Adjusting the strap of his backpack with a sigh, Yori Hartmüt glanced back at his school, children pouring out of it like rats deserting a sinking ship (though decidedly happier about it), before he continued on his way home. The thirteen-year-old feline rubbed his side absentmindedly, as it still kind of hurt from the sucker punch he'd received at recess that day. He hoped it didn't bruise... "Forget robot butlers and flying cars," he muttered to himself, remembering the endlessly repeated jokes his mother's friends liked to make, "Can it just be the future where bullies aren't a thing?" Oh well, soon he would be home and he could push Chet Bauer and his stupid friends out of his mind for the weekend. A taxi drove by, and the boy perked up a little, smiling at the advertisement sitting atop the cab, colourfully reminding people of the heavyweight fight in a few weeks... the heavyweight fight where Yori's father was considered the safer bet. The iriomote cat was immensely proud of his dad's career, he just wished it left the man more time to spend with his family. Or, he reflected, that maybe he'd inherited some of his father's natural talent for the sport of boxing. Maybe then he wouldn't have so much trouble at school. He never thought he'd miss the private school he'd been enrolled in before, but his mother had insisted on transferring him to a public school, afraid he was going to grow up as 'one of those entitled brats' who thinks having a well-to-do family means one is above the rules normal people have to follow. Sighing again, Yori paused for a moment, leaning against the safety rail next to the sidewalk and looking out past the steep hill beyond it, to the vast sea of trees that stretched out for miles and miles. The Everschade Forest came right up to the back of his family's property, and he often wondered what exciting things he would find if he just wandered out there and explored...
He was snapped out of his reverie by an all-too-familiar voice calling his name. Or rather, a nickname he wished he'd never hear again. "Is that Fartmoot? Hey, guys, it's our old pal Fartmoot!" called Chet Bauer, with a transparently false cheer to his voice, "Fancy meeting you here!" His ears already flattening against his head, Yori turned around and felt his heart sinking as he discovered that he was already closely surrounded. The fifteen-year-old German shepherd stood right in front of him, in the alpha position of course, and his canine cronies Jim, Mike, and Tom closed the circle around the hapless cat, preventing escape. Frantically looking around, Yori was dismayed to see that there weren't any pedestrians. Even Chet wasn't stupid enough to just beat the crap out of him right here by the street (he hoped), but he still wasn't happy to be running into his nemesis – a word he'd looked up specifically to describe the shepherd – outside of school. "H-hey, Chet..." he said, keeping his face straight, determined not to show his fear... at least, not any more than his lowering ears already had. "Chet's a real popular guy," said Tom, an obnoxious Dalmatian, "But you don't seem too happy to see him! Whatsamatter, you don't like friends?" The others chuckled, but Chet remained silent, being 'above' the humour of his goons, who he gave almost as much crap as everyone else, and who were just as afraid of him as everyone else. "N-no, I'm fine, I'm just tired, I was gonna go home, and –" "And what?" interrupted Chet, the fake smile gone, "Cry to your mommy about how mean we are? You know what you need, Fartmoot? You need to toughen up a little bit, learn to take a joke." Yori's ear twitched, remembering how it felt when Chet gave him a black eye at the beginning of the school year. He hadn't felt like laughing. Chet stroked his chin exaggeratedly, probably having seen it done on TV. "My old man used to toughen me up by taking me camping. Spend a weekend in the woods, roughing it," he continued. Jim, a characteristically nervous Chihuahua, interrupted him, an excited grin on his face. "My dad used to do that too!" he exclaimed, happy to have something in common with his leader, "He'd take me and my brothers out to camp in the woods by Lake –" "Jim." Chet's voice was quiet, subdued, which was very rare for him. "Y-yeah, Chet?" The nervous Chihuahua, on the other hand, sounded quiet and subdued almost all the time. "Stop talking." Ears flattening, Jim let out a quiet canine whine as Chet directed his attention back towards the cat, who found himself wishing the dog had been stupid enough to say something else, maybe he could have made a break for it if Chet got mad at Jim. "As I was sayin'," the shepherd said, grinning again, and not in a friendly way, "I'm thinking that since your dad's off boxing champions like a real man, maybe the boys and I could help you out." "Oh, that's – that's really n-not necessary," Yori said, smiling nervously, "M-my dad said once the s-season's over, he'd like to give me s-some boxing lessons, so I'll get p-plenty tough then..." Technically that was a lie, but only in that Yori's dad had already shown him a few basics, though it didn't feel like nearly enough to defend himself against four larger, older, stronger boys. Somehow, he didn't feel that mentioning that would end well for him. Chet suddenly leaned in very close. "Oh," he said, quietly, "but we insist. Mike?" Before the cat could react, the last of Chet's henchmen (henchboys?), a generally untalkative golden retriever, grabbed hold of both Yori's wrists and held them over his head. "Hey!" the iriomote cried, struggling against the larger boys, knowing it was futile. Chet and his cronies grabbed onto the smaller Yori and lifted him into the air against his protests, moving over to the safety rail at the side of the path. "No! Don't!" Yori gasped, seeing where they were going with this. "You may not have your daddy with you," laughed Chet, "But if you come out of the woods alive, I bet you'll be tougher!" With a heave, they tossed Yori over the fence and onto the incredibly steep incline beyond.
Scared and miserable, Yori tucked his face in and covered it with his forearms as he rolled and tumbled down the hill, his backpack throwing him off balance and making him go flipping and bouncing every time he rolled over. Suddenly, Yori realized it was over; he'd come to a stop, lying in the soft grass at the foot of the hill, and he just felt like he was still rolling. With a groan, he managed to lift his head and look up to the road. Chet and his mooks all stood there, laughing their heads off and looking down at him. "You can thank us later!" called Chet, waving at him, "Have a nice weekend!" With that, he lead the other dogs away, and their braying laughter slowly quieted as they walked away, to go bother someone else. Letting out a heavy sigh, supposing it could have been way worse, Yori slowly got up, moving gingerly at first, afraid he'd actually broken something this time. He seemed fine, though, aside from the bruises he already had aching something fierce, and the dirt scuffs on his clothes and tail. He thought about calling for help, but he really didn't want to bring Chet and his jerks back in case they were still within earshot, and that sidewalk had been totally empty the whole time he'd been walking home before that. Lacking those options, he slowly turned to face the treeline and swallowed. Strange how much more ominous those trees looked from down here. Suddenly the forest wasn't full of mystery and adventure, it was full of lurking danger and fear. But he took a deep breath and forced himself not to panic, as it was basically the first thing everyone said in every action movie. The sun was high in the sky since school had gotten out early today, so he wasn't in danger of being lost in the forest anytime soon, at least. Plus, he hadn't been that far from home, and the woods came right up against his backyard, so if he just followed the treeline, he should find his way back in no time. At least, that was the plan... shivering and adjusting his backpack, the young cat started walking.
