Fox out of Water
Fox out of Water
A story by Onyx Tao
[Some rights to this story are available under the](%5C)
[Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License](%5C)
The hills rolled gently up and down, never far in either direction, covered with tall, lush grass. Here and there a stand of trees - huge, tremendous trees, broke the horizon. A blazing sun shone down from a cloudless sky, and Francis spared a moment to wonder that the land was green rather than brown.
Francis was a fox; not just foxy (although he was that, too, he admitted, especially in his tight-fitted white pants for the White Party). Three foot two of red-furred seductive fox, with a glorious red-gold tail held high. No sexier financier - well, bank clerk, anyway - in London. And he was dressed in his most fabulous whites - tight white muscle-t showing off his perky little nipples, tight white pants, cut low enough that his tail was hanging over_them rather than through the slit, white patent shoes with (of course!) white laces for the White Party. All the cutest males in London - all, no exceptions - were togged out in white for the White Party. Francis himself had just stepped off the train into the underground station when he realized he _wasn't in the underground station.
London, to the best of Francis's knowledge, did not have endless vistas of sun-baked hills. In fact, England itself seemed distinctly short of such vistas. And ... and ... his clothes were gone. But ...
"Bonnie Prince Charlie went riding one day, and found himself in France," a deep, masculine voice giggled into his head.
Francis whipped around, and saw a hyena perched a few feet away from him, chuckling to itself. To him? It - no, he, definitely a he, was on all fours - how gauche - and much, much, larger than a fox. Five feet? Four to five time Francis's svelte forty-two pounds? Thick brown fur spotted liberally with deeper brown-black dots framed the soft rounded ears and the ... rather intimidating grin.
"Hello Fox," the giggle said to him, again. "Good trick!"
Francis looked past the hulking creature, down the slope, to where an even larger lion was feasting on a disemboweled antelope. "Oh," he said, or rather tried to say, but the words stuck in his mouth, and all that came out was a low yip.
"No no no no no, Fox, pretty Fox, no. Can't talk like that here. Talk like this here." the giggle instructed, with an amused/surprised/resigned tone to it.
"Where ..." he tried, but only yipped again.
"Calmly. Calmly," the giggle said - and Francis knew it was coming from the hyena, who was now watching both him and the lion below. "Not excited. Talk without speaking. Find Fox-Talk first, then Beast-Speech. This is Beast-Speech. Not a Fox. Can't talk Fox-talk. Have to use Beast-Speech. But, cute pretty adorable little lost Fox, pretend I'm a Fox. Say Hello to another cute pretty adorable little Fox."
That was a tall order, to think of this hulking creature as a fellow fox, but if he was going to ask any of the questions he wanted to ask ... Francis tried to imagine the hyena as a fox. " Hello?"This time he didn't yip, he just ... moved, somehow, in a way he would never be able to explain. Fox-talk. Yes.
"Yummy little Fox looks less upset. Fox-talk. Now, Beast-Speech. Very easy. Just like Fox-Talk, only ... louder. So everyone, not just other yummy foxes can hear. Go on. Shout. Not too loud, though. Don't want to upset Lion." The giggle turned a little drier, as if spinning itself around a private joke.
Fox talk only louder? Francis tried to yell " HELLO!", but somehow that wasn't ... but this was ... "Hello?"
"Good Fox! Clever Fox! Very fast, very good, Fox will do well here on the Veldt. Maybe not. But maybe. Where is luscious little Fox from?"
"London. But ..."
"No. Not in Kansas anymore," giggled the hyena. "Not at all."
"I'm Francis ..." the fox started
"Not here. Here, you're Fox. I'm Hyena." The laugh gained a definite tinge of contempt. "Down there is Lion, and ... what was once Antelope. This isn't London. This is the Veldt, Fox. That means you are a predator, here. You eat meat."
Hunt? Francis sat down, taken aback. Hunt? For mice? But ...
"Veldt. Hunt. Be hunted." The giggle turned serious for a moment. "Very difficult, your first day on the Veldt. You stay with Hyena tonight, Fox, and I'll explain Veldt. Are you a wizard?"
"No."
"Magic on the Veldt works differently. Talk and Speech here. Only other Foxes hear Fox-Talk."
Francis nodded. "Everyone hears Beast-Speech?"
"The short answer is yes. Are you hungry, Fox? Are you too proud to eat from another's kill?"
The fox thought about it for a moment, and then realized he'd only killed his own meal once. "No." It seemed easier than explaining about supermarkets and rabbit farms, and perhaps even about rabbits and Rabbits ... "Are all creatures here - do all creatures here speak?"
He wasn't sure which answer provoked the howling laughter, but he had an idea. "Anything bigger than mice, yes, pretty Fox, they talk. Rats talk. They don't have much to say beyond, '_please don't eat me Hyena' _but they talk. Not as tasty as gazelle, no, not, no, not as nice as wildebeest, no, not as yummy as ... antelope, just to pick something not quite at random, no, but crunchy, and the tails are nice."
"Oh."
"I'm finished," a mellow, almost lazy voice interrupted them.
Hyena stopped laughing instantly, his attention entirely on the lion - Lion, according to Hyena.
"I'd like to welcome our new arrival," the lion continued, "Veldt sees so few visitors, for some reason."
"Too many lions." said the Hyena. "Pretty Fox had better be careful of Lion."
"But not hyenas? If you're hungry, Fox, come down and eat. Hyena won't leave much - bones, skin, everything goes down that gullet. Maybe a bloodstain or two, but that's not very filling." Lion sounded amused. "Don't worry about Hyena. There will be plenty left for him after you're done."
"Lion? Feeling generous? Oh, be very very careful, Fox," the Hyena warned with a laugh. "Can't trust Lion, no, no, no."
Lion turned to face Hyena, and roared. "Don't be a poor sport."
"Asshole." Hyena giggled again. "You don't scare me. No no no no no. Gorged full of antelope? Even if you caught me - I think you'd lose."
"If you're so sure of that," threatened Lion, "Come on down here."
The laughter this time almost brought Hyena to his knees. "Stupid Lion. Stupid stupid stupid stupid. No, I wait for you to leave, Fox waits for me to leave. Right way to do things. Stupid Lion."
Lion turned to Francis - Fox Francis, Francis thought wildly. "Hyena won't leave much. Come on down. Hyena won't come while I'm here."
"Stupid Lion has that right," giggled Hyena. "Yes yes yes yes oh yes!"
"Lion won't hurt you when you come down," Lion said, reassuringly. "I'd like to talk to you. You eat, we'll talk. I have a warm nest nearby. You'll be full, I'll be full, and no one will trouble us."
"No, nobody will trouble Foolish Fox and Stupid Lion," agreed Hyena. "So stupid, Lion is almost smart."
"Well?" asked Lion. "Either come eat, or I'll leave and let Hyena go. And you don't_want to be around while he's eating._"
Hyena snorted, but said nothing, just settling on all fours onto the ground, watching patiently.
"I don't know ..." said Francis. He looked at Hyena. "What would you do? If you were me?" A moment later he added, "Please?"
