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Getaway

Part 1

Everything jerked at once. My monitor and fan rocked back and forth. Pens skittered and tumbled off of the desk. Hell, even the fully-loaded filing were thumping. The shaking affected everything, all the way through to my chair shifting and rolling about beneath me.

Shouts and screams went out around the office, getting louder the longer the trembling continued.

"Keep calm," yelled a colleague from her workstation beside the meeting room. The big landscape painting we had hanging there swayed and bounced again the wall. "Keep calm."

Lights flickered. A ceiling tile crumbled and rained dust onto the carpet. I watched a few of my colleagues cling to their desk, holding on for dear life. They'd be fine. It never got much worse than this.

I gripped the desk with one paw, securing my coffee cup with the other. The tremor stopped after a few seconds. The dampening supports did their job as always. No drama personally. Couldn't say the same of some of the others.

"What in the world was that?

"A quake? Here?"

"...got water everywhere. All over the damn documentation."

"Almost gave me a heart attack!"

Peter, my supervisor, jumped up from his space across the divider from mine. Face like thunder, the ferret stormed over towards the filing cabinets. They'd finally stopped moving.

He tugged the blinds open, shoved, the sliding window open and leaned out to really go to town.

"What was that? What in the hell is going on out here!?"

A faint whirr started above us. The ceiling began to shift, creeping open to reveal the top half of Mat, one of our Velikan colleagues.

"Sorry," the cat replied, adjusting his tie. "I tripped; bumped the wall. Are you okay--?"

"Be more careful. Please."

He nodded, now tugging at his collar. The ceiling began to retract, but not before I caught his eye.

'Don't worry about it', I mouthed in our native Velikan. That got a softer nod and a far easier smile in return.

Peter marched back towards his desk, finding me watching. "You're looking calm. What, that wasn't enough shaking for you?"

"I was born and raised here," I answered in my best Polcian. Even after five months of it, working in a Polcian-language office still felt out of the ordinary. "I am used to it."

"Lucky you." He gathered up some paperwork from his desk, coffee dripping visibly. "Damn it."

"Give it a while. You will get there, too."

"Sure hope so." Into the trash slammed the papers. "If it's not that, it's having to look up all the time. It's enough to give a guy neck cramp."

I snorted a laugh, reaching to sip at my own coffee. "No argument there." Rim to my lips, I stopped short upon noticing Peter's brown-speckled shirt. Guess that paperwork had collected more coffee than either of us realised.

"What a damn day." He sank down into his seat. I figured it best to leave him to his work while I returned to mine. After all, this damn code wasn't going to debug itself.

Maybe it was the distraction Mat created, or maybe it was the headache trying to trace down this segfault that kept everything crashing, but damned if I could get myself back into the swing of things. Screw it. It could wait. No sense in getting worked up over something that wasn't needed for another few weeks. Not least with a to-do list as long as mine.

I checked out my inbox on my second monitor, scrolling through to see if anything interesting, or more likely, anything urgent lied hidden amid all these status reports and requests...

'Kaz, your search with us: we have an update.'

_ _

Those words leapt off the screen at me. I glared at them for... I'm not sure how long. I'd been waiting weeks for this. To be honest, I'd starting believing that I'd be out of luck. That it'd all be for nothing.

I scrolled up, hovering my icon over the subject line. When I first started, I couldn't wait for news... but here, now, the prospect of seeing what laid inside left my finger stiff above the mouse button.

"Kaz."

I shook in my seat. Far harder than anything Mat got out of me.

"We've got that progress meeting to get to." Peter stood from his workstation, beckoning me with him.

"Be right there," I blurted, scrambling my notes together with one paw while forwarding that email to my personal address with the other.

"Come on."

"With you, with you." I sprang up to my feet, rushing off for yet another meeting with management. Honestly, these unsettled me way more than any stumbling Velikan ever could.

For a 'progress' meeting, I didn't hear all that much progress going on. It would've been nice to find out more about what the programmers next door in the so called 'Velikan area' were getting up to. Trouble is, we only got together when it was absolutely crucial. My 'Polcian' team much preferred dealing with stuff in isolation, reporting directly to Polcian management over at our Polcian head office... Then they'd wonder why a job took twice as long as it should have. On top of all that, I'm hardly sure why I bother going to these review sessions. It's not like the suits over in Polcia give much of a damn what I think. After all, I'm just some Polcian-sized Velikan red panda, fresh out of education, seemingly hired to do the legwork and play translator for all the non-Velikan speakers in the office (which was damn near everyone).

The one saving grace I could take from this meeting was it dragging most of the way to finishing time. Just a few minutes later, I was packed up, out the door, and down onto the plaza outside our office.

"Hey, Kaz," called Sasha, the brown fox reaching out an arm as he approached. His company's office was much deeper into the business park here, but we always made sure to catch each other for the journey home. "How goes?"

"All good." I hopped onto the walkway to join him, slapping my paw to his. "Much better now. You?"

"Same, same. Been a long day, but a good one; finally getting the contract we've been negotiating with VelikaAir wrapped up. Just means a lotta admin junk coming my way." Building by building, more and more workers crowded on for the ride. Thankfully the station was only a minute or so away. "Yours go okay?"

"Can't complain. Still battling to get my head around the program our devs in Polcia threw together."

"The one from last week?"

"The very same."

"Damn."

"Damn's right. It's a mess, and all of the documentation is in the most broken, slang-filled Polcian I've ever seen." Here on our sheltered walkway, rolling beside the ankles of our larger compatriots, it was refreshing to hear all the different native conversations bouncing around above. "Sure glad to be back talking normal now."

