One that pulsated, like a heart. A living sound with a soul. Gears grinding. Lubricated with a grotty layer of vicious black tar. Manufacturing a puffy gray cloud that developed a murky smog around the arctic fox and her sharp-hatted companion. Her black socked feet sludging through the muddy trenches.
No medium could reflect this feeling; depressed, sad, lost. The two could find not a remnant of humanity within the ruins; but only the not-so manmade tears of an engine yonder. Where the trees leak a black blood and the wildlife skipped in rotary motion as if animated into this realm. There they ponder what lies even yonder.
This world's mechanical heart quivered; puppets attached to strings seemingly from the black smoke looming overhead. Making a marionette of anyone who stepped in proximity. People turned brown, arms and legs flailed around, carving into their muscles until it became impossible to move freely; imprisoned. This was the world manufactured from the years of adjourning the powerful and threatening. Focusing on the "natural way of life." Made a tragedy in its name.
Down the oily road, only one thing stuck out like a sore thumb; sprouted from the dirt below. Green spines and jumbled vines, dampened moss in state of chaos. It almost seemed–surreal. To be in a place so real. Rabbit swooping past their leg and jumping in an arc, falling into the depths of white and red. A scent so lost to time, compared to the bitter oil this was… sweet as a chime.
"This–is the place?" The pointy hatted apprentice whispered bewilderedly. Rather than the cranking of rusty gears and twisting of haggard knobs; a graceful chirp lost to the sweet winds gleefully brushing past the fox's snow fluff. Winged insects with vibrant swirls danced in the air. "Yes, it is." She whispered, reflecting her companion's tone. Their feet were surrounded by a pool of colours formed by dull edged petals sprouting from their respective golden innards.
Blaze's ears twitched at the faint yet familiar sound. It shouldn't be real. As she cracked her neck to her right, it was obvious how wrong she was. Tapping her companion on the knee with her black nozzle. “Hey– look!”
Collectively both shot their gaze at the transparent liquid cascading down a rocky trench, a myriad of tarns, much smaller than the original, flowing down into their own little paths. And the twinkling stars reflected in its current.
Blaze and the mage darted to the liquid so fast that not even a pointy shrub could grab their feet quick enough to stop them! Not even wincing at the scarlet trickle as their paws swooped over to cup the liquid. "It's so cold!" The hatted man mentioned while his circular ears twitched through the seams of his patchy ear pockets.
"And smooth!" Added the fox, dipping her leftmost, upper paw into the wave.
Both looked at eachother, then at the water. That which stood before them, water; sweet, sweet water. It swooped the last bit of resolve from them both, and thus falling into the clutches of nature. Their mouths, filled with a delicacy swirling and jumping in on their taste buds so seamlessly. Happy to see (and to taste) the moment that finally came gave the wolf a suddenly bitter look. "What's wrong?" The apprentice questioned. "We finally found it!" He mentioned in a caring manner; so eager to find out why the fox looked to be in troubled waters.
"How long will this last? Days, weeks, months?" Her voice raised, "When the water turns a dark brown, what will we do then?" The arctic fox articulated. This world and its inhabitants were doomed. But for some reason, she felt giddy to see her own reflection, to glide her tongue effortlessly across a current of water, to listen to a pure silence. In this garden of vibrant flowers, sewn by humans and demi alike could not be claimed by her! The tall trees housing the baby birds. The soil raking up all the sorrow. What had she done for conquest? For what purpose had she survived for?
"Blaze…" The man whispered, his fluffy legs folding up and those amethyst purple eyes plunging right onto hers. "You can talk to me…"
But the bitter expression only soured at the kneeling wizard. “What's the purpose? Why do we live?”
Their travels were long and arduous, brimmed with constant bickering and arguments. Hiking up and down, to and fro, searching for something, but what? Why did they search for a life doomed to fail, it just didn't make sense! Though the grass softly brushed her four socked feet while the howling winds sang songs of the past garden. She felt nothing. “Blaze…”
It was then suddenly that the ground trembled. Trees swung violently from side to side, leaves fled from their home, and out came a giant; a creature standing on four legs. With tall ears and a long nozzle much like Blaze. But this arctic fox breathed through organic lungs and stepped to the beat of her fleshy heart. Not an industrial manufactured pair of vintage with a constant stream of steam pouring from its mouth. Nor the clockwork tapping as oil clogged its mechanical arteries. Drooling a black sludge that corrupted the green around it.
