FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

'If I were you, I wouldn't do that,' the arctic fox said, when he noticed the lioness was drawing a knife out of one of her sleeves. Then, as if trying to emphasize his words, he made a soft movement with his bow towards Ike. Kathreen quickly put the knife back.

'What do you want from us?' Kodu asked, trying to remain calm.

'I will ask the questions, fehlar scum' the arctic fox replied, impassible. His tail swished calmly behind him.

'Wait. Are you a Frostpaw?' Ike asked, standing up. If that arctic fox had known Zèon in the past, or even if only he could give them a clue about the whereabouts of the Frostpaws' palace, returning home might be a step closer than they thought.

'Are you deaf or do you just have air in your head?' the other growled, still pointing to his head. 'Do not move unless you want me to find out.'

Ike stood in place, frozen, realizing only then that the arctic fox was talking seriously. He should have known that the kane that lived in the wilderness would not be very nice with the fehlar they found. Ike could not help but remember Atha's words, warning him that the kane were not as helpless as he had thought them to be. <<He might have been right>> he thought, a bit worried. However, he tried to convince himself that it did not really matter at that time. After all, Atha was dead and his advice came too late.

The arctic fox stood there, perfectly still, and Ike wondered what was he waiting for. If he was going to kill them, why had not he done it yet?

The answer soon became apparent as three other kane appeared beside the arctic fox. Two of them were arctic wolves, and the third one was a dog of some undetermined breed; or at least, one that Ike had never seen. It was not as if he knew much about the kane species, however.

'At last,' the arctic fox complained, once the other kane were near him. He glanced at them, but never lost sight of the three fehlar in front of him.

'You couldn't wait for us, right?' the taller arctic wolf asked, mockingly. 'You had to have your moment of glory.'

'Shut up, Bal. They would have escaped if it weren't for me.'

'Of course' the wolf replied, in the same tone. Then, he turned to the fehlar and stared at them for a few seconds, as if he was analyzing them. 'Such a small group. Two lions and a cat. That's not what we usually see in the snow. What are they doing here?'

Ike breathed out, relaxing a bit.

'We are...'

'Why do you even care? They're just fehlar,' the arctic fox interrupted him, glancing at the wolf with exasperation. 'And they're armed. They're probably a group of explorers trying to find a camp.'

'In Northundra?' the wolf asked, raising an eyebrow.

The arctic fox shrugged.

'They've tried before.'

'Are we in Northundra yet?' Ike asked, genuinely surprised.

The arctic fox made another aggressive movement with his bow towards him, but the wolf called Bal just gave the lion a pitying smile.

'Explorers, you say, Nihil? They don't even know where they are.'

'Well, then, what do you suggest?' the arctic fox asked, his expression showing that he was running out of patience. 'Shall I let them go and wish them a pleasant journey on the lands their race devastated?'

In spite of the fox's sarcastic tone, Ike wished that the wolf would agree to the idea and let them go peacefully. At first, the fact that they were so close to Northundra had been like a beacon of hope for him, but he was not a fool. He knew that those kane probably wanted them dead, and even in the event that the arctic fox was a Frostpaw, he did not seem precisely collaborative.

'Oh, not at all,' the wolf answered, crashing Ike's hopes in a second. 'Haven't you noticed? These two are lions. That means they're noble: either Sandmanes or... Embertooths.'

The arctic fox shook his head.

'Impossible. Sandmanes live in the desert, or so I've been told. That's too far. And the royal family' -the arctic fox spat on the ground as he said those words- 'is too busy and prissy to put one foot paw beyond their castle. Besides, I've heard their little prince's been missing for a while.'

Kathreen exchanged a quick warning glance with Ike, urging him to remain quiet. The arctic wolf seemed to find that amusing.

'Oh, you didn't expect us to know that much about you, right?' he asked, chuckling. 'Well, you're to blame. It's easier to learn these things when you're learning from an enemy. Tell us, kitty, Sandmane or Embertooth?'

