Chapter 41
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The rain was drumming down, a torrent cutting through the hot steamy air, drawing in some relief but not clearing the stifling heat, or the oppressive atmosphere.
If anything, all it managed to do was turn up all the other maladies of this place to boiling point, rubbing them in like salt in the wound. Mammals who'd be spreading out, giving each other some degree of space, instead huddled tight in the tin huts and offered up rooms of the locals, never a moment of privacy for anyone. Furs were raised, the tension ran as thick as the humidity, what was normally a lighter and happier comradery between the bands of mammals who'd trained together now became a tectonic friction as they piled in at a concentration that made the bootcamps and conferences of the past look like a breath of freedom.
The jokes and banter had been spent, the nerves were thinning, eyes glanced at each other and words now went unsaid.
Almost as if the great birds of prey they had been summoned to defend from were actually out there. Indeed, were another pair summoned up by the ever trumped up reports to arrive about now, they may well believe it.
Then again, they all had when they arrived, only for it to dawn on them very quickly that something was wrong, something was up.
But orders on high were orders from on high.
You just grinned and bared them, waiting for the farce, like the ever pounding rain, to be over.
Time ticked on.
The rain drummed and drummed on the ceiling.
Words were left unsaid, the conversations already spoken.
The mammals in their ranger uniforms just sat, waiting, huffing at the farce. The lucky ones peered in at one mammal playing snake on his flip phone, still hanging on to a bit of charge. After that, it'd be on the queue to charge up again, lined up and waiting. The residents of the remote mountain village, far out in the jungle, didn't have much in the way of spare plug sockets.
"¡Mamá! ¡Mamá! Pedro fue azotado por robar la muñeca de Lucía."
All eyes turned to a young white lipped peccary jumping in, peeling off his drenched shirt and peeling off his non-muddy shorts over his very muddy legs, getting them and the floor dirty in the process. And then, in just his white Y-fronts, he raced off through the eye averting crowd as the older matron of the house walked in to meet him, thick cooking spoon in paw. "Mauricio!" She scolded, stopping the hyperactive piglet in his tracks. "¡Cerdito asqueroso! ¡Límpiate a ti mismo y al suelo o te arrepentirás!" She waved her spoon for effect before he walked over to a plastic tub of water he'd skipped past when entering. Shifting up onto the seat, he put his feet in and, grabbing a brush, began cleaning his mud stained hooves and legs off.
Just as a slightly larger, older, pig got in. Far less muddied, he slumped straight up to the tub to wait his turn.
"¡PEDRO!"
He flinched back, looking up and beginning to quiver as his mother walked over, thick spoon in hoof flexed and hit for effect. "¿M-m-mamá?"
"¿¡Qué es eso de que le robaste la muñeca a Lucía!?"
"Nnnno-no-no," he sniffed, shaking his head. He looked around, to his younger brother, and to the crowd of strangers taking shelter in the house. His eyes flicked from a wolf to a cougar. From a tough looking badger to a one-eyed fisher cat. From a jaguarundi to a brown hare to a red fox vixen with a pair of glasses resting on her muzzle. Almost pleadingly, asking for help, something the vixen held back from, even as she grit her teeth slightly.
There already wasn't enough room in the inn, and the innkeeper's generousness, however once bountiful, was almost certainly very overextended.
Besides, her grasp of the language only gave her the barest of a grasp of what was going on.
All she could do was glance away as the piglet looked up to his approaching mother, hoofs rubbing the seat of his pants. "No lo hice. La encontré detrás de la escuela y la estaba devolviendo cuando la maestra dijo que la robé."
Her mother gave a derisive snort. "¿En serio?"
"Mamá…" he sniffed, only to get cut off by a short, sharp, thwack of spoon on hoof. The mother pig then swung her arm back, pointing to the back room, a steel like expression on her face. "¡M-m-m-mama!" The piglet stuttered, beginning to sniff. He rubbed the seat of his pants more. "¡Por favor! ¡No lo hice! Y Maestra ya…"
"Probablemente solo un calentamiento," the mother pig scoffed. She then pointed hard towards the back room with her spoon. "¡AHORA!" The piglet wilted as she gestured to the silent guests under her roof. "O lo hago el doble de tiempo, el doble de duro, aquí."
Sniffing, shaking, the piglet began walking over to the doorway, his mother giving an oink at the trail of mud he was leaving. "Y luego vas a limpiar esto"
He remained silent, as did everyone else, as into the room he went, the mother pig following.