We shot the breeze some more while we moved along. The last leg of the ride carried us down beneath the plaza, curving around to link us with the underground area where we'd board our train headed towards Zelengorod Central.

Aside from the obvious reasons, I always enjoyed this part of the trip home. You could easily find the newbies here by how anxious they were around everything; the perfect setup for Sasha and I to play 'Spot the Polcian'.

"There's one," he muttered, gesturing faintly towards a suit-wearing wolf standing a short distance from us. "If he holds the guardrail any harder, he's gonna tear it off."

I watched the guy shift around, muzzle darting up at the ceiling with each harder step from the larger travellers above. "Good spot. That's four-two to you."

"Storming on to victory," Sasha crowed, chocolate-furred tail swishing.

"Not just yet, man." I kept my eyes fixed firmly ahead. "The little guy next to me. The stoat."

He jerked forward to look. So much for subtlety. "Yeah?"

"Everytime we say something, he starts watching us." It was an effort not to laugh as, like clockwork, he stared our way again. "Guess he's not heard many guys our size speaking Velikan."

"Damn it." Sasha snorted. "Four-three."

"To be fair, if we go back and include the whole day in this, I'm winning like... twenty-three to four. One of the guys in the main office bumped into our section this afternoon. It was barely anything, but the whole place burst out screaming like a bomb had gone off."

"Yeah, well too bad for you we ain't counting all that... funny as it sounds."

We shifted over to the right side of the walkway, heading towards the southbound platform. As usual, the crowd didn't let up. Pretty much everyone down here would be heading our way, back into the city, leaving us to fight for space to stand in the 'Polcian carriage', never mind a seat... 'Polcian carriage', what an idea. As if Velikans our size never rode the train before the Polcians started coming here en masse for work. It was decked out in so much arrogance, but by the same token, it reminded me that there were places out there designed and built purely around people our size. That thought remained lodged in my head right up until our train departed, moving us towards home.

"I'd like to go to Polcia sometime, y'know? See what it's like there." I turned to Sasha, both of us pressed up together, clinging to the same grab handle above. "Maybe it'd be less damn crowded."

"Not this again," he grumbled. "You sound like you hate this place."

"I don't hate it." A short curve in the track sent all of us standing shifting for balance. Whatever body part I took hard in the back would damn sure leave a bruise. "Apart from this fucking commute. This commute can die in a fire."

"No arguments here."

"But Zelengorod's where I'm from. There's no place else in Velika where people of all sizes mix so well. No place else I'd rather be."

"Exactly. Plus, the way you go on, anyone would think you can't stand being around Polcians."

"It's not that... I just wish they'd actually try harder to fit in." I peered around the carriage. Even if I'd never met one during my time working this job, I figured one day, I'd come across a Polcian actually fluent in our language. Seemed today wouldn't be that day. "Learning even basic Velikan would be a start, instead of always assuming people their size can understand them."

"Ain't gonna argue with that, either," Sasha replied. "It'd be great not having to speak Polcian around the office all the time. Wouldn't have to think so much on every damn thing I say. I tell ya, it's a blessing when a Velikan customer calls me up. It's actually less tense than trying to join in the shittalking with the other guys here."

"I can believe it." A gentle jerk forward told us we were slowing. Outside, beyond all the houses we'd begun gliding past, the city proper came into view. A grey mass of apartment buildings and skyscrapers dominated the horizon, stretching high into the pastel blue sky while the setting sun laid low behind them. Only a few more stops 'til home. "But still... I'm interested to see Polcia. See what it's like. Get to know where people like us came from back in the day."

"Man, I get that totally, but Polcia? Lemme tell ya, there's a reason it's only our directors that head over there on work trips. It damn sure ain't gonna come cheap."

"All the more reason to go," I answered. "If I can get the right price... Beats something like heading out to the coast for a weekend."

Our train eased to a halt, announcer confirming the stop as Kurchin Park moments before the doors whooshed open. Not many if any aboard our carriage stepped off. Mostly, judging by the drumming above, it was our bigger neighbours heading for the exits.

"I get it," Sasha sang, showing some teeth. "I got you."

"Got what?"

"Gonna try and hook up with some Polcian girl, huh? I keep tellin' you, there's plenty out there 'round here. You don't gotta be travelling a few thousand miles for the pleasure--"

"That ain't it."

"Course not. Wouldn't be like you to get over Eva anytime soon."

"I am over her."

"You sure? Anyone would think she dumped you only yesterday."

"She didn't _dump_me," I shot back, probably louder than I should have. Even with the language barrier between most of us, I had half the carriage gawking my way. "She suggested it wouldn't be fair on either of us to try and keep up the relationship. Not while she stayed up north to finish nursing school."

"That sounds like her dumping you."

"I agreed with her."

"Yeah, whatever way you wanna cut it, it's been almost two years since you guys broke up. She strang you along all through finishing school, most of university, and had you crying over her most of final year--"

"What you talking about--?"

"You need to put yourself back out there," he snapped. A combination of his shove and the train pulling away forced me to grip my handle tight. "Make up for lost time."

"I guess." Thank the gods for unilingual Polcians. Sasha really didn't do 'private'. For once I hoped we didn't have too many Velikans down here. "I suppose I wouldn't rule anything out."

"Good man--"

"That's not to say I'd be going over there prowling for it or anything like that. Damn, it's a one track mind with you."

"My mind ain't got one track."

"Oh no?"

