Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Er, yeah, in the story, I mean. Except
for the parts that you wouldn't recognize. Then, I own them. Tell me if
you're gonna use 'em in your stories, please, or else I'll cut off your
head and stick it on a long pole for everyone to see.
Intro: Oliver McCloud is Fox's great-grandfather. You should read my first story, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, to actually understand the plot. It explains a lot more about where Fox, Krystal, and Tom came from, but not much else. I was a bit bored when I wrote this, so forgive me. It definitely isn't one of my good pieces, and I should've thrown it in the trash (my computer's Recycle Bin), but this was written for EXPLANATIONS, but it doesn't even do that well. Read, but ya don't have to.
"You do not, I repeat, you do NOT own this ship alone, Oliver!" Tania shouted. The striped-forehead vixen was getting pretty heated up over nothing. Well, that's Tania.
"Hey, I just wanted to see how the walls looked if they were pale green. I think they look a lot better," Oliver blushed. He had modified the walls to make it a greenish color using the computer. Too bad he didn't know how to fix it.
"Grr, I am going to slice you alive," Tania bared her claws. Oliver shrank in fear into a corner, green now, instead of Tania's favorite, orange.
When Oliver first met Tania, he fell in love, but that was changed significantly as she revealed her personality. She was more of a control freak; she wanted everything her way. Oliver had chosen her for a partner because she was the best pilot for a few thousand light years, not because of her sleek, orange fur, her bright blue eyes, her curling brown locks of hair, dangling a few inches over her shoulders, or her stunning shape of body.
Oliver, or rather, his and Tania's ship, the Shenandoah, was named after the famous voyager song. The ship itself was an overlarge shuttle with a kitchen, a bathroom, a cockpit, and two rooms. Not much, but habitable, for Oliver, anyway.
Oliver was basically a mercenary, getting a few calls here and there, rescuing diplomats or queens. Tania teamed up with Oliver a year ago and they both bought the Shenandoah out of their life savings, not that they had much; both of them had no families to go to because relatives were either dead or lost in space.
Oliver had wanted to be a pilot since he was a kit. Being one of the Striped Ones or as his grandfather put it on his deathbed, Oliver was born to be adventurous, but he had also been born the runt of the litter of five. Turning twenty-five the next week, Oliver still was a few centimeters shorter than Tania. She loved to poke fun at him for that. Tania, coincidentally, also was of Oliver's kind.
"Come on, Tania," Oliver said in his average-toned voice, "I think I can ask the mechanic at the next port that we're going for to fix it for us."
"Humph! I doubt it," Tania crossed her arms. Tania herself had a tone a bit lower than most females. That gave her the edge in arguments: Her horrifically angry voice every time she spoke.
Oliver sighed miserably and got up. His blue T-shirt and pants were wrinkled from the pointless fight and he straitened them up. Tugging at his white jacket a bit and re-adjusting his pilot gloves and boots, he looked up to meet Tania's angry eyes.
"I think we have more to worry about than the color of our walls, Tania," Oliver said, his tail swishing idly. Her tail, a bit bushier than his, wrapped itself around his neck and tightened.
"Walls are important! They divide up our space! The keep you from peeking in on me while I change!"
"Did I ever do that?" Oliver raised his eyebrows over his green eyes.
"Once," Tania smoothed out her red T-shirt and pants.
"Yeah, but that was by accident," Oliver blushed again, remembering how he bumped into Tania's room while he was really sleepy. He got lucky, as he didn't see a thing. If he did, Tania would've smashed his skull on the wall until he forgot everything, literally.
"Well, how do I know that?" Tania's tail tightened on his neck. Oliver brushed it aside softly. Oliver would never retaliate to Tania, no matter how dumb she was being. Oliver could never hurt Tania, and secretly, he knew that she wouldn't ever hurt him either.
"Because I never lie," Oliver smiled sweetly. Tania stopped.
"Don't do that. It's so freaky."
"I know!"
**
One thing that Oliver had managed to keep from Tania was his ability to read minds. Oliver can scan anyone's memories for what they want with them. If they were a fake, Oliver would know.
Oliver could fly the Shenandoah better than anyone else, except Tania, maybe. They couldn't afford smaller shuttles to double as interceptors ships, but that was okay. The Shenandoah had very powerful lasers, and it could maneuver very well. That's what made Oliver the money in the mercenary business.
Right now, Oliver had been asked to go to Cerinia, a place that he was moderately familiar with, and rescue the princess from her kidnappers. The princess was only three years old, so it was vital that Oliver made sure that the kidnappers didn't hurt her. The king and queen wouldn't need Oliver's help if the kidnappers didn't have the really big cannon guns. The king's staff, although very powerful in magic, wasn't enough to save his daughter.
Oliver touched the Flame of Power, the mystical sword that his late father had left him, on his belt. Tania was jealous of Oliver because she was stuck with a weak blaster pistol. To tell the truth, her aim was terrible. Oliver, on the other paw, could use the sword to fire fireballs and hit an enemy a mile away.
Oliver distinctively remembered his last visit to Cerinia. That time, he had to rescue the queen and she didn't trust him when he came up to her jail cell. She kicked him hard in the shins, and Oliver still had the claw scar to prove it.
