The Terror Gaze: Book 2 of The Mortal Guard Series

Chapter 29 - King: Ivan's King

Chapter 29 - King: "Ivan's King"

King the red fox laid on his back, completely nude, uncovered. He was pressed flat against the mattress in his study/bedroom, having gone to sleep after a day of crawling around on all fours and being the most in touch with nature he had felt in ages. When the two worlds merged, there would be a lot more of that, and he was excited about it.

Now, the fox stirred, opening his eyes slowly as he was greeted with the sight of the ceiling. Immediately, he felt the presence of someone else in the room, and his eyes skirted toward that direction, stopping on a dark figure in the corner. "Ivan . . . ?"

"King!" Ivan held the book in his hands open, looking up. "You're looking at me again!"

"Oh, wow. You're back." King's eyes moved about the room. "And so is everything else."

"What happened?" Ivan questioned. "You went crazy, running through the halls to Boris' room. I followed you and it was surreal . . . You walked through all of the doors and you refused to acknowledge me."

"I didn't see you, or anything, for that matter." He remained unphased that Ivan was looking upon his full body. Now, he turned and propped himself up on his elbow, tail curled on the bed behind him. "There were no animals, doors, or furniture."

"You and Boris seemed to be all you could see," Ivan stated.

"Ah, so you heard all of that."

"You were right," Ivan sniffed, wiping his nose. "I cried."

"I know you," King smiled. He looked the striped hyena up and down. "Take off your jacket and lay with me?"

Ivan closed the book, slipping off his boots and jacket, which he propped on King's chair he had been sitting in. It was next to a desk, filled with papers scrawled with indecipherable notes only King knew the meaning of. He walked over and lay beside the canine, mirroring his position. Their eyes met.

King sighed. "Fuck."

"What?" Ivan blinked.

"I just realized all the surface-dwellers saw me."

Ivan giggled, a rarity for anyone to see. "I just thought of the funniest thing."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"When you went out to the surface, I tried to stop you since, you know, you weren't wearing any clothes, and none of us had any idea of what was going on. I couldn't go out since it was still daytime and you left anyway."

"Uh-huh . . ." King nodded, following along.

"I'm just imagining how chaotic it must have been for the animals up there, seeing you naked and wandering through cars in the streets like a ghost. I bet cops tried to arrest you but just fell flat on their muzzles, hahahahaha! It was probably a clusterfuck!"

King imagined the scene and snickered. "You're right! Geez, it was probably wild. Some animals were probably into it, to be honest."

"Oh, for sure," Ivan agreed. "Lotsa freaks out there."

"Indeed." King kept his eyes on the hyena, tracing the features of his muzzle and ears. "Wanna go to the game room and talk?"

"Are you gonna try and play me at pool again?! You know I suck at aiming!" Ivan groaned. "You always win!"

"Funny how you're an excellent marksman but a shitty pool player," King smirked. "I like that if I wanna feel good about myself, I just need to play pool against you."

Ivan swallowed. "Now that's just cruel."

"Like when I 'punished' you for injuring Wrath?"

Ivan rested his cheek against the bed, then. "Do you think he bought it?"