"No... There's beer, too." I tossed him a glare. The grin he flashed in turn lasted most of our ride back into the city.

Rechnaya Roscha, or just 'The Roscha' for short; our home neighbourhood just a couple stops short of Zelengorod Central. A few of our compatriots stepped out the carriage with us, but the majority would carry on across the river, all the way downtown. They'd fight to climb out onto the platform, shuffle off through huge crowds, rushing to transfer onto their next train onwards. That was one benefit of living in 'real' Velika, rather than those fenced off districts most Polcians kept themselves to. We'd be home long before any of them; a fact I decided to remind Sasha of on our way out of the station.

"We'd be home even quicker if we lived in one of these." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "Would help us miss the morning rush, too."

Our walkway running parallel to the pavement carried us under the stoop of a three-storey apartment building, soon returning us to the open air on our approach to the next. Beyond the rush-hour traffic, and pedestrians big and small, the newest set of 'downsized' apartments rose five storeys high... fixed to the side of the single storey corner store they'd been built into.

"If they hurry up with building more, sure," I replied. "Got a feeling we'll be waiting a while for the next lot."

"That's what the waiting list's for."

"Alright then. Go put our names on it."

"I will."

"Tonight."

"Gonna."

"You won't," I shot back, words echoing against the next stoop we rolled beneath. "You'll slack about. Like most evenings."

"I get tired after work. Sue me." He nudged my shoulder. "Anyway, what's to stop you from doin' it?"

"Nothing." The light returned. So did that smirk on his chocolate and while muzzle. "I get tired, too."

"There you go." Another nudge came. "Stop giving me shit, Pandaboy."

We carried on down the path, eventually putting the noisy, crowded main strip behind us. A few more minutes of travelling took us to the calmer suburbs of our neighbourhood. Trees replaced towers here. Single-storey houses in place of stores and apartments. Traffic eased to allow for conversation without raised voices. Too bad we didn't have much time left for that.

I slapped paws with Sasha, sharing a goodbye as I stepped off the walkway. He carried on down our street, rolling towards the complex his house sat on while I padded along my front path. No walkway here, which made for a longer trip for me compared to the rest of my family. The slope my dad built back in the day was a help at least. Without it, it'd be tough going to climb the chest-high front step onto our porch.

Key in paw, I slotted it into the smaller door beside our main one. Finally I could begin to relax for real.

Part 2

"Hello." I pushed the door closed behind me. No answer. "Anyone home?"

Someone had to be. The TV was on at least, broadcasting to the empty couch opposite. No matter. I kicked off my shoes and slipped off my jacket, sliding it on a hanger. High above, I saw Ma's coat, and my brother, Luka's.

Arriving home these days was a far cry from my school years. Often, travelling back from my finishing school across The Roscha, I'd have been the last one home. On those occasions, I'd have both brothers and my sister to contend with; a trio of larger raccoons causing untold levels of mayhem. Even worse still if neither Ma or Dad had made it back from work. Sometimes, I missed that chaos. Teenaged me would've never believed I'd say that.

"Kazimir?" I heard Ma call from the kitchen. "Is that you?"

"It is."

"You're early." She appeared in the wide archway, smile creasing her silver-flecked, black eye-mask. "Did your day go well?"

"Train was quick today; no delays." I headed her way. "And yeah, not too bad. Yours?"

"That's good." A couple of her steps covered what would have taken me a dozen. "And mine went well, thank you."

"Cool."

"Would you like a hand?"

I looked between the couch and my tatty, old beanbag seat down on the floor beside it. Neither looked good. "I'm okay. Thanks."

Ma stopped as I finished. Her brightness remained as I peered up from her shins. "Dinner's more or less ready. Just waiting on your father now. You've got time to get changed and cleaned up if you like."

Working in an office kept me from getting all that dirty, the tradeoff being the need to wear a shirt, tie and trousers all day. "Definitely. It'll be good to get outta all this."

I trotted off down the hallway, keeping to the wall on my way to the scaled down doorway of my room. The journey took longer without my old skateboard. I never did get that apology from my sister, Nadia. Took long enough just to get her to confess to stepping on and flattening it while I was away at university last year. Of course, she found a way to put the fault on my shoulders...

Floorboards turned to carpet. I flicked on the lights, carrying on over to my partition in the corner of the bedroom. To my right, made up far neater than at any time before last summer, sat my oldest 'little' brother's bed. It'd been half a year now, but with Artur away on his own university adventure, bunking alone still unsettled me from time to time; another thought teenaged me would find tough to understand.

Passing through another doorway took me into my smaller 'room'. Time at last to breathe out the stresses of the workday. I couldn't remove my shirt fast enough, tossing it into the washbasket with my trousers soon following. The loose t-shirt and shorts I'd left myself soon went on, bed creaking to catch my diving descent.

Sprawling out, staring up at the ceiling, it'd have been way too easy to doze off. Not that my thoughts would've let me. They'd wasted no time in turning from my search for comfort to another search entirely.

My computer sat waiting beneath the window; evening light bouncing off the dusty monitor. A proper clean was way overdue in here. Maybe this weekend.

I jumped up from my sprawl, settling down into my desk chair just as fast. A flick of the mouse pulled it from sleep mode; email inbox flashing with eight new messages down in the taskbar. Only one of them needed my attention right then: the forwarded message from 'Kazimir Grishin, Assistant Programmer'. Daytime me.

'Kaz, your search with us: we have an update.'

_ _

Seeing that subject line got no less tense second time around. I had the weirdest lump in my throat. The temperature plummeted ten degrees, my resulting shiver sending a twitch through the mouse cursor.