The room went silent, bar the drumming of the rain on the roof.
Ever present.
Never ending.
Like the roll before the guillotine was released.
"Hacer mi tarea la próxima vez…" The red fox vixen's ears pivoted slightly, her eyes refocussing as the younger piglet, hooves freshly cleaned, sniggered. "'Maestra, Maestra, Pedro le robó la muñeca a la Lucía.'" He finished it off in a sing song voice, all as the first hard THWACK snapped out of the back room, ringing in tune with a high pitched porcine squeal of pain. And then they came pouring down like the rain outside, again and again and again and again, a torrent beating down as the young piglet screamed for mercy and the mother javelina yelled and screamed and cursed at him for his infraction.
The younger piglet just sat back and giggled, a scat eating grin on his muzzle.
Until his eyes widened in worry.
The red fox vixen, jostling in her tight seat, looked over to see a brown figure with long ears race into the back, arms thrown out as he yelled at the mother pig to stop, about what they'd seen.
The rest of the rangers just sat in the tight front room, nervous looks painted on their faces, maybe even more so than the younger piglet.
Sweetie sighed, slipping her unpacked goods back into her bag and making sure it was secured up. Then giving her partner the same favour as the now redirected yelling came out from the back room.
Finally, her heart just a bit heavy, she watched as her brown hare partner was screamed back from the room, the mother javelina almost red with anger, spoon thrashing down and trying to hit him, not that he let it. A leap to the right, left, back, front, his paws came out to block it, only for her to duck down and practically charge him out of the building and into the pouring rain. "¡Mi Casa! ¡Mis Reglas!" It was as much for all of them as it was for him. Sweetie ground her teeth, but let it slide. After all, what could be done. By all accounts, she'd already been overly generous to all of them.
And with that, the mother pig stared him off, before leaning down to peck the younger piglet, acting as the most innocent little javelina in the whole world, on his cheek. Before marching back in, spoon in hoof, to carry on with her older brother.
The red fox vixen looked at it all and sighed, grabbing the bags and heading out.
"-You don't have to come out too," came an indignant response.
She looked down at the brown hare. "You didn't have to act hero, did you Bright Eyes?"
He rolled his eyes a little. Hyhayuhl may have been his real name, one he was very proud of, but he understood the difficulties or everyone remembering it, and so tolerated the literal translation. "We are rangers," he scoffed, crossing his paws. "And if we're stuck here on this made up wild goose hunt, we might as well do something good!" He let his foot drum hard on the wooden veranda. "If there's one thing worse than a snitch…"
"And look where it got us," the vixen said, matter of factly as she reached for one of her waterproof all-terrain mud-socks.
"Better that than just listen to his screams doing nothing."
"I suppose," the red fox vixen said. "Unless you know exactly how it's going to pan out anyways."
He grumbled a little, pulling his rubber footwear on before stepping out, feet sinking down in the brown myre to his ankles. Her socks on, Sweetie followed him, the two trekking on through the ever constant downpour, cloying mud dug up and set down by their feet as they went. It wasn't far to a solid road at least. And from there, she guessed she could try and find shelter in the main command building, where that idiot hole digger was set up, still digging away.
"I can't stand it," he grumbled. "Sometimes I just want to beat all this nonsense down."
"Patience," she shrugged, walking on.
He scoffed.
"If you can't stop a wave, you can at least ride it," she said. His eyes narrowed as he turned to stare at her. She simply offered a smile back. "When this idiot gets exposed, I'll have plenty of documentation to show just what a mess he caused, and how we did our best to serve through it."
"Arghhh… And then what, hombra?"
Using his mother tongue's name for her species, always an interesting set of possibilities from that choice. "We rise up."
He looked at her in his bedraggled state. "What if I like it down here. At the coalface. Why would I want to be one of those pen-pushers, huh?"
The vixen just smiled. "How about knowing you could do their job without any of this nonsense. Do it right."
He groaned a little. "And I bet they all say that."
"Yes," the red fox admitted, smiling a little. "Only I know I'm right."
"Sure…"
"My secret," she smiled, looking down. "Is to give others the chance to prove themselves or fail. On their own terms. They're either happy you gave them the chance, or understand far better than a stern lecture could ever educate them."
A loud squelch rang out, the hare grumbling as he found himself sinking into a particularly deep mire, the brown much almost reaching his knees and the top of the waterproof stockings he wore. The red vixen silently put down her bags, leant over, and slowly pulled him out.