"Hey, runt, I think we will land in about an hour. Sorry about yesterday. I guess I didn't have the right to burst at you like that," Tania sat on the bed beside where Oliver lay.
"Oh, it's fine. I know how you like your things," Oliver threw a plastic ball into the air and caught it again, "And do I ever!"
"Well, thanks for fixing it, anyway."
"Sure."
"I'll be in my room if you need me," Tania got up and left, closing the door behind her. Oliver stared at the door where she had been just a second before. In the whole year that they had been working together, Tania had never said where to find her when she was needed. Oliver shook his head in disbelief as he though that her voice had the sarcasm removed from it for a second.
**
"Welcome, Mr. McCloud and Ms. Vulpon! I would think that you know what I want you to do?" King Quickpaw said it as more of a statement than a question.
"Of course, your highness," Oliver bowed, his nose nearly touching the red velvet carpet.
The king had done some furnishing since the last time Oliver came. The long marble corridor was decorated with more tapestries and ornament weapons. The tapestries themselves showed the warriors and heroes of Cerinia. Among the overlarge pictures was Oliver and Tania themselves. Oliver wielding his large, flaming broadsword and Tania was doing a cute pose quite unlike her personality.
"The kidnappers are said to be camped out to the west of the main city walls. Be careful, McCloud. I wouldn't want my best mercenary to be killed by a few bandits," King Quickpaw rumbled in his deep voice. The king's robes were a royal purple, and some servants were fanning him from the hot summer heat. His long, white beard being stroked by his graying paws as he spoke.
"Yes, sire," Oliver bowed again and exited the long corridor. Tania was waiting for him outside, flirting with a few of the young palace guards.
"Oh, Oliver! Did they finish that carpet that was supposed to have our pictures on it?" She asked.
"Yeah, and you don't want to see it," Oliver muttered in her ear, "Come on. The king says the bad guys are beyond the west wall." Tania rolled her eyes.
"What lies over yonder escarpment? 'Tis thy bad dudes, waiting for ye," Tania chuckled. Oliver rolled his eyes in turn.
"Do grow up."
**
"Oh, we've been looking for hours! Can't we just sit down and eat something?" Tania whimpered as she leaned against a tree trunk and massaged her foot paw.
"Shh! I hear something," Oliver clamped her snout shut with his paw and listened.
".We're bound to get in trouble, Thorton! Why don't we just let the youngster go?"
"No, Sooper, we need the ransom money! Outlaws need food for eating, ya know."
"Aw, but she's so cute. I'd hate to see her stuck with a pair of buffoons like us."
"Then put down your weapons and hand her over," Olive jumped from behind the brush and raised his sword, now burning magical flame. Tania stepped out behind him and raised her gun. The two bandits, Sooper and Thorton, were wearing white tunics with the silver crest for a pin at the chest just like any other commoner. The only difference they had from an ordinary pair of Cerinians were that they were carrying large automatics and Sooper was pulling a little blue kit from behind him. She didn't look very happy, but at least she was well fed.
"Oh, see! I told you, Thorton, but you wouldn't listen! That's Oliver McCloud!"
"And his trusty companion Tania Vulpon!" Tania shouted.
"Huh? Who's she?" Thorton asked. Tania turned red beneath her fur.
"Just let the kit go," Oliver said, "I can promise you some food to eat then."
"You would? Why thank you," Sooper said, "Oh, and take these guns. They're awful heavy." And with that, he and Thorton dropped their guns and he let go of the little princess.
"Wow, that was easy," Tania took the large machine guns away and Oliver cut the ropes binding the princess.
"We don't wanna be thieves!" Sooper started crying. Thorton shook his head and kicked his friend in the shins.
"You are a coward and an idiot. Now, we're gonna be hanged."
"Can these two get any dumber?" Tania whispered to Oliver. He shook his head no.
**
"Well done, McCloud. This bag of gold is for you," the queen shoved a large sack into Oliver's paws. It weighed him to the ground.
"Thank you," he managed to gasp out before he stumbled away outside.
"Whoa, that's a lot of money!" Tania stared at the sack. Oliver shoved it into their shuttle and took a few ingots out and gave them to Sooper, who looked around suspiciously.
"Mmm, this will buy a lot of potatoes," he said before he ran off again.
"Does money get any cheaper than this?" Tania asked in disbelief.
"Probably not," Oliver shrugged as he dragged a very happy and hyper Tania on board the Shenandoah.
"I LOVE this job!"
"Well, I hate it," Oliver grumbled.
"Why?"
"Because I'm stuck with you!" Oliver growled. He stopped suddenly. Where did that come from?
"Oh." Tania stopped, too. Her eyes grew softer and sadder for a moment, then hard again, "Well, live with it!" She screamed as she banged the sliding door close and locked the air hatch. Oliver didn't bother to help her with the takeoff.
**
"Tania?"
"Get lost."
"One, I can't, because this thing is only five rooms big. Second, I don't want to. I want to say sorry about what I said," Oliver leaned against the doorframe. Tania glared at him from her bed. She threw a pillow at him and lay down, her snout buried in her second pillow.
