Devil's in the Details

In the Wilderness Chambers Felix wandered back into the airy chamber where Error's capsule laid. He looked out to the sky, and then looked away. It was still too much for him. The wind breathed in and out of the chamber. He didn't want it to suck him down into the void. He covered most of his vision and dashed into the capsule's door. 

"Error?" He beckoned. 

There wasn't any response. He walked through the kitchen and into the library, "Error!?" Still no answer. The place was small. From the library Error should have been able to hear him anywhere. Felix sighed. He really wanted to go upstairs and see the second floor, but if Error discovered him here again without permission, he assumed the frogen would get upset. 

He walked out of the capsule and back into the tower. Error had to be around there somewhere.

***

'Falling up in the sky

they will take your mind

But not your heart

Unless you fall apart

Which is their favorite part

Never get to the end or the start

Running from the part

where you lose your heart

I wished I never set foot

I wished I had been smart

They've not taken my mind

But still my heart's depart'

***

Felix went back down through the Locker Chambers with the House of the Whiptails, into the abandoned town in the void called the Highway Chambers (there are other towns in the void. They are connected by a highway bridge that's bottom cannot be seen, giving the Highway Chambers their name), up the stairwell tower to the Statue Chambers, and directly up further above to the Zoic Chambers.

Here in the Zoic Chambers was a mixed bag of room types, almost as if it wasn't planned well or didn't have enough money to stay consistent. Felix named it the Zoic Chambers, due to its boom in life. This life boom was thanks to a surplus of hot water. All sorts of molds and bugs and lizards thrived here, as well as Felix whenever he visited. 

Felix walked through a hall lined with roots with his bag, lantern and gun. As he continued looking for Error he pretended to shoot the revolver.

"Pchow! Pchow!" In a high ceilinged room in front of him a coyne stood. It looked at Felix with roots in its mouth, "Pchow!" Felix pretended to shoot the animal. The coyne walked away, not caring in the slightest. Felix giggled. The laugh echoed in the hollow place.

He continued into the room with the coyne. The animal walked away from him, uncomfortable.

"Aw, hey there. I didn't mean anything by it," Felix said, waving his arms. The animal stopped. Felix gripped a root on the wall pulled it out, crouched down, took a few steps closer and held the root out to the coyne. The animal walked up to Felix and took the root. It began chewing. 

Felix smiled as the root disappeared into the coyne's mouth. He sighed and sat down. This really was a peaceful scene. 

He was sitting on some roots helping out a coyne, watching it eat. A bond had been formed between them. They understood one another despite being so different. 

The coyne turned away and headed for an eroded hole in a wall. Felix followed it. The animal stepped a foot in the hole, took its foot out, and leapt through the hole instead. Felix followed it, climbing through the hole. On the other side of the wall he took a step, and then fell.

His ankle was caught on something. He looked back. It was a metal wire snare caught on his leg, a tiny noose tight around his ankle.

"What the?..." Felix hobbled back to the snare's base. It was tied to a stake in the ground. He put his hands on the stake and tried to pull it out. It didn't budge, "Hmm," He put his foot up to his hand and tried to slip his fingers under the wire. There wasn't enough room. He couldn't loosen it.

Felix put his foot down. He looked at the entire device. It wasn't something he'd ever seen before. Rubble surrounded the stone floor. If it was as old as everything else in the tower there wouldn't be rubble as it would've spread out by now. This must've been recently hammered into the ground. 

Did the dragons put this out here for extra hunting? It didn't matter did it? Either way Felix was trapped, and something was either going to come and eat him, or he was going to starve.

The thought wasn't very comfortable. He had to find a way to cut the line. 

Felix swung his bag to his front. His knife might work. He sat down, took his knife out and began cutting the wire. After a minute it became clear that this wasn't working. Felix sighed. This was starting to look more dire. Was there anything left he could do? He could do something about this right? 

Felix looked at his gun. 

Maybe that would work? 

He picked it up and pulled the hammer back. He held the line taut by pulling his leg out, and forced the barrel point blank on the wire so he wouldn't miss. He shut his eyes and pulled the trigger. His hand flicked up at the recoil. He wasn't expecting it to throw his arm back as much as it did. Luckily, the wire was cut. He took a step away from the trap. 

Success!

The snare was still around his ankle but he could go home and cut the rest off now. Una had to have some sort of connections with big scissors or something. 