He kept silent too until he was finally placed on solid earth. "Thank you," he said.
"You make far more progress with friends than enemies."
"And what about ones like them back there," he snorted, gesturing back before gesturing forward. "Or our one up there." He pointed forward to the hastily patched up industrial shed up ahead, the local ranger HQ. Home of the mammal whose pride and incompetence had resulted in their redeployment here.
"Well, you just manage them to the best of your ability," she shrugged. "Her house, her rules, after all."
"It stinks."
In a way, she could agree with him there, in the literal sense. A new acrid smell was rising up from the green stained water they were wading through, leading up to the shed. Not the source, but close enough. On one side of it were a multitude of vehicles, those not on the scarce hardtop half sunk in the churned up brown and green stained earth, all sent in to help given the 'remarkable' surge of predatory birds and now reptiles reported in the area. On the other side though was an overflowing 'lake', rusting old cranes and minecart tracks around the edge, from when the abandoned bat town in the tall, narrow cave had been mined for its reserves of guano. What was left of that now dissolved into the overflowing water, leaching out and tainting the land around, and blooming up into the acrid miasma that not even the ever pouring rain could wipe away.
They were silent for a moment, before scoffing. "This stinks."
She shrugged. "It will pass."
"Sometimes I just want to tear it down. Smash it. Rip it. At least do something. What have you got to lose?"
"A lot, if you think about it," she said, looking down.
He shrugged. "I suppose you're right."
"I said I am," she smiled. "Now, and when my patience has given me enough power to act on it."
"Well, we await that day then," he said.
"That we do," she smiled. "That we do."
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Lt Vixen straightened her coat as she stepped into the observation room, sitting down and looking through the one way mirror, her right paw slowly tapping along her left wrist. To her side, Jack stood, looking between the fox with fur the colour of glowing hot embers and the fox with fur the colour of sun baked prairie grass.
Skye breathed in and out, turning to her adopted sister, muzzle fixed up and firm. "'I'm going to handle this," was all she said, as she turned and made her way to the door.
The red fox shrugged. "I mean, it was your idea."
The swift fox vixen snapped back, body tensed up and ready to lash out with a rebuke, only for it to immediately die on her tongue.
"I'm happy for you to try, else I wouldn't have let this get set up," Lt Vixen reassured.
Caving slightly at the lack of opposition, Skye breathed out, closed her eyes and, focussing, went out of the door.
A short while later she entered into the interrogation room. With her was Doug, the sheep looking around, not sure what was going on. Skye asked him to sit, which he did, before she took a deep breath in and out. "So, you're probably wondering why you're here?"
He shrugged. "Is this the point where you attach electrodes to my genital regions or something." He may have been being sarcastic, but the delivery was so nonchalant and deadpan all three observing mammals couldn't tell for sure.
"No," Skye said, pushing forward. "In fact, I do have a little surprise for you."
"A bad one I'm guessing."
"Now why would you say that?"
"Because you objectively hate me for speaking the truth about how you predators do nothing but oppress us prey, and my fair and reasonable attempts at freedom fighting offend you in some fundamental way."
"Well, now you mention it," Skye began. "It is something to do with that."
"Here it comes…"
"You believe that it's entirely true, and nothing is ever going to change your viewpoint on that. Right?"
"Is the sky blue? That was a rhetorical question there."
"Well," she said. "I think you can agree that there are some mammals out there who are just like that, in hating prey too. That will never ever change their viewpoints."
He scratched his chin for a second before nodding. "You for a start. And that Ewetuber whose videos you showed me…"
"Yeah," Skye said, leaning forward. "I'll give you that one. She's a real nasty one, uh-hu."
"Totally. Entirely irredeemable, a natural born propagandist who in any fair world would be imprisoned and be forced into activities that were beneficial for society, rather than being able to spread around hateful genocidal propaganda against the one species society has decided is a perfectly valid subject to make suffer."
"Yeah," she said, leaning down. "And yet you're the one who was locked up and is now taking this 'work for the big bad pred' deal, am I right?"
He shrugged. "I mean, I thought that was firmly established. You're painfully obviously up to something again, in a highly suspect and indecipherable way. This is highly disconcerting. You should feel bad, but being a pred I know not to expect anything."
Skye stepped back a little, holding herself before a large smile grew on her face. "So I am being sneaky then."
