A Fox's Family (Part 11)
#12 of A Fox's Family: A Tale of the House Delgado
"This is...the best coffee," sighed Nester with a smile wrapped around his face. Recent events had kept him so preoccupied lately and he was just now realizing the need to relax and forget about things now and again. Being where he was, there was little he could do regardless.
"Where is it from?" came the squeak of the old woman shuffling into breakfast nook. The light pouring in through the bay windows made the old fox's purple sundress ignite with color.
"I'm not entirely sure," replied her grandson. "A friend from Australia sent it to me. It's very good. I'd love to offer you some..."
"You know I can't have coffee," the woman replied with a little chuckle. She shuffled her way towards the bright windows and stared out at the sprawling green fields beyond. The slowly rolling clouds painted a cascade of shadows that made the grass appear to change color. There was a family of feral rabbits bounding about. Tennison was out there with a bucket and a rake doing chores it seemed. Nester smiled at the gorgeous view and then turned to his grandmother.
"It's a really nice day, don't you think?" he asked before taking another sip.
"It is. I think I'm going to go visit Delgrade today."
Nester nodded, turning his lips in thoughtful approval. "Sounds like a very nice idea. I can have Tennison take you over there in a wheelchair if you like."
"Alright. When he gets back to the house, tell him to wake me and we'll go over there." Bibi stared out at the bright sky for a moment longer. Nester couldn't help but smile at how beautiful she looked in that moment as the sun poured over her features. He could picture the elderly woman at any age through the wrinkles and gray fur. He could see how any man would have fallen for her and how stunning she must have looked all those years ago. He smirked and corrected his thoughts. She still looked stunning.
It was very good coffee.
^^
His mouth tasted rancid as Hym awoke with a groan. Rubbing his sore head and shifting heavily against the bed, feeling all the aches and pain of the night before.
"Ah!" he winced and quickly tore the sheets away to examine the source of a sharp throbbing in his side. His right ribs were yellow and grey beneath his rust orange fur and now that he'd seen one bruise, he was starting to see quite a few more. So many it was frightening. "What the....?"
The burly fox forced himself out of the bed and wobbled once he was one his feet. Barely able to stand as he held onto the tall bedpost and shuffled towards the mirror with heavy, thudding footfalls. His reflection would tell a horror story. Small cuts and bruises covered half his body from his legs to his shoulders. He ran his fingers over them gingerly, wincing now and then from the sharp pain. Then he noticed his face. Barely a scrape or cut at all. Just a few little cuts beneath the hair matted to his forehead.
The tall fox colossus quickly spun about and his eyes darted around the room with newfound alertness. He ignored his pounding head for the time being and started to search for clues, something that would help him decipher the previous night's events. The first thing he noticed was that the bed was missing a bedpost. He staggered to it and nearly fell over before reaching the far corner of the large canopy. The post had been unscrewed from the base and was now nowhere to be seen. He looked all over for it as best he could, but nothing. There weren't many places to hide a post of that size either.
Hym's large feet shuffled through a series of empty bottles as he continued to search the room however nothing else seemed that much out of place.
He made his way back to the mirror and looked into it once more. Hym rubbed the consciousness into his face with both hands and sighed as a tear formed in his eye. "What's going on?"
^^
Sebastian awoke with a bright smile on his face as the clinking glass from down the hall rang in his ears. He turned, opened his eyes to the lovely silhouette laid in the sheets beside him. She was gone, but her touch and the warmth of her body still hung in the air. He cherished the moment, held it close to his heart. But just then he spotted a hair where she'd laid, and he didn't recognize it.
His eyes twisted from bliss to deep concern as the fox sat up and shifted in the sheets nervously. It was red fur by the looks of it, long too. Lovely, but as he strained to think he couldn't remember any girl with hair like that. He silently began to curse himself. His internal anger growing as he damned himself for not being able to remember. Things were getting out of control.
The doorknob twisted and the petite young skunk began to make her way in with a polite knock once the door was half-open. "Good morning!" she cheerfully said with a beaming smile on her face.
Sebastian shuffled the sheets hurried and hastily stood with his sheets tightly bundled over his groin. He blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "Morning!" he blurted out, slowly moving away from the bed and making way for the skunk to enter.
"My, my," she teased in her thick eastern European accent. "She didn't stick around for breakfast today? That's a shame." Seeing random girls in his bedroom wasn't anything new to her. "What was her name?"
Teska was just turning his screws. She'd admit in private to Tennison that she was a little jealous of all the lovely girls Sebastian brought to bed night after night, and sometimes actively dated for a few days, but if she couldn't have him at least she could have fun with him.
The tall, well-built fox blushed and winced at the question. "Just, leave the breakfast will you? It's fine if you made two. I'm pretty hungry anyway."
"You don't remember her name do you?" scoffed Teska with a mischievous smirk tracing her lips. She stopped fixing the bed and sat down on it instead. She looked into his eyes for a long time as if straining to see something beyond them before asking the fox, "What did she look like?"
He just lowered his head a little and sighed. "Please, I'm not feeling well this morning. I guess I drank too much or something and..."
"Where was she from?"
Sebastian gulped nervously.
"What color was her hair?" A brief pause lingered in the room. Full of sadness and remorse. Of revelation and disappointment.
"I told you I'm not feeling well!" the fox suddenly barked. It was a side Teska had never seen before. It frightened her and forced her off the bed and towards the door.
The Russian skunk didn't say another word. Her tears said everything and she made sure he'd seen them before she left the room.
Sebastian's heart ached. His own eyes began to water as he felt her hate for him mingle in his chest with his own. One hand rubbed the side of his face before he began to move to the door to stop her, but the loud crash of plates stopped him in his tracks.
He paused for a moment, lowered his head and sighed at the sound of her footsteps only now marching away in anger. By the time he opened the door, she was long gone leaving behind a metal cart with a lovely looking crepe and a finely trimmed rose beside it.
On the floor, and the wall, was his breakfast. Pancakes and sausage made especially for him, now covered with bits of white porcelain. His gaze turned to the crepe, but decided against it and the fox slipped back into his room. He returned a moment later a scraped everything into the metal waste bin from the bathroom.
^^