“Blaze–”
“I know.” The fox promptly cut her squeaky companion off, “Nowhere to go, time to fight!” Because of beasts like this, the world had been destroyed; annihilated and reconfigured into antique! Life sprung around them, the life that it intended to destroy. A sense of duty filled Blaze, “This garden… must be protected!”
The mage's pink tail twitched as he watched Blaze dart to the engine ten– no– thirty times her size! Shakily lunging for his staff and successfully grabbing at the metal head and thus picking it up! It almost seemed that he was cursed because directly after, it slipped out of his fingers! “C-crap!”
“Keep focused!” The fox hopped and twirled about the frail branches of trees. Needless to say, grabbing the attention of this mechanical monstrosity during the mage's poor attempt to keep calm. He held the staff in his rickety hand, curling his black fingertips, claws digging into the wooden handle. It's cylindrical head formed of metal which weighed down on the boy's meek arms and brittle bones. Yet something about this youngling roared “power” his whispers may have been faint, but the fabric of reality was easy to break to such words.
Breathe in…
Analyze…
Plot…
Then,
Execute!
A pink and purple trail of cubes and fabric's loosened seams causing a ripple in reality. “Good! Keep calm!” The fox roared out, feeling a surge of adrenaline fuel her legs which burnt the floor beneath her as she capered and pranced to and fro shaky treetops to glimmering, rocky lakeside. With the beast following suit on its rampage forward. All it could see was red, a murky, dirty red; one to be snuffed by their perfected form, to be reconstructed into something more, something better! All would be one! It charged forward, causing trees to tumble down and bushes to crumple under its ungodly weight.
Blaze hopped up and behind the creature, landing down on the bed of flattened flowers splayed on the floor. The trail flickered, turning a faint orange before fading. And her gaze darted to the magician, then, quickly back at the massive robot standing between them. Crap! Her puffy tail rose like a balloon as her nails stuck out and her fangs bore once more. Bark, dirt, even water, all layered in chicken scratches, and that high pitched ringing repeating like a scratched record. It appeared that she would have to use it one last time.
“Know what? Scratch that, run!”
Meanwhile, the pointy hatted, two footed, timid mouse snuffed his own flames of passion with a deep breath. Then, a wide exhale. In and out. Focused on the sight of Blaze dancing about, she looked so lively. She was the mantis shrimp, and the beast was a squid; spewing its ink across the green ocean.
“Scratch that”—what did she mean? No matter how much he thought about it, it simply did not make sense. Scratch what? The metal golem? No, he could not let that happen! And why did Blaze look so sad a minute ago? What caused such a happy moment to end on a sour note? And why would he run; leaving a good, if not only friend behind? Not to mention what would happen to her this time around. Neither of them would be so lucky as to get out of this situation with merely a few scratches and cuts.
Blaze, kicking, jumping, circling around the mechanical legs, zipping from one place seamlessly to another. Any attempt at swatting her away resulted in a pink and purple explosion of shapes to appear where she once was. Cuts and marks, black and red, appearing on the knees, arms, ankles, heels, anywhere Blaze could reach. But they were not deep enough! Not anymore. As expected. Without the strength of an amplifier…
It was in that instant of trailing off that she was met with a metal rod to the abdomen! Her cheeks pushed out a stray breath of air— and her chest launched forward with tree bark finding its way through her fluffy spine. Thankfully, she was caught by a pond of water, the same pond she started at. But she could not fatler! Not now. Her sharp claws searched for any rock or branch near her. She hurled them at the giant foot looming over her to no avail. Blaze held it all in. She wanted to faint right then and there. She was holding in the urge to sully such a clear pond with her inners.
