Leo
The light of the moon illuminated the small rooftop. Moss grew wildly along the edges and an ant the size of a human’s torso crawled across the space in a hurry. Leo leaned against a metal pole while he tracked a Deathstalker with his one functional eye. The Deathstalker came to a stop by a nearby puddle and it leaned down to drink through big gulps. Leo licked his chopped lips. After a day without food, his stomach rumbled beneath the skin like thunder during a thunderstorm. The Deathstalker quelched its thirst before moving on toward a dark alley. This is my chance, Leo thought. He grabbed onto the pole and used it to slide down the two-story building. He kept his heart rate under control as he jogged across the road, following the Deathstalker into the alley. Its almost mechanical noises grated against his ears like nails on a chalkboard. He kept the palms of his hands pressed against the sides of his face as he followed the red arachnid. The windows on either side of him were broken, which left shards of glass that decorated the ground. They crunched beneath Leo’s forest green sneakers as he fumbled through the darkness. Goosebumps appeared across the skin of his arms as his light brown eye transformed into the amber shade of a mutant’s. His blind eye remained as white as ever, yet he was still able to distinct his surroundings more clearly. The Deathstalker was only a couple of meters ahead of him. Three stingers pointed threateningly in his direction, ready to strike at any given moment. Leo almost held his breath the closer he got to the scorpion. He traced the crossbow that hung over his shoulder with light touches. His quiver offered a steady weight on his back — one that reminded him of safety and comfort. His father had been the one to teach him how to shoot, and with mutants much like himself lingering across Las Vistas, they came to use.
The Deathstalker exited the alley and entered a wide space that Leo liked to call the “buffet zone.” The wide opening of a garage laid on the opposite side of the road — the scorpions’ sleeping quarters. The arachnid crawled toward the opening and Leo followed with tentative steps. If he was lucky, it would step into the traps he’d set out. Scorpion blood proved to be a mess to clean off. He reached backward for an arrow just in case when a shadow passed his light frame. His neck snapped toward the night sky, eyes landing on a pink bird that flew through the air. A flamingo. Scarlemagne. The name brought a bitter taste to Leo’s tongue. The damned mandrill was the reason he was stuck in Deathstalker Territory, the reason why his sisters were lost, the reason he was still alive in hopes of avenging the people he loved. Leo gritted his teeth, backing up into the alley until the shadows hid him from view. Scarlemagne’s flamingo passed by a couple more times, almost as if to say I know you’re there. Leo didn’t move an inch. The flamingo passed over him one last time with a squawk that echoed through the night. It faded into the distance and only then did Leo leave his hiding spot.
Dozens of flamingos hovered in the night sky, patrolling over the distant mountains. Leo gritted his teeth. They must be searching for something, or rather, someone. Is it me? He snorted. He couldn’t imagine Scarlemagne being that stubborn. If the mandrill wanted him that bad, he’d have sent his little human army after him. No, there had to be someone else. Someone that brought the attention off of him. Leo’s lips curled into a grin. What if this was it? What if he finally had a chance to escape? After all the months spent in Deathstalker Territory, he'd finally be free. The idea was too good to pass up. He pulled an arrow out of his quiver — one that his father had made for him. One day, the same arrow would pierce through Scarlemagne’s heart.
“I’ll avenge you dad. I promise,” Leo muttered under his breath as he stared down at the weapon in his hands. His father’s initials were carved into the side and Leo ran his thumb over it. He dropped his arm to his side, his grip tightening around the thin stick. If he was going to escape that night, he’d have to return to his apartment to gather his belongings. He didn’t have much, but it would help him survive in the mute-eat-mute-world. Whether he preferred to travel light or not, it would do him no good to leave Deathstalker Territory empty-handed.
He glanced at the garage opening, willing the traps to do their job. One last meal, he thought. One last meal, and then I’m out of here. He nodded to himself and turned his back on the garage to return the same way he came. It was almost bittersweet — having to leave the place where he’d made a home for himself. But, he reminded himself, his family needed him and Scarlemagne was going to pay for what he’d done. Even if it would cost him his life.