"Come on, Tania. You know I didn't mean it," Oliver neatly caught the pillow and flung it back.
"Of course you did!" Tania muffled her yell with the feather pillow, "For a whole year, you meant that every time you looked at me! You hate me!" Oliver detected a sob in her voice.
"I don't hate you. I hate the way you treat me," Oliver sat down on her bed and took her paw comfortingly. That felt strange, in an odd, parental way.
"Don't touch me," she slid her paw quickly away from Oliver. The nice way of apologizing didn't work with Tania; it never did, but Oliver never tried the cruel way. But this time, she went way too far. He had gotten enough of her.
"Look at me!" Oliver yelled as he pulled Tania by the collarbone away from the pillow. She looked up, startled. Oliver growled slightly, "If there should be anyone crying, it should be me! You: You want everything the way you like, not mine, and I live with it. I never get what I want, but I keep my yap shut, but do you? No! You never shut up! And I'm willing to bet that you can't even stop complaining for three seconds!"
Oliver panted heavily when he was done talking. He finally vented his anger, after almost thirteen months with a vixen that could distinctly remember every fault that he had. Tania stared at him.
"What happened to you?" Tania asked quietly, "We go on one mission that is not suicidal and you go ballistic on me?"
"I was close to being ballistic for a long time now. I cracked, okay? Anyone would, being stuck with you," Oliver dug his claws deep into her shoulder. Tania didn't even flinch.
"Am I really that bad?" Tania whispered. Oliver nodded angrily. She broke into tears again, but this time, it was silent, "I guess it comes from having so many kithood memories haunting you."
"I had to see four of my family members die in front of my eyes, but I'm not a jerk," Oliver said, this time, a bit softer, but the angry tone remained. Tania looked up at him, and just then, the phone beeped, sending her a foot into the air from fright.
"Hello," Oliver said as he picked up the receiver. Back then, people didn't like holograms.
"Yeah, this is Amos Homely, from Caneria. I think I need some help from an invisible serial killer. He has the Sapphire of Skies, and I think he's mad at us," a panicky voice said over the line.
"We'll take care of it. Just wait for a day or so, is that fine?"
"It would be better if you came quicker, but yeah, that's ok."
"Bye, then," Oliver said slowly right after he heard the receiver at the opposite end click down. Tania walked up beside him.
"I'll make it up to you for being such an idiot. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it," Tania said softly. The arrogance and sarcasm in her tone disappeared.
"Hmm, why don't you just roll over and die? That will do the galaxy a big favor," Oliver said coldly. Tania turned quickly around and went into her cabin, slamming the sliding door close behind her.
**
Carenia looked a lot like Cerinia. Names have a lot to do with looks. Being a white-clouded planet, people were good-natured. The white foxes all stuck out in the background of gray mountains and green trees. The sight of such a peaceful planet made Oliver feel a lot calmer.
Tania must be feeling in the dumps. Oliver decided to read her mind for once and hear what she has to say. He never read her mind before because if she somehow knew, he'd be in big trouble. That didn't matter now, anyway, as Oliver had shown her who was the captain of the Shenandoah. The telepathic link was simple to establish, and Tania seemed to be sobbing, all the time. It must've been sixteen hours since Oliver insulted her.
'Stupid Oliver. No, wait. Stupid Tania! Why? Aaargh! I hate him! I hate this stupid ship! I hate. I hate. I hate me!'
"Tania? Do you want to talk about it?" Oliver asked, feeling guilty suddenly after hearing her words.
"No! Go away!" Tania shouted from inside her cabin. Oliver got up from the pilot's seat and knocked sharply on her door.
"Come on! You know I was angry. When I'm angry, well, I get uncontrollable."
"Huh! I'm never controllable," Tania sobbed. Oliver grunted as he forced open the door with his claws. He heard the locking mechanism snap and the door was flung open.
"Tania, I-"
"AAARGH! Go! Go away!" Tania screamed as she threw stuff at Oliver. Oliver caught a pillow, a coin, a shirt, and a chair before he ran out, closing the broken door behind him.
"Well, we're landing in a few minutes, so get ready."
"."
"Fine!" Oliver fumed as he jumped back into the seat and boosted hard towards Carenia, making sure to fling Tania off the floor as he sped off.
**
"Thank goodness that you've arrived! Hey, where's, uh, what's her name?" Amos asked as Oliver jumped out from the ship and into the forest. He landed a bit rougher than he intended, missing his zone of target.
"Tania. She doesn't feel well today," Oliver grumbled. Amos nodded.
"The town's over that way," he pointed. Amos was wearing a baggy, gray shirt with baggy, gray pants. His cloths flopped in the wind as he raised a paw; "I wish you good luck."
"Thanks," Oliver said nonchalantly. He could almost feel Amos' stare after him.
Oliver crashed through the bushes angrily until he saw the first few houses. Carenia was more of a technologically developed planet, unlike the traditional Cerinia. The thing that this planet lacked was magic. The only valuable magical things here were the Sapphire of Skies and the Bow, itself being quite unnamed for now.