Right then, my finger decided to return to the office. It hovered stiff, still reluctant to execute that final double click. This email could've held everything... nothing... anything.

Force overtook fear. I forced myself into that next step, spreading the message contents across the screen.

'Good day, Kaz...'

'...From the information submitted...'

'...detail below so far...'

I wasn't sure where to focus first. The text on screen kinda jumped around to form this confusing mass of black. Doubt sideswiped me, leaving me pondering over whether I should've done this to begin with... After all, was it really fair on anyone?

'...Arlone, Linvendia.'

_ _

Those two words were the first to overcome all my mental tossing and turning. Arlone... capital of Linvendia... The east coast of Polcia--

"Kaz?"

I gasped and winced from my knee cracking the underside of my desk. My whole body tensed; the sound of Luka's approach pricking my ears.

"Are you in there?"

"I'm here!" My brother's steps stopped. "One sec."

"'Kay."

This whole scene had me flustered for reasons I had no idea of, nor could I stop. I grabbed a book I'd been reading from beside my computer, mouse hand slamming my cursor into 'Quick Print'. Another bump of the desk; elbow catching it on my way down to the shelf below. "Damn it!"

"What's up?"

"Nothing." I almost tore the paper from my printer, folding it somewhere down the middle. "All good."

The ceiling shifted. I crammed the printout into my book, slipping it against another browning sheet of paper already acting as a bookmark. My ears twitched from the grinding above. It covered the creaking of bed springs shifting to catch me.

"How was work?" Luka's fingers tucked around the ceiling, guiding it away from walls to reveal his glasses, then the rest of his masked grey face.

"Not bad." I freed my tail from under me, resting it like a red and white cushion on my stomach. "School?"

"Got more biology homework," he muttered back. "Lots."

"Ouch. Tough break."

"Yup." His sigh blasted me with heat. It ruffled my clothes, fur and bed sheets all at once. Just like Art at that age, Luka stood tall for thirteen. Not all that far from adult height and frequently forgetting his own strength. No way was he that 'little' raccoon scurrying around the house any more... "And, I still haveta find time to study for my maths test next week."

"It's only Thursday."

"Yeah, but the test's_Tuesday_, and I'm still finding the formulas hard to remember. What if I forget them?" He whined. "Imma fail for sure!"

"Calm down." I grinned. Not sure he appreciated that. "You'll be fine if you keep practicing."

"You think you could help me revise?" Even while he knelt, I could see his tail swishing behind him. "You're good at all this stuff."

I bit back my instinctive grumble, taking a second to give him an answer. "Sure." I'd been playing maths tutor ever since he'd started school. Why break the habit of a lifetime? "This weekend?"

"Great!" That black and grey bush swayed wider. "Thanks, Kaz."

"Are you two coming?" We both glanced towards the open door beyond my wall. Ma's voice rang loud from the living room. "Boys?"

"Coming," Luka called back, turning to me. "Forgot to say... Dad's home. Dinner's about ready."

"Right," I chuckled. "Thanks for the heads up."

"Want a lift?"

"Sure thing."

He popped my ceiling back into place, ready with cupped paws as I left my room. In no time flat, my 'littlest' brother had carried us both through to the kitchen.

My whole family must've been starving, because it took no time flat for us all to get stuck into Ma's vegetable stew. Can't blame them; it never disappointed. I'd never admit it in front of him, but Dad's cooking couldn't hold a candle to her's.

Still in his blue work shirt and tie, Dad sat to my left, furthest from me, munching away on spoon after huge spoonful of veggies. Deep down, he likely shared my opinion, and would just a likely confirm once he served himself seconds.

Luka fidgeted beside him, typically fussy, poking around and doing anything other than eating.

To my right, opposite Dad, Ma watched Luka with daggers. "You're not leaving the table until you've eaten something."

"Don't like it, though," he moaned. "Tastes funny."

"You can't live on fried junk." She pointed her fork at his plate. "Eat!"

Meanwhile, my sister Nadia sat dead to the world beside Ma. Like usual, she had her phone down next to her plate and, again, like usual, found it way more interesting than dinner.

I had a great view of everything from my seat in the middle of the table. Sasha always used to get a kick out of this when he'd come round after school for dinner, but to me, my 'table on top of the table'... well, it was normal. Right?

"Oh, while I'm thinking about it..." I glanced up at Dad. He paused to grab a sip of his soda. "Artur sent me a message last night. It's the last game of his season in a couple of weeks. He asked if we'd like to head down to watch."

Nods and hums of approval sounded around me. I couldn't be so straightforward. "When is it?"

"Two weeks Friday. Faceoff is at six."

"Six?"

He nodded, taking another gulp of his drink. The belch he followed up with got a big tut from Ma. Not that Dad took much notice, grunting and patting his round stomach. "I'll be leaving the office early that day to drive down there. I can swing by if you're able to do the same."

"I can't just up and leave early," I grumbled back.

"Book a couple of hours holiday?"

"I'm kinda running low as it is... and I want to keep days back for a trip someplace."

"You don't have to come if it's a problem," Ma suggested. "You know Artur wouldn't mind."

"I know... but I like watching him play hockey. Just not that easy for me to drop everything and head all the way across Zelengorod."

"Of course, and that's fine," Dad replied with a grumble of his own. "He'll understand."

The clanking of cutlery against plates returned. Our conversation had ended... or so I thought.

"Where are you thinking of visiting?" asked Ma.