He walked forward, keeping his eye on the ground to avoid stepping on the glass shards. His current sneakers were his favorite out of all the ones he’d found and accidentally ruined. The scar on his foot served as a reminder not to step on anything sharp without proper protection. Halfway through the alley, the unmistakable sound of a nearby Deathstalker reached his ears. His human ones sunk into his head and transformed into rounded ones that stretched across the top of his head. Covered in grey fur, they twitched in the direction of the noise. It was definitely a Deathstalker, except, it was running. Something had either spooked it or triggered it. Either way, it meant that Leo wasn’t alone. His teeth sharpened into canines as a snarl rumbled in his chest. He grabbed into the windowsill to his left and pushed himself up against it until he kneeled between the broken glass. He grabbed into the railing of a balcony right above and dragged himself over it with a grunt. With the gained height, he was able to overlook the surrounding streets and apartments with little issue. His amber eyes scanned the area and zeroed in on two figures. One small and dressed in the skin of an animal. Leo sneered. The other, tall and… Pink? He’d never seen a pink human before, but pushed the thought into the back of his mind as the Deathstalker he’d heard appeared behind them.
“Kipo!”
Kipo “In for four, out for eight. Keep your cool, now you’re great,” Kipo mumbled.
Her eyes darted back and forth in the dark, searching for signs of the Deathstalkers. None. It was so silent, almost too silent.
“Kipo,” Wolf hissed. “Just, knock it off for a second. I need to be able to focus."
Kipo pressed her hands against her chest where her heart laid beneath. It drummed faintly against her palms. She smiled. “It’s okay, Wolf. This is how I keep calm.” Wolf glared at her. “I’ll do it silently,” Kipo compromised. She closed her eyes. “In for four, out for eight. Keep your cool, now you’re great.” Keep that up. Stay calm. Gotta get to—
Wolf gasped. “Kipo!” she whispered, albeit more urgent.
Kipo’s brows furrowed in mild irritation. She was unsure of what Wolf was trying to tell her, but whatever it was, she was sure it could wait. Breathe in and out. In for four, out for eight. Keep your heartbeat slow.
“I’m in a zone here,” she replied.
Wolf didn’t seem to care. “Kipo!”
The sound of rustling brought Kipo back to the present. She opened her eyes and they widened at the sight of Wolf’s panicked expression.
“Wolf?”
She was about to ask what was wrong when Wolf charged toward her. Kipo ducked as Wolf jumped into the air with a yell. A red scorpion stinger entered Kipo’s view from the corner of her eyes. It struck Wolf in the stomach and she collapsed to the ground with a pained scream as Stalky clattered to the side. The Deathstalker rushed past Kipo as Wolf failed to get to her feet, the venom paralyzing her small form. The scorpion picked her up with its claw by her cloak, carrying her away. Kipo gasped and fisted her hair.
“Shit. What do I do, what do I do?” She prepared herself to cry on her knees in despair when she clenched her hands into fists and a look of determination appeared on her face. “What would Wolf do?”
Her best friend, despite being only ten years old, was the bravest person she’d ever met. If the situation was reversed, Kipo was confident that Wolf wouldn’t waste a second to save her. Kipo turned her head in the direction of Wolf’s apartment. Wolf had shown her how to fight, and she wasn’t going to let it go to waste. With no time to lose, Kipo picked up Stalky from where Wolf had dropped it. She examined the weapon thoroughly, relieved when it wasn’t broken. Wolf would’ve never recovered if she lost her staff. She jumped over blocks of rock and avoided tripping over debris. With no stalkers around, Kipo approached the ladder that Wolf had left down. She climbed up the ladder to Wolf’s apartment where she gathered the discarded jump rope (hand-stoppers) and the devil sticks (fighting sticks).
“Time to be serious.” I won’t disappoint you, Wolf, she thought to herself.
