Chapter Ten: In Which, They are Introduced to a World Unbeknown to Them
Finally, the storm died away into nothing and the sun was allowed to use its full strength, and the shining place was once again shining.
But Kalikow was not.
Still, Eldora would not move, no matter how hard he nudged her. She was still alive, of that he was sure, for he could still feel the little beat in her throat that he had been taught meant life. That was, after all, the place one had to bite in order to make the chase the prey and the food, so he had believed that the thud-thud meant life still existed. It certainly wasn't there if something was dead.
But she still wasn't moving.
He stayed beside her, pressing as close to her as he could, trying to give her back some of the warmth that she had lost so suddenly. He groomed her until she was completely dry, and spotlessly clean, to boot. His loyalty was unfathomable.
Just as he was about to try and get some sleep, belly growling like some sort of beast due to him not leaving her side for the entire day, he heard movement outside, the crate began to judder and shake and he leapt to his feet, nearly trampling Eldora, looking around wildly. He jumped up, placing his forepaws on the edge of the crate and tried to find the source of the shaking.
He nearly jumped out of his fur when he located the source.
A tall-no-tail was carrying the crate!
Ducking down out of the strange creature's line-of-sight, he desperately licked Eldora's cheek, hoping to wake her up, for his need for her was now at its peak. She was always the sensible one, always the one who knew exactly what to do…
Apart from last night. Last night she had been almost too terrified to move.
The tall-no-tail barked to a few other members of its pack, and the crate was handed to another one. Kalikow couldn't take it any longer. If they stayed in the crate, they'd end up getting covered in a tonne of silver- and slimy-swim-tails, or maybe even a whiskered-swim-tail or two, and would suffocate under the writhing, scaly bodies. So he jumped up to his hindpaws again, face directly in front of the strange, flat, furless one of the tall-no-tail. Judging by the high-pitched cry that escaped from the creature's lips, it was a female, but that didn't comfort the maned-single-tail as the crate was dropped and he and a rather limp-looking Eldora tumbled out.
He felt faint and dizzy as he rolled onto the cold, stone floor, his energy almost completely depleted due to not having eaten all day. Eldora had fallen beside him, but still she would not move, and her pelt was getting colder and colder by the second.
They laid there, Kalikow pressing as close tothe red-six-tail as he could, as the tall-no-tails gathered around them, talking into their impossibly loud, booming voices.
He closed his eyes, trying to shut it all out. His nervousness around them had been lost, certainly, but there were still something about the great, tail-less, fur-less creatures that awakened an ancient fear within the fox's heart, telling him to keep out of sight, as far away from them as he possibly could.
But he was surrounded, and so could not run away. He opted instead to lie still and wait for a quick end.
Great shadows, passing over his eyes… someone touching his forepaw, lifting it, turning it in the great, long-fingered paws of a tall-no-tail… a light prickle of pain, a whimper escaping from between his lips.
And then blissful peace.
Upon awakening, the first thing he noticed was a bright, white light, so dazzling that he had to close his eyes again, and even then there were great spots of light, dancing behind the darkness of his eyelids.
He whined, shifting his paws to place them over his eyes in order to shut out the brightness, finding that his movements were stiff and awkward, like he was tired and his muscles were sore, only he couldn't feel any pain- in fact, he could feel very little in the first place, just emptiness.
It was not the kind of experience he particularly enjoyed.
Some time later, he slowly opened his eyes again, sighing with relief to see that the brightness had dimmed since he had last ventured a peak, and he opened them fully, blinking slightly in the almost… blue… lighting. The unnaturalness of it all made him sit up, though his movements were almost painfully stilted.
Looking around in confusion, he at first thought he was inside one of those metal stumps, for it was dark around him, save from that dim, blue, light, and the floor was cold, like the surface of the stumps had been.
But then he reached out, and he found that the area around him was much bigger than that of the scrap-filled objects, and if he placed his paw down a few feet in front of where he was sitting now, he could feel a soft material, almost like fur- but it wasn't fur, he could tell. There was something about it that told him it had been made by the tall-no-tails.
Just like the shining place had been made by them…!
So he was still in the shining place?
But what part?
He couldn't remember any soft fur-like materials or blue lights around the place, and him and Eldora had explored… every… p-
Eldora!
Where was she?
Was she all right?
Whimpering softly, he forced his stiff and unfeeling body to walk a few paces forwards, trying to catch her scent among all of the unusual, unfamiliar and unnatural ones that belonged to the tall-no-tails.
But he couldn't find a trace of her anywhere…
Suddenly, he came to the end of what he had been standing on and, with a highly audible yelp, tumbled down from the metal, the fur-stuff catching on his hindpaw's claws and falling down after him.
He landed with a painful crunch! on the floor, the material floating down like a cloud to rest upon his trembling form.
The bright light came on again. He could hear footsteps- big, heavy footsteps that could only belong to one creature that existed under the sky… a tall-no-tail! Was he in one of those… block… things…? With all of the lights and the noise and the cold…?
Pale, thin, fingers closed around his middle and lifted him from the ground, another paw gently tugging the material from his hindpaw, where it had managed to get itself tangled during his fall. He trembled, curling into as tight a ball he could, his ruff standing up on end so that those delicate, probing, fingers wouldn't be able to touch his throat, where the life still beat strongly, just like he'd been taught it would do.
The creature made a sound, and his ears pricked, knowing there was a barrier between his and the tall-no-tail's noises even greater than the one between him and his red-six-tail.
But… still… that noise seemed to have certain significance… and he'd certainly heard it being made by one of them before- several times, in fact.
It said it again.
"Stay."
The tall-no-tail female placed him back on the cold metal, wrapping the material around him, as though telling him to make his nest, his bedding, out of it.
And again.
"Stay."
S-tay…what did that mean? Stay.
"Stay."
Whimpering, he curled up in the material, hiding from the strange sound and the light and, most of all, the tall-no-tail and its pale, ghostly features.
Footsteps told him that it had left, as did the sudden, blessed, darkness that surrounded him like the material did, which was now soft and warm due to his curling in it, and scented… scented like his own fur… which, in turn, carried traces of Eldora's…
Sleep did not come easily to him that night.
But her scent was all the comfort he could wish for.
It could only be bettered by the red-six-tail herself.