After a few minutes, Yori felt a little better. At first, he'd half-expected a bear or a wildcat – or worse, one of those mysterious tribals that lived in the vast forests set aside for them – to come lunging out of the trees at him, but so far the only life he'd seen were some birds with rather pretty songs and a rabbit that watched him with the fearful expression native to that species. Truthfully, he didn't know what to expect from the people who lived in the sea of trees; he'd read about the tribals, and they were supposed to be pretty peaceful, which was why the organized governments of what Yori thought of as the civilized world had agreed to set aside so much land for them in the first place. Supposedly, as much as 40% of the population of this country was tribal, but they didn't like what they called 'outsiders' very much, so they almost never mingled. And they were so strange-looking, at least in Yori's opinion, that they might as well be aliens. It didn't help that those pictures were decades old, owing to their xenophobia. It was rumoured that anyone from the tribes who made contact with outsiders would be exiled for life, but nobody knew if that was true, or just something bored outsiders had made up about people they didn't understand. After all, it was alsorumoured that they ate each other, and that couldn't be true... could it? The iriomote cat shook his head as if to physically dislodge the unpleasant thoughts, and continued on his way. But about a minute later, he found he had to stop, as he went around a corner and came face to face with a tree that had partially fallen over towards the hill, only to stop halfway and keep growing in that odd position. That part wouldn't be so bad except that a veritable jungle of briar thorns had sprung up in its shadow, hanging down in tangled clumps from the trunk and totally blocking the way forward. It looked like the only way to proceed was for Yori to actually go into the woods and work his way around the obstruction. He whimpered quietly, his ears lowering, and then he took a deep breath, steadied himself, and started walking into the treeline. Well, the longer he put it off, the more time the sun had to move through the sky, so no sense in wasting daylight, right? He just hoped he didn't end up so deep in the woods that the light couldn't reach him...
To Yori's disappointment, the trees around that point grew rather close together, plus there were more of those thorny vines wrapped around the bases of some of the trunks, so he couldn't squeeze past them and get back out to the sunlit path next to the hill. But there was a well-worn path here, so it had to go somewhere. Eventually, it took a turn that set him back in the direction of his home, and the young cat sighed with relief. Chet was still a butthead, but this wasn't really that bad at all. Actually, he thought to himself after a few more minutes of walking, it was kind of exciting to finally be walking through Everschade Forest. If Chet hoped to reduce him to a blubbering, fearful mess, he was going to be disappointed!
At least, that's what he thought until he heard the screams.
Distracted by the pretty scenery, Yori leapt a foot in the air, his tail poofing out in shock, as he heard multiple voices shouting and yelling in the distance. His first thought was that he should stay the hell away from it, but then he realized that it was coming from straight down the path in front of him, which lead up the side of a small hill he couldn't make out the top of thanks to the forest's plantlife. He didn't have much of a choice; he could either keep going, and try to avoid whatever the noise was, or he could turn around and... still be stuck in the woods and not heading home. Okay, so maybe he didn't have a choice at all. Maybe if he just waited it out, whoever was yelling would leave... but what if they were shouting because they were being attacked by something? His curiosity piqued, the cat had to go take a look.
Creeping up the side of the hill, his backpack left on the ground at its base to lighten the load, a trembling Yori flattened his ears to lower his profile and carefully peeked up, lying as flat as he could. The sight that greeted his eyes was a strange one. There were three men there, maybe in their late teens, he wasn't a great judge of age, especially given the way they were all facing away from him... and they were definitely tribal. For the most part, they looked like wolves with unusually narrow muzzles, and were covered in midnight black fur – which looked to be in dire need of a good grooming – but sticking out of their elbows and knees, and growing in patches around their chests, backs, and tails were clusters of pitch-black feathers, which also spread out around their necks in strange dark 'manes' of plumage. He'd read about them a long time ago, and if their relatively simple clothes, which were fairly tattered and only covered them from the waist down, didn't give it away, the bizarre feathers certainly did it. Tribals. Members of the Wolfrave tribe, specifically. But what in the worldwere they doing here, so far from their territory? Actually, what were they doing? They were shouting and laughing in a language he didn't understand, their voices shrill and not entirely unlike the squawking of crows, mixed with a canine growl that was only too familiar to Yori's ears. They were all clustered in a semi-circle, facing away from Yori, and they were kicking and punching at something on the ground... as he squinted his eyes, trying to get a better view, he gasped. There was a boy on the ground, and they were beating him senseless! Yori whimpered, the sound just as unnoticed by the Wolfrave trio as his gasp. These were tribals, toughened and strengthened by a life in the wild, and each of these guys was older and taller than even Chet, Yori's perpetual tormentor. But... he couldn't just leave that kid there, they might kill him! Watching the scene before him, it suddenly struck him how similar this seemed to scenes of his own suffering at the hands of the canine bullies at school, and that helped him make a decision. Jumping to his feet, reluctantly bringing his arms before him in the standard boxing defensive stance his father had taught him (one which hadn't done a fat lot of good against Chet's superior size, strength, and numbers), he ran towards the group, heart pounding like a jackhammer. "Hey!" he yelled, as loud as he could, "Leave that kid alone! He's had enough! Do you hear me? Leave him alone!" At the first sound of his voice, the Wolfrave all tensed up and whirled around, glaring at him furiously through beady black eyes that seemed almost lost amongst the fur and feathers, but to Yori's immense surprise, they stepped back, over the boy's prone form, the biggest one letting out a strange rattling noise before he turned to his companions and said something, fast, in that same language from earlier. And then... they turned and ran off into the woods, only one of them pausing to let out a sound somewhere between a squawk and a bark at Yori before he turned to follow his companions, vanishing into the treeline without a trace.
