Master's Favorite
Chapter 1
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Zander hated walking at night. Though it was his own fault, he supposed.
"Gah, serves me right for staying after class so late. My mom's gonna have a fit..."
He sighed, pulled his jacket closer around him, and kept walking.
Zander was a bit of a bookworm. He much preferred the fantastic worlds and epic tales held within his books to the real world and it's inhabitants. You could say he was a bit of a nerd, but he certainly didn't look the part.
Zander was a tall, athletically built seventeen-year-old mongoose with shiny, red-brown fur, and bright emerald green eyes. He was the topic of more than one girl's fantasies, despite his reserved, antisocial personality, and he'd even been asked out on a date once or twice, but he never gave any of the girls the time of day.
This caused most of the kids at school to call him a stuck-up prude, but this didn't phase Zander in the least. If anything it suited him. The more they thought he was a snob, the more likely it was that they'd leave him alone.
A gust of wind howled through the near deserted city street, causing Zander to shiver and hug his thin windbreaker even tighter around him.
"damn, wish I had known it would be so cold. I shoulda listened to Mom."
Suddenly Zander heard a low, wicked chuckle from the alley a few paces in front of him, and he began to get panicked as a gruff, mean looking wolf stepped out of the shadows and into Zander's path.
"Whassa matter, kid?"
Another growly, humorless chuckle.
"Lost? KInda late for little guys like you t'be out, ain't it?"
Zander stood his ground, not necessarily out of bravery but because his legs had turned to jelly. His bright green eyes conveyed his obvious terror as the sneering, grinning wolf stalked ever closer.
"Wh-what do you want," Zander managed to stammer out, willing his legs to move, to no avail.
The wolf gave another cold cackle and began to eye Zander up and down, like a piece of meat he was preparing to devour.
"Heh heh, ain't what I want, kid,"
Zander heard movement behind him and whirled around. Two more thuggish brutes were closing in on him; a hyena and a black bear, each with the same deranged grin on their face, each eyeing Zander hungrily.
The wolf took two more long strides towards Zander and grabbed him roughly by the collar of his jacket, lifting him off his feet, bringing the terrified mongoose's face just and inch from his own.
"It's what the Master wants."
With those words, the wolf reached towards his belt with his free hand, pulling from it a nightstick and lifting it over his head menacingly.
Zander hung limply, still being held by his jacket, his head screaming for him to run, fight, flail, do something!
Finally his body responded. He began flailing with all his might, pleading that his feet and his fists collide with something, anything.
"Hey! Why you little-OOF!"
Zander's prayers seemed to be answered when his right foot hit pay-dirt, right in the surprised wolf's groin. The hard kick had the desired result and the wolf released Zander and crumpled to the ground. Zander took off like a shot, thinking of only escape. To get away from those thugs, to be anywhere but there.
The wolf groaned and sat up, growling as he watched Zander run.
"Don't let him get away, you dumbasses! The Master'll demolish us if he gets away!"
At the wolf's words, the two other thugs sprang into acton, barreling down on Zander like a freight train.
The caught up quickly, the hyena stretching out a clawed hand to grab the back of Zander's collar, but missing narrowly as the mongoose took a sharp turn into a nearby alleyway. The surprised hyena let out a shout and slammed into the pavement, leaving only the bear to continue the pursuit.
Zander continued to run, fueled by adrenaline and pure terror. He had no idea who this "Master" was that those thugs had been talking about, and he didn't plan to find out. All he wanted was to get away and get home, and never leave his room again.
He had one fatal flaw in his planning, however: he never thought of where he was running, and when he realized this, it was too late. Zander came to a sliding halt, nearly colliding with the solid brick wall in front of him.
Dead end.
His eyes widened in terror and he tried, without luck, to climb the sheer brick face of the wall, falling back to the cold, dirty concrete beneath him. A cold, cruel, all to familiar cackle echoed through the empty alleyway, causing Zander to whirl around, his heart almost pounding out of his chest.
"You've been a real pain in th' ass ta hunt down, kid..."
The wolf stood at the entrance-and exit- of the alleyway, flanked on either side by his cronies, his mouth fixed into a cruel, toothy grin. A grin of cold satisfaction at cornering his prey.
"The hunt ends here, though,"
The wolf started towards Zander, closing the distance between them in a few short strides, and taking the terrified, exhausted mongoose up by the collar of his jacket once more. Zander struggled to be free of the wolf's iron grip once more, but his adrenaline fueled energy boost was all but gone, and he was too tired to put up a good fight.
The wolf cackled again, a sound that Zander was growing to hate, and balled his free hand into a fist, drawing it back slowly and menacingly. Zander could do nothing more but watch, his body was exhausted. He had no energy left. He knew that these thugs were going to get their way. He was even too tired to feel afraid of them anymore, and simply stared on at the wolf with a spark of what looked like defiance in his emerald green eyes.
The wolf saw this defiance and chuckled again.
"Gotta admit, kid, you've got some fight in ya."
He grinned and yanked Zander up to his feet.
"I think th' Master's gonna have fun breakin' you..."
The last thing Zander saw was the wolf's massive fist, then blackness.
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