Last Shards: A new dawn

Chapter 1

-So... Where to now?

"Wow!" Willow gasped as soon as her mother dropped them on a pile of moss just outside the den. It was AMAZING! There was green everywhere! Green ground fur, green fur on a large brown stick, green moss, the only thing that wasn't green was the thing up above the giant sticks. "What's that? What's that? What's everything out here?" Willow asked as she ran off and started smelling everything

"I think that the thing above the trees-" Ash started then got cut off as Willow ran right back to him looking curious

"What's a tree?"

"Well, the thing above the green furred sticks also known as trees is the sky. And you are currently standing on grass." Ash lectured as their mother watched both of them with amusement.

"Oh! Wow! So many new words for so many new things!" Willow gasped "I want to see the entire island!" Holly flinched a little which ended up making Willow curious about what was wrong with wanting to see the entire island. "So, where are the others?"

"What do you mean by others?" Ash asked as Holly looked away from her pups and up at the sky

"Didn't mother tell stories of other foxes living on the island?" Willow said worriedly, she was really sure about what she'd heard. There were supposed to be other island foxes, right?

"They all left to another world." Holly mumbled to herself. Willow cocked her head to the side in confusion. What other world? Wait- There's another world?! Willow thought in awe

"So what is this other world you speak of?" Ash asked as he sat down beside a furry green- I mean tree. Holly slowly shook her head and instead walked away towards a patch of land with no fuzzy green grass, both Willow and Ash followed their mother. Holly didn't stop once they reached the clearing but she did once they came across a strange looking structure.

"What is that? Is it a no fur den?" Ash asked as he cautiously stepped up to it and gently prodded at it

CREEK

Ash quickly took a few steps backwards looking alarmed. "W-what was that?!" He whimpered as he stared at the 'no fur' den. Holly shook her head and sat down beside Ash, "It wasn't anything that could harm you." She mumbled. It seemed to reassure Ash a little, a very tiny bit.

Willow rolled her eyes and ran right on up to the den "Hey you! Yeah you, you evil weird looking den, Try scaring me you Eagle Dung!" She spat at the structure while her brother looked surprised and worried

"It could end up attacking you!" He squeaked

"Ha! I'd like to see it try!" Willow barked indignantly as she batted at the den with her right forepaw. This time it didn't creak nor do anything, it just stayed there. No one spoke nor moved, eagerly awaiting for the structure to do something.

Then Willow strutted into the place. "What are you doing?!" Ash squeaked "You could get yourself killed! We don't know what's hiding in there!" Willow heard Holly tell him something just to comfort him. 'I won't get myself killed! How could that even happen?' Willow thought just before actually looking at her new surroundings. It was amazing. There were many openings to different places and there were two sets of things to climb to reach the top of it. It was gold and black! She'd heard gold was rare and so she padded up to it and looked at it up and down, trying to figure out what made it so rare.

"You know, some foxes used to say that once very few foxes of a species were left, those foxes would be granted shards at birth." A voice sighed from somewhere deep in the den.

"Who said that?" Willow asked the den. Silence. "I asked who said that?" She asked once more. She heard shuffling. She looked behind her and saw Holly looking creeped out and Ash seemed on the verge of running out. Willow took a deep breath and walked towards where she'd heard the shuffling. As she neared it, the den seemed to creak. She decided against walking over and instead, leaped at it. She ended up landing on a couple of mice, most of which were rotting and covered in worms. "Ew!" Just then the den's roof gave out.

"Run!" Holly barked as she threw Ash out the entrance and rushed over to pick up Willow. A huge piece of the roof fell just as Holly reached Willow and landed on her. Willow started breathing heavily as she saw her mother's eyes roll back into her head

"Willow, come on!" Ash squeaked as he poked his head in then jerked backwards as though something dragged him out. Willow stared wide eyed as her brother let out a screech and quickly ran out, leaving her now dead mother and whoever the owner of the voice was in the collapsing den.

She frantically searched for her brother once she escaped the still collapsing den. He was nowhere in sight. "Ash! Where are you?!" She barked into the growing darkness as the moon rose into the sky. "Bark, or do something! Just let me know you aren't gone!" No one answered. Not even the mouse that had just barely escaped the collapsed den.

"Search for him. Perhaps you'll find he's alive, or not."