The Smell of Rain
It was an ugly yet strangely beautiful planet. The muggy heat made Fox and Krystal swelter in their thick fur. Falco seemed less affected by it, but Slippy ate it up, never able to find enough nice things to say about the supposedly wonderful weather. It was an amphibian thing.
It seemed like the whole planet was covered in one dense enormous jungle. They were just barely able to land their Arwings in such a place, and Fox was still skeptic as to whether they would be okay there.
The thick canopy almost entirely blotted out the sun, making it hard for them to make their way through the undergrowth. Horned snakes looked like thorny vines draping innocently over gnarled branches while lizards sporting feathery manes scuttled down the tree trunks, their jittery and jerky motions reminiscent of nervous squirrels.
"Where exactly are we headed, Slip?" Fox asked when he finally tired of wandering.
The toad pulled a small portable screen up from his wrist communicator and scrolled through the information displayed until he found what he needed.
"According to this, the natives kept the figurine in a large stone temple where it could be viewed by the commoners. The map says it's located in a huge swamp down south."
"Awesome, how far are we talking?" Falco shooed away a curious snake.
Slippy grimaced, "It's far, a two-day walk, and there's no way we can bring the Arwings any closer to the location without risking getting them stuck."
"Well then, it looks like we'll be trekking." Fox agreed.
"Oh joy," Krystal was less than enthusiastic as she swiped at mosquitoes and pulled burs out of her exceptionally bushy tail, made even fluffier from the humidity.
"I could get used to this." Leon stretched comfortably in the jungle heat.
"Me too," Panther agreed harmoniously.
Wolf grunted as he wriggled out of his Wolfen. "I haven't been here five minutes, and I already hate the place." he growled when he finally got out, his cockpit door having gotten stuck by a stray branch, "Let's just get this over with and go home."
"Don't be a spoil-sport, Wolf," Panther scolded mildly but quickly toned it down, remembering his place in the group, "Consider this a vacation from the cold confines of Sargasso."
Wolf glared at him half-heartedly and sighed, "Yeah, I guess you're right. Is there any high ground we can use to get a better look around? I can't see anything in this mess."
"That's why you have me." Panther purred and scrambled up a nearby tree with little effort, "Ah, I haven't climbed trees like this since I was a boy living on Fortuna. Every morning I-
"That's sweet and all, Panther," Wolf rolled his eye impatiently, "but reminisce later. What do you see?"
The black jaguar pulled out a pair of zoom-goggles and peered through the lenses down through the canopy and around the forest.
"Very little, unfortunately, the canopy's too thick." His tail gave a curious twitch and he leaned further against the tree branch, "Hello there…"
"I see my indigo beauty." He purred, "I see Krystal."
"Krystal!" Wolf barked surprised, "Are the others with her?"
"Naturally," he sighed disappointed.
"I knew it!" Leon hissed, "I've been saying it! There was something wrong with this whole setup. That old goat sent Starfox here to apprehend us, no doubt!"
"I wouldn't be so sure." Panther zoomed in on Slippy, "That toad's looking at the same map Lorenzo gave us. It would be more probable to assume he sent Starfox on the same mission as us."
"That's not any better." Wolf growled, "How far are they?"
"It wouldn't take long for us to catch up to them."
"What do you say, Wolf? Stomp out the competition?"
"No," he grinned, "Let's give them a chance to breathe before we jump them. C'mon, Panther, we're heading out. It's a long walk."
"It's really hot out." Felix panted as he shifted an overstuffed backpack slung on his shoulders, "Why do I have to carry all the equipment?"
"Because I said so." Reginald dismissed him as he walked on ahead of you, "Don't whine. It's good for you. It builds character, strength, and it saps all the hyperactivity out of you."
The kit scowled bitterly and huffed as he caught up to his larger companion, "How are you not tired? All you do is lie around and watch TV with snacks, so where are you getting this energy?"
Reggie laughed. "I'm not lazy, just resting up."