"Wouldn't be where you are," said Hyena with a laugh. "Nope no no not no way not no how no! But ... Clever Fox would run down, eat lightly, and then run run run run far far far from Lion _ and _Hyena. Yes yes yes. Since pretty Fox asks Hyena so very nicely, yes, yes."
Francis made his way cautiously - on all fours, he noticed, suddenly, he'd lost his upright stance - and no, he couldn't stand up -
"What are you doing?" asked Lion, puzzled.
"Not-standing-up," howled Hyena, laughing again. "Most talented at not-standing-up! Poor little Fox! So hard to be a Fox!" Hyena punctuated his comments with yet more laughter.
"I'm not used to this yet," Francis said.
"No," giggled Hyena. "Nope no no no not negative no."
"It's not so bad," Lion said encouragingly. "You'll see."
"Such a bad Lion!" said Hyena. "Remember, Lion, Foxes are supposed to be clever clever clever. Maybe Lion is too clever? Yes? Too clever?"
"Oh, hush," Lion said dismissively.
Francis made his way down to the half-eaten antelope, and discovered that Lion, although he'd eaten quite a bit, had left even more. He looked at the bloody viscera (mostly eaten), and the motionless creature, blood oozing from its mouth and one leg broken in half, and tried very hard not to remember what Hyena had said about everything larger than mice being able to talk. In London, this wouldn't have been merely a crime, but a heinous crime, a moral outrage. An attack on the fabric of society itself. Francis himself was repelled by the idea of eating another - a thinking other, that is. He'd expected himself to be nauseated, queasy, but ... as awful as the scene was, Francis was thinking sadly that, cooked rare with a pepper and whiskey sauce, it would be tasty. Delicious. Only maybe just not so very very rare. It's not as if he killed this antelope, after all, and ... no, even that wouldn't help. If he ate it, he'd be just as guilty as if he'd killed and eaten it.
"Is something wrong?" asked Lion. "It's fresh, and good. Here, try this," and Lion hooked a bloody lump out of the carcass. "Pancreas. Delicious."
"Stupid Lion," said Hyena. "Stupid stupid stupid. Fox is new here. This isn't how - or what - Fox is used to eating." The giggle left his tone entirely. "Is that right pretty Fox?"
Somehow, it made him feel better that Hyena understood. "Yes. I'm used to rabbits. Roasted rabbits, stewed rabbits, rabbit steaks ..."
"Rabbit. I'd get tired of rabbit pretty fast," grumbled Lion. "It didn't work that way in my London."
Francis's attention went from the dead antelope back to the Lion almost immediately. "You - you came from London? You know where London is?"
Hyena said something, but Francis ignored it, concentrating on Lion.
"Not from London, no. I've never been to England. That is, assuming your London is in England."
"Yes!" squealed Francis.
"Well, I'm from South Carolina. I've been here about, oh, a year or so."
"Five months," snorted Hyena. "You've been prowling my territory for five months."
Lion ignored this interjection. "So yes, I think we come from similar places."
Hyena said something that didn't quite translate, but Francis had the impression it was not very pleasant.
"South Carolina - that's an old colony of Brittan. It's an autonomous province of the Irish Empire."
"It's the capitol of the Confederated States of the Americas," sighed Lion wistfully. "Settled from England, yes, but the Confederacy is now a major power in my ..." he paused, "my old world. My new world is the Veldt."
"What about you?" asked Francis, to Hyena.
"Hyena's world is Veldt. Just like Lion's. And Fox's." This time the tone was almost prim. "Veldt. Hunt. Be hunted." There was almost a lilt in the way Hyena said it. "Bad to lose sight of that. Hunt. _ Be hunted! _"
"Hush," growled Lion. "Don't scare the poor Fox. He's already having enough trouble."
"Not nearly scared enough," Hyena said. "And he's headed for far more trouble than he has now."
Lion shook his mane tiredly, as if this were an old argument, and turned back to Fox. "Ignore him. He's a fussy old maid. Have something to eat, and we'll go talk about our respective Londons, and how they differ from the Veldt."
"Veldt!Hunt! ..." started Hyena.
"Be hunted, yes, thank you, we've heard. Repeatedly." Lion said. "May we move on?"
Hyena laughed. "Heard, yes, over and over. Stupid Lion and Foolish Fox have not listened."
"Yes, thank you," drawled Lion. "Enough. Let the Fox eat! If he can."
Francis stretched out, and took a bite.
It was good, if he could just get over what he was eating. Who he was eating. Who. What. Francis took another bite, and another.
"You like it," said Lion, after a time. "There's nothing like fresh meat, just run down, still hot. This is just warm ... it's better, much better, hot. Heated from running."
"Cool now," added Hyena in a helpful chirp even if the statement didn't make sense to the fox.
Francis ate, and ate, and then stopped, remembering what Hyena had said about eating lightly. He ..
"Ate too much, pretty Foxie did," Hyena said almost regretfully. "Warned. Be hunted, Fox."
"Not by you," said the Lion, belligerently. "I don't think you want to fight over him."
"Already fought. Lost. Twice." Hyena sounded a bit disgruntled. "Not interested in more risk, not when there's more antelope than I can eat down there. Fill belly. Keep priorities straight."
"I'm done. I think Fox is done - yes?"
"Yes," said Francis.
"So we're off to digest," said Lion, languidly. "Nice long sleep. Are you coming, Fox? You might not want to stay with Hyena ..."
"No," said Francis. "I'll come."
"Better off with Hyena, little Fox," Hyena said.
"Nonsense," said Lion, walking off slowly, tail waving slowly from side to side. "So ... do you want to hear about Charleston, or do you want to tell me all about London?"
Francis followed. "London. It's a little foggy - well, very foggy - but the nightlife! Shows! Theater! Beautiful men ... I was going to a White Party ... urm, do you know ..."
"White Party? No," Lion said. "Charleston is the capitol of South Carolina, the main port in the South. It's not the only State in the Confederacy, of course. My family ... my old_family, have the Governance. My grandfather was Governor when ... when I ended up here._"
"How did you end up here?" Francis asked, curious. "Is there a way back?"
"I think a jaguar vodoun cursed me. Maybe. I'm not sure. As to a way back ... yes, there's a way back."
Francis sighed in relief. "That's good news. How ... how can we - I - you get back?"
Lion chuckled. "I don't know. Hyena won't tell me. I thought he would, if just to get rid of me, but ... Hyena says I have to find my own way back."
"Hyena? That ..."
"Oh yes. Closest thing to a bokor I've found around here. Well, there was a bird. She wouldn't talk to me, just flew off."
"Well, I wasn't cursed. That I know. I don't know any mages. I don't think I do, anyway. I was just on the Underground ..."
"What?"
"A train. That runs under London. Lots of them, all over. It makes it easy to get around."
"Underground? In tunnels? Doesn't the smoke and steam fill up the tunnels?"
Francis chuckled. "They're electric trains."
Lion exhaled. "Electricity? But that's ... I didn't know electricity could do that."
