Chapter Eleven: In Which, Fear Overtakes all Rational Thinking

When he next woke, he was relieved to find that all of the numbness he had been feeling previously had gone, and could stand up and move around without hindrance.

The strange lights from directly above was gone, and instead sunlight, real, true, light, was streaming in through clear places in the sides of the block, for he had now allowed himself to believe that he was within one of the human nests, and illuminating various places on the floors.

Now that he could see properly, he could finally take in all of his surroundings, but he didn't like what he saw very much.

He was alone, as far as his sight and smell could tell him, and that in itself wasn't very comforting, for he was a social one and had intensely disliked being alone ever since Eldora had ran off with the pack of her own kind. Now that he was without her again, it was like the same thing was repeating itself, only this time he didn't know where she was, whereas before he had at least taken small reassurance in knowing she was safe with the others.

He on some sort of raised platform in the centre of the area, and that was pretty much it- apart from one other thing. On a little ledge by one of the places in the wall where the sunlight streamed inside there was some sort of little tree in a container, but that was all.

Pretty bland, really.

Sighing softly, he laid on the platform, forepaws stretched out before him with his chin rested on his arm, ears folded flat against his furry head as he contemplated various things, like why was he there, where was Eldora, how soon would they be out of here and together again?

Just as he was about to get up and have a proper look around, a side of the wall surrounding him opened and that tall-no-tail female walked in again, blinking at him. The little fur it had was quite unusual, all on its head and quite long, as well as quite a shocking pink, like the Skitty he had encountered in the shining place. Colours were not odd to the maned-single-tail, but considering he had seen most of the tall-no-tails with dull, dark colours- such as blacks and browns- and lighter colours- such as yellows and reds- the pink was a little different to what he'd seen adorning the round skulls of the two-legged creatures.

They watched each other for a moment, Kalikow's decidedly distrusting, and he could tell that the female understood that.

But he made no motion to indicate that she couldn't come towards him- after all, hadn't she picked him up and held him the other night and not done him any harm? A creature's attitude could easily flit from passive-to-violent, but there was something about this one that told him she wouldn't do that.

So she took his lack of motion as an invitation and walked over to him, sitting on the edge of the raised platform, and so allowing him a lot of free space, seemingly knowing that he wouldn't want to be too close to her.

He bristled as she reached into her pocket, and began to sniff suspiciously as he took something out, offering it to him.

A few moments of scenting he discovered it was food of some kind, and tentatively took it from her hand, watching her every movement as he chewed slowly, wishing he had a Pecha berry handy in case there was something in the offered, dried, meat that would need to be counter-acted by the healing properties of the sweet, soft, fruit. The meat in itself didn't taste too bad, but there was the taint tall-no-tail about it, and so the flavour was a little off for his preferences.

Upon finishing, he begrudgingly allowed her to reach out and press her delicate fingertips on his headfur, but he didn't like it one bit and was tense the entire time, his fur lifting into her touch.

Seemingly sensing that he wasn't enjoying the attentions, she soon withdrew her strangely-shaped paw and curled it into a fist, resting it limply on her lap, watching him with eyes that were almost as brightly pink as the fur on her head, which he knew for definite was unusual, because he'd only encountered a few different types of eye-colour, Eldora's red being the closest thing he had to compare with the tall-no-tail female's, and even then they were odd.

The creature made a soft sound, and he realised that she was sighing, and watched unblinking as she closed those eyes and tilted her flat face downwards, tiny little mouth a straight line, an expression he knew to be upset or discomfort.

And something in him changed.

No matter what species, he hated to see things upset. Something in the little fox's heart was exceedingly compassionate and kind, and though he felt nothing but trepidation towards this odd, tall, thing's kind, he couldn't help but utter a soft whine and take a step towards her.

She looked up and towards him, and her lips twitched in the making of a smile. She held out her hand to him, and he hesitated for a moment, but then got to him paws and padded over to her, lying down and resting his chin on her lap, fluffy tail brushing against her hand. He was strangely pleased to hear her make a sound that translated to murring in his mind.

Lying as still as he could make himself while she drew the long-fingered paw of hers down his beige-coloured back, he suddenly felt a wave of pleasure ripple through his body as she tickled the digits behind his ears, managing to find places that were often attacked by itching parasites and taking care of the itches good. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to rumble in the proper version of murring, relaxing completely, surrendering to her fingers and their pleasing routes across the irritating spots on his body that his fore- and hindpaws couldn't quite reach by themselves.

He had almost been reduced to a floppy little pup when the fear of the tall-no-tails kicked up again in his heart and he jerked away, eyes wide as he yelped and shivered, staring at her with disbelief, as if he couldn't believe he had allowed himself to leave himself so open to her, when she could've ended his life in a heartbeat. Taken the life from his throat and the vein of the lifeblood.

Even though she hadn't threatened him.

Even though she'd done nothing to harm him.

The fear wouldn't let him approach her again.

After a while of watching and waiting, she bowed her head once, stood up, and left the small area without another sound.

Puzzlement making his brows furrow, he stood up again and jumped down off of the raised platform, swiftly padding towards where she had left- the place on the wall that felt slightly different to the wall itself and the platform as he pressed his black-coloured nose to it. It smelt more like the trees that had been in the forest where him and Eldora had lived, but still had that stinking taint of tall-no-tails about it.

Sniffing around it, he soon found a gap, about one inch tall, on the ground, below the tree-scented piece of wall. Looking up, he saw a piece of the wall sticking out a little bit further, and understood that it must've had something to do with how the tall-no-tails opened the thing, which, in turn, allowed them access to whatever was beyond it- but what that was, exactly, he didn't really know. But something told him that Eldora was beyond the wall, and so he had to find his way to her, no matter what.

But how…?

What if only tall-no-tails could open the wall…?

Would he be stuck in here forever…?

Trapped by his fear?

Trapped by the female?

He didn't know, just like he didn't know much about this strange place and all of the strange ways of those who lived here. But there was something in him that was determined to find out, desperate to know and understand what was going on, and how it could be worked to one's advantage.