Disclaimer: I don't own StarFox or the characters created by Nintendo.
Understand me? Good.
Introduction: I wrote this because if I continued on my other story, then things will get a lot less action-y. Everything is different, well, almost everything. Erm. History changed because some weird dude messed with a time machine. Yeah.
Krystal, Fox, and Peppy had gotten into the forest sooner than they had expected, still following the river as a guide. By high sun, they had already reached the springs where they had first met.
"You stole my tunic. A normal commoner would've gotten hanged, or worse, tortured to death," Krystal stroked her tail and getting the tangles out as they sat by the edge of the water, chewing berries and a fish Fox caught in the pond.
"Ha! Aren't you the kingdom brat," Fox snickered. Krystal scooped up some water and flung it at Fox. He didn't seem to mind, except for the fact that he shoved her into the water after.
"Hey!" Krystal glared at Fox in a humorous fashion and climbed up the bank again, "Well, I think its time to move."
"Indeed it is," a blue fox behind them sneered. Using the butt end of his spear, he quickly knocked the living daylights of the three companions.
**
Fox woke up to find him and his two friends in a cage led by two foxes with tattered robes and tunics. One of them had an ear ripped off and the other was missing a finger from a paw. These were probably rogues. The cage itself was made with hard wood and straw and it was unbelievably cramped with only three animals inside.
Tasting his snout, Fox licked off dried blood. There was also a sharp pain in the back of his head. Krystal had a swell on her forehead, unconscious, and Peppy was already up, nursing a bump between his ears. He gave a weary look at Fox.
"I don't think we're gonna be dinner guests," he whispered. Fox nodded in agreement and shook up Krystal. She woke screaming.
"YOU! Let me out! Don't you know who I am?" She pounded on the cage bars and rattling the cart around. The foxes snickered stupidly and ignored her. Picking up a small pebble in the cage, Krystal flung it at the one with the tattered ear. He turned around and poked Krystal with his spear.
"Yeah, yeah, we know who you are, your highness," he said, his tone dripping with sarcasm, "Don't expect us to obey your royal commands."
Fox shook his head as Krystal tried to pry a branch off a tree near the rocky road they were on. Krystal scowled and growled. By the looks of the sun and the time, they were going further east, far away from their destination.
Fox groaned and felt his pockets. His pack was gone; a fox in front had it along with Peppy and Krystal's packs. His blaster was gone, too, but a small knife was still in the end of his boot that he kept for emergencies. Deciding to save it for later, Fox gnawed away at the bars, hoping that they were weaker than they looked. They weren't.
"Where are you taking us?" Peppy asked politely. The foxes turned, but didn't stop. They snickered again.
"To our slave camp, you dolt! We have plans for you males, but as for the Queen, we have more ambitious plans. But maybe a little fun first wouldn't hurt."
"You sick pig," Krystal barked, throwing another pebble at the foxes. This one missed, but the one with the tattered ear poked her again anyway.
**
"Where do you think this camp is, anyway?" Fox asked. Nighttime had fallen again, and the two rogues were asleep under a tree nearby.
"Northeast, by the looks of it. Now I know what happened to those disappearances lately," Krystal sighed. Instead of the cheerful, moon- filled nights before, this one was cloudy and wet, with rain pouring down in on the cart and splashing onto the three poor prisoners.
Peppy was asleep uncomfortably, by the looks of it, and wasn't snoring for once. Fox felt restless, and so did Krystal. She was chewing unhappily on a branch she found on the side of the road and was trying to fashion it into a spear. Fox was hacking hopelessly on a bar with a sharp rock. He had managed to break through a few fibers, but the cage was fire- hardened.
"It must be hard to be a queen," Fox looked up suddenly. Krystal hesitated in biting her stick for a moment.
"What makes you think that?"
"So much depends on you. I'd bet that the village will be panicking like fish by the time they find out that you were missing," Fox said as he licked his dry lips.
"Probably. They'll send a search party after us in a matter of days, but I don't expect that we'll still be around here by then," Krystal gave up on her stick and huddled her knees to her chest for warmth.
"That doesn't sound good," Fox mumbled.
"Of course it doesn't sound good," Krystal rolled her eyes, "What sounds good for you?"
"A warm and dry place to sleep and a companion on my journeys," Fox shrugged simply. Krystal shook her head.
