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Chapter one - The stranger

Chapter two - Warm paws

Chapter three - Changeover

Erona walked down the forest path late in the evening. The birds were tweeting and the frogs were croaking. But Erona's thoughts distracted her from the beauty of nature. She walked with her paws in the pockets; her doubtful look told stories which hundred of books didn't know. Why did everything go so far? Her only intention was to change evil into good. But now she had to realise HK embodied evil better than anyone else. His longing for power was never to fill. Was there a way out? She kicked a small pebble away. Wait a minute ... what was that? Did she really hear a strange sound from behind? The green leaves of the threes and bushes nod in the soft wind, late sunlight painted milky stripes. In the moment Erona decided to go on she tread into a trap which pulled her up. She cried shocked when her body went involuntarily up. A net kept her caught and the leaves which had covered the trap fell down.

"No!" she shouted angrily and tried to get out of the net. But every try to leave the trap enmeshed her more.

"What have we got here ...?"

Four strange canids left their ambushes and appeared on the small glade.

"Looks like a noble" another canid replied. He had got an ugly scar over his face and a half ear was missing. He and his mates had got axes and knives which they surely didn't use to fulfil housework.

"Set me free! I'm a commander."

"You won't command somebody anything!" the third one greened and picked up a stone from the floor.

Erona liked to take one of her laser guns but on one hand she didn't get it because she had been trapped in that tight net. On the other hand she didn't like to kill the past canids this way; it would have been unfair to her. Before she was able to find a way out, the stone hit her head and she became unconsciously.

The environment had been fuzzy when she was able to open her blue eyes again. It felt much more tightly than before ... it was so dark here ... HK? No. She had been caught on a chair in a dark little cottage. The wooden blinds were shut and the ropes which kept her caught hurt.

"Look! She's waking up again!"

A strange deep voice grunted.

"Morning pretty She-Wolf! Breakfast's ready!"

She heard the laughter through her dizzy mind. When she reminded of the crooks which caught her she realised the hairy situation.

"This cannot be everything you're carrying in your jacket, can it?!"

The fattest of them said while he was shaking her black jacket so her last property fell down on the wooden floor. The two laser guns, a dagger, her ID card and a handkerchief lay on the floor.

"Haven't you anything valuable?!"

"W-what ..." she was stuttering while she got wide awake.

The gangster with his black fur walked to her and threatened her with his knife.

"What should that be, little madam!?!"

One of her modern glass guns swing in his paw right in front of her muzzle.

"A ... this is ... a mixer ... for cooking."

"Fine" he said, "So cook us something!"

In fact her gun had been able to grill anyone here. But if they figured out how it worked degree wouldn't have been appreciable.

"I've some better ideas what to do with her" a mate of the fat cook dinner loving canid interfered. The dog with the spotted fur grabbed her simple shirt and added.

"Perhaps it's the only thing she can give us."

He tried to lick her snout but she faced away as well as she could.

"Dis-gust-ing ..." Erona replied and grimaced. The other spivs began laughing when suddenly the simple wooden door burst open.

"Stop it or you'll regret!" a familiar voice shouted. Erona tried to throw a look on the dark armed figure but the four gangster bodies avoided.

"Who the hell sent you?" one of them yelled and took a rusty frying pan. When Grenko dodged, Erona was able to recognise him. A clattering sounded when the pan hit the doorframe. How did he find her? Would it have been curse or blessing? And ... what was he carrying in his paws? The young gray Wolf had got a crossbow. He was aiming on the one who threw the pan on him. When he decided to start an attack on the gatecrasher Grenko had to decide quickly before it was too late. In fact he hadn't considered about the dimension of the risk. They really attacked him even he had got that weapon! The quarrel left the crossbow faster then he was able to finish thinking. It hit the assailant's chest and made him fall down. The other hoods had been shocked this Wolf which had got such a small frame dared attacking them. But Grenko took use of their short break and reloaded the crossbow.

"No one's coming closer otherwise I'll shoot!"

