ASHES - Chapter Two

Story by PinkKittCat on SoFurry

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Chapter Two

Hope you enjoy! See note inside!



[Author Notes: Whoa, I honestly surprised myself with a second chapter. I often don't even get this far! Yay for me for setting a goal! Goals are good. But hopefully everything reads well. I did changed it a bit. Tried to make it go more smoothly. It hurt my brain when I first wrote it out. Please let me know if there's something that needs fixing. There's most likely some bad grammer and sentence structure. Hehe I'm already working on Chapter Three. It probably won't be up this week. Maybe next week. I have to look into how to do action/fighting scenes! But I hope you stick around for it and thank you for reading so far!]


Chapter Two

The darkness slowly started to clear, at first it was a painful roaring static then nothing. Like an old TV having been turned on and then off. It didn't hurt him too much the second time but all he got was warped sounds and blurred shapes that moved around in his line of vision. The third time however he awoke, some focus came long enough for him to know something was very off.

First thing Ash realized was that he couldn't move, his body felt like some dead heavy carcass. He was strapped back down to some bed? What was going on? Ash didn't like not knowing. Suddenly there was shock of pain all over his body. A pained growl gurled from his throat. A loud string of beeps sounded off to his right. He flinched at the noise. Another shock of pain. Much stronger and much more painful.

Suddenly there was activity around him and more noise, amongst the machine sounds were actual voices. He started to pant as he strained to turn his head around to catch sight of any of them. His twitching nose immediately picked up their scents first. Two foxes. A feline. But more importantly, humans. Their scent was the strongest. Ash tired to speak but only another gutteral growl came out.

"I need the last five minutes of sheets printed now."

"Check on his vitals."

"Heart rate?"

"It's rising quickly."

"Blood pressure too!"

"Everything is rising rapidly!"

Someone had come close to him. Ash didn't know who or how close but his instincts swiftly kicked in (everything in this situation was so wrong) and he felt himself jerk towards whoever it was with a vicious growl and his jaws snapped the air loudly. There was a terrified scream. Some other shouting and crashing, startled noises. Ash felt his body fall back down and hitting hard. It jarred him. A huge spasm wracked his body. Everything started to swirl and sense of nausea overcame him.

"Watch it! Tighten the retraints now!"

The beeping had turned into screaming alarms. Another spasm.

"Doctor! Doctor! He's crashing!"

"Everything is in the red!"

"Sedative now! Sedate him! We need to stabilize him now!"

"We can't afford to lose this one!"

"We can't lose him! Not this one!"

A male voice, older but commanding shouted over the others. Another spasm.

"Off! Turn everything off! He's system can't handle it! He'll overload! Turn him off!"

Then everything became slow-motion and mute. An anger unlike any he had ever felt before brusted out from deep within him. He was alive again. And he was fighting. There was gripping on all sides of him. He was been held down. An arm was seized. There was sharp pain in his arm. Like a pinch from someone's nails. It was an instant reaction. Ash felt himself calming, slipping downwards, then darkness again.


Ash's eyes snapped wide open. He let out a loud ragged breathe. What was happening? Automatically scans were been done;he could feel them running through his head and been sorted until it hit him. The screaming was the train brakes. The train had stopped. They had made it to their stop.

The jackal looked around, then down the aisle just in time to glimpse the doe leaving through the opening door.

Shit. He thought. They were going to miss their stop. Ash looked down at his lap. Karen was dead to the world. He shook her trying to be gentle. The cheetah youngster gave a small sleepy growl but didn't wake up. Ash wrinkled his muzzle in annoyance. He didn't have time for this!

The jackal stood up swiftly, the cheetah fell to the floor with a hard thud, letting out a hurt confused cry. But Ash ignored it. With his left hand he grabbed her jacket and her by the hood of her sweater, and with his right snatched the backpack off the ground where it had been lying the whole trip and effortlessly carrying them in three long strides, down the aisle and through the door, and across the faded yellow line. The door closed a second behind them.

There was another scream and popping and gearing noises as the train started up again and began to move, pulling away. Within five minutes it was gone and the underground station was left empty and quiet.

Only then did Ash let his grip go and dropped the cheetah and her items on the hard concrete ground. His yellow eyes narrowed as he scanned the empty station platform. A thrill went through him. He had made it to Zoo-York. He was finally back home, back where everything had started from. And he was eager to start his hunt and show those involved how much of a huge mistake they had done.


Karen hadn't felt this much pain in a while. Or been this tired or hungry. Not since her time back at the hospital. She shook her head, trying to wake herself up and clear the unpleasant memory away. Blinking she looked around from her laid out position on the cold hard ground. The last two weeks had become one huge blur for her now. But she guessed they had made it to their destination. Winching the cheetah propped herself up with her arms, then glared up at the tall black jackal who appeared to be lost in his own thoughts. There was a flash of anger; she flattened her ears to her head, felt her hackles rise up at his ignorance to her and she spat at him angrily.