"Hmm?"

"You mentioned a trip. Did you have somewhere in mind?"

I watched her watch me. Turning to Dad, I got the same again. Even Luka had his eyes fixed my way. Nadia... well, she still sat muzzle deep in her phone.

"Got a couple of places in mind," I told my glass of juice. "Rodaria, maybe... one of the other southern states... or somewhere in Polcia, possibly."

"Polcia?" Here came Dad again. "I thought you decided against that."

"No. I said I'd think over it again sometime. When I have a bit more money saved. Now, I have a bit more money saved, so that 'when' has officially arrived."

"Don't get smart with me," he groaned, squinting. "That's a big deal."

"I know."

"You really want to go there?" Ma's voice carried way softer. "Still?"

"Why not?"

"It's such a long way... so far from home. I thought you'd moved on from this."

"I hadn't. Haven't."

More silence. The pulp in my juice got real interesting; I just couldn't look away.

"We understand," Dad said, his rumbling losing its edge. "You want to see it. The place your family originally came from. I had the same thing back when I first visited Bolstrovo... but Polcia."

I glanced up at him, then to Ma. Seeing them wrestle with this killed me. For better or worse, we rarely if ever spoke about my being adopted.

"We can't stop you from going," Ma added. "It's just an awfully scary prospect for us. Going so far away."

"I get that..."

"I hope this isn't because you feel that you don't belong."

"No--"

"It's not uncommon apparently. I read that a lot of smaller Velikans go through the same thing as they grow--"

"It's not..." I lost interest in my juice. My fork was warm from all the rubbing and rolling in my paw. "I've never felt like that. Not here." I managed to lift my head. Finally. "Even when Sasha and I were getting into trouble with bigger classmates at school."

"Thanks to Sasha's mouth," Dad shot back, snickering. "If I remember the stories right."

"Mostly." I chuckled, too. "This trip of mine... It'll be a matter of exploring where my family came from. A tour. Discovery. That's all."

They'd never admit it, but I could see the weight of my parents' worry lifting. Their eyes weren't so intense. Scared.

"I'd wanna go to Polcia," said Luka, jabbing at his now mashed up brown mess of stew. "Would be cool."

Ma smiled. "Not a chance, even if it were allowed." She then turned back to me. "And I'm still not pleased at the idea of you going there alone, either."

"How is Sasha anyhow?" Dad would never know my relief over him moving the topic along. "I've not seen him for a while."

"He's good. Been working at DuraTech for a couple of months now."

"DuraTech? Huh." He rubbed his muzzle. "Does he still have his bright red head fur? Can't imagine that'd go down well at a company like that."

"No, that's gone now. Back to his natural brown. I think he had to, what with all the customers he has to meet. Still got the ear studs, though. No way they'd make him lose those--"

"Nadia," Ma snapped, stealing everyone's attention her way. All except Nadia, obviously. "Stop being rude."

"I'm not."

"You are. Stop staring at your phone while we're at the dinner table. We're having a conversation here."

"Gods, Ma." She brushed at her head fur, batting those purple highlights she never got permission for aside. "I'm messaging a friend. That's all."

"Friend." Dad scoffed. "Are you texting that boy again?"

"He has a name."

"Why couldn't you find a nice boy to spend time with?" asked Ma. "Like Stilian."

"Stilian's history, Ma. Get over it." Finally Nadia glanced up from her phone. "I'm sixteen years old; I can see who I wanna see..."

At last. I could've thanked Nadia for getting our parents off me. Finishing up dinner, I did thank whatever power conspired to get their approval for my trip... or as close to it they were ever likely to give.

Dinner done, dining room abandoned, I found myself back on my bed again. Alone within a room, within an even bigger, empty room outside. It gave plenty of opportunity for pondering, and gods knew I had plenty of stuff to ponder on. Was I honestly, genuinely gonna go through with this?

The frayed spine of my book hovered off the side of my desk. Out of sight, but no way out of mind, the paper I'd stuck between the pages called out to me.

Ma and Dad were right about one thing: this was a big deal. A gods damned massive one, and not just from the travelling quarter of the way 'round the world.

I sat up, scooted to the edge of my bed. Again I asked myself, was I really planning on doing this? Was I really gonna try to find my parents?

My real parents...?

---

"Morning," Sasha mumbled on his way down the street, looking worse for wear in his cream shirt and black trousers. His ears splayed with the yawn he failed to suppress. "Happy Friday."

"Happy Friday," I replied from the end of my garden path. "Tired?"

"Shattered."

"Celebrate that contract win too hard last night?"

"I'll be celebrating when I get my bonus." He grinned as I stepped onto the walkway, rolling backwards while waiting for him to reach me. "But nah... Got caught up while playing Republica. I'm running on six hours sleep today. Barely."

"Gods above. I'm kinda glad I gave your invite a swerve now."

"Ahh, you missed a great game. Ended up stomping all over some Vodak guy who thought he was the business. His repub was the first to get smashed. Not even an hour in."

"Listen to President Sidorov over here," I jeered, matching his walking pace. "Diplomatic as ever."

"Who needs diplomacy when you've got a huge fuckin' army?"

"Suppose that's one way of looking at it."

"Anyway, why did you back out?"

"Because I didn't wanna be up until past midnight and looking like a zombie this morning?" He glared with those puffy red eyes. "Plus... I kinda got caught up with other stuff. Trip stuff."

"Polcia trip stuff?" I nodded. "Did ya finally get round to telling your parents?"

"Kinda."

"What's 'kinda'?"

