"Come on Chestnut and Rusty, we're almost home to our den." Soya called to his pups. Soya was an arctic fox, he had multiple scars oh his sides from many fights while also being above average size with broad shoulders.

"Coming father." The two called back

As they were walking they saw Werne the pups mother come out of some nearby bushes with some squirrels. Werne was a beautiful arctic fox that had a scar on her left hind leg and stood about a head shorter than Soya.

Chestnut was slightly bigger than his brother Rusty but they both were equal for almost everything else, they both knew some basics about fighting and knew how to hunt but their parents insisted on hunting for them.

As they were walking to their den Chestnut heard some rustling from the bushes nearby, thinking it was just an animal he hurried to catch since he had slowed down to see what the noise was. When he looked back at the bushes he thought he saw what appeared to be an arctic fox same as him, however this fox looked different, almost transparent looking. Chestnut could've sworn he saw the bushes behind it.

The fox looked back at him and bowed its head, Chestnut returned the sign of respect and walked back to his family.

"So what do you guys want to do today?" Soya asked them.

"I just want to rest." Rusty said.

"Agreed, come on Chestnut let's go."

When the den came into view they saw a strange red fox standing outside it.

"What are you doing here Zorro?" Soya questioned the fox.

"I came for a chat."

As Zorro walked over to Werne he flicked his tail and suddenly another red fox appeared and jumped on Soya. Zorro attacked Werne and quickly slit her throat killing her, Soya tried to fight but after Zorro attacked he didn't stand a chance.

"Get out of here!" Soya shouted to his pups to did as they were told. As they ran Rusty tripped over a tree root and appeared to sprain his ankle.

"Rusty!"

Chestnut ran back to his brother and attempted to pick him up but he got jumped by Zorro who swiped a claw across Chestnut's face. As Chestnut backed away he felt blood run down his face and everything was blurry to his left.

"Leave me, GO!"

Chestnut listened and took off running in a random direction hoping to escape from Zorro as he heard something chasing him.

After running for what felt like hours Chestnut saw a sheer drop in front of him and made an attempt to stop himself but to his surprise there was a tree root sticking out of the ground and he tripped, rolling over the edge and tumbling a long distance.

Chestnut could feel the soreness and when he made sure he couldn't hear anyone near him he let himself relax.

I'm just gonna lay here for a bit, As he laid there the soreness gave way to another feeling, exhaustion. As he tried harder to fight sleep the harder it became.

As Chestnut was about to sleep he saw that same fox from earlier looking at him with a look of sadness. Seeing the fox made Chestnut feel a sudden burst of sadness that he couldn't contain.

As he laid there quietly, sobbing sleep overtook him, for some unknown reason he felt safe with the other fox watching him from a distance.

He awoke in a clearing but there was something off about it. He didn't hear anything. No birds, no insects, and not even the sounds of small animals nibbling on leaves and the like.

This place is weird. As Chestnut thought this to himself he looked around and saw Zorro looking at him smiling, when they locked eyes Zorro lunged at him but right before he got to Chestnut he vanished.

Feeling even more unsettled, Chestnut started backing away and ran in a random direction in hopes that he would escape this nightmare. While he ran he saw past memories of his family, the first time he caught a mouse, the first time he saw the world around him. He saw his parents fighting off something that he couldn't make out but the memory felt faint, almost like it didn't actually happen.

As he looked harder at it he saw his parents lose the fight and be killed. Horrified he kept running ignoring every other memory, after what felt like forever he saw a sheer cliff wall and ran into it and everything went black.

When he could see again he saw Zorro walking towards him.

"You can't hide forever, it's better to give yourself up and make your death as painless as possible, or you can choose the hard way and it will be slow and painful. Your choice."

The next thing he saw was Zorro fading to dust with a smile and he awoke where he fell asleep the night prior.

Why did that feel so real? Putting the nightmare to the back of his memory he saw a river flowing nearby and quickly ran over to it. He still couldn't see out his left eye but he was hoping he just had something covering it. When he looked into the water he saw a large slash across his face starting at his muzzle and going across his left eye.

