Anthro- Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven of my book, Anthro

MORNING AT THE LIBRARY

 

Rayne had already gotten up, discovered a package, changed into her new uniform, and made her way to the library. She sat at the front desk, chewing on the lid of a pen. “Nobody wants to read this early in the morning. I’ll bet they are all sleeping.”

 

“Stop that whining, Rayne. People will be here soon to read and refresh themselves with a new feeling of excitement or knowledge!” said Li excitedly. He spread his wings as he did so, his feathers ruffling up messily. Rayne giggled and Li, embarrassed, lowered his wings. “I’ll admit,” he said, “That I don’t want to be here, but it is my duty. I don’t like the heat of battle, myself.”

 

“Yeah, but I’d love to be out there kicking some tail! It isn’t fair,” Rayne said with a sigh.

 

Li lifted his great head and chirped. To Rayne, it almost sounded like a deep chuckle. “If you want to fight, you’ll have to join the RedFur Subdivision.”

 

“What is the ‘RedFur Subdivision’?”

 

“Burdock doesn’t lead that group, so if you are interested, you’ll have to talk to me. Just like the Order, I cannot tell you what we do before you join. I know you are one of us now, but our intelligence is not connected to central.”

 

Rayne wagged her tail happily, just like a non-anthro wolf would. She longed to be behind the trigger, taking out her foes with one bullet apiece. Her heart raced at the thought of being a single-shot killer. But for some reason, she didn’t really trust Li. He had said that the RedFur Subdivision was separate from Burdock’s leadership. If that was so, was it really a part of the Order? And why wasn’t the RedFur Subdivision’s intelligence connected?

 

The young wolf crossed her arms over her chest and gave Li the evil eye. “Are you trying to trick me, library owl?”

 

“Not at all, young wolf! It’s just that we haven’t had the ability to connect our networks to the main computers yet. We need somebody who is good with technology to do so. I’m just a simple library owl, and most of the RedFur group is composed of fighters. I was hoping you possibly knew someone.”

 

Rayne rested her chin on her index finger and stroked her chin with her thumb in a pose relative to “The Thinker”. She wasn’t just thinking about whom she knew that could possibly be a good technical fur; she was considering whether or not she should trust the library owl and all of his strange information. “Is there some way you can prove yourself to me, Li?”

 

The owl flapped his wings a bit and then pulled them back to his sides. A golden bullet had fallen from within his feathers, inscribed with “Li the Owl”. With one of his back talons, the owl picked the bullet from the ground and lifted it to Rayne, who took it into her paw and looked over it with slight interest. The metal was cool on the pad of her forepaw, and there was a strange, almost blue shine to add to the golden shine, even if all of the library lights were white. The inscription was in very thin, delicate pen. Beneath it was a small dent, set with a small sliver of silver. That explained the blue shine. “Rayne, that bullet is very special. Though it is mainly composed of gold, that little sliver of silver could help with the more… mythical anthro species: the ones that are against Burdock’s plans. It is the only one of its kind.”

 

The wolf rolled the bullet over and over in her palm, smiling softly at the way it gleamed. She then lifted her head and grinned at Li. “Alrighty, bookworm. I’ll find your tech-fur.”

 

EVENING AT WHITEWOLF MANSION

 

Rayne stepped quietly in through the back doors after crossing the wide lawn. It had been harder than she thought to sneak into her own home without raising alarm from the various security mechanisms placed throughout the perimeter. Luckily, her father had planned out the security. He hadn’t thought of the bushes spaced evenly along the backyard path. It was behind those bushes that Rayne ducked, hiding from the view of the security cameras nearest to the back door. Once she had gotten in, she climbed the stairs and found the boys’ guest room. With great care, she pushed the partially-open door and walked in.

 

Skarii was laying there, one of his forepaws in the air, clasped around the edges of a picture. The other forepaw was behind his head, propping it up. His eyes were misty, and there were dried moisture-lines on his cheeks and down the sides of his face. His wings were spread out behind him, the ends lazily hanging over the sides of the bed.

 

“Hey Skarii.”

 

The dragon quickly turned his head, taking in what he saw before he jumped from his bed, nearly gliding to the young wolf standing in his doorway. Without hesitating, he wrapped his strong arms around Rayne, pulling her to him. He buried his face in the wolf’s shoulder, his tail coiling around one of her hind-legs. “Where have you been? Where has Fox been?”

