-X-
Below the vastness of space and the mighty Greater Fox was the scarlet surface of the planet Papetoon. Dead, plain, and dusty, the ground gave a warm red glow as the suns were setting over the horizon at the McCloud homestead.
Krystal laid down on a new couch that Clytes had bought the other day. Its light blue upholstery smelled like Iedenese linen. It was probably the only truly pristine piece of furniture on the whole planet. Surely Clytes had to have gone off planet to get this thing, the blue fox thought to herself. She cradled her stomach which was many months pregnant at this point. It was a bit painful. To her It felt as if someone had broken her feet with a mallet to the point where they internally resembled a jelly with rocks in it. She could hear that next door the McCloud kids were fighting and that didn't help with the fact she had a migraine. "This is unbearable," she said to herself. "I hate this." She looked over at her cell comm which laid on a cardboard box she was using as a makeshift side table.
She was supposed to get a call from Fox McCloud this evening. She knew that he hadn't been in the best mental state for quite some time now and that made it that much worse for her to not be able to communicate well with him. The stupid little round device toyed with her concerns as it remained silent. Next to the cell comm was the remote to the old timey television that had been placed in front of her courtesy of the McClouds.
Krystal sighed and reached for the black remote. She depressed the bright red power on button with her finger and it clicked. The black screen snapped on with a sort of static noise and for a few moments it showed nothing to Krystal. Then a television show splashed onto the screen.
It was the worst possible program to appear, the jewelry selling channel. A youngish slimy otter man pointed at the various gemstones on display before him and made claims about their worth. "You're not going to see these deals again," he said "This is 10 carat MachBethite on pure platinum from the prestigious Celsius family mine and foundry on MacBeth, at only 1% market value. This is historic. You only have thirty minutes to-"
Krystal interrupted this homely mustelid with a powerful click and changed the channel. Now Infront of her was a sitcom of some kind from the neighboring star system. It was in a language she couldn't understand, but there were subtitles she could read. She squinted at the strange red furry draconic man that seemed to be scolding his son. It was safe to assume this was a family dilemma of the week sort of show. She noticed the prongs on the mouth of the creature, two on top and one on the bottom. She recalled that these beings were the azdoves that she read about in an article before. Their Empire had set up a colony in the Tyrva system on Ornech. "Huh, I guess the range on this device is a lot farther than I gave it credit," she concluded.
That's when the cell comm rang. That's when the cell comm rang. The blue vixen caught her breath, turned off the television, and dropped the remote onto the floor where a desert wolf centipede happened to be lurking. It sniffed the remote while Krystal grabbed the communication device and smashed it up against her face.
"Krystal?" The voice on the other side called out.
"Fox, finally, I've been waiting all day to talk to you!" Krystal said in a soft tone
"Y-yeah, I'm sorry, I tried to get back to my office as soon as possible," he sighed. "Watching rookies fly is so boring."
"Sweetheart, that's mean," Krystal responded.
"The winner of the drill was the least likable pilot there," Fox mumbled.
Krystal was flabbergasted, not being able to believe it could be that bad "Fox," she nagged.
"I'm not even going to explain it right now, you'd have to be there to understand."
They were both silent for a brief period, Krystal holding the warm plastic of her cell comm.
Fox then talked again, "Hey, how are you holding up?"
"My feet feel like they've been turned into a jam or a jelly," she commented.
Fox chuckled "Sounds bad."
Krystal huffed then smiled, which could not be seen from the other side of the phone. "It will be worth it."
"How much longer will it be?" asked Fox.
"I don't know exactly, Clytes is driving me to a doctor in Dead Finch tomorrow morning."
Fox cringed a bit. A doctor in Dead Finch? Is that where Krystal went before? He tried to not make his worry audible, but Krystal could sense it.
"It's fine, it's a real doctor. Your uncle has shown that he is extraordinarily good at detecting fraud, it's uncanny."
"If you say so, man, I wish I could go with you next Papetoon day," he sighed.
"You don't have to specify the planet," laughed Krystal.
"Yeah, my bad. It's a bit of a nervous habit."
"I can understand if you're nervous. That's perfectly natural." Krystal got up from laying down and got into a sitting position on the couch. She made a grunting noise while doing so which indicated some amount of pain.
