Tuftee shook his head ever so slightly. "I feel all wrong."
"Not surprising, that," said Taef's voice. "How'd they catch you?"
"Kret found him, and we followed. Then he caught us," Jaru said.
"He's your friend, right? Is he badly hurt?"
"His leg was bleeding a lot. How did you get here?"
"He caught me. I'd argued with my family, so I was just sitting alone."
"When was that?"
"Today, I think. They must have used some drug to knock me out. I woke up here."
"You speak Human well," Tuftee said suddenly.
A sigh. "Is that something to be proud of?"
"I couldn't have told him about Kret," Jaru spoke up.
"I'm sorry, but I doubt he's going to get help. I don't trust him."
"Did you give your real name?"
"Yes. Human lies are easy to detect, and I can't do anything with his name unless he knows mine."
Tuftee coughed. "What can you do?"
"I can kill him."
There was a silence after this, before Jaru spoke. "Why would you want to kill him?"
"Because he's human. My brother was taken last year by them. Apparantly they like ones with wings. We never saw him again."
"This has happened before?"
"Draih, yes. But it subsided afterwards. We all thought--"
"Shh..." Tuftee moaned, his sharp ears catching a sound. The familiar clump of human feet.
Jaru waited. "Jason?"
"What do you know about Jason?" a man's voice asked. Too familiar a voice.
Jaru tensed. "We heard it said outside. Is that your name?"
"No. I expected you to be sleeping."
"Will you feed us?" asked Taef.
The man snorted. "Tomorrow you leave. I'll send someone in with something, but for now you'll stay here."
Silence. Nobody had anything to say, so the man left, this time slamming the door behind him and lcking it shut.
"Where're we going?" Jaru asked once he'd gone.
Taef sighed. "I don't know."
"Maybe Jason can't get in."
"What makes you trust him?"
"He gave his name."
"More fool him."
A longer silence. Jaru kept thinking the same thing. If I had known this morning that I would be trapped in a cage...
He must have fallen asleep, for when he awoke, mouth dried up, someone was poking him gently through the bars.
"It's me," Jason's voice said. "I'm sorry to wake you, but I've got food."
Jaru's eyes opened fully. "How you get in?"
"Dad gave me the keys."
Taef's voice. "Can you let us out?"
Jason paused. "Please," Jaru moaned. "Let Tuftee out. He hurt."
"He's called Turk, you said."
"Yes. Please, let him out."
A hesitation, before Jason fumbled with the keys and opened Turk's cage door. The eevee hybrid fell out, but since the cage was on the floor, he wasn't hurt. Even so, he didn't move.
"Shh," Jason said, even though he hadn't said anything. He set down the bag he'd beeen holding.
"Food?" asked Jaru.
Tuftee was still bent over into the shape he'd been in the cage. "I don't think I can move," he said weakly.
"What's wrong with him?" Jason asked.
"He's got cramp, wise guy," Taef replied in her flawless Human.
"You see Kret?" Jaru asked Jason.
"No. The hospital wing was locked, but there was someone in it."
Taef interrupted. "What food do you have?"
Jason started taking things out of the bag. "I stole some food from storage. Father only wanted to give you bread."
"Don't you obey your father well?"
Sarcasm, Jaru thought, works well in both languages. Jason sighed and turned to Taef. "Do you want help or not? Look, I'll let you out."
"I might kill you."
Jaru switched back to Kerain. "Listen, just let him help us, OK? He could be our only hope."
"You're right. I can kill him afterwards."
"Can't you let it lie?"
Taef's voice became harsh. "I can't trust him. My brother and I were very close, and now he's dead."
Jason was helping Tuftee sit up. His knees were bleeding, and he was shivering, wearing only shorts and shirt. "Should I let you out too?"
Jaru turned as best he could to Taef. "He still wants to help."
"Fine. I'll trust him. But one wrong move..."
"Thank you," Jaru said, in Human.
Jason quickly unlocked the other two cages, and the hybrids rolled out. Jaru felt as though his bones had been welded into place, and it took him some time to try and stretch out.
"Just please be quiet," Jason pleaded. "I don't know what my dad might do to me if he finds out I've done this."
"Humans are so brutal," Taef said casually. "They're not happy unless they kill."
The others ignored her. "Look, I've got food," Jason said.
Tuftee spoke out for the first time. "Thank you. Will you let us go? Help escape."
"What about Kret?" Jaru reminded him quickly.
