Chapter Thirty-Four | Fox's Resolve, Part One
Lady Louise cried out my name at around the same time I tried to leap away. An inhumane screech I had yet to hear escaped my mouth as the Shepherd's sharp teeth pierced my tail. I was still halfway in the air when Hero tossed me aside and into a stand of jeans. The somewhat soft clothing kept the collision from being fatal (I'd like to think) but smashing through it still felt like my entire body had broken all at once.
I struggled to pull my way out of the pile of blues and blacks as Hero's voice penetrated my brain. "Decent reflexes, but I could have taken that bushy little tail of yours if I wanted."
Like crawling through a tunnel, I saw a light through the layers of jeans. Instead of waiting for Hero to surprise me, I burst from them, hoping to find my bearings before he was upon me again.
I had made it about one or two feet from the pile when the dog was beside me. Flanking me. I caught him flashing me the briefest of smiles before he pushed his nose up underneath me. With a jerk of his head, I was sent flying through the air again. There was a brief glimpse of a pale woman dressed in black and the bright white stairs she was halfway up on before I came crashing down against them.
Stone stairs weren't a rack of jeans. I had yet to be fully conscience to the feeling of breaking bones, but my insides were screaming something was broken as my tiny, useless body twisted and churned. Nothing but wheezing gasps of air escaped my mouth as the pain threatened to consume everything.
Everything, of course, except for his voice.
"Disappointing, but I guess it's my fault for expectin' much more. Looks like you really weren't a threat. My Master will be glad to hear it."
I forced my eyes to open. It was blurry, but I could still make out the dark shape sitting across the room, opposite of me. Although I couldn't make it out, I knew he was looking at me. Smiling that smile at me.
"Tell your monster I'm coming. I don't care if you tell me where he is or not. I'm going to save Mutt. I'm going to take him back."
I heard the sounds of someone moving beside me. I felt the soft sensation of a hand pressing against my body, and a familiar warming sensation emitting from it.
Don't think about it.
"Don't move, Foxy," Lady Louise whispered, thankfully sounding nothing like a young girl. "At least several of your ribs and spine is broken. If you don't move, I believe I can make the injuries go away. Try and keep Shepherd distracted."
"Oh? So there is still something you're able to keep from me." I watched as the blurred black and brown shape inched towards us. "Tell me, Foxy, what is this thing you don't want to think—?"
"So, Shepherd's your real name?" I interrupted. "I guess 'Hero' was just a name the students made up. They didn't know the real you, after all."
"And you think you do?" The blurred shape did not stop its advance until it reached the bottom of the stairs. From this distance, I could practically feel his dark eyes boring into me. "I'll admit, I'm curious what you think you know about any of this. Your situation. Your Master. Do you really think you are in the right here? Or do you know you serve a cruel destroyer of lives and just lack the ability to care? Please, tell me. It may affect how much longer I let you suffer."
A warmth spread through my body. It numbed every part of it, draining me of the pain, and the damaged vision with it. I could see clearly now the pointed face and ears of the Shepherd. The pair of black eyes that never left me. The lack of a smile.
"You have my friend. Your Master has him imprisoned. As long as that's the case, I don't care which of the two witches is more of a terrible person. I can't do much like I am. I need monsters to fight monsters."
The corners of the dog's lips turned up slightly. "I guess when you think that simply, it's easy to do stupid, reckless things. I might be startin' to see why Mutt seems to be so fond of you."
Shepherd lowered his body and raised his haunches. The growl that escaped his teeth filled the entirety of the warehouse-like store. It made whatever words I had wanted to say freeze up in my mind. It made the Lady swallow her air when the dog's dark eyes drifted to her.
"What is he saying?" the Lady asked me.
"Alright, Foxy, you want to see your friend that badly? I'll take you to him." I tried to force my still mostly numb body up as Shepherd ascended a single stair. "But first, it's time to end my Master's suffering."
Something sailed down from the floor above us. It hit the pile of jeans with a resounding thump, loud enough to pull Shepherd's attention towards it. It would take him a matter of a second to realize his error, but it was all I had.
Enough of the muscles in my body returned to my control to allow me to leap from the stairs. And enough of the feeling in my face returned for me to throw open my jaws and clamp them on the side of Shepherd's head—right on one of his large, pointed ears.
With a whine of pain, the dog twisted his massive head around. Once again, his unnatural strength sent me sailing through the air but, this time, I didn't leave empty mouthed.
I slid against the ground, the pointed ear still locked firmly in my jaws, but had little time to celebrate my small victory before a giant paw came down on my chest, halting my sliding and knocking the wind out of me in the same instant.
A few flecks of blood hit my face from the wound pouring from the side of the Shepherd's head as he bore over me. Despite that, the twisted grin did not leave his face. In fact, this close, with half his face stained by blood and the white teeth caked in gore, it was the scariest smile I had seen from him yet.
"You really are simple." More strange déjà vu clouded my brain as Shepherd opened his gaping, meat-stained maw. I thought again of Mutt as the jaws descended on my head. "Making me go back on my plan seconds after—"
"Change!"
Shepherd's reflexes were sharp, even for a dog. But even he couldn't have prepared for the little fox under his paw to grow five times larger, ten times less hairy, and twenty times stronger. Nor could he have expected the human to reach out and grip his throat with all the strength his two hands gave him.