The foot painfully smashed into her chest! As much as she had the intent to faint, the crushing pain wouldn't allow it. Like a truck sitting on her chest. Her hands dug up a handful of water and splashed it pitifully over the mechanical paw resting on her. Like a bug squirming about. And then came the spike of pain rushing up her leg. Alas she cried out a piercing howl. Her limbs popped to the point of a higher pitched opera. The rocky underwater was quickly flooded with the scarlet fluids oozing from Blaze's shattered claws.
But slowly, ever so slowly, the shapes formed around her legs, seemingly slipping off and persisting on the floor. And thus forcing her to disappear at the last point. Blaze watched as the foot, looming right where she was only a second ago, snuffed out her would-be grave. Impossible, she shouldn't have a perfect side view from under the shade of a tree! Unless… Both the monstrosity and she looked at the mage in shock! “Didn't I tell you to run?” She coughed out as a growl.
She did notice the mage's staff looking different from before. Claws dug into the wood handle, contorted into what looked to be more of a bar of metal on a stick rather than a magic wand. His pointy hat went flying for the hills, displaying the mouse's serrated fangs! His purple eyes now a deep, crimson balefire for the two to gawk at.
In the literal blink of an eye– the mouse had seemingly disappeared from the farside of the trees and reappeared directly on top of the metal leg Blaze couldn't even hope to hop over! This all encompassing heat was not that of a calm and collected mage! But an emotional lunatic! “Hey! What the he–”
“Quiet!” The mouse swiftly snapped back.
Shit.
Blaze froze. The blood was getting to her. She could barely huff without coughing on her own fluids. How did it end up like this? What shook the beehive, the arguments? The long walks without water or food, the feeling of dissolution from this decrepit world? But… Blaze made sure to remind the squeaky wizard every single day that she was bound to be killed in battle. Or that someday, due to her enigmatic powers, she might vanish from reality entirely! Her body and soul were limited. So he should've tossed her away the second he got the chance. Yet he did not!
Those were the rules she imposed on herself and the mouse. It was meant to keep him calm. In the scenario that she disappeared, he would be fine on his lonesome. But it was apparent; he was all but calm. Something–something she either said or done formed a pyre in the man's soul. Inconceivable shock filled her limbs as the mouse raised his staff. And rather than a spell, he smashed the steel part of his modified stick sideways! Effectively bludgeoning the antique and causing it to shiver and drop! Pathetically gurgling on its own oil while the mouse primed for another swing downwards.
“Bam!”, “Pop!”, “Crack!”, and a loud, mechanical howl echoed through the forest. Manufacturing a quake in the earth because of the sudden drop. His staff raised, smashed, destroyed, ruined. It raised again, with more power; more anger. And then, his staff slammed into the lifeless corpse one more time.
“Hey!” The fox painfully whimpered. She had been sat at the bottom of a tree. As much as she wanted to stand up and run over to console the mouse, her limbs were lacking. “Hey!” She growled.
The mouse, in all of his fury, slammed the stick down again. The forest echoed with that foul clang. Tree branches contorted into a fetal position. Shrubs shriveled up in fear. Free prey for the wind to come and pluck their leaves one by one until they were straight, bolt-like shapes of bark. Blaze could see the trail they started off from not too far behind her.
Meanwhile the mouse lifted up the distorted shard of what's left and held it out, the pointy side facing towards the mechanical pelvis.
“HEY!”
The mouse snapped out of his trance with a disgusted face. Looking down at his hands. Covered in oil, what had he done? He stood up from his kneeling position right above the beast's stomach. Its limbs were playing boneless like a possum’s. Despite his terrifying rage that spread like a parasite. He felt calm at the moment. Jumping off and noticing the fox in all her pain sitting there. His eyes widened. And swiftly he sprinted to her.
“You… did it.” She coughed out.
“That doesn't matter right now.” The mouse felt nothing but despair. He planted a hand on her cheek, magic poured into her soul like an oil pump. She was quick to heal physically considering what her body is made of, but mentally it was a different story. Sure, the red trickle evaporated, but would she forget such an act of insubordination so quickly?