"Oh, yes. All London - most of the first world - is lit with electricity. There are huge generating stations, and we wire it to houses, and businesses and ... you don't have that, do you?"
"No! Charleston just recently finished piping gas to the residential districts ..."
"It sounds like your world is behind mine," said Francis. "You'll get there. London was lit by gaslight - oh, a hundred and fifty years ago. We converted to electricity, first bulbs, then diodes, and now we're using lumifilms."
Lion shook his mane. "I've heard of electric light, but ... it's very expensive. The lamps use tungsten, so it's not very practical."
"Mmm ... carbon. Use carbon," Francis said after a moment of thought. "I think the first mass-produced bulbs in my world used burnt bamboo threads. Something like that."
"Interesting," said Lion. "Might be worth trying if I get back."
"Vulcanized rubber," said Francis. "That's worth trying. You take ordinary rubber - you have rubber?"
"Some kind of tree-sap?"
"Yes. You just heat it. Makes it much tougher. Or something like that."
The two walked on in a companionable conversation, and Francis learned that the Confederacy appeared to control the whole of North America and Mechicoa, which Francis guessed was roughly Mexico. His Mexico, anyway, about the Lion Clans who ruled the confederacy, and the Panther Lords who controlled the colder climates, and the Tigers, and quite a bit about the great cats who ruled Lion's world.
"No foxes?"
"Some," admitted Lion, as they walked up to a stand of trees. "Here we are," and Lion settled down in a dusty wallow. "The dust is good. It suppresses the fleas. I do miss fleawort. I haven't found anything that repels the damn things, other than a good grooming."
"Garlic?"
"Haven't found any garlic. I'm not even sure if there is -" and Lion yawned mightily, and curled up on the ground. "- any garlic in Veldt. Oh. Here. Put this on." Lion flipped up a black leather collar. "That tells anyone that, if they want you, they have to come through me. Time for a nap." Lion yawned again. "Come on over here. Or do foxes not nap after eating?"
"We do. Of course, I've heard that lions nap anytime."
"There's very little," murmured Lion sleepily, "that cannot be improved with a nap. So come over here. You _ said _you were looking for beautiful men. Is taking a nap with me on that agenda?" Lion smiled gently.
Francis giggled himself. "I'd like to, yes. Just let me get this on -" the Fox pulled the collar over his head.
Lion sprang up. "Got you!"
"What?" asked Francis, confused.
"Don't speak unless you're spoken to, Fox." Lion ordered. "Now get over here. I'm taking a nap."
Francis found himself padding quietly over to Lion, who reached out a paw, pulled him down - hard - but when he tried to complain, he couldn't. He just lay there quietly.
"Stay here." Lion just closed his eyes, and - as far as Francis could tell - just fell asleep.
Francis tried to get up and leave, but he couldn't. He found he could shift a little against Lion, who seemed to ignore the movement, but he couldn't get up. He couldn't even bite at Lion, even if he could have gotten through that thick mane to the lion's throat.
He could cry, though, quietly, as he realized Lion had tricked him, and he was probably the next meal for Lion. Lion didn't even have to go very far. It wasn't fair! Francis didn't want to be eaten! If he could just run away - far away, from tricky lions and giggling hyenas and this whole horrible Veldt. Francis must have cried himself to sleep, because he woke up when Lion swatted him.
"Wake." Lion said. It was night, and much cooler. The grasslands glimmered under the shine of thousands of stars, coating the world in dim light. "Follow me." Lion took off at a run, and Francis - again - found himself following. He didn't want to, but something made him follow Lion through the grass.
Lion ran for miles; not too fast, but Francis was in agony, feet sore, all four limbs burning with the exertion. Francis exhaustedly realized they were headed uphill, and that made it worse, as the grass, kind to soft paws, turned to loose gravel, and then stone. The fox could barely drag itself the last few steps when Lion stopped, and Francis saw a several small pools of water, bubbling out of a crack in ground, and trickling down across bare rock into a series of depressions. Lion drank first, and then motioned Francis forward. "This is all the water you'll get for the next day, Fox." Lion curled up again, and started to fall asleep, but not before ordering Francis back over to him. "We have foxes in my world," Lion said. "House slaves, mostly. I miss my last one - charming little vixen." Lion stared Francis right in the face, and growled, a low sound that seemed to come from deep under his mane. "Should I wear you out, Fox?" Lion pulled Francis to his belly, and the fox's tail was shoved aside. "Little Fox was out seeking beautiful men," Lion said. "Fox found one, I think, yes he did. And do you know what the Lion does to the Fox?"
"I ... no, please, ..."
"Quiet, little Fox," Lion said, softly. "You put on my collar. You're mine now."
Francis tried to say something - anything - ask for an explanation, to be released, not to be hurt - but nothing came out other than a tiny, quiet, whimper.
"I can do anything - anything I want with you, Fox," said Lion. "You're not my vixen, Fox, but I've gotten much less fussy about what I fuck since I've been trapped in this little hell." Lion laughed harshly. "And eat, Fox. I'd chase down deer on my estate - delicious, trembling does, angry, defiant bucks. There's nothing like hot meat, after a chase. But Fox?" Lion made a grumbling sound of disgust. "I'd rather eat a rug."
Francis looked almost instinctively down at Lion's belly - and yes, Lion was fully erect. Fortunately not so big as some of the lions Francis knew, but much more than big enough to hurt. Taking on a lion was one thing, in a heated room on a comfortable bed with lots of lube and a gentle lion. Lion didn't seem gentle, though, or inclined to any sort of foreplay that might make ...
Lion thrust hard against him, and the fox tried to scream as the huge cock entered him, but again, Francis was reduced to whimpers. Lion let out a low, happy growl as he forced himself deeper and deeper into the fox. Francis tried frantically to relax. He'd taken on larger males - he'd been with that pony once ... But that had been after the soak in the hot tub, after the bottle of port, an hour of petting and ... Maybe this would kill him, Francis thought, maybe he was dying right now. It hurt enough, oh Red it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt! A moment of respite came as Lion stopped moving, and began stroking the fox with one paw. That might have been calming, but Lion's claws were fully extended. If Lion gripped him, like that, Francis knew he'd be ripped apart. The fox just tried to hold still. The one thing he'd hated about lions just might save him now ...
Lion began thrusting against Francis again, his breathing faster. "Yes, sweet little fox Fox ... so nice. So nice ... I'll do something nice for little Fox. You may say one thing, no more, little Fox. Anything you want. Go on."
"Please, please, it hurts," Francis whimpered, "Please stop ..."
"Feels wonderful," Lion said quietly, panting. "Oh yes, little Fox, tell me how it hurts! Does it feel like you're being split in two?"
"Yes," Francis said. "Please. You're pulling me apart. It hurts! Just ... slower, please, oh ..."
Lion thrust faster. "So sweet, so nice, good Fox, oh ... yes ... scream for me, Fox, show me how it feels ..."
