Chapter 2

Zack felt his head hurt as he opened his eyes. Sand blew in them, so he closed them again for a moment. It took him a moment to get to his feet. Beneath him was tough sand, that both hurt his skin and made it hard to stand up without losing balance. Despite that, he managed to get to his feet. Rubbing the sand from his eyes, he looked around.

He was standing in the middle of a barren wasteland. It was much like a desert, yet it seemed a little flatter. It looked like a scene out of some kind of post-apocalyptic movie he had seen with Maline. Looking around, Zack started thinking about what happened.

His family got abducted, He fell off the island…

He had a sword with him.

Looking around, Zack spotted the sword nearby. He stumbled over the sand to get a good look at it.

It was mostly cyan at the circular helm and grip, and lighter blue in the one-sided blade. In the middle of the helm was what looked like a small paw print, like that of a wolf's paw. At the end, hanging from a chain, was a paw-shaped pendant, just like the one around his neck. At a certain angle, the sword almost looked like a key.

Zack scratched his head. Where did this sword come from anyway? It just appeared in his hand…

"No time to think about that," He thought quickly, "I need to get back to Calico! I have to save the girls!"

First, he needed to know where to go.

Looking around, he spotted something in the distance. It looked like a small fort. It wasn't glowing neon like Calico, but Zack had the feeling that someone was living there. He stumbled over the sand to get to the fort.

It took Zack a few hours to reach the fort, but he made it. It was an old wooden fortress, almost like it was meant to keep something out, just like in those movies he saw. The door seemed to be locked tightly. He looked around for a way inside.

There, up one the side of the massive wooden wall. A small window was open over a series of platforms. These were probably used for building the fort.

"How convenient," thought Zack.

Carefully climbing up the platforms, Zack made his way to the window and peaked inside. It was a little hard to see, but he did manage to spot a female feline Anthro walking around inside the fort.

Zack hesitated. Maline always told him not to talk to strangers, but in this situation, what choice did he have?

Wiggling through the open window, Zack slid onto another platform overlooking the fort. It was mostly empty, except for a large wooden cart sitting in the corner of the corner of the fortress. Looking down, Zack saw an entire group of feline Anthros. All of them were beautiful women, cats, tigers, leopards, and jaguars. All of them were surrounding a beautiful cat sitting on what looked like a throne.

Crouching low, Zack pecked down at the ladies. They seemed to be holding small wooden cages, seemingly used for feral animals, or non-anthropomorphic animals. He listened intently, trying to hear what they were saying. He could just barely hear them chuckling about a catch, but they were too far away to hear.

As he did this, something rubbed against his legs. He spun around to see a feral cat sitting by him.

"Shoo! Get outta here!"

The cat ignored him and started rubbing up against his legs. It made him start to lose his balance. The platform wasn't sturdy, and was starting to wobble.

Zack struggled to push the cat away.

"Go on," he whispered, "Get outta here!"

He shoved the cat with his foot, but it wouldn't leave him alone. It purred affectionately as Zack struggled to keep his balance. He tried to kick it, but missed.

The cat looked at his swinging leg, and decided that it looked like fun to play with. It swiped its claws and scratched his leg. He yelped and flinched, and the platform gave way underneath him. Both he and the cat tumbled to the ground and landed hard, grabbing the attention of the female anthros.

Zack sat up and rubbed his head while the cat shook itself off and bounded towards the anthros that approached him, and hopped into the arms of a lioness. They held gun-like weapons at him, and Zack began to realize that maybe entering the fortress was a mistake.

The bold cat pushed her way through. "Let me see," she said in an aggressive tone. She stopped in front of Zack and looked at him. A sly smile stretched across her furry face.

"Say," she said as she bent down to get a closer look, "You look like a fine catch." She picked him up by the scruff of his jacket and sniffed him. "You smell like you're from….Calico?"

Zack slowly nodded.

She laughed. "Even better! You'll be worth a fortune!"

Zack stuttered. "A-a f-f-fortune?!"

A tigress approached him and rubbed his hair. "I bet we could make a fine pelt out of his scalp!"

The second Zack heard this, he pushed the cat away and stumbled back into the wall. "Back off! I've had a really rough day today, and I don't need anymore trouble!"

The felines all looked at each other and burst out laughing. "You ACTUALLY thought she MEANT that?!" They were all laughing hysterically while Zack simply sat against the wall, confused.

"What are you all laughing at? She said she was going to scalp me!"

"I was joking darling!" The Tigress was holding her sides. "If we cut your head off, you'd be less profitable!"

Zack let out a sigh of relief, but was still confused. "Are you going to sell me?"

The leader cat shrugged. "We'll see…If we like you that is…" She smiled at him while letting him go. "Come girls," she called, "Let's go and check on the rest of the catches."

Zack was relieved, but he still felt somewhat uneasy. These women seemed nice enough, but he still wasn't sure about them. They approached the cages and the cat knocked on them with a solid metal pole as the creatures inside screeched and cried out. Zack winced at the sound of their shrieks. It sounded like they were in terrible pain.

The leader cat laughed loudly at the sight of these creatures. "Look at these creatures ladies," she said, "Just think of how much we'll make for these creatures!"

Zack remained uneasy looking at the cages.

Eventually, one of the girls, a Lioness, opened an empty cage. "Oh little boy," she cooed, "Could you help me clean this cage?"

Zack had the feeling that it would be a trick, but before he could answer, two anthro girls came up from behind, grabbed him by the shoulders, and threw him into the cage.

"HEY!" He reached out through the bars of the tiny cage. "Let me out!"

The ladies started laughing hysterically. "Stop crying," a lioness said, "It's only business."

"Besides, you'll do good in the games!"

"You said you girls wouldn't sell me!"

"Oh, is that so?" The leader cat approached him. "None of us ever said that…"

"Yes you did," Zack shouted, "You said you wouldn't sell me!"

"If we like you, we might…"

Zack's jaw dropped. How did he not notice that loophole?

"LET ME OUT!!" He banged his hand against the bars of the cage. The ladies picked up his cage and loaded him onto the cart in the corner. The leader cat snapped her fingers.

"Baby," she called, "Come to me, my baby!"

The cat from the lioness jumped out of her arms and ran to the leader cat. It shook itself and then doubled in size. The leader cat threw her arms around the giant cat and hugged it.

"Oh, my baby. My precious fluffy baby."

The girls hooked up the cat to the cart, and the doors to the fortress began to open. Slowly, the felines led the cat out of the fortress and into the desert.

Zack pulled against the bars of the cage as the cart and the felines traveled across the desert to the city.