Yori stayed right where he was for a long while, anxiously looking around, afraid they might be sneaking around to get him. Then he heard a soft groan, and turned his attention to the boy they'd been pummeling. He was roughly the same age, or at least the same size, as Yori, and his clothes (which covered more of his body than the Wolfraves' had) and the beaded jewellery he was wearing indicated that he too was a tribal, but Yori couldn't remember what his kind were called. He was considerably less intimidating than the others had been, he looked more or less like a goat... but with patches of what were very clearly scales here and there around his body. With a low, weak moan, the boy opened his eyes a little, and peered up at the cat, confused. His eyes were large and wide, with pupils shaped like a minus sign. He murmured a couple of words that Yori could barely hear even if he had been able to understand them, and then let out a whimper and slumped limply to the ground with a sigh. "Oh, shit," breathed Yori, eyes widening nervously. His mother had forbidden him from saying that word, and she would give him quite the earful if he uttered it where she could hear it, but under the circumstances, it seemed appropriate. "H-hey..." he said looking down at the tribal child's body. He was scuffed and bruised, with little cuts here and there, and his nose was bleeding, but there didn't seem to be any big, scary open wounds, at least not on his front half. The boy did not respond to his voice. "Hey!" Yori said, more insistently, "Can you hear me? I guess you couldn't understand me anyway..." After a moment, he suddenly bent forward, and raised both his arms and his voice. "Aaaaah! I'm a big scary outsider! I'm gonna get you with my technology!" he yelled, waving his arms. The kid didn't react at all, which suggested to Yori that either he really was unconscious and wasn't faking it... or the cat was even less intimidating than he thought. Well, butts. He couldn't just leave the boy here, he could still die of exposure, or those guys could come back... but Yori had no idea where the kid lived, or how they would react if an outsider came in uninvited, carrying his unconscious form. If that rumour about how much they hated the outside world was true, they might exile the kid just for being seen with him! He was fretting over what to do, pacing back and forth, when he suddenly caught sight of something through a gap in the trees: the back of his home! The hill had given the cat the height to see exactly where it was! Looking down at the boy, Yori swallowed and made his decision. "...Hang on for just a second," he said, needlessly, "I'm gonna go get my backpack, and then I'm gonna try and get you help!"
A couple of hours later, Yori sat on a bench, staring down at his feet, wondering how exactly he'd gotten into this situation. It had all seemed so reasonable at the time, but then he'd carried the tribal boy into his home and discovered that his mother was out, and not sure what else to do, he moved him out into the small building behind their fairly impressive home, where Yori's father had set up a personal gym to train and practice while he was home. The family computer in the study wasn't on, and you needed a password that only his parents knew to access it... but the one on his father's desk in the gym didn't have a password, and while Yori usually didn't bother because it didn't have any games on it, it did have access to the Internet. So he'd laid the boy down as gently as he could on top of a pile of workout mats, the softest place he could find, and then used his Dad's computer to look up first aid, hoping his parents wouldn't mind the little addition to their phone bill. He'd done his level best to help, gingerly taking what passed for the boy's shirt off to check his chest for cuts and help wash him off (though he left his 'shorts' in place, being far too embarrassed by the idea of cleaning another boy's bathing suit area, even if it was just to help prevent injuries from becoming infected), then applied salve and bandages he found in a medical kit to the child's cuts. And so, Yori found himself sitting here on a rest bench while the boy slept it off... or slipped into a coma, maybe... and wondering what in the world he was supposed to do now. He'd started to worry that if he told his mother about the boy, they might come and take him away, as if he was a rare animal to be studied. Of course, he had no idea who 'they' were, but he'd seen enough movies to be paranoid. Maybe if he just waited, the boy would wake up and go back out into the woods, and he wouldn't have to worry about this anymore...
After a while, with all the jumbled thoughts of the day spinning around in his mind, Yori stood and groaned, shaking his head. Instead of making himself crazy worrying, he went over to a punching bag and fell into the defensive stance his dad had taught him, and tried to take out his stress on the canvas. With every punch, he thought about Chet and his stupid friends, he thought about being thrown into the woods, he thought about being terrified of those Wolfrave thugs, and more than anything else, he thought about the stress of being worried for a boy he'd never met before, who might as well be from another planet. He started really getting into it, muttering to himself about his problems, picturing the helpless sandbag as Chet Bauer, but he found after a while that the punching was just bringing up his adrenaline and making him more agitated, so he stopped and sighed, leaning against the bag for a moment and closing his eyes. Then the cat walked over to the oversized sink in the corner of the room and splashed water in his face, wiping away the sweat and trying to calm himself. It was mostly working, at least until he turned around and found the tribal boy sitting on his haunches about five feet behind him, staring at Yori in silence with those big round eyes of his.
Looking back on these events, Yori wouldn't be proud of the fact that he responded by letting out a high-pitched yelp and leaning back against the sink. The boy reacted to the sudden noise by leaning back slightly, but otherwise, he seemed totally calm, just staring at Yori with what the cat thought was curiosity. It was hard to read such strange eyes... "Holy crap, you're alive!" Yori gasped, then shook his head, "I mean, I knew you were alive, I just didn't know you were awake. Uhh... Are you okay? D-do you need anything?" A moment of profoundly awkward silence passed, and then he sighed again. "You have... no idea what I'm saying at all, do you?" The child tilted his head to the side and smiled shyly at him. It was such a sweet, innocent grin that Yori couldn't help but smile back. "Well, at least you're not trying to kill me, that's a start I guess..." He bit his lip and thought for a long moment about what exactly to do next. Once he'd taken care of the first aid as best he could, Yori had gone back to his dad's computer to look into the boy's tribe. It hadn't taken long before he'd found what he was looking for; the boy was almost certainly a member of the Wyvram tribe, who were indeed mostly like goats, but who claimed, when last they spoke to outsiders, decades ago, that they were descended from the dragons of legend. Most figured they just wanted to make themselves sound like fearsome warriors to dissuade outsiders from coming to bother them, but it would explain the scales... One of the rumours specific to this tribe was that, like those dragons that were so popular in mythology, they had an unusual knack for picking up languages. Of course, once again that was balanced out by sillier rumours, like the idea that they could fly on leather wings or breathe fire, but it was worth a try... Squatting down to be level with the Wyvram boy, Yori looked his strange guest straight in the eyes. "Name!" he said, rather firmly, and then raised both arms to his chest, adding "Yori. Yori!" He repeated himself as the boy watched silently, and then the cat just waited to see what happened. After a moment, the boy raised a single skinny arm and pointed at the outsider who had saved him. "Yo-ri?" he said, softly, uncertainly, the word obviously strange to him. Yori's face lit up and he grinned, nodding emphatically. "Yes! Yori! My name is Yori." This might actually work!