Francis howled as his throat unlocked around the cries he been trying to make. Somehow, though, it just made it worse - knowing that it was his crying that ... Francis realized Lion had stopped moving, rammed deep inside him. Lion gave the silliest chirp Francis had ever heard a lion make, and then sighed, and pulled out of Francis's battered ass.
"Clean me, Fox!"
Francis moved to clean Lion, but Lion slapped him with a paw. "No. Lick me clean, Fox."
"But ..."
"Don't speak. Move! Now!"
Francis somehow turned himself around, and began licking Lion's softening cock clean of the blood and semen and mucus all foully flavored with shit. He was crying silently again, shaking with the pain of his violated rear and the humiliation. By the time he was finished, he wanted to throw up, and he just lay down, hoping Lion would just fall asleep.
"Clean yourself, too," Lion said, almost grudgingly. He looked at Fox almost angrily, as if letting Francis do something to make himself feel better went against his judgment. And then Lion snorted. "Consider it your last meal, Fox. Try to enjoy it."
Francis cried some more, and then went over to the waterhole, and drank quickly, expecting Lion to forbid it, but Lion had fallen asleep. The fox was able to get the worst of the taste out of his mouth, at least, and took the opportunity to take care of his other needs. When Lion woke at sunrise, he simply padded over, drank deeply - very deeply. "I'm not going to eat you, Fox. It seems a ... friend of mine has never had fox, and I've had more than enough. Fox. Foul-flavored - sort of like rancid mice. So he'll trade a gazelle - once he runs one down for a fox. Gazelle." Lion licked his lips. "Sweet. Not that you'll ever know." He walked back to his makeshift wallow and yawned. "Take some time for ... my friend to run down a gazelle. Fast. Very fast. Usually takes a cheetah to do it, but ..." Lion apparently lost interest in that thought, and he settled down on his side. "So. Wait." Lion stared directly at the cowering fox.
"Come over here," he ordered.
Being raped the second time tore open all the old wounds, and opened new ones. Francis was crying uncontrollably by the time Lion was finished. After he finished licking first Lion, and then himself clean, he dragged himself painfully back over to the water -
"No water for you, Fox. Come over here."
Once again Francis found he had no choice but to do as Lion said.
"Such a good little Fox," Lion whispered to him, and put a paw around Francis - and again fell asleep. Somehow Lion had managed it so that he was in the shade of the mountain, and Francis was in the hot, baking sun. Now it wasn't just the horrible taste of shit in his mouth made worse by his panting, trying to cool off a little, but the maddening thirst made worse by the sweet smell of water not twenty feet away.
Water_he_ couldn't touch.
By midday Francis discovered that he couldn't stand, and was having trouble focusing his eyes - his dry, red, hurting eyes. He was going to die, here and now. At least that would cheat Lion, he thought.
But Lion woke, picked Fox up by the scruff of his neck, and carried him down to the water, and let him drink. "If you get that thirsty again, Fox, wake me. I want that gazelle."
The water made him feel better - a little better, anyway, good enough to note the irony in his own relief at not being raped again. That wasn't the sort of thing, after all, that made him smile, not being raped. Not having to lick ass-slime from a rapist's cock, not having to lick himself clean of that same befoulment, and then not having to cuddle up to the rapist like some disposable fox-pillow.
Except that was just where he was, although out of the sun. Maybe the sun had been an oversight. Maybe.
Francis wasn't prepared at all for Lion to leap up, and dash over to drink."Get over here. Drink up."
Lion had drunk the last of the water. More was trickling out, of course, but ... Francis went and obediently lapped at the seeping water. It was cool, tasting of the stone and moss, and - good. Better than the water from the puddles.
"Not very much," Lion observed. "Is Fox still thirsty?"
Francis tried to shake his head no, but found himself answering truthfully. "Yes."
Lion sprayed urine all over the rocks, and the reeking fluid half-filled one of the small depressions. "Drink."
Francis walked over, but not fast enough for Lion. "Quickly, stupid fox. Quickly! He's running down the gazelle now! I don't want it cold!" Francis gulped down the nasty liquid, or tried to, as a blow from Lion's paw pushed his face into the piss.
Lion turned, and began running downhill. "Come. Keep up!"
Even an order from Lion, however, couldn't make Francis keep up - Lion was just faster, much faster than him. After a couple of minutes Lion impatiently ordered Fox to go limp, and Francis was picked up in Lion's jaws - much more gently than Francis would have expected.
"Say something if I'm holding you too hard," Lion ordered, rather mysteriously, and then he took off at full speed. Francis quickly realized that yesterday's grueling run was nothing to Lion, and Lion might not have even realized (assuming he might have cared which Francis was quite certain he would not have) how hard it was on him. Lion was fast, very fast.
Ten minutes later, they were back down in the grasslands, in front of a still-twitching gazelle, and standing over it was a hyena. Hyena from yesterday?
"Not so fast, no, no, no," said Hyena, as Lion moved forward to the gazelle. "Wait."
"It's getting cold!" said Lion. "The fox is alive. No broken bones, no lethal wounds, as promised. Now?"
Hyena walked deliberately past Lion, who was waiting, tail waving back and forth, over the gazelle. "My judgment, not yours," said Hyena. "Not that I don't trust you - well, I don't trust you, but Stupid Lion may be too stupid to recognize damage."
Lion growled angrily, but made no actual threatening move on Hyena.
"So. Foolish Fox." Hyena sniffed him.
"Hurry up and eat him," said Lion. "I ..."
"Why? Did you stuff him full of lion shit for my benefit?"
Lion laughed. "No, but I wish I had."
"Too bad," said Hyena, giggling again. "Of course, if you had the imagination to think of that, you probably wouldn't have the need to do it."
Lion growled angrily again. "Is the fox satisfactory or not?"
Hyena took another minute to finish his examination. "Yes. He will do -"
Lion ripped open the gazelle and started eating.
Hyena gave Lion a look of disgust, and then turned to the fox. "You are mine now, collared prey. Do you understand?"
"No." Francis surprised himself by saying. "I understand a little, I think ... but I don't think I understand."
Hyena nodded. "Stupid Lion didn't explain it. What an asshole. Disrespectful. Well, you are still mine, whether you understand or no, collared Fox, and I think you're up to walking, if not running, so we will go to my burrow." Hyena giggled. "It's a very nice burrow. You'll like it, I think, out of the hot hot hot sun, cool, yes, very cool."
"Can ... can I ask .."
"Oh yes, yes, yes. Ask is good." Hyena nodded approvingly as they left the sounds of Lion feeding behind them. "Ask is always good. Ask, ask, keep asking."
That seemed to be a general precept rather than a command, as Francis felt no particular urge, but ... he gathered up his courage. "I know I made a mistake putting on this collar ... but ... what is it?"
"A so-so question," said Hyena. "Not too bad, but could be better. My turn to ask. How do you know you made a mistake?"
"Once I put it on, I had to do everything - anything - that horrible Lion wanted!" Francis said, surprised. "And now I think I have to what you say. That sounds like a pretty stupid thing to do!"
Hyena shrugged. "Yes, Fox had to obey Lion, and now has to obey Hyena. But ... why call that a mistake?"
