there were in too deep. Throwing the cotton balls in the trash, Landen reached for his tweezers in his med-kit and pulled out every old blood soaked cotton ball.
The morphine was doing a wonderful job of numbing his pain, but that didn't help his accuracy one bit and he repeatedly stabbed himself in the side, which didn't hurt much now but sure would later.
Grabbing the towel, Landen gently dabbed off the wound which was now lightly bleeding again.
Landen looked at his med-kit and saw the needle and thread resting underneath of the antibiotics and other medicine that he vaguely knew. He knew what he was going to half to do. How he was going to do it with one hand, he had no idea, but it still needed to be done.
Landen pulled out the needle and thread and spent a good five minutes just trying to thread the needle, almost throwing it away in frustration before he finally got it. Now came the fun part. Landen took the needle to his side and thread it through the skin one side of the three wounds and moved his hand so he could grab it from the other side to pull it out, which he did semi successfully.
The morphine made it almost painless, every time he pulled the needle through he only felt a small pinch. What an amazing pain killer morphine was. He closed up one wound after the other making sure to keep the wounds clean by dabbing the moist towel over them. Landen wrapped some bandages all around his body covering the now stitched up wounds.
Putting his shirt and makeshift sling back on, Landen was being very careful to not move his broken arm. He sat down on top of the toilet lid and tightly wrapped his lower leg up. The bandage on his shoulder from the gunshot wound was still good so he left it be.
Landen turned the blue handle of the faucet to the left; The blood ran off his hand as the water passed through his fingers. He cupped his hand letting water collect in his palm before splashing it on his face. Landen looked into the mirror hanging on the wall with his one still good eye.
There he was, a bruised and battered man all alone, completely exhausted and utterly drained of all strength. He stood in bewilderment, but he was still standing, and that had to count for something. Landen splashed himself with water one more time before picking up the needle and thread and tucking into their respective compartments. Clicking the lid closed, Landen took one more look into the mirror before leaving the bathroom, medkit in one hand and the broom pole in the other.
Landen went into the room that he had slept in, Paco still laying soundly asleep on the bed snoring ever so slightly. Landen placed his med-kit on the desk with the art supplies making sure not to knock anything over. He turned his attention to the window that was right next to the desk with red curtains blocking it.
Reaching over, Landen pulled back a single curtain and saw mostly forest and a single gravel roadway leading somewhere that he didn't know, and there was the river more gently flowing along now that it was not raining. Out of the corner of this eye he thought he saw something dart into the woods, must have been his restless mind playing tricks on him. He closed his eye and let the curtain fall back into place.
Landen made his way back to the bed and rested his hand on Pacos' head before; Paco stirred but didn't wake. Letting his hand fall down along the side of Paco's face, he scratched Paco's chin, the sleeping dog seemingly leaning into his touch.
"Good boy" Landen quietly whispered.
Landen pushed the bedroom door open and walked into the living room that was illuminated by a single light hanging from the ceiling. He found the light switch and flicked it off. The natural light coming in from the windows was plenty and it was more gentle on his eyes. Landen stumbled to the large recliner chair and fell down back into it, leaning his head back and staring at the ceiling, listening to the riving gently flowing in the background. It wasn't long before the sound of the river put him to sleep.
Adalas' Day
"No, the pack of wolf had to be put d-" The creature said but stopped halfway through.
"The pack had to be what?" Adala leaned in.
The creature seemed to take a deep of a breath "The pack had-"
The alarm she had set in the kitchen to tell her when to wake up Alexander and get her ready for school went off "I'm going to half to cut out chat short, I have a kit I need to wake up and get ready for school. I also have to explain to her why I'm keeping the monster in our house"
"Tell her the monster says hello" Landen said as he finished his burnt tasting coffee. "And maybe the monster will teach you how to make good coffee"
"I'm going to half to ask you to go back into the bedroom, at least until after we leave. After that, you are more than free to move where ever you want to. You're also more than welcome to whatever's in the fridge that you can eat, and you can make yourself some better coffee" Adala said as she got up from her chair, grabbed her mug and made her way through the kitchen.
She opened the door to the washing machine under the counter next to the sink and placed it on the top shelf. The creature's wolf followed her into the kitchen and stared at her, she took the bag of jerky and tossed a piece to him; Paco scarfed it down and went to follow the creature into the bedroom.