The tribal child seemed pleased to have understood something, and looked down to his feet for a moment. "Name. Yori. Naaaaaame," he murmured to himself, as if trying out the syllables in his mouth. Then, on a hunch, Yori tried something else. He repeated 'name' just as firmly, and then raised both hands in the direction of the boy, who immediately replied with... something. Something long and complicated. Yori must have shown his confusion on his face, because the goat-dragon child frowned and looked down at his feet before suddenly jumping up to a standing position. "Name!" he cried, grinning, before he suddenly charged towards the started cat, who fell backwards onto his butt only to find the boy moving past him, to the sink, where he stared at the taps on the faucet for a moment before hesitantly turning one. He seemed delighted when cold water began obediently spilling forth into the basin. Turning to face Yori, he pointed directly at the stream with one hand and touched his chest with the other. "Name!" he said, tapping his chest as he repeated the long string of foreign syllables. Yori stood up, curious, as the boy slapped his other hand through the water a few times, pointing directly at the stream and repeating himself. Yori squinted his eyes, struggled to understand... Tilting his head to one side, he gestured at the sink. "...Water?" he asked, making his voice clear and firm, "Your name is water?" To make himself clearer, he grabbed a glass cup off of the side of the sink and filled it up from the tap, then pointed to the cup in his hand. "Water," he said, "Your name is water?" It was a strange name, but then, he had no idea what to expect from tribal names... The boy frowned at that, though, and shook his head vehemently. He unexpectedly lunged forward and took the cup out of Yori's hand, ignoring the startled expression on the iriomote's face, and pointed to it before shaking his head again. "Water is not your name?" Yori suggested, shaking his head as he said the word 'not'. After biting his lip, the boy tried again. He pointed to the glass of water. "Not-name!" He then pointed to the stream flowing from the tap. "Name!" For a moment, Yori wondered whether or not the child understood his words after all, and then, suddenly, it came to him out of nowhere. "...You mean just one kind ofwater," he breathed, his eyes widening. He grinned and pointed to the cup. "Still water. Not name?" The boy hesitated, then nodded. Yori pointed to the sink again. "Running water. Name?" More hesitation than before, and then the boy nodded again. "Name! Run-ning Wa-ter." Yori giggled, feeling excited. This was really working! "Nice to meet you, Running Water," he said, before realizing how odd that name really was. It sounded like something a tribal might name their son, he supposed, but... maybe once he got a few more words into Running Water's vocabulary, he could give him a nickname.
He turned to shut off the water, and found that the boy had disappeared. "Yori!" came the voice from behind him. Turning, he found Running Water over by the punching bag. The dragon-goat raised a hand and touched the bag. "...Chet?" Hearing his enemy's name coming from the tribal boy's mouth caught Yori completely off-guard, and he had no idea what to make of it, until Running Water made a fist and curiously punched the bag. Yori suddenly realized that his guest must have awakened earlier than he thought, and watched him practicing on the bag. He must have muttered Chet's name so many times that Running Water thought that's what the thing was called! As the other boy continued to jab at the bag, Yori walked over and gently touched his hand. The Wyvram child didn't seem all that taken aback, so Yori raised his own arms and faced the bag, running one hand along the front of a forearm to show Running Water how to adjust his own stance. Soon, the two boys were practicing simple jabs and punches together, and Yori found it one of the most entertaining things that had happened to him all year! Eventually, though, he took a break to get a drink, and found Running Water had moved to a window, gazing out at the trees. Walking up next to him, Yori pointed at the woods. "Forest," he said, before something occurred to him. "Uhh... Running Water, are you going to go to the forest?" He gestured to the boy and then out at the trees, but a sad expression came over the other male's face and he shook his head, suddenly avoiding Yori's eyes. A cold feeling emerged in the middle of the cat's chest and he shivered nervously. "Because... because you came here?" he asked, gesturing to the room around them. "Because you met me?" He touched his own chest. Looking up to Yori, Running Water slowly nodded, seeming to understand what the outsider meant, even if the exact wording was unfamiliar to him. Yori swallowed a whimper. So the story was true. Running Water would no longer be welcomed by the Wyvram tribe because he'd been 'tainted' by the outside world. And it was all Yori's fault. The boy seemed fine now, maybe if Yori had just left him there, he'd have woken up by himself after a while and gone home... or maybe those thugs from the Wolfrave tribe would have come back and slit his throat while he was helpless and unconscious. Well, whatever the case, they were in this situation now, and Yori was going to have to make the best of it. Running Water hadn't reacted poorly or with fear when Yori touched him before, so he gently put a hand on the other boy's shoulder. When the goat-dragon looked up, Yori smiled. "Don't worry, Running Water," he said, "I don't know how, exactly, but I'm gonna take good care of you. I promise!" He wasn't sure if the other boy believed him (or understood him), but Running Water smiled back all the same.
* * *
Yori did his level best to keep his word, starting by sneaking some spare bedclothes down to the gym to help make Running Water more comfortable. The tribal boy wasn't sure what to do with the pillow, but he did seem to appreciate the blanket, wrapping it around himself like a cocoon as he laid down on the pile of mats. That night, Yori also brought down some leftovers from dinner, which his guest gratefully accepted, though Running Water showed absolutely no interest in eating meat, so Yori made a point of bringing just fruits and vegetables from then on instead. This went on for a few weeks, with the Wyvram boy learning more and more words from Yori, who never seemed to run out of objects to name, but had a little more trouble explaining more intangible ideas like, well, 'idea', or 'thanks', or 'friends'. Fortunately, Running Water proved to be a remarkably fast learner, picking up enough English that before long the two of them were having actual conversations, even if they were really simple. Eventually, Yori did indeed give his new friend a nickname, and after struggling for the better part of an hour to get him to understand the concept of nicknames, Running Water happily accepted the title of 'Ran', which Yori thought suited him quite well. Things were going swimmingly for Yori, who felt for the first time since he'd started going to a public school that he had a real friend. But a few weeks after he met Ran, he had just carefully gathered some leftovers on a plate and stepped out of the kitchen when he came face to face with Anna Hartmüt, his mother, standing in the hallway with her arms crossed. Yori just barely managed to swallow his surprised yelp as he tried not to look nervous and failed miserably. "H-hi Mom," he said, smiling unconvincingly, "What's up?" "Heya, Yori," Anna said, pleasantly, "Where are you headed with all that?" Looking at the plate of microwaved food like he was surprised to find it in his hand, Yori forced his ears to remain straight up. "What, this?" he asked, as his tail slowly moved between his legs, "I'm going out to D-Dad's gym, wanted to work out and I was g-gonna, you know, bring this out in case I got, um, hungry..." The elder feline gave him a Look, and Yori instinctively shuddered. When she gave him that Look, it felt like she could read his mind. "I remember you used to take a snack out to the gym, like a sandwich or a couple of apples or something," she said, gesturing to the plate, "That's a couple of baked potatoes, a few carrots, and some corn. If you eat all that while you're working out, you'll get sick." Yori began to tremble, already sweating. "I... I... uhh..." Out of nowhere, Anna chuckled, her whiskers twitching in amusement as she gave him a wry smile and mussed up his hair. "I noticed you making your little deliveries a while ago, sweetie, it wasn't exactly hard to notice the leftovers going missing," she said, "Look, I understand, you're lonely, you spend a lot of time out in the yard, there's a big forest right there, so you're bound to run into a little companion sooner or later." To say that Yori was taken aback was rather an understatement. "R-really? You're okay with this?" he asked, dubiously. Anna nodded, stepping out of his way. "Of course!" she said, "Just tell me if it starts acting strange or sick, and please, don't let it into the house!" She started walking away as she said this, and as Yori headed out the door, he looked back at his mother strangely. "Uh, thanks Mom..." He closed the back door behind him, still thinking to himself. Rather rude of her to refer to a tribal as an 'it'... It took until he opened the door to the gym for the real meaning of her words to sink in. A 'little companion'? She thought he'd found and adopted some kind of animal, and wanted to raise it like a pet! It took Yori a while to explain to Ran why he was laughing as he brought the goat-dragon some dinner.