"No. And even if you were that isn't a good thing." His eyes narrowed. "For all you talk about preds being naturally good and not sociopathic parasites on honest hard working mammals, you kind of shot yourself in the paw there."
"Yeah," Skye said, waving it off. "That's just me, isn't it. Us, everyone, set in our ways, unable to change! And heck, if I wasn't able to change…" She brought out a laptop, opening it up. "That Ewetuber would be a million times less likely to, correct."
Before Doug could answer, Skye pressed play, and a video started playing. The sheep looked on as the voice of 'Gruinard Gal' began playing out. Only, instead of the artistic picture of her avatar, paper bag on head, laying down on a boat's deckchair, it was the mammal in question. In the fur. A tired looking, nothing much out of the ordinary, honey badger. She sighed, before speaking. "My name is Gruinard Gal. It is also Honey… Well, it was always Honey. And I have an important message to you, about everything I've ever told you. About sheep. And how wrong I have been and how much I have tricked and hurt you all."
From the other side of the one way mirror, Jack and Lt Vixen looked on as the sheep watched the final video of the infamous Ewetuber. The red fox vixen kept a curious eye on Doug's face, watching for any changes in his expression or look. She didn't get any, the ram just watching with a consistent level of bored disinterest. At the very least, it wasn't anything out of character.
Skye also kept a close watch, her tail tip ever so slightly beginning to wave behind her, the tip giving little whips one way and then the other. Her paws treaded lightly on the floor and she let her teeth slowly work against each other.
Finally, as the honey badger's heartfelt plea to her former viewership ended, the sheep put his hoof onto the top of the laptop screen and closed it firmly shut.
…
"So…?" Skye asked.
"D minus."
The swift fox vixen's head tilted to the side. "D minus…?"
He shrugged. "While there is at least some vague merit behind the concept, the fact this is just an obvious fake up is plainly obvious and in some ways pretty laughable. The tragedy that you're not even good at the inherent traits of your own species is only increased further. Which doesn't mean you're a good mammal, just to make it clear, just a little bit pathetic. Can we abandon this waste of time now, it's latte time."
"Not yet," Skye rushed, walking over to the door. "So, you think that was all a fake out, correct?"
"Think infers that there's some level of debate here."
"Yeah," the vixen scoffed. "That last video was obviously a fake, right? It's not as if you can see it, in the mammal." Over to the door she went, as Doug face-hoofed.
"Oh god, I know what you're doing and it is objectively stupid."
Skye paid him no mind, opening up the door and then waving in their new guest. Honey Badger.
The room was silent as the tough mustelid stepped in, her eyes looking down at Doug, fixing on him until, with a breath out, she walked forward. "So," she said, biting her lip. "Tryin' to fix the cuss ups I've done…" She shrugged, chuckling. "I am not sure if this is some ultimate challenge or grand conclusion or something, but…" She sat down across from Doug, paw out. "Hi."
…
"-I don't bite!"
…
"-I mean," she began blabbing off. "Yeah, I've done some nasty things to your species in the past, but I mean, close company here huh! I hated sheep to no end, you hate not-sheep to no end. We're like mirrors, am I right?"
"I was a decorated military sniper with field medic qualifications and a PHD in Biochemistry," Doug said, matter of factly. "And your greatest achievement is?"
"Okay," she rolled on. "Maybe not quiet mirrors in our personal lives. But the political stuff, I mean, we're kinda similar right. I blabbed a bunch of nonsense and made people hate innocent sheep…" She rolled off one paw, then began rolling off the other. "You darted and poisoned innocent predators turning them savage and even killing one so you and your friends could put us all in camps and shock collars and have fun killing us as we deserved it. Am I right?"
"It's always with the 'camps' with you lot," he grumbled. "We're pacifying predators. What's the point of doing that only to then throw them into camps."
Honey's paw raised. "Uh, what about those who fight back?"
"Well, they got to prison. That's completely different. And sure, we expected there to be a large amount of resistance and naturally we'd need temporary expansions to the prison system and building them out doors with temporary structures is the practical solution. But calling those things camps is completely disingenuous."
"Uhhhh…" Honey began, before closing her eyes and pinching the brow of her muzzle. She took a few breaths in and out, before staring up. "What would you call them?"
"Penal overflow zones."
"I…" her teeth slowly bared before she shook her head. "Okay. Okay. Square one here. Square one. We both did bad things in the past because we believed that a certain group of mammals were irredeemably evil and up to all sorts of nasty evil stuff, and they needed to be dealt with, right?"