She secured the devil sticks and Stalky on the back of her shirt with the help of the jump rope before she left the apartment behind and followed the trail that the Deathstalker had left behind. It led her to an underground parking garage. The entrance was wide open, leading into absolute darkness. Kipo’s ears twitched at the sound of crittering from the stalkers. Her jaguar side begged her to transform, but she refused. She had yet to find her anchor, and she didn’t want to accidentally hurt Wolf. Without another thought, Kipo entered the pitch black space. She couldn't see a thing without her jaguar eyes, but she fumbled her way forward until the familiar shape of a Deathstalker entered her line of view. A smaller shape — Wolf — laid in a bundle of moss. Kipo felt her heart race beneath her chest at the sight of her unconscious body. The Deathstalker turned around to face her, letting out a screech as its two tails lifted higher into the air in a defensive stance. Kipo glared it in the eye. It's now or never, Kipo. Make this count. Before she had time to blink, the Deathstalker tails fell down upon her. Kipo jumped out of the way before they struck the spot she'd previously stood. She unraveled the jump rope and grabbed one handle before she swung the remaining of it at the Deathstalker. The second handle caught one of its claws. Kipo avoided its limbs from hitting her as she, more literally than figuratively, danced circles around the scorpion. When all of its six legs were caught by the rope, she grabbed onto it harder and pulled. The ground shook from the weight of the scorpion collapsing onto its back. It squirmed to free itself from the ropes, to no avail. Kipo dropped the jump rope to the ground with a clank before rushing to Wolf's side.
“Wolf?” she called out, reaching out for the girl when she remained unresponsive.
Up close, Kipo took notice of the pained expression on the girl's face. A second screech made Kipo turn her head in the direction of the threat still looming in the room. The jump rope had begun to snap in some places, and the scorpion would undoubtedly go after them soon enough. Kipo lifted Wolf's light body into her arms and began to carry her out of harm's way, while her eyes remained on the Deathstalker. Its limbs groaned like machinery as the jump rope snapped, in turn freeing all its limbs. As it crawled back to its feet, Kipo propped Wolf up against a pillar. She kept one hand on her shoulder to make sure she was okay before her attention turned to the Deathstalker. She pulled the devil sticks from her shirt and held them up in defense as a pair of red claws appeared in her line of view. The fact that the sticks didn't break from the pressure of the claws was a miracle in itself, Kipo thought, before jumping out of the way as the Deathstalker tried to surprise her with a claw attacking from the side. Kipo climbed between its legs and her sneaker-clad feet dug into the soft skin of its belly. Kipo gasped. She recalled Wolf telling her that only a Deathstalker could paralyze another Deathstalker. The piercers glared at her from above, as realization daunted on her. Of course! As the piercers went to strike her, Kipo jumped off the belly and rolled to the side. The stinger punctured the Deathstalker as a green-like substance flooded out through the tip and into the open wound. The scorpion screeched in pain as it seized before collapsing in a mess of its own poison. Kipo beamed at herself and threw the devil at the mutant. She kneeled by Wolf's resting form, lifting the girl back into her arms. There were other scorpions in the area. She had to get the younger girl to safety before they found them.
“I did it, Wolf,” Kipo whispered, forcing her rapid breathing to slow down to make the two girls less detectable. “I really wish you were awake to see it.”
She could only imagine how proud Wolf would have been. As she approached the exit of the garage, Wolf's eyes fluttered open and she groaned. One hand cradled her stomach where she'd been hit, yet she did her best to mask her expression as she glanced at Kipo.
“See what?" she murmured, voice weak from the poison in her body.
“Wolf!” Kipo exclaimed, eyes widening. She'd expected the girl to be unconscious for hours, but the faster she recovered, the faster they could continue the search for her anchor.
Wolf pressed a shaky finger to her lip to hush Kipo’s tone. “What happened?”
“You got stung by a Deathstalker and I saved you, and—” Kipo stopped half-sentence at the sound of footsteps by the entrance.
She curled her body around Wolf as they kneeled on the ground, waiting for the Deathstalker to pass. Except, it was no scorpion. The shadow of a human-like figure loomed over their bodies and a chuckle echoed through the space.
“Well, well, well. Trying to steal from me, huh?”
Leo
The pink human kept a protective hand in front of the feral wolf-girl. Whether it was to protect her from him or him from her, he had no idea. He eyed the staff. I want it. It would surely make a great defense against Scarlemagne and his nobles. The staff’s owner didn’t even reach his shoulders. He doubted she could do much harm. What a waste of potential. The pink girl took a step forward, hands held by her head in submission.
