ToLaD: Chapter 18: Reassurance, Discovery, and Another Thing
Braedon's eyes focused on the punching bag with a hunter's gleam. Every hit on the bag gave the instinct deep within him to hit harder with the next hit with the aim to 'kill' the bag. The music in a separate compartment of the gym he was in was drowned out by the rush of blood.
He hated himself for what he did to Leonardo at the end of the the last period of the day.
'Why am I snapping at everyone so much?' Braedon thought.
He definitely needs to apologise. But he can think on that later.
Right now, his instincts were telling him to kill the bag.
He threw a hook that went a little too wide, but it never hit the bag itself, since it hit someone across the side of the face. When Braedon knew what happened, he immediately turned to where the yelp of pain came from.
A wolf, wearing paint-covered pants, steel-capped boots and a fluro worker's shirt, was holding the side of his face, most likely where Braedon hit him.
"Argh, I've got to say, Braedon, that was a damn good hit." The wolf said.
The voice instantly allowed Braedon to recognise just who it is.
"Hanz??" Braedon asked, not believing what was happening.
The wolf nodded, still holding where Braedon hit him.
"Y'know, it's weird that you know who I am just by voice."
"That's what happens when for the past few years when we've gone face to face in the tournaments."
Hanz? chuckled, nodding in acceptance.
"Say, Braedon, why exactly are you here? I've never seen you around here before."
Braedon sighed. He motioned to the rows of cycles just a few metres away, both of them walking over there. They each took a seat on separate ones.
Braedon sighed again, scratching at a loose piece of wrapping around his paw in nervous energy.
"I snapped at one of my friends at the end of the day."
The confused look on Hanz?'s face told him to continue.
"The circumstances that I've been in has taken a good toll on my ability to retain my anger. Normally, I wouldn't snap so easily, but....." Braedon explained further, stopping due to shame.
Hanz? rolled one of his paws in a circle for Braedon to continue.
"After I snapped, I came here. Which you saw me beating up the bag over there."
That was when a phone started to ring. Braedon recognised the ringtone as his own, so he rushed over to his bag and pulled it out, checking just who was calling him. What was on the screen shocked him.
It was Leonardo.
Braedon took a deep breath and answered the call.
"Look, Leo, I need to-" Braedon began.
"No need to apologise, Braedon. Even someone as dumb as I knew that you are under too much pressure." Leonardo interrupted, near yelling.
"And yet both of us know that you're not dumb." Braedon corrected, smiling.
"Absolutely. Now, see you in a few day's time?"
"Yeah. See ya."
Braedon hung up on Leonardo and placed the phone in his bag, a great weight being lifted up off of his shoulders and a stupid smile on his muzzle. He turned to face Hanz?, who seemed to be taking some form of enjoyment from something.
"Let me guess, the friend you snapped at?" The wolf asked.
Braedon nodded, walking back over to sit on the cycle he was on before. Both wolf and fox talked for a few more minutes until an alarm went off. Not one that Braedon recognised, but one that Hanz? definitely knew. Hanz? quickly looked at the watch on his wrist, cursing silently to himself.
"I have to go to Tornado Blade, Braedon." He explained, standing up. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a small notebook with a pen. He quickly scrawled something down on the front and ripped that sheet off, handing it to Braedon. It was his phone number.
"If you ever need someone else to talk to get something off your chest, or a good fight, just call." Hanz? finished. With that, Hanz? walked away, going to where he needed to be.
Braedon placed Hanz?'s phone number into his bag and pulled his phone out. Placing a bag strap over a shoulder, he called his mother for a pick up.
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With Hanz?:
Hanz? walked into Tornado Blade, a modern building surrounded by other modern buildings. In technicalities, Tornado Blade was closed at this moment, but his father said that there was someone he needed to meet and that they would be meeting there.
He made it to the door was when he began to hear the two voices.
"Look, Qismat, I don't know why I even bothered to come here." An unfamiliar voice said.
"We haven't talked in years, Destin. And I want my son to..." His father replied.
"So you brought me down here to brag that you have a family? Is that it?" The voice interrupted, hostility thick in the voice.
"No, no, you've got it wrong there."
"Then why?"
Hanz? looked around the corner, seeing his father and another wolf of about the same age. Both were near mirror images of the other, except the unfamiliar wolf had a blue bang over one eye and in a casual looking business suit, while his father was in regular clothing.
"Dad, you wanted me to come here?" Hanz? asked from the corner, prompting both to look at him.
His dad sighed, looking as if his age is finally catching up to him.
"Hanz?, meet your uncle Destin. Destin, meet your nephew, Hanz?." His father introduced.
Destin, however, growled and began to storm past Hanz?.
"Don't even know why I bothered to come here. Waste of my damn time." Destin ranted, still facing away.
"Look, Dest, I didn't do this out to get you." His father tried to argue.
Destin sharply turned to face him, fangs flashing in the light. "That's just a cover-up, a lie. Both of us once knew each other, but we've changed so much so that we don't know each other anymore." Destin responded. He turned to continue storming out.
"Look, bro, I-" His father tried to reason.
"I am not your brother, Qismat." Destin interrupted, his voice full of anger.
Hanz?'s father stopped in his tracks, shocked to his core at what was just said. Destin didn't care, as he just kept walking, got into a car, and sped away.
Hanz? walked up to beside his dad, who was still looking to the empty space where the car sped off to. He could hear his father mutter something.
"You may not see us as brothers, Destin, but I still do." His father muttered.
Both locked Tornado Blade up and left for home.
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With Light:
It has been a long day.
As soon as he fell onto the bed, he was out like a light.
However, the day was just the least of his worries.
Whatever was happening under the guise of sleep, it wasn't within the realm of dreams. Instead, a humongous dark swirling vortex was in his eyesight, yet quite some distance away. He didn't know how he got here, but he knew of the place he's in.
"Hello, sweet dealer of my domain." A voice whispered behind him like the wind.
Light turned sharply towards the voice. He knew who's voice that was.
It was Lady Osyn.
She looks similar to what the statues depict her looking like, the feathers are of the deepest black imaginable. Like they were sucking all of the light around them. Her chain and sickle was coiled and held in one wing. Most others would be terrified of her appearance, pleading to live a little longer from the Goddess of Death.
But Light is not like most others.
Strangely, he was comforted. Not that he minded, of course.
"My Lady Osyn." Light replied respectfully, trekking on the thinest of ice. He didn't want to know what happens when one crosses the Goddess of Death.
The vulture smiled, something that also strangely comforted the albino fox.
"I have been watching you with extreme pleasure, Light. So young, so deadly." Osyn said, sadism coated her voice in spades.
She rapidly threw the wing that wasn't holding the chain and sickle out to the side, and Light felt something burning on his chest. He looked down.
It was his very skin over his heart that was burning.
A hexagon appeared, the sickle decorated the middle of it. It was Osyn's most treasured mark.
"Show that to Ra~id. He knows what it means." Osyn ordered.
A rapid swathe of darkness enveloped Light, causing him to jerk awake in his bed when his alarm went. He looked to his chest.
And as sure as the sun rising, Osyn's mark was there.