Chapter 2 Growing Up

20 years ago

Kira* (Pov)

Rushing back to my home I looked down at what I had 'acquired.' Some bread, fruit, and some water, not bad for a night's work. Looking around my home if you could call it that I noticed that the water had risen a bit and flooded my makeshift hammock. I sprinted through the dirty sewer water before I had to sleep in an even wetter dirty hammock. 'Huuuuhh' "GOD DAMMITT!!!!" I yelled into the empty abyss of the sewers not expecting to get any reply.

"Hello? Is there someone there?" Came a timid voice that spooked me to my core. No one had ever come down here. Looking to my left I saw a fox that looked to be around my age and size. As he came into view I noticed that he was all scratched up and shaking like a leaf.

"Who are you, why are you here?" I asked cautiously, keeping my guard up.

"I'm...I'm Nick, an..and I'm hiding from everyone." Shivering and stuttering as he said it.

"Who hurt you?" Noticing that the cuts on his body were still bleeding.

"It doesn't matter." I could see in his eyes that he was being cautious towards me as well not wanting to open up either, I figured I would break the ice.

"Well my name is Kira and this is my home." Gesturing to the little shack in the wall that was slowly getting flooded causing me to frown even more. "I have some medical supplies, do you want me to help you?" His eyes brightened but then immediately dimmed.

"No one would help a fox without wanting something in return, even if you are another fox." He said with a mean scowl. He was right. I did want something in return.

"You're right, as you can see my 'home' is no longer suitable for living. Do you have anywhere to go?" I could see the gears spinning in his head as he considered it. He then sighed heavily.

"Yeah... just, just grab what you need." He then turned and walked away not even waiting for me to pack up. Although I didn't blame him, he saw the state of my home and probably saw that I didn't have much anyway. Quickly I grabbed what I could, medical supplies, food, and some clothes and stuffed them in my backpack.

We had been walking in silence for over 30 minutes as he continuously made left and right turns through the sewer system. Which confused me greatly, I've lived here for 9 years! Since I was born. All I have known are these tunnels and I've never once seen another mammal down here, so how did he know where to go? As I was in thought he made another left and then started climbing up a ladder towards the surface. That's where I stopped.

"I'm...I'm sorry but I don't go to the surface unless I absolutely have to and that's only for food and water," I stated plainly while he gave me a confused look.

"Wait, you mean to tell me that you stay down here all day and night?!"

"Yes," I stated plainly. Sure I've peeked through the sewer grates during the day and watched the other mammals go about their day but it just didn't seem right to leave where I had grown up.

"Don't you get lonely, where are your parents?"

"No I don't and I don't know. I woke up down here and have been surviving the best I can ever since." Lying through my teeth in the first part. It seemed he could tell as well.

"Well don't worry no one else is above us, this sewer cap just opens up to an abandoned building were I sometimes hide." Holding his paw out as he reached for the grate and pushed it open and hopped up. For some reason, my instincts were telling me to trust him and I've always listened to them. So I reached out and grasped his paw as he lifted me out into the refreshing air of the surface. Looking around I noticed that what he had said was true, we were in an abandoned building and there was a little setup where someone had thrown some blankets and pillows together. Before I could look around further Nick bumped into me and then fell on the floor. Quickly I lent down and noticed that his wounds were more severe than he let on. He was still bleeding and it looked like he had a broken arm. I hastily dragged him to the blankets and started putting some gauze on his cuts and then started making a makeshift splint. While doing this I kept wondering why I was doing this for a mammal I had met not just 40 minutes ago. Once I was finished I put a blanket over him and then sat a little further away and drifted off to sleep.

I slowly woke up to the sound of someone moaning in pain. Confused, I looked around, the normal damp and dark walls that surrounded me for years were not present. Instead, there was sunlight shining through a rusty metal ceiling and some shrubbery growing around the edges of the building I was in. That's when it all came back to me, the fox I had met last night and his broken arm. Looking to my right I saw him clutching his arm and gasping in pain. Leaping off my bed I rushed over to him.

"Hey try not to move, your wounds are extensive. Honestly, it's a miracle you didn't pass out before we arrived here." Pushing him back down as he tried to sit up. When he heard my voice he seemed alarmed, his tail spiked up and his eyes went wide, before relaxing as he remembered last night's events. He glanced at his bandages and the splint I had put on him last night.