“W—We don’t want any trouble, we promise!” she stuttered, voice wavering. “Right, Wolf?”
The smaller girl, Wolf, only gritted her teeth in response. Leo repeated the action and her stance stiffened. He looked between the two of them, ready to grip an arrow if needed.
“What are you doing in my territory?”
“Your territory?” Wolf snarled. “I live he—”
“What she means to say is,” the pink girl interrupted, “is that we had no idea that this was your territory. We’ll get out of your hair.”
Leo held a hand up to stop the girl as she took a step forward to pass him. “Not so fast.”
She gulped.
Leo continued. “Did you really think I was just gonna let you leave? Why are you here? Did he send you?”
The girls frowned at the intonation in his tone.
“What? I don't know what you're—”
“Don't lie to me,” Leo warned through gritted teeth. He pulled an arrow and lifted his bow as if to shoot them. The pink girl visibly panicked.
“We're not lying!” she assured. “We just need to get through your… territory, in order to get to this other place. Please, we don't have much time! You need to let us leave!”
Leo scoffed. “What if I don't?”
Despite her shaky stance, the smaller girl pointed her weapon at him, steadied by the pink girl. “Then I'll knock your eyes out with Stalky here.”
She looked smug — cocky. Leo was unsure what he felt about being challenged by a child who could barely stand by herself. He'd had enough of Scarlemagne and his nobles. He didn't have the time to deal with some kids who'd escaped daycare.
“Look, kid,” he said. “You can try if you want, but you’re gonna lose.” The damned scorpions had given him more than enough training to successfully beat a child — a drugged one, at that.
Wolf steadied herself and shrugged Kipo’s arms off her shoulders until she stood on her own on shaky feet. She snarled and pointed her staff at his head. “We’ll see about that.”
At a surprisingly fast pace, she leaped into the air and swung her staff at him, merely missing by a few inches. Leo raised his bow and pulled an arrow from his quiver. Wolf’s eyes widened momentarily at the sight of his weapon, but she covered her features with anger as she went for another hit.
This time, he was ready.
“Wolf!” the pink girl cried in protest.
Wolf realized too late what he was planning to do. As the point of the tip surged through the air towards his unprotected skull, he grabbed the tail and swung it into the ground. It shattered like porcelain as the red pieces spread around his feet, along with a green liquid that reeked of expiring poison. Wolf froze in her tracks as she zeroed in on her destroyed weapon. Leo tossed the metal staff aside with a clank that echoed throughout the parking garage.
“S—Stalky—” she croaked out.
Leo almost thought he could make out tears in her eyes, but she closed them before he could be sure. When she opened them, they burned with hatred and Leo would’ve been afraid hadn’t he had the upper hand.
“You—” Wolf began, taking a deep breath. “You monster!”
She raised a trembling fist into the air and Leo held up his arrow. He wasn’t afraid of killing children to survive, despite the voices of his sisters telling him how wrong that was.
The pink girl grabbed her friend and pulled her back. “Wolf, I know you’re mad, but we can’t stay here. They’re coming!”
As if on cue, a Deathstalker shrieked nearby. How could a human hear that before me? Leo wondered. He glanced at her through the dark and a gasp escaped his throat. Were those mute ears sticking out through her hair? He blinked and they were gone, replaced by regular human ears without an ounce of muteness to them.
“Let’s go,” she urged, pulling the smaller girl toward the opening of the garage.
Leo didn’t move to stop them. In fact, he didn’t do anything at all as they rushed past him and disappeared. He also didn’t move when the Deathstalker crawled into the garage to settle above its companion's dead body. Instead, Leo stared into the pieces of Wolf’s Deathstalker staff, watching the ground swallow the poison until it was no longer visible.
Leo recalled all the late nights he spent with his father as a child, perched on his lap. Why am I different? Why does my body change? Am I the only one? Those were questions that he repeatedly asked as a child. Every night, the same ones. And every night, his father would respond with the same answer.
“I don’t know,” Leo repeated aloud, unafraid of the Deathstalkers whose deafness wasn't bothered by his speech.