But the next bandit started attacking him with his axe. Grenko's fear made him stop hesitating. Another quarrel left the crossbow, hit the crook and made him fall. Erona couldn't believe he was going to do this. But she instinctively supported him by kicking the third crook's buttocks. He turned back and hit her face with his fist. But he was distracted so Grenko was able to finish off the last crook. He had picked up the axe the second beaten canid lost. He threw it on the crook's forehead. The image of the split skull was going to bring him nightmares, he was sure. The dying bandit made a death rattle and alighted on the floor. The last living crook looked very uncertainly. Did a small grey Wolf and a bound lady really triumph over three of his mates ...?

"I ... don't shoot ..." he said, while Grenko reloaded his crossbow. "I give up, I promise!"

Grenko also had got an insecure look, he took breath.

"Get lost!" he ordered and looked as angrily as he could. Erona almost had to smile a little. So he never could argue that she was a murderer.

"Ya-yah ... so I'll do ... I promise."

Grenko stepped aside so he could leave through the door. Erona watched that scene distrustfully. After the guy left Grenko stepped a little closer and said to her.

"Don't think I did it because I like you!"

"Watch out!" she suddenly shouted while the crook entered the cottage again to stab the Wolf to death. Even Grenko surely didn't trust her for much he turned his look around instinctively and avoided the deadly stroke. It hit her knee and made her scream. Grenko quickly took the axe again and hit the crook's back. He broke down and didn't show any motion. Grenko breathed unsteadily and watched the dead body in front of his legs.

"I ... I ... did I really ... kill them ...?"

His look went over the four dead bodies.

"Set me free!" Erona ordered. Grenko looked at her. He hesitated. Then he set her free as she had asked him to. The black fur She-Wolf jumped off the chair and picked her jacket from the floor.

"I'll immediately order unit 4 to search the place for further threats, so we don't have to ..."

When she turned her look on him again she saw him aiming with the crossbow at her.

"What ... are you doing?"

Didn't he safe her right a moment ago? Why he was about to kill her now?

"Doesn't matter!" he said confidently as never before. "But I know what you are going to do now! Let's go over there!"

He showed her a hatch. It led to a cold room which served as middle-aged 'fridge'.

"At which's side do you stand?"

"On my own end!" he replied. "Open that hatch!"

She had lifted her paws before she opened the hatch hesitating.

"You don't know what you are going to do!"

"Climb down the ladder and keep your snout shut!"

"I am a commander" she said in a threatening way. "In fact how could you escape?!"

"Your friends asked me if I would be the spy."

"What spy?!"

"I still don't know." He smiled. "But I answered: yes, of course. So they let me go after I told them I'm shadowing someone really strange."

"Clever" she replied lifting one eye brow, but she didn't like to smile.

"Go down that chamber - now!" he ordered one more time brandishing the weapon.

After she had done that - she hadn't had another chance - he shut the hatch and left the cottage.

It looked strange the way HK parked his four-wheel-drive car in front of the small shop. Many canids carried boxes with things they didn't even know. The soldiers watched over the workers with their fingers at the trigger. No one dared to resist anymore. HK had got straight that everyone who tried to engineer a revolt would be punished together with the whole workers unit. So he could be sure the subjected canids watched each other as well.

HK had entered the shop and was about shouting in the salesman's face.

"I didn't know you yesterday's canids could be that silly! How can it be possible someone damages a machine just by pushing buttons?!"

"I-I am ... sorry, Mi-Mister ..."

"Don't call me Mister! I am the Commander in Charge!"

The grey Wolf with the scar slapped the helpless salesman in the face so his nose begun bleeding.

"It was your job to print 10000 newspapers daily. Your disability caused a huge damage and we won't be able to broadcast our news for at least seven days!"

"Bu-but I've never done such work before. I only sold shoes, you know ..."

"I don't care. Times have changed and if you are not with us you're against us. Think twice before you answer!"

HK threatened the frightened dog. He had got white and brown fur and lop ears. HK's paw grabbed his leather jacket and pulled him over the sales counter for some decimetres.

"Get some guys to finish work as I asked you. You gonna write our news pawwritten! You've the night to forfill work and if dawn begins all newspapers will be written ready."

"Bu-but I cannot write ..." the past-canid was stuttering.

"So you'll draw the letters piece by piece. No more excuses!"

"Thi-this ... is im-impossible ... Mis- ehr, Commander!"

HK hauled off and hit the anthro dog's face again. The salesman fell over while the commander shouted angrily.