"Fine," Doug huffed. "I'll entertain you."
"And the way I've heard it, you won't change. You can't think of things any other way. And I was like that too." She pointed at herself. "I believed everything bad was up to the sheep. I thought they had all sorts of plans to deal with us, and they needed to be dealt with. But… But, in truth I was wrong. Terribly wrong. I was twisting myself into so many knots, they threw me into a looney bin, and it was long…"
She sighed, looking down. "Hard. Nasty. Not fun, but… But…" She looked up. "I realised I was wrong. Everything I thought was wrong and sheep are mammals just like me, or everyone here, it's…" She cut herself off, shaking her head. "And now I know just how much damage and pain I caused. And I've been trying to fix it. Queen of the hive, I have been trying. One mammal at a time, finding those who followed me and helping them to realise their mistakes too. And undo the damage I've done."
She looked up, paw out. "Doug Ramses. I know what you did. And I'd still say it's pretty damn evil and… And this ain't gonna make you all a good guy in a snap. But you know what, if I can realise my mistake, who's to say you can't realise yours too. We ain't mammals being ruled by evil preds or evil sheep, we're just mammals. All of us, the same. And the only ones who are evil are those who hurt each other due to who they are. But you can stop, right? I stopped, you can stop, we can all just stop that. Can't you see that?"
Doug looked back, silent.
"C'mon, I know it might not feel nice. It's big, nasty, tough. It hurts to learn it, I know, it took months in the…"
"-Mental hospital, am I correct?" Doug finally asked.
There was a long pause, Honey nodding. "Yeah. They…"
"They gave the predator wanting sheep genocide a nice little stay in a mental hospital just to 'fix 'em up', whereas I get life and then a suicide squad deal." He huffed. "I mean, that double standard just proves all my points…"
"You know, you did literally kill someone," Honey cut in, her voice suddenly rising up. Skye stepped back, glancing at her, her ears going back. "-A wolf you darted charged a bus, went under the wheels. I mean, that's a pretty big difference there!"
Doug looked at her for a second before his eyes narrowed. "I mean, you're obviously a fake. A paid actor just to gaslight me."
"I… I'm on all those videos…"
"All that money spent, put on this crazy charade to make me reconsider the truth" He looked up at Skye. "And don't think this makes you sneaky. You're still a total cuss up in that regard."
"Those were all my videos!" Honey yelled, standing up on her chair. "I ain't no actor, I ain't no worker for them. I'm everythin' I'm saying…"
"Then how do you know about the shock collars," Doug jeered. "Those were kept secret, not released to the public. The only way you could know about them was…"
"-If I hacked the system wanting to know more about all the evil sheep!"
…
"Okay then, there's your crime. Hacking the justice system. And she isn't getting jail for it, is she? But if I…"
"I wasn't caught for that," Honey mumbled.
"Okay," Doug smiled, folding his paws. He looked over at Skye with a scat eating grin. "Arrest her."
The swift fox blinked. "What?"
"Arrest her. She's a hacker. If pred and prey are treated equally as you claim, you'll arrest her. She'll go to prison. You'll then give her one of these bogus deals and…"
"You know what," Skye cut in. "Sure." She walked over to Honey. "I arrest you…"
"Hey!?"
"You get prison. We offer you the same deal as Doug. You accept. Welcome to the team!"
…
Honey looked up at Skye, then down at Doug, then up at Skye again. "Sure…? Can I work from home."
"Great!" the swift fox cheered, turning to Doug. "See, equal treatment. Now, think about what she said, think about how she realised she was wrong and…
"F."
Skye blinked.
"You score an F now. It's honestly pathetic. I don't know why the other foxes haven't put you down or something as an embarrassment to your species. And honestly, even if she is real and ended up in shock collars which would certainly bring me a very delightful level of satisfaction, the moral of your whole story is 'Save us the trouble of imprisoning you for wrong think and sending you to room One-O-One'. And you're not the bad guys? Do you even realise what a parody you are?"
"Well do you!?" Skye cut in, before Honey could react. "I… You were going to do the literal same thing to all us preds…"
"No," he stressed. "Control them as their biologically dangerous mammals. They could think what they like…"
"With emotion sensing torture devices strapped around their necks?"
The sheep rolled his eyes. "Emotion. Not thought. When you can't even tell the difference there… -You know what, I'm done." He got up and marched away. "I'm getting a latte. Do you want one? You're not getting one. Bye."