"I mentioned it in passing over dinner. They're not all that crazy about the idea."

"No shit they're not. Any reason in particular?"

"Because it's Polcia, and I'd be alone. Mostly the first I reckon."

We kept on down the street, both our rolling walkway and the main pavement full of folk of all sizes beginning their commute. A bus pulled up just as we passed the stop, its chugging forcing us to delay our conversation. Bag-carrying students and uniformed workers boarded one by one, while the same scene played out with the smaller passengers down here on our level.

"Listen, I don't know how you'd feel about it, but maybe it'd help your parents not freak out so much."

"Man, at this point, I'd consider anything. What are you thinking?"

"I was thinking that if they're really that scared of you heading out there alone... maybe I could come with."

I stopped fast, still creeping towards a neighbour stepping over our walkway. He must've noticed.

"Sorry!" called the corsac fox. "If I scared you."

"Oh, no, it's fine. You didn't."

He threw up a paw regardless, rushing on to his car parked out on the street.

"So what do you think?" Sasha asked. "Room for one more?"

"For real? You'd wanna come?"

"Why not?"

"You mentioned a reason or two yourself last night. For one thing, it's not gonna be all that cheap."

"Fair... but I was thinking over it some last night."

"Between warmongering on Republica you mean?"

"Every tyrant needs some downtime," he shot back. We shared a smirk. "But for real, travelling to Polcia_does_ sound exciting... and as for the whole seeing where we come from thing, I'm with you. It'd be cool."

"You've changed your tune pretty quickly." We'd just about made it to the end of our road. Time to transfer onto the stairway and head underground. There, we could cross beneath the street. "What's brought that on?"

"Well, it's like we were saying yesterday." Sasha jumped down the last couple of steps, waiting with me for the right moment to hop onto the busier walkway of the main strip. "Polcia means Polcian girls."

"Hang on, stop one second." We found a gap in the crowd and stepped forward. Only a few minutes to the station from here. "What happened to 'there's plenty out there 'round here'?"

"I like to broaden my horizons," he replied, shameless grin slapped across his muzzle.

"Yeah... you were definitely thinking about something last night."

Jokes and shittalking aside, Sasha hit it on the nose about one thing. My parents would be way more at ease if I had someone there with me... Yeah, even Sasha. Anything I could do to make them more comfortable had to be worth considering. It might even help cut down on all the questions I'd no doubt get right up to departure time. I really didn't need questions--

"Alright man, don't be too excited."

"What?"

"If it's a problem, that's fine." He huffed. "Was just an idea."

"No, no..." I ran my claws over my scalp. "It's not a problem."

"I don't wanna fuck with your plans or anything like that--"

"I know." My fingers were getting sticky from all the fur clay they picked up. Plans... If Sasha only knew the half of it. What the hell. I'd figure things out when I got over there. "Sorry, man. I'm just having an off-day or something. It'd be real cool to travel out there with you."

"For real?"

"Yeah. Sure."

"Nice one, Pandaboy!" He offered a paw. I slapped mine to it. "Gonna be sick."

"Definitely."

"What have you got planned so far anyway?"

"Oh, y'know. Sightseeing. Tours and that kinda thing."

"Sightseeing?" His smirk got brighter as the walkway started its incline, carrying us back up to street level. "I never had you down at the tour-taking type of guy."

"Yeah, well... no point going all that way and not taking in the surroundings. After all, half the reason I wanna head over is to see how different all the little things are. What it's like being someplace where things are for us and us alone. Not scaled-down."

"I get you." Sasha rubbed his chin, showing even more of his teeth. "Gotta admit, that'd be amazing to see. Plus, that don't mean we can't have a good time doing other stuff."

"Totally." My jaw clenched. I made sure to keep my tail swaying and ears upright. "What kinda things were you thinking about?"

"Gotta check out what the bar scene's like over there." The sound of traffic picked up once we got back out into the open. Rush hour was well underway. "How 'bout we get together and chat properly about it?"

Absolutely. I couldn't let him take this out of control. "Sounds good."

"Wanna come by mine this evening? I've been meaning to ask you 'round anyhow. Get some gaming on the go, just like back at uni. Been a while."

Alright, now that really did sound good. "Get some pizza and beer in, too?"

"Man..." He nudged me by the shoulder. "How you gonna game without pizza and beer!?"

"Cool." We slapped paws again. "I'm in."

The prospect of a chilled evening round at Sasha's helped get me through the last day of the week. On top of that, my Friday got even better around about lunchtime. The Polcian team decided to take back their trainwreck of an excuse for code with the aim of 'enhancing' it. I could only hope that meant deleting the whole damn file and starting afresh. No matter. It was outta my fur for now... and gods knew I had enough stuck there already.

"Heading out?" asked Ma from the couch. "Where are you off to?"

"Nowhere really." I slipped on my trainers, grabbing my coat from its peg and my laptop bag from below. "Just going 'round Sasha's."

"That's nice." She seemed more occupied by her TV soap than anything I was saying. "Doing anything special?"

"Chilling out, mostly. Play some games, have some food..." No reaction to that. Neither from Ma, nor from my Dad over in his chair. The newspaper had his complete attention. "We're probably gonna chat about the trip some more. Sasha's tagging along with me when I head over."

Ma turned from her show first. Dad followed by dropping his paper. They looked to each other. Then back to me.

"Is that alright?" I paused halfway to the scaled down front door, coat hanging as loose as my jaw while I waited for a response. It'd be Ma to finally give it.

"I suppose."

"Ma, it's fine. I won't be late."