"Disobedience is impossible, sissy!"

"Commander HK?" One of his men interrupted the commander's action while he hold a finger on his radio device.

"We got the news one of he past-canids hijacked the pre-charge detention centre. The grey Wolf was able to set a bitch free. He could escape." While the white-brown dog tried to stop his nosebleed HK listened motionless what the soldier said. "Do you want us to create an identikit picture?"

"Are you kidding me?" He started screaming while his paw grabbed the soldier's sleeve. "I order you to get this impertinent little bastard immediately. Don't arrest him, just finish him off and submit his head!"

"Aye, great CiC" the scared fight dog replied and touched his radio again to transmit HK's order.

But right in the same moment Grenko and a German shepherd bitch ran over the meadow. Behind the firs you could see the glassy headquarters the gatecrashers had built.

"C'me on, Lira! We've to hurry. The soldiers are still chasing us!" The bitch had to carry the tail of her grey skirt.

"I ... I try ..."

"Quick! Don't wait! I know a place were we're safe."

The escaping past-canids disappeared in the woods before the guards arrived at the grasslands.

When the soldiers could be sure they lost the jailbreakers they stopped, looking around helplessly.

"There's no trace left" one of them said. The most ugly fight dog with a hanging flew with big muscles replied while looking at the woods.

"To hell with them! Just let's tell we finished them off."

The other dogs nodded synchronously. Just one of them added for consideration.

"What if HK wants to have a proof?!"

"We'll care for it" the ugly dog said and grinned hatefully.

"What about my son?" the Shepherd asked frightened when Grenko was about to open the door of the cottage. She stopped and looked doubtfully around.

"I'm sorry" Grenko told with lowered voice. "We had not enough time to search the whole place. If the dogs had realised I wasn't even able to use this weapon I surely had had no chance."

"But what shall we do now? I can't leave him!" she complained unsettled.

"Don't worry. It's not too late. I've an ace up in my sleeve, just trust me!"

He laid his paws on her one's and smiled caring. For now he could give her some solace. But in fact he wasn't sure if his plan could work. It depended on the black She-Wolf if they came trough.

Greno pened the wooden door and let her enter.

"Come in, just sit down!"

After she sat on a small stool the youg grey Wolf shut the door and breathed deeply.

"Please promise me to keep calm now, do you?" She looked at him wondering.

"I show you somethi- someone ... and I'm sure you will be surprised."

Grenko went to the hatch and pulled the peg to open it.

"C'me up!" he ordered and aimed with the laser gun at his prisoner. When the black dressed She-Wolf anthro came up the German Shepherd screamed.

"You ... this ... that ... noo-nooo!"

Erona crossed her arms looking deprecatingly at the strange one.

"Don't be shocked ... please!" Grenko begged. "It's not like it looks like!"

"You ... you're with the moll?!"

"No!" he replied. Erona just sneered.

"I arrested her today in the morning ... I ... I ..."

"Pha! You didn't arrest me." Erona turned her head a little bit in his direction while standing there quite self-assured. "I only let you believe you could catch me because you look so pitifully!"

"Shut it!" Grenko yelled. "Lira! This is our great chance to get your son back! We've an instrument against the gatecrashers now!"

Erona laughed. "Sorry to disappoint you but I'm pretty unmusical!"

"I said: Shut your mouth! You and your friends are to blame for that mess. Because of you and your friends Lira's son is still caught."

The tall female anthro Wolf looked quite disinterested; however, she corrected his statement.

"HK is not my friend for sure!"

"Be quiet, otherwise I'll kill you!"

"Just go on" she said and yawned provocatively. "I hope you know how to handle this weapon. But don't burn yourself a hole in the head."

"Do it!" the female Shepherd interrupted. "Kill her! It's her fault my son got lost! She and her pack hijacked our kingdom!"

"I-I-I-I ... I have to switch this bo-bolt, am I right?!"

"Yah but don't forget to release the gun first."

She stood right before him and suggested how to switch the lever by her black finger.

"A-aah ... and ... ho-how ... to do ... that?"

Grenko knew he was quite helpless compared to her. Even she had been his hostage he couldn't act against her because she knew so much more. It wasn't such a surprise - she had arrived from future.