She was still trying to wrap her head around Paco. What a strange wolf he was. Anyways, she went over to Alexander's room and heard the pitter patter of feet scampering around just as she was getting close to the door. She opened it to see Alexander in bed fully hidden away under the covers.
Adala sighed knowing that Alexander had heard all of their conversation, she should have expected that, they weren't exactly quiet. She had a lot explaining to do.
"Are you asleep?" Adala asked.
"Yes" Alexander said muffled from underneath the bedding.
Adala rolled her eyes. "You're going to have to get up, You need to get ready for school"
"No, the monsters still out there" she said still being muffled by the sheets.
Adala said down next to her daughter. "I don't think it's a monster, I just think it's lost and looking for a way home"
"It's scary" Alexander said pulling her sheets up a little more.
"I know honey" Adala said pulling the sheets away and placing her paw on her head gently stroking her fur. Adala looked around the room and bit her bottom lip. "Tell you what, since you have been such a strong girl I'll make your favorite breakfast: Apple Chicken Sausage burritos, how does that sound?" Adala said as she scratched behind Alexander's ears.
No response from her, she just pulled the cover back over herself.
"Ok, I'm going to half to eat all the Chicken Sausage burritos myself, a pity that is" Adala joked.
"No, WAIT!" Alexander yelled and threw off all her blankets and ran past her into the kitchen with her tail between her legs.
That was one way to get her up, and it seemed to work well. Adala followed her into the kitchen, and noticed how Alexander was still in her blue and purple pajamas.
"Where's the burritos?" Alexander asked.
"I'll start making them. In the meantime, you should get dressed in some real clothing, I'll get started on making breakfast" Adala promised.
"O. K" Alexander said darting back into her room.
Adala took the chicken out of the fridge, also took out a big red bell pepper, red onion, along with some tortilla flour. Shutting the fridge, she opened a cupboard to right of the sink, and pulled out some diced almonds, three cloves of garlic and some rosemary, before setting it all on the counter. She had to open on last cupboard to get the olive oil and set it along with all the other ingredients.
By the time she had gathered everything, Alexander was back out all dressed, well… somewhat dressed. She had put her shirt on backwards and still had the same purple pajamas pants on. Adala knew she shouldn't have expected anything less; Alexander was only five after all.
Setting the oven to preheat at 400°F (204.5°C)
Adala took her daughter back into her room to dress her properly. After picking a blue T-shirt and a pair of jeans she quickly slipped them on her before heading back out into the kitchen.
She spent a couple more minutes preparing the ingredients, like dicing the bell pepper, garlic, chicken and mixing them all together.
"Mommy what happened to the savage wolf?" Alexander asked her mother who was placing the burritos into the oven.
"You told me you were sleeping earlier" Adala said as she went to the sink to wash off her paws.
"I was, I just heard as I was sleeping" She said holding her paws behind her back, wiggling her foot and looking down at the ground.
Adala waited a moment to think of what best to say. "The wolf was captured by the very best of the ZPD and given the Nighthowler cure" Adala said while forcing a smile and rubbing the top of Alexander's head. "And lived happily ever after" Now wasn't the time to explain to her that the wolf was in fact not savage. It would take too long say and she wouldn't understand a word of it. In all honesty she didn't know what happened to the wolf and she was curious to know herself, she was going to have to ask the creature herself later.
"Can you have it tell more stories later?" her daughter asked innocently. Adala grabbed a timer from the windowsill and twisted it till it was sitting on the 30 minute mark.
"I thought you were scared of it?"
"Yes, but it has good stories"
"That indeed it does" Adala agreed. "Tell you what, you don't tell anyone at school about the creature and I will get the creature to tell more stories"
"I want salmon for dinner"
"Fine but can you promise me that you won't tell anyone?"
"I promise" Alexander said shaking her head quickly up and down.
Adala placed her paw in front of her and extender her bottom finger. "Pinky promise?"
"I pinky promise" Alexander said putting out her furry digit and they shook on it.
After the half hour had passed, the timer went off and the apple chicken burritos where brown and crispy. Adala could practically hear alexander drooling. After Adala finished setting the table with a little help from Alexander they both sat down and ate.
