Chapter 53 – A Pretty Present


Isengrim and his forces were finally making progress. They had been able to pull the steel and concrete from around the door to the estate, and were in the process of chopping the hinges off the door with the heavy duty axes from the firetruck after exposing them by taking sledgehammers to the brick and stone around them. Using the wooden panels soaked with water from the fire engine and fire hoses, they avoided most of the ranged fire coming from all sides by the estate's perimeter forces. To their credit, Reynard's defenders threw everything they had at them making the attackers lives miserable. Those on the roof repeatedly tried to light them on fire and had the ground coated in a thick sticky tar substance that would ignite and burn a long time if not constantly soaked with water.

The defensive forces also kept finding openings in their defenses tossing improvised firebombs inside causing many serious injuries and demoralizing those clustered under the protective barriers. They struck repeatedly in hit and run groups not allowing any time for counter strikes. One time his men did attempt to chase one group, but ended running into a group with one of the auto ballistas attached to the vehicle and they ended up losing the whole chase group. The defenders attempted to bait his assault team over and over, but he refused to take the bait and instead kept his group under defensive protection.

Finally, they removed the door and cautiously moved into the foyer of the estate. Apparently the furniture in the room, the statue, water sculpture and the chandelier that would normally be present in the large round room had been removed. The outlines of their positions and the water pipes still remained in place. There was a curving staircase heading up and doors on the north and east walls which most likely led to corridors to the other parts of the estate. Isengrim ordered a couple scouts to investigate the upper floor while he had groups examining the doors to check for traps as well as determining the best possible method of opening them.

The Wolf was tempted to rush in and knock the doors down rampaging all over the floor removing any resistance quickly, forcing Reynard, his family, and all his defenders to be crushed between his group and Mors's underground team. But Isengrim had a healthy respect for the mind of his enemy knowing The Fox most likely planned for such an assault. Unfortunately The Wolf had not been cautious enough as suddenly sprinklers above everyone in the room came down out of the ceiling and large spikes shot upwards from the floor near the main door impaling a whitetail deer and timber wolf that been standing directly above them. Then the sprinklers went off. Isengrim realized his mistake instantly and instinctively yelled for his team to get out immediately. He picked up a red panda and tossed him out the front door over the meter long spikes and took two quick steps and leaped following the panda diving headfirst over the spikes.

He then heard the most horrific screams of anguish and suffering he had ever heard as everyone in the foyer was coated with acid which instantly ate through clothes, fur, skin and flesh. Isengrim yelled for them to douse everyone in the room with one of the fire hoses. But unfortunately by the time they got in there to soak everyone, the fifteen in the room where all dead or still screaming begging for death. Once they cleared the spikes, they also found the three which had gone up the winding staircase were all dead with crossbow bolts puncturing their bodies in multiple places. He had lost eighteen good men in an instant. He was sure the casualties his attacking force had suffered were now well over a hundred. Isengrim hated to think what the final tally would be once everything was over.

Isengrim cursed himself for not anticipating the booby trap and ordered those still alive given mercy and killed immediately. They sprayed the room and floor with water until it was diluted enough not to cause any additional harm. All kept a very close eye on the sprinklers above them keeping shields and plastic covering over their heads ready to bolt instantly if there was any indication that they would become active again.

The Wolf sent a large force up the stairs with shields, and the two doors opened to the hallways. He then began the slow careful process of covering all the ground on the main and upper floor searching for anyone alive, traps, secret passageways and rooms, and any sign of The Fox and his family. He cursed the fact that he now had no proper communications to find out what his underground team or any of his other groups were doing. Apparently all frequencies were being blocked. Either Reynard's team was not using any communicators, or more likely they had models which were using much higher frequency levels. He had been hoping to capture some of their communication equipment, but the defenders had managed to either remove their fallen comrades or remove the communication equipment from the bodies of the few causalities Isengrim's forces had been able to inflict.

The defenders were very disciplined, using hit and run tactics, with predefined defensive fallback positions. They did not blindly stand still to be mowed down or be overwhelmed. If they did not have a superior defensible position, they would retreat and regroup. They were an extremely difficult opponent. Isengrim knew this was going to be a time consuming process to cover this whole building. And he was quite sure The Fox was well aware of this. He could only hope his lower level team was having more success.


As Armis proudly placed his trophy on a table in front of commander Mors, the jaguar got a huge malevolent grin on his face.

"My, what a pretty present you have brought me. Armis, you have done well… very well." Mors exclaimed in rare praise thinking of all the delicious things he could do with this unique gift.

His second in command, Bruun's second lieutenant Ratio the Wolverine, who had been a constant thorn in Mor's side questioning his tactics, spoke up, "Mors, we were ordered to bring any of his family we captured straight to Isengrim and Bruun. They have need of them so we can negotiate our way out of this shit."

