Darbis’ strange pink humanoid hands creeped up to the top of my head. His strange skin color was a dark shade of tanish pink and his hands appeared to be something between hooves and fingers as well. As his left hand reached the top of my head, his Crycher Darbi crawled down from his. She had tiny metal peg legs that throbbed like a rickey old machine. Her joints appeared to be tiny gears that rattled steam with each rotation.

Slowly she crawled her way down onto Darbis’ shoulder and onto his arm. Her small crescent claws scratched him generously on her way down.

“Oh? Darbi wants a GO-OO-OD look at you.” Taunted Darbis.

I felt Darbi brush her claws close to my throat. It’s individual claws lining up along the artery on my neck as if it was planning how to rip my throat open.

“Now are we going to wait Scorples? Or are we going to make our exit early?” Threatened Darbis, his hand slowly backing away from my face.

“Li-Scorples! Let’s just wait! It’s 10 minutes! I trust Drock! And...and he mentioned her the- uh secretary! So-so… please...wait!” Cried Taylum desperately.

WHAT IF THE BABY IS WORSENING FROM IT’S INJURY! WHAT IF THE BABY IS GOING TO DIE! SHE COULD BE FINISHING THE JOB! WHAT IF THAT BABY IS BEING SOLD! WHAT IF-

Suddenly, I could hear a light roaring yelp accompanied by shuffling from the woven basket in my right hand. It was the baby fox. It was trying to escape the basket but it became tangled in on the thick blue blanket on top of it. Oddly enough, everything for a moment became clear. As I watched the baby fox fumble to leave the basket, my emotions became silent so that I may tend to it. On it’s final attempt fumbling at the wall I crouched, put the basket on the floor, and helped it on its feet. I felt Taylum peer over my shoulder as if time stood still.

“I think it’s hungry.” Said Taylum.

“How do you know?” I asked.

“It does what Cannoli does.” He replied.

“It starts chewing on random things. See, there is little teeth marks all over the blanket.” He explained.

I felt the strange rush of emotion suddenly disappear as thoughts of my past life became reflected off the foxes little amber eyes. This fox was the only thing connecting me to my home and I’ve been ignoring it.

“We’ll wait.” I sighed.

“It’ll give us time to feed our little friend here anyway.” I explained lifting up the basket from the ground.

I felt my body go into a calming lapse, like I had just run a couple miles and needed to rest. No more rage, no more sadness, feeding the fox was my objective for now, at least until we can get through Darbis.

“Good move! Darbi was beginning to saw her claws right into my bones.” Laughed Darbi.

“10 minutes. Friend.” Demanded Darbi.

Taylum and I nodded our head in agreement. He seemed relieved I hadn’t bursted into some fit of rage. We simply turned around and silently headed down the fire-lit hall with a subtle sense of victory that would feel void if we spoke to each other.

“Take a seat anywhere.” Yelled Darbis behind us.

Taylum and I made our way through halls and headed toward an empty table near the glass fence that bordered every floor in the atrium. It was a small circular wooden table with two wooden stumps for chairs and a napkin holder at the center. Right as we were going to sit down I felt a hand grab my shoulder.

“Hey! We saw you talking to ol’ Darbis there? How’d you make it through him. We gotta talk to Armanto.” Whispered a high voice behind me.