"That's not as easy as it seems, to get those comforts. There is an outlander in the far north. He crashed on this planet a few years ago. Now, he can't protect himself and he doesn't have any money. That poor dog has been stuck here since," Krystal cupped her paws outside the cart and caught a few drops of rain to drink. They both shivered and sniffed.
"I wish this weather would let up, but these kinds of clouds don't like to let up for days," Fox peered up into the sky. Krystal nudged herself to the corner of the cart to where Fox was sitting.
"You actually pay attention to the weather?" Krystal asked, pressing her shoulder to Fox as she had done the other night.
"Hmm, yeah. I should've been a meteorologist or something," Fox sighed, his breath catching in the cold wind and turning it into clouds. Krystal raised an eyebrow.
"What's that?"
"A meteorologist is someone who studies meteorology, or commonly known as the study of natural weather," Fox recited. Krystal smiled at him, but Fox wasn't looking; he was staring at the clouds.
Krystal felt her eyelids grow heavy as she pressed her head against Fox's chest for more warmth and fell asleep. Fox stroked her hair and tried to remember a happy memory in his life.
**
"Wake up, sleepyhead," Fox cooed at Krystal, hoping to annoy her. She let out a 'hmm' and sat up, feeling the bumping of the cart as it rolled along the rocky forest road. Peppy was asleep again, but he woke up at dawn to snicker at Fox for a moment before he said he needed another nap.
"Hi," she said sleepily as she glanced at her surroundings again. Fox now had gnawed nearly a quarter of the way through one of the cage bars. The forest seemed to grow tidier as they headed north and east, farther into the mainland.
Krystal and Fox were both dead hungry and thirsty. The rain hadn't let up; it was still drizzling just not enough water to catch and drink. They hadn't eaten since noon yesterday and Krystal was getting anxious about what was going to happen to her. Fox didn't seem to be worried, though.
"Hey, you two. Don't you need a rest or something? You've been at it for three hours straight. I think it's lunchtime," Fox called. The two foxes stopped and glanced up at the sky where the faintest bit of sun was visible through thick cloud. Both shrugging, they dropped the cart and hopped off the road into the shade from the rain to collect food and those stupid pigs.
"Why'd you do that?" Krystal asked, snuggling up to Fox again for heat.
"I saw them pig out this morning on two pigs. Pun not intended, by the way. This way, I'm hoping that they have enough left over for us from their big stomachs," Fox felt his abdomen. In just a day, he had lost weight. Krystal looked a lot better. At least she was getting her sleep; Fox didn't bother hitting the hay.
A little while later, the two foxes returned with a pig each in their greedy paws. Quickly making a fire (they didn't figure out the blaster method yet) they started to roast the two animals in large bacon strips. Fox's mouth watered at the aroma.
"Wow, how'd ya hunt both of them? You two must be champion hunters, then," Fox smiled, hoping to worm some food for Peppy and Krystal. They both snickered stupidly and said thanks. After a few minutes, they roasted both the pigs and the livers. Eating the livers first, they quickly found themselves full. After arguing for a moment more, they gave the rest of the meat (a lot) to Fox.
"See?" Fox whispered to Krystal as they started munching happily. Peppy woke up in a few minutes and shared their food. They didn't tell him that it was meat, just for his own good.
--
Mental journal, Queen Krystal, in the Month of Planting, 16th day, 67th year of the Fisher line, 2:12 PM:
Maybe I was wrong about Fox again. Maybe he could provide for me and watch out for me. All I really care about now is getting out of this mess and getting back on the road. We won't be expecting to get to the mountains by the 20th now.
I hope these jerks of foxes don't do anything bad to us. Rogues are merely commoners who have done nothing wrong to us except follow the wrong leaders. They were misled by older blood-bathers, and now they are turning against the political center. I'm telling Fox this now. I hope he doesn't do anything stupid to get us out.
Rogues aren't usually violent. Most of them, except for the leaders, are just citizens who want a change in law. The leaders kill for fun and capture other people, saying that they are traitors to the good of Cerinia. The leaders are demented, not their followers.