"Where is hospital?" Tuftee asked, before adding, "And way out."
Jason sighed and kept on handing out food. "I'll help you out of here. I know that we're on the outskirts of Olivine. They're planning to ship you off to Houen tomorrow. But I can get you and your friend out, as long as I can come with you."
A pause. "I don't think humans are liked much in Oslaw," Taef pointed out.
"I know. Not there. Just... help me away from here, please. I hate it here. Before you came it was stolen pokemon. I just thought you were pokemon."
"You didn't seem to mind our being there."
"I know, I'm sorry. I suppose I was used to it and could do nothing about it. But seeing you is like..."
"Like you," Tuftee said.
Jason nodded. "Yeah."
All three hybrids could tell that he wasn't lying. Taef took a big bite of her bread, as though ashamed at being proved wrong. Jaru decided not to push it, and turned back to the topic of getting out.
"How do we leave?" he asked.
"I don't know how we'll get... Kret out, but this place isn't alarmed at all. It's just an abandoned carpet warehouse. There're guards, but I know a way around them. The hospital will be hard though; the door's strong. Nobody should be in it except him, though."
Jaru stood up and stretched in relief. "When do we leave?"
"Now," Taef said, standing up as well. "Jason?"
As Tuftee nodded, and stood up, with some difficulty, Jason nodded too. He leant out of the door. "Nobody's about."
"Is there cameras?" Tuftee asked.
"No. Nothing. Nobody would want to come here, anyway."
Jason immediatly left, and locked the door behind him when the other three had evacuated. "Hopefully anyone coming will think you're still inside. Come on, follow me."
The three hybrids followed the human boy as quietly as they could. Jaru barely dared to breathe. Any moment now, he thought, someone's going to jump out at us and--
"Get back!" Jason said. Jaru could hear footsteps, but they faded quickly, and Jason motioned for them to move on. Suddenly, they came to a door with a crude red cross on it. "This is the hospital place."
"So Krip's inside that thing..." Tuftee muttered, then switching to Human; "You have key?"
"No, I don't know where it is."
Taef was pushing against the door. "Anyone have firepower? We could burn it down."
Jaru nodded. "I could try."
Jason stared as Jaru took a step forward and aimed a Dragonbreath at the door. The white-blue flames didn't appear to burn the wood, But when he'd finished, there was smoking hole in itr.
Jason stared. "You shouldn't have done that! It sounded really loud!"
"No time for mistakes, let's get their friend," Taef said quickly, forcing herself through the door. Flicking back to Kerain, she called: "Hello? Any houndour hybrids tucked away in this cosy little room?"
A dark shape on one of the beds sat up. "Jaru?" asked a slurred voice. "That you?"
"Since when did I sound like a girl?" Jaru's voice asked from outside.
Taef sighed. "Yeah, yeah. Listen, Kret--"
"How'd you know my name?"
"Your friends outside told me. We have to go now. Can you walk?"
Kret nodded. "I'm pretty tough. They bound it up properly now and it's stopped bleeding. Throbs though."
"Yeah well, getting shot can dampen your day a bit, I'm sure. Come on, we have to leave now."
Kret swung himself out of bed, and gently put weight on both his legs. After a moment or so, he limped towards the door. "Who's that?" he asked, staring at Jason.
"Listen, he's going to help us, OK? His name's Jason and it's thanks to him we're not all cooped up in cages about the size of a TV," Jaru explained.
Jason nodded, even though he didn't understand them. "I keep feeling you're plotting against me," he sighed.
Kret showed teeth. "Don't tempt me."
"Maybe we should have kept that muzzle," Tuftee grinned. He seemed to have cheered up since they were all together and getting out of here.
Kret shook his head. "Nah, they took it off after they bunged me in there. No idea why, maybe they thought I couldn't get up or I'd suffocate in my sleep. Told me the door was fireproof anyway."
Jaru shrugged. "I burned through it."
"Listen, we have to go," Jason said. He was standing next to a window and had pushed it open. "We can escape out here."
"You go first, we'll catch up," Taef said. "Weedy boy, you go next."
Kret growled, but it wasn't at the comment. Instead he was looking behind her. Jaru jumped suddenly as he felt a hand clamp on his shoulder.
"How'd you get out?" asked a gruff male voice.
Turning around, the hybrids saw five humans, all standing with familiar-looking sawn-off shotguns.
E/N: Uh-oh. Well, please review, even if you thought that it was worse than... er... something you hate.