22.Foxy
Fred spent another restless night, his body and soul still charged with the energy Shandy and Cara had helped him absorb in the shower that morning.
The difference this time was that he knew where he wanted to use this energy.
Whoever had hurt Cara was going to face the full extent of both his wrath and his power, and he ached all night to start hunting for whoever it was, although his logical mind knew he had no idea where to start.
As day broke, Fred heard voices down in the bar, and carefully unwound himself from Shandy’s body. Throwing on some clothes, he crept down the stairs to try to hear who had arrived at the bar.
“We’ll do what we can, Bob,” he heard a female voice say. “The last thing any of us need is some kind of imported grudge ruining our fragile peace.”
“It doesn’t make much sense,” Bob answered. “From what he’s told me, Fred is just some random elf from some random kingdom somewhere. Why would Cara having contact with him have made her disappear like this?”
“Maybe there’s something he’s not telling you,” the other voice answered.
“I certainly hope not! I’ve helped him so much already, you would think he’d have told me anything it would be useful for me to know by now.”
On the other side of the door, Fred thought this through.
He had told Shandy, he was planning on telling Cara, but was he ready to tell Bob?
He hadn’t planned on telling anyone. The whole point of taking that Portal Pill was to free himself from the expectations of royalty and the horrors of being his father’s son.
Was now the time? But what could his life back home have to do with Cara’s disappearance? He made up his mind.
Fred pushed open the door to find a beautiful woman with russet hair, and pointed, animal ears, sat at the corner table.
“Hello!” she said, her smile revealing teeth that were more fox than human. “You must be the newly infamous Fred! I’ve heard a ridiculous amount about you!”
She raised her eyebrows, rising from her seat to extend her hand.
A luxuriant, fluffy tail sprung up behind her.
Any thoughts Fred had formed about what he wanted to say next were swept away by the sight of her bountiful breasts, swelling up from her tight white top.
He took her hand, and shook it, recalling the first moment he met Cara, and a confusing rush of sorrow and lust filled his chest. A light layer of fur coated the outside of her arms, a similar shade to her hair, and seemed to run right down the outside of her legs too.
“I’m Foxy,” she said, rolling her eyes in mock disgust. “My parents were not the most imaginative.”
Fred forced a smile.
“Are you going to help find Cara,” he asked.
“I certainly hope so! The network of London fox-shifters has very few blindspots, and I’m sure someone will have spotted something suspicious.
In the meantime, I’ll need you to draw as little attention as possible to the situation.
If it becomes obvious we’re looking for her, Cara’s situation may become more precarious, and they may move her further from us.
We want to make it look like we think she’ll be straight back, whilst doing our best to find her. ”
“So you really think someone has taken her?” Fred asked hoarsely, his heart beating in his throat.
“That seems the most likely to me, sorry to say. It’s that sudden severing of your psychic link that has convinced me this is not an issue we’ll be referring to the human police.” Foxy turned to Bob. “I’ll be on my way now. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”
As Fred turned to watch her leave, her clothes shrunk to nothing, and she fell to the ground, a fully-formed fox. The front door opened by itself. She swished her tail and peered over her shoulder at Fred, giving him a nod of recognition, before stalking out of the Tavern.
“So…” Bob said. “What would you have been doing if Cara was here? You need to make things look as normal as possible.”
“I’d have been driving Cara around, obviously.” Fred scowled. He was itching to get out of the Tavern and potentially find some kind of clue as to Clara’s whereabouts.
“Well, I suppose it would make sense for you to go back to some of the places you went to together. Were you meant to be going to the gym tonight?”
“Yes. Shandy and I could go together. Maybe Chester or Dina have heard something.”
“We can trust Chester, but don’t say anything directly about Cara’s disappearance to Dina.
I’m not saying I don’t trust the Dragon Lord, but right now, we can’t be too careful.
Speaking of which, I’d rather Shandy stayed here as much as possible.
She’s probably a target too, if Cara was taken because of you. ”
Because of you… The words rang in Fred’s ears, and drove stakes of anger and guilt into his soul. Surely, he could protect her best, his pride reasoned, but his logic knew Bob was probably in the right.
Fred drove to the cafe where he had fucked Cara’s tits on the bathroom floor. It was nowhere special to him then, but now he felt an ache to be wherever Cara once was.
We weren’t bound then like we are now, he mused. I couldn’t have guessed I would feel this way so soon!