And with that he left, leaving Honey and Skye standing there.
The ratel looked over to the swift fox, who then kicked out, throwing Doug's chair across the floor and into the wall. "CUSS IT!"
And with that she marched out, leaving a confused Honey sitting there. "Okay, I… I tried, I think."
Behind the mirror, Jack leant forward to the microphone and spoke into it. "You did good. Well done." He was then joined by Lt Vixen.
"We'll get Haverly to put back on the blindfold and drop you off at your place. You did your best, nothing wrong there."
And with that she walked out of the door and into the back corridor, finding her adopted big sister there, marching around, speaking out loud to herself, cursing and grumbling. "Stupid, why do I even try, what even is this whole farce, I…" She paused though as she saw the red fox vixen, standing there, and threw out her paws. "Come on! Tell me what an idiot I was! Or how I should have left when you advised me to. Or give some patronising 'you did your best' thing or something Miss 'I'm so perfect' or… Or just tell me how stupid I am and…"
She was cut off as Sweetie walked up to her and held her tight in a hug, patting her on her back.
The swift fox let out a few grumbles and grunts, but they died down as a silence filled the air.
"Come on," the red fox finally said. "What you do… it's up to you." She smiled. "Back when we were little, I don't think we ever imagined our future adventures would be like this, huh?"
Skye gave a huff. "You still treat this like a game, don't you?"
"When things get serious I don't."
"Yeah…" she said, pulling back. She looked at the floor, fussing it with her paw. "You know what, you know what you're doing. Take Jack, do your stuff, I'll go. Not like I'm any use here after all. I found one connection, I gave it, I should have quit while I was ahead."
"And not have a chance to make those sound-selective ear-plugs?" she asked.
Skye's ears perked up. "I…" She waved it off. "Sure. Then I'll go back to my shop, leave you and Jack to your dangerous game. Just…" Her eyes narrowed. "Bring him back in one piece. I don't want him to be one who suffers when your luck runs out."
"Luck…?"
"You can't deny you have a lot, do you?"
Her red fur bristled for a second, before she waved it off. "So some mammals say. And you know what, I face things like they're completely wrong, but plan things like they're completely right."
The swift fox was silent.
"Come on, it's been a tough day. Let's wrap things up here, then forget about it all for a few hours."
"Sure…"
A grin grew across Lt Vixen's red face. "That's the spirit. Anyway, I need some time off too. After all, an old friend of mine has a new kit I haven't seen."
"And if that's when these mystery mammals make their move?"
She shrugged, tail tip going into her paw. "It goes without saying that I'll have the helicopter on standby."
Skye rolled her eyes, but followed her on as off they went.
.
.
.
"So wait, she's your partner from your time in the rangers?"
"No deary," Mrs Fox said, handing over Rowan to Sweetie Autumn. Lt Vixen, now running her 'casual' name, took the young kit and smiled as he whined and fussed, curling in on himself and letting his paws shield him from the distressingly high levels of attention.
Ash, watching it, quickly had his lingering question fully answered by his mother. "She was the partner of my partner from the academy. I thought we went over this a few times…"
Her older son narrowed his eyes. "Well maybe sometimes it helps to go over it again."
"And do you remember how we met?"
Ash nodded. "Sure! You met each other at that partners, a hare's, funeral after he was carried away by an eagle. You then learnt that her adoptive sister," he pointed at Skye. "-Owned an autoshop not far from where we lived, and so you had Dad going there to get his repairs and everything done. After that you kept in touch via her." He folded his arms, much more casually this time, tilting his head and raising an expectant smile.
Mrs Fox, turning to Sweetie, smiled. "More or less, yes. Isn't that right?" she cooed, fussing with her son's headfur, blissfully unaware of her son's eye roll.
Leaning in closer, Skye smiled as she ran a few of her claws through the young tod's coat, watching him jerk a bit at the touch before flopping onto his back, paws unsteadily batting at the larger one rubbing him down. "I love his fur right now," she said softly, giving it a little shake and smiling as a giggle was returned. "All those little downy red and white furs are really starting to come through, aren't they? Starting to look like a real red fox, aren't you? Aren't you?"
He flopped around a little more, limbs wiggling in the air until one of his feet tapped his nose. The big, strange, mysterious thing looming in front of him captured his attention, his mouth opening wide in awe before chomping down to nibble on it. The three vixens giggled over it, Mrs Fox quickly sliding herself out.