The coyne who had left Felix there earlier suddenly burst back into the room and leapt through the hole in the wall. Felix looked ahead to the hall it came from. It seemed darkness itself was charging right at him. 

Felix turned away and followed the coyne, jumping through the hole. His strangled ankle didn't like it, and he tripped when putting pressure on it.

He landed on his belly and flipped himself on his back, but the creature was already there over him. Its huge head was almost like a cone and its long triangular ears laid back in a scowl constantly. From how Felix saw it, it almost resembled a huge black rat with red piercing pupils. 

"Take a look at this," The creature said with a rash male voice. Another identical creature walked through the hole. Felix could see how they looked in their entirety now. Four feet tall on four legs, they shuffled around like bears, although walked on their toe paw pads like dogs. Their coarse black fur coating them in a matted messy manner. Their tails ended in three points. Their huge claws pinning Felix down, and their whiskers tickling Felix's face. 

"Are you trying to eat me?" Felix asked, quivering.

"Yes, duh," the creature said. He put his mouth around Felix's collar. 

"No!" Felix shouted. The creature didn't care and forced its jaw onto Felix's collar. It pushed him around as he tried to get a better grip, "..Ah!" Felix cried. The creature had pinned his shooting arm to his side.

The other creature spoke up.

"You idiot! This is something valuable. If we eat it we'll lose a lot of possible recognition." It said in a hoarse female voice. The creature on top of Felix stopped. He put a paw on Felix's chest to keep him down while he looked at the female.

"You sure? I mean, there's gotta be more of these around here somewhere, and I'm starving," The male said. 

Felix released his shooting arm from the male's grip and took out his gun.

"Let me go! I have a weapon!" Felix pointed it at the female creature. He then began to rethink who he should be pointing it to. The male was the one directly on top of him after all.

Still, he didn't seem fazed.

"Go ahead shoot her. She's a nuisance," the male creature looked down at Felix. 

"Me? A nuisance? I'm the one setting up traps. All you ever do is eat everything I catch in them," The female said. 

"Can't a guy get hungry? I'm all muscle, and I need to eat to keep up with my workouts. You act like that's a bad thing when it's what my body needs," the male hissed. 

"While you're eating to satisfy your body you're leaving everybody else to starve Stew. Margaret hasn't eaten in three days," The female said.

"And you say we're low on food yet you want to let this morsel stay alive for a chance at recognition? A scientist will take it or we'll put it in the microwave. So what? We're all still hungry, especially me," Stew said. 

"If we got recognized for a new species found with a unique ability, we wouldn't have to starve!" The female said.

"And you're basing that all on luck huh? Why don't you toss every animal we work so hard to catch into the lab so you might one day get to sit next to a genius while they take all the credit, money and power to themselves. Oh wait, if that ever happens. My mistake: I forgot we weren't in a dream world." Stew said.

"You're insufferable!" The female said. 

"You're a hag!" The male said. 

The female launched herself at the male in a dark blur. Her pearly whites were sharp as knives, and sliced into the male's neck. She was on top of both Felix and Stew now. Felix gasped for breath.

In their fight he was being forced to the ground, and it was near impossible to make room for air. Instead of trying to climb out, he moved to the gun as an option again. He looked at it in his hands. Did he really want to take a life? 

Blood was dripping down from the battle above, already staining him. The female began slashing at Stew's face with her claws, and the extra force caused Felix to choke. Now it really was impossible to breathe. He had to act now. His body was beginning to panic due to the lack of air. Felix twisted around just a little, aimed, and pulled the trigger on Stew. The shot went through the back of his head and he was dead in an instant. 

The female pushed Stew's corpse off of Felix and grabbed him with a claw. She took his gun off him and placed him in her mouth. Holding him, she trotted back the way she came.

"Where are you taking me?" Felix asked, hanging out of her mouth.

The creature didn't say anything and slightly tightened her jaws. Felix became silent.

***

Not so far off from the snare trap was a big room with what looked like a bar counter. Where all the pipes in the bar used to run, roots grew and surrounded the area, as well as mold. It was lit up by torches bathing the room in yellow light. Felix still had his lantern being held by his tail, but even without it he could see fine. 

In the corner of the room was a cage a holding a dragon. The rest of the room was populated by the black cone headed creatures and another sort. The other sort looked a lot like alligators, and were tall and slim. Their arms and legs were metal like Error's, they had otter ears, and a mane of fur going down their spines. Their snouts were so long that when they often stood on two legs, they kept their chins flat on their chests.

