Chapter 3: Rainy Day Breakfast

Whisper tried to sleep some more, setting her clock to wake her up at 5:00 am, as Doctor Clysdale's clinic was an hour walk away, though the voicemail had spooked her so bad that she couldn't get any rest at all. As she thought about and eventually listened back to the voicemail, she came to the conclusion that Wilma and Dr Clysdale must be close friends, and Wilma told them about the fact that Whisper and the other Freedom Trainees had been stalking her yesterday.

After what seemed to be an eternity later, her alarm clock went off. Whisper got up from her bed, wrote a small sign explaining where she was, and hung it on her door. When Whisper went downstairs, she noticed that it was raining outside, so she put on her raincoat and rain boots, and grabbed her umbrella before heading out.

Whisper was indeed nervous, but walking alone in the rain, with the sun slowly rising into the sky, creating streaks of vibrant yellows, oranges, reds and even pinks in the sky as it changes from a dark indigo to that more familiar cyan, even faded through the gray clouds, gave off a calming vibe.

Soon enough, Whisper reached Doctor Clysdale's clinic, which had a sign on it saying that it wouldn't be open until noon because of "internal reasons''. Suddenly, Relic came around from behind the building.

"I told them that you wouldn't have been able to show up so early!" She pouted.

"A-Am I late?" Whisper asked.

"Yeah… Only by an hour."

"An hour…! I-I'm sorry!" Whisper apologized, partially because she was scared of the doctor, after hearing their angry voicemail, but also partially because she just felt bad for being late in general. Relic assured her that everything was okay, and told Whisper to follow her. Relic led her behind the clinic, where a small house resided.

"That's where ol' Clyde and I live!"

"Oh? I see…" Whisper responded.

Relic opened the door for Whisper. Before she could even take one step in, she was confronted by two young foxes fighting. Both of them had primarily gray fur like Clysdale, with one of them having their red highlights as well, while the other had cyan highlights, similar to Relic.

"Ah! Whisper! There you are, darling!" Doctor Clysdale looked quite chipper, completely different to how they were the night before, though a small crack into the more angry side of them that Whisper had seen showed when they stared at the two young foxes angrily. The two foxes went to the kitchen, grabbed a plate of food for each of them and then scurried upstairs. "Why don't you find a seat?" Clysdale suggested to Whisper, placing their hand on her shoulder. Whisper did as she was asked, and saw none other than Wilma, standing around, and her son Garrick, quietly playing a video game with another young fox. She instantly panicked.

"Oh. Don't worry yourself, Clysdale says you're a good kid, and I believe them. You looked uncomfortable yesterday, I could tell." Wilma said.

"Wait, really?" Whisper was surprised to hear that.

"Yeah." Wilma nodded.

"Oh, hey, I think our breakfast is ready…" The fox with Garrick spoke up, as he sat up and paused the game.

"Awww…. Does that mean I have to go upstairs too?" Garrick pouted.

"Not if you promise to behave." Wilma told him sweetly. Wilma continued to whisper softly to Garrick, though Whisper couldn't hear her anymore, she did notice that Wilma pointed to yet another young fox, this one female, wearing glasses and a hoodie, who was sitting quietly on the couch, doodling in a notebook and listening to music.

"Do you guys wanna play a game together?" Relic asked.

"Oh! Oh! I wanna play Uno!" Garrick excitedly requested.

"I do like that idea quite a good bit. What does everyone else think?" Wilma said.

"Sure…! I like Uno…" Whisper answered.

"Uno… Uno's good." The young girl answered as well.

"Agreed! So let's play!" Relic excitedly declared.

Wilma shuffled the cards, and passed them out, 7 for each person as Clysdale joined them and set food on the table. Wilma took the rest of the cards and placed them in a pile, flipping over the card on top, revealing the color and number of that card, and thus, the game, and breakfast, began.

As the four played, Whisper decided to talk to Clysdale.

"Are those little foxes your-?"

"Children? Yes. I told you I had parental experience, didn't I?" Clysdale answered, holding the hoodie wearing fox close to them.

"Oh, that's nice…" Whisper responded. "Are you and Relic… together..?" She asked.

"Oh no. I'm aware that some of my little ones may make it look that way, but I assure you, I don't swing that way." Clysdale told her, making sure she understood. "We are simply friends."

"Yeah…" Relic sighed.

"So, who… is the other parent, then?" Whisper asked.

"My, you're certainly nosy, aren't you?" Clysdale answered, clearly wanting to drop the subject. Whisper, not wanting to cause tension so quickly, especially with Dr Clysdale of all people, quickly apologized for asking.

"Speaking of being nosy-" Wilma interjected. "Your friends were quite a nosy bunch yesterday, weren't they? How long have you known them, anyhow?"

"Oh! I've known Jewel and Tangle for a while, but we all met Lux just yesterday." Whisper replied quite quickly.

"Pardon me, I managed to get a picture of you four on my phone… which is which?" Whisper pointed out each of them.

"Lux was the one who told us about you, and asked us to help her... Get you imprisoned…" She admitted. Wilma understandably looked offended, but quickly cooled down.

"Thank you… I'll remember that." Wilma took her turn in the game.

"What?! That's… That's… That's so mean! She sounds like a meanie! I wanna smack her in the face for being a meanie!" Garrick jumped up in defense of his mom, which startled Clysdale's daughter. Whisper laughed a bit from Garrick's reaction, even though it made her feel bad.

"Settle down pumpkin, Mommy can deal with her own issues." Wilma assured him.

"Don't worry dear… just focus on your music, okay?" Clysdale said, comforting their little girl. The girl nodded softly.

As the game went on, and Whisper talked more with Wilma and Relic, she started to feel right at home. She knew that her friends would freak out at the sight, but Whisper truly did feel loved in the moment.

Whisper finally got around to eating the food that Clysdale provided, taking a bite of the slab of meat, chewing it and tasting it's juices.

"Hey, Doctor Clysdale?"

"Yes?"

"What kind of meat is this?" They laughed at the question.

"Beef! I use a very specific blend of spices!" Whisper looked down at her plate, and took another bite.

It had an odd taste… not overall, but there was a slight tinge of...

Iron.

"Do you not like it, Whisper?"

"No no… I do.." She said. She kinda did, but it was just… off. She ate the rest of the meat, along with the rest of the meal provided to her, as to not seem weird or suspicious. Though, with her a bit more cautious and aware now, Whisper decided to bring up the cases against Wilma again.

"Did you ever find out what happened to all the guys you dated… that went missing?"

"Why now of all times do you bring that up?" Wilma asked, annoyed.

"I… I was just curious."

"It's a very personal matter to me." Wilma said. Whisper was thrown off by how she was outright avoiding the question.

"Hey, why don't we have another round of Uno?" Relic suggested, though at this point, Whisper couldn't tell if it was to innocently calm the tension in the room, or to force her into dropping the subject.

"That sounds like a good idea. Oh! I think the tea is ready!" Doctor Clysdale got up.

"Tea?" Whisper asked.

"Yeah! I found a good flavor blend online and wanted to test it out." Clysdale responded as they returned to the living room, pouring a glass for Whisper. Against her better judgement, she took a swig. "What do you think?"

"It's good…" Whisper answered genuinely, though seconds after drinking the tea, she started to feel woozy. "Sorry, I didn't… get any… sleep… last ni…." Whisper passed out mid-sentence.