Alexander inhaled her two burritos and Adala after finished hers, they both stepped outside the house and hopped into a small four-seater with only two doors. You had to pull forward the front chairs to get into the back. Adala buckled Alexander into the back seat and then herself before driving off towards the pre-school along the gravel road.
The sun was now fully up and shining. They were the first ones to arrive at the school as always. Adala, being a teacher and all, always had to be the first one there. She unlocked the doors leading into the school, walked in and opened the arts and crafts drawer, and set Alexander up with some paints and a black sheet of paper.
"I'll be right back" Adala told her. Stepping back outside, she went around the side of the building around the trees to where the broken window was. The broken windows had a white trash bag pulled over it. She knelt down next to the tree opposite of the broken window and put herself in the position of the creature.
She closed her eyes and let her thoughts carry her away to the school four days ago. The doors were slammed open and the creature was standing there next to Paco. She looked to the other side of the classroom and there's where she stood, standing as she moved all the children behind her.
As the scene played out in her head Javan (the rhino) charged the creature, forcing desks out of the way till he hit the back of the classroom, pinning the creature to the wall; The creature's breath must have been knocked out of him from a collision of that much force. Paco came rushing and bit Javan because he attacked Landen.
It was all making sense. The pain from the bite must have caused Javan to drop the creature; as Javan was dealing with Paco the creature got ahold of his gun and Paco was kicked to the other side of the room, the creature had gotten up, but not before Javan took notice and before it could get a clear shot off he was sent through the window where Adala was sitting now.
Adala opened her eyes and looked over to the front of the school tried to imagine herself beaten and battered laying there and having a rhino charging at her. After sitting there for a moment, Adala mumbled "You really didn't have any options did you" it was either take it down or have it kill you.
She stood back up, brushed off the loose grass off her bottom, tail, and walked back into the classroom. Alexander was still sitting and playing with her paints, splashing them all around the piece of paper. "What are you drawing?" Adala asked leaning in and looking over her shoulders.
"Can't you tell?" Alexander help up her painting.
There was a small black smudge next to a larger one and a line of blue running along behind them and a brown box on the right. "I don't know dear" Adala said as she straightened her back and placed her paws on her hips.
"It's mommy and me standing next to the house" Alexander explained. "Can't you tell?" Alexander sunk into her chair.
Adala was seeing it now, the larger black smudge must be her and the smaller one Alexander. The thick blue line behind them must be the river and the brown must be the house.
"Aww" Adala said trying to acted surprised. "I see it now. We will half to put it on the fridge as soon as we get home"
Adala put the paints away and got the classroom ready. The children and their parents started to trickle in just as she got finished prepping the classroom. Everyone was there by eleven, besides Javan's son. She settled everyone down and got class started. Today they were practicing the alphabet.
She tried to make as fun for them as possible. So took the alphabet cubes that she had and placed them into a large sack. Every time they pulled one out, they had to call out the letter and if they got it right they would stack them into a tower till it fell over. But before she got started with the lesson she had to do the morning routine of everyone saying their name and something they did over the weekend.
Eric the porcupine was first. He told the class about how he went of a full mile hike with his dad and the amazing view that they had seen. Azeria, a fox, was next. She talked about how she went to a dance with her mother and she learned how to waltz.
Surprisingly, there was very little chat about the creature as the classroom went around telling everyone about their weekend. Alexander still had yet to talk though, but Adala wasn't worried. The promise of food was always a good incentive for her, especially salmon, which was without a doubt her favorite.
The classroom came around to Alexander.
"So, Alexander what did you do over the weekend?" Adala had to ask her.
"I got to watch T.V. till 11:00 on Saturday and eat popcorn" Alexander simply told the class while smiling. 50% of the class' jaws hung open. Their parents NEVER let them do that. The rest only thought it enviously, not expressing their jealousy.
Adala's mind breathed a sigh of relief. Her daughter wasn't wrong; she did let her stay up that late. Well… let is not as accurate. She had to stay up all of Friday night to bandage the creature and make sure it didn't die in its sleep. She passed out however around 6:00pm and awoke at 10:45pm and alexander was still up watching T.V. by that time munching on popcorn. Alexander must have seen an opportunity and took it.
After the rest of the children were done with the weekend share, they moved onto the alphabet activity. Everything was going as planned: the children pulled out letters one by one and stacked them up as high as they could before it fell over, which was normally around ten blocks while all of them screamed in delight and ran away when the tower started falling. That is, until Erin, an elephant, asked about why there was a trash bag over the window.