As Ran's grasp of English grew, so too did the depth of their conversations, until Ran was finally able to tell Yori a little about himself. Despite their dragon heritage (which Ran was obviously very proud of), his people were herbivores, a group of hardworking farmers who liked to freely trade their crops and other wares amongst the other tribes who lived in the wild, unlike some who were known for being fierce isolationists, not just from the outside, but from other tribals as well. Running Water himself had always been a little too trusting and spacey for the Wyvram tribe's liking, though, and after his gullibility had lead to some kind of miscommunications and trouble within the tribe that Yori didn't quite understand, their leaders decided that Ran needed to toughen up in order to face the harsher realities of life. So, in an effort to teach him what he needed to know, they had him undergo a traditional tribal challenge, where he would go to live by himself for a time in a shelter the Wyvram had constructed near the edge of the woods, with the idea being that he would learn to fend for himself in the wild, and learn how to avoid the danger of outsiders. Ran had actually been looking forward to it, in a strange way, as he'd always been fascinated by the odd culture of the outsiders, though he'd learned to keep this interest hidden from the other members of his tribe, who considered it very unseemly and even dangerous. Living on his own would be tough, but at least he'd be able to observe the outsiders. At least, that's what he'd thought until he reached the shelter and found it already occupied. The three Wolfrave that Yori had chased off were known to Ran's people; the Wolfrave as a tribe were known for being hunters who lived by a strict code of honour, which ordered them never to steal from or kill another sentient being, and that they should live off the fat of the land instead of accepting food from others. If anything, their major flaw was being too prideful over the strength of their culture. These three, on the other hand, were terribly lazy and much preferred to cheat and steal their way to success, so they had been exiled from the Wolfrave after one broken rule too many – Ran's tribe didn't know the exact details – and since then the three of them had wandered the wilds together, stealing other peoples' things and claiming empty homes as their own until chased away, as they were also terrific cowards – though they weren't above a little violence when they had an advantage. Their names were Icks, Spad, and Phlox, in no particular order, since they didn't even care enough about the code of honour to designate one of them an actual leader, and bickered fairly often about who was giving orders at any given moment. The Wyvram tribe referred to them as 'the Trouble Trio', which Ran assured Yori was a much more insulting name in his native tongue. Seeing an empty spot to keep them warm and dry at night, the three of them had claimed the Wyvram shelter for their own, and an unsuspecting Ran had walked right in, stumbling across the Trouble Trio in what he referred to as 'a private moment'; Yori's young mind immediately conjured up a number of questions, but Ran didn't want to go into detail. The point was, the Trio were, as Yori put it when Ran struggled for the right words, super pissed about Ran wandering into 'their' new lair, and had immediately chased him out into the woods. They may have been cowards, but there were three fully-grown men on one side, and only one young, scared Ran on the other. What followed was quick and unpleasant, and was about where Yori had entered the scene.
It was around this time that Ran made a confession to Yori, while the two of them sat on a log under the trees in full view of Yori's backyard, since Yori's mother was out that night and could not spy them through a window. Ran told the cat that since he'd been sent out this way to live on his own for a while, his people actually had no idea he'd contacted the outside world. He was still here with Yori because he wanted to be. "Everyone else... j-judge me, say I not do things right... Not strong enough for the Wyvram." he said, softly. It was far from perfect English, of course, but he'd picked up so much, so quickly, that Yori was astonished. "Yori... Yori help me, take me to his home, get me better..." the goat-dragon continued, slowly looking up into his friend's eyes, "Yori... you save me." He swallowed and blushed. Looking at his friend's rosy cheeks and gentle eyes, Yori suddenly felt warm and embarrassed, but he wasn't sure why, so he tried to ignore it. Finally, after a moment of deliberation, Ran tilted his head to the side before reaching out and putting his hand on one of the cat's shoulders. "Ran and Yori... friends?" he asked, quietly. Yori grinned widely and mirrored the gesture, putting his hand on Ran's other shoulder. "Yes," he replied, emphatically, "Of course we're friends! Ran and Yori, good friends!" The other boy smiled from ear to ear and bleated happily. After a moment, Running Water indicated the gym building with a wave of his hand. "Yori... want to train?" he asked, seeming much more comfortable. "Sure!" the cat replied, getting up. Ran frowned just slightly. "Ahh... Sure means yes, yes?" he asked, uncertainly. Yori chuckled and nodded. "Yes, yes it does. Come on, let's get some punches in before it gets dark, I wanna practice my uppercuts some more!"
* * *
The days passed, and Yori and Ran continued exercising together, continued learning together. And, of course, being young boys, they spent a lot of time running around and playing together, with Yori teaching an eager Ran about the mysteries of outsider life, and Ran showing Yori things he'd never realized about life in the wild, like which berries and mushrooms were good to eat and which weren't, and how to spot carefully camouflaged animal nests. They were always careful to give the area immediately around the Wyvram shelter a wide berth, worried that the Trouble Trio might have returned, and that this time they wouldn't be scared off by a little boy from the outside. Ran picked up on Yori's worry that his mother would discover his new friend in the gym, since he still didn't know how she would react, and took it upon himself to construct a little 'nest' in the branches of a large tree behind the Hartmüt home, sleeping there on many nights when it was warm and dry.
After several months, Yori was beginning to wonder how he'd ever gotten along without Ran, who was always there to help him feel better if he had a crummy day. Somehow, he discovered, the gentle and soft-spoken Ran was capable of making him feel better than Chet and his cronies could make him feel worse. He didn't really pick up on it until his mother commented one day that it was nice to see him smiling more often. Unfortunately for Yori, she wasn't the only person who noticed the improvement to his mood...