The she-creature walked in with Felix in her mouth. She placed Felix's gun on the bar counter, and was greeted by two smaller versions of herself. The most interesting thing about these smaller creatures was that their eyes were blue instead of red.

"Mom? Where's dad?" A young girl creature asked.

"Dead. He was a bad wolf," the mother said. 

"Too bad for him. Is that food?" The young boy creature asked. 

"No. It's unique so we're keeping it here while we wait for a scientist to come over," the she-creature said. She opened the cage door with the dragon inside and tossed Felix in. The door fell off.

"Ahhh! But I'm starving!" The young girl creature whined. 

"I'll go get your dad to eat," The she-creature said. She tried putting the door to the cage back on but it continued to fall off.

"Yay!!" The children cheered.

"Grrmph!" The she-creature said. She looked to one of the hairy alligator people, "Hold this closed for me while I'm gone!"

The hairy alligator people looked around nervously. They were just relaxing in the area and didn't seem to be too interested in what was going on with these dark haired mammals.

One of the alligator creatures approached.

"Ok.." He said. He didn't open his mouth when he spoke. His eyes just seemed to glow to indicate that he was speaking. He walked over on its hind legs, dragging his long tail on the floor. He then put his back to the cage door and leaned on it. All the while his chin was forced on his chest like a long mask. At least now his long snout didn't bump into anything on the way there. 

"Good! I would've had your head if none of you obliged. I'll be right back," the she-creature said. She walked out of the bar the way she came in. 

Her two children jumped up on their hind legs and began pushing the alligator creature. 

"Hey! What's all this for??" The creature asked.

"Our mom will be mad if you mess up and then we'll have more to eat," the girl said.

"Yep!" said the boy. 

"You brats! I'm not going to mess up. If you be good little devil wolves maybe I'll give you a magical artifact. But they're only for good devil wolves, no brats," The alligator creature said.

"Brats! Brats! Brats!" The devil wolf kids chanted and they continued to push him.

Within the cage Felix sat furthest away from the dragon in the other corner. Oddly, the right side of its face and spine was being taken over by some black coarse hair. The eye on that side of its head was red, and if Felix watched for long enough he swore he could see it growing.

The dragon seemed to go up the wall by the way it stayed away from him. Looking at himself Felix realized he was doing the same thing. He was trapped here with the most efficient predator in the Wilderness Chambers, of course he would try to stay as far away as possible. Actually, maybe this wasn't such a bad thing. 

"Hey.." Felix said to it in a timid voice. 

The dragon's fin ears twitched at him, but its eyes didn't follow, "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm trapped, just like you. You can relax, it's ok."

Felix saw the dragon shiver a little less. It then patted the ground around it with a talon, and shuffled forward. Its nostrils flared as it inched closer. Eventually its snout reached Felix and huffed in and out. Its snout poked him and stopped.

"... I'm right here," Felix said. 

The dragon put its talons under Felix's armpits and lifted him into its lap. Its neck and tail coiled around him in a desperate hold. 

"Help me…" The dragon breathed in an old goan of a male voice. Felix raised his brows in surprise. The shivering creature was all around him now. Something he was afraid of was afraid itself. He didn't know how to get out, but he did know what calmed him down.

The dragon's head and neck was in his lap, so he reached over and began to pet it. His grey scales felt frail and his skin was loose. At first Felix only pet the scales, but he decided once to pet the invasive black fur developing over his face and spine, and now his right leg. 

The dragon cried out and moved his head away. 

"Sorry.." Felix said.

"They put me in… in their microwave," The dragon wheezed, "They're growing on.. me." 

"I see that," Felix listened.

"I'm.. Gregor Whiptail.. I want.. my family.." The old dragon cried.

Felix looked out to the rest of the room. Fire breath could easily take out most of the creatures in the room, and the door was only closed because an alligator creature stood in front of it. 

"We can make it out," Felix whispered into the old dragon's ear, "You just have to breathe fire."

"I can't see. I can't breathe. They doused my throat with water while I was breathing. I need it to be reset. Can you do that?..." Gregor asked.

"How?" Felix asked.

Gregor unfurled and let Felix walk out of his lap.

"Hit.. my spine just before… my tail, then above my ribs, and finally my throat right here," Gregor said pointing under his chin with a claw.