Adala looked at the rest of the class and they looked just as curious as Erin, how could they not remember the creature? It was a traumatic experience but they should still remember it, Something was wrong. She was at a dilemma, tell them about the creature or make up a lie keep it out of there young minds, then she had an idea. "Does anyone know where Hacacor is? (Jarvan's son) I didn't see him today"
Zira a giraffe raised her hoof in the back.
"Yes, Zira" Adala spoke pointing at her.
"My mommy told me that he was in car crash and was hurt bad"
They really didn't remember anything, nothing at all. "We will have to make some get well cards tomorrow, I'm sure Hacopor and Jarvan would love to hear from you all" Was the best thing Adala could think of saying. "And the windows were just a-" Adala looked at the window. Outside, over the hill, a black figure was standing only for a second then darted away beneath the hill. "Teacher?" Sebra, a zebra, called to Adala.
Adala was pulled away from the window back into the classroom. She shook her head and snapped back to the class. "Sorry about that class, I got a little distracted. As I was saying the window broke due to a ball being kicked into it. It should be fixed by the end of the week"
The kids seemed to buy it.
The class went along as normal for the rest of the day, but Adala would check the window every now and then, she must have been seeing things, she convinced herself. She waved the children off as their parents drove them away. It was now 4:00pm, and the sun was still high in the sky.
As soon as the cars vanished out of sight, she went back into the building. Alexander was still at her desk playing with her paints, her arm fur mostly covered in red and black. She would have to give her a bath when they got home; now, if only she liked baths. Maybe when she gets older she'll start to like them, Adala could only hope.
Adala let the door close behind her back. As soon as the door latched Alexander turned around.
"Is it time to go home?" Alexander asked.
"Yeah, you should get your paints put away and we'll head on home, and I'll make you that salmon I promised"
Alexander eyes lit up and she ran back and forth from the cupboard and her desk putting away all her art supplies away.
'No better motivator for them than food' Adala thought to herself.
It wasn't long before Alexander stood in front of her out of breath paws on her knees.
"You all done?"
"Yes, I got everything put away"
"Then come on, let's go home" Adala spoke as she placed a paw on top of Alexanders' head ruffling her fur.
Adala walked out of the building with Alexander next to her, holding her paw and walking her to their car. Adala reached down into her pockets and pulled out her keys, unlocking the door, helping Alexander get all buckled in, and getting herself in as well.
The drive home was as quiet as it normally was. Her nearest neighbor more than a mile away, she didn't exactly live close to anything. She rather enjoyed the quiet and peace that it gave her and her daughter. She was about half way home when Alexander started asking more questions, ones she did not know the answer too, such as: "Why did no else remember the creature? Why were you and me the only ones who remembered what happened?" Adala could only reply with an "I don't know, but maybe the creature would know"
Adala rolled into her driveway, if you could even call it a driveway. It was just a patch of gravel that she parked her car in. She pulled out her keys and put them into her pocket only to remember that she still needed them to unlock the front door.
Alexander wasn't strong enough to pull the seat forward yet so Adala had to do it herself or else she would just be stuck back there. Alexander climbed over the seat and out of the car. Adala pushed the seat back into place and they both started towards the front door.
The house lights were still turned off. Perhaps the creature didn't even wake, or it didn't know how to turn on a light switch, it was one of the two. Adala climbed the few steps leading up to the door and reached into her pocket to pull out her keys again.
Letting the door slowly open. They both stepped inside, turned on the light switch, and found that Paco was laying down dead center of the rug. Paco lifted his head and stared blankly at her. "Mom, he's not wearing any pants" Alexander commented and hiding behind her leg
If Adala could sigh any deeper, her diaphragm would have ruptured.
Paco let his head fall back down and seemingly went back to sleep.
Adala walked around him to where the creature slept. Cracking the door open, with but the tiniest of slivers, she found that the creature was soundly asleep.
I hope the wait for the chapter was worth it. again sorry for the long wait I could make excuses but it's more of just how short my attention span.
I would also appreciate any criticism that you might have. I want to hear what you don't like just as much as what you do.
Anyways I would like to give a huge Thanks for Wick Nilde who took four hours out of his day to help edit this story; can't thank him enough.