The cement houses and the internal combustion cars passed, unnoticed by Oliver as he scanned every Arctic Fox he met with his mind-reading capabilities. So far, everyone was innocent.
Suddenly, Oliver came across the mind of an evil maniac. The maniac, however, was nowhere to be seen on the street. Of course, he was invisible. By reading the maniac's mind, however, Oliver reached out instinctively and grabbed onto a furry arm and didn't exist in the realm of his eyeballs.
"Ack!" A white fox wearing black clothes materialized out of thin air beside Oliver. He carried a silenced blaster pistol, and was now aiming it at Oliver. Oliver didn't let go.
"One quick question for a quick killer: Why?" Oliver, in a very swift motion, grabbed the fox's other arm and wrenched the gun away. The maniac howled in pain.
"Life sucks!" He growled.
"Not for everyone," Oliver tripped the fox in a quick kick and pinned him to the ground, chest down.
"Let go! I can give you a lot! I can give you wealth!" He screamed.
"That, I don't want," Oliver snapped the Sapphire's thin, golden chain from the fox's neck, "You, my friend, are a fool for stealing this."
"Oh, you got him already. I was expecting you to live on this planet for a few months, at the least," Amos ran up to Oliver and cuffed the maniac, "Get rid of that. I mean, give it to someone who is least likely to go nuts on innocent lives."
Oliver quickly scanned the memories of the crowd that just built up. One of them, a young shopkeeper, it seems, had a good mind. Oliver walked up to him and handed him the Sapphire while no one was looking.
"Your name?"
"Jonathan White," he stuttered.
"Keep this safe. Don't tell anyone. Never use it," Oliver said quickly, "Understand?"
"Perfectly, sir."
"Good. Treat it like a family heirloom, but don't tell your kits what it does."
"Sure thing. Makes sense," John whispered as Oliver ran quickly away, before receiving a pat on the back from many a white fox.
**
"And Tania thinks this is a clear job. Damn, this is confusing," Oliver muttered to himself as he lay on his bed, trying to understand what he did. Went to a planet; caught a thief; took the Sapphire; gave the Sapphire to a regular citizen. Messed up, really.
It was the second day since the Carenia incident, and Tania was still in her room. Oliver was getting really worried, since he knew that she wasn't drinking or eating. She was still apparently mad, but Oliver didn't understand why she didn't even come out of her room.
"Tania? Do you want some fish?" Oliver asked timidly without opening the door.
"Uh, yeah." Tania whispered. Oliver rushed to prepare a steaming plateful of salmon, Tania's favorite, with garlic and thyme, just as she liked it. Since they didn't have an oven, Oliver just used the microwave to heat the fish up. After adding a bit of lemon and salt, Oliver was satisfied that Tania would be at least a bit happier.
"Hey," Oliver said as he pushed the door open. Tania must've been busy during the two days, because her usually messy cabin was cleaned and polished up. Tania's books and paperwork was stashed in a filing cabinet in front of her bed and her closet looked a lot neater. Tania herself didn't look quite as good.
Tania looked a lot thinner and the circles under her eyes were pitch black. So she wasn't sleeping, either. Her deep crimson shirt was wrinkled and she somehow managed to wear a hole on the knee of her red pants. She was wearing some kind of red ruby on her neck that Oliver didn't notice before.
"Are you okay?" Oliver asked as he set down the dish on Tania's lap. Tania shook her head.
"Do I look okay?" She rasped.
"I know you're still mad, but-"
"Mad? Oliver, you've gone totally nuts, haven't you? I'm scared!" Tania didn't look up as she started to devour the fish quite ravenously.
"Scared? Of me? Listen to yourself, Tania. Weren't those the words that you vowed never to say in front of me?" Oliver laughed. Tania gave him a look of sorrow as she finished the fillet. That was quick. Normally, Tania spends more than half an hour on dinner.
"I make empty threats all the time," Tania whispered.
"Yeah, but one thing that I know from you is that you don't make empty promises. The good ones, I mean," Oliver took the dish from her paws and clanged it noisily in the dishwasher. Tania waited patiently for him to return. Just as Oliver's bottom touched her mattress, he was knocked over by her in a tackle. For a moment, Oliver panicked, but then he heard her sobs.
"Oliver, Oliver. You are such a good friend. No matter what I do, do you always have to point out the good things?" Tania hugged him hard, but at least Oliver could still breathe.
"I don't think I did that half a week ago, though. I'm so-"
"Don't say it! I am the one who has to say sorry," Tania's tail curled warmly against Oliver's.
"Uh, you know that you're gonna regret this later, right?" He asked, but didn't pull away.
"Was that a threat?"
"Oh, no. Quite the contrary, I think. But I might as well take advantage of you now anyway," Oliver smiled evilly and pressed his lips to Tania's. She was caught off guard, but she kissed back after a few moments.
"I never thought I'd do that," Tania muttered as she broke their embrace. Oliver nodded.
"Me neither. I really hope this relationship lasts long, though," Oliver hugged Tania tightly, "I think the real you is better than the horrifying mask you put on every time I come near." Tania nodded. People are different than they seem, all right.