"You, okay?"
"Yes Fox… Would you desire to inquire about something else maybe?"
"I have been thinking about where we are going to live after your additions to the family," he asked timidly.
"Well, this place is pretty dusty but It's big enough for two more people I think," Krystal said. "But you don't want to raise your, our, kids on Papetoon do you?"
"No, no not really. No offense to my folks," he sighed.
Krystal folded her brows with an odd aura. She looked outside the window and Clytes was sulking out by a tree because he was still sad about something she had said about one of his arts and crafts projects earlier. "Yeah, please don't offend towards your folks." She really hoped that Clytes wasn't going try to make stuff for the baby shower himself. "Anyway, what sort of place would you want to live? Corneria?"
"Most likely" Fox replied. "I had this crazy dream one night that we were living out of system though and we had this one son, and he was being bullied by the aliens at school because he didn't ride this stupid unicycle like thing that the other kids rode. Also, I couldn't speak the language, so I was totally useless when advocating for him. We-"
"Ridiculous. What a ridiculous dream. Are you eating anything weird before going to bed every night?"
"No- no! I swear that's the only weird dream I've had," Fox laughed.
Krystal laughed back then paused.
"We'll have to see what we can afford on my government salary," Fox sighed. "Actually, It's a pretty good salary."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, but Corneria is also very overpriced."
"Yeah," Krystal sighed. "It's not an issue. We have time to think about this"
Fox changed the subject "You know, I think I should be visible from your part of the planet once it's dark enough. Clytes should still have an old telescope in the main house's attic."
"Fox, my feet, they're swollen."
"You've been walking to the bathroom, haven't you?"
"Yes, but I don't have to another building or climb stairs to do that."
"Alright. Clytes might get it for you," Fox said.
Krystal sighed "I'm good Fox I'm just glad we could talk."
"Me too."
"I'm going to go to bed now," Krystal stated.
"Bye, I love you," Fox said.
"Love you," Krystal said before jamming her thumb onto the device and ending the call with an electronic snap. She then promptly collapsed back down onto the sofa and placed the cell comm back onto the box by her side. Thus, she shooed away the desert wolf centipede which let out a high-pitched howling noise as it ran off. She picked up the remote and turned the television back on.
The image that appeared on the screen caught her off guard and shocked her soul causing her to screech cartoonishly loud. The sitcom on the azdov channel had ended and what came after was a sort of crime show which had recreated a homicide too well. The charred and liquified remnants of some poor guy's face was what had jumped scared her.
The subtitles read "This is what the victim looked like after the biting homicide. The 25-year-old azdov male with brown fur, lomboid ears and black markings had been pinned down by another azdov who pinned him down and-"
Krystal changed the television back to the jewelry channel and sighed in relief. The universe outside of Lylat had just lost a bit of its whimsy.
Suddenly, a loud thunk could be heard from the couch as the door had been kicked in. A shotgun was abruptly arising from the shadows along with the figure holding it. "What's wrong Krystal!? Where is it!? Is there something in here!?" The chubby rusty fox clamored.
Krystal screamed even louder than before "No! No! No! Clytes! It was just a horror show! It was just the tele! Calm down! Please!" Krystal pleaded.
Clytes lowered his shotgun. "Oh," he blushed and then frowned. His heart sank "I'm terribly sorry."
"It's… it's okay…" Krystal panted while attempted to catch her breath. It felt like the unborn twins inside of her were also startled. "Goodnight, Clytes."
"Night," he responded. He stood there for a few awkward seconds before backtracking out of the room bit by bit.
Krystal looked out the window and noticed that the suns were now gone. The outside desert humming was louder than usual, and she could feel a draft.
"I'll fix the door," Clytes shouted from out of her sight.
Krystal groaned "Thank you kind sir."
Fox was right. There was no way there were raising their kits on Papetoon.
-X-
Author's note; Hey, sorry for not posting in forever. This chapter is shorter than normal because my writing skills have kinds atrophied a bit over my hiatus and I kinds need to get back in the swing of things. I had my friend Nail Strafer look over this one time but there are probably still flaws here.