"Just try, sonny. Self-reliance is the name of the game."

"You have to finish her off! She's a monster!"

Suddenly a red laser hit the milk churn behind Lira so she had to duck. Even Erona got surprised but she didn't show anyfear. Grenko got it. Now he knew how to use the gun. A Wolf from the middle-ages was able to handle a modern glass laser gun from the 22ndcentury.

The milk churn had melt to a metal chunk and Lira looked up again as furiously as before.

"Now! Shot her!"

Even none of these past-canids was able to explain such a modern magic-like gun they had been quite sure what to do with it. Erona still stood there with crossed arms.

"I don't fear death." She looked down for a second and whispered. "I know I'm not allowed to go back at any time ..."

Grenko shivered while aiming at her. She looked with cold blue eyes at him and spoke threatening.

"Kill me! ... and you can be sure our fight dogs will hunt you down till you're cat food."

Actually Erona almost could be sure HK didn't care if she died. But there was no reason to throw her life away.

"ButIcan be useful to you if I stay alive. I can try to get the hostage back, if you want me to."

"You lie!" Grenko interrupted her. "If we let you go you sale us out and we're lost. No no no!" He shaked his head.

"Don't worry." Erona turned her look back on the upset mother. "I won't sale you out. You have to believe me: It never was my intention to endanger innocent dogs or Wolves."

"Don't listen to her!" Lira cried. "She's distracting you. She'll tell us more and more lies if we don't finish her off!"

"My death is no use to you. You can satisfy your desire for revenge but sooner or later they'll catch you for that. Trust me - HK's penalties aren't that cosy."

"Why should we take it from you?"

Erona suddenly kicked the gun off his paw so it fell down on the floor. Grenko tried to pick up the weapon before Erona did but he wasn't quick enough. So the black She-Wolf held the laser gun in her paw again aiming on Grenko. In that moment you could hear a pin drop. Breathing.

"See?" Erona murmured. But then she dropped the gun. "You're no threat to me!"

Her countenance had been quite dunning. Now the pistol laid right between Grenko and Erona. She hadn't shot even she had been able to. Had this been a real mark of confidence?

"I can help you setting the hostage free. But you have to trust me. There's no other chance."

"She lies!" Lira interfered angrily. "She only wants to save her neck!"

Grenko shakes his head. "No, I don't think so. But the question is: Why do you want to support us? What use is there for you?"

Erona smiled a little. She crossed her arms again and replied after a moment of considering.

"Maybe I want to let warmth come in ..."

"What are you talking about?" Grenko asked distrustfully.

Erona took a breath. Lira had to keep quiet now.

"I have a score to settle with somebody ..."

"Who?!"

"Even you can't imagine ... my intentions have been honest and kind. We wanted to bring you a way to a better community. But he sold me out." She looked up and took a deep breath. "He misused my skills to get all the power for himself. But it was not our plan to oppress the population."

"Lies!" the brown and black German Shepherd bitch interrupted. "If that would be true ... why the canids have to suffer so much since you've come here?!"

"I didn't know ..." Erona whispered looking into nothingness, "what HK was really fighting for ... he sold us out ... all of us."

Even Grenko hated her for killing the old host, he started believing her. And she was right, wasn't she? If she had liked to kill them she had done so. She had the weapon but she dropped it again. What use was there to her selling them out? The young grey Wolf had got such a special feeling she could be honest. Did she really mean it? Why Erona should tell them she had got a dispute with her mate. What a familiar information she gave to them.

But when Lira took the axe Grenko had used to kill the gangster dogs before this situation became quite hairy again. Lira climbed on the table ready to throw the axe on the odious black She-Wolf.

"No!" Grenko screamed and put himself in front of Erona to safe her.

"If you do that we won't have any chance to get him back!"

The brown and black bitch stopped. Her breath sounded.

"Don't you understand?" Grenko asked uncomprehending. "If we kill her now we have no instrument to reach the goal. Don't do it, please!" In fact she had killed him if she had thrown the axe now. But if he couldn't convince her to change the side every further step had been useless. The axe swung while carrying it in her paws. Erona looked totally frigid, almost impassively. But maybe Grenko was right? Was there any other way to get her son back? The chances had been small ... Suddenly the axe went down. Grenko caught a deep breath.