"Thank you, no one has ever cared what happened to me," he said as his eyes watered up. I felt even more kindred to him when he said that, we might not have grown up the same way but we lived the same. As I was working on him we slowly started to open up to each other, how he was also orphaned and alone and how I had survived the tunnels by myself.

Days turned into weeks, we were getting closer and closer to each other almost like a family. Not that he or I knew what that was like, but it felt good to be cared about and that's all that mattered to me. Since he had been living on the streets alone, he had grown accustomed to conning and stealing from other mammals. I had no problem with that. Before I met him I just slipped into the loading bays for grocery stores and such at night and stole stuff there. Now that he and I were living together we decided to put our skills together, it was very effective. He was like a puppet master pulling the strings when we conned people, he could sell a carrot to a rabbit with how good he was. I, on the other hand, was much more effective at being in the shadows while he was in the limelight. Many a mammal would find that they didn't have their wallets or keys on them when they checked. Let me tell you, pickpocketing a giraffe or elephant is not easy, but the payoff is always good. Months passed like this with us living a good life together and having a good time, until that fateful night when everything changed.

"Nick, I can't believe you did this for me," I exclaimed as I saw the banner and a cake waiting for me when we got back home.

"Hey, I couldn't let my sister go without her birthday cake," giving me his trademark grin. We really had become a family. I don't know what I would do without him anymore.

"Ohhhh, thank you so much, Nick!" Crying into his shirt while giving him a bone-crushing hug, I'd never celebrated my birthday with anyone before.

"ca... can't breath"

"Oh sorry," releasing him as he took a sarcastically big inhale.

"Well, dig in," he said gesturing to the spectacularly looking red velvet cake.

"Did you cook this yourself? Cause if you did I think I'll die another day, thanks for the offer though."

"Ha Ha Ha, Just try it I think you'll like it." Handing me a fork while giving me a pointed look.

Hesitantly I took a bite of the cake.

....

....

"OH MY GOD NICK!! This is delicious, it's like an explosion of flavor on every one of my tastebuds." It truly was the best thing I had ever tasted, as I took a second bite my eyes widened even further.

"Nick is...is...did...how.." I didn't know how to ask how he did it but I could taste some falcon blood mixed in as well, it was heavenly.

"Ahh, I see you're wondering how I was able to get the blood flavor to mix with the cake without upsetting the balance of everything?" I shook my head furiously, this was amazing I needed to know.

"Well too bad you'll never find out." That caused my eyes to twitch, on one paw I wanted to punch him in his stupid snout on the other, this was a really good cake. Unfortunately, I knew he would never tell me even if I had something he wanted, so I gave up.

"Huuuuuuh, fine I know you won't tell me so at least join me, this is delicious and you have to tell me when you started cooking."

We were mid-conversation when it happened. I felt a slight tingling in my body and then it grew into a burning sensation and before long it felt like my entire body was on fire. All I could do was let out a silent scream as I stared into Nick's alarmed eyes before I slowly passed out.

"RA...KIRA...KIRA! Wake up, please wake up!" Slowly my eyes fluttered open to a sobbing Nick beside me.

"..ni....nick, wh..what happened?" My voice sounded hoarse and my body felt like a rhino used it as a trampoline.

"Kira! You're alive! I thought I lost you!" Gripping me tightly as he spoke into my neck. After 30 minutes of reassuring him that I was alive, he began to tell me what had transpired after I fainted.

"Ok, um, how do I say this. Ok, when you keeled over during our conversation I reached out to grab you but when my paw touched you it felt like I put my paw in magma. I couldn't do anything and then about 2 hours later after you stopped shaking something incredible happened, I'm honestly surprised you haven't noticed yet. Well um..... you grew a second tail." As he got to the end of his story I was surprisingly, well not surprised. I could feel the second appendage and it just felt natural, I felt more complete and yet it still felt like something was missing. But wha...

"Kira? You have been silent for like 5 minutes. Are you ok?" He asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine. Just thinking about my new tail. I don't know why but it just feels natural. Now help me get up. I feel like I've been lying down for days." As I stood up I noticed two things very quickly, one, I was a good 2 inches taller than before putting me at 4ft 3 much taller than a normal young fox should be. Two when I put my foot down the concrete floor beneath me cracked.