**
A/N: Yeah, explanations and more crappy explanations. They suck, but they're the best I can think of now.
Intro: Oliver McCloud is Fox's great-grandfather. You should read my first story, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, to actually understand the plot. It explains a lot more about where Fox, Krystal, and Tom came from, but not much else. I was a bit bored when I wrote this, so forgive me. It definitely isn't one of my good pieces, and I should've thrown it in the trash (my computer's Recycle Bin), but this was written for EXPLANATIONS, but it doesn't even do that well. Read, but ya don't have to.
"You do not, I repeat, you do NOT own this ship alone, Oliver!" Tania shouted. The striped-forehead vixen was getting pretty heated up over nothing. Well, that's Tania.
"Hey, I just wanted to see how the walls looked if they were pale green. I think they look a lot better," Oliver blushed. He had modified the walls to make it a greenish color using the computer. Too bad he didn't know how to fix it.
"Grr, I am going to slice you alive," Tania bared her claws. Oliver shrank in fear into a corner, green now, instead of Tania's favorite, orange.
When Oliver first met Tania, he fell in love, but that was changed significantly as she revealed her personality. She was more of a control freak; she wanted everything her way. Oliver had chosen her for a partner because she was the best pilot for a few thousand light years, not because of her sleek, orange fur, her bright blue eyes, her curling brown locks of hair, dangling a few inches over her shoulders, or her stunning shape of body.
Oliver, or rather, his and Tania's ship, the Shenandoah, was named after the famous voyager song. The ship itself was an overlarge shuttle with a kitchen, a bathroom, a cockpit, and two rooms. Not much, but habitable, for Oliver, anyway.
Oliver was basically a mercenary, getting a few calls here and there, rescuing diplomats or queens. Tania teamed up with Oliver a year ago and they both bought the Shenandoah out of their life savings, not that they had much; both of them had no families to go to because relatives were either dead or lost in space.
Oliver had wanted to be a pilot since he was a kit. Being one of the Striped Ones or as his grandfather put it on his deathbed, Oliver was born to be adventurous, but he had also been born the runt of the litter of five. Turning twenty-five the next week, Oliver still was a few centimeters shorter than Tania. She loved to poke fun at him for that. Tania, coincidentally, also was of Oliver's kind.
"Come on, Tania," Oliver said in his average-toned voice, "I think I can ask the mechanic at the next port that we're going for to fix it for us."
"Humph! I doubt it," Tania crossed her arms. Tania herself had a tone a bit lower than most females. That gave her the edge in arguments: Her horrifically angry voice every time she spoke.
Oliver sighed miserably and got up. His blue T-shirt and pants were wrinkled from the pointless fight and he straitened them up. Tugging at his white jacket a bit and re-adjusting his pilot gloves and boots, he looked up to meet Tania's angry eyes.
"I think we have more to worry about than the color of our walls, Tania," Oliver said, his tail swishing idly. Her tail, a bit bushier than his, wrapped itself around his neck and tightened.
"Walls are important! They divide up our space! The keep you from peeking in on me while I change!"
"Did I ever do that?" Oliver raised his eyebrows over his green eyes.
"Once," Tania smoothed out her red T-shirt and pants.
"Yeah, but that was by accident," Oliver blushed again, remembering how he bumped into Tania's room while he was really sleepy. He got lucky, as he didn't see a thing. If he did, Tania would've smashed his skull on the wall until he forgot everything, literally.
"Well, how do I know that?" Tania's tail tightened on his neck. Oliver brushed it aside softly. Oliver would never retaliate to Tania, no matter how dumb she was being. Oliver could never hurt Tania, and secretly, he knew that she wouldn't ever hurt him either.
"Because I never lie," Oliver smiled sweetly. Tania stopped.
"Don't do that. It's so freaky."
"I know!"
**
One thing that Oliver had managed to keep from Tania was his ability to read minds. Oliver can scan anyone's memories for what they want with them. If they were a fake, Oliver would know.
Oliver could fly the Shenandoah better than anyone else, except Tania, maybe. They couldn't afford smaller shuttles to double as interceptors ships, but that was okay. The Shenandoah had very powerful lasers, and it could maneuver very well. That's what made Oliver the money in the mercenary business.
Right now, Oliver had been asked to go to Cerinia, a place that he was moderately familiar with, and rescue the princess from her kidnappers. The princess was only three years old, so it was vital that Oliver made sure that the kidnappers didn't hurt her. The king and queen wouldn't need Oliver's help if the kidnappers didn't have the really big cannon guns. The king's staff, although very powerful in magic, wasn't enough to save his daughter.
Oliver touched the Flame of Power, the mystical sword that his late father had left him, on his belt. Tania was jealous of Oliver because she was stuck with a weak blaster pistol. To tell the truth, her aim was terrible. Oliver, on the other paw, could use the sword to fire fireballs and hit an enemy a mile away.
Oliver distinctively remembered his last visit to Cerinia. That time, he had to rescue the queen and she didn't trust him when he came up to her jail cell. She kicked him hard in the shins, and Oliver still had the claw scar to prove it.