The black cat froze suddenly and stopped the young feline boy.
"What's wro-
He shushed him and pulled out a small scanning device from his pocket. "Damn," He hissed slightly and stowed it away in his pocket again, "We're not alone. They're up ahead."
"Why does it have to be hooooooot?" whined Trey as the team trekked on through the jungle.
"Trey, we detected 7 other groups here." Orpheus snapped, "I think you should be more concerned about that."
"But I'm hoooooot!" she whined even louder, earning a small thump on the head from Farello.
"Hush," he admonished, "Unless you want the others to find us."
"Too late!" cried someone leaping out of the undergrowth.
There was a moment of surprise and confusion, and then the two groups were in a flurry of violence, throwing punches, growling and snapping at each other. Farello wrestled one to the ground and recognized the brown and white wolf he was holding down.
"Oh boy." He groaned and pulled her back up, "Trey, guess who!"
The ewe looked behind her at him and was stunned. "Stop! STOP!" she screeched them all to a halt.
"Trey!" the wolf was equally stunned, "What the heck!"
"Timber, what are you doing here?" she walked up to her.
Farello let her go, and the she-wolf straightened herself out. "I'm on a job, what are you doing here? I haven't seen you in about a month!" she answered excitedly.
"I know; we need to keep in touch better." She laughed, "I'm on a job too, so what have you been up to?"
"I've been good. Wait, you're on a job?"
"Yeah! Some antique guy needs us to get an artifact for him."
Timber was smoldering. "Well crap! He gave us that job too!"
"What! You took my job, you jerk!"
"How was I supposed to know he offered it to you too!"
"You could've called and asked!"
"Why would I do that! I need money too, you know!"
The others looked on in bewilderment, by now having gathered their composures.
"What just happened?" Roth finally asked.
"I don't know, but I think it'd be best if we all just not acknowledge it." Abel answered.
"So you guys got called by Lorenzo too, huh?" Orpheus asked.
"That's right." Zeke nodded, "I wonder why he'd give it to more than one team. This can't be good."
Faye shrank behind the Border collie uncomfortably when she saw Orpheus, but before he could say anything, the two squabbling leaders interrupted him.
"Guys!" Timber waved her arms to get their attention, "Come on, there's another group over this way. We're going to figure this whole thing out."
Bree gave her fluffed up coat a good shake. "It's not as bad as Titania, but I could deal without the humidity." She laughed.
"The other groups we detected don't seem to have noticed us." Bone reported as he looked at a scanner on his wrist communicator.
"Good, Flik, Tak, you two go scouting and find out just who we're dealing with."
The two small breeds nodded and darted off.
"Be careful out here, Bree." Ziggy warned, looking into the trees, "Lorenzo may not have been completely honest about whatever this is, but I know dangerous terrain when I see it. He wasn't lying about that."
Juneau watched the three dogs from a high branch a ways off, a pair of zoom goggles pressed against her spectacles. "There's five of them in this one, all dogs." She told the gray wolf man beside her.
"That's already seven we've found not even counting us." He said, "What's going on?"
"You're not going to like this, Chief." The red fox chimed in below, the others behind him.
"Lay it on me, Ro'ak."
"We found two more teams joining up. That makes eight more."
"Crap," Juneau growled and slid back down the tree with her companion at her heels, "What the heck is Lorenzo doing?"
"I suggest we talk about this somewhere else." The black jaguar stopped her, "Those teams were on their way here to talk to us."
"Fine, you take Kaia and Cole. Sevren and Ro'ak, stay here with me. We'll deal with them." She told him, "Be careful, Kane."
Kane nodded to her and dashed off with the coyote lady and the puma.
"I can smell rain." Sevren remarked, noticing how dark it was getting, "We should make this quick."
Author's Note: And we'll end it there with a bit of foreshadowing to the events of the prologue. Yeah, kind of boring, this one, but it had to be done. I needed to set things up for the next chapter, where the interesting stuff starts happening.