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Chapter Seventeen

Dante, Erebosian Wolf

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"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."

-- Mark Twain

Markus stared with his muzzle open at the figure lounging on an overflowing bean bag, silky grey fur and an intelligent spark in his eye, a wolf Astorian dressed in sleek travel clothing and a cap looked at the group steadily with narrowed eyes.

"You are, I presume, Squad Alpha 15?"

Arron nodded and stepped forward,"Yes, that we are, what message are you here to deliver?"

Keeping the expression on his muzzle level, the messenger replied,"I'm here to inform you that you are to report back to base immediately, you're going to take a few months leave from here in order to accomplish other missions, we don't currently have enough Astorians to cover this area, meaning that we have become a bit more conservative and need to regroup and rebuild as of now."

"Hell if I'll stand for that! Have you no idea what we've been doing for the past few weeks?! We have successfully been disrupting the military order here and have just successfully caused a big enough uproar to seriously damage their forces! And we've just begun! Do you honestly expect u-"

"Guys... Where's Riskar?"

Arron and Farinay looked to Markus, who had spoken aloud and then all three looked to Narr, who was looking down at his paws. Narr then looked up, tears welling up in his eyes as he said in a choked up voice,"They trapped him in... Only I managed to escape..."

Silence. Then both Farinay and Arron turned and began arguing indignantly with the messenger how they had to remain here in order to rescue Riskar. Narr said nothing, Markus went over to Narr and let Farinay and Arron bicker with the messenger.

Narr took in a shuddering breath, and slid down the door behind him, sitting down in a crouched position. Markus sat beside him, cross his arms over his legs and leaning forward, looking up at the three Astorians yelling at each other. He turned to Narr, whom to his surprise, was sobbing into his paws, his two tails wrapped around his legs.

Markus reached over, and put a comforting paw on the fox's shoulder, squeezing gently, and leaving it there, bowing his head as he let Narr cry his tears away.

A few minutes later, the fox looked up, a sudden fiery bitterness in his eyes, as he leapt up, Markus's paw sliding off of his shoulder as he did so, and yelled as he straightened.

"Shut up! All of you. If the higher command wants us to retreat then we must, we aren't doing this for selfish reasons after all! Are we not? We're doing this to restore peace and order, now enough of this, we're going to pack up and leave tomorrow morning."

"Tonight." interjected the messenger, who only received cold stares from the three standing up, before Narr continued.

"Tomorrow morning we're leaving, it's HQ he wants to go back to, right?"

The messenger nodded solemnly, his eyes still remaining at a squint.

"Alright then, it's going to be a long trip to get there, so everyone get a good night's sleep."

They all nodded, and Arron and Narr both headed to their rooms, Farinay noticing that Markus had no idea where to go, he motioned for him to follow him to his room, where he found probably the neatest room in the whole disaster of an apartment, a spotless desk with only a few articles of clothing on the floor and furniture. Looking to the side, he saw Farinay seemingly trying to lift the bed, a few seconds later, a bunk bed stood before them.

Farinay motioned for Markus to take the lower bunk bed, as Farinay headed out of the room to tend to a few other matters before turning in.

Markus's head swam, so much had happened in just one day, he had no idea how he had managed to get through it, putting down the bow he had been carrying this whole time by the wall, he took off the belts around his chest and weights, and hung them on some rusty nails put into the wall as hooks, stripping down to his boxers, Markus noticed that he was much better built than in his previous world.

He wasn't exactly muscular, but his lean figure was hardened with slim, wiry muscles, probably why he had been able to run and fight so easily before. He shook his head, today had been an incredible shock to him, and a good night's sleep would hopefully help him to adjust. He flopped down on the bunk, and closed his eyes, he could just barely hear Farinay climbing into the top bunk and mumbling a goodnight into his pillow, but Markus, was already asleep.

to be continued...