There
he was, sitting up at the bar, as usual. Nothing like a good drink at
the local tavern on a rainy night.
Fang leaned over on the wooden
counter, and shouted to the bartender. "Hey! I need a Bacardi, and
make it quick!" A bald man behind the counter nodded, and
disappeared behind a pair of double doors. While he waited, Fang
tapped the counter impatiently, frowning. How boring it was to be the
only one occupying the tavern!
The bald man finally came back,
carrying an iced-over rum glass. "There you are, sir." He set it
down on the counter, and slid it over to Fang. With a tip of his hat,
the weasel grabbed the glass, and chugged the whole drink. He sighed,
and was about to jump off of his stool when the front door opened.
He gasped.
Right in front of him, staring into his eyes, was another weasel. But not just any weasel…
It was a beautiful lady weasel.
She had stunning pastel pink and white fur, with gorgeous sky blue eyes. She wore a black tank top, which made her fur stand out even more. Her boots also matched the same jet black of her top.
She gave a quick glance in Fang's direction, and started to walk toward him with a smile on her face, which exposed her large tooth. How coincidental!
"Howdy, big-boy!" She greeted Fang with her Southern accent, and sat down on the stool beside him.
"Uhhh…h-hi." Fang blushed, and gave a slight wave.
"Aw, don't be shy, buckaroo!" The lady weasel giggled in a high-pitched laugh, and motioned the bartender to make her a drink.
Fang said nothing. He was caught in her dreamy stare, almost hypnotized by her beauty. She was like a living gem worth more than any dollar he had ever imagined!
As the bartender handed the weasel her drink, she took a small sip and put it on the counter next to Fang's empty glass.
"Hey…."
Fang smiled a lovesick smile at her.
"Hey….hey….hey….hey…."
Wait a sec. Was her voice…getting deeper?
"Hey….hey…hey…"
What the hell!
Fang's eyes shot open, and he slowly came back to reality. It had all been a dream?
He
was laying down on his side on a cold cement floor, eyeing the stone
wall in front of him. The wall had occasional cracks skimming its
surface, and…
Were those spots of blood?
With spooky thoughts running through his mind, Fang sat up, and found himself staring into the eyes of a wolf.
Now, this wolf wasn't anything like Fang had ever seen; it walked on all fours and resembled those dogs he saw out occasionally on the streets of Station Square. The wolf had a deep black coat of fur that brought out his piercing yellow eyes even more, and made Fang think about the tank the lady weasel wore in his dream.
"…..Hey." The wolf spoke in deep, smooth voice that hinted a bit of hospitality.
"AHHHH!" Immediately, Fang fumbled for his pistol, and aimed it at the wolf that had so startled him.
"Woah, woah, there now!" The wolf sat on his hind legs, and held up his paws. "No need to resort to violence! I won't do you any harm! Besides, those are human tools!" He seemed a bit frightened.
"'Human tools'?" Fang stared at his gun in confusion. "So? I use guns all the time! I'm a sniper!"
"Yeah," the wolf nodded. "See, they use guns against us to get what they want, and to force us here." He nodded toward another wall. This wall was not solid stone, however; it was an iron bar gate.
It gave Fang the notion that they were both imprisoned. A jail cell? What in the hell did he do wrong?
He walked over to the bars, and grasped his hands around them to see outside of the cell.
Oh my God. There were more cages? This place definitely didn't seem like a good location to be in.
Fang could see that there were some other animals in the cages, but all were like the creatures he had seen at the zoo; none resembled his unique appearance. Countless fauna met his gaze.
"Where…where are we?" Fang's voice was shaky with fear.
The wolf padded over to him, and turned to meet the weasel face-to-face. "You must have missed the whole drive over here, right? Those damn tranquilizers can knock one cold, I swear it! You were sleeping for four hours straight, muttering something about how 'sexy' this one 'pink weasel' was." The wolf gave a chuckle. Fang silently thought about what other things the wolf could have overheard while he was dreaming, and muttered a curse. "Anyway, I don't think you were quite awake enough to realize what was going on. The Hunter is like that; he'll just shoot you with those little darts, wait until you fall under, and throw you in his truck. Then, he'll drive you over here, and throw you in a cage. It's happened all the time, and I keep getting new cagemates. See, this place is what's called a slaughterhouse."
Fang gulped. A slaughterhouse? The Hunter?
"A slaughterhouse, eh? Doesn't sound too welcoming to me." He answered, and knelt down onto the floor of the cell.
"Oh, it's anything but welcoming!" The wolf rolled his eyes. "Here, the humans will do the worst possible things you can imagine! I've witnessed some of the acts those satanic beings do; for one, they can skin you alive and sell your pelt for this thing called money! Or they can just shoot you off the bat, and display your head above their mantle!"
Money. There was the very thing that had gotten Fang into this mess. He had wanted to find that so-called 'emerald' so bad! The one thing that drove the weasel to happiness was the one thing that could kill him now!
Fang shifted uneasily on the floor. "Augh. That could become of us?"
"Yeah, it's what happened to my pack…" The wolf's shining eyes dulled for a moment, and his ears drooped. He gave a quiet whine.
"Really?" Fang listened to the wolf intently.
The wolf nodded. "Well, it was about three weeks ago…I was part of a good-size pack, and we were out looking for a place to sleep for the night. All was still and quiet, but just as we were settling in, my brother Tovo snarled loudly. I turned, and there was a large armored car heading for us. A man jumped out with a rifle in his hands. He was big and muscular, and he wore a silver chain around his neck…that was The Hunter."
That struck Fang as familiar. The man in the casino?
"Some of the younger wolves attacked the intruder, and The Hunter loaded his gun. There were shots fired, and half the pack was lying dead on their sides in the grass. The wiser wolves tried to turn tail and run, but they were shot, too. About a dozen of us, including myself, were tranquilized and loaded into the truck, and he drove us off, leaving the dead behind." The wolf stopped for a moment, and continued on.
"When we woke up, we were all packed together in this same exact cage. Tovo, who had been loaded up with us, vowed to stay with me at all costs to protect me like an older brother would. But it didn't last that way. Every day, a few wolves were dragged off and never seen again. I could hear the gunshots ring throughout the hallway, and I knew they wouldn't come back.
By the end of the first week, Tovo and I were the only ones left. Then…one night…"
Already Fang felt sympathetic toward the wolf, who was now starting to have tears gather in his eyes.
"…The Hunter came and grabbed Tovo by the scruff of his neck. Tovo tried to defend himself, so he bit The Hunter's hand until it bled. It was a bad mistake. The enraged man slapped him to the floor, and shot him right there in front of me. He cursed and held his hand as it bled, and then left Tovo to die there. I walked over to him, and begged him to wake up. After many minutes of silence, I threw my head back and howled my misery.
Now, I'm the only one left of my pack. I don't know why he keeps me alive still."
The wolf was crying now, his eyes glittering with tears.
Fang felt bad for this guy. He had never lost a close family member in his life.
"It's alright…err…do you have a name?" Fang held out a gloved hand.
"Asher. My name is Asher." The wolf wiped away his tears with a paw, and shook Fang's hand.
"And I'm Fang." Fang nodded, and yawned sleepily.
"Ah, getting tired now? It's the middle of the night, anyway, and you probably have some effects of that drug left. Best to sleep it off." Asher curled up on his spot on the floor, and watched as Fang retreated to his own separate corner of the cage.
Fang fell asleep that night with bloody nightmares swirling angrily in his head.
