Ol One Eye
#3 of Other Furs
The Story of Old One Eye
I sat in my cage and a scared rare white fur tiger watched me with tears in his eyes. I had been talking to him trying to get him to relax but deep down I knew it would be difficult. He had been sold as a slave by his father because species that are born with rare white fur are considered evil. He could not even be a year old and he seemed so small I doubted he even finished nursing yet.
He was sold to a slaver red fox that was a real bastard of a fur and he had no idea why or what was going on. One minute he was walking with his father then the next he was stripped of all his clothes, had a slave collar put on his neck, and tossed inside the cage next to mine.
"Let me tell you a story," I told him as he looked at me and wiped tears from his eyes. My heart went out to him because it just seemed wrong that a kid should be treated like that only because he was born with white fur instead of the normal colored fur his species is known for. It seems odd that there are species that are born normally white colored and no one cares but if a species has the rare white fur then society loses its mind.
"I bet you're wondering what a handsome guy like myself ended up in this situation," I started as he was laying against the bars of his and my cells. He was trying to lay on my fur for support because I had managed to bring him some comfort. My heart went out to him and I wanted my last act to be one of kindness.
I spent most of the day explaining what he was going to have to go through as a slave. I thought it would go better for him if he knew what his new life was going to be like. Of course, that is if he ever gets sold. Who would ever want to buy a rare white fur tiger?
I finally ran out of things to tell him and guessed I'd tell him my back story. If nothing else it would help push him over the edge to sleep. I had been worrying that if I could not get him to sleep I might be stuck listening to him crying as darkness set in and his mother was nowhere to be found.
Things started for me when I had graduated from school. I hated school because it just seemed like I was being forced to learn things that didn't really matter. I could never see myself working at a job and the boss would fire me because I couldn't tell him the year The Great War started.
I was too old to keep living at home so my parents told me to leave. My siblings have moved on to starting their own families so I had nothing keeping me here. I knew my friends were talking about going to the big cities like New Court City or Hallywood. They thought they could make it big there and become famous and rich.
Not me, I just wanted a place that had some action to it and not the sleepy little den vibe my place was. The mall was the best place to hang out with your friends and even that was boring after a while. I could only take walking around in circles but for so long.
One of my friends was going to college in Hallywood so I asked to hitch a ride. I left with only my clothes because I figured a new start that was free from the past was what I needed.
"What do you think it'll be like, Brent?" My friend asked me as we drove down the road. My arm was ticking out the window enjoying the rush of air as it went up the sleeve of my shirt.
"I dunno, Steve. Hopefully something interesting." I replied. He looked at me with sunlight on his big glasses. The sunlight was a nice change from the fingerprints that usually covered them. He was a weasel with dark brown fur but when not dressed up for school he wore clothes so brightly colored that it would be like looking at his sunlit glasses. It just really hurt the eyes.
"I wish you were coming to school with me. They say Hallywood has the best schools for product design and engineering." Steve said. I smiled and messed up the fur on his head and he frowned at me. I could see him getting upset that I treated him like a kid but then even though we were close to the same age, he was more juvenile than I am.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and we mostly listened to the radio after we ran out of things to talk about. We also stopped at a few tourist traps to do some sightseeing before we continued. This was going to be the last time we ever saw each other though we tried not to think about it.
We made the usual promises that we'd call and see how each other was doing but it was not the truth. Deep down we knew this was the end of our friendship so we did what we could to make our memories the best. The sad thing is that other than riding in the car, I can't remember anything else we did.
Steve dropped me off next to where I had read about an apartment for rent. I never felt such loneliness as he drove away and I stood there waving to him as he left. It was my first time being on my own and I knew no one and had no idea where I was. I held my bag close to me as I made my way to the apartment.
A fear that at any second some fur was going to jump me and rob me filled my mind. All I really had was my bag of clothes but I wondered what I would do if they were taken from me. I did not have a job yet so I could not just buy new ones. Without the clothes, how could I find a job and keep it?
