Chapter 1
I squinted in the bright sunlight and looked around. The Anthros of the Fox Village went around quickly with their work, some on two feet, some on all fours. Gathers stood behind stalls selling the food that they grown over the summer. Hunters dragged in fresh kills to feed their family for that day, and me, I was standing on a roof working on the village Gathering Hall in the heat of the day.
I looked down at my work and saw that I still had several more holes to fix. After that storm yesterday pieces of the roof fell in and who else was there to do it? Me. And only me for that fact. The other workers seemed to disappear when we heard that the roof was destroyed and I was the only one left. They were real friends.
I felt a tug on my tail that made me jump and lose my balance, but I quickly regained it. I turned to see who pulled my tail; it was Iana Crutz. A panther Anthro visting from the Panther Village. “Sorry ‘bout that,” she said with wide eyes.
“It’s okay,” I said politely even though I was kind of ticked that she nearly made me fall.
“I’m lookin’ for a Perosk, I was told that he was at the Gathering Hall.”
“That would be me.” I stood up and jumped off the roof next to her. “What is it you want?”
“I was told that you were workin’ on the roof and your fellow workers disappeared. They found the other workers and they been made to work.” I looked to my left and saw that the workers that abandoned me standing there. “You are to have the day off from working.”
“Thanks. I guess.” Then the other workers stood up and climbed the ladder onto the roof and started to work where I left off. “Is there a catch to this.” I knew my boss and he wouldn’t be the one to let a worker off that easily.
“Yeah, I guess so,” she said shyly. “Your supposed to show me around town. It’s only my second day here.”
I shrugged and simply said, “Follow me.”
I soon learned spending the time with Iana that she was used to being on her own and shy about saying anything. Whenever we went to a place fill of people she’d want to get out of there before we had the time to chat with anyone, but whenever I looked into her piercing yellow eyes I knew she liked seeing the village.
As night started to settle on the village I started leading Iana towards the hut she was staying in. “Thanks,” she said as she reached for the door.
“It’s nothin’,” I replied. “Hey, see if you can get me off work tomorrow by showin’ you around again.”
She laughed. “I will see into that. Night.” She started pulling open the door when a scream pierced the regular sounds of the village. “What was that?” Then a gunshot was heard far off in the woods.
“Humans,” I said with wide eyes. “Run!” I grabbed her paw and dragged her behind me as I ran away from the gunshots. Snouts of Foxes started peeking out of doors to see what the commotion was. “Humans!” I yelled as I ran bye each door bringing the people into an even more confusion.
The Fox Village was on a forested plateau and was very hard to get to the top without help from us. Unless a few Foxes betrayed us they found a way to get up here.
I turned around after realizing I no longer had Iana’s paw and saw that she still followed me close behind her yellow eyes darting to every shadow that we passed. I couldn’t blame her; the humans were a sneaky bunch of creatures.
We finally stopped as we neared the farmlands close to the forest on the far side of the village. I panted with my paws on my knees trying to catch my breath. “How did the humans get here,” Iana asked, “isn’t the plateau supposed to be impossible to get up here without your help?”
“Well, they found away,” I replied. I saw a shadow move in the forest behind Iana. I started to call out to her but I felt a sharp pain on the back of my head and I blacked out.
Hope this is better than the original.