"You're such a jerk!"

Ash's nearest ear flicked towards her before he turned his head and looked back at her with small huff. Karen spat back at him again.

"You didn't have to treat me like I'm some sack of meat that you're taking home. That hurt like a lot!"

The jackal's muzzle wrinkled slightly at her tone of voice. She knew he didn't like it but right now Karen had dealt with his bossy (and often rough) treatment of her long enough on this trip. The cheetah struggled to her feet. Her body hurt, every muscle was so sore. She gave a pained hiss as a sharp pain ran up from both her feet and up her back. It was almost enough to make her cry but she cleached her jaw tightly and mustered up to shoot another nasty look at Ash.

"Stop that at once."

Ash's voice was steely. Karen finally straighten up. Normally before she would have been quite scared of his voice and cowed especially when it sounded like that but she honestly just didn't care about it now.

"No, you stop it! You threw me on the ground, twice! It hurt! Like a lot, yeah! "

"We would have missed out stop."

"We could have gotten off some other stop in the city!"

The jackal turned to fully face her and took a step forward towards her. He was angry now. His long white canine teeth flashed as he snapped at her,

"No we couldn't! Now stop arguing with me. We needed to get off at this stop. So there! And wipe that--"

"I'm tired!"

Karen screamed. The empty station amplified her voice greatly. She wrapped her arms around herself, hunched over and looked down quickly. She was almost crying now.

"And I'm so sore. A-and I'm," Her voice was breaking as she struggled to not start sobbing outright.

"I'm hungry, Ash."

Although she tried hard not too a tiny sad mew escaped her mouth. There was long moment of silence between them. Karen focused on a small crack in the concrete. Then came a deep long sigh.

"I know, Kit. I'm hungry too."

Ash said softly. All the anger his voice was suddenly gone. Karen's ears slowly lifted and she cautiously looked up at the him. The jackal let another sigh out and he visibility relaxed. He then rolled his shoulders and shook his head. She heard his body snap, crack and pop. She stood back up, one corner of her mouth tugging to try and smile.

"You're so old, Ash."

Ash scoffed loudly. And muttered back, "Whatever, Kit."

It was as close to him saying sorry to her as she was going to get and Karen knew it. The cheetah gave a shrug then bent down and picked up her crumbled jacket, gave it a few shakes before pulling it on clumsy. She then grabbed the backpack by one strap, didn't bother to try and lift it but started to drag it away. He coughed.

"Where are you going?"

Karen stopped, and with one hand gestured off in front of her with a sarcastic look on her face.

"Uhm, the stairs? You said you were hungry too. And the sooner we get to your place the sooner we can eat and sleep. So hurry up, let's go."

Ash could have rolled his eyes. But he didn't. She was right. Sort of. He walked over towards her and she turned and started to drag the backpack again. He reached down and grabbed the strap she was holding,"I'll carry it."

Karen let go immediately. And Ash effortless toss it over his right shoulder like it was nothing for him. The two went on walking to the stairs; Karen fall to walk behind him, as they made their way up and out of the station and into the city.

It was cold. Karen quickly zipped up her jacket and glanced up at Ash, the jackal didn't seem to be bothered by the cold air. He was staring intently ahead and she followed his gaze; she gave a little jump at seeing the group of people standing there. Four other predators and a single prey. Karen recognized at once the prey was the lone doe woman who was on the same train as them. She was clearly terrified and begging. Karen had never seen a prey been killed or eaten. She knew it happened. Law of Nature, she was told. But this scene before her just didn't feel right.

"Let's go," Ash's voice was stern and he grabbed her by the jacket and started to drag her, walking away and down the street. Karen stumbled at first trying to find her footing until she finally was able too and pulled back, breaking his hold on her. She quickly regained her balance and scrowled at him.

"We can't let them eat her!"

Ash stopped. He looked clearly annoyed. "It happens. And more importantly it doesn't concern us. So let's go."

"No! She didn't do anything. We need to help her, Ash. Come on!"

Ash let low rumbling growl out. He forced himself not to snap at her again. But the look of sheer determination on her face told him that she wasn't going to be persuaded to turn her back on the doe.

"We don't even know her," he grumbled.

"She needs our help anyway."

A startled scream sounded behind and they both spun to look, the doe had been knocked to the ground and was trying to scuttle backwards away from the predators who were chuckling and clearly enjoying seeing her such a state of fear. Karen moved to start running but Ash reached out and stopped her; she opened her mouth to speak but he beat her to it.

"Stay out of the way. Watch your bag." He dropped it on the street, in front of her and with a growl headed over to them, he snarled loudly to get their attention. Despite not wanting to face a confrontation right off the bat; Ash hoped one or more felt up for a quick tussle with him. It would be a warm up of sorts for the near future when he started his own hunt.

Inside him; Ash felt everything turn on and start running. He bared his fangs and snarled, challenging the other predators before him. He was going make it a good warm up.