The past is the past. Let’s all move forward.
Ren had lived in Tzara all her life. She was no noble born House brat, but she wasn’t a street fox either. She had grown up in a nice little middle ground where she never knew hunger, and could dream of wealth and hope for a brighter future.
Stretching out she blinked slowly and yawned. The day started like any other but still this day was special. Grinning she got up and shook out her fur. Today was the day she was going to head to one of the minor noble Houses that she had been scouting out all week to see if she could be accepted into the House as a servant. If she did well enough then she might be allowed to become ‘adopted’ into the House and then she’d be set for life. Minor nobles did do a few things, but she was hoping to get a leisurely life as a runner taking messages from one House to the next. That was her goal anyway. As soon as she left the dwelling she looked up at the red sky and felt a shiver run down her back. She thought she might just be a bit cold and should run to her destination for the day just to see if things were going to turn out her way or not today.
There were shouts of some kind in the main market so Ren skittered along to the side alleyways so she was out of sight. Loud noises would give her a headache and that she did not need. A shadow passing overhead made her look up. The fact that it was not one but several of the elite guards made her feel a bit worried. Still whatever it was they could handle it right? Shaking her head she started running toward her goal if only to ease the pit of worry that formed in her gut. The guards usually didn’t fly over or at least not overtly over the marketplace. Whatever was happening; it was best to be away from that place. Thank goodness she knew her ways around the common districts enough to circumvent most of the populated places. She paced a few street foxes that were peeking out of the alleyways. Even they knew something was wrong. Sighing Ren slowed down and dared to risk a peak out beside one of the street foxes at another loud and noisy marketplace. What she saw made her gasp and pull back.
One of the guards was fighting with a fellow guard. The two foxes where ripping at each other’s throats. One even had some form of metal gauntlet over his claws so that he could rip deeper in his adversary’s flesh without worry over damaging his claws. Ren shivered and a small noise came out as she tried to pull back further into the shadows of the alley. The other street foxes were gone. It seemed once they found out was going on they left, but Ren couldn’t even move. She had never seen fighting and the idea that a guard would fight another guard was terrifying to her. As the sounds of fighting grew closer Ren put her paws over her head and shivered like a scared little kit. Why was this happening? Was this the kind of thing that had been happening in the other market square? If so was it all over the place? For once she was glad to live alone as it meant she didn’t have to worry over any family, and yet if this was widespread, how far? Needing to know like she needed to breathe Ren started shaking her head and crawling in the alley toward the noble rings. If this was some little fight the House rings wouldn’t be affected.
Making it out of the alley Ren flinched as a fox pulling a blanket full of nuts and root nearly stepped on her face only to be jumped on by another fox. More fighting. Hiding in the shadows until she thought she could get by without being noticed Ren darted out from her unseen safety zone and toward the Housing districts. The sky in that direction was all wrong. Stopping suddenly heedless of the dangers around her Ren could only stop and stare. The Housing district was on fire. She could see the great flames spreading from the innermost rings outward. There were still some foxes fleeing but most of them were gone from the looks of things. She wondered how she could have slept through the fleeing of so many. Someone brushing past her made her jump back to reality. Flinching she moved off to the side of the path. Things were simply too much. The House rings were on fire foxes where using this time to run and hurt one another. She felt tears slide down her cheeks lost amongst her fur. Staggering Ren wondered why the world was going black as she lost consciousness.
Asche’s ears twitched at the noise. That was one thing she hated about this land, every fox was so loud and annoying. Whatever it was it didn’t sound like a festival. Though the foxes in this land never had festivals as far as the phim had seen. That was another thing she didn’t like loud, pushy, arrogant, and no fun. What was worse everyone in this land seemed obsessed with ‘moving up’ Asche didn’t get it. There was enough hunting and fishing that she didn’t see the point in having others do the work and then trade something else to get whatever prey you didn’t catch. Still there where foxes here who made such things their life. Those that weren’t good at it found someone who was and gave their ‘speaker’ a cut of the trade. It just seemed so stupid. Oh well different strokes for different folks.
Unwrapping her tail from around her the vixen wrinkled her nose. Something was very wrong. Her eyes opening quickly she raised her head. She was in a small room in an old human built dwelling. Stretching out she heard horrible scuffling and whining. She froze for a second trying to logic out the issue. There was fighting of some sort and someone was losing. Asche heard the word ‘traitor’ yelled loudly in a male’s deep booming voice. More growling and fighting. Ashce didn’t even bother to get up she just rolled over in a corner and decided to go back to sleep for a while to ignore the problem. It didn’t affect her after all.
The fighting and yelling moved off after a while. Sighing happily Asche wriggled a bit to get into a more comfortable position to sleep. She took a deep breath and coughed immediately. Grimacing she sniffed. That was odd she smelled smoke. Grunting she stood up and shook before heading to the opening she had snuck in the night before. What she saw made her think it was time to go. Flames were licking the buildings toward the center rings where the spoiled foxes lived. Groaning she stretched her wings and launched herself out of the opening that was in the wall. Snapping her wings open she flapped twice and then glided down the two stories to the ground. She didn’t want to be in the air if it was only doomed to be filled with smoke and ash. Asche walked calmly down the path other foxes called a ‘lane’. She walked past a strange looking brown vixen that was just standing there looking at the flames that were coming. Asche slightly opened a wing to bump the stupid fox. She nearly laughed aloud when she saw the wingless fox lurch over the side of a human made dwelling. The humor was lost when Asche noticed the other vixen drop to the ground.