"Hey, runt, I think we will land in about an hour. Sorry about yesterday. I guess I didn't have the right to burst at you like that," Tania sat on the bed beside where Oliver lay.
"Oh, it's fine. I know how you like your things," Oliver threw a plastic ball into the air and caught it again, "And do I ever!"
"Well, thanks for fixing it, anyway."
"Sure."
"I'll be in my room if you need me," Tania got up and left, closing the door behind her. Oliver stared at the door where she had been just a second before. In the whole year that they had been working together, Tania had never said where to find her when she was needed. Oliver shook his head in disbelief as he though that her voice had the sarcasm removed from it for a second.
**
"Welcome, Mr. McCloud and Ms. Vulpon! I would think that you know what I want you to do?" King Quickpaw said it as more of a statement than a question.
"Of course, your highness," Oliver bowed, his nose nearly touching the red velvet carpet.
The king had done some furnishing since the last time Oliver came. The long marble corridor was decorated with more tapestries and ornament weapons. The tapestries themselves showed the warriors and heroes of Cerinia. Among the overlarge pictures was Oliver and Tania themselves. Oliver wielding his large, flaming broadsword and Tania was doing a cute pose quite unlike her personality.
"The kidnappers are said to be camped out to the west of the main city walls. Be careful, McCloud. I wouldn't want my best mercenary to be killed by a few bandits," King Quickpaw rumbled in his deep voice. The king's robes were a royal purple, and some servants were fanning him from the hot summer heat. His long, white beard being stroked by his graying paws as he spoke.
"Yes, sire," Oliver bowed again and exited the long corridor. Tania was waiting for him outside, flirting with a few of the young palace guards.
"Oh, Oliver! Did they finish that carpet that was supposed to have our pictures on it?" She asked.
"Yeah, and you don't want to see it," Oliver muttered in her ear, "Come on. The king says the bad guys are beyond the west wall." Tania rolled her eyes.
"What lies over yonder escarpment? 'Tis thy bad dudes, waiting for ye," Tania chuckled. Oliver rolled his eyes in turn.
"Do grow up."
**
"Oh, we've been looking for hours! Can't we just sit down and eat something?" Tania whimpered as she leaned against a tree trunk and massaged her foot paw.
"Shh! I hear something," Oliver clamped her snout shut with his paw and listened.
".We're bound to get in trouble, Thorton! Why don't we just let the youngster go?"
"No, Sooper, we need the ransom money! Outlaws need food for eating, ya know."
"Aw, but she's so cute. I'd hate to see her stuck with a pair of buffoons like us."
"Then put down your weapons and hand her over," Olive jumped from behind the brush and raised his sword, now burning magical flame. Tania stepped out behind him and raised her gun. The two bandits, Sooper and Thorton, were wearing white tunics with the silver crest for a pin at the chest just like any other commoner. The only difference they had from an ordinary pair of Cerinians were that they were carrying large automatics and Sooper was pulling a little blue kit from behind him. She didn't look very happy, but at least she was well fed.
"Oh, see! I told you, Thorton, but you wouldn't listen! That's Oliver McCloud!"
"And his trusty companion Tania Vulpon!" Tania shouted.
"Huh? Who's she?" Thorton asked. Tania turned red beneath her fur.
"Just let the kit go," Oliver said, "I can promise you some food to eat then."
"You would? Why thank you," Sooper said, "Oh, and take these guns. They're awful heavy." And with that, he and Thorton dropped their guns and he let go of the little princess.
"Wow, that was easy," Tania took the large machine guns away and Oliver cut the ropes binding the princess.
"We don't wanna be thieves!" Sooper started crying. Thorton shook his head and kicked his friend in the shins.
"You are a coward and an idiot. Now, we're gonna be hanged."
"Can these two get any dumber?" Tania whispered to Oliver. He shook his head no.
**
"Well done, McCloud. This bag of gold is for you," the queen shoved a large sack into Oliver's paws. It weighed him to the ground.
"Thank you," he managed to gasp out before he stumbled away outside.
"Whoa, that's a lot of money!" Tania stared at the sack. Oliver shoved it into their shuttle and took a few ingots out and gave them to Sooper, who looked around suspiciously.
"Mmm, this will buy a lot of potatoes," he said before he ran off again.
"Does money get any cheaper than this?" Tania asked in disbelief.
"Probably not," Oliver shrugged as he dragged a very happy and hyper Tania on board the Shenandoah.
"I LOVE this job!"
"Well, I hate it," Oliver grumbled.
"Why?"
"Because I'm stuck with you!" Oliver growled. He stopped suddenly. Where did that come from?
"Oh." Tania stopped, too. Her eyes grew softer and sadder for a moment, then hard again, "Well, live with it!" She screamed as she banged the sliding door close and locked the air hatch. Oliver didn't bother to help her with the takeoff.
**
"Tania?"
"Get lost."
"One, I can't, because this thing is only five rooms big. Second, I don't want to. I want to say sorry about what I said," Oliver leaned against the doorframe. Tania glared at him from her bed. She threw a pillow at him and lay down, her snout buried in her second pillow.
