Four summers, four falls, four winters and four springs passed for little fox cub called Noah Sly as he was placed under the care of the infant's carer, Mrs. Pride. She was a lioness of strong taste in fashion and morsel. It was her custom that the young orphans were given very few clothes and food whilst her salary was kept for her own benefits. Contrariwise the share was lawful in many states but this one was not an orphanage people knew of.
Noah had reached the age of five, after four difficult years of lack of food, cold, brutality but the strength of his spirint kept him alive and determined. Many times he prayed to know if he had a father. He only knew his mother died when he was born, but his fifth Birthday was the first chapter of his perilous journey to family.
CRACK!
"OW!"
CRACK!
"AAGGH!"
"Sleep five minutes in and you'll get it in the stomach!" warned Mrs. Pride as she wiped her riding crop she had been inflicting on the fox cub.
"Forgive me, Mrs. Pride," whimpered Noah.
"Now get out of my sight!" damdned Mrs. Pride.
Noah walked out fast as he could with his stinging back.
Mrs. Pride reached into the pocket of cardigan and swigged from her medium-sized bottle.
She nearly choked as the door knocked.
Hiding her bottle somewhere, she ran to the door to be greeted by Mr. Mudway.
"Mr. Mudway, sir!" she said happily. "What do I hold the pleasure?"
"Relief from your well-being," smiled Mr. Mudway. "To receive you of one of these orphans. Noah Sly."
"Ah yes," said Mrs. Pride. "He just received a much-earned switch for sleeping in."
"He'll learn more than that when he comes with me," replied Mr. Mudway. "Today is his Birthday, five years old. Old enough to come back to my care and earn his keep."
"Odd name I may add," Mrs. Pride remarked.
"I named him!" remarked the hippo in an offended tone.
"You?"
"I!" said Mr. Mudway proudly. "I name them alphabetically linking to there savage race:
A - Aggression
B - Brute
C - Cunning
D - Demon
E - Eerie
F - Fierce
G - Growls
H - Hunter
I - Icks
J - Jaws
K - Killer
L - Lust
M - Mauls
N - Notorious
O - Oblivion
P - Pest
Q - Queer
R - Rascal
S - Sly, where he comes himself
T - Tricks
U - Unruly
V - Vanity
W - Whisk
X - X Acute
Y - Youthless
Z - Zilch
Pretty mind-sweating wouldn't you agree, Mrs. Pride?"
The lioness simply yawned.
"Now then," said the hippo. "I pray you bring me the cub."
"Very kindly, Mr. Mudway sir," said Mrs Pride sweetly.
She turned and barked "SLY! COME HERE!"
The cub appeared quivering and shaking as his eyes met with the enormous hippo. One he was only two, he nuzzled him which earned him twelve lashes from the crop.
"Bow to the chairman!" demanded Mrs. Pride
The cub did so.
"You are to come with me, boy" said the hippo. "Old enough to return to your earn of keep."
"What does that mean, sir?" asked Noah.
"You will be working from now on if you wish to stay with roof over your head and food in your stomach."
"Work hard, Sly," replied Mrs. Pride bending her crop. "They will be reporting to me on how well you commit."
Noah Sly was guided from the very rooms he was familiar with to the lower hallways where there we cells consisting on teenage predators and predators of infancy, so skinny their bones were visible behind their flesh. Finally, they stopped at two huge doors a huge notice in gold reading Orphanage Board.
Mr. Mudway knocked on the door.
"Come in!" boomed a voice form the other side.
Mr. Mudway opened the door, brought Noah inside, picked him up by the tail and onto a stool. He was just about to sit when -
"For standing on, you little inbred! Not for sitting on!"
With those words, Mr. Mudway smacked the cub's face very hard.
Noah stared at what was in front of him; a herd of enormous elephants all in posh suits, behind them on the walls were engraved names of past board members and portraits which travels all the way back to the nineteen-twenties, perhaps earlier.
"Bow to the board!" demanded Mr. Mudway.
The fox cub did so as he did to the hippo earlier on.
"This here is the fox cub, gentlemen. Five years old today, old enough to be brought back to where he must earn his keep."
"What's your name, fox?" asked the elephant in the front. His name on the desk read read Mr. T. Tusk.
"Noah Sly," whispered the fox. He was never allowed to speak, otherwise he'd be thrashed.
"Speak louder, you little fool!" demanded Mr. Tusk!
"Noah Sly."
"Better."
Mr. Tusk cleared his throat.
"I suppose you know already that you are an orphan?"
"An autumn, sir!"
"Orphan, you deaf dunce!" snapped Mr. Mudway. "Wed've thought Mrs. Pride taught you orphans better!"
"The boy is a fool," remarked the elephant. "An orphan has no mother or father - well, as far as we know your father - if he's still alive - hasn't come to claim you. Consequently, you have been brought up by this orphanage. Is that right, boy?"
"Yes, sir," said Noah as a tear streamed.
"What's this?" said Mr. Tusk lifting Noah's chin with the front of his trunk. "Crying? Well, ingratitude is common amongst predators."
"I would say so, sir," replied Mr. Mudway. "Why on this week I -"
"Not now, Mudway," remarked Mr. Tusk who was having none of his boastful claims tonight.
Mr. Mudway looked cross.
"I expect that this cub before will say his prayers every night like a Christian. Pray for us who feed him and takes care of him? Is that what you will do, boy?"
"Yes, sir," said Noah quietly.
"Well," said Mr. Tusk as he straightened himself up from his chair. "So to business, you, Noah Sly, have been bought here to learn a trade and to earn your keep with the hopes of parole for your savagery. You know you're a savage, yes?"
"Yes, sir," replied Noah.
Mr. Tusk smiled with satisfaction as did all the elephants and Mr. Mudway himself.
"You will start," Mr. Tusk resumed, "by making Predator Repellent tomorrow morning at eight o'clock."
Noah was sent out of the room, followed by Mr. Mudway.
"This way, Noah!" he demanded.
He followed the hippo through the same corridors of cells until they came to one reading 547.
Mr. Mudway unlocked the door and shoved Noah in. A very unpleasant sight the cub was greeted to; a hard bed, a thin blanket, a toilet, a sink and a small barred window, rain beating heavily outside and thunder clapping.
"One more thing," announced Mr. Mudway.
He brandished a muzzle, threw it over Noah's snout and clicked on the back of his head. The muzzle felt tight and uncomfortable.
"Please sir," complained Noah. "It hurts."
"It'll break in," replied the hippo as he exited and slammed the door, locking it behind him.
He made for the steps going down when he tripped, bouncing all the way down like a rubber ball, only to crash into Mrs. Rounder who was wearing her new white dress. She just so happened to have a cup of tea in her hand which was knocked out of her hands form the effect of the crash. The contents of the cups splattered all over her dress and she screamed in fury.
"NINCOMPOOP! SCALLYWAG! MUTILATOR!" she screamed as she grabbed a candle stick on the table and whacked his head with it and some more. The wretched Mr. Mudway defended himself by covering his head and running away, Mrs. Roundler in pursuit.
"THAT WAS THE DRESS I MEANT FOR OUR WEDDING! COST ME A FORTUNE! OH, YOU STUPID, YOU FAT ..."
Noah clambered onto the bed, bundled the blanket over him, wrapped his tail over him for extra warmth and cried himself to sleep. Many times he dreamed of his mother, comforted by her warm embrace and wrapped in a warm bushy tail.
He was miserable while in the care of Mrs. Pride, but now that he was in the care of him. He wondered how miserable he would be now.