Last Shards: A new dawn

Chapter 3

-Willow? Where am I?-

Ash woke to complete darkness. He was terrified to say the least. I mean who wouldn't be? He shook his head and blinked multiple times, trying to find out if he was blind or not. He batted around at his surroundings and immediately regretted it as he hit his paw on a rough surface.

"Hey! Watch it furball!" A voice from next to him snarled "Geez. Does no one new know any manners?!" The voice grumbled to itself. 'New?' Ash thought as he tried to remember had happened before he woke beside the other animal

"Hey! Looks like the new Fox has woken up!" A weird sounding voice said and right after it did, Ash heard a click from in front of him "Hey bud, don't be scared." The voice cooed and Ash felt something soft and furless touch his head. He backed away from it and tried barking but failed.

"Come on, I swear I won't hurt you." The soft furless thing grabbed Ash's head and pulled something off. Suddenly, he was able to see again. Ash looked up and saw a pinkish living being smiling at him. The being reached and pulled Ash out of the cold small space he had been in. He looked around and saw one other Fox that looked like him. It was the one that he first heard once he woke up. The Fox just glared at him and the pinkish being.

"Anubis! What are you doing petting the Fox?! It could bite you!" A worried voice gasped from an area nearby. Ash turned and looked around, trying to pinpoint the owner of the voice.

"Theoris, This Fox looks as though it couldn't even hurt a fly!" The being holding Ash laughed as it picked Ash up to its eye level. Ash looked into the being's dark brown eyes and cocked his head to the side.

Just then another living being like the one holding Ash came into the room. The only difference was that the being was darker and had something holding an arm? to their chest. She stared at Ash and 'Anubis' for a second before laughing as Anubis stuck his tongue out and licked Ash's nose. Ash recoiled and stared at Anubis through surprised and weirded out eyes.

"I don't think the little guy liked that!" Theoris laughed as she walked over to Ash and Anubis. She stared at Ash for a long while before hesitantly grabbing him and taking him in her arms like a baby. Anubis raised an eyebrow

"If he didn't then why are you holding him now? Shouldn't you just let him go then?" Anubis asked before walking away to a different room, as Ash decided to call it. Ash looked up at the being holding him, she seemed to be in pain. He wanted her to drop him so she'd stop being in pain. Ash whimpered and the being looked down at him, he pawed at the thing holding her arm to her chest then looked over at the ground.

"I'm sorry little guy, but I can't put you down. Not even if it's hurting my arm." She answered quietly and Ash saw her eyes dart over to where the other Fox sat. "I'm sorry I can't save your entire species." She mumbled to herself. Ash shook his head and nuzzled the arm she was holding him with.

He wanted to say that she should just put him down that he wouldn't run away. He also wanted to ask her if she knew what had happened to Willow. But he still couldn't, his voice seemed to have been gone since before he even woke up. Then he heard foot steps and he noticed Anubis walking back into the room with something in his arms. Anubis smiled at him and opened the area where the other Fox was. He took a circular bowl out of the area with one hand and with the other kept the Fox from leaping at him.

Theoris just watched Anubis fill the bowl with pellets and then do what he did before except this time he put the bowl back in the area with the Fox.

Ash wondered if the beings where going to take him somewhere else and so he tried to maintain every single bit of information he could from this room. The room was white and had some weird looking gadgets sitting on a smooth surface just above the ground. He could see halls leading to other rooms through a hole in the wall. He also saw other foxes hanging on the walls. Although, they didn't really move. They just seemed to be stuck in time.

"So, little Fox could you tell me where Anubis found you?" Theoris asked as she prodded at Ash's ears with one of the weird gadgets from the smooth surface. It kind of tickled. Ash shook his head and looked back up at the being.

"I found him by the old house, Y'know the one by the old Fox nest?" Anubis answered, seemingly nervous. Theoris stopped prodding at Ash's ears with the gadget and looked at Anubis dead in his eyes.

"You did what."

"Heheh..." Anubis laughed nervously "I think he had a sister back there-"

Theoris dropped the gadget on the surface and sat Ash down there too. She then picked up a sharper looking gadget and pointed it at Anubis. "You know d*mn well we can't afford to deal with your f*cking mistakes, right?!"

"I- Well o-of cou-ourse I k-know..." Anubis stuttered as his eyes darted over to Ash and the Fox in its little area. "But..."

Ash looked at the two beings and realized that something was wrong. Very wrong. He took a deep breath and jumped off the surface. Anubis and Theoris stopped arguing and stared at Ash. Ash stared back at them, then bolted out.

"Get that little s*it back!"