"I was referring to Polcia." Of course, I knew that, but I preferred not to be the one to confirm it. She and Dad glanced at each other again. I wasn't far from barking out a 'see ya' and breaking for the door.

"I suppose it's better this way," said Dad, cutting that idea short. "You won't be alone over there."

"You'll be safer," Ma mumbled. She sounded as if I were leaving to head there right this minute...

"Of course." I scoffed a laugh, stopping my head from shaking as I grabbed the door handle. "I'll see you later."

Man, that was rough. I really wished they'd stop freaking out as much as they were... even if I kinda got where they were coming from. Suppose it'd be ten times worse if they knew the full story. Great. Here came the doubts again.

I purged them from my thoughts as best I could, skipping off our garden path and onto the walkway for the second time that day. The street lights cast everything in faint white as they flicked on one by one. Above, the stars were appearing in similar fashion, imitated by the lights of the skyscrapers stretching up from across the river.

It wasn't often that I headed this way down my street. Not since my school days at least. Back then, we had to catch the bus from the next road over. In a weird way... I enjoyed the throwback. Sure, my neighbours' houses had some coats of paint here and there. A few newer cars in the driveways. The apple tree in Mr. Boyko's front garden had got that bit bigger. Out here, on the face of it, not a whole lot had changed in those four or five years.

The complex Sasha lived on was only a couple minutes walk away. Sat towards the back of its own regular-sized lot, connected to the street via a walkway of its own, it featured a series of two-storey houses built halfway into a bankside. Fitting for a fox, I always thought.

His house sat on the uppermost row of four, the third along of nine. There were a few stores and food places here, too, just like a lot of the other complexes dotted around the neighbourhood. Each resembled a village within a town. Or as close as you'd get to one in Zelengorod anyhow. 'Polcian' districts the exception.

I strolled past the convenience store we'd use for supplies later that evening, making my way up the hillside. It was pretty lively for early evening; kids were still outside, riding bikes on the trails behind the houses. No-one seemed to mind all their yelling and screaming. I spotted a few high-schoolers as I turned onto Sasha's row, kicking back on the stoop of the place opposite his. Not a single larger neighbour anywhere in sight here. Would Polcia be anything like this?

"Hi, Kaz." Sasha's Ma gestured me inside the house. "How are you? It's been a while."

"Good, thanks." I followed, pulling the door closed as I went. "Glad it's the weekend. You?"

"Not bad, thank you. Haven't long been in from work." She stopped at the bottom of the stairs ahead. "Sasha? Kaz is here."

That prompted the banging of footsteps from his room above. "Be down in a sec!"

"He shouldn't be long. Want to have a seat?"

"Sure." I joined her on her way to the living room. The only light in there came from their TV.

"Evening, Kaz," called Sasha's Dad, tongue poking from his mouth as he fought to slot a bulb into the light fixture.

"Aren't you done yet?"

"Give me a chance, Lida... This stupid clip is awkward."

"Mmhm... Anything to make yourself look hard done by."

"Not that I have to try hard, do I?"

The two brown foxes shot each other a glare and a smirk. I had to chuckle. No question where Sasha got it from.

"There," his Dad announced, light flickering on. "All done."

Darkness defeated, we all moved to settle ourselves down. They opted for a seat on the couch, while I padded over to the armchair adjacent, beside the doorway.

"How are you faring, Kaz?" He freed his tail, resting a leg on his knee. "Still working up at Forum Park with Sasha?"

"Yeah, still there." I settled back into the leather. "Still at TEC."

"Enjoying?"

"I guess. As much as I can do."

He snorted. "Fair enough."

"How's the practice?"

"Busy. But busy's good. Come rain or shine, people always need to have their teeth checked out." Best not to mention I hadn't seen mine for a year now. I sure missed the free checkups I got through being a student... "Let me tell you, I had one guy today. This huge bear..." He spread his arms wide. "The biggest cavities I've ever seen."

"Tolik," grumbled Sasha's Ma. "That's not nice."

"It's not as if he knows, is it? Honestly, I could have lost a paw in there, never mind the probe!"

My teeth got itchy. Maybe I'd call up next week for an appointment...

"Sasha mentioned you two are planning a trip." My focus darted back to his Ma. "To Polcia?"

"Uh, yeah." A lot more than my teeth began to bother me. "Just a loose idea right now... need to chat more about it."

"That should be fun. Tolik and I visited there once, before Sasha was born... A long time ago now. I'm sure a lot has changed." She grinned. "I'll want to see lots of pictures."

"Oh." I smiled back. "I'll make sure to remind Sasha on that." Wow. They took that way better than my parents. Lucky Sasha.

Thumping started down the stairs. We all turned to the doorway, waiting for Sasha to pop his head around the corner. "Hey, Kaz!"

"Hey, man." I stood from the chair, reaching to slap paws.

"You two have fun," said his Dad, turning up the TV volume. Some game show soon took his attention.

"Come on," he jabbed me in the chest, retreating back outside.

As I followed him back to the stairs, I scanned more and more of the hallway. It didn't matter how many times I'd been here before, I could never get used to being in a house with everything built to my size. The plants by the front door, the pictures on the walls. Even the stairs themselves! It was weird... but kinda cool, too. No need for helping hands or special doors here. Just like the complex outside, this experience is what I wanted, but on a much wider scale. The little things that'd no doubt make the biggest difference.

"We'll head out to pick up drinks in a little bit," said Sasha as I followed him into his room, those old posters of his favourite bands still pride of place on the far wall. "You good with getting food from Pizza Prince?"

