Part 2 (1/2)

The fox cried in response, sounding like a couple of small bells ringing at once, and smiled up at me.

I scooped up the tiny fox with both of my scarlet-gloved hands and lifted it to my face. It licked my nose under the shadow of my hood and let out a tiny yawning cry.

Stupid cute fox.

”Ma'am?” The soldier boy asked.

I glanced over to see him staring back at the body he had been trying to put back together earlier. At the same time I tucked the fox under my cape, slipping it into one of my ma.s.sive cargo pockets. The heart-born fox fit perfectly and poked its head and paws out slightly.

”Soldier?” I responded.

”I'll kill the monster that did this.” He stated plainly. I could see the fury in his eyes and the single tear rivers down each side of his cheeks.

”I wish you could kid. It'd make my job easier.” I sighed again and laid a hand on his shoulder. I heard the fox let out another yawning cry and then felt it settle down in my pocket.

”I will.”

”Yeah. Maybe.”

”No. I will.” He rea.s.sured me. Not that I needed it.

”Yeah, I know.”

What else was I supposed to say? The guy just lost the girl that he liked enough to go into the militia for. I could never give that kind of dedication to someone. Sure there were a lot of people dead around us but as far as he was concerned she was the only one that mattered. She was the reason he threw up. He knew there was some crazy stuff going on. But that didn't matter. She died; he wanted revenge.

I envied the soldier. I only knew two things for sure and neither involved revenge.

One: Gabbi didn't do any of this here.

And Two: I now had a golden fox in my pocket.

What can I say? I follow smoke trails and brick crumbs and don't find my way home. Instead I find a fox of gold in a heart.

I really need a new job.

Three.

Golden Blues ”You found a what?” Bonny roared in that bellowing voice of hers. She had to be half dragon or something.

”A fox.” I reiterated while the soldier boy off to my side glanced back up at the tower we were just inside. The yellow smoke was curling up into the clouds above the tower now. It looked like smoke signals.

”Where in the seven and seven lands did a fox come from?”

The second time someone asked me that in one day and I still only had the same answer. ”A heart.”

Once her only visible violet eye returned to a manageable size I told her as much as I knew about the scene and showed her the fox. Technically now the fox was my only witness to whatever happened here.

”Well what are you going to do with it?” The eye-patch wearing soldier asked afterwards.

I shrugged while the fox licked my hand. ”Feed it. Name it. Pet it. I guess? It would be better than adopting a kid.”

She laughed; a big, healthy dragon roar of a laugh.

I joined her.

Roberts looked at us both as if we killed some babies. He didn't understand yet that if you didn't try and laugh off the insanely messed up stuff it would just continue to pick at you until all that was left was an empty cavity where your mind used to be.

I couldn't blame him though. Any onlooker would have thought we were insane as well. There was blood and bodies all around us with smoke trailing from a smashed up tower. We would have looked like the ones that had done this horrible damage, laughing as we did.

”So you are sure it wasn't the Wolf?” The salt and paprika haired officer asked again after the laughter died into a few moments of silence.

”She's Gabbi, not the wolf. And the tower was definitely not her; I can't say the same for the rest.”

”Right. Right. Gabbi.” She scrunched up her face in annoyance. Her brilliant crackling purple right eye fluttered over me before she just turned away from me to direct attention to the one who had been my companion in the tower.

She didn't understand the whole importance of using a name when you knew it. Or at least the importance it had to me.

”You understand don't you?” I asked the fox in my hands that was licking my glove.

It made a yawning cry that I took for yes.

Great...

I've had the fox for five minutes and I'm already acting like it can talk back to me.

I sighed and dug into one of my other pockets for something to feed my new pet, apparently.

I don't exactly keep bountiful amounts of food on me. So the only things I managed to find among my pockets were a metal coin, an ink bottle, a little string, and a lemon scotch.

The fox eyed the lemon scotch with interest, so I held the nasty candy in front of it. It sniffed the treat and tried to lick it out of my fingers before I even un-wrapped it.

If you don't know what a lemon scotch is, then you are one of the lucky ones. Lemon scotches are like eating lemons combined with bland caramel syrup and a dash of pepper. The one I possessed was likely left over from my visit with Mister Boots. Other than boots, lemon scotches were that d.a.m.n cat's favorite things.

The fox snagged the treat from me, after I got the wrapper off, and sucked it down instantly. Once that was done I slipped the fox back into my pocket, and heard it make a smacking sound of enjoyment before wiggling around and settling.

Well the *feed it' portion was done. Guess next thing was naming it.

”Gnidori? I sent Roberts back along the trail to get the nearest troupe to help us clear out this mess. I do not believe we need you anymore.” Bonny explained to me, sounding a little annoyed. I looked to her, then around the area. Apparently the boy really was gone.

”Do you know who did this?” I asked.

”No, it's going down as the Wo-” I eyed her and she cut her words short, before continuing. ”... as Gabbi's doing. Since we have another one that is the same on the opposite side of the Tsar's palace, minus the smoke.” She explained, nodding down to the fox in my pocket to elaborate that there wasn't a fox either at that location.

”Wait.” I stopped, holding my hands out in front of me as if to prevent me from falling. ”This happened somewhere else without the whole fox and smoke thing?”

”Yes. Why?” She narrowed her eye at me.