Frostpaw

Chapter 4 - Stigma

As soon as Zèon went through the hall doors he found that some kane and fehlar who were too scared to intervene had formed a little circle around what seemed to be a dispute. Desperate, the arctic fox moved his way among them, pushing them aside, not caring at all that they noticed him.

As soon as he got to the first row, he found a far worse spectacle than he had imagined.

"Give it back!" Koi was exclaiming, with a flood of tears running through his cheeks. "It's not yours! You don't have the right to read it like that!"

His little paws reached out trembling towards a little crumpled piece of paper that someone held high above his head. Zèon remembered that Koi was writing a letter to his mother and quickly connected the dots, feeling his blood boiling once he realized what was happening there.

The one who held the letter high was Camus.

"You dare say I don't have the right? You impertinent worthless mutt, who do you think you are to say if I have the right or not?" the man asked, with an unpleasant smile in his face. His crooked fingers close around the piece of paper as if it was a trophy. "The one who doesn't have the right to complain is you. You've assaulted the Order Comissioner and you must be punished!"

"No!" Koi exclaimed, between sobs. "I wasn't paying attention! I'm sorry...!"

"If there's something you shouldn't be worried about now, it's this piece of paper," Camus claimed, threatening. "Besides, why is it so important? Let's see..." He fixed his eyes in the letter and seemed to find it very difficult to read. ""Dear... mom. These holidays... are being great"."

The man paused for a few seconds and then let out a loud laugh. Koi remained in his place, dissolved into a fit of tears, without knowing what to do or say to stop that situation.

"Holidays?" Camus repeated, mockingly. "You sure are one who sees the glass half full. And why do you even bother to write a letter to your mother, anyway? It's not going out of here and besides I bet she's as dead as you will be when I finish with your punishment!"

There were few moments in which Zèon did not analyze things with a rational mind, in which he simply let himself go with his impulses and instincts.

That was one of those moments.

Before he could even think what he was doing, he had already approached to the scene and his paw was drawing an arc in the air towards Camus' face.

The human let out a terrifying shout of pain when the claws crossed his face, leaving a trace of blood behind. A surprised murmur raised in the circle of the kane and the fehlar, bringing Zèon back to reality. While Camus covered his face with his hands, the arctic fox tried to regain his sanity. A sudden fear took over him when he understood the significance of that swipe.

"You... bastard!!" the man exclaimed at that moment, writhing in pain. "Son of a...!"

"Koi, stay back," Zèon whispered, trembling (he did not know if it was due to fear or rage), as he gently pushed the little husky behind him.

"But..."

"I said stay back!"

After a few seconds, the fox felt a movement at his back and knew that Luca had arrived in the best moment. He hoped he took Koi away from there, so Camus could not vent his justified fury over him. Meanwhile, he tried to search for a way to solve what he had just done, although he knew that there was not any.

He had just attacked a guard of the Box! Zèon believed he was the first to do something like that and the punishment he will receive was beyond the limits of his imagination. No one had ever dared to raise a paw to those uniformed men that patrolled from one side to another in the Box. Silently and trying his best to remain calm, the fox saw how Camus pulled himself together, until the man looked up and pierced him with a gaze full of hatred, with the only eye that was not swamped in blood.