I need to clean it out so it doesn't get infected. Reaching towards the water he dipped his paw in and started rubbing the injury ignoring the pain it was causing him. When he felt satisfied he looked around for anything he could use to keep out dirt and prevent infection, not seeing anything he started walking downstream. He was hoping to find some Calikayaan to wash out the injury more thoroughly. When he spotted an Alder tree quite some way he hurried up and quickly grabbed some bark.

I only know the basics on how it works but it's great for cleaning out cuts and scrapes. Hopefully it's good for my eye, not like it can do anymore damage to it.

As he got to work preparing it he also grabbed some leaves and cleaned them so that he could cover up his eye, when he finally got the Calikayaan ready he carefully used it to clean out his eye and could feel the sting. That means it's working, I think.

When he was done cleaning the wound he covered his eye with the leaves and continued walking.

After walking for hours he spotted a clearing and decided to see if there were any animals out that he could hunt. When he got to the edge he began listening closely hoping to hear something.

After a few minutes he heard some bushes moving around and made sure he was downwind of them, as he got near the bush he bounced killing a rabbit before it could run away. He quickly hid in the trees and ate the rabbit enjoying the delicious meat after not eating for the entire day.

As he kept walking he could hear the sounds of a path used by the furless creatures in their large metal pods. As he checked to see if he could cross he didn't see or hear any coming so he decided it was safe to cross, while he was crossing he suddenly heard one of them coming straight towards him. In a panic he froze and couldn't move, as it got closer the fear he felt became stronger and stronger to the point where he passed out. The last thing he saw was the metal beast and that same mysterious fox looking at him with a blank expression. Then everything went black.

Chestnut was dazed but he felt like he was gliding on something. When he opened his good eye he saw that he appeared to be in a metal box to prevent him from escaping.

Where am I? Chestnut deciding not to trouble himself with that thought decided to try and sleep again, he found it fairly easy as he was still sore after all.

He faded in and out of consciousness over the course of the trip, each time waking up from a nightmare involving Zorro. After what he presumed was several days the darkness was replaced with light as he saw that he was in the back of a beast. He was too weak to do anything so he didn't fight the furless creature when it picked him up and carried him into a strange looking den. He saw several animals in large enclosed areas and they appeared to accept their life there.

The creature carried him into a room which smelled strongly of herbs though they didn't look like any herbs he recognized. Chestnut realized that he no longer had the leaves covering his eye. This greatly confused him as he wasn't sure when they came off but he didn't have the energy to care.

As the creature carried him into the room he was set down on a cold stone slab in the middle of the room and another creature came towards him and began feeling around his eye. The pressure stung slightly and he let out a whimper which made the creature give him an almost sympathetic look. The creature retrieved something that Chestnut couldn't see but the creature put some of it on his eye and the pain slowly went away.

When he relaxed from the lack of pain the creature picked up what appeared to be a thread with a spike. The creature reaches towards his blind side but feeling too weak to fight it he allowed the creature to do what it wanted too. After several minutes the creature picked him up and moved him to another metal cage, as he looked at the cages he saw another fox that appeared to be injured in one.

"I see the vet fixed you up huh, don't worry they help us when we're injured. Good thing they found you 'cause you seem to be in rough shape. The name Dero by the way, what's yours?"

"I... I'm Chestnut."

"Chestnut huh, fitting name I suppose. Is there a story behind it?"

"Kind of, apparently after I was born a chestnut fell on my head and I was so confused I just stared at it for a while."

"Ah, to be young again. How old are you?"

"Five months."

"Awfully young to be away from your parents aren't ya?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"I can understand that. I won't ask you anything if you're not comfortable sharing it. Now you should rest. It seems like you've had a long past few days."

Chestnut only nodded and curled up to sleep. He was surprised that a red fox was being kind to him, it was common knowledge most red foxes and arctic foxes didn't get along. Though there were rare occasions where it was possible to happen.

As sleep took Chestnut he thought about everything he went through in such a short time. The death of his parents still didn't feel real to him but he needed to accept the fact that they were gone and Rusty was likely also dead though he wanted to keep some hope that Rusty was spared of death by Zorro.

Zorro... A name that caused him so much pain in a short time, a red fox he wanted to make feel pain. Normally he wouldn't care about a fox that attacked his family, but he appeared to know his parents and killed them before they could put up a fight. He would make Zorro pay, one way or another.