 

“I’ll tell you the story when we get there, but you have to come quietly. I don’t want my parents to know where we are, and Enya Ray could slow us down too much. Just trust me okay? Promise you’ll trust me?”

 

Skarii stepped back a bit, biting his lower lip a little. Rayne tugged his arm gently, pulling him into a soft kiss to encourage him. The dragon then nodded his head, taking the small lupine’s paw gently in his. His trust was ultimate for his mate, no matter what. She would never lead him into a harmful place.

 

THE NEXT DAY BEHIND THE LIBRARY

 

Li waited for Rayne to return with whoever she thought fit to be his tech-fur. He had lied to her, considering the fact that he was amazing with computers. No, he only wanted to recruit more people for the RedFur Subdivision. “Heh, the RedFAKE Subdivision. He’ll be so proud of me when he finds out that I brought two worthy recruits with me. I’ll finally get the promotion that I deserve and get out of this worthless library job.”

 

A shadow appeared in front of Li, causing the owl to look up and behind him. Against the blinding sun, all Li could tell was the outline of the figure on top of the building. The owl looked back down at the pavement as the shadowy figure jumped down and flicked his tail. “You were talking to yourself again, owl. What secrets are you keeping from me?”

 

“It was nothing, sir! I was just stating to myself that I could possibly finally get out of this worthless library job! It was nothing more than an idea!”

 

The other stepped out into the light, revealing himself to Li. “Li, you aren’t supposed to come up with ideas. I decide your fate as well as the fate of everybody else.”

 

“I apologize, Desian. I was out of line to think such a thing,” said Li.

 

“Good owl. I must be leaving now. I think I can hear those ‘worthy recruits’ coming. They must learn to be stealthy, Li,” said Desian.

 

“I’ll be sure to teach them.”

 

The red fox stepped into the shadows before jumping up on top of the building, disappearing into the distance. Soon after he left, the back door of the library opened. Rayne walked up to Li, extending her paw behind her towards Skarii. “This is Skarii. He’s more of a fighter, but he can definitely help you with any technological problems.”

 

Li flapped his wings and put on a smile. “Good, but I wish I had been able to see you last night. We have all of our servers back online. We just can’t make a connection to the main computer just yet. So for now, both you and your friend…”

 

“Boyfriend,” corrected Skarii.

 

“You and your boyfriend will just have to help the rest of the soldier group. No big deal, right? Especially since you wanted to be part of the fight, Rayne,” said Li.

 

The young wolf nodded and looked at Skarii. His face was twisted; he looked almost helpless. “What’s wrong, Skarii?” asked Rayne.

 

“Throughout our relationship I’ve been trying to protect you from trouble, but all I’ve been doing is keeping your fighting spirit locked up. When I saved you from...” Skarii paused. Rayne had always told him to keep her past a secret.

 

Rayne smiled and pulled Skarii next to her, wrapping an arm around his waist. “Don’t worry about it, Skarii. The past is in the past. I’ll just have to remember how to fight properly so that I can defend myself. Li is taking us to the perfect place to learn how to do that again. You can fight with guns and I can get lessons from some of the strongest trainers alive! We’ll be able to help Burdock with whatever he’s trying to save us from!”

 

Skarii’s uneasiness didn’t fade from his face, but he rested a paw over Rayne’s and nodded. “Okay. I’ll go with you and Li, but if it gets too dangerous for you, Rayne, promise me that you’ll get help. I know you’re really strong, but sometimes even the strongest people need some help.”

 

Rayne smiled at Skarii and gave her promise with a kiss to his cheek. Li spread his wings and ducked down low, ready to take off. “If you’ll bring Rayne and follow me, Skarii.”

 

REDFUR SUBDIVISION HEADQUARTERS

 

Li flapped his wings against the ground, creating some resistance as he prepared to land. Sand picked up from the landing pad that had been set out for him and all of the aerial vehicles. Dunes spread out all around the entrance to the RFS HQ, creating a small desert. Skarii and Rayne arrived shortly after Li. Rayne pulled a scarf from around her face and looked around. “You can’t see any green land in any direction. This place is pretty hidden.”

 

“Yep, and we have the highest security known to anthro and mankind,” said Li.

 

Skarii smirked. “Impressive.” The dragon folded his wings behind his back and walked up to Li. “So what’s going on then? Where is everybody?”