He’d seen it. He’d seen her ears change. He’d seen the black spots covering the pink fur. There was no way that he’d imagined it. There was no way that he was so desperate to not be alone that he made up something like that. There was no way that—
Leo turned around to face the opening. He let her go. He let the only hybrid he’d ever met go. He balled his hands into fists, one holding the arrow. He only relaxed when he was sure that it would break otherwise. He had to find her again. He had to make sure that he wasn’t crazy. His gaze returned to what was left of the staff and a smile teased his lips. They would be back. He was sure of it. And until then, he would make sure to prepare everything he needed. A tinge of hope tickled somewhere deep inside.
Was he truly not alone?
Kipo
Wolf paced the small room of her apartment. Her hands were clenched into fists and a permanent frown covered her forehead. She’d been at it ever since the encounter with the strange boy, and Kipo doubted the younger girl would stop anytime soon. Kipo sat upright on the sofa, too afraid to relax and accidentally become the victim of Wolf’s misplaced anger.
“I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna kill him!” she muttered, a rare but familiar glow in her eyes. Kipo mainly noticed it when they were in danger, but now, the reason came purely from revenge.
She winced. After weeks of knowing her best friend, she was still unsure whether she meant her threats or not. What she did know was that she did not want to be held responsible for someone losing their life. If only Benson was here. He’d help me get through to her.
Wolf lifted one of her devil sticks, and with a yell, she threw it against the opposite wall. It bounced off of it and landed by Kipo’s feet. She stared at its pattern and took a deep breath. I guess I’ll just have to do it myself.
Kipo opened her mouth and regretted it as soon as she spoke the first word. “I’m sure he wouldn’t have destroyed it if you—”
“So you’re on his side!?” Wolf retorted immediately.
Shit. Retreat, retreat. “No, of course not,” Kipo promised. “I’m just saying that maybe we judged him too quickly.”
“We judged too quickly? He accused us of stealing his stuff!”
Kipo couldn’t deny the truth no matter how much she wanted to. “Okay, that’s true… But we did intrude in his home!”
“The hell we didn’t.” Wolf turned her back on Kipo to stare out of the window in the same direction of the parking garage.
We don’t have time for this, Kipo wanted to say, but she knew she’d become Wolf’s next victim if she did. Still, they only had a week until Scarlemagne’s coronation, and she had a lot to get done before that. All they had to do was get out of Deathstalker Territory and find her parents burrow. It couldn’t be that hard, right? Right? Why did that boy have to show up right now!?
Without looking at her friend, Wolf sighed and crossed her arms across her chest. “I’m going back there.”
Kipo almost believed she’d hallucinated her words. “What?”
Wolf met her fearful gaze. “He can’t just get away with killing Stalky! And cornering us. He’s a danger, Kipo.”
“But—”
“He probably would’ve gone after us too if we did the same thing to him.”
Kipo snapped her lips shut. The determination in Wolf’s voice was impossible to go unnoticed. She knew that there was no point in arguing when the feral girl set her mind on something. All she could do was hope that the Deathstalkers would set them astray. Preferably in the direction of her parents’ burrow.
“Fine,” she sighed eventually. “I’ll go with you, but we need to come up with a plan first. He has a bow and we have… Nothing.”
“We have the jaguar,” Wolf countered.
Am I actually hallucinating!? “No, you know I can’t!” Kipo argued. “I can’t control it yet!”
She recalled when they ate at Brunchington Beach. The way her friends had looked at her as she ravaged a bowl of pasta with her claws. The look of terror.
“You’re obviously not gonna use it,” Wolf said, rolling her eyes like Kipo was stupid. “We’re just gonna scare him a bit. You know, so he’ll go down quickly.”
“And if I fail? If I transform?” Kipo didn’t even want to imagine it. The Chevré sisters made sure to warn her about how dangerous the jaguar could become.
Wolf shrugged. “Then we’ll have a nice human soup for dinner.”
“Wolf!”
The girl held her hands up in defeat. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. It’s not gonna happen. I’ll be there with you and make sure he doesn’t come at you. And if you feel yourself losing control, we’ll get out of there.”
Tears burned in Kipo's eyes. Doubt had already settled in her chest. Could she really do this? “Promise?”