I made my way to the apartments and luckily no one bothered me. I guess I looked like I had nothing so there was no point in robbing a poor fur. Either way I was relieved to arrive and the landowner gave me the keys to my first place. I entered the empty apartment and the realization that I was alone for the first time in my life, hit me hard.
I spent the night along and in the dark as I tried thinking about how to move forward. I could vaguely hear the TV from another apartment next to mine playing. I wasn't bothered because hearing it made me feel like I wasn't in complete silence. The built-in light in my living room was a little too bright and I also felt guilty about running up the electric bill when I didn't have a job yet. Electricity was part of the rent yet I felt like I would be paying for it even though it was already included.
I used what little money I had left to buy a newspaper and search for places hiring full time staff. I knew I'd have to get a junk job at first then hopefully I could move on to something better. I was able to get hired as a dishwasher for a restaurant.
The job sucked but at least the money helped me pay the bills and I'd save up what I could to buy furniture like a bed to sleep on. As expected I lost contact with Steve as he focused on his new friends in school and I had the friends I made at work. The best part was meeting Meeka!
She was a wolf like myself and we fell instantly in love. I ended up spending more time at her place, being fully furnished, than at my dump. She was a native so she would take me around and show me the sights. None of which I actually cared about but just being with her was enough. She told me stories of what she hoped to do with her life and how she wanted to be famous one day.
Eventually I was fired from the restaurant and was lucky to be so close with Meeka that she helped me find a job. Eventually we moved in together and I had a regular office job while she went to auditions to find a job as an actress in movies. We were happy although we were poor compared to some of our friends.
We would listen to our friends talk about how they bought these big expensive toys and we'd listen and say to ourselves that one day that would be us. I actually hated being with my friends because it always seemed like what they call a pissing contest. Who could buy the most expensive things, who was better than everyone else. It was tough to stomach. Even Meeka would complain when we were invited out by one of our friends.
She would say we were invited because they were taking pity on us and to rub our noses in how poor we were. This made her desperate to land an acting role. After months and months of being rejected she finally landed a role to be a spokesfur for Green Trees Vegetables. The idea was they wanted a mother wolf to serve the veggies to her children and her tagline was to say "Woof, woof, woof."
Very demeaning, but the exposure could help her get better roles in the future. The job earned her the nickname of The Green Mother. It was also the only thing we could brag about to our friends. She would tell the stories about how they love her and pamper to her every wish.
She landed her big break when she starred in a movie called "Moonlight Rage." She was co-starring with an actor named Rick Lupus-W and they were playing husband and wife. She gets cubnapped and he, being an expert for C.I.Z.A. goes on a rampage trying to get her back safely.
The movie was a success, even though more species were interested in Rick than my wife Meeka. She was missing during most of it so it was no surprise the male lead was the most popular part of the movie. The paychecks she received were also no laughing matter. She had an agent now lining up other roles for her to play.
The slight hitch was that she had become pregnant which meant we had to get married immediately to keep the press from calling her a whore. It was sooner than I expected because I was waiting for Heat Day to do it. That holiday was still a few months away.
Heat Day is the time during spring that most species go into heat. A day was picked and it became a holiday in which couples had an excuse to give each other presents or declare their love for each other. They usually have all the stores marketing paper red hearts and flowers and candy to make things romantic.
We had to rush things before she began to show otherwise the public and the press would denounce her. We quickly had a huge public wedding in which we tied our paws and she became the center of attention while I sat back waiting for my pups to be born... or so I thought.
The Furry Zoned, or TFZ, is a celebrity gossip television show that publishes what dirt the paparazzi can dig up on a celebrity. My wife Meeka was their latest attraction once the story of her getting pregnant came out. TFZ released a family edited video of my wife and her co-star Rick mounting each other.
The story soon blew up and he was said to be the father of her soon to be born pups. At that point I lost my mind. The thought that she would cheat on me had never crossed my mind but to find out by having it posted on every news source was too much for me. I had even been day dreaming what it would be like to be a father. I imagined myself playing with them and teaching them.