I can see Fox's knowing eyes. He sees my point of view, and he respects it. He nods now in agreement of what I just told him. He's very smart, even though foxes are supposed to be smart. He knows a lot more than I do, although he is too modest to admit that. He's tough, but sensitive at the same time. Fox would do anything for someone that he cares about, and I know that. He knows too, but he won't ever acknowledge that. He's a warrior and a fighter at heart. Kindness and love are weaknesses, and he knows that. Fox knows a lot more than what meets the eye when you see him. He does.
--
The rogue camp didn't look exactly like a rogue camp. It wasn't what someone would usually expect from lawbreakers. The camp was neat and tidy, fortified with logs and heavy wooden gates. The tents were made out of clean, white canvas, and they were very professionally made. The air around the camp was happy and cheerful. It was also odorless, for that matter.
"I'm not sure that these foxes are rogues," Peppy said, jovially dancing to a fiddle tune with several of the rogues. They had quite taken to the hare's jokes and miming, and they accepted him as an equal, not a prisoner. But that was different for Krystal; she was stuck in a cage while she watched miserably as Fox and Peppy helped themselves to ale and occasionally slipping her a piece or two of meat and bread.
"Aha! How dare ye scoundrel call us rogues!" A cubby faced fox, Erik, said sarcastically. His companions and Peppy laughed, "Oh, ha! Ya want more ale, Peppy?"
"Oh, no more, no more!" Peppy leaned on a table to keep himself standing; he danced a bit too fast, "Another tankard and you'll see me and my fat belly rolling down the hillside filled with liquid."
"Ya know, Peppy, I hate this life. I want to be back in the village where my family is. Curse that Queen and her soldiers; I was forced into exile for rallying for lower taxes, can you imagine that?" Erik took another tankard from a fox and drank slowly.
"Did she really exile you?"
"Well, no, I guess. I think I was more embarrassed to go back home, since I was publicly humiliated. Get me out of here, Peppy. We all regret joining this rogue camp. Kill that bastard barbarian, Lain, and lets go home," Erik patted Peppy on the shoulder, "He's too strong for us. He locks up our weapons and takes more than three-quarters of our hunt! We're being ten times more oppressed than back in the royal kingdom!"
"We can't. We don't have our guns. I promise you, Erik, we'll get out, all of us, just have faith and give us some time," Peppy nodded to Fox, "We're busting out."
**
A/N: No blood? Well, WAIT! That is all for now, bye-bye.
Introduction: I wrote this because if I continued on my other story, then things will get a lot less action-y. Everything is different, well, almost everything. Erm. History changed because some weird dude messed with a time machine. Yeah.
Krystal, Fox, and Peppy had gotten into the forest sooner than they had expected, still following the river as a guide. By high sun, they had already reached the springs where they had first met.
"You stole my tunic. A normal commoner would've gotten hanged, or worse, tortured to death," Krystal stroked her tail and getting the tangles out as they sat by the edge of the water, chewing berries and a fish Fox caught in the pond.
"Ha! Aren't you the kingdom brat," Fox snickered. Krystal scooped up some water and flung it at Fox. He didn't seem to mind, except for the fact that he shoved her into the water after.
"Hey!" Krystal glared at Fox in a humorous fashion and climbed up the bank again, "Well, I think its time to move."
"Indeed it is," a blue fox behind them sneered. Using the butt end of his spear, he quickly knocked the living daylights of the three companions.
**
Fox woke up to find him and his two friends in a cage led by two foxes with tattered robes and tunics. One of them had an ear ripped off and the other was missing a finger from a paw. These were probably rogues. The cage itself was made with hard wood and straw and it was unbelievably cramped with only three animals inside.
Tasting his snout, Fox licked off dried blood. There was also a sharp pain in the back of his head. Krystal had a swell on her forehead, unconscious, and Peppy was already up, nursing a bump between his ears. He gave a weary look at Fox.
"I don't think we're gonna be dinner guests," he whispered. Fox nodded in agreement and shook up Krystal. She woke screaming.
"YOU! Let me out! Don't you know who I am?" She pounded on the cage bars and rattling the cart around. The foxes snickered stupidly and ignored her. Picking up a small pebble in the cage, Krystal flung it at the one with the tattered ear. He turned around and poked Krystal with his spear.
"Yeah, yeah, we know who you are, your highness," he said, his tone dripping with sarcasm, "Don't expect us to obey your royal commands."
Fox shook his head as Krystal tried to pry a branch off a tree near the rocky road they were on. Krystal scowled and growled. By the looks of the sun and the time, they were going further east, far away from their destination.