Yori sighed as he headed home. It hadn't been the worst day of school he'd had, but it hadn't been the best, either. He wasn't looking forward to slogging through his math homework, but at least the new book his English class was reading seemed interesting so far. And hey, he hadn't been hassled by anyone in days! Well, he'd gotten some pretty dirty looks from Mike and Jim in the hallway, but without their leader, they were harmless more often than not. Feeling better with every step he took homewards, Yori stepped onto his street and followed a shortcut around the back of the house on the corner, so he could walk along the treeline and arrive home from the backyard. He'd made it a habit these days, so he could greet Ran and tell him about his day. But no sooner had he stepped under the branches when he heard a voice behind him. "Where you going, Fartmoot?" asked Chet Bauer with a sneer, "Practicing for when your family kicks you out and you have to live in the trees?" Looking behind him with a gasp, the iriomote cat was horrified to find that the German shepherd had followed him home from school! "Chet!" he cried, "What are you – you can't – I'm –" Chet cut off his protests with a single punch to the gut that took the wind out of the younger boy quite effectively. "Shut up, buttwad!" Chet growled, "I just don't get it! You're scrawny, you're dopey-looking, you don't have any friends, but you're always so damned happy!" Yori looked up at the bully and felt a shiver run down his spine. Chet was almost always mean unless a teacher was around, but usually he would just slap someone around a little, have his goons hold their victim in place while Chet gave the poor sap a couple of chest punches that hurt but usually only just left a mark. Usually, he had a sadistic smile on his face, or was laughing at somebody else's misfortune. Now, though, the shepherd's ears were pinned back aggressively and he was baring his teeth at Yori; this was no tough guy routine, and there was no one else around to impress. Chet was furious at him! But why? He hadn't pulled that punch either, Yori had almost dropped to the ground from that one hit alone. Distantly, he thought his father might be embarrassed by that, but then he remembered that even his father wasn't known for getting into fights with guys who were fully twice his size. Chet stepped closer and shoved him, hard, and he stumbled backwards, trying not to panic. "Well? Nothin' to say for yourself?" the dog spat, "No trick to bein' happy you want to rub my nose in? It's no secret you think you're better than me, I can see it in your eyes!" "Wh-what are you talking about?" Yori asked, legitimately confused, "I never –" He interrupted himself with a yelp as he jumped backwards and just managed to avoid a roundhouse punch to the face. He quickly decided now was not the time to press his luck, and turned to flee.
"Get back here, you little prick!" yelled Chet, chasing after him, and Yori sprinted as hard as he could towards his home, his backpack feeling like a heavy iron weight. How could none of the neighbours have heard all this? But as he looked across at the windows of the other houses, he saw no curtains pulling aside, no faces peering curiously out at him, it was like the entire block had gone out at the same time. "P-please, Chet!" he pleaded, genuinely afraid, "Don't hurt me!" The shepherd just laughed and kept coming after him. Yori's heart was pounding in his chest, his lungs hurt, and he was close to total, blind panic, but he was so close, almost home, surely the bully wouldn't follow him into his own house? He never got to find out, as no sooner had he set foot into the backyard before his momentum came to an abrupt end, Chet having closed in and grabbed hold of his backpack. He had time to gasp 'oh no' before he was pulled backwards, and then shoved forwards, hard enough to send him down to the ground in a heap. On the ground, the cat struggled to get his pack off, and then scrambled to his feet. But no sooner had he gotten back up when Chet let him have it with a punch to the side of his head that was harder than any Yori could remember receiving before. He staggered away with a yelp, and before he could come back to his senses, it was followed up by a straight jab to the face that sent him stumbling backwards, pitching back down to the grass, feeling his nose bleeding. "Stop, stop!" he cried, holding his arms in front of his face. Chet just growled menacingly at him and dropped down, straddling Yori's waist as he brought his fists back up, trying to punch past the smaller boy's arms. The cat did his best to block, remembering his lessons with his father, but even when he took those punches to his arms, they really hurt, and he didn't think he'd be able to kick the shepherd off or scramble out from under him. Why in the world was Chet so angry? As he whimpered in pain, tears in his eyes, Yori wondered if he was actually about to die.
Suddenly, off to the side, there came a very loud bang, and Chet paused in his pummelling to look towards the unexpected noise. On the ground, Yori dared to look too, every part of his upper body aching. He prayed he'd see his mother stepping out of the house, but the sight that greeted his eyes was instead that of Ran leaving Yori's father's gym, a surprisingly intense expression on his face. "What the hell?" Chet asked out loud, totally caught off-guard by the sight of the tribal boy on Yori's property. Suddenly more afraid for his friend than he was for himself, Yori took a deep breath, intending to yell at Ran to, well, run, but it caught in his throat and he fell into a coughing spell instead. The dragon-goat's fists curled up at his side, and to Yori's (and Chet's) surprise, he started sprinting straight at them, shouting at the top of his lungs in his people's language. Running Water had tried to return the favour and teach Yori some of his words, but Yori found it much more difficult to learn than his friend had, so he had no idea what Ran was saying as he charged up. Chet leaped off of Yori like he had suddenly become red hot and quickly backstepped away from Ran's quickly-approaching form. "Holy crap, is that a goddamn tribal?!" the German shepherd gasped, "What in the f–" His profanity was interrupted as Ran unexpectedly closed the distance between them by leaping straight towards Chet with his powerful legs. Chet cried out in shock and fear, even though Ran washalf his height, and he froze up with panic for a second, which gave Ran the opportunity to fall into the boxing stance Yori had been teaching him and drive one of his fists straight into the bully's gut. Chet let out a choked cough and stumbled backwards, tripping on Yori's backpack and unceremoniously falling back onto his butt. Without the slightest hesitation, Ran followed up his first attack by slamming a roundhouse punch into Chet's face so hard that even Yori winced. The knuckles on both of Ran's hands were covered in scales – a universal feature among the otherwise uniquely patterned Wyvram, apparently – and the cat did not envy Chet the feeling of those scales rasping against his face. Just like that, the German shepherd fell back with a groan, out cold.
An eternity passed in the next moment as Ran stood there, fists at the ready, in case Chet was faking, and Yori trembled in the grass. Then, as he began to realize that the danger was past, that he was going to be okay, Yori's trembles got worse, and he started shaking, his whole body wracked with sobs as he cried in pain and relief, a very strange combination of feelings. The dragon-goat immediately turned towards him, concern flooding over his face. "Yori!" he yelped, taking a knee next to his friend, "He's asleep, are you okay?" Yori almost smiled at Ran's tendency to still use simpler words like 'asleep' in favour of more complicated ones like 'unconscious'. Almost. Instead, he just whimpered, and Ran reached down and took his arms, pulling him up into a sitting position, and then helped him stand, supporting the other boy's weight as they made their way to the house. Yori managed to unlock the door with the keys in his pocket, and then they were inside, with the door between them and Chet. As Ran sat him down on the couch, Yori whimpered again, taking hold of his friend's arms. "Ohh... oh Ran, I was so s-scared," he whispered, "I thought he was g-gonna kill me... but you saved me. You saved me..." Ran smiled at him uncertainly. "Just like you saved me, Yori..." he replied, almost shyly, as if uncomfortable with the attention, "What do we do now? Do you need, umm... m-medicine?" Yori reached up and wiped the blood away from his nose with a sleeve, relieved to find that it didn't seem to be flowing anymore. "I don't know..." he admitted, "I'll call my Mom, she'll know what to do..." Suddenly a thought popped into his head, and he frowned again. "Oh no, I left my bag outside..." Ran nodded and started to get up, smiling gently. "It's okay, I'll go get it," he suggested, "and then bring you the phone... after you tell me where it is." Even as he said the words, Yori felt a surge of strange fear, and dragged the other boy down to the couch, pulling him in close for a warm, tight hug. "N-no!" he gasped, "Don't l-leave me, Ran..." The dragon-goat froze up for just a moment, surprised, and then he gingerly returned the gesture, raising his arms and wrapping them around the trembling cat. It distantly occurred to Yori that this was the first time he'd actually hugged Ran, but at the moment, he was just focused on how it made him feel better.