"Come on, Tania. You know I didn't mean it," Oliver neatly caught the pillow and flung it back.
"Of course you did!" Tania muffled her yell with the feather pillow, "For a whole year, you meant that every time you looked at me! You hate me!" Oliver detected a sob in her voice.
"I don't hate you. I hate the way you treat me," Oliver sat down on her bed and took her paw comfortingly. That felt strange, in an odd, parental way.
"Don't touch me," she slid her paw quickly away from Oliver. The nice way of apologizing didn't work with Tania; it never did, but Oliver never tried the cruel way. But this time, she went way too far. He had gotten enough of her.
"Look at me!" Oliver yelled as he pulled Tania by the collarbone away from the pillow. She looked up, startled. Oliver growled slightly, "If there should be anyone crying, it should be me! You: You want everything the way you like, not mine, and I live with it. I never get what I want, but I keep my yap shut, but do you? No! You never shut up! And I'm willing to bet that you can't even stop complaining for three seconds!"
Oliver panted heavily when he was done talking. He finally vented his anger, after almost thirteen months with a vixen that could distinctly remember every fault that he had. Tania stared at him.
"What happened to you?" Tania asked quietly, "We go on one mission that is not suicidal and you go ballistic on me?"
"I was close to being ballistic for a long time now. I cracked, okay? Anyone would, being stuck with you," Oliver dug his claws deep into her shoulder. Tania didn't even flinch.
"Am I really that bad?" Tania whispered. Oliver nodded angrily. She broke into tears again, but this time, it was silent, "I guess it comes from having so many kithood memories haunting you."
"I had to see four of my family members die in front of my eyes, but I'm not a jerk," Oliver said, this time, a bit softer, but the angry tone remained. Tania looked up at him, and just then, the phone beeped, sending her a foot into the air from fright.
"Hello," Oliver said as he picked up the receiver. Back then, people didn't like holograms.
"Yeah, this is Amos Homely, from Caneria. I think I need some help from an invisible serial killer. He has the Sapphire of Skies, and I think he's mad at us," a panicky voice said over the line.
"We'll take care of it. Just wait for a day or so, is that fine?"
"It would be better if you came quicker, but yeah, that's ok."
"Bye, then," Oliver said slowly right after he heard the receiver at the opposite end click down. Tania walked up beside him.
"I'll make it up to you for being such an idiot. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it," Tania said softly. The arrogance and sarcasm in her tone disappeared.
"Hmm, why don't you just roll over and die? That will do the galaxy a big favor," Oliver said coldly. Tania turned quickly around and went into her cabin, slamming the sliding door close behind her.
**
Carenia looked a lot like Cerinia. Names have a lot to do with looks. Being a white-clouded planet, people were good-natured. The white foxes all stuck out in the background of gray mountains and green trees. The sight of such a peaceful planet made Oliver feel a lot calmer.
Tania must be feeling in the dumps. Oliver decided to read her mind for once and hear what she has to say. He never read her mind before because if she somehow knew, he'd be in big trouble. That didn't matter now, anyway, as Oliver had shown her who was the captain of the Shenandoah. The telepathic link was simple to establish, and Tania seemed to be sobbing, all the time. It must've been sixteen hours since Oliver insulted her.
'Stupid Oliver. No, wait. Stupid Tania! Why? Aaargh! I hate him! I hate this stupid ship! I hate. I hate. I hate me!'
"Tania? Do you want to talk about it?" Oliver asked, feeling guilty suddenly after hearing her words.
"No! Go away!" Tania shouted from inside her cabin. Oliver got up from the pilot's seat and knocked sharply on her door.
"Come on! You know I was angry. When I'm angry, well, I get uncontrollable."
"Huh! I'm never controllable," Tania sobbed. Oliver grunted as he forced open the door with his claws. He heard the locking mechanism snap and the door was flung open.
"Tania, I-"
"AAARGH! Go! Go away!" Tania screamed as she threw stuff at Oliver. Oliver caught a pillow, a coin, a shirt, and a chair before he ran out, closing the broken door behind him.
"Well, we're landing in a few minutes, so get ready."
"."
"Fine!" Oliver fumed as he jumped back into the seat and boosted hard towards Carenia, making sure to fling Tania off the floor as he sped off.
**
"Thank goodness that you've arrived! Hey, where's, uh, what's her name?" Amos asked as Oliver jumped out from the ship and into the forest. He landed a bit rougher than he intended, missing his zone of target.
"Tania. She doesn't feel well today," Oliver grumbled. Amos nodded.
"The town's over that way," he pointed. Amos was wearing a baggy, gray shirt with baggy, gray pants. His cloths flopped in the wind as he raised a paw; "I wish you good luck."
"Thanks," Oliver said nonchalantly. He could almost feel Amos' stare after him.
Oliver crashed through the bushes angrily until he saw the first few houses. Carenia was more of a technologically developed planet, unlike the traditional Cerinia. The thing that this planet lacked was magic. The only valuable magical things here were the Sapphire of Skies and the Bow, itself being quite unnamed for now.
The cement houses and the internal combustion cars passed, unnoticed by Oliver as he scanned every Arctic Fox he met with his mind-reading capabilities. So far, everyone was innocent.