For a moment she debated on leaving the vixen to burn. It really wasn’t her problem. Still burning to death didn’t seem a pleasant way to go. Hating the unconscious fox for a moment the phim trotted over landed down and grabbed the vixen by the scruff of her neck and dragged and pulled until the wingless fox was draped across Asche’s back. Then the purple and white phim turned and walked out of the city that had been her home for the past few months.
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Well now what am I going to do? Here I went and picked up a stray. It’s enough of a pain just taking care of myself, now I have to look after this fool that was too stupid to run away from fire? Oh well. Maybe she’ll wake up and leave. Probably won’t happen, but a girl can always hope…
Asche had walked all day and hadn’t so much as seen one other living fox save the one she had been carrying. She supposed the others were smart enough to flee when they could. Of course there were some dead foxes, but that was to be expected. With so many running there were bound to be left behind, injured, crushed, trampled, and such. She supposed it had been a rather tragic sight. A pity she didn’t really care. Yawning she stopped and sat down abruptly sending the fox she had been carrying crashing to the ground. Looking at the still unconscious fox she reached out a paw and poked the other vixen in the cheek. How dull. Looking back over the stony beach at the city Asche rested as she watched the city burn. She was safe, good enough.
A while after dark Asche felt herself growing cold so she used the other vixen who had still not woken up for heat.
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Feeling warm Ren thought she had only been having a nightmare. Surely the only home she had ever known hadn’t really burned. It was only a nightmare. Chuckling weakly Ren opened her eyes and could only see black. Panicking she jerked her head back she was relieved to find that it was only fur. She stared at the tail confused. She didn’t know anyone that had black fur on their tails. Turning her head to look behind her she saw she was being cuddled by a strange vixen. Yelping she jumped up and away from the stranger and mewed when her feet couldn’t get traction on the many small stones. The brown vixen slipped and crashed landing hard on her chin. Wincing she tried to get up and looked around. In the distance wrapped in the morning mists was her home still smoking. It was her nightmare come true. All her friends, all her dreams, all her memories, all her hopes; they had all been in that place. To see it gone was breaking Rose Ren’s heart. She hung her head and started to cry.
Having woken up when the other vixen had pulled away from her Asche had stayed still and watch the other fox through barley open eyes. The other vixen certain was hopeless. She couldn’t even manage to land right, then she looked at the over jumbled mess that was a city and just broke down. It was annoying. She stretched out and stood up all while watching the other vixen. The wingless fox didn’t even look at her. Asche walked up and lifted a paw. Still no response. She poked the other vixen, none to gently either. “Stop that. What good does crying do you?” Oh well the stupid fox was up now and was moving around well enough. Asche felt her work was done so she turned and started to leave. There was no reason to stay.
Having nearly been knocked over by the poke Rose Ren looked in shock at her savior. The winged fox was just walking away. Ren wasn’t sure what to do. Still what the other vixen said made sense. Ren felt like her whole body was broken and bruise, and yet numb at the same time. She started to follow the winged fox not really knowing or being able to think of anything else to do. She saw the other vixen stop and look back at her. Ren thought she heard the other fox ask where Ren thought she was going. Ren could only blink and stare not sure what to say. She turned her head and looked back at the city and then to the winged fox confused. The dark haired vixen only shook her head started walking toward the city. Ren followed.
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Great she had a mute, crying, strange fox following her around now.
A part of Asche had hoped that by heading back to the city the other vixen would get skittish and flee. The smell of cooked corpus and burned fur was the first thing Asche noticed. It was disgusting. Still the other vixen didn’t even seem to notice. Asche finally figured that the brown fox was in shock. Rolling her eyes Asche stopped. To her amusement the other fox continued walking past her. Looking around the phim noticed a few building where still steaming and smoking. There was nothing worth salvaging here, only rubble and ruin all around. Ahead of her the brown vixen took a right. Curious where the vixen was headed in case there was something the phim had missed at first glance, Asched followed. The brown fox walked to a burned out human building and then headed into the ruin. Waiting to see if the building would give way and crush the wingless small fox Asche sat down to wait.
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Having been walking in a daze Ren instinctively let her body move and found herself in her den. Blinking, she slowly felt her mind grasp the horror of everything that had happened. Gagging Ren’s stomach tried to expel the food she had never eaten. Under some of the charred drebis a glint winked at Ren. She looked and noticed it was the metal box her mother had given her. Ren had lost the key to open it years ago, though it seemed the modeities were with her. The collapsing of the human made dwelling had cracked the box and the gifts her mother had left her shown and where intact in the twisted metal. Using her tail she scooped them up. Some of the fur on her tail burned from the pieces of hot twisted metal. Still the objects she was after were in fine condition. Sniffling she turned and walked out of the rubble that was once her home. The phim who saved her was simply sitting and waiting. “Thank you.” Ren’s voice was barely a whisper but it was all she could manage.
Asche shrugged, she noticed the wingless vixen was carrying something. What is was and why the brown fox was tanking her was a mystery, but who was she to judge if the other fox wanted to do a bit of looting? Getting back up she turned and started walking away. There was really nothing to do here. In a few days the corpuses would start to smell even worse than they did now. She did not want to be around for that.