Fox groaned and felt his pockets. His pack was gone; a fox in front had it along with Peppy and Krystal's packs. His blaster was gone, too, but a small knife was still in the end of his boot that he kept for emergencies. Deciding to save it for later, Fox gnawed away at the bars, hoping that they were weaker than they looked. They weren't.
"Where are you taking us?" Peppy asked politely. The foxes turned, but didn't stop. They snickered again.
"To our slave camp, you dolt! We have plans for you males, but as for the Queen, we have more ambitious plans. But maybe a little fun first wouldn't hurt."
"You sick pig," Krystal barked, throwing another pebble at the foxes. This one missed, but the one with the tattered ear poked her again anyway.
**
"Where do you think this camp is, anyway?" Fox asked. Nighttime had fallen again, and the two rogues were asleep under a tree nearby.
"Northeast, by the looks of it. Now I know what happened to those disappearances lately," Krystal sighed. Instead of the cheerful, moon- filled nights before, this one was cloudy and wet, with rain pouring down in on the cart and splashing onto the three poor prisoners.
Peppy was asleep uncomfortably, by the looks of it, and wasn't snoring for once. Fox felt restless, and so did Krystal. She was chewing unhappily on a branch she found on the side of the road and was trying to fashion it into a spear. Fox was hacking hopelessly on a bar with a sharp rock. He had managed to break through a few fibers, but the cage was fire- hardened.
"It must be hard to be a queen," Fox looked up suddenly. Krystal hesitated in biting her stick for a moment.
"What makes you think that?"
"So much depends on you. I'd bet that the village will be panicking like fish by the time they find out that you were missing," Fox said as he licked his dry lips.
"Probably. They'll send a search party after us in a matter of days, but I don't expect that we'll still be around here by then," Krystal gave up on her stick and huddled her knees to her chest for warmth.
"That doesn't sound good," Fox mumbled.
"Of course it doesn't sound good," Krystal rolled her eyes, "What sounds good for you?"
"A warm and dry place to sleep and a companion on my journeys," Fox shrugged simply. Krystal shook her head.
"That's not as easy as it seems, to get those comforts. There is an outlander in the far north. He crashed on this planet a few years ago. Now, he can't protect himself and he doesn't have any money. That poor dog has been stuck here since," Krystal cupped her paws outside the cart and caught a few drops of rain to drink. They both shivered and sniffed.
"I wish this weather would let up, but these kinds of clouds don't like to let up for days," Fox peered up into the sky. Krystal nudged herself to the corner of the cart to where Fox was sitting.
"You actually pay attention to the weather?" Krystal asked, pressing her shoulder to Fox as she had done the other night.
"Hmm, yeah. I should've been a meteorologist or something," Fox sighed, his breath catching in the cold wind and turning it into clouds. Krystal raised an eyebrow.
"What's that?"
"A meteorologist is someone who studies meteorology, or commonly known as the study of natural weather," Fox recited. Krystal smiled at him, but Fox wasn't looking; he was staring at the clouds.
Krystal felt her eyelids grow heavy as she pressed her head against Fox's chest for more warmth and fell asleep. Fox stroked her hair and tried to remember a happy memory in his life.
**
"Wake up, sleepyhead," Fox cooed at Krystal, hoping to annoy her. She let out a 'hmm' and sat up, feeling the bumping of the cart as it rolled along the rocky forest road. Peppy was asleep again, but he woke up at dawn to snicker at Fox for a moment before he said he needed another nap.
"Hi," she said sleepily as she glanced at her surroundings again. Fox now had gnawed nearly a quarter of the way through one of the cage bars. The forest seemed to grow tidier as they headed north and east, farther into the mainland.
Krystal and Fox were both dead hungry and thirsty. The rain hadn't let up; it was still drizzling just not enough water to catch and drink. They hadn't eaten since noon yesterday and Krystal was getting anxious about what was going to happen to her. Fox didn't seem to be worried, though.
"Hey, you two. Don't you need a rest or something? You've been at it for three hours straight. I think it's lunchtime," Fox called. The two foxes stopped and glanced up at the sky where the faintest bit of sun was visible through thick cloud. Both shrugging, they dropped the cart and hopped off the road into the shade from the rain to collect food and those stupid pigs.