 

“Well, in case of sandstorms, most of us stay inside,” said Li. The owl then began to walk inside, followed by Rayne and Skarii.

 

On the way in, the group went through a hanger filled with small fighter planes. A pair of double doors opened up into a main room set up to be a cafeteria. Rayne and Skarii paused in their tracks and opened their eyes up wide. Hundreds of furless beings sat at the tables, eating with metal utensils. “Humans,” Skarii muttered. “There are so many of them too.”

 

Li smiled. “Don’t worry, dragon. Most of the anthros that work here are nocturnal, so they eat at night. If you’ll look to your far left, deeper into the cafeteria, you’ll find some of our daytime eaters.”

 

Skarii looked to his left, Rayne following his lead. There was one table of them. A variety of tattooed anthros sat together. They seemed to keep away from the humans. An entirely empty table separated them from the humans. Skarii looked at Rayne and whispered, “I wonder why they separate themselves from the humans.”

 

Li led the pair over to the table of anthros. When he began to introduce them, a cheetah perked up and offered to do it for the owl. Li thanked the cheetah and flew off, promising to bring Skarii and Rayne something good to eat in a few minutes. As soon as he was out of earshot, all of the anthros leaned in, one of them gesturing for Skarii and Rayne to do the same.  The cheetah that had offered the introductions started to talk. “We only have a few minutes before birdbrain comes back. Everybody swear their secrecy now, including you two.”

 

The entire group put a right paw, claw, or wing in. Skarii and Rayne followed their example. The cheetah started up a quick oath, which the couple repeated, and then he started to explain the secret. “Listen, new kids. This whole Subdivision is a lie. That owl works for the leader here, who never shows his face, but we know what we’re doing here with all of these humans. We’re fighting the Order! The leader has this dream to help the humans get back on top. He promised the humans to help control us if he got to be on top with them as some sort of sub-leader or something. You’ve got to help us get out of here to get back to Burdock. We don’t belong here, fighting our own people. If you promise to help us, we’ll make sure the humans don’t mess with you. That’s how we do things here.”

 

The two teenagers nodded. Rayne sat up a bit opening her mouth to speak but stopping. The cheetah that sat nearest to her gestured for her to continue, and she asked, “So, what is your name? I’m Rayne and my boyfriend here is Skarii.”

 

The cheetah smirked, “I’m Rocky. The short fox here to my right is Skimpy, Squirt, Shorty, or Shrimp. Take your pick.”

 

The short fox piped up, his fur standing on end, “Rocky, you jerk! Just because I’m a fennec and I’m naturally a lot shorter than you, you make fun of me. Hey kids. My name is Jericho, and that spotted freak is my boyfriend. His favorite hobbies are picking on me, making fun of me, and calling me rude names, but don’t get me wrong, it’s all fun and games. I love the guy.”

 

Skarii and Rayne looked at each other and then back at Rocky and Jericho. Rayne smiled, “Nothing keeps two lovers apart, huh. Isn’t it wonderful?”

 

Rocky smiled, “An ally, huh?”

“Yeah, and I think it is beautiful when two furs or people can leap over obstacles to be in love, no matter what.”

 

“Thanks, young one,” said Jericho. “It means a lot, really.”

 

“No problem,” said Rayne.

 

Shortly after, Li returned carrying two trays. “Here’s your lunch, young ones. You should enjoy it and get some rest. Training starts early tomorrow. Even though you’re new, we expect you to catch up to the other quickly. We have a lot to do if we want to help Burdock save the world.”

 

The group of anthros gave Rayne and Skarii subtle looks. Skarii flicked his eyes down and then looked back up at Li. “We’ll be fine, thanks.”

 

Li gave a satisfactory nod and flew back off. Rocky leaned in and whispered, “Do you think you two can handle intense training for a while? We still have to come up with a legit plan to get out of here and get back to Burdock without being considered traitors.”

 

Rayne smiled, “Bring it on.”

 

“Okay. Guys, welcome our newest members to our RedFur Rebellion team!”

 

A hearty cheer rose up with a clink of glasses, and the welcome was disguised with a toast to the welcoming of two new members to the RedFur Subdivision. Rayne and Skarii had no idea what was ahead, but they were prepared, no matter what, because they were together.

Author's Note

Please review to the best of your ability.