The truth hurt and it hit me so hard that I could not handle it. The worst thing she ever did was to have another male fill her belly up with my children. Once I found out we had a big fight and I started packing up my bags to leave while she pleaded for me to not leave her. She kept saying it was part of the Hallywood game. A female had to sleep around with other species in order to get noticed for acting parts. The fact that she basically told me to just get over it as if she had done nothing wrong pushed me over the edge. I took out a gun we kept in the night draw and I killed her. At that moment it felt like everything made sense. Killing her was the answer!
I began to choke the life out of her and she reached out and clawed one of my eyes to try and escape from me. I lost my vision in that eye but she lost her life as I choked her to death.
I didn't stop there but I went to the home of her lover and killed him too. I figured all the pups he must have fathered with other men's wives made that doing this was justice. It did not take too long for the real justice to find me and the police arrested me for murder. I told them everything because I honestly had nothing else to lose.
I didn't tell the white tiger cub the rest of what happened. I did not want to upset him but I was tried and convicted of murder in the 3rd degree. I was sentenced to death by execution which meant I was going to be given to slavers and live out my last remaining days waiting for the slaver to deliver me to the execution site. How long that was depends on the slaver. Most like to make us suffer before we're allowed to die.
I was given to a fox slaver and his son. We had been traveling along picking up and selling slaves he aquired. I was nearing the site of my execution when we picked up the white tiger cub. He would be the closest thing to a son I may ever have. I taught him everything that I thought he might need to survive.
One evening as the sun was setting, the fox came to collect me. The tiger cub was resting in the cage next to mine. I never told him my real name because Brent had died the night I learned of my wife's betrayal. I told him to call me One Eye to mark her taking my eye from me when I killed her.
"Brent, it's time." Master Fox said softly as he opened my cage and I climbed out of it.
"I'm ready." I replied. The thought of dying did not bother me; it was just leaving the cub alone that made me choke up with tears.
"Buck up, you knew this was coming." He said to me as he led me away. We walked out of the slave campto a clearing where some executioners were ready to put me to sleep. It was fairly simple. I would get injected with a poison after I was strapped down and they would watch while I died.
Normally this is painless and simple and a tranquilizer is added so I could easily fall asleep then let the poison kill me painlessly. This was usually done in a hospital to furs that were too sick to go on living with no hope of ever getting better.
Because I was being executed, instead of a tranquilizer, a compound that would make my final moments to be extremely painful. I guess it was to be a punishment for commiting the crime I did. A painful excrutiting death instead of a simple painless one.
"I have one last request. Not for me, but for the white tiger cub. Don't tell him I was put to sleep. Just tell him I was sold. I don't want to upset him." I softly pleaded. I saw a look of sadness on the fox's face and for a second waited in agony for his response.
"You have my word." He whispered back. I was led to the staging area where my collar was removed and the rest of my clothing. I was stretched out, spread eagle with each limb tied to trees. The executioner was saying something but I couldn't hear him. My thoughts were on the white tiger and what would become of him. The last thing I could clearly remember was a needle injecting something into the scruff of my neck.
The next morning Tyger awoke and noticed that Ol One Eye was not in his cage. The few other slaves that were in the cages father away from the cub were muttering to themselves but they never looked towards the cub.
"Master, where is Ol One Eye?" Tyger asked. Master Fox looked sad for a second then a big smile crept on his face.
"Oh, you didn't hear? Ol One Eye was bought by a new master! You won't be seeing him anymore, but I'm sure he'll be fine." Master Fox said as he opened the cage the cub was locked in so he could come out for breakfast. Master Fox was starting to walk away when he quickly paused and spoke to Tyger without looking at him.
"I got a message that someone wants to sell me their cub. I think it's a lion of some kind. He's gonna be a cub like you so I hope you'll help make him feel welcome as he becomes one of you." Master Fox said then he continued to go release the other slaves...