"Why'd you do that?" Krystal asked, snuggling up to Fox again for heat.
"I saw them pig out this morning on two pigs. Pun not intended, by the way. This way, I'm hoping that they have enough left over for us from their big stomachs," Fox felt his abdomen. In just a day, he had lost weight. Krystal looked a lot better. At least she was getting her sleep; Fox didn't bother hitting the hay.
A little while later, the two foxes returned with a pig each in their greedy paws. Quickly making a fire (they didn't figure out the blaster method yet) they started to roast the two animals in large bacon strips. Fox's mouth watered at the aroma.
"Wow, how'd ya hunt both of them? You two must be champion hunters, then," Fox smiled, hoping to worm some food for Peppy and Krystal. They both snickered stupidly and said thanks. After a few minutes, they roasted both the pigs and the livers. Eating the livers first, they quickly found themselves full. After arguing for a moment more, they gave the rest of the meat (a lot) to Fox.
"See?" Fox whispered to Krystal as they started munching happily. Peppy woke up in a few minutes and shared their food. They didn't tell him that it was meat, just for his own good.
--
Mental journal, Queen Krystal, in the Month of Planting, 16th day, 67th year of the Fisher line, 2:12 PM:
Maybe I was wrong about Fox again. Maybe he could provide for me and watch out for me. All I really care about now is getting out of this mess and getting back on the road. We won't be expecting to get to the mountains by the 20th now.
I hope these jerks of foxes don't do anything bad to us. Rogues are merely commoners who have done nothing wrong to us except follow the wrong leaders. They were misled by older blood-bathers, and now they are turning against the political center. I'm telling Fox this now. I hope he doesn't do anything stupid to get us out.
Rogues aren't usually violent. Most of them, except for the leaders, are just citizens who want a change in law. The leaders kill for fun and capture other people, saying that they are traitors to the good of Cerinia. The leaders are demented, not their followers.
I can see Fox's knowing eyes. He sees my point of view, and he respects it. He nods now in agreement of what I just told him. He's very smart, even though foxes are supposed to be smart. He knows a lot more than I do, although he is too modest to admit that. He's tough, but sensitive at the same time. Fox would do anything for someone that he cares about, and I know that. He knows too, but he won't ever acknowledge that. He's a warrior and a fighter at heart. Kindness and love are weaknesses, and he knows that. Fox knows a lot more than what meets the eye when you see him. He does.
--
The rogue camp didn't look exactly like a rogue camp. It wasn't what someone would usually expect from lawbreakers. The camp was neat and tidy, fortified with logs and heavy wooden gates. The tents were made out of clean, white canvas, and they were very professionally made. The air around the camp was happy and cheerful. It was also odorless, for that matter.
"I'm not sure that these foxes are rogues," Peppy said, jovially dancing to a fiddle tune with several of the rogues. They had quite taken to the hare's jokes and miming, and they accepted him as an equal, not a prisoner. But that was different for Krystal; she was stuck in a cage while she watched miserably as Fox and Peppy helped themselves to ale and occasionally slipping her a piece or two of meat and bread.
"Aha! How dare ye scoundrel call us rogues!" A cubby faced fox, Erik, said sarcastically. His companions and Peppy laughed, "Oh, ha! Ya want more ale, Peppy?"
"Oh, no more, no more!" Peppy leaned on a table to keep himself standing; he danced a bit too fast, "Another tankard and you'll see me and my fat belly rolling down the hillside filled with liquid."
"Ya know, Peppy, I hate this life. I want to be back in the village where my family is. Curse that Queen and her soldiers; I was forced into exile for rallying for lower taxes, can you imagine that?" Erik took another tankard from a fox and drank slowly.
"Did she really exile you?"
"Well, no, I guess. I think I was more embarrassed to go back home, since I was publicly humiliated. Get me out of here, Peppy. We all regret joining this rogue camp. Kill that bastard barbarian, Lain, and lets go home," Erik patted Peppy on the shoulder, "He's too strong for us. He locks up our weapons and takes more than three-quarters of our hunt! We're being ten times more oppressed than back in the royal kingdom!"
"We can't. We don't have our guns. I promise you, Erik, we'll get out, all of us, just have faith and give us some time," Peppy nodded to Fox, "We're busting out."
**
A/N: No blood? Well, WAIT! That is all for now, bye-bye.