Last Shards: A new dawn

Chapter 2

-Tell me! Where is my brother?!-

"He was out here... I know he was." Willow mumbled to herself as she tried to stay calm. "Ash! Come on at least let me know you're safe!" She whispered as she prodded at a bush near the now collapsed den. Nothing. She searched behind the trees. Still Nothing.

"I wonder if the legend means that you and your brother currently have shards..." The same voice from before echoed through the forest. Willow quickly turned back and her eyes darted around, yet again nothing was there. Willow was getting sick of the unknown animal's blabbering. The more they said, the more Willow wanted to snap whoever was talking's neck. She was sick of the animal talking about some weird legend and shards.

"Did you do this?!" Willow barked "Did you take my brother?!" No one answered. Willow took the silence as a yes, "Well then once I find you, I swear I'll kill you!" Willow shook her head, wondering if she was losing her mind. The voice always came from somewhere no one stood and it seemed eerie. She shook it off for a minute and continued walking around.

"Y'know, I might not even be alive." The voice whispered, closer than it was before but not close enough that she knew where it came from. That caught Willow off guard and again made her question her sanity, but then came to a conclusion.

"No, if I'm hearing you it means you're alive so shush or I'm going to ignore you." Willow barked indignantly. The voice quieted down but Willow still heard grumbling. She rolled her eyes and continued on with her search. She padded away from the den and decided to take her search around the entire island.

She searched high and low, mostly low since she wasn't a bird, and found no signs of her brother but every once in a while she heard shuffling coming from somewhere behind. Every single time, she turned back and found nothing. "Ash, where are you?" She asked her surroundings "Just give me a sign that you're alive!" She pleaded. But Ash, and the world, refused to give it to her. She sat and looked out through the trees. She could see what she thought was a large body of water and little shadows darting around in it. "I wonder... could I catch whatever is out there?" She asked herself "I mean I am hungry..."

"Ha! I doubt you will!" The voice from before laughed. Willow ignored it, deciding to give whoever was there just one more chance. She stared at the large body of water a second longer before deciding, "I don't want to get wet. It seems a little disgusting to me."

She let out a huff and looked up at the sky. "W-what?" She whimpered as she noticed the moon rising high above the trees. "There's no chance I'll find him today..."

"You probably won't."

And there went the one strand of patience that Willow had left for the unknown animal. "I said I'd ignore you if you don't shush so humph!" Willow gathered stray pieces of grass and roots then made herself a makeshift nest. She checked her surroundings once more just to be sure that she wasn't missing something and curled up in her makeshift nest. She closed her eyes and struggled to make herself comfortable in the nest. Her first time on her own... She spent a long while trying to get comfortable before she finally did. She waited for sleep to come, but it didn't. She waited and waited. She waited so long she thought she lost her paws! And so she opened her eyes.

There she stood with Ash at her side and another Fox she didn't know. In front of them was a large glowing crystal along with a few others surrounding it. Their surroundings, well their lack of surroundings, were completely dark. Nothing really was visible or if something was, it wasn't distinguishable.

"What do you think we should do now?" The strange fox asked as they padded up to the little pile of crystals and looked back at the two siblings

"I say we should first recall all we've learned about it and ourselves. It could be dangerous so move away from it." Ash informed as he shot the unknown Fox a glare. The Fox rolled their eyes but did as Ash told them.

"So, we know that it's a shard, right?" Willow asked and received nods from the two other foxes "We also know that [REDACTED] knows a legend that says something about the last foxes and shards." The unknown Fox, presumed to be [REDACTED], nodded

"The legend says that-"

"Willow. Willow, Willow, Willow! Wake up right now!" The voice barked urgently, as though worried about something. It continued barking and barking.

Willow stuck her head under her front paws and did her best to ignore the voice as it continued to bark out her name.

"Willow, you eagle dung get up!" The voice growled loudly into her ear.

"What?!" Willow growled as she snapped her head backwards. She heard a bush rustle and let out a gasp, this time she saw a pair of dark green eyes staring back at her from a dying bush just in front of the makeshift nest. Some reddish fur was also visible through the bush's dead leaves.

"There's someone else here."