It was a cloudy day near a small one story house by the lake, the curtains parted slightly as a young mother vixen, no older than 16, was busy getting dressed while her son slept. She quickly looked into a small mirror to check herself, her emerald colored fur and blue bangs with her white muzzle being reflected back as she looks down at her purple shirt and jeans, before sliding on some sneakers before heading out into the hallway where she peeked into her son's room.
The room itself was pretty plain, a light blue color for the walls as small baby toys were scattered everywhere, while an emerald and red furred cub was sleeping in a small crib with a blanket over it, being no more than a few months old by this point, softly walking inside and gently picked him up. "Hey sun shine...momma's here." The vixen says with a small smile as the boy opens his eyes and smiled at her.
After quickly getting her son dressed in a small blue and yellow stripped one-sie and feeding him some milk from a bottle, she put him in his small stroller and walked out of their house and down a small paved walkway that was still under construction due to parts of it missing, leaving small bumps or holes to go past as the two headed into an open mall to walk around. Passing by a few stores and waving to a few of the locals before two of them, a female hawk with red tail feathers wearing a blouse and skirt, having sandals on and dazzling blue eyes covered by her red bangs, along with a donkey whose ears were flopped down to the side wearing a stripped polo shirt and shorts. "Hey Rika and little man Vero! What’s up, you two?" He said with a smile on his face. The hawk elbows him, making Rika giggle a bit.
"Oh we're just here to buy some stuff. Vero here has been going through milk very fast and i need to get a few other things." The emerald vixen says as Vero was looking up at them all talking before looking around and spotting something that made his little eyes go wide with excitement, a Ball colored deep yellow that he could play with. As he started to reach out for it, squirming around in his stroller, the donkey looks down at him. "Hey Rika, is he always so fussy in his stroller?" He asks as the other two look down at the small cub reaching over for the ball with Rika following his line of motion and smiles a bit. "I see what he wants....well Vero if you can be good for mommy when we get what we need I'll get you the ball." She says and pushes the stroller away accompanied by the hawk and donkey. While she chatted with them, Vero looked down at his stroller belt and he used his small claws to cut it free, sliding out, and slowly crawls back to the ball. As the three started to buy milk, Rika looked down to see him missing.
"V-VERO!?" she shouts looking around the area as the other two gazed down in shock noticing the cut belt. "Rika he cut his belt! W-where do you think he went" the hawk said before looking back up and seeing the emerald vixen rushing out the door to the spot where the ball was, practically crashing through people. As she reaches the spot and looks around noticing the ball on display was gone, a few people scratched their heads as she rushed up to them. "H-hey! Did a small baby about a few months old, with my coloring take something from here?" Some of them nodded, telling her that a baby resembling her had managed to climb up onto the ball and started bouncing off with it, despite it being no more than at most 3 months old. One of them pointed her down to where he had headed and Rika immediately dashed off in that direction.
Vero though was using his new toy as a means of transportation, passing by countless people who stared at him in either confusion or surprise, using his tail and claws to keep on the ball and resting his stomach on it as he looks around with a small sparkle in his eyes. Soon though, he bounced into a chameleon, bumping him to the side of the walkway with an open case full of dimes and dollar bills. The chameleon was playing a trumpet before he was bumped to the side so brutally, but now the trumpet laid on the ground, drawing the baby fox's attention as he sat there looking at the instrument in wonder. Before he could react, the street musician noticed him and squatted down. "Why hello there little fella. Wheres your momma at?" He says with a smile picking Vero up slowly as the fox blows a small raspberry to try and play the instrument.
"You seem to have an interest in my trumpet eh? Tell you what, we find your momma and we'll see if she can get one for a little pup like you if you're not in trouble." He says with a smile as he starts to pack up his stuff, placing the trumpet carefully in the case along with the little bit of change he had before heading off with Vero down the path the kit came from already.
Vero's curiosity though made him focus on the stores around them as he was being carried noticing the shiny sparkles off of glass cups and silverware. Then, the scent of freshly baked pastries from a nearby diner hit his nose making him look around in wonder as the chameleon looks for anyone rushing around panicking for a little lost cub.
Meanwhile, Rika was looking everywhere she could, asking around if anyone had seen her son.
Walking up to the distraught vixen, the chameleon smiles and taps her shoulder causing her to spin around and nearly knock his head off with an arm swing. When she saw Vero, she quickly grabed him and cried,."V-vero! There you are! Y-you had mommy so worried!" she said with small tears trailing down her face as the young pup looks at her with a bit of sadness in his eyes for making her upset, patting her nose softly as if to apologize.
The street musician smiled and stood by her, rubbing her back softly. "Glad to see you didn't just drop him off. He found me while i was playing my trumpet while traveling on a ball of all things! But he seems to have liked my playing. He even tried to play it himself when I picked him up." He says with a chuckle. Rika looked down sniffling a bit. "T-thank you for finding him. All I did was turn around to get baby formula and he cut open his belt on his stroller." she explained looking away in shame as the chameleon rubs her head as well.
The performer smiles and heads to a small toy store and spends a few minutes inside before coming back with a small baby trumpet toy. He hands it to Vero who starts to blow on it. The chameleon chuckled and hands Rika a small card. "My name is Samson and I perform with the orchestra around town, and I also teach lessons. When he’s a bit older, and still interested, I can teach him to play the Trumpet." He tells her as Rika takes the small card and puts it in her pocket. "O-ok..I-I'm gonna take him home. We'll get baby formula later since w-we should have enough for now."She says before giving him a small hug of gratitude with her twin tails wagging. "Thank you for bringing me back my son."
After leaving Samson and going back to collect the stroller that the hawk and donkey looked over for her, Rika and Vero went back home to their little one story home by the lake waiting for Vero's father to return home. For the rest of the day, Rika cuddled and held Vero close much to the little cub's dismay.