But then he thought back to all the time he had spent in her, on her, ploughing through her, and it made more sense. The way they had absorbed each other’s energy must have accelerated their intimacy too.
He had hours to kill before he was due at the gym with Shandy, and his adrenaline surged uncomfortably as he queued for a coffee. As soon as he had gulped it down, he headed off into the woods.
He began at a trot, but quickly picked up pace.
All his life he had been in training for a war that his father’s oppressive regime ensured would never take place.
The gym felt good, but now running revealed to him what he had been missing.
The chill in the air caught in his lungs, spurring him on, as his arms and legs found their natural pace.
As always, his imposing presence enabled him to move mindlessly through any crowded areas, and at every fork in the path, he chose the more challenging option. Soon he found himself on the top of a hill, boasting wide views of the city.
Standing there, the city before him, he missed that tug that drew him to Cara. He wished that it was there, to pull him straight towards her. He would have waded through rivers, jumped hedges, smashed through buildings…
Just imagine what Bob would have said if I had! Fred chortled to himself. Maybe I should just head off in a straight line and pretend I know where she is. I could hardly make things any worse.
A wave of emotional exhaustion washed through him, and he sat himself down on the bench furthest from the path. He gazed off into the distance until a flash of brown in a nearby bush caught his eye.
A fox! he thought, and the next thing he knew, a girl with russet hair had sat herself down beside him.
“Foxy?” he asked, turning to look at her.
“The one and only!” she grinned, turning to face him. “What are you doing here?”
“Cara brought me near here,” he explained, “and I wanted to feel close to her.”
“I get it. I come here to clear my head sometimes. Or to listen in. All kinds of gossip blows in on the wind.”
“Where are your…” Fred mimicked fox ears with his hands.
“Ah… I keep them in when I’m near humans, or I go full fox.”
“I… I wanted to tell you something… something I haven’t told Bob.”
“Something you haven’t told Bob? Hang on a moment,” Foxy twirled her fingers and the surrounding sounds became muffled and distant. “Just a little undetectable spell to keep this to ourselves. Go on…”
“I didn’t want Bob to know, in case he comes from the same realm as me, but I’m a prince, the Crown Prince, so it isn’t impossible that my father has come looking for me.”
“Would he kidnap someone though?” Foxy asked, her eyes narrowing. “Is that the kind of man he is?"
“Ha!” Fred laughed, the hollow sound echoing around their bubble of privacy. “To get what he wanted, he’d kill. I doubt a day of his reign has gone by without someone losing their life in his name!”
Fred turned away from Foxy, revulsion leaving a ball of bile in his throat. Foxy moved a little closer.
“We don’t choose our families, but we do choose our futures. You should be proud of not taking the easy route. Fighting back against someone like that must be nigh on impossible!”
“But now I might have to!” Fred said, turning to Foxy, his head held high and his eyes blazing. “I won’t run away this time!”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It could be something completely different. And even if it is him, we’ll try diplomacy first.”
“Hmph! Diplomacy is just the lies he tells before he sends in the troops!”
“Anyway… I’d better get going and see what I can find out. I’ll see you tomorrow morning, at The Rock Tavern,” Foxy twirled her finger again, breaking the spell that surrounded them, and headed back towards the bushes.
Fred felt less guilty now that Foxy at least knew the kind of danger she might be in. It didn’t feel good though. No weight had been lifted. It was more like his concern had shifted, and his disgust at his father had been reawakened.
If he has Cara, he’d better not have touched her! he thought, memories of the checkpoint surfacing again, along with his brothers’ jokes and the mocking rumours he heard from the troops about his father’s prowess. If he has… if he has…
Before his rage could rise any further, Fred set off down the hill, his feet sure, his balance sound.
Once he hit the tree line he turned, running back towards a footpath, and then he let his feet carry him along the paths, running freely, turning back into the wild when he hit a road, and letting his mind empty of everything but the rhythm of his feet pounding the ground.
When darkness crept up from the valley, Fred finally asked Oracle to take him back to the car.
He jogged comfortably back to the cafe car park, trying his best not to let any thoughts in, but instead breathing in the last gasps of tree-fresh air before he returned to the city.
On the drive back the radio blasted out rock music.
He tried to maintain the numbness his run had gifted him with, chasing away thoughts of Cara by joining in with rollicking choruses.