Chapter 5: Father?

Tom

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Tom felt like he was watching his body move, and talk but he wasn't fully there.

When they presented his dad to the king the king had jumped from Joy. 

The man grabbed his dad by the hair to make him look at the king's eyes.

"You are about to suffer for all the injustices you have caused! Take him to the cells!" 

They ushered his dad away.

The king from his excitement hugged Axel and spun him around making Axel almost dizzy.

"Axel you are the best assistant that I could have ever asked! If you were my son I would be the proudest father ever!"

"R-really?" Axel looked like he'd been wanting to hear that from him.

Then he went towards Tom hugging him as well.

"You! Even if you were being held hostage, the fact that you distracted him long enough for Axel to go get back up was amazing!'

The horned man grabbed wine and poured glasses.

"TO MARYLA- oh wait I forgot you don't drink, you are 15," The king said as he grabbed a glass of water to give to Tom.

"Cheers!" Axel said.

There was the clinking of cups but all Tom did was look at the water in his cup.

"Go get some rest tomorrow we will celebrate!" The king said. 

They finished their cup but Tom just placed his cup down and walked out of the office.

He made his way to Billy's home in silence.

He opened the door and Billy greeted him with a hug.

"I heard what happened! This is great- what's wrong?" 

"Nothing....not right now Billy just let me rest" Tom walked to his bed and hid behind the sheets.

~~~

Tom felt like everything was a blur, he was just in bed and next, he was on the balcony with the King watching Axel get a medal. 

Then he watched as they brought his dad down below. They had security holding people back. He was to be walked up and down the street in front of the crowd. He watched as people threw their tomatoes at him.

He kept flinching at every fruit that landed on his dad.

He looked at the king and he was laughing with a crazy look in his eye.

The people cheered and Tom didn't want to watch more. 

So he ran.

He went down the stairs exited the black castle and ran.

Ran until he was out of the city. 

He went straight to the only place to be alone, the hammock place that Billy showed him. 

His heart was beating and his breath was irregular. 

He just wanted this to stop.

Please let this all be a nightmare.

Antok

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He had watched the people throw their tomatoes at him but he didn't have any feelings of anger. All he wanted was to meet him.

He waited for all the festivities to be over to sneak into the black castle. He hid and waited for the guards to walk away.

He was a fox so getting the keys into the jail was easy.

It was a large room with multiple jail cells to the left and right against the wall. In the far back center, there was a table that someone could be strapped on and cabinets. 

He was nervous.

He looked into each cell to see which one he was in and he found him. 

In one of the cells, he was on his knees with his arms chained above him. He was still covered in tomato juice.

His fox ears twitched as he cleared his throat to get his attention.

"Hi", Was all he could say.

"Hmm, who are you?" The blonde-haired black-winged man said.

"My name is Antok and yours?"

"Phill"

"Well Phill I want to show you something today"

The man's blue eyes seemed confused.

Antok took off his shirt and turned around.

"Ummm okay and?" The man seemed utterly confused and he didn't blame him.

"I have black feathers all over my back and arms...my mother told me that my father was a black-winged man….they had a one-night stand and he never came around for her to tell him that I'm his…..and since I haven't heard of any other winged man I-"

Antok turned back to face him, hands gripping his shirt as support.

"I think you are my father"

A soft smile appeared on Phill's face.

"Child…..I'm sorry but I am not your father. I do not recall ever sleeping with a fox hybrid. I've never had any one-night stands before…"

"You sure you haven't forgotten?"

"I may have lived for thousands of years now but my mind is sharp as ever and I would honestly tell you if I was your dad or not"

Antok felt disappointed, his face looked sad and he put his shirt back on.

"I'm sorry" he whispered as he began to walk towards the exit.

"But...I think I know who your father is"

Antok quickly turned around.

"You do?"

"Yes and I'm willing to take you to him if you help me escape"

Antok felt unsure, what if this man was lying to him? He would be betraying his home for a man he barely knows and for a father who has never been in his life.

"I will help you but not in the way you think…..I will give you the keys to your chains and doors but I won't help you escape out of the city. As much as I want to meet my father I cannot betray my home for someone who I don't even know will care about me" 

The blonde man nodded "That's understandable and I'm very impressed with your loyalty"

"So tomorrow night I will come back around this time and give you the keys. The rest is up to you. I wish you good luck"

"Thank you, kid"

Antok left the jail with a smile.

Tom

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The next day he spent it sulking, Billy's chatter about the crow man didn't stop.

The whole city couldn't stop talking about him.

If Tactzo had legend status, "Crow man" had myth status because he is rarely spotted. The last time the city of Maryland had ever seen "Crow Man" was for the destruction of the city all those generations ago.

His father tended to not leave the house a lot but when he did it was always to go on an adventure with Tactzo to places no human or hybrids had ever heard of.

Maybe he should send a message to Tactzo to warn him.

But Tom shook his head, 'He'll kill everyone here if he finds out!' He thought to himself.

Maybe he should free him?

Tom shook his head again,

'If he frees him he'll definitely want revenge and tell Tactzo'

"But I can't just leave him there!" He said out loud in frustration.

Billy looked at him confused.

"You okay?"

"Yeah…."

Billy wrapped his arm around his arms giving him a side hug.

"Listen maybe you need a break from all this. I know we are celebrating but something is telling me it's bothering you. Why don't you, Antok and I go on a 3-day cave expedition? We can go mining and have fun!"

"But…"

"Then afterwards you can focus on whatever you are worried about"

Sighing, Tom agrees.

They go looking for Antok and go to a part of the city he has never been before.

They stop infront of an In and Tom realizes it's prosti-

"I know Antok said his mom was a…..but is he one too?"

Billy laughs "oh heck no, his mom's friend owns the In he works at odd jobs here and there. Cleaning, moving their food shipments into the place and other things"

Billy entered the place and everyone is giving them the stink eye.

"Hi Ms Jefferson"

A white human lady smiles.

"Billy please this is no place for a prince!"

"We are looking for Antok do you know where he is?"

Ms. Jefferson sighs "hmmm that boy left this morning mumbling about a plan"

Billy smiles "I wonder what sort of trouble he'll get in. Anyways thank you, please let him know we are looking for him"

The woman nods "Take care, sweetie"

Both leave and spend a bit more time looking for him.

"Maybe we should just go," Tom said.

"Yeah, I don't think we'll find him. Anyway, the sun is setting and it's about to get dark. We should leave now before it's too late"

Both boys left with their mining gear and Tom tried to forget everything that had just happened with his dad.

Antok

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As he promised, Antok had snuck in again to hand him the keys. Phill told him that we would try to escape later on the night.

Antok then climbed the tallest building and waited to see if Phill would escape.

He waited….

And waited until it was almost 1 in the morning when he heard the alarm bell ringing.

Guards suddenly seem to swarm the streets.

Lamps and lights began to be turned on.

Yelling could be heard.

Antok stood up and watched as Phill took flight by throwing himself out a window.

He watched on biting his nails as the man tried to avoid arrows and slingshots.

He was just about to make it over the city's walls when he saw some arrows strike his wings.

Antok turned around and closed his eyes to watch Phill fall from the sky.

He failed.

Phill had failed to escape.

He's the only one who knows his dad and he didn't want him to die.

If he had managed to give him the keys to escape maybe he could do it again.

He looked down as they carried a limp Phill.

Was he dead?

He saw the amount of soldiers and then frowned.

He managed to escape once the king would double the security and it would almost impossible to help him to escape.

'What should I do?' Antok thought to himself.