"Definitely. They deliver, they're good. I'm happy."

"First things first..." Sasha moved his guitar aside, dropping into his computer chair. The momentum rolled him all the way to his desk. "Wanna chat some 'bout Polcia?"

"Sure..." I took my position at the end of his bed, beneath the window looking out over the surrounding bankside houses. A larger car rolled down the street far in the distance. "So you told your parents about it? Our plans."

"Yeah." His brow furrowed. "Why not?"

"No reason. Guess I'm just used to my parents' viewpoint on it is all."

"Right... I guess it is a bit different for them."

Sasha had fired his monitor up before I could respond to that. The need to press him vanished as quick as it appeared.

"Oh, hey! It's Niko."

"Huh? Where?"

"Group chat." He turned back to me with a scoff. "I ain't talking 'bout outside the window."

"I know that..." I scooted forward for a better look over his shoulder. "What's he got to say? Not heard from him for a while."

"Got busy with his engineering, I guess. Can't rely on you red pandas; bigger or smaller!"

"Hey don't bring all that on me. I'm here."

Sasha focused back on his screen. "He says: 'Hey. How are you guys?'."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

I watched Sasha type away, coming up with his reply.

'All good! Kaz round mine right now. Chilling, you know. Get to build any cool shit down in Novolesk yet!?'

We waited for a moment... then another. No signs of life from the chat after a third. Time to move on.

"Alright. Let's get to it." Sasha tabbed through to his browser. A whole load of travel information flashed up on screen. "Polcia."

I didn't know where to look first. "Damn, you've been busy."

"Not really." He leaned and looked away. "Though I did spend most of the afternoon at work thinking on it."

"Clearly."

"Like I was saying yesterday, I'm not looking to fuck with your plans or nothing. I just wanted to browse ideas, that's all."

"What you got?"

"Okay." He beamed, jumping into action with tab one. "I'm thinking Andrera would be a cool place to visit. You've got so many big cities, all with their own way of doing things. There's all the multicultural goings on in New Bolwyn; food and music and all from all over the world. Failing that, you've Olnas and the mountains out west if you wanna hit the slopes, with Azora just a couple hours away if you wanna slow things down and just chill on a beach."

"Man, are you part of the Andreran tourist board now or something?"

"Hey, you asked, didn't ya? What I'm saying is, however you wanna play it, there's so much to see and do there. We won't get bored."

"Yeah, I'm with you on that, and it sounds good..."

"But?"

"But it's way out to the west of Polcia. As in west, west. Sure won't be cheap to get all the way there."

"I guess." His mouth pursed. On we moved to tab two. "What about Estordor? It's real nice in the spring; hot, but not too hot. See?"

Pictures of even more sandy beaches, old towns surrounded by sun-soaked hillsides and island regions surrounded by blue water sure backed that claim up.

"The nightlife is incredible, too."

"There we go," I said with a laugh. "That's the Sasha I know."

"Hey, I like to have fun. Sue me." He scrolled down the page, passing over image after sunny image. "Anyway, good weather makes everything better, don't it?"

"True."

"Besides." Tab three appeared with a click of his mouse. "I figured you might wanna hit up all those big electronica clubs they got down on the Kostaldeas."

"Well..." All those crowds. The light shows, the smoke, and of course, the music. "Hmm."

"See, I am thinkin' of you, too!"

"You're so generous." I pushed him by the shoulder, spinning his chair around. "Can't lie, that looks good, but--"

"Hold up, we got ourselves another 'but' incoming?"

"But, I really wanted to get some time in Arlone."

"Arlone?" Sasha's cursor skipped over a fair number of tabs.

"It's the biggest city in eastern Polcia... and... I mean, there's gotta be a lot to see and do in a place like that, too."

"Sure. Lotta history there, for that part of the world. Beer scene is supposed to be good, too."

"There! See? Even more reason."

"Wow, you're keen."

"Of course." I cracked a smile to match Sasha. "You know I'm not averse to a drink or two."

"Okay then. Linvendia's in, at least as a first stop. Guess there's no reason why we can't make it a tour of sorts. Not hard to get around by plane or train once we get there."

"Yeah, it's an option, definitely." His narrowing eyes told me I'd not delivered that with enough conviction. "Just I'm only gonna have a week at most to do this all in."

"A week!?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Why only a week?"

"That's all I can get off of work at once right now. Besides, what with having to ferry to Bolstrovo,then fly on to Polcia from there, it's gonna be pricey enough, even without the need to find cash for hotels and all for much longer than that."

"Yeah." A huff through his nose sent some sweet wrappers skittering across the desk. "There's that."

"C'mon, man. A week's gonna be plenty. We'll have time to see everything that needs to be seen... Do what needs to be done. What d'ya say?"

It took time, but in the end, I convinced his ears to spring back up again. "Alright then." He reached out a arm. "Let's get it all worked out and booked up."

We grabbed paws, grinning with excitement... and for me, some nerves, too. "Sounds good."

"Never thought I'd be heading off to the old world. So cool!" He jabbed a thumb back at his monitor. "Wanna look up some more places of interest?"

"Could do." The window took my interest more than his computer. Lights were growing in number as night drew closer. "Wanna head out to grab some drinks and stuff first? Maybe fire up some Republica after as well?"

"Sure." He bounced up out of his chair. "If you don't mind me schooling you at empire building in front of everyone?"

"Bring it, Fox." I left my laptop bag where I'd been sitting, following him towards the door. "I owe you big for last time."