"Thank you, Ran..." he whispered, sniffling, "Thank you s-so much..." Running Water made a habit, appropriately enough, of bathing in a coldwater stream out in the forest, mostly by scrubbing his fingers through his fur and across his scales, without soap, so in this tight embrace, Yori could pick up the not-entirely-pleasant smell of the other boy's sweat amidst his natural scent. But that didn't bother him at all, not now, because he just felt so much gratitude, so much comfort, so much... Well, he felt a lot of things, actually, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered, except staying in Ran's arms where he felt safe. As he calmed down, his mind gradually emptied of thoughts, and Yori started acting on feline instinct, nuzzling against his friend's cheek, something a lightly-churring Ran seemed to find just as soothing as Yori felt from doing it. The goat-dragon began to gently rub Yori's back, whispering to him in his own tongue with words that Yori didn't understand, but which sounded calming all the same. Eventually, one or both of them leaned back, and Ran started to speak, but he only got as far as the cat's name before Yori's feline instincts took him in a curious direction. Leaning forward, he interrupted Ran by opening his mouth and licking the front of the surprised tribal's muzzle, lightly dragging his tongue across the other boy's lips, and even grazing his own tongue, which had been extended as he moved to speak. Obviously shocked, Ran inhaled sharply, and as his mind caught up with his actions, Yori leaned back and gasped, his cheeks turning beet red. "Oh – ohmigosh, I – I'm sorry, I didn't – I don't know – I, I..." Ran giggled nervously and shrugged, now blushing just as hard as Yori. "It's okay..." he said, self-consciously, "Is – is that an outsider thing? To do with your friends?" Swallowing a whine, Yori shook his head. "N-no... I don't know why I did it..." he admitted, ears lowering again. Ran smiled shyly at him and patted him on the back. "It's okay, Yori," he repeated, softly, "I... I kinda liked it." With that, he stood up from the couch, seemingly totally comfortable, while the battered cat sat there, trying to work through the embarrassment and confusion. "So... yes, I'm going to go get your bag, and then I'll come back and get you the phone," Ran repeated, happily, "I hope your mother can help." Yori could only nod silently, still trying to work out what had gotten into him...
Once Anna Hartmüt returned home, desperately worried about her son, Yori had had Ran hide in the bathroom while he told his mother the story of what had just happened. He started with the bit where he was attacked by Chet and saved by a friend to avoid 'freaking her out all at once' with the bombshell of their little secret, only bringing the dragon-goat out in the open once the obvious question of 'who's your friend Ran' had been asked. The elder cat hadn't exactly been thrilled to discover months after the fact that her son had been spending much of his time with a tribal, nor that he'd met Running Water by chasing off three much larger tribals who had been abusing him. Yori, in turn, hadn't been thrilled when Anna wondered aloud what his father was going to think of this when she called him in the morning. Ran, on the other hand, seemed totally fine with the current state of affairs, introducing himself in only slightly broken English to Yori's mother and shaking her hand, a gesture he'd been taught but never really got to use before. With the explanations out of the way, Anna had gently examined Yori's wounds, determined that he was going to be fine, if rather sore for a while, and then called Chet Bauer's father to tell him what happened and get him to come pick up his son... who by then had woken up and was sitting perfectly still in a chair in the living room, afraid both of the potential legal fallout of his actions and of the tribal boy who refused to let Chet out of his sight. The German shepherd who rang their bell after that had stress lines all over his face and a frown that seemed to be his default expression. It was a fairly surreal experience for Yori, seeing the fearsome bully so obviously intimidated by someone; Chet's ears had flattened against his head the instant the doorbell rang, and they didn't budge an inch for the rest of the time Yori could see him that night. For what it's worth, he sounded sincere when he apologized to Yori, but then, if Yori's Dad looked as angry with his son as Chet's father did, he supposed he'd be pretty sorry, too. After that, Anna had politely (but very firmly) asked Yori to send Ran outside so they could talk. What had followed felt like the longest conversation of his life, but to Yori's relief, his Mom eventually told him she wasn't going to 'turn Ran over to the government', as Yori had feared, and she'd even reluctantly agreed, after realizing how much good the tribal had done for Yori, to let her son keep seeing him – for now, that is, at least until she talked to his father.
Now, a few hours after the whole thing had gone down, Yori headed outside into the cool light of sundown, which he couldn't see on this side of the house. The forest already looked pretty dark, and he hurt all over, but when he saw Ran waiting for him on their log, he found he wasn't the least bit afraid. He went and sat down next to the goat-dragon, who said nothing. After a moment of hesitation, Yori put his arm around his friend, who tensed up for a second and then relaxed. Yori just sat there for a moment, and then looked over at Ran. "I wanted to thank you again for saving me," he said, softly, "my Mom wants to thank you too, but I think this is a lot for her to take in, so it prolly won't be tonight. She, um, she did say we can keep hanging out." Ran smiled at that and nodded. "That's good," he replied, "I'm happy." Yori smiled back. He liked that simple way of putting it. "I guess this means you can start coming into the house," he thought out loud, "But uh, let's try not to make a mess or anything. I think Mom's having enough trouble with the idea that my best friend is a tribal..." At that, Ran looked up in surprise. "Really?" he asked, eyes wide. Yori shrugged, confused, even as he nodded. "Well, sure, I mean, as long as we don't leave muddy tracks in the carpet, or get food all over the kitchen, it should be fine..." Ran shook his head and frowned slightly. "No! The – the other thing!" he said, "Umm... am I really your best friend, Yori?" The young feline was slightly taken aback, but he smiled and chuckled softly. "Of course you are, Ran!" he replied, "I've never felt as close to anybody as I feel with you, even other outsiders!" The other boy bleated happily and gave Yori a quick hug, beaming from ear to ear. "That's awesome!" he cried, using a word he'd heard Yori use on many occasions, "Because I've felt the same for some time now! I've never been somebody's best friend before..." he frowned for just a second, an expression Yori had gradually learned meant Ran was concentrating on some aspect of outsider language or society he wasn't 100% clear on. "...Would this be a good time to offer a high five?" he asked, totally sincere. Yori laughed and held his hand up. "Absolutely." After they struck a satisfying slap together, the two of them got up and started walking towards the house.