The jaguar sneered at the wolverine exclaiming forcefully, "If we don't kill the fucking Fox, then it isn't gonna matter a whole fucking lot. Besides, once he is dead, they can have her!"

This seemed to cow the annoying wolverine. Satisfied, Mors turned his attention to the little kit who was glaring up at him furiously with her arms crossed. He could sense she had something to say which amused him so he looked at her with a smirk and said, "Well…"

The little girl sensed this was an invitation for her to speak and she angrily told him, "Daddy is gonna be SO cross with you."

"Oh, I imagine so." The jaguar told her, "In fact I am counting on it. I bet you're your daddy's precious little girl. You're just perfect for my plans!"

"What are you doing in my house? You need to return me to Mommy and Daddy right now!" Scarlet informed him with a command in her voice that belied her very young age.

Mors snarled at the little girl, "My aren't you are a forceful little brat. I bet you are used to everyone following your every order. Everyone must always be trying to please you. Well you will find you don't have any special status with me or my group. You are simply an object for us to use, nothing more. If you stop being of use to me, I will happily slit your throat and let you bleed out all over your pretty little dress there. I bet that thing cost at least a whole weeks wages of mine! Although on second thought, I am sure we can find other useful things we can do with such a cute little vixen. I know many who would pay handsomely for a go at..."

"Sir! There is no need for that!" Ratio interrupted.

The jaguar wanted to smack the wolverine, but he resisted as that would cause a lot of problems. He had wanted to see if he could get the little kit to cry. But she seemed to be a lot tougher than she looked as she just continued to glare at him fuming. Either she didn't understand what he was inferring or… or she was her father's daughter after all.

"You will be sorry you took me." The little kit stated simply scowling at Mors.

"Why? Because your father will punish me? You think he will simply just come and rescue you don't you? You probably worship him believing he can do no wrong. You doubtlessly think he can do anything. It is what you have been taught and told by your cunt mother and all the ass-kissers that surround you. Sorry to burst your bubble kid, but your father is not all that special. He will bleed and die just like anyone else. I look forward to holding his severed head in my paw!" The jaguar told the tiny kit giving her most likely her first wake up call.

However the little girl surprised him informing him with confidence, "He will be the one holding your head you meanie! Mommy will want to kill you too. You better hope Daddy gets you before Mommy does."

Mors had to admit, he had never heard threats from such a cute little source before. He was tempted to show her the realities of her new world slapping her around, fondling her a good bit and treating her even worse than that for once in her life, but he knew Ratio would blow a gasket and Isengrim would be quite pissed if anything happened to the child. She was so lucky that they needed her for peace and negotiation or whatever other crap they were talking about. So he satisfied himself with making sure that she knew that she would be cause of her precious father's death.

She glared at him quite bitterly and ordered, "Take me back to Daddy NOW!"

He jeered at her giving her a mock bow telling her quite sarcastically, "Yes my little princess. Anything you say."

He then gave her a pleasant smile telling her, "But actually that is exactly what I intend to do. And you are going to help me kill your father."

When he said that, her furious expression broke for the first time and she looked uncertain and troubled, "What do you mean?" The little girl asked exposing clear worry in her voice.

"I want you to satisfy yourself knowing that you will be the cause of your dear daddy's death. Because when I present you, his precious little princess, in front of him, he will only think about rescuing you and will ignore his own safety. That is when we will have him. You will get to watch him die horribly right before your very eyes. You will get to tell your cunt mother and shit brothers and sisters how he died. And it will be all YOUR FAULT!" The jaguar informed the child grinning maliciously and then cackling with glee as the little girl burst into tears weeping inconsolably crying out, "Daddy! I want my daddy!" through her sobs.

Ratio shook his head clearly disapproving of the jaguar's actions, but Mors loved to break any of those unfortunate enough to find themselves at his mercy. He just had to figure out how to destroy them first to make them compliant. Now she would be too worried about how she was going to be the cause of her father's death to be a bother to him.

He then had the kits arms and legs bound tightly. He considered having her gagged, but then realized he would need her to yell as much as possible to thoroughly distract her father. In fact if she refused to cooperate with that request, Isengrim's wrath or not, he would beat her thoroughly until she screamed her annoying head off. He was glad now he didn't have any irritating cubs of his own to worry about.

Mors happily let Ratio carry the girl knowing the wolverine would certainly not let anything happen prematurely to the precious kit considering how important the wolverine thought she was. He then placed his paw under the weeping kit's chin forcing her to look up at his wicked grin as he informed her, "Now let's go find Daddy!"