"Hit you?" Felix felt that hitting a dragon wasn't very smart.

"Yes.." Gregor wheezed.

Felix went up to the base of the dragon's tail and hit the spine. It was pretty weak. 

"No, you have to punch," Gregor said.

Felix sighed. He made a fist and slammed it down on the dragon's spine.

"Now the ribs," The dragon said. 

Felix went to the dragon's ribs and punched his spine down there, "Here," Gregor pointed under his chin. Felix punched his neck. Gregor burped smoke. It drifted upward out of his mouth and nostrils.

"Thank you.." Gregor gave a meek smile.

"You have your fire back?" Felix asked. 

"Yes… Ghh!" He snapped his head to the ground. The black fur spread more down his back and across his leg. 

"Are you ok? What do we do now?" Felix asked.

"..I can't see. Blind. You'll have to guide me.." The dragon said.

"Ok, um, follow my arm. I'll tell you what to do." Felix put his hand on Gregor's snout. Gregor followed Felix's movements based off of where the hand sat. 

Felix led Gregor up to the back of the alligator creature. He was still being poked by the bratty devil wolf children. Felix lifted his hand off the dragon's snout. 

"Breathe," He said. 

Gregor breathed a stream of fire at the alligator creature's back. The whole room lit up at the bright dancing flame.

"Yee!" The creature held his burning back and hopped off of the cage. The brats ran away and the cage door fell down.

"Good!" Felix said, "Walk out, the door's open!" 

Just then the she-creature walked back in. She dropped her husband's corpse out of her mouth.

"Son of a snitch!" She barked. She ran up to them. 

"Get on," Gregor said. 

"Huh?" Felix said.

Gregor put his head under Felix and slid him down his neck to his shoulders. Now Felix was riding on his shoulders. The she-wolf was upon them.

"Breathe!" Felix shouted. 

Gregor breathed a fire stream onto the oncoming devil wolf. She fell and rolled around. 

"Yaaaa!" She wailed. From all directions more wolves started walking in, snarling and barking. Their shadowy figures like shadows to the fire light.

"Turn to the left, there's a door, run!" Felix said swiftly. 

Gregor Whiptail felt around and dashed out the door Felix was talking about. At the same time Felix grabbed his revolver off of the bar when the dragon passed it. In the hall wolves were filling up behind them. A larger room was ahead. It was being filled too, but Felix could see a balcony to a higher floor in the room. Gregor would have to jump.

"Jump up when I tell you!" Felix said. He was holding onto the dragon by a spine spike. He didn't belong on the back of a dragon and it felt like this bucking bronco wanted him off. 

They made it to the room with the balcony.

"Jump!" Felix yelled. Gregor jumped, but not high enough. The dragon smacked his head into the wall, but at the same time he reached up and grabbed hold of the balcony. He tried pulling himself up but a devil wolf below snagged his tail.

Felix saw this. He gasped, pulled back the hammer and shot the devil wolf. It yelped and fell, allowing Gregor to pull himself up, "To the right! There's another hall," Felix said. On the balcony Gregor felt around on the right until he found the hall and dashed through it. There was a room ahead, but the floor had fallen out. It was just a black void in its place, "Can you fly?" 

"Huh!?!" Gregor panicked. He made it to the edge of the floor and stopped, opening his wings to gain balance on the solid ground again. Felix looked behind him to see wolves climbing up the balcony.

"There's no floor, it goes down a lot. Can you fly?" Felix asked. He looked back to the filling hall.

"I can…" Gregor said.

"Then dive! Dive now!" Felix screamed. 

Gregor dived down into the void. Devil wolves dove too but instead of opening the wings they didn't have, they just continued to plummet and scream. Gregor opened his wings and began gliding in a circle.

Felix hugged the dragon's back like a log in a lake. He'd never been so high with nothing but air holding them up. He looked at Gregor's wings. They had long fingers in them making up the bones of the wingspan. Felix looked to his own hand. He didn't have six limbs, but if his arms were wings he'd fly them thumb first, with fingers much longer than his making up the wingspan.

Felix's lantern lit up something down below. Felix moved to Gregor's side and dipped the lantern on his tail down to see more. It was the abandoned town that had the tower staircase! 

"We're coming up on some buildings, don't flap, eventually we'll land on them. I'll tell you when we get close," Felix said.