The lioness didn't answer, and Ike thought that she looked surprisingly calm, given the circumstances. However, he had to agree that telling those kane that he was the son of the fehlar who probably had killed all their friends and family was not a good idea at all. His title had saved them back in the inn, but it wouldn't be of much help that time.

'You won't answer, huh?' the one called Bal said, still smiling.

'Oh, please, don't waste my time,' the arctic fox growled, impatient. 'Can we kill them or not?'

Bal seemed to think about it for a while, and Ike almost felt relieved when he noticed the arctic wolf's hesitation. However, relief quickly turned to doubt when he heard his answer.

'Let's take them to the camp. Even if they manage to escape, there's little chance they survive here. And, after all this time waiting in the middle of nowhere, I'm sure our people will appreciate a little show.' And then, he gave the prisoners a creepy smile.

Ike walked silently behind the arctic fox; he could not remember his name, even though he was pretty sure that someone had mentioned it. In any case, knowing the name of the one who was probably going to kill him did not seem really useful at the moment. The only name he truly needed was Zèon's, and at the moment he was not sure whether being caught by those kane was a step towards getting it or not.

The arctic wolf had tied their wrists with a rope, blinked an eye and said casually: 'Just in case. And let's hope we don't need to muzzle you, okay?'

Now, Kodu and Ike walked side by side with their paws tied behind their backs, following the arctic fox and the mongrel. Kathreen, who walked right after them, was followed by the two arctic wolves. They had taken them out of the cave and made them walk through the limitless field of snow. The blizzard seemed to have stopped long ago, but the clouds that slowly swirled in the sky looked threatening enough to make the kane force their prisoners to walk fast.

Ike could feel Kodu's nervousness as if he practically smelled it; he knew that they had gotten into a terrible situation and he still was not sure how they were going to get out of it. He knew they were getting closer to Northundra, where there was a slight chance they could find Zèon's name, but still...

...his conviction was starting to fall piece by piece. His journey had never seemed as absurd or its objective as unrealistic as when he walked behind the kane that had caught them. Even in the event that they somehow managed to escape from those kane, which Ike highly doubted, they still had to find Zèon's palace in the middle of that vast desert of snow. After that, they would have to look for any clue of the arctic fox's past, which after so many years could perfectly be buried under six feet of snow, if it existed. And then, they would have to go back to their palace surviving the journey, maybe to find that Sophia had been lying all along and there was no way to wake Zèon up.

In the middle of nowhere, Ike was starting to believe that he had made a terrible mistake. <<Why did I think I could do it?>> he reproached himself, trying to conceal his trembling. Maybe he should have never left his palace, assume that Zèon was never going to wake up.

At least that way he could have spent his last moments with the one he loved.

'Feeling cold, fehlar?' the arctic fox asked when he noticed Ike was shivering. 'Get used to it. We'll let the blizzard cover your corpse after you're dead.'

Bal chuckled quietly, but didn't say anything.

Soon enough, they started to see more kane here and there. At first, Ike thought that the lights that shone in the distance were simple reflections of the sun in the snow, until he understood that the sky was not clear enough. After that, he started to notice that the lights would always shine in the same direction and that their captors seemed to follow them. When the first kane appeared from behind a dune of snow, holding a piece of mirror in his paws, Ike was somehow expecting it.

Following the lights in the horizon, they soon got to what looked like an enormous hill covered by snow. From the distance, it could have been easily mistaken with another dune, but once they started to get closer to it, even Ike knew that it was too big in order to be just a natural accumulation of snow. Their captors kept making them walk, circling the hill, until they found what looked like a frozen gate in one of the sides. If they had looked at it from afar it would have blended in with the snow perfectly. There was no way those kane could have built a whole building under the snow, unless...

Ike felt his heart race a bit when he finally understood where they were. He considered asking about it, but after a while he decided that it was not a good idea.

When the mongrel walked ahead and knocked the huge gate in a specific rhythm, icicles fell from its arch. The gate looked quite heavy judging by the exhausted faces of the kane who opened it after a few seconds, and the group walked through it quickly, as if trying to remain outside as little time as possible. Then, as soon as they were inside, the kane pushed the gates again closing them as quickly as they could. Ike could understand why: after all, each second the gate stood open was an unnecessary risk of being discovered.

