Art by https://www.deviantart.com/ziegelzeig

Taylor Wolford and Ahya owned by http://www.furaffinity.net/user/darkflamewolf/

Zootopia: city of dreams. That city that was seen on almost every bumper sticker. That one city that promised every mammal going in and out that anyone could be anything. And of course, the city that housed some of the most famous hero cops of all time.

But this isn’t about any cops; this is about two strangers from different parts of the world, meeting by complete coincidence, and proving that that phrase is more liberal than people may have expected.

…

The train stations that lead in and out of the city was always busy, especially in the late afternoon. All day, and all night, the metros that lead in and out of the massive mammal utopia had mammals of all sorts of shapes and sizes piling in and flooding out, everyone with places to go, things to do, and mammals to meet.

One such mammal was especially noticeable. Not only due to her ear rod piercing and multicolored eyes, which both shined in the sunlight. Not only due to her especially bright red mane, nose, and ears, which were in perfect contrast with her grey fur. But also, due to her currently concealed, but still abnormally large tail; which in truth was not just a tail, but a sentient creature, equipped with a large mouth big enough to swallow a whole mammal if it desired. Fortunately it didn’t.

Taylor Wolford was her name; the wolf with a living tail. Her tail, or more commonly referred to as ‘Tailmaw’, Ahya, self aware and forever a part of the wolf, was, as usual, hungry. Thankfully, Taylor had already made it very clear that certain mammals, most specifically, mammals that lived and thought the same way she did, were NOT on the menu. With that in mind, she was somewhat okay with being around such a large crowd of mammals, but only a little.

It wasn’t like this crowd was a problem though, especially not for much longer. Today was the day she’d be leaving the city, and setting out for her travels all over again. Taylor was used to the concept of moving on her feet all the time, one of the few consequences of having a living tail for a companion. Not that she hated her for it; Ahya was dear to the young teenage wolf, and she’d never want her gone, no matter how complicated she made her life.

For now, they needed to get a train ticket so they could get outside the city. As majestic as the whole concept was, Zootopia was pretty normal for someone who was pretty much visiting home, and now it getting too close for comfort since some mammals had begun to take notice of Ahya’s presence. It was the kind of attention she didn’t want, and she wanted to get away from those mammals before they started asking questions.

She got to the ticket booth, and quickly ordered her ticket. The clock read 4:45 pm, and she had no idea when her train would be leaving. Not that she cared about time. All she knew was that she’d be out as soon as her train got there she’d be on her way, no problem.

She looked over her shoulder, and took notice of a small pawful of mammals looking at her, not out of looking at her tail, but more along the lines of checking her out. She looked away nervously when some of them started slowing down, and looked back to the clock; it now read 4:47.

“Here you are, ma’am.” The station clerk suddenly said.

She handed her the ticket she ordered, and she quickly snatched it.

“Leaves at 5:00. Wouldn’t recommend leaving the station if you wanna leave with the train.”

“I won’t.” the young wolf said. “Thank you so much.”

She left the booth, and then started to look for a seat. The last thing she wanted was to miss her train. She knew that there were bound to be mammals looking for her at this point, and she wanted to be far away from the city by the time they knew where to look. Hopefully, she’d be far away by the time they figured it out.

For now, she had time to spare, so she searched the station for an empty bench to sit down while she waited. Unfortunately, all the benches in the station were occupied by at least two mammals. Some of them were happy couples cuddling in the afternoon warmth, while others were groups of friends chatting away their worries. Then there were the pairs of strangers chatting over things that they coincidentally shared in interest; every bench had someone sitting. Only one bench had one mammal sitting down at it, and she looked like she couldn’t give two shits about anyone coming to sit down next to her. It was either her, or stand, and Taylor really needed to rest her legs.

“Hey.” The wolf said, acknowledging the hooded mammal as she sat in silence. “Cool if I sit down?”

She looked up, and she removed her blue hood to get a better look at her. It was a cheetah, with a white mane that had red hair dye on its tips, and the most vibrant blue eyes she’d ever seen. The left side of her face had several scars, the most noteworthy being the cut running down her lip. She looked at her with the expression she was giving her, it was clear that she indeed couldn’t care less.

“It’s a free country.” She said, her voice mature and calm, despite her uninterested gaze.