"No. No!" The dog snarled and growled and twisted in my grip. His wide mouth tried over and over again to rip my face off. "You and your little brat won't get the drop on me!"
The Shepherd's paws pushed against the ground, clawed into my chest. Try as I could to sink my fingers into his thick neck, the beast wasn't giving up. In fact, my arms were looking to give in long before he did. This was looking bad.
"Fox or human, you are still weak," he hissed inside my head. "What good are you? What do you possibly think you can—?"
"Shut the hell up already!"
"Change!"
Back again I fell into the small, nimble body of the fox, slipping in between Shepherd's paws, easily ducking under his lunging jaws that were targeting a body far taller than I was now. Under his body, I had a split second decision to make.
Well, I couldn't run, so there was really nothing else I could do.
I bit his tail.
"To hell with you!" the Shepherd howled. He flung his body this way and that. His jaws reached for me, but I remained out of their grasp. I locked on to that tail for all I was worth.
"Coward! You wanna play games like that? Fine." The dog whipped his head around the confines of the store.
From my angle, and all the new and varied angles Shepherd put me in as he turned his body, all I could see was Nathan curled up under the rack of shirts, the fallen figure buried in jeans, and the Lady standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at our display.
Wait, why was she still here?
"Vile, twisted woman," Shepherd whispered. His voice was a strange, distant echo, unlike all the other comments that felt so invasive in my head. When he was talking directly to me.
"If not the kid, then..."
That deep, all encompassing growl escaped the German Shepherd's black and red lips. Lady Louise did not flinch or back away when he seemed to turn his attention on her. In fact, standing so high above us as she was, she appeared to be the one in control.
That image was more firmly instilled in my head when her eyes met with the dog's, when she smiled a sort of smile that was altogether cruel and mocking.
"Took you this long to figure it out, did it?" she said.
"I will not be made a fool of again," that distant voice of Shepherd swore. Then he was moving again, racing for the stairs. Heading straight for the Lady.
Somewhere in my thrashing and my attempts to keep a strong hold of his tail with my jaws, my eyes met the Lady's. Her smile went away.
"When you change again, you will do everything in your power to keep this monster away from me."
A different voice entered my head. Similar to my Master's, but older, and colder, if that were possible. It was a powerful voice. One that had to be heeded.
Shepherd was halfway up the stairs when that voice spoke again, but out loud. "Change!"
My mouth was still filled with the dog's tail, but it was no longer a mouth that would be able to keep hold of it for long. No, that was the job of my hands.
I released the tail from my teeth and simultaneously gripped it with both my hands before the dog could get away. He nearly toppled over his own feet at the change of resistance, but was quick to try and spin around and finish me.
"Don't get in my way, Fo—"
I twisted my body to match his movement. A groan escaped my lips when I felt his jaws scrape over my shoulder, but I kept with the motion and threw the massive dog from the stairs. He hit the ground solidly, bounced once, and slid a short way almost into the revolving front doors of the store. I had intended to knock him out of commission, but he was soon getting up on all fours.
But still, I waited where I was. As long as he wasn't approaching the Lady, I didn't have to move.
"Alright, that's fine. You got some fight in you after all? That's good." The dog spoke some more in my head as he slowly made his way back to the stairs. I moved down those same stairs. I didn't speak back to the dog. Nothing I could say would keep him away from the Lady.
"Come on then. Let's see what you got!"
The dog charged once again. I only allowed him to ascend a few stairs before I threw a kick into his face. The monster might have underestimated my strength because he flew backwards with a yelp and slid back farther than he did the first time.
I continued waking to the bottom of the stairs and stopped there. If he didn't approach the Lady, I wouldn't have to move any further.
A boy who was laying in a pile of jeans to my right raised his head slowly. His blue eyes found mine. "Damn butler threw me again," he said in a strained voice before laying his head back down.
He didn't seem a threat to the Lady, so I changed my focus back to the monster that was regaining its feet. Slower, this time.
"You nearly broke my neck," the dog hissed. "What the hell's got you fightin' like this all the sudden?"
Did he really not know? Maybe if he knew, it would assist in keeping him away from the Lady.
"I will not let you approach the Lady," I said.
The dog watched me for a bit. For some reason, I thought it strange that I was not seeing it smiling at me.
"I see. So, that's what it's come to."
"My Lady!" a new, but familiar voice cried out. It's voice was a far away call, like from somewhere in the deep corners of my mind.
"Shit," the Lady said from behind me. She then shouted, "Deal with them quick and then assist Foxy! Change!"
The dog did smile then when I reverted to my fox body. For a third time, he approached the stairs.
"Not so easy controlling two familiars at once, is it?"
I thought I had hurt him, but he was moving just as fast as every other time. When he met me, his jaws locked on my back just as tightly, and he tossed me aside just as easily.
I do not think I withstood the following injuries as well as he did. A lot of my body hurt and I could not get up. I could not stop him from approaching the Lady. All I could do was watch as he ran up the stairs and clamped his mouth down on the hand the witch threw out in a futile attempt to defend herself.
...
*Author's Note*
Uh oh. Is this Rosetta vs. Dog, part two? Let us hope not. I do not think her mother is as...'durable' as her daughter.
But what do you guys think? Foxy was holding his own for awhile, but now he seems out of commission, Hornroot is busy tangling with dogs, and Lady Louise is in the process of losing one of her hands. Things aren't looking good for this dysfunctional family, but can they find a way to pull it together?
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