~~~Where God Went to Die~~~
A young raccoon sat quietly in the center of a warmly lit cabin, soaking in the rays of autumn sunlight pushing their waves through the window in front of her. She was nose deep in a book, refusing to look away from the pages when she'd raise a thick mug of coffee to her lips. The liquid was painfully hot, burning her mouth if she let it sit for even a second, but she didn't care. Her book wasn't even that interesting, it had no plot, no characters, no movement or structure, just pictures. What little she could read past the torn, yellow, burnt pages of the old leather-bound tome seemed to be instructions, a type of guide for what appeared to be martial arts movements. The drawings, oddly enough all looked different, as if they weren't drawn at the same time. She was sure to be extra careful not to damage the pages further, it looked so fragile.
A loud thump was heard outside the oak door behind her, and quickly, almost knowing that she would be punished for snooping around in his things, tossed the book under the room's large black couch.
The door opened, and a large, burly, and quite lean-for-his-age raccoon entered. He had a small bit of coarse, longer and darker fur along his jawline and chin, and wore a small scar under his right eye. He smiled when he saw the girl innocently standing with her coffee, waiting for him. "Hey Ayleen, wanna help me with the groceries?"
She smiled, pushing the strange book to the back of her mind. "Sure dad!"
Chapter Two
Denmark – 2035
Ayleen Montoya followed her father outside, absorbing the crisp air. She helped carry in bags of food, stocking their ice box between trips. "How was your day?" Sly asked with a grunt, setting down half a dozen milk jugs on the countertop.
Ay shrugged. "Eh, same old same old." She forced herself to recount the events of the day, looking for something interesting to talk about. "I think Mads is gonna leave on a cruise in a few days." She caught an airborne apple sly threw her way, hoisting herself up next to the milk.
"Really? That tiny punk gets a cruise?" Sly snorted.
Ay playfully kicked his arm. "Aw, he isn't that bad." She felt a hot rush encompass her face. "He's kinda cute too…"
Sly Glared at her sternly. "Nuh-uh, absolutely not." He growled, attempting to hide a laugh. Ayleen didn't even try. "He's twenty-three and still in junior year." She kept laughing, more so as a cover for her embarrassment. "That's like, a huge warning sign right there."
Ayleen forced herself to stop, letting herself look her father in the eyes. "Calm down, Pol Pot, I was kidding." Sly nodded and let out a disbelieving um-hm.
"What about Jørgen? He's a good guy." Sly asked, opening a beer bottle.
Ayleen shook her head. "Nah, he's gay I think." In truth, she didn't know a thing about Jørgen, aside from his horrible sense of humor. She felt that might have been a rude criticism, however. She didn't care about boys altogether anyway. She wasn't really focused on a relationship, let alone the idea of being happy in someone else's arms. If there was one thing she learned from her father (without his direct teachings,) it was how to be self-sufficient and independent. Sly was a good father, loving and caring, and very liberal when it came to her private life. However, sometimes depression would get the best of him, and he would shut down. Then it would fall onto Ayleen to cook her dinner or clean up. His episodes would never last for too long and fortunately were seldom in appearance. Mostly when Ayleen brought up her mother. She knew little of her, was never given the chance to meet any of Sly's old friends to implore her story, and any photo album she could get her hands on only consisted of Ayleen and Sly on various holidays and birthdays. Ayleen herself had a lot of friends, and was never afraid to switch to an extroverted state of being, but sometimes she wondered if her popularity made her father jealous. He looked happy alright, but something told Ayleen that he was a pretty damn good liar.
Sly sighed, leaning against the refrigerator. "Bummer. Well, he's a good guy. I hope he finds someone." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and swiped his thumb around the screen for a while. Eventually, bored of whatever he had started, he recklessly tossed it onto the carpeted living area. "Fuck it I don't wanna cook." His eye twinkled when he looked at Ayleen. A devilish smile brightened his face.
She knew the smile. She had seen it a thousand times before, it was so familiar it gave her a rush of blissful nostalgia every time she even though about it. She knew his next word exactly, she could feel it growing in his brain, waiting to be spoken in unison with her. Their eyes locked, and with percise pitch and tone; "Pizza."
The clock was minutes away from midnight, but the two raccoons didn't care. Sly Montoya was sitting on the huge black leather couch running his hands through his hair, trying to keep it flat, much to the dismay of his body's constant swaying. "…Anyway, the guy gets up and yells at me; 'I'll squash you, like the insignificant bug that you are!' he's yelling this in the middle of a theatre, remember," He laughed, recalling a story. Unbeknownst to Ayleen, this didn't happen in a theatre, but in a blimp suspended above a huge pirate ship filled with gold and jewels. "Then he – and I swear to God this is real – jumped out of his chair and sucked in his chest and grew three times his size, and- "
Ayleen was already on her back unable to get up from laughing so hard. "No! Nuh-uh! That can't happen!"