'Home, sweet home,' Bal joked, getting rid of the snow on his fur as soon as the doors closed behind them.

The rest of the group did the same, but did not lose more time than necessary.

There was no way the interior of the building could have been more different from the icy world beyond the gates. Zèon had mentioned his palace few times in the past, but Ike had always imagined it as a tall castle of crystalline towers, that matched the world of snow and ice that he imagined Northundra would be. He had thought everything would be as cold as the environment, and in his wildest fantasies he had seen the castle as fully made of ice, even though he knew that was entirely impossible.

But, in practice, the palace of the Frostpaws was totally different from what he had in mind. If in Ike's imagination everything had been blue and white, in reality it seemed like the main colors were brown and red. The long corridor in front of them was made of some kind of clay stone that gave the whole hall a feeling of warmth and familiarity that eased Ike's worries for a few seconds. There was no such thing as imposing columns, as in the Embertooths' castle, but solid walls and arches that made the whole room look like it could protect everyone from the cold. An old woolen carpet, torn and dusty, went across the whole hall; it had intrincate, spiralling patterns that seemed to wriggle, all done with warm colors.

Ike was so absorbed looking at the old carpet that he did not hear the arctic fox telling him to keep walking, and was startled when the mongrel put a paw on his shoulder and pushed him.

They led them through the hall and then made them turn left into another corridor. They were not walking for a long time before they reached a thick auburn door, blocked by a huge bar of steel which acted like an improvised latch. It looked so heavy that it took Bal and the other arctic wolf a short while to remove it. Ike and Kodu watched the two kane as they did that operation, always followed by the piercing look of the arctic fox.

When Bal and the other arctic wolf put the bar on the floor, gasping, the mongrel opened the door immediately and then the arctic fox pushed them inside. Ike wanted to protest, but at that time he was not sure if he should feel indignant for the kane treatment or thankful that they had not killed them yet.

Once their captors had pushed Kathreen in the room too, they closed the door behind her. The room immediately sank into an almost complete darkness, where even after a while Ike could only see her sister and Kodu's silhouette.

'Well, I guess we made it!' Kathreen exclaimed, with a tone of false enthusiasm that almost got to bother Ike. 'We got to Northundra at last!'

The lion did not answer.

'Come on, Ali, don't hold back! We got to the lover fox place!'

'Please, Kathreen, shut up,' Ike asked her, holding his head with his paws as he sat down on the cold floor. 'I'm not in the mood for your nonsense.'

The lioness did not say anything else for a while. They all stood in the darkness silently for what looked like hours, until Kodu suddenly broke the silence.

'So... what are we going to do now?'

'I don't know,' Ike answered, and he felt the weight of his own honesty upon him. 'I don't know, Kodu.'

Another long silence followed. In the darkness, Ike just waited, constantly thinking about Zèon. For some reason, and even though he was probably facing his own execution, he could not bear the thought of the arctic fox dying slowly in his castle, alone. He just could not accept that they were not going to spend their last moments together. The only reason why he had made that journey was to have him by his side again, like in the days when they both had shared so many moments in the Box. Those days even seemed good, in retrospect.

Somehow, he could not help but think of how stupid he had been. Atha had warned him that the kane would not listen to them easily, and still he had kept believing that there was hope. Maybe things in the Box had been easier because they had a common enemy, but now that he had gone back to Lykans, it was clear that both races were against each other once again.

He had been a fool believing that the little episode in the Box had changed anything. His race had destroyed villages and killed people, and obviously the kane would not forget it in a long time, and certainly not while he lived. Now that the possibility to see Zèon again had vanished, he could just think of the naivety of his own believes.