“Why didn't you run?” Blaze's breathing weighed heavy on her chest. Her head slid off the tree and fell into a pool of marigold, rose, and magenta. There she laid face towards the night sky. Where she wondered. And pondered. Lost inside her own tiny little world. It was a never ending cycle. Whenever she did this, she would stay quiet for hours. This wasn't the first time she had been hurt but it was the first time she lost.
Pure silence. It stuck between the two as hardened glue would. How does someone explain? How does another ask? Always shy, with his light gray hair, twitchy ears, and just the squeakiest voice ever! Despite all these – despite this wind pushing him back, he stepped forward. To make amends. “Blaze… you asked– ‘why do we live’ earlier. I-I don't have that answer. And—I don't think anyone does.” Once again, silence, broken by his tiny squeaks. His voice lit up the fog in her mind. “B-but, I think that–that– you feel lost; you were brought into this world, only to realize that you might leave it quicker than the rest.”
Blaze's eyes reflected the starlight twinkle of the milky way. And as trees sifted the oily stench through their bare branches, the fox nestled into the bed of flowers. Resting her eyes as if to wash the exhaustion away. “What are you getting at?”
“You believe that… since you are bound to leave early, that you are incapable of caring; that you have no purpose.”
The day Blaze was born, or rather created, she appeared in the middle of a circle drawn by chalk and blood-written words of a language she knew yet could not read. Given the role of guardian. Praise, clapping, smiles, she was the family's treasure! Although…
As she used power it became evident that her mana was merely a tank of gas with no fuel pump. And the one whom she was bound to protect was an endless bucket; constantly filling as time passed.
Blaze was too ashamed to look the bucket in the eyes. “When did you become so big?” She contritely passed her voice to the wind. “I could've sworn you were a kid just yesterday.”
The mouse fell on the floral bed with a guilt-ridden heart beside the fox. A wilted tree next to a springy saproling. Dandelions sent their snow-like seeds to a place yonder. A kid… that's all she ever saw him as. He bit his tongue and kicked up his feet towards the sky. “Haha, and yesterday you were talking about how much gray hairs I was givin ya!” This was the time to make it right. To replant the seeds that have been dormant for so long.
Blaze admittedly chucked. “All my hair is gray dummy.” Then once again, silence. Unlike the time before however, unlike all the hikes through spiked roads of rusty metal, this silence felt… good. Sure the conversation could be broken by a frog's ribbit. But yet that made it all the more real to him.
“Hey… do you really think there's a chance the world will recover?”
Crickets chirped in harmony as the distant leaves shuffled. A cloudy sky, highlighted by a half moon, casting a pearly glow on the world's surface. If the two didn't know any better, then it would almost seem that the world hadn't ended at all.
“I don't know…” He turned to his side and faced the fox. Even at night she looked dazzling, exactly as she did years ago. “But… if the world is on its last legs, then we'll give em' prosthetics!”
“Terrible choice of words…” the tip of her tail swayed from beneath her weight in betrayal to her disappointed tone.
“Haha well, the thing is– sitting here; basking in the moonlight, under the shade of a nice, tall tree. I think that, right now, I feel glad. Not because of the forest–but because it's with you.” It's like butterflies were fluttering all inside Blaze's chest. Or that her body was a river inhabited by jumping fish. Those words she never expected to hear. And her cheeks felt warm. It wasn't obvious to her, but the mage could see her face flushed with roses.
She cranked her neck with a painful pop to see her silver fur now murky and gray. She could feel the rubble hold her down. Along with the splinters that ran up her back. Next, cranking her view up towards the mouse, “I'm a mess. I wish I could just take a bath…” Blaze defeatedly sighed.
The apprentice popped his little head and snapped his fingers! “Why don't we take one then?”
“Huh? Because we have no wate…” Suddenly, it clicked. They did! She jumped up with a sudden pop reminding her of the past encounter, “Oh my god–you're right! Let's get to washing!” she whimpered giddily!
Blaze bit the apprentice's hand gently as to lead them with her ears, picking up the sound of the lagoon softly embracing the rocks on its edges. “It's been so long since I took an actual bath!” Blaze mentioned. The mouse then nodded his head, “Yeah, I totally forgot baths were even a thing people took frequently!”