Suddenly, Oliver came across the mind of an evil maniac. The maniac, however, was nowhere to be seen on the street. Of course, he was invisible. By reading the maniac's mind, however, Oliver reached out instinctively and grabbed onto a furry arm and didn't exist in the realm of his eyeballs.
"Ack!" A white fox wearing black clothes materialized out of thin air beside Oliver. He carried a silenced blaster pistol, and was now aiming it at Oliver. Oliver didn't let go.
"One quick question for a quick killer: Why?" Oliver, in a very swift motion, grabbed the fox's other arm and wrenched the gun away. The maniac howled in pain.
"Life sucks!" He growled.
"Not for everyone," Oliver tripped the fox in a quick kick and pinned him to the ground, chest down.
"Let go! I can give you a lot! I can give you wealth!" He screamed.
"That, I don't want," Oliver snapped the Sapphire's thin, golden chain from the fox's neck, "You, my friend, are a fool for stealing this."
"Oh, you got him already. I was expecting you to live on this planet for a few months, at the least," Amos ran up to Oliver and cuffed the maniac, "Get rid of that. I mean, give it to someone who is least likely to go nuts on innocent lives."
Oliver quickly scanned the memories of the crowd that just built up. One of them, a young shopkeeper, it seems, had a good mind. Oliver walked up to him and handed him the Sapphire while no one was looking.
"Your name?"
"Jonathan White," he stuttered.
"Keep this safe. Don't tell anyone. Never use it," Oliver said quickly, "Understand?"
"Perfectly, sir."
"Good. Treat it like a family heirloom, but don't tell your kits what it does."
"Sure thing. Makes sense," John whispered as Oliver ran quickly away, before receiving a pat on the back from many a white fox.
**
"And Tania thinks this is a clear job. Damn, this is confusing," Oliver muttered to himself as he lay on his bed, trying to understand what he did. Went to a planet; caught a thief; took the Sapphire; gave the Sapphire to a regular citizen. Messed up, really.
It was the second day since the Carenia incident, and Tania was still in her room. Oliver was getting really worried, since he knew that she wasn't drinking or eating. She was still apparently mad, but Oliver didn't understand why she didn't even come out of her room.
"Tania? Do you want some fish?" Oliver asked timidly without opening the door.
"Uh, yeah." Tania whispered. Oliver rushed to prepare a steaming plateful of salmon, Tania's favorite, with garlic and thyme, just as she liked it. Since they didn't have an oven, Oliver just used the microwave to heat the fish up. After adding a bit of lemon and salt, Oliver was satisfied that Tania would be at least a bit happier.
"Hey," Oliver said as he pushed the door open. Tania must've been busy during the two days, because her usually messy cabin was cleaned and polished up. Tania's books and paperwork was stashed in a filing cabinet in front of her bed and her closet looked a lot neater. Tania herself didn't look quite as good.
Tania looked a lot thinner and the circles under her eyes were pitch black. So she wasn't sleeping, either. Her deep crimson shirt was wrinkled and she somehow managed to wear a hole on the knee of her red pants. She was wearing some kind of red ruby on her neck that Oliver didn't notice before.
"Are you okay?" Oliver asked as he set down the dish on Tania's lap. Tania shook her head.
"Do I look okay?" She rasped.
"I know you're still mad, but-"
"Mad? Oliver, you've gone totally nuts, haven't you? I'm scared!" Tania didn't look up as she started to devour the fish quite ravenously.
"Scared? Of me? Listen to yourself, Tania. Weren't those the words that you vowed never to say in front of me?" Oliver laughed. Tania gave him a look of sorrow as she finished the fillet. That was quick. Normally, Tania spends more than half an hour on dinner.
"I make empty threats all the time," Tania whispered.
"Yeah, but one thing that I know from you is that you don't make empty promises. The good ones, I mean," Oliver took the dish from her paws and clanged it noisily in the dishwasher. Tania waited patiently for him to return. Just as Oliver's bottom touched her mattress, he was knocked over by her in a tackle. For a moment, Oliver panicked, but then he heard her sobs.
"Oliver, Oliver. You are such a good friend. No matter what I do, do you always have to point out the good things?" Tania hugged him hard, but at least Oliver could still breathe.
"I don't think I did that half a week ago, though. I'm so-"
"Don't say it! I am the one who has to say sorry," Tania's tail curled warmly against Oliver's.
"Uh, you know that you're gonna regret this later, right?" He asked, but didn't pull away.
"Was that a threat?"
"Oh, no. Quite the contrary, I think. But I might as well take advantage of you now anyway," Oliver smiled evilly and pressed his lips to Tania's. She was caught off guard, but she kissed back after a few moments.
"I never thought I'd do that," Tania muttered as she broke their embrace. Oliver nodded.
"Me neither. I really hope this relationship lasts long, though," Oliver hugged Tania tightly, "I think the real you is better than the horrifying mask you put on every time I come near." Tania nodded. People are different than they seem, all right.
**
A/N: Yeah, explanations and more crappy explanations. They suck, but they're the best I can think of now.