The air was warm and humid, trapped by a heavy layer of clouds that had yet to give up their burden of water. It moved in eddies and will-o-the-wisps around the rooftops, carrying the fallen petals of blossums and dry coulds of dirt with it as it moved.
Seated amongst this was a purple canine furr, her legs dangling over the edge of a large steel shed erected in a yard. She wasn't high up- should she jump, she could land quite comfortably on the grass below. But she showed no sign of moving.
Behind her sat another shape, luminescent even in the faded half-light that filtered though the cloudy blanket. Large bat-like wings shielded the otherwise vulpine/humainoid shape from the occasional eddy of air as he looked at a small grey cub leaning against his shoulder in sleep as though it was a foreign and possibly dangerous object attached to his arm.
"I don't believe you." He said, continuing the conversation.
"But I don't know why I keep doing it," The purple puppy admitted, drawing the fox's attention once again. "I mean, really... Who'se interested?"
"Have they had the chance to be interested?" The red fox asked simply, carefully lifting the sleeping cub off of his arm and sliding away from it.
"That's not the point. I mean, look at us!" The puppy waved a hand between them, but her only response was the fox's unchanging scowl following it. She withdrew the offending hand immediately. "We're furre. No one's interested in furre. They want their own species- they want to see humans. They're not really interested us at all. We could disappear, and who would notice."
The puppy sighed and returned her gaze to the grass below. "I ask epople 'What animal would they want to be' and they say 'human'. They don't care about us. They never will."
"Probably not." The red fox admitted, carefully lying the cub on the ground and standing, stretching his wings in the warm air. "But I don't think that's the point."
The puppy looked back at him, a surprised look on her face. "How can that not be the point?" She asked incredulously. "Why would I want to do something no one cares about? Something that will take so long and probably kill me anyway? Something that was never that sound to begin with..."
"Quiet." The fox interupted her roughly. The puppy obeyed from simple shock more then a compulsion to do so. The red fox walked up next to her and stood on the edge of the shed, unafraid of the space around him.
"When you are compelled to do something, be it by your superiors, your 'concience' thing or whatever it is that drives your feeble mind, you do it. If with a hundred soldiers you could deal a serious blow to the enemy, you do it. It doesn't matter if none of them survive, as long as you went and you did your part. If you are compelled to do something, even if it will destroy you, you do it. It is as simple as that." He paused to glare down at the puppy. "You overcomplicate things. No one else is important."
"I have a felling that theory's been the bane of many dead furrs." The puppy said sharply.
"But this is hardly life or death. You do or you do not do. You tell the story or you let it die. If no one wants to hear it, at least you told it. And what does it matter if no one cares? There are many things no one cares about, at least they exist."
The puppy sighed. "You know what I hate about you? You may be a bastard, but sometimes you make sence."
The fox paused for a moment, as though trying to work out exactly what she had meant. "I'm sure I can't say the same for you." He said at last, dismissing it. "You will continue then?"
"Yeah," She sighed. "Yes, I'll keep going. It will probably kill me, but... I guess I have to try." She lay back. "There goes the next three years..."
"It is a small price to pay." The red fox said dryly, extending his wings. He stepped forwards and glided lightly to the ground below. "I'm leaving." He stated, before vanishing in a small burst of energy.
"I noticed." The puppy said dryly, turning back to look for the cub. He sat behind her, silent amber eyes seeming at once ammused and knowing.
"Oh shut up." The puppy growled.
- posted by Washi @ 3:43 pm