<<I'm so sorry>> he thought, and for a few seconds that seemed hours, he had to contain his tears. He managed to do it by redirecting his frustration towards Sophia, by hating her for separating him from the arctic fox. Hatred overlapped sadness and made him feel somewhat better, but deep inside he knew that the wound had not healed. Even the human woman seemed too far right now, as if she had never existed but as a weird dream in his mind.

Zèon, too, seemed to be nothing but a distant dream, and still his image was as clear as day in his mind. Ike evoked the first time he had felt the arctic's fox soft fur, his little body between his arms, the tenderness of that first kiss, and a tear ran down his cheek.

A long time later, maybe hours, maybe days, the tear had dried and the darkness seemed to be swallowing all, even their conversation. Kathreen and Kodu had not said a single word, as if they too were lost in their thoughts.

As the heir to the fehlar throne, Ike had grown with the possibility of a sudden death in mind. It had terrified him for years, and he had always believed that he would face his final moment with an unspeakable fear, no matter what his father tried to teach him. Now that the lion was finally facing what could easily be his last hours, he was surprised to find out that he was not feeling afraid, but terribly regretful. There were too many things he wished he had done otherwise, and they seemed to be burdening him, to the point that it was getting difficult to think, breathe, or do anything else than sinking into that deep darkness.

And then, suddenly, the door opened.

'I'm telling you, Bitefield,' the voice of the arctic fox could be heard. 'You better have a good reason to do this.'

'I do. I mean, if he is who I think he is.'

Light after such a long time of darkness was too bright in order to look directly at it, so Ike just covered his eyes with one paw, blinking. The last voice he had heard seemed familiar somehow, even though he could not quite remember when had been the last time that he had heard it. After a while, his feline eyes got used to the new illumination and he managed to look at the door. Even then, it took him a while to recognize the kane that stood beside the arctic fox.

'See? I was right!' the kane exclaimed, apparently happy, as he took one step towards the lion. 'He's Ike! Well, we used to call him Alekai the Second before we went to the Box, but anyway.

Ike blinked again, confused. Somehow, the labrador in front of him looked familiar, but he still had no clue who he could be. He deduced he should have known him from his time in the Box, and as soon as he realized that, a name appeared in his mind.

'Oh!' he said. 'Edi! I'm sorry, it's been... too long, in many ways.'

The labrador smiled.

'I was Edi in the Box, but I used to be Gaman before and that's how I like to be called nowadays.'

'I still prefer Ike,' the lion replied, with a bitter smile.

Both shook hands.

Ike had known the labrador when he had started talking with Luca in order to make a truce and find a way to get out of the Box. Even though the slightly younger kane had no noble title on his shoulders, he had soon proved to be highly influential. Zèon was a natural observant but, somehow, Edi seemed to know everyone. In fact, it had been the labrador who had advised Ike to talk with Zèon, even though Luca was supposed to know him better.

'What are you doing here?' Gaman asked, with a tone of curiosity that made Ike certain that it had been the first thing the labrador had truly wanted to say.

<<That's what I'm wondering too>> Ike thought, still a bit gloomy.

'It's a long story,' he answered, however. Gaman's presence there might be a sign that they were not as lost as they had believed. Maybe, just maybe, they had a chance of living one more day. 'You remember what Sophia did to Zèon, right?'

The labrador nodded.

'Oh, that horrible woman. Of course I remember it. Is he still... like that? Unconscious?'

'Well, enough!' the arctic fox interrupted them, stepping towards the lion with a menacing look in his face, even though he was shorter than the fehlar. 'Gaman, I hope you have a good excuse for talking in such friendly terms to the son of a murderer!'

The labrador glanced at the arctic fox, without losing the smile on his face.

'Hey, calm down, Nihil. To say Ike helped us escape from the Box would be an understatement. He practically freed us all and, without him, we would still be there.'

'Well, Zèon helped me more than you could possibly think,' Ike admitted, giving the other kane a thankful smile.

'Zèon is the Frostpaw,' Gaman explained to Nihil, in a conciliatory tone.

'I could believe a Frostpaw did that,' Nihil answered, still looking at Ike with a fiery gaze. 'But an Embertooth? I think the time you spent in the Box made you forget about what those bastards did here, Gaman.'