"Off somewhere?" the swift fox asked.
Felicity paused by a new bouquet of flowers, delivered by the same florist who'd so kindly gifted some to her family during the whole trouble with Kris, giving them a little rearrange while looking back. "Following his display there I need to get my diary in order to document the key developmental milestone." And with that she smiled, moved the flowers around a little more, and walked briskly over to the stairs and up.
In the peace and quiet, Skye was handed over the young fox and began rocking him gently, watching as he tried to curl up once more into some level of protective safety from what must have been just too many figures all around him for his liking.
"I see you're as unsuited and undesiring of motherhood as you so always vehemently stated," her sister was quick to remind her.
The swift fox narrowed her eyes and manoeuvred Rowan around so that he was facing her, before quickly beginning to burp the young mammal.
"Ah, the projectile vomit zone," Sweetie said, rolling her eyes as she stood up and walked away. "Whatever will I do."
"Stop annoying me for a start," she snarked, bringing the now fussy kit in close to her chest, letting him burrow in..
"And haven't I been the most supportive and caring sister in the last few hours, no?"
"Ah. To quote one of the movies my hare introduced me to recently: You, too, are extraordinarily humble."
The red fox was about to speak, only for the second red fox in the room to cut in. "That's technically a paraphrase." All eyes turned to Ash who shrugged. "Just pointing out the true fact."
Sweetie smirked, turning to her sister. "He, too, is extraordinarily humble."
"Thank you," he shrugged, sitting back. "I appreciate it when my achievements are recognised."
"And you're just a bit jealous," the red fox vixen smiled, gesturing to the little centre of attention currently dribbling down onto the bottom edge of Skye's shirt..
"No," he shrugged, before a small yip broke the air. All eyes turned to Skye and the kit, whose head was now underneath her shirt, holding on firm roughly above her right kidney, all while his tail wagged fervently. "-Okay, maybe a little."
The swift fox blushed, turning sharply away from the onlookers and extracting Rowan from the situation he'd put himself in. Or at least trying to. "Let go…"
"Anything the matter?" Mrs Fox asked as she walked in, rearranging the flowers a little more before taking the nuclear option of sliding the whole vase a little to the left..
"Sure! Fine! Nothing totally wrong at all!"
The red fox vixen levelled a mirthfully warm look of understanding at the swift fox one as she continued to wiggle, trying to tug. "First that weasel kit, now you, why don't you…"
"Tickle under the right elbow."
Skye's ears shot up as she turned to try and laugh it off, trying her best to follow the instructions as inconspicuously as possible. She then hurriedly extricated the increasingly fussy kit from her lap and handed him over to his mother, who unbuttoned a small slit at the front of her dress and slid him inside. He very quickly found what he wanted and settled down, tail wagging fervently behind him.
A long, slow, awkward silence filled the room.
Skye gave the odd brush down of her shirt, doing her best to act as if nothing was amiss.
All the other vixens waited on for the inevitable.
Ash, looking around, grew bored of the silence and opened up a comic book to start reading.
Finally, Mrs Fox, casually turning to Skye, spoke. "He has a thing for number seven," she said, gesturing down to his current feeding location.
Again, nothing was said, though for a second it almost looked like there were three red fox vixens in the room, not two.
With an awkward laugh, Skye waved it off, the sandy coloured prairie fox looking around as she tried to think of anything better to say. "I… Well, if I do get kits they'll be well served, -so there!"
It dropped about as well as a helium balloon, an even longer, awkward silence filling the space.
"-You know," Ash said, flicking through his comic book. "You could ask about my day."
"-How-was-your-day?" Skye asked, crossing her arms and smiling.
The younger red fox leant back, head tilting for a second before his eyes narrowed. "Doesn't sound genuine, you're not actually interested."
"Oh…"
"Ash," his mother said, turning to him and giving a look.
He gave a look back. "How many times have you used that one on me? Not so fun going the other way, is it?"
"Ash…"
"Can't even accept defeat either," he said, scrolling through another page.
Felicity rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to her other son, moving him over from one position to another. "I'm certain we didn't teach him any of that."
"You told me that I should be making an effort to make more friends around my age, fitting in more and learning from them," he said, putting his comic down. "And they've regularly taught me that mammals of your generation will act immature, scold us and be unable to admit defeat when we follow your instructions to the letter and the outcomes aren't what you want."