Taylor sat down and took a long satisfied sigh. It really did feel good to take a seat after so many long hours of walking to the station. As she sat, she could suddenly hear the old bobby blue song, ‘ain't no love’ playing, and from the sound of it, it was coming from below their seats.

‘Ain't no love…in the heart of the city…’

‘Ain't no love…in the heart of this town…’

‘Ain’t no love…and it’s sure ‘nough, a pity…’

‘Ain't no love…’cause you ain't around…’

“What’s that?” she asked, confused at the sudden music.

“Probably means you have an admirer.” The cheetah answered.

Also below their feet, Ahya slithered down to inspect the source of the sound, leaving the two girls to talk to each other.

“So…you leaving, too?” the wolf asked.

“Sure am.” The cheetah answered. “Came, saw, drank; the place loses its charm after the third visit.”

“Then you’ve been here before?” the teenage wolf asked.

“In earlier years, back when I drove myself places. Met some interesting mammals, but was never close enough to stick around for long.”

The music beneath them was getting a little distorted.

So…what made you come back, then?”

“The sights. And probably more likely the booze. It’s becoming harder and harder to get good alcohol nowadays.”

“Ah. Well…I wouldn’t know. Underage, and all that.”

The cheetah looked at her.

“Kid, you’re travelling by yourself; I’m pretty sure you’d get a pass for having one drink every now-and-then.”

“Maybe, but…”

‘And now that you’re gone…oh the sun don’t shiIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAHHHGRUBLBBLBLBLUH!?”

“What the hell?!”

The sound came from below them, where Ahya was resting. Taylor quickly pulled her companion into view, only to find that she had something in her mouth. From the looks of it, it was a large worm, which the living tail was slurping like a large noodle.

“Ahya? What is that?”

Just as she finished putting it in her mouth, her acidic abilities began to take effect so she could digest. Much to her confusion however, the creature wasn’t melting. Even odder still, it felt like it was changing its form in her mouth, making Ahya’s satisfied smile turn into a troubled frown.

“Ahya? You okay, girl?” Taylor asked. Beside her, the vibrant eyed cheetah barely stirred.

The tail began to vibrate, while odd cartoony sound effects started going off in her mouth, until finally…

*CHING*

A large silver anvil with large googly eyeballs popped out, half stuck in her mouth while her acid dissolved and evaporated. Ahya’s tongue was stuck to the top of the device, and the two girls just sat there, eyeing the two. Taylor, in particular, looked in utter shock.

“What, in the hell…?” she started.

“Ricardo, quit foolin’ around; the train’s almost here.” The cheetah said, her expression unchanged.

The anvil, Ricardo as she called it, just stood there, gazing into space with an utterly dumbstruck look. Then, it blinked a couple of times, and looked at the tail with angered eyes.

“You make me VERY angry!” it said, in the recorded voice of Marvin the Martian.

The anvil swung itself from side to side from within Ayha’s mouth, until finally…

*POP*

It popped out of the tailmaw’s jaw and swiveled onto the concrete floor of the train station. Then, before their very eyes, it morphed into a liquid metal before assuming the form of a large pink worm.

“Uh…” Taylor could only stare in confusion.

The worm slithered over to the three, and began to approach the cheetah, only stopping to speak to Ahya.

“You have no music in your soul, sister!” it said in the voice of Bugs Bunny.

And with that, it slithered towards the cheetah, and shrunk itself until it was so small; its toony eyes were no longer visible. With a series of equally toony noises, it squirmed and bounced its way into the cheetah’s vest pocket.

The wolf was almost at a loss for words. It had happened in the blink of an eye, and yet it felt like she had fallen into an old 40s cartoon. She had seen such things before to understand that it was a shapeshifter of some sort, but she had never heard of a shapeshifter that spoke in recorded sounds.

“So…you have a pet shapeshifter…that talks like old cartoon characters…?” Taylor said.

“And then some. I call him Ricardo.” The cheetah answered. She looked Taylor in the eye. “Don’t be scared. Only time he eats things unheard of is when he eats metal.”

She reached into the pocket her companion disappeared to and squeezed.

“Like a certain hot dog cart from three hours ago!?”

*SQUEEEEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-E*

The train had arrived, and now it was time to go.

“Oh, look at the time!” Taylor laughed nervously. “Guess, we’d better get moving, then? Right?”

She patted the cheetah on the shoulder. “Nice meeting you guys, but I really gotta run!