The labrador did not answer, and just shook his head.

'Believe me,' Ike said, turning to the arctic fox and looking into his orange eyes, 'I'm not proud of what my father did. If I could, I'd turn back time and stop this madness from happening in the first place. I'd bring every single kane that shouldn't have died back to life. And stop all the tortures, the enslavements and the horror. There is not a single day I don't think about it.'

'Hah!' Nihil exclaimed, his muzzle curving into a bitter, sarcastic smile. 'Those are only words. You fehlar love talking, but never ever tell the truth! You say we are preparing an invasion and then you invade our territory as a precautionary measure. You say you mean us no harm and then you start killing our people, enslaving our children and burning our homes. You're all just a bunch of hypocrites who love feeling morally superior so you can justify your acts!'

'But I'm being honest!' Ike replied, trying not to lose his nerve. 'I never wanted this war to happen.'

'Even if that was true, which I highly doubt, it means nothing,' the arctic fox replied, with an expression so cold and sharp that it almost hurt Ike. 'If we let you go, in a few months you'll be back to your castle. In a few years, if we're lucky, then your father will be dead and you'll be their new king. Do you think it will make a difference?'

'Well, I hope so,' Ike answered, honestly. 'I'd try to.'

The lion could feel something strange happening inside him. It was as if, even though he had stopped believing in his own ideas a few minutes ago, the fact that someone was questioning them so stubbornly forced him to defend them.

He wondered, silently, if he would always need someone to convince him of his ideas by contradicting them. The arctic fox in front of him, however, was smiling again, looking at him skeptically.

'You'd try to,' he repeated, disdainfully. 'You won't do a thing. They want you to lead them into war. They'll force you to do what they want, or you'd use that as an excuse. It's always the same.'

'I think you underestimate Ike,' Kodu intervened, then. 'He's got into lots of trouble by not doing what other people want him to do. One thing he particularly enjoys is befriending people he shouldn't.'

Ike smiled. A few hours before, that same sentence had made him angry, but just because his sister had been the one to say it.

'He was a close friend of the Frostpaw back then in the Box,' Gaman mentioned, scratching his chin. 'And Zèon did not just talk to anyone, you know?'

Nihil did not answer. He just kept staring at Ike and the lion could feel all his hatred, his resentment and the immense pain that he somehow managed to hide. It was so easy to guess that the arctic fox in front of him had suffered that he almost reminded him a bit of Zèon.

'Im sorry,' Ike heard himself say, after a few seconds. 'I'm really, really sorry. But Zèon needs my help. He really does. If I don't do anything for him, he might die. I know the war has killed thousands of kane, but if I can just save his life... well, then I'd feel like I've taken the first step to compensate you all.'

The arctic fox did not say a word, either. Ike had expected those words to wash away the hatred, or at least wake a bit of compassion, but he could not sense any change in his face.

After a while, however, the arctic fox just turned his back and walked away, without saying a word.

'Let him go,' Gaman said, looking at the other kane as he turned a corner. 'He's not a bad kane, although he's been through a lot.'

'I see,' Ike answered, with his eyes fixed on the corner where the arctic fox had disappeared out of sight. 'Is he a Frostpaw, too?'

'Oh, no. He is a Icefang,' Gaman replied, as if that explained everything, and then he added. 'They used to live in this palace, some decades ago, serving the Frostpaw family. At some point, the Frostpaws decided to reward them for their servitude and gave them some lands and money so they could build their own home.' Gaman paused, thinking for a while. 'I've heard that was quite common with the Frostpaws. Recently, they did not like to have so many servants, so they tried to 'get rid' of them whenever they could. They had to be careful, though, because not every family can survive here in Northundra if they don't have the right trade relations...'

He then stopped and chuckled, noticing Ike was looking at him.

'Sorry, I think I might be over-talking...'

'Not at all. I didn't know those things about Zèon's family,' Ike answered, truly surprised.