…
He turned back to his comic, unable to let a small smile grow on his face at the silence left in his wake.
"You know, I would be interested," Sweetie said, Ash's head shooting straight up.
"Well, I was with Kris again, going back to this kung fu school high up above the Rainforest District. I'm learning with Haida under Po, I'm guessing you don't know who Haida is Sweetie."
The red fox vixen smiled and brought up a small hyena plushie, smirking.
"-Okay, you do. Anyway, we had a good day. Kris was training under Master Tigress, who pushes him a lot harder but it seems that's what he needs. I'm really happy for him. Anyhow, he was invited up for a talk with Po's father in law, who makes the fireworks in that place. It was nice, from what I gather. Anyway, this polar bear then attacked thinking they were kung fu enemies but he was stopped, then convinced these guys were good, and then Kris and I left Haida to go to the beach arcade, see if we could catch some of the rollercoaster rides. I…"
"-Wha wha, wait? What polar bear attack?"
Ash paused, looking at the two vixens. "Why are you two interested?"
"I…" Skye began, giving a forcefully loud laugh. "I mean who wouldn't be! Just ordinary stuff, and suddenly polar bear attack and kung fu! And…"
"It's a kung fu temple," Ash said, "I mean that's why kung fu is better than karate. You get stuff like that going on."
"That polar bear, was he using his own martial arts or anything?" Lt Vixen asked, slipping down and in front of her sister. "I met a Svalbard bear once in my service, dressed up in his armour. One of them against a kung fu master, that would have been something to see."
"No," Ash shrugged. "He just roared, saying his name was Kozlov or something and tried to just punch and kick, it didn't go well. Then it turned out he had some kind of ancient kung fu artefact on his necklace that was very important…" He rolled it off, his voice picking up a bit. "You know, all the kind of cool kung fu stuff."
"Haha, not that I'd know. Taekwondo, myself," Sweetie smiled. "So, fun fight? Any crazy moves!"
"A lot of kicking, pinning him down, though his strength alone was really impressive. The masters had to struggle to keep him down," Ash explained on, arms now giving mini karate chops as his voice got faster and louder. "And then they had to Wuxi finger hold him, I'm still trying to figure that one out, and as I said Kris went up, got this old picture of Po's father in law with a group of mammals… A sentient tortoise and marine iguana, a hippo, a koala, a raccoon… And it seemed to be enough for the polar bear to know it was a good guy side, so he stayed there. What's so interesting about that bear?"
"Oh," Sweetie gasped, tail-tip coming up into her paw. "Well, you know. Just polar bear, kung fu, not really much overlap there." She gave a little giggle, only for Skye to peak around her.
"And I'm pretty sure from the description he's a customer who gave me a very unusual custom job to complete. One I'm struggling with but need more answers to, but I can't get in contact with him. And as you say, if I build it…"
"-To his plans it'll be wrong somehow," Ash said, crossing his paws and nodding. "I mean, what is it with mammals?"
"Totally!" Skye smiled, as the two sidetracked into a long conversation.
.
.
"Bye!"
"Goodbye. We need to catch up more often."
"Of course. Can't have my sister being our go-between forever."
"Bye."
"Bye."
And with that, Felicity closed the door, Lt Vixen's paw immediately diving down and bringing up her phone. Pressing speedail, she held it to her ear before giving a look over at the look her sister was giving her.
"Your luck is going to have to run out someday," Skye said, arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.
"No," she waved off. "Our luck is going to have to… -Ah, Jack! New lead! We know where our bear is. And you get to break in and spy on a secret kung fu temple!"
She backed off, a sudden burst of over-excited noises coming from the phone, before leaning back in. "I figured that would be your response. Get ready, we're going to be briefing and preparing you. Okay."
A nod and she slipped her phone away, briskly walking to her car. In she got, pausing as she pulled out some money, handing it over to Skye.
The swift fox blinked. "What's that?"
The red fox tilted her head, a tiny, tiny smirk growing on her muzzle. "Zuber to take you home. I thought you wanted to quit."
Skye backed off, before jumping in, a finger held up. "Maybe a bit later."
"Sure, stick around when something interesting is going on," she said, starting the vehicle up. "Besides, I have something small and very important I need making, and I think you will be perfect for the task."
Skye's ears went up, before being pulled back by the wind as they raced off.
.
AN: Many thanks to one of my followers, Andre/Drewit, who offered to helped my Spanish.