The hyena was inches away from Citrus's face. Before Citrus could say anything, she growled, "I did you a favour last night, kid. So keep your trap shut and go get your pals." and she walked off.

So he did. He ran back to where he left Whippy and Peppercorn, and they had already woken up.

"Citrus? Where'd you go?" Peppercorn asked, sitting up.

"I uh... Not anyplace important. But you guys... what happened last night, exactly?" Citrus asked.

"Well," Whippy said, his face looking like he had realized someone killed his parents. "Lemme at those sons of a bi- OW!"

Peppercorn had bit Whippy's tail. She looked at him and growled, "As you were saying," walking over towards Citrus. "A bear attacked. Well, multiple, actually. A grizzly, two black bears, and a polar bear."

"What? Why though?" Citrus asked, scratching his head. "We'll figure it out, I guess. C'mon. Let's head into the actual city instead of sitting around in a huge forest."

Whippy and Peppercorn nodded. Peppercorn lead the way until they got to the hospital.

"I should probably get this looked at." Peppercorn said, looking down at her missing arm. She walked into the building and disappeared behind the sliding doors.

"So... I think we sh-" *GROWWWWWWWL* Citrus was interrupted by the sound of grumbling. And to nobody's surprise, it was Whippy.

"Sorry, tiny, but I'm starving. Can we grab some food first?" Whippy mumbled.

"Fine."

They walked over towards a small red brick building. There were six tables, two with two chairs and the rest with four.

"Hello." Their waitress was a red panda, which wasn't red- black fur replaced the red fur of the red panda. "What can I get for you folks?" She said in a southern accent.

"I'll have a salad, please." Citrus asked.

"Surprise me!" Whippy said. He was doing finger guns and winking at the now flustered waitress.

"Oh, brother..." Citrus hissed, facepalming.

"A-alright..." The waitress said, scribbling down their orders as fast as she could. She retreated to the kitchen area.

"Nice going, ya idiot." Citrus hissed.

"Oh, buzz off." Whippy snapped.

A while later, the waitress came back and quickly placed their orders onto their table.

"Have a nice day." She said, looking at Whippy. She scurried away and back towards some other tables.

On their table laid a Cesar salad for Citrus and a bowl of spicy salsa drenched in a black, sticky liquid for Whippy.

Citrus ate some of his salad and smirked as Whippy ate a spoonful of the salsa and almost barfed.

"What the heck is in this thing?!" Whippy gasped, swallowing. "It's the chef's special- squid ink salsa." The red panda waitress replied from inside the kitchen, yelling.

Citrus broke out in laughter and exclaimed through teary eyes, "Squid ink!"

"Oh, shut up, you wormy dirtbag!" Whippy scowled, smacking Citrus with his tail.

"Why don't you shut up, fish for brains?" Peppercorn smirked.

"Are you alright? I-is everything ok with you?" Citrus asked. Pepper nodded as Citrus sighed in relief.

"They said that I should've come sooner, how it could've gotten infected, blah blah blah. But yeah, I'm pretty ok. Now why does Whippy over here look like he just got asked to a dance by a cherry-lipped ocelot?" Pepper said, looking over at Whippy.

"I ate..." Whippy mumbled. "Squid ink salsa."

"What the? Why would you do something like that, you idiot!?" Pepper asked.

"He tried fliiiiirtiiing with the waitress." Citrus said, sounding like a child.

"You feather-brained badger." Peppercorn hissed before saying, "C'mon, lets check the police centre to see if they've seen your sisters, Misty and Fritz." Peppercorn said, walking out of the restaurant.

Whippy and Citrus followed Pepper until they reached the police station. Inside there were two counters- one that had a long line-up for crime-related stuff (I've never been inside a station before, so shush and don't judge me-) and one for anything else that only had one animal.

Surprise! It was the hyena that Citrus saw earlier. He narrowed his eyes and watched her cautiously.

"Alright, thank you." The hyena said, getting up and walking towards the exit.

"No problem, ma'am." The officer said in a deep, gruff voice. "Next!"

"O-oh!" Citrus ran up toward the counter and began asking the snow leopard behind the desk, "Have you- by any chance- seen two ferrets around here? They're about my height, one of them has pitch black eyes and light blue fur. A-and the other had bright yellow fur with turquoise stripes and blood red eyes."

"I'm afraid I haven't kid," The officer replied. "But I'll ask the others if they've seen anyone fitting that description." He turned around and started talking to the officers in the back. He turned back to Citrus and shook his head. "Sorry, kiddo. Good luck, I guess. We'll ask 'round and you can check back tomorrow, and we'll let you know if we find anything."

"Thank you, officer." Citrus said, a weak smile on his face as he turned back towards Whippy and Peppercorn.

"Anything?" Whippy asked.

"Not that they know of, I guess... But we'll come back tomorrow and see if they found anyone who knows anything." Citrus mumbled, walking out the door.

*OOF*

Citrus bumped into a cat- or what looked like one. It had leaves on its head, back and its face, and a short, stubby tail- hunter green fur, a leaf green underbelly and bright yellow eyes.

And a worried face that kept saying, "I'm sorry! A-are you... alright?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry about that! I'm Citrus." Citrus said, who tried to avoid the look on Whippy's snout that said, Don't try to make friends with every animal you MEET!

"I'm uh... Sap! Right, I'm Sap." They stuttered.

"I'm Peppercorn, and this dork is Whippy." Pepper said, pointing at Whippy. "Nice to meet ya, Sap."

"Same here." Sap said, a small, toothy smile on their snout.

"We should get going. We need a place to stay for the night, don't we? And I am not camping again!" Whippy hissed, looking annoyed at Sap.

"Don't worry about him," Citrus said, smiling. "Whippy's always a grouchy puss."

"I am not! I just don't think we should trust a rando!" Whippy yelled.

"You all can stay at the hotel! Th-that I'm staying at. If you wanna. I could see if you already have another place in mind." Sap said, descending into a mumble of sounds.

"Perfect. Better than being kidnapped." Peppercorn joked.

"Whaaat?"

"We'll explain later." Citrus told Sap.

||A/N:||

So yaaaay another chappo

here ya go pallios

mainly anyone who thought 

I WAS TAKING TOO LONG *COUGHCOUGH*

anywhoozle! Hope you enjoyed it, and yep 

Sap is my Leaflover! :> (Id advertise the species but starcatnova closed the species but its cool!! :>>>)

YEET have fun Kiwis!! <3<3

-Audrey