Sly coughed, almost choking on his pie slice. "Yes! It's real! This ugly frog dude was so goddamn huge he blocked everybody's view." He lied, not too concerned to inform himself why he hadn't told Ayleen his life story yet. Maybe he was afraid that she was too young, maybe he was worried she'd be scared of him. Maybe he was scared of himself.
"I don't believe you! Nobody's that rude!" She said, forcing herself to sit up past her violent laughter. She could see the book she hid just past her father's feet. Looking back up at him, she lowered her eyebrows. "Right?"
Sly shook his head. "We're Danes, sweetheart. This was when I was in England." He smiled at her, still chuckling.
She shook her head and hugged her legs, letting her tail wrap around her shins. "Maybe I'd have to see them before I believe that." She offered coyly. The two of them weren't rich, but they were in no way struggling financially. Sly had gathered a reputation as one of the best officers in town, rumored to be only a few legal papers away from legitimately making it as director of his district. He was helpful and kind, never harsh or rude in his job, and everybody seemed to respect him. And he respected them right back. Whenever he was offered a political or federal position (which was actually quite frequently) he would always decline, happy and content with his current lifestyle. Unfortunately, said lifestyle usually kept him out of the house, and in town. Ayleen has always been a curious girl, and oft found herself dreaming of what the rest of the world looked like. She may have been only seventeen, but whenever she looked at a world map, she felt as if she were eight. Full of hope and wonder.
She knew her father had toured the majority of the world when he was younger, evidenced by his stories of culture shock mirroring the décor of their home. Chinese charms and drapes, Arabian silk carpets, photographs of old ruins and castles, and several other trinkets and knickknacks from any country imaginable. He had told her that when his parents died they left him a lot of money in their will, and he decided to use it all on expanding his passport's stamp collection. Ayleen remembered once finding a picture of a much younger persona of her father, surrounded by friends, all making silly faces, in the middle of what looked like a canyon. She had brought it to him and asked what it was, but he simply shrugged it off as a piece of trash. He had used it to light their fire for the night. She was young then, and believed him.
Sly sighed. He wanted to explore again, she knew it. He wasn't scared of leaving, she knew. He just had to get back into his younger mindset again. "I don't know. I'm pretty busy, and…" He was looking at a picture hanging on their wall. It was an aerial view of large green fields. From what Ayleen had learned about his travels, it was a picture of Southern Holland, in the Netherlands. Sly sighed, finally catching his breath. "Well… where would you want to go?" He asked, surpassing a smile.
Ay tried to remain calm, but all of her suppressed childish joy of exploring the world was finally ready to premier. She quickly jolted up and pulled her phone from her pocket. She knew exactly where she wanted to go to. "Panama!" She excitedly shoved her phone in her father's face, proudly displaying a bright picture of a beach encircling a line of tall hotels. "The beaches are really beautiful!"
"Yeah, so's the poverty…" Sly said under his breath, studying the picture.
Ayleen pulled back a bit. "Huh?"
Sly grinned and shook his head. "Aw, nothing. I thought you wanted to explore, not just relax on a beach somewhere, right?"
Ayleen swiped on her phone a few times then showed him again. This time, it was a shot of a thick green forest. "Why not both?" her dad laughed, and was about to speak again, but was cut off by his phone ringing. He struggled to find it, as it had fallen into the cushions after all their fun. When he did finally pull it out of the cushion's abyss, he answered, spoke seldom, then hung up abruptly.
"I think they need me at the station." He gently kissed Ay on the top of her head. "Now that I think about it, a beach does sound nice."
Ayleen nodded, watching him leave. He never was tired or stressed from work, considering how often he was there. Ayleen put her phone away, letting her mind carefully wander back to the strange book she found only hours ago. She was only in his room to see if he was home, but he was long since off to work. Her curiosity being the central functionality of her brain, she wandered into his closet space, eyeing a large black wood chest. Inside were lots of papers ad some photos, but the only thing she took was the tome.
Extracting the book from her hiding spot, she took a deep breath and sat down. It looked like it had survived a bomb, the only letters even legible on the cover read: "Thievius Raccoonus" Right above a faded blue mask.
ANNOTATIONS
Its always been a head cannon that every character could speak all of the basic languages (being English, French, German and Spanish.) and now that sly and Ayleen are living in Denmark they learned to speak Danish, but can still communicate in the other four languages.