"..." Gregor didn't say anything. The dark hair on his face, leg and back spread further. He went limp and began to plummet. Felix gasped, they were headed right for the platform the town sat on. Right before they made contact with the ground Felix tried to jump off Gregor and land on a building. He pushed off the dragon's back but he didn't move forward at all. Gregor hit the ground first, followed by Felix who hit his left side hard.

Luckily he didn't hit his head, but a striking bolt of pain shot through his left leg. 

"Ow.. ow.. oh no…" He couldn't move his leg "Gregor!"

Gregor was only five feet away, as Felix had rolled during his fall. His gun was right next to him, so he picked it up and placed it back in his holster. 

Gregor groaned from the pain.

"I'm right here!" Felix said.

The dragon shuffled to his feet but one leg was limping. A deep subtle growl began in his throat. His footsteps toward Felix got faster.

"Uh hey… What are..?" Felix used his arms to push himself away from the approaching dragon. Gregor shuffled faster. His red eye locked on him. He hissed. 

"Gregor! Stop! Y-you're sick!" Felix said. The dragon stopped. 

"...I know," He cried. He made a grimace, and then leapt to Felix's arm, biting into it. He picked Felix up and swung him around for a moment. Felix screamed out. He took his revolver out of his holster and pointed it at the dragon.

Gregor dropped him.

"No! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Gregor said. His face then went back to a scowl. Felix kept pointing his gun at the dragon but he did not shoot.

"Please! Stop! Please!" Felix breathed.

The dragon went for his arm again.

*Bang!*

Gregor went limp and fell on top of Felix. Felix looked behind him.

Error was down the road with his neck low straight and forward, and his mouth open. He brought his head up and closed his mouth. Was there a gun in his mouth? 

The metal frogen galloped to him.

"Felix!" Error looked him over without touching him. Felix tried to push himself away from Error, but he only had one hand to do it, "Felix I'm not here to hurt you, I just saved your life! Do you want my help?" Error asked. 

Felix stopped crawling away and nodded. Error picked him up in his front claws, and ran on his hind legs. He then leapt up into the air, pumping his wings into a swift rescue.

***

At Error's capsule the frogen rushed into the kitchen, through the living room, and up the stairs to the floor above the kitchen. Inside was a bedroom with a long soft brown carpet, a frogen sized bed, cabinets, and a wooden desk and lamp. 

Error laid Felix on his bed and pulled out a cabinet drawer. Gauze fell out. They were covered in dust but Error went on to unravel them anyway. He went back up to Felix and rolled up the sleeve of the bitten arm. He wrapped the bleeding mess underneath in gauze and made sure it was just tight enough. Felix used his other hand to hold his head in pain.

"You killed Gregor…" He weeped.

"Hmm?" Error asked as he searched in another cabinet.

"The dragon.. he was sick! He didn't mean it… We could've helped him.." Felix teared up. 

"He bit you didn't he?" Error asked. He took out a large device from a cabinet and walked over with it. It was a white device that hung out of his mouth. He clenched his teeth and the device shot a bright beam out that scanned Felix's body.

"Ow.." Felix sighed at the light.

The device printed out a photo from the top. It seemed to be an x-ray. He took the photo out and spit the device out onto the ground. 

"You broke your fibula and tibia in your left leg. Luckily it's just some fractures, but I'll have to put you in a cast," Error said.

"...He did bite me, but he didn't want to.. He was sorry," Felix squeaked. 

"Sorry isn't a shield Felix. You should've stayed clear as soon as you saw that devil wolf growth on him," Error took a Q-tip out from a cabinet and pushed it into a pool of blood from Felix's arm. He then took the bloody Q-tip and inserted it into a slot in the wall. A long paper chart began printing and collecting on the floor. Error let it flow through his claws as he watched the statistics.

"Seems like you're still clean," Error said, "But we can't be entirely sure of that until a day or two, but I don't think that dragon had a venomous bite."

"What are you talking about?" Felix asked. Error turned to face him and sat at the base of the bed.

"You were bitten by a monster Felix. Monster's are highly infectious. There was nothing you could do to save the dragon. He's confused, and driven by something supernatural. Even if you knew him, you don't know him now. You must ignore all signs of his true nature to keep yourself safe. That's why I had to kill him, to keep you safe, keep you clean.." Error explained. 

"But what about how he felt.. He was so scared," Felix cried. 

"There's no point in trying to save them. They're already gone," Error got up, "I've gotta get you your cast," He said.