Last Shards: A new dawn

Chapter 4

-Oh No. No no no no no!-

"Stop!" Ash tried barking at his pursuers but he ended up coughing loudly. That didn't stop him. He just kept running and running. He noticed that there were many openings in the walls and he just kept running through them and into other rooms.

'Where's the exit?!' Ash thought as he heard something crash into one of the walls. He turned back and saw Anubis on the ground holding a paw to his head and in the other he held one of the foxes that once hung on the wall. Soon after he noticed Theoris roll on in. Literally she rolled right along into the wall and immediately punched Anubis then locked eyes with Ash.

"Come back here little Fox, everything will be alright if you just come over to Amunet~" If Ash couldn't tell something was wrong earlier, now he did. 'Isn't her name Theoris?' He thought, spacing out for a second before realizing, Theoris or 'Amunet' now held him in her one working paw. "See? Nothing bad will happen. Nothing b.." Her voice slowly started to fade away as Ash felt a stinging sensation spread through his body. "I'll see you later."

*+*Skipetty skip skip time (guess who wrote dat!)*+*

Ash woke to complete darkness. "Seems you're awake. Again..." The other Fox from earlier grumbled. Ash assumed that Anubis and Theoris/Amunet had something to do with it and looked around. He was back in the cage where he first woke up.

"Why is this happening?" Ash mumbled, not really expecting an answer as he stuck his paw through the shiny cage's wall-like entrance.

"Good question." The Fox a cage away grumbled. Ash stared at the Fox for a second before noticing the Fox had a shiny thing around its neck.

"What's that thing?" Ash asked as he pointed his left paw to the other foxes neck. The Fox shrugged.

"I think the humans like me better." The Fox stated as it stuck its nose to the top of the cage. "They seem to like checking up on me. Anyway," the Fox lowered its head and stared into Ash's eyes "The name's Gray shrub."

"O-oh.. well that's a-... a peculiar name?" Ash barked. Gray shrub seemed amused by Ash's reaction and after that they rolled their eyes

"I was joking."

"Oh."

"My real name's Irelina."

"Still sounds a little peculiar... but does that mean you're a vixen?"

"Ha! The humans consider be a vixen but I'd say I'm a mix of a vixen, Fox, and a todd!" The Fox chirped and covered its face with its tail as Ash squinted his eyes and closed his jaws tightly. "What are you doing. That face you're making is weirding me out."

"But aren't we all foxes?" Ash questioned as he continued to make the weird face. Irelina rolled their eyes "Just open the cage's door." They barked.

"And how-" Irelina rammed into the cage's entrance and the door popped open. She shoved Ash's cage before jumping out of their own cage. "Just do what I did unless you want to be tested on by the humans." Ash stopped making the weird face and looked at Irelina with a confused look on his face. "Stop making faces and get moving slug paws!" She growled. "The humans will get up and wonder what the barking is all about!" Ash quickly shoved the cage's door, and it didn't budge. "Hey weakling you get one minute! If you don't break the Fudging cage I'll break you!" Ash quickly rammed himself into the entrance and felt the world come crashing down on him.

"Well... that's one way to get out?" Irelina mumbled as Ash felt a pair of jaws close down on the back of his throat and pull him out of the cage which was now broken open and on the ground.

"Huh? W-what's going o-?" Anubis' groggy voice uttered from the doorway on the right side of the room. Both Irelina and Ash froze up as Anubis walked in. They all stared at each other and none of them moved.

"Dude what the hedge is going on?" Theoris mumbled as she stepped into the room. She quickly noticed what was wrong and her eye started twitching. "How fudging great." She growled just before taking a step closer to the pair of foxes. Irelina let Ash go and started growling at Theoris

"You'll have to go through me to get Ash you dirt brain!" 'Where and when do they come up with these weird insults?' Ash thought 'Wow. Why am I literally thinking about this instead of what to do next.' Ash shook his head and ignored every single scrap of worry darting around his brain then started snarling at Theoris and Anubis

"If you two don't let us go, so help me I will not hesitate to bite your feet off!" Ash snarled and received an approving look from Irelina. Theoris laughed

"What? You think snarling and barking will scare us off?!"

"That's already happened-" Anubis mumbled worriedly as he peeked out at the foxes and Theoris from the other side of the door. "Ha! What a coward!" Irelina barked before running off at Theoris "You either move or I will rip you apart!" She barked as she rammed into Theoris' legs and started clawing and biting them. Ash completely forgot the courage he'd had earlier and bolted out the doorway furthest from the humans. He looked back and saw Irelina already following him and quickly catching up. "I'm the ccooowwaaarrrddd!" She laughed as she ran right past Ash and towards another door. This door unlike the others had a little flap near the bottom which seemed to allow a Fox to fit through. "Get over here and out!" She barked as she stopped beside the flap. Ash spared a glance back and saw Theoris just a few paws away from his tail.

Ash made it to the flap and jumped through. As soon as he made it out he noticed he was outside. "Irelina! We're outsi-!" He turned back just in time to see Irelina whimpering and getting dragged right back through the flap and away from freedom.

"No! Irelina!"