"Come on, you can sleep in my room tonight, we can get a sleeping bag or something," Yori said. Ran nodded, grinning enthusiastically, then took on a thoughtful look. "Yori, I was wondering..." he said, "I saw a thing in the bathroom, and I realized it's the shower you've talked about before, where you get clean." "Okay, what about it?" the cat asked. His friend scratched at the back of his neck self-consciously. "Well... you always make it sound like you get so much cleaner than the stream," he replied, "And your fur always smells so good..." This casual comment made Yori blush, but Ran didn't seem to notice. "Do you... think you could show me how it works?" he finally asked, "I've never seen a machine like it before, and I don't know which of the bottles in there are which potions." Normally, Yori would have grinned at his use of the word 'potions' there, but now he just blushed harder. "But... in order to show you that, I'd have to be in there with you!" he protested. Ran looked at him blankly. "So?" he asked, clearly not getting it. "No, I mean I'd have to be in there with you, and we'd both have to be, you know... naked!" Yori said, his cheeks burning. Ran giggled. "I don't know why you outsiders are so embarrassed about your bodies," he said, "I'd seen my whole tribe naked by my tenth year. It's not like we can all find our own streams to wash in. What's the difference?" Lowering his ears in embarrassment, Yori instantly thought to himself that this idea was very different indeed, but he didn't even want to dwell on it long enough to explain things to Ran. "Oh, alright," he surrendered, reluctantly, "Maybe if we wear bathing suits... B-but let's wait until a day when my Mom isn't home, she'd have a conniption fit if she caught us. And that means she gets super, super mad, before you ask." As they finally reached the back door to the house, Yori paused with his hand on the handle, and looked to his friend. "Hey, Ran... Can I ask you your opinion?" Ran smiled and nodded. "Sure." Yori turned away and stroked a hand along the back of his head, just above where it met his neck. "I was thinking of maybe growing my hair out a little longer..." he said, "do you think it would look good?" "Well..." came Ran's voice, sounding reticent, "I guess I'd need to see it first..." When he turned back around, Yori actually laughed out loud at the expression on Ran's face. "Oh come on, it wouldn't be that bad! Would it?" he laughed, as he opened the door and stepped inside with his best friend. He hadn't been lying or exaggerating earlier. He and Ran may have started out worlds apart, but in the months they'd known each other, they'd grown so close that Yori almost felt like Ran was a part of him.
* * *
As the door closed behind the laughing children and the dark backyard fell silent, three pairs of eyes watched in perfect silence from the branches of a fairly large tree, hidden from casual observation by the many leaves, their scents blown away from the house on the breeze. They were lazy, mean, and cowardly at heart, but if there was one thing the Trouble Trio were very, very good at, it was hiding. If there were two things, the other one was holding a grudge. The three Wolfrave had come to the house, drawn closer by all the screaming and shouting before – some of it in a language that meant something to them, not like the incessant, meaningless babble of the outsiders. As the door closed, Icks inhaled deeply, his feathers fanning out for a moment in agitation. "So," he said, breaking the silence they'd maintained for hours, "the boy is hiding with some outsider trash. I wondered what happened to him after that savage interfered with us." Spad stroked his long, thin muzzle and nodded. "And now he's returned the favour, even," he observed, "He could barely run when he disgraced us, I wonder where he learned to throw a punch like that." Phlox crept forward and swung down, sticking his head under the branches, safely hidden from view by the dark, leaning forward to try and get a better view of the strange, boxy outsider house. "Do you think his tribe has exiled him, the way we were punished by those honour-bound idiots?" he asked, idly, "Why else would he be nesting with these... these creatures?" Since there was no way any of them could know, the others treated it as a rhetorical question. After a moment, Spad turned to Icks and frowned. "Did you understand any of that conversation they had on the log?" he asked. "Not a word," the other Wolfrave replied, scratching behind one ear, "But they sure got excited about it. I wonder why they slapped each other's hands..." Pulling himself back up, Phlox let out a low, trilling growl. "Bah, it doesn't matter what they were talking about!" he snapped, "It doesn't matter why he's out here, or where he suddenly learned to fight, or what the outsiders want with him!" He pointed to the big house and sneered. "All that matters is that he's in there, protected by those people, with their bizarre ways and evil weapons! We'll never get him now! I told you we should have grabbed him while he was sitting on that log!" Icks stepped forward, getting right in his face, and growled back, and for a moment, it seemed like the two of them would get into a fight right there in the tree. It would hardly be the first time there was a fistfight between some of them, though the location was admittedly a novelty. This time, though, instead of just watching, Spad stepped in and forcefully separated them. "Enough! They'll hear us, and bring their weapons and strange magic to use against us!" he hissed, before turning directly to Phlox. "And I told you, it was too dangerous to grab him before; this place is crawling with outsiders, and most of them weren't kittens!" he said, which seemed to pacify Phlox just slightly. Spad put his arms around his brethren and gathered them in conspiratorially for a huddle. "No, what we need to do now is look at the bigger picture, boys," he whispered, "Yes, he's in there, but outsiders don't move their homes with the seasons like our kind do, so we know he'll be in there for a long, long time," he said, "But sooner or later, the time will come when they let their guard down, when he feels safe and secure here... when we find our moment to strike. No, boys, we aren't beaten yet, we just need to go back to what we're best at, stealing food and supplies from the weak and pathetic, while we wait for our day to come." All three of the Wolfrave were soon wearing identical sharp-toothed smiles. "We'll get that boy and his little friend, alright," Spad hissed, "We just need to be patient..."
Yori Hartmüt has not had a great day. He's got homework, he's been picked on, and now he's ended up stuck in the Everschade Forest. The little cat's path home is gonna do more than provide a nice sightseeing tour, though. It's going to change his life for the better...
, also known as DumPaup over on SoFurry, and it's the first half of a projected two-part story. This half is totally squeaky clean, aside from some swearing here and there, so everybody can enjoy it.
It should probably be noted that unlike most commissions where it's kind of ambiguous, this one absolutely does not take place in the same world as all my stories, and instead takes place in a universe of the commissioner's creation.
Anyway, DumPaup seemed delighted with this story, and I hope you guys like it too. n_n
DumPaup over on SoFurry, and it's the first half of a projected two-part story. This half is totally squeaky clean, aside from some swearing here and there, so everybody can enjoy it.
![[Commission] Going Home](https://va.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/1315/1315444_TastesLikeGreen_dumpaupsecond.jpg "[Commission] Going Home")
