Foxfey

<•> Chapter 2 <•>

When she woke up she found a dove plucked and ready to eat she wolfed it down quickly her stomach stopped growling. No doubt Pyke felt bad and left her food in the morning. He was gone probably to go find food or patrol around their home. She hopped out of the den and jumped to the ledge of the building and went around it. She jumped down the boxes and wriggled under the fence, she checked around the alley corner to make sure no humans or dogs lurked around. Once the coast was clear she stuck to the wall and made her way around the block. Despite Pyke's warning she found herself taking the route to the Kennel. Her mother and father often repeated the saying, but Starla always found herself walking back. She was fascinated by it, she had a dream she was in the Kennel and someone was calling her, and then she woke up. Ever since she had been always going to the Kennel.

She knew it was a bad place, the Trappers dragged cats, dogs, badgers, foxes, any big animal and locked them up or killed them there. The Trappers were humans wearing the same clothes with a long stick that went around the animals neck and choked them.

Starla's obsession with the Kennel was so bad her mother and father made her watch as a Trapper caught a dog and was forcefully dragging a dog into a van with a big metal cage that looked unclean. The dog fought but was getting choked by the Trapper who screamed and kicked the dog.

"See Starla? The kennel is bad. They will catch you too if you go near it. Stay away from Trappers and the Kennel." Her parents had warned.

But Starla couldn't help it. Something inside her chest tugged her toward it no matter how hard she pulled, like the sticks the Trappers used, it kept pulling and pulling. Starla always ended up near the Kennel no matter how hard she tried. She always was careful, she went in the back there was a big metal gate and there was animals in cages whining and yelping. The Trappers sometimes brought them inside and Starla never saw them again. They were scared and hungry most were strays.

In front of the gate was a crate of boxes and above that was two buildings close together with a fire escape. Starla usually watched from the fire escape behind the stairs hidden from the Trappers eyes and the animals. They couldn't smell her because the area reeked of hundreds of animal smells and dirt and muck.

She watched the animals, most were dogs or cats, but mostly dogs. She didn't see a fox or badger, rarely a badger let any human see it.

She watched as humans came back and forth doing things with cages or cleaning the floor. When no human was in the back she edged closer to the edge of the fire escape. She suddenly heard a dog screech her instincts kicked in and she was behind the fire escape stairs in seconds her eyes flicking back and forth.

The animals paused startled by the noise, the dog screeched louder and the other dogs started barking loudly it took a minute for Starla to realize what was happening.

"Fox! Fox! Fox!" That's what they barked.

She felt her fur rise with alarm she spotted a dog, its eyes wild and crazy mouth foaming it stared right at her and screeched. It had seen her.

She had jumped down from the fire escape and dashed across the street in a blurry red fuzz, she crossed the street made several turns and ducked underneath signs and dodged around trashcans. She ran until she couldn't hear the animals yelping anymore. She slowed down to a walk and sulked into an alleyway to avoid humans. She sat behind some trash cans and looked up to see a gang of cats staring at her, one was on top of a trash can lid, the other two were beside an overturned trash can with food spilled out.

"You lost foxy?" The one on top of the trashcan drawled smirking.

He was a grey and mud tabby, with brown tabby markings, bent whiskers, skinny tail and face, one tooth stuck out and rubbed on the side of his mouth which showed pink skin.