"I don't understand."
"No. But you understand that you don't understand," Hyena said, encouragingly. "What did I say yesterday?"
Francis thought for a moment. "Veldt. Hunt. Be hunted."
"Start there."
"I ..." started Francis, and then he stopped.
"Is not bad to stop," Hyena said, after a moment of silence. "Gives time to think," and they trotted on in silence for several minutes while Francis tried to understand what was going on. Some things were clear - Hyena wasn't going to give any direct answers, for example. Hyena was obviously one of those irritating persons who think it's good for other persons to puzzle out everything for themselves. But then, Hyena didn't seem to be malicious about it - certainly not like Lion was - so ... Hunt. Be Hunted. That seemed pretty clear.
"Does the collar have something to do with being hunted?" Francis asked, after considering and rejecting several other questions.
"Fox is thinking," Hyena giggled. "Good question. My question: what might the collar have to do with it?"
Francis nodded. "It means I'm prey. That I'm being hunted."
"Yes. No."
"Then..."_Oh. "_That I have been hunted. That I'm someone's prey."
"Very smart Fox, yes, yes. Go on. There's more." giggled Hyena pleasantly.
"I'm your prey," continued Francis.
"Well, yes, yes, but ... that's not what I was thinking of, no, no." Hyena stopped, and traced a big circle in the grass around both of them. "Wait a moment. Stupid Lion is asshole enough to track us, and you, poor Fox, smiell very strongly of Lion. Urine-marked. If Lion knows how - and I think he does - then Lion could track you anywhere. I don't use magic to hunt or not-be-hunted, but if Lion wants to cheat, then Hyena will cheat, too. Stupid Lion, if he thinks to trick Hyena that way."
"Lion said you were a bokor ..."
"Really?" Hyena looked interested. "Did he say anything else about where he came from?"
Francis thought for a moment. "Yes. He said he came from Charleston, his grandfather was Governencer of South Carolina, and ... he said foxes were house slaves. Where he came from, I mean. And he said his world ran on gas, they didn't use electricty."
Hyena nodded thoughtfully, settled himself in the grass, plucked a long grass stem, and began to chew it.
Francis sat down, too, although he kept jumping to his feet. Hyena just watched him, and the empty grasslands. After the sixth or seventh time Francis had changed his position, he finally spoke. "Hyena? Are ... you going to hurt me?"
Francis was not prepared for Hyena's reaction; one moment, Hyena was sitting with a shredded piece of grass, the next, Francis's head was gripped in a huge paw and the fox was pulled up, so that Hyena was staring directly into his eyes.
"Maybe," said Hyena, in a deadly serious tone after a moment or two. "Probably not, or at least, not much. Are you afraid of being hurt, Fox?"
Francis meant to say no, but what came out what "Yes."
Hyena let the fox go, and giggled. "Can't lie in Beast-Speech, Fox. Nope no nope sure can't nohow noway to do it nope not here, anyways."
"Oh." Francis sat back down, determined to stay down this time. "How long do we have to wait?"
"Don't know. Depend on how long it takes Lion to find us. Or rather, here. He's not going to find us and here at the same time." Hyena giggled, and went on. "Hold still, Fox. I'm going to speed things up a tiny bit. If you start feeling queasy, close your eyes. Oh. Be quiet, Fox, very quiet. Lion can still hear us, even though he won't be able to see, touch, taste, or smell us. Not Beast-Speech, us, if we move." Hyena paused. "Not that he could do anything about it, I think, but it would still be embarassing."
Francis had no idea what Hyena was talking about. Hyena simply sat and stared at the circle he'd drawn, and so Francis just lay down to wait. He didn't have to wait long until he saw Lion - moving as if in a badly done stop-frame animation, jolting toward them.
"What ... I don't"
"Be still, Fox," cautioned Hyena. "This is one of my best hidey-holes. Don't give it away. We are being hunted!"
Lion continued to come toward them, appearing frozen mid-air for a split-second, and then reappearing ten feet closer, two paws on the ground. Francis didn't need Hyena's order, he just went still, as Lion did a strange little freeze-frame dance past them - and then back - and then past them again - and back.
"What is he doing?"
"He senses we're here. You're soaked in his urine, nothing I can do can hide you until I can wash you."
"He ... made me drink ..." admitted Francis.
"Either is sufficient. Both is inelegant. Clumsy," observed Hyena critically. "Lion is really a poor hunter."
"That's really quite an insult, isn't it," asked Francis as Lion continued to jump around outside the circle.
"Not for a gazelle," suggested Hyena, and Francis was almost certain he could hear Hyena's giggle - but Hyena was still and silent, watching Lion looking fruitlessly.
"He caught that antelope yesterday ..."
"I caught that antelope!" Hyena howled. "Not that fumbling slow slobbering carrion-breath bully! That was _ my _kill!"
Francis would have flinched at Hyena's tone - but he couldn't. "Oh. I'm sorry ... Uhm. I ate it, too. I'm sorry." He thought for a moment. "Thank you? It was very good."
"Not a problem, no, no, nope," sighed Hyena. "I'd have shared with you, seeing as it was your first day."
"You did try to warn me about Lion," said Francis.
"That kill is not merely eaten, but long since passed." Hyena paused. "I did expect him to give up earlier. He's persistent, I'll give him credit for that. But ... maybe too much. Waste of time shadowing a dry waterhole."
"We've only been here a few minutes."
"Well," and Hyena looked faintly embarrassed, "No and yes. Suffice it to say Lion's been sniffing around for at least an hour out there."
"You've hidden us between fractions of time?" Francis asked, as the bizarre stop-slip tableau suddenly made sense to him.
"Clever Fox." said Hyena, a little sourly. "Guessed my hidey-hole."
"I think it's brilliant," Francis said. "I think that's totally the cleverest thing I've heard of, and I'd never have guessed if I were out there looking, or if you hadn't told me time in here is different that time out there, even though now that I know, it seems obvious."
"Well, thank you. I happen to think magic is cheating," Hyena said, looking a little less disgruntled. "But I'm better than Lion, muchly, lots, plenty. Smarter, older, know lots more tricks, some fair, some not ... Lion would have a better chance of catching me if he didn't try to cheat."
"You'd let him catch you?"
"Wouldn't use magic to stop him, no, nope, nohow." Hyena said. "If he's a good enough hunter to hunt me, well, he can catch me. But if he wants to trade shaman-tricks, well, we can do that too. Might as well piss upwind, though, for all the good that will do him."
"You'd let him catch you?" Francis repeated, astounded.
"Veldt. Hunt. Be hunted." said Hyena simply.
"I think I'm beginning to understand how much of those words I don't understand," Francis said after a moment.
Lion continued his prowl for another several minutes. Francis was just as happy to lay there without moving. He was stiff and sore and he hurt all over from the long runs with Lion. The sky darkened and then turned to steely gray before Lion finally gave up in the cold pre-dawn, but not before loosing what must have been an ear-shattering roar. The noise came through to Hyena and Francis as a sort of staccato, growly thunder. Hyena watched Lion recede in stop-motion until he vanished in the sea of grass.