“Hmm? Are you ragging on the way I smell?”
“Ah– n-no that isn't what I meant!” A new face the mouse never saw was Blaze actively holding back… a smile. Although She did not hold on for long before releasing a loud bwaffle, it felt like a new flower just sprung out of her soul! Ever since the disaster she'd been shook. Nothing the mouse said or did looked to be meaningful to her. This was how she should look.
Without further ado, the two hopped into nature's tub and scrubba dub dubbed! A bit frigid but that's what happens when someone takes a bath in the middle of the night. Wasn't even a minute yet. Before forming ripples in the water. Hard to stay silent when there's a kid inside. Blaze winced at the cool splash of water sinking into her fluff. “Why you little–”
She swiped at the pool with her paw. And here came flying a handful of water right at the mouse! “Ah–” His ears fell back and rebounded forward. “Ahaha– stop it! Stop it!” Cried the mouse soaked in water. “You're getting in my ears!” With each splash the two could feel all their worries bubble away.
Know it or not, the mouse was first to step out with Blaze following suit. They were soaked. The wind bit through their heavy pelts. And it's not like it got any brighter outside. So they had to improvise.
Blaze sturdied her balance and began to invoke her strength. She channeled her magic into a howl. This magic, and its apprentices, had been put through years of research and ancient techniques stemming from a reality that could not be explained. Not even Blaze knew how it worked. By using words exempt from reality, only those with the tongue years in the making, dedicated for this one purpose could truly pronounce the words. Thus, breaking reality itself and forming matter out of nothing, creating energy that faintly flickers in spacetime before eventually disappearing. To put it into picture, that is exactly how Blaze had been created. And because of that she was able to master it without ever needing to learn.
Most who mentioned the words were merely posing as a true mage, they knew not the sheer scale of what this power could do if pronounced correctly. Because every word had a meaning, some gave people emotions, others gave bad omens, yet merely the mention of this forbidden word invoked rage through people far and wide. Forever doomed to argue the true pronunciation of it. She held the mouse's metal bludgeoning device high in her mouth, gritted her teeth, and hurled her energy into the staff before yelling out:
“Worcestershire!”
Thoom! Fire! Albeit, no larger than a candle, but it was all he needed to start up a fire with a bundle of nearby sticks. Allowing warmth to steadily make way towards their soggy fluff with dry intentions. Swirling in a whisp of blue, aetheric fox flames. The night sky dawned upon them as they lay on a nice plot of grass and flowers.
The mouse, almost falling to slumber on his own two feet! That was until a creeping feeling crawled up his leg. He, of course, tossed his leg in the air, falling to the ground. Well… what he thought would be the ground. It felt much softer. He could feel something beating inside. Man, his eyes were getting heavy by the second. He lied his back on the floor. Which in all actuality was Blaze rubbing her body up his leg. “Jeeze Blaze! Don't scare me like that!”
“Hehe, sorry, I'm still a little cold.” She whispered to the mouse.
“No… problem…” His consciousness faded by the moment. It wouldn't take long for him to fall prey to the cricket chirps. Nor could he resist the lullaby-like scent swirling around Blaze. “Mmmph, you smell like… a forest.”
“Happens when you bathe in one…” She snickered back. To her, this was quite the treat to watch. But she had to admit, this calming breeze, the cackle and cracks of the campfire simmer, it took a chip or two off of her back.
“You make a nice pillow…” Was the last words to come out of the mouse before falling into a deep, well needed rest. “And you make a nice blanket…”
In this forest, the walls blooming with life in their vibrant colours, two seeds rested in the middle of it all. Sleeping by the campfire glow. Awaiting for their chance to grow on the riverside bed of flowers.
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Alright! A bit of another warmup thanks to the foxy https://www.furaffinity.net/user/blazefox7/ over on FA for giving me such a warming prompt! Now since I have some time on my hands I hope to get back to my roots and do some more indulgent things next. Tell me what you think!
A fox and her squeaky companion go searching for something lost to this world they live in. They move day and night in search for life but more so for themselves. How will magic hold up to the new world manufactured by puppeteers?
