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_ Wrecked _

I wanted to die. Lucky as I might've been not to have done so already. Here in the dark, up in the hills in the middle of only gods knew where, I sat staring past the cracks in my windscreen. Better that than at the petrified polecat trembling in my rear-view mirror.

Outside, steam, smoke or both rose up into the night. Between that and the sickly chemical stink filling the car, I damn near threw up.

My brain stalled. Where was I? Was this happening? For real? I didn't remember digging out my phone. I didn't recall dialling home and holding the speaker to my ear, either.

"...Hello? Who's this?"

"Dad."

"Bran! Where in the gods are you? It's half past twelve."

"I, uh. Don't know."

"Sorry? What do you mean you don't know?"

Something guided my hand to turn the ignition. The engine spluttered a half-hearted whirr and wished me goodnight. "Don't get mad."

"Tell me what the hell you're playing at, then I'll decide if I'm going to get mad..."

He went on to say a lot more words that I didn't much manage to process. I began to feel the cold. The beat of my heart was fast. My breathing shifted to catch up. "I've had a crash."

My brain was having almost as hard a time firing as the engine. Dad said a whole load more. Some of it made it into my ears.

"...happened? Bran?"

The fumes were getting stronger. I could see my windscreen was less cracked, more smashed. Warm tears met fur, running onto ice-like fingers.

"How bad is it?"

"I hit someone." The line went silent. Gave space for my breathing to fill. I opened the door to get more. "I hit a badger."

The night I climbed out into cut deep; a bitter breeze the first thing I could properly process since slamming to a halt here. My dad might have been talking some more. I put my phone back to my ear to know for sure.

"Are you there?"

"I'm here."

"I asked, how bad? How's their car?"

"No!"

"What?"

"I hit them."

No sound. Panic. Oh, fuck. Help me! "...Oh my gods, Bran."

"I know, I know!" A paw over watering eyes wouldn't help me escape this. I was panting like I'd sprinted for miles, but suffocating all the same. "Oh gods."

"Are they okay? Are they hurt!?"

"They... Fine, they're fine." Gravel crunched beneath my shoes. I moved to get a good, stomach churning view of my bonnet; crushed and crumpled halfway to the hopelessly broken front axle. "My car's not."

"Wait... How fast... How are they okay?"

"What in the deepest hell you doin', kid?" That badger stomped down hard. The gravel jumped and skittered almost as hard as I did. "What're ya doin' way out here!?"

My ears either rang through stress, or from the sheer force of his questions. Whatever the case, my Normaliser did jack to help.

"What's going on?" asked Dad.

"You a long damn way from Selo."

"You've barely had your license five minutes."

"Ugh, that fuckin' stings like... Did ya not see none of those warnings, y'idiot? The fence? How 'bout the big 'No Entry' sign?"

"Bran?"

"Lucky I weren't a second or two later in steppin', gods damn. Coulda damn well killed ya!"

"Bran!"

"Alright!" That shut everyone up. My head was spinning. More stress symptoms, maybe. Hopefully, at least. I didn't recall cracking it on anything... "I guess I got myself onto the back country roads... All looks the same in the dark."

Dad stayed quiet on the line. The big badger guy wasn't shouting any more... but still remained absolutely fucking huge. Even in silence, he was shittifying.

"I screwed up. I'm sorry."

The ground shuddered beneath me. Then again, harder. A distraction from the massive black hands parting the night sky. My fur sprang up on end. A full-body jolt sent me a few staggered steps back. Those paws were as long as the width of my car... and able to grab and lift it from the road like it was nothing. My heart stopped. I mostly forgot how to breathe. All my complaints were compacted down into a garbled grunting mess.

"Your gonna be way more sorry when I tell ya this..." The badger moved and passed my new car, my baby, around his grasp like it was just a toy. The crumpled bonnet and busted axle looked even worse from ground level. "This here's a write-off."

"No... No way."

"Ain't no doubt about it." My heart broke completely as he bent the entire front end with a single finger. "Wrecked."

With everything playing out above me, I'd completely forgotten about all this empty darkness, closing in from every other direction. A bitter gust sent a sharp chill up my spine and firmly into my jaw. Chattering teeth made it all the tougher to tell Dad, "He says it's a write-off."

"You, what--!? Wait, who?"

"The badger I hit."

"What?"

"He's holding it."

"Do you think you could explain to me exactly what's going on!?"

Only if someone would for me first. "I... think I need a lift home."

"Ain't gonna happen from here, kid." My 'victim' more than outmatched the torrent of noise pouring down the phone line. For the first time, I felt safer in his company than Dad's. "You're way closer to Dobrinici than y'are to Selo."

"Dobrinici... really?"

"Dobrinici?" Dad cut back in from miles away. "Bran, you're in Dobrinici!?"

"No, Dad! I'm not--"

"Look, I've had all imma have o' this." A stiff tremor preceded the night turning even darker. Car crammed beneath his arm, being hauled around like something of nothing, the badger bent down to nudge and scoop me up into his grasp along with it.

"Hey, what gives--"

"Stop talkin'. Hold up ya phone there." The further from the ground and the closer to his face he took me, the less I cared to argue. "Put it on speaker."

Curiosity took control. From my seat in the sky, I peered past leg-sized fingers to the dirt road below... My cramping stomach made me wish I hadn't.

"Phone. Speaker. Please." A finger prodded the majority of my chest. "I don't got all night here."

"R-Right... Done."

"Hello?" He dipped his muzzle closer to my outstretched arm. "Someone there?"

"Bran--?"

"Yeah, I got your boy here."

"Who's this?"

"Name's Josko, and I'm the badger your son saw fit to run into this fine evening."

Gods... He said that... so matter of factly. Like someone totalling their ride against his size-I-don't-know-how-fucking-huge boot was an everyday occurrence.

Deathly silence came back down the line. Dad's train of thought must've found the same track as mine. "Is he alright?"

"He's fine." Josko shook his head and gazed up at the stars. "Listen. I'm cold, I'm sobering up somethin' fierce in the middle of a field, and I just wanna get myself back home. Imma take your boy and... what's left of his car back to the big boundary fence most_folk your size manage to avoid driving past..." Half-lidded eyes came back to me. "If you _do wanna come get him."

"...Okay. Yes."

"You're welcome." A loud grunt rattled my bones. His fingertip pushed my phone, and my arm away with ease. There was just one thing left for me to say.

"Sorry, Dad..."

"So help me gods, Branimir. You're going to be." The distant clinking of keys didn't feel all that distant. "I'll be there in thirty."

The line went dead. Just me and the big bumpkin badger holding my car out in the middle of nowhere.

"Don't look so scared," he told me. "Sounds like's your dad ya need t'be fearin', not me."

I didn't know where to look, honestly. The lift of a lip, showing off a tooth or two was the closest he'd got to a smile. "Last thing I expected t'be doin' after leaving the bar tonight was escorting a Maleni back 'cross the boundary."

My brain saw fit to revert to the half-alive state it'd found moments after the collision. I couldn't offer up much by way of a reply, or even a thanks as Josko began his thumping walk back down the hill, still holding my busted up car firm between his wide chest and biceps. As it turned out, I didn't particularly need to.

"Take it from me, kid. Next time you're aimin' to get this close to Dobrinici, just take the damn train like the rest of your neighbours."