"Come on."
Francis got up - or tried to, stumbling as his stiff legs refused to bear his weight.
"That won't do," giggled Hyena. "Let me guess. Lion didn't feed you, did he."
"No." Francis sounded pathetic to himself. "But I'm not hungry, just ... a little sore. From the running. I'm not used to it. Although I suppose it's a little easier on four legs, right?"
"Not sure," said Hyena, walking over to the fox, and laying down. "Here. Can you climb onto me?"
"I'll be fine in a minute," said Francis. "I will."
"Good for you," said Hyena. "Climb on anyway. Silly fox."
Getting onto Hyena's back, even with his cooperation, was much harder than Francis thought it should be. Hyena had a prominent spine, and there really was no comfortable way to ride on him. Hyena's gait bounced him up and down painfully - but it was still better than trying to walk, Francis thought. Or run. "Thank you," he said, feeling that was inadequate, but not certain what else he could say.
"You are welcome," Hyena replied solemnly, and they rode in silence, Francis too exhausted to do much more than hang on. The fox wasn't sure how long it was until Hyena loped down to a pool. "Rinse. You must get Lion-taint off before we go to my burrow." Hyena giggled again. "Lion would not be a welcome houseguest, no nope nohow no."
"No," agreed Francis. He dropped down, and rinsed, and rinsed, and rinsed, and drank water, trying to get the foul taste out of his mouth. He almost succeeded, he thought.
"That's fine," said Hyena, digging at something. He tossed Francis a stunned mouse.
"Just a mouse," said Hyena, "but better than nothing."
"I guess," said Francis. He put it in his mouth, chewed, swallowed. It wasn't good, not like the antelope had been, but ... he could eat another, he decided.
Hyena batted another over to him. "Stupid mice. Hardly worth ..." and Hyena batted a third and fourth over to Francis, shaking his head. "Tasty, though."
"Tasty?"
Hyena giggled. "If you're hungry enough, it's amazing what becomes tasty."
Francis just nodded, and ate the mice. It did make him feel better, he had to admit. "Thank you. Again."
Hyena just smiled at him. "Fox has had a bad day."
"It's my own fault," Francis said.
"Of course," said Hyena, sounding surprised. "Still a bad day. Does Fox feel up to walking, now? My burrow isn't far."
"Yes," said Francis, "I think so."
Hyena giggled. "This way, Fox."
'Not far,' Francis discovered, was actually about a mile. Not far for Hyena, maybe, but for a poor little fox who'd already run, been carried, or dragged all over the plains and mountains, it seemed pretty far to him.
The burrow itself wasn't big, just a little hole, a tunnel, and then it widened out below, a main chamber with two littler holes to the sides. It was ... well, a burrow, Francis thought sadly, thinking longingly of his wonderful little one-bedroom apartment. He'd thought it was small at five hundred and ten square feet, but ... Hyena's burrow was maybe fifteen cubic feet. Just enough room to turn around, to settle in, and to sleep comfortably. No SleepFunction mattress, no fresh silk sheets, no pillows, no hot water, no down comforter, no pajamas, no washstand or toothbrush or mouthwash or ...
Francis sighed.
Hyena gave an odd giggle. "Isn't it lovely? Quiet, cool, and the earth is packed just right for sleeping. Come on!" Hyena stretched - somehow, Francis wasn't sure he could have stretched in the tiny little hole, but somehow Hyena did, lying down, panting a bit. "Sleepy?"
"Yes," said Francis. He looked at the other two chambers. "Should I ..."
"Come here, little Fox," sighed Hyena, and Francis curled up with the larger predator. "Daytime. Time to sleep."
Lying up against Hyena was nice, Francis, thought, and he was tired, more tired than he'd ever been before, and ...
Francis woke up to find Hyena running his forepaw over his coat. "Tired little Fox."
"I was, yes." Francis said. He stretched, as best he could in the cool, restricted space of the burrow, and he did feel better. The aches were better, the stiffness was - less stiff, and he even felt rested. "I'm feeling much better this ... morning? Evening?"
"Past midnight, past the good evening hunt-time," said Hyena calmly. "That's fine. I ate yesterday, you had mice, can always find mice, very easy. Five or six mice keep the belly from being too empty."
"That's what you meant by priorities, last - no, the night before last."
"Yes."
"What was that other stuff? Bonnie Prince Charlie? Kansas?"
Hyena laughed. "Sometimes hunters on a vision-quest get here. I've picked up a few phrases they recognize, to tell them I'll help them. Didn't work with you." Hyena giggled thoughtfully. "Might even have scared you off, since it didn't make sense. Did it?"
"A little, not that much," Francis said. "I think I was doing well until Lion mentioned London."
Hyena nodded.
"I was hoping he might know how to get back ... I miss London. I mean, this is ..." Francis trailed off, belatedly recalling that there was no way to form a non-true sentence in Beast-Speech. He settled for "I miss London."
Hyena didn't look offended.
"Well, Fox, I'll tell you what I told Lion, the first day we met. Maybe you'll be smarter than he is."
"Please," said Francis. "Everything you've told me so far has been helpful."
"Has it?" said Hyena.
Francis stopped, and thought. Actually ... "Everything you've asked me has been helpful," Francis said.
Hyena just smiled.
Francis sighed. "What did you tell Lion?"
"I told him he was a bully, and an asshole," Hyena said promptly, giggling. "That doesn't apply to you, of course."
"Of course."
"I also told him I couldn't tell him." Hyena said, scratching his muzzle. "I might have added some speculation as to how the dungworm genome might produce a lion. And perhaps something on the perils of inbreeding, as practiced by certain species of bloated, overgrown cats. Perhaps a few pithy comments about the nature of rotted carrion as a steady diet, as well."
"But the important thing was that you couldn't tell him_,_" said Francis.
Hyena nodded. "It seems you are smarter than Lion."
"Thank you," said Francis.
"Faint praise," shrugged Hyena.
Francis sighed. Think, fox, think, ...
"Because you can't tell me. It's something I have to figure out myself."
"Much smarter than Lion," nodded Hyena.
"If you told me, it would make it that much harder for me to get the answer - really understand it, in a way I could use it," Francis went on, slowly. "Can you tell me if I'm right?"
"That depends," said Hyena seriously. "But so far, you're doing very well. You are pretty much exactly right."
Francis sighed. "Thank you," he said, and kept on thinking. Hyena got up, and left the burrow. "I'll be back in a few hours. If you need water, there's a seep nearby," and somehow, the directions and locations were there in Francis's head. "Shit, piss, there," and another location, somewhat further out. "Don't wander out of the burrow if you don't have reason to, please."
"Could I have another hint before you go?"
"Wouldn't you rather hunt down the answer for yourself?" Hyena shot back.
Not really, grumbled Francis to himself. He just wanted his nice, clean apartment and his ...
Hunt down the answer?
