Fang awoke to a heavy crunching sound coming from the front of the cell. He sat up slowly, and immediately held his head in pain. Great. Perfect time for a headache.
"A-Asher?" He asked in an almost fragile voice.
The black wolf was standing over a steel bowl with his snout digging around inside it. It seemed he was eating something or other; Fang didn't really know what. Asher stopped crunching for a moment, and turned to look back behind him at the weasel in the corner.
"Good morning, Fang. Breakfast is already here, and there's some for you, too." Asher smiled, and nudged another bowl over beside him with a paw.
That was the first time Fang had noticed a thin scraggly red line across Asher's right eye. A scar. Gruesome thoughts on its origin started to haunt Fang. It would be best not to ask about it…he thought. With a heave, Fang got to his feet, and grabbed his throbbing head, trying to keep his balance. He wobbled over to Asher and the bowl that awaited him.
The bowl was half-full with little brown spheres that resembled cereal as its contents. Was it cereal? Fang took one in his hands, and examined it closely. He shrugged, and popped it in his mouth.
"Eh, it's a little dry…what is this, anyway?" Fang turned to the wolf, who had just finished his food.
"They say it's called 'dog food', whatever that is. I personally don't mind it much." Asher answered.
"WHAT!" Fang hastily spat out the dog food, and cursed. "SO THAT'S WHAT THAT SHIT WAS!"
Asher just stared at him with a confused expression, oblivious to why Fang had hated it. "Well, that will be all you're going to get to eat around here. The humans don't give us much of a choice; as I say, it's 'Hunt or be Hunted'. If you don't eat, you'll get thin and weak and you'll become an easy kill for The Hunter. That's how it goes."
Fang calmed down from his outburst, and ignored the countless stares the animals in the other cages across the hall gave him. "Hm, that 'Hunter' has some serious anger issues, let me tell you. It was just a poker game for Christ's sake! I mean…" he trailed off as he ran out of things to say, glad that his headache had finally subsided.
"Poker? What's this 'Poker'?" Asher inquired, and sat down on his haunches beside Fang, hoping to hear some sort of explanation.
"Part of the whole reason I'm here."
The whole rest of the morning, Fang told Asher about his encounter with The Hunter; the poker game, the race to find the Chaos Emerald, the ruse…all up to the part where he had first met Asher the night before. As he finished, the wolf nodded expectantly.
"Ah. I see why he wants you, then. Revenge. A most stupid reason, but The Hunter has a way of getting what he wants no matter how extreme." Asher stared down at the stone floor for a few moments before perking up again in alert.
"Someone's coming!" Asher's fur stood on end, and he growled at the cell's door.
Large, heavy footsteps echoed through the building, seeming to come closer and closer with each step. There was another noise in tune with the footsteps; a kind of jangling sound like that of some jewelry. Fang waited until the figure came into view.
The familiar gleam of the necklace and bulging form of the man was unmistakable. It was The Hunter himself, and he was coming to their cage! The Hunter stopped in his place, and turned toward Fang and Asher. He just stared at them with those pale blue eyes, and smiled. His smile was quite ugly; who would want to see a smile full of yellow gnarled teeth? It made Fang have the urge to just punch out every last putrid molar in that man's mouth. The Hunter stooped down to the ground and met Fang eye to eye.
"Why hello, little weasel." The Hunter glared at Fang through the bars of the cell in an icy stare. "I see you are…enjoying it here." He chuckled.
Fang scowled. "I'd like to see you enjoy it when I take this gun and shoot the shit out of you." He drew his pistol, and aimed it at the man's face.
"Oh, trying to be a smart-ass?" The Hunter patted a long black rifle at his side. "Just wait until I decide to shoot the shit out of YOU." He laughed again; such a hideous laugh! "I'll be taking that. Don't want any trouble, now do we?" With a swipe of his huge hand, The Hunter swatted Fang's gun out of his hands. The gun landed on the stone with a sharp 'Clink!' It was then that the weasel caught a glimpse of the bite on the man's hand as it grabbed the pistol on the floor. It appeared very deep and was an ominous red, still not healed from the incident with Asher's brother.
Just as The Hunter was about to lift the pistol through the bars, Asher lept past Fang at an amazing speed, snarling and baring his teeth. He bit down on the very hand his brother had weeks before, with a powerful force. All the hatred he felt of The Hunter seemed to flow into that bite; the death of his brother and pack, the countless number of beatings he had endured in the past, the other helpless animals he had so brutally imprisoned.
"AGGGGGH!" The Hunter cried out in pain, and dropped the gun, sending it sliding back into the cage. He yanked his hand out from Asher's jaws, further ripping the skin off in his fury. Asher backed up until he was front of Fang, and kept snarling as The Hunter stood back up.
"YOU JUST TELL YOUR LITTLE FRIEND THAT I'LL- Crunch!" In his haste to retreat, The Hunter stepped on his rifle, snapping it in half. With waves of curses and enraged glares, The Hunter fled back down the hallway with the broken rifle in his hands; one of which was now bleeding profusely.
After the man left, Fang stared at Asher in disbelief. "You…you…" He picked up his pistol that was lying in the middle of the floor. "You just saved my life AND my gun."
"Ah, it was nothing." Asher smiled, and padded over to Fang's side. "Besides…what are friends for?"