“I promise,” Wolf assured. “There’s a place really close to here. It’s got weapons we can use. I doubt those fighting sticks will do any harm.” She eyed the one she’d thrown and picked it up. She twirled it between her fingers before returning it to its place with the others. “And we’re going to need something else to fight with just in case.”
When she approached the window to climb outside, Kipo followed. She wrapped her pink arms around herself, shivering despite the heat in the Las Vistas night. Wolf better know what she’s doing, she thought to herself, climbing after the younger girl down the ladder.
The silence of the neighborhood was daunting after the previous events in the parking garage. The Deathstalkers were nowhere to be seen, and Kipo could only hope they’d gone to sleep. Still, she couldn't rid the feeling of being followed. She was too afraid to transform her ears to listen for the boy or said stalkers, but she made sure to stay close to Wolf just in case. They passed apartments with overgrown vegetation, some with cracks in the walls from the constant pressure of growth. Wolf didn't even look at them, seemingly confident in the direction she was taking them. Yet the anxiety continued to grow inside Kipo's mind.
“Are you sure that we should do this? I mean, he might leave us alone?” Kipo asked.
Wolf sighed. “We already talked about this, Kipo. If we don't get rid of him, there's no way to make sure we're safe.”
She did have a point. Kipo knew she had a point. Finding her parents’ burrow took first priority, but they couldn't focus on it with some boy at their heels.
“You're not gonna… Hurt him, though, right?” Kipo spoke again, flinching at the sound of a twig breaking somewhere in the distance.
“Not if I don't have to,” Wolf responded. The lack of a clear answer left Kipo shuddering.
Wanting to switch the subject, Kipo asked a different question. “Are we there yet?”
“Yeah, it's just over there.” The smaller girl pointed across the road, where a large sign stood out in the midst of apartments.
Kipo squinted her eyes, tilting her head at the letters she could make out. Restaurant? Some letters had flaked off in the last 200 years, but the point came across either way.
“Why a restaurant?” Kipo asked, tilting her head to the side. “I thought you said we were grabbing weapons?”
Wolf confirmed her question with a nod. “You’ll see,” was all she said.
With nothing else to go on, Kipo followed her friend inside the restaurant. Tables were covered with red tablecloths. Some had tumbled to the floor in heaps of wood, no doubt from the mutes’ constant fights. There were portraits on the walls, featuring people that were no longer alive. Kipo eyed the portraits as she passed them. What if the world could look like this again? But without getting rid of either mutes or humans? The thought was something she had wished for since she was little, and as far as she knew, her dad and her friends did the same. It was why stopping Scarlemagne was more important than ever. It was also why frustration grew from within as Wolf walked into another part of the restaurant through a swinging door, which led into the kitchen.
“They should be here somewhere,” Wolf mumbled underneath her breath. She pulled open white cabinets and storage closets, until she finally exclaimed a “Yes!”
Kipo rushed to her side, eyes landing on a box filled with kitchen knives.
“A knife!?” Kipo hissed, afraid that she’d start yelling if she spoke any louder. “You can’t be serious!”
Wolf raised an eyebrow. “You said we had to protect ourselves.”
“Still, why would you grab a knife of all things!?”
Wolf paused in her tracks, stroking the knife with her fingers. “All he has to do is do as we say,” she countered, slipping the weapon covered by a sheath into her jeans-pocket.
Kipo’s breath caught in her throat. “And what if he doesn’t? You said you weren't going to hurt him!”
Wolf’s expression was unreadable, much to Kipo’s dismay. They stared into each other’s eyes for what felt like forever. Then, Wolf sighed and lowered her head in defeat.
“I'm not. But going into a fight without protection is just stupid. He’s already got the upper hand, and we can’t let him know that.”
Kipo smiled in relief. Wolf couldn’t help but copy her.
“I’d never hurt someone, Kipo. Not like that. I just want to keep you safe.”
Kipo placed her hand on the younger girl’s shoulder. “I know. I want you to be safe too. But I think going into this with a knife is going to send the wrong message. Let’s only pull them out if there’s genuinely no other way.”
Wolf nodded. “Agreed.”
Kipo chose not to grab a knife, hoping that her paws would be enough to scare the boy off. And if not, she knew that Wolf would be there to protect her every step of the way.