Oh, thought Francis. Hint. But ... was he supposed to go hunt down the answer? Or it had to do with hunting? What did a city fox know about hunting? Should he go out and look for mice? No, Hyena had told him not to.
Francis lay down in the cool of the burrow. Start at the beginning. Veldt. Hunt. Be hunted. According to Hyena, that was the important thing, maybe the only important thing. And Hyena had told him to_hunt_ down the answer himself.
Veldt.
Hunt.
Be hunted.
One at a time. Veldt. Thing, condition, place ... well, that was here, and whether it was a place, or a state of mind, or both and more, it was still, hereness, Francis supposed.
Hunt. Action and thing. Could he consider the Veldt just one big hunt? For food, for sex, for answers? For a way out?
Be hunted. Well, that begged the question of, be hunted by whom. Or was the point just to be hunted?
Hunt to be hunted? Seek to be caught, or found, or preyed on?
Francis moaned. He wished Hyena would come back, if only so he could ask questions. Maybe he wouldn't get answers, but ... Hyena's questions were very good at steering him towards answers.
Oh.
Hyena was teaching him to hunt answers for himself.
Francis did go out once, while he turning this over in his mind, drank grass-flavored water from the seep, relieved himself after a few quick moments of digging, far away and then slunk back to the burrow under the cold night sky.
Hyena returned around dawn, grinning, and carrying a bloody haunch of something. "For Fox," Hyena said, calling Francis out of the burrow. "Eat out here."
Francis did, and when he was finished, Hyena cracked the heavy thighbone and swallowed it along with the bits of skin the fox had left. The huge predator yawned, and vanished into the burrow.
"You're teaching me to hunt down answers for myself," Francis said.
Hyena laughed. "And?"
"I haven't gotten any further than that," admitted the fox.
Hyena laughed again. "Further than many a hunter manages, Fox. You listened to me. Veldt. Hunt. Be hunted. Very good."
"So there's more in there," Francis said.
Hyena just yawned ostentatiously, and closed his eyes, feigning sleep.
"Be hunted? There's something there I should know?"
"Yes," said the supposedly sleeping Hyena. "Much. Some of it relevant, some not."
"What about Veldt?"
"Fundamental. Everything runs back to that."
"Do I at least get '_hunt' _properly?"
"Enough of it for now, I think. There's more, but, there's always more. I've been here for lifetimes, and I still learn things."_Hyena said, and yawned again, more convincingly. _"I know you've been here all night, but I was out hunting. I want to sleep."
"_Sorry,"_said Francis.
Hyena just giggled to himself, and after a while his breathing did slow into the regular rhythm of slumber, and Francis, for lack of anything else to do, kept turning Hyena's questions - or answers - over and over in his mind.
"Hyena?" asked Francis, but Hyena didn't answer.
The fox sighed, snuggled in closer to the dozing hyena, and kept thinking, until he, too, was lulled to sleep by the soft sussurus of Hyena's breathing.
Francis woke before Hyena, this night, and the sun was barely setting, so Francis crept up the top of the burrow - he didn't quite poke his nose out, but he could smell the fresh evening air, and he watched quietly as the sky cascaded through its nightly series of colors, light pinks on the clouds, darkening to red-orange, darkening further, and then fading away in a twinkling scatter of stars with wispy cloud cutouts. Veldt was a beautiful place, Francis thought, laying down inside the steep entrance to the burrow.
And that's when he understood. Veldt. Hunt. Be hunted.
Fox wanted to laugh, wanted to scream, wanted to cry out, go wake up Hyena - patient, patient Hyena - and tell him, but ... Veldt. Hunt. Be hunted. And he'd imposed more than enough on Hyena already.
Only when it was fully dark did he creep out to relieve himself, and sip more water.
Hyena met him at the water seep. "Hunting," said Hyena, briefly. "You wait. Think."
"I figured it out, some of it. I still don't know how to get back, not exactly, but ..."
Hyena paused, backed a little away from the seep so as not to sit on wet grass, and settled down, listening.
"You told me you couldn't answer me about ... whether you were going to eat me or not." Fox started, and Hyena nodded, still not saying anything.
"You are."
Hyena stayed silent.
"But you couldn't tell me that until I'd figured it our for myself," Fox continued, "because ... I wouldn't understand why. I'd be scared, and ... that would keep me from understanding. Why."
Hyena nodded. "Why?"
Fox laughed, not like Hyena would, of course. "Because I chose to be prey! I could have been a hunter, but ... I didn't choose that, did I?"
"No," agreed Hyena.
"And that's why you waited, because you hoped I'd understand. I think. You didn't have to. Lion would have just eaten me. You - you're waiting for me to ask you. To eat me, I mean. To ..." Fox paused, not unsure.
"To make you prey," said Hyena, calmly. "Yes. I didn't think it would take long at all."
"I remembered what you said about Lion, that if he managed to catch you, you wouldn't mind being eaten. Or something like that."
A familiar giggle came from Hyena. "Not quite, but ... close enough, I suppose."
"I just can't think why you've been so ... patient, I guess."
"Why shouldn't I be?" asked Hyena. "I knew you'd figure it out, and being prey isn't all bad, if you can manage not to be too afraid." Hyena grinned, a full-toothed smile. "Muchly lots better, Fox. And this way, I can show you what it means to be prey. Come back to the burrow with me." Hyena paused, and then said. "Wait. Need to check something. Don't move."
Hyena bent forward, and took Fox's head in his mouth, very lightly, and inhaled gently, before letting Fox go.
"Why ..."
"Fox's other world, London. No point in looking before Fox figured that out, but ... Fox is here in spirit, not body, so, when Fox's spirit leaves Veldt, it can - it might, it does not have to, Fox could stay in Veldt if Fox wanted to - return. But ... return to what? Is Fox's body dead there? Damaged?"
"I don't know," Fox said. "Is ..."
"Silly Fox! That's what I was looking into! Yes, of course I can find out. Stupid blind clumsy shaman would Hyena be if Hyena couldn't see something so very simple clear easy simple! Fox's body is ... sleeping. Whatever ripped Fox's soul out his body and tossed it here, did not hurt Fox's body. Fox can return safely. Although, I can speak only for soul and body. I cannot tell where your body is, nor what danger it may be in, only that you will return to an unharmed one."
Hyena rose, and headed out. "Go back to the burrow; I will be there in a minute or two. Fox can go home tonight."
"I ... I can?"
"Yes. Once you understand that Veldt is about hunter and prey, you can decide which to be here, and ... move on." Hyena loped off quickly.
Fox looked up at the night sky, and made his own way back to the burrow entrance. He didn't go down, Fox just waited, looking up at the stars until Hyena returned, and then hopped down into the burrow. Hyena followed him, down.
"I ... I guess I'm ready," Fox said, closing his eyes, and sticking his head out.
"Are you in such a hurry?" giggled Hyena, gently stroking the Fox's head with a paw. "There's quite a lot to being prey, you know. Lots of prey and hunters have ... fantasies, desires, wishes, things they'd like to experience. That's why some put on the collar."
Fox opened his eyes to see Hyena smiling at him. "I forgot about the collar," he said. "No, don't tell me, please, I'd like to figure it out myself."
