FSE

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_ Knock Knock _

'Cut through the apartment complex Danny, they said. It'll shave ten minutes off your walk to the station, they said. Man, they were chattin' some utter shite with all that. Never mind this place being a maze of identical three storey buildings, the lack of signs or... anything that might offer guidance had me lost beyond all hope. I knew trying to be clever was a bad idea. After barely a month of living around here, how could I not expect to screw this up? Why in the gods' names didn't I just stick to the main road?

I cut a path down a few more sidestreets, slipped through gravelly alleys that looked like they might take me south towards the train station. Turned out all that'd get me was even _more_disastrously plain apartment buildings... and a stone in my shoe that felt more like a damn boulder to boot.

I pushed on through the discomfort, then the pain. I didn't wanna wait an extra thirty minutes for the next train, and I really_didn't wanna wait around long enough to become that 'suspicious wolf' loitering in a back alley. Damn, the way this day was unfolding, I could _definitely see someone calling out security over me. But, even with all that swirling in my mind, as tough as I tried to be with it, that stabbing at my pads just wasn't gonna quit without some intervention.

Halfway down the latest in a long line of narrow, gravel-flooded alleyways, I came to a stop. The apartment building at the far end of the alley offered some comfort at least; a pinker shade to its paintwork compared to the dull whites of all those I'd passed so far, the one beside me excluded. The one positive I could take was that I wasn't going around in circles... maybe.

I hopped over to lean up against the wall, wasting no time in bending down to snatch off my trainer. That alone came with enough relief to start me sighing out loud. Whatever I had stowing away down there had done a proper job on me and no mistake.

But, weirdly, turning my shoe upside down and shaking drew nothing. No pebbles, stones or otherwise. I shook again, harder, but still nothing. A third, even firmer shake failed, even as it left me swaying and bumping against this pinkish, windowless wall.

I dug a hand inside and prodded every part of my insole, but... not a thing. Ah well. I figured whatever had been poking me must've fallen out when I first took my shoe off. Either way, the discomfort had gone, and I had a station to find and train to catch.

Slipping my trainer back on, setting my foot back down... was more uncomfortable than it should've been. That same pain, stabbing at the ball of my paw, came back just as sharp as before.

"What the fuck?" I grunted out loud, wondering what else was plotting to go bad today. "There's nothing... Gah."

Off came my shoe again. Clearly, I'd missed something. Back inside went my hand, damn near pulling apart every part of its insides. Between this and getting my dense self lost, I was knocking against this wall like I was trying to knock it over. Whatever. The prospect of some scuffs or marks on my shirt or jeans wasn't enough to have me caring. What was enough to have me caring, mind, was the fact that I still couldn't find any-damn-thing hiding in my shoe!

"This is some bollocks right 'ere." I dropped it to the gravel, only partially giving a toss about how little that would've helped to keep it pebble-free. If whatever was causing me pain wasn't in my trainer... then it had to be on my sock, right? Good gods, it best have been, else I might just full-on tear my whole damn paw off. After all, it's not like doing so would've hurt my ability to get to the station, not while lost in this godsdamned apartment maze at least.

Lifting my leg to get a better look at my paw, obviously, came with even more unsteadiness. Scouring the sole of my sock for debris, I was getting all kinds of up close and personal with the pink-tinged paintwork beside me, wobbling, hip checking, shifting around so hard that I almost managed to screw that up, too.

My heart skipped a beat, equilibrium failing completely as gravity itself seemed to shift. What balance I had, went, guiding a one-footed me towards the middle of the alley.

Thankfully, I managed to catch myself in time, directing my fall to become a back-first slam against the wall, rather than down to the gravel. About time something went my way that day, I thought... And it all proved to be for a good cause.

One_tiny_ stone, barely the size of my index fingerclaw, had hidden itself away between my foot and my toes, seemingly half-digging into my sock. It took a second to prise it free, almost requiring me to tear it from the fabric. Maybe pressing and stepping down on it over and over hadn't been the best idea after all...

Regardless, I was in no state of mind to care at that point. The offending article had been thrown all the way down the alley, and I was ready to slip my shoe back on and restart my search for a way out of apartment complex hell.

My first pain-free step had me smiling so wide I must've looked like the goofiest fool in town at that moment. I didn't have to worry about anyone around here seeing me that way; it wouldn't last nearly long enough.

My ears perked up to what sounded like raised voices, muffled by... something. I peered around for signs of life between these two pinkish walls, but I found nothing. Other than a few bins and some damp, discarded boxes, I was the only thing to be found in this whole alley.

Those voices wouldn't stop, though. They... must've been coming from inside these apartments. Yeah, that's it. Maybe someone was watching an intense show or some sport or something. Heh, lucky them. I'd have much preferred that to what I was going through out here.

I made it a few more steps down the alley, getting past the wall that'd supported me as the shoulder-high fence to a backyard area took its place.

"Oi! Wolf!"

The sheer anger in those two little words stopped me dead in my tracks. Gods above, they sounded mean, like rip your throat out mean, and they sounded like they were shouting from right beside me.

"Was that you just now!?"

My heart stopped all over again, body frozen so solid that turning to face this guy became a battle in itself. Gruff, fierce, exceptionally pissed, I expected to crane my neck up to see some big, hench guy waiting to take my head clean off my shoulders. Fuck this shortcut--!

That's when I saw him. That's when I saw the whole picture. I... wasn't wrong in assuming I'd have to look up to find this guy, or that he was built like a tank... I just hadn't expected to see him snarling at me from the balcony of his Maleni-sized apartment, just above head-height.

"What the hell were you doing out there!?" The tanktop-wearing bear slammed a paw to his balcony railing. "Do you have any idea of the mess you've made?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I cried back, arms spread, more whining than shouting. "What have I done?"

He threw an arm back towards his balcony doors, pointing. "All the pictures in my living room have fallen off the wall, books out of my bookcase, the TV's tumbled off its stand-- even the bloody chair I was sitting on damn near jumped clear across the room!"

"What--?"

"I dread to think what I'll find when I check the bedroom."

"How--?"

"You've absolutely trashed my place with all that banging and shaking!"

Ah... I had my answer. I guess I hadn't been the only one staggering while I was fishing for pebbles in my trainer. "Look, I'm sor--"

"I don't wanna hear it!" The wide, beer bottle-sized bear moved his pointing to me. "You're lucky you're Visoka, son, else I'd be down there to really show you what I think."

If I weren't Visoka... then all that trashing wouldn't have happened... Not a chance that I'd say that out loud though. "Can I... help?"

"Nah, you've done plenty ya big..." He growled something fierce, turning to head back inside. "I'd get lost if I were you, son. Betting I'm not the only one you've just messed with."

"H-Hey, wait?"

"What!?"

"Do you know... which way to get to the train station?"

"Go fuck yourself." The bear stomped back inside. "I knew renting 'round here for three-fifty a month was too good to be true..."

His little door slid shut with a bang that echoed loud enough to send my ears flicking. Still, it wasn't loud enough for me to miss what he'd warned about.

Voices, way more this time, coming from above and below, just as muffled as before and definitely just as pissed.

As I peered over that wooden fence, I took in the fact that the bear guy lived up on the sixth Maleni-sized storey. That left five apartments below and four more above. How many of them had I just rearranged with my wall checking and bumping?

I stepped back, then again. The balcony door on the fifth storey slid open. Time to turn tail and run as fast and as far as I could down the alleyway, leaving yet more snarls of anger behind me. Suddenly, I had a whole lot more than a train to be running for...