'They always were quite different from other kane families, or so I've been told,' the labrador said, shrugging. 'Anyway. What is it that you need in order to wake Zèon? I guess that's why you came here after all, right?'

However interesting the Frostpaws' history seemed to be, Ike had to thank the fact that Gaman wanted to get straight to the point.

'You should already know,' he answered. 'The only thing Sophia took from us permanently.'

It took the labrador a few seconds to understand.

'Uh,' he said, simply. 'That might be difficult to find, to be honest.'

Ike felt his hopes crash as he heard those words.

'What? Why?' he asked, biting his lip.

'The fehlar took everything from the castle. Paintings, carvings, every single thing that might have identified the son of the rulers has been either destroyed or stolen. You might find something, but still...'

'Did no one know him from before?' Ike asked, a bit incredulous.

He knew Zèon had been reserved and almost invisible back then, but he could not simply believe there was not anyone that knew his name from before. The answer came to his mind right before Gaman answered it.

'Hmm... most people that lived in Northundra were murdered by the fehlar when they invaded this region,' the labrador explained, looking away. 'Your race committed a lot of excesses here, Ike. Maybe because they had to endure the cold for such a long time that when they arrived here they lost control... I don't know. But there are few kane alive who once lived here. Nihil and Bal are the only ones that I can think of, and Bal used to live down in the south...'

'...so I should ask Nihil, then,' Ike understood, as his hopes once again seemed to diminish. The arctic fox did not seem precisely willing to help him.

'If he doesn't talk to you, I will ask him. If it's for a Frostpaw, he might help you. I've always thought he kinda... idolizes them,' Gaman replied, smiling. 'Anyway, feel free to move around, explore and ask for help if you need it. I'll inform the others, so you shouldn't have any problem. Besides, most of the people who are here come from the Box, so your presence here shouldn't make them feel uncomfortable... I think.'

'Thank you, Gaman,' Ike answered, giving the labrador a warm hug. 'If it weren't for you, we would probably be dead by now. I owe you one.'

Gaman was caught off guard by the hug, but did not hesitate to hug back once he gathered himself together.

'It's fine. I owed you one from the Box,' the labrador answered, once they moved apart. 'Just let me know if there's anything else I can help you with.'

Once Gaman had left, Ike turned to Kodu and Kathreen. The cat gave him a nervous smile.

'Well,' he said. 'I must admit you got me here. I really thought we were going to die.'

'I did, too,' Ike replied, honestly.

Then, both laughed, getting rid of the fear that had taken over them for the last hours. Kathreen, however, remained silent.

'Are you alright?' Ike asked the lioness. He was not as worried about her as to the possibility that she might try to do something stupid, like killing someone. However, he had to admit that she had not been very talkative since their discussion in the cavern.

'Yes, it's okay,' his sister answered, and then gave him a gentle smile. 'I must say I was wrong. You do get all you want, right?'

'What?' Ike asked, puzzled.

But the lioness only shook his head, still smiling.

'It's nothing, really,' she said. 'Go ahead and find that kane. There might actually be a chance that you can save your lover fox after all, Ali.'

Ike nodded and left quickly, following the direction in which he had last seen the arctic fox. Before turning the corner, he gave Kathreen and Kodu one last look, deducing that they would probably stay there since that was where they would feel more comfortable. He was not sure whether the kane would want to talk to him or not, but if that was not the case, he could always ask Gaman for help. As for his sister...

...he could not help but to think that lately she was behaving in a different way than usual. He was surprised she had insisted on the idea of finding Nihil and asking for his help, that she was not asking them to leave that place or kill the kane, that it was so easy for her to accept "the enemy's hospitality". <<Maybe we've just been travelling for too long>> he thought. <<And still, don't fool yourself, Ike. She has only been weird for a few hours>>.

However, the possibility that his sister might have changed her mind about him and maybe gave up in her attempts of making him the king that everyone wanted filled him with hope. It had been a burden that he had had to deal with during that journey, and knowing that things might be changing for once made him feel a bit more optimistic.

He could not imagine to what extent he was wrong.