Hyena giggled softly to himself, and kept stroking the fox. He lay down, and pulled Fox next him, but he didn't say anything.
"It has to do with trust, I think," Fox said, after a few minutes, relaxing into the soft caresses. "That I trust you enough to hand over ... my life, or this life, anyway."
"Yes. And it lets a hunter trust you," Hyena said seriously. "Even a small injury means death to a hunter, slow starvation, or becoming prey himself."
"I hadn't considered that," Fox admitted.
"No. You're not a hunter, not here, not now, so it's not something that would occur to you easily," said Hyena.
"So ... you're wearing the collar, Fox. Take advantage of it. What would you like a big bad hyena to do to you?"
Fox laughed again. He wasn't quite sure why it was so funny; it just was. He'd gone from a bank clerk to, well, a fox, worlds away from home, trapped by a hyena who - and there was no doubt in Fox's mind about this at all - going to eat him, and now that same hyena was propositioning him. Funny? Was that funny? For some strange reason, it was.
He owed Hyena, though. Hyena had been kind, so kind. Kind to rescue him - kind even to eat him. And his death here would, maybe, send him back to London. Except ... did he even want to go back to London?
"Hyena? Could ... I ask you for some advice?"
From Hyena's gasps of laughter, apparently Hyena found this funny. "Ask, ask."
"I'm not sure I want to go back to London."
That stopped Hyena's laughing mid-chortle. "And you want my thoughts on that, do you?"
Fox smiled at the larger predator. "You have a remarkable way of making things clear."
Hyena just snorted. "My advice, you asked for."
"Please? I know I wasn't smart enough to take it last time, but ... it was good advice."
"It was," agreed Hyena, thinking. "Very well. My advice. You don't have to go back, you know, you could stay. You might find yourself a gazelle, or an antelope, almost certainly a prey animal, though. Be aggressive enough as prey, and you'll find yourself a predator. Maybe. I usually end up as a hyena, although I was a hawk once or twice, and once - just once - an elephant." Hyena smiled at the memory.
"And you might not remember this life, Fox. I usually do, but I'm an old crafty shaman, and even I don't remember every time. I don't pretend to know how such things happen in Veldt, but ... souls can get lost here, very easily. I think that's the fate that Lion faces, and he knows it, which is part of the reason he's so bitter. Of course, the other part is he's such an asshole," Hyena added. "So. My advice."
"Go back to your London, Fox. You'll remember this, some of this, at least, and you will be different. Your London will treat you differently, and you'll treat it differently. And, when you're done in your London, for whatever reason, you'll face this choice again. You can come back, just as if you'd not left, and hunt and be hunted here." Hyena lay down on his side, just watching Fox.
"Thank you," said Fox, trying to put the full weight of just how much he appreciated Hyena's help into those words. "You've been a wonderful guide."
"You're ready, then?" There was a trace of regret in Hyena's voice.
"Lion hurt me," Fox admitted. "I'd love you to take me that way, but it would just ..."
Hyena nodded sadly. "No, little Fox, I don't want to hurt you. I like you, I do," and he licked Fox's hindpaws gently, "Very much. Everyone makes mistakes, little Fox, and ... you learn from yours."
"That's nice," murmured Fox, as Hyena gently sucked on his feet. "I suppose I could wait a little longer,"
Hyena's giggle was pure Beast-Speech this time. "Oh, you'll like this, no matter how Lion hurt you. And you might as well let me do_something, no?_"
"I wish I could let you fuck me," Fox said lazily, enjoying the soft warm feeling of Hyena's mouth wrapped around his legs. "But this is almost better," he sighed. He wiggled his toes in the warmth.
"Both," sighed Hyena, running his forepaws over Fox's body and licking at at Fox's hardening maleness - and Fox suddenly realized just how impossible that was unless ...
Fox twisted his head suddenly, and tried to twist his legs, but they were already firmly in Hyena's throat. "What ..."
"Calm down," said Hyena, with that same mental giggle. "Didn't I say you'll like this?"
"Yes, but ... you're eating me!" Fox wailed.
"Silly Fox," and Hyena was as close to angry as Fox had ever heard him. "Yes, of course I am. You're prey. My prey. Stole you from Lion, fair and square. Stupid Lion. You _ knew _I was going to eat you. You're ready to be eaten. What are you complaining about?"
"I ... I guess I thought you'd just ... I don't know, kill me somehow. Like ..."
"And get blood all over my burrow?" Hyena sounded shocked. "No, no, nope, never, bad bad bad bad idea bad!" He giggled again. "Besides, this is fun."
Fox started to object, but then Hyena licked his belly softly, and ... it did feel good, warm, and somehow, obscurely, comforting. Hyena was right, after all, he'd already admitted it, it was just ... "I'm sorry. You took me by surprise, that's all. This ... this is nice. It's just unexpected."
"I don't do this often," Hyena said softly. "My jaws will hurt for a day, don't think they won't. I won't be able to move for two or three days - move, hah! Waddle! But ..."
"But?"
Hyena sighed. "What do you think, Fox?" The question could have sounded exasperated and angry.
Fox looked back at Hyena, and realized it was probably the most loving thing anyone had ever said to him. It was funny, he thought, how you could use Beast-Speech even when you were crying. "I think ..." he started, and the words simply failed him. "Thank you, Hyena. I don't think anybody has ever been this good to me. I want to say ... I don't know what I want to say. I'm sorry. Thank you."
Hyena had reached his chest, now, and Fox was having to take shallow breaths. "It's hard to accept love," Hyena said, "but ultimately, Fox, it's all we have to offer one another."
Fox just gave himself up to the slow, langourous, loving embrace. "Yes," he sighed. "You have mine, you know. I love you."
Hyena just giggled, and then Fox's head slipped into Hyena's maw. "And I you. Now, Fox, you must breathe out, as hard as you can. Trust me."
Hyena closed his mouth as Fox exhaled, and with a swallow, Fox found himself in darkness. He tried to take a breath - couldn't stop himself, in fact. But ... there was nothing to breathe. Wordless panic held him for a moment, and then the sense of ... something, holding him, firmly, gently, painlessly, he wasn't sure, but it was Hyena it had to be, he knew, it could only be Hyena.
Darkness.
A pull, insistent, but ... and another pull, and another, and another, and a thousand beckoning paths, but this one led back to ...
Darkness again.
Francis opened his eyes at the Sisters of the Presentation General Hospital in greater London, as the life-support machinery beeped very, very quietly in the ICU center.
_ Author's Note: There are, depending on how one counts, either three or two stories set in Lion's world. One of them concerns the ripple that Lion's disappearance had*[Lions at the Vanishing Point](%5C)* and the other one - or two - describe the first meeting between dog-Colonel Erik and a little fox-slave that desperately wants to be Erik's slave. The dog-Colonel's take on it is*[To Market to Market](%5C), and fox Bosc perceives it as[Market Day](%5C)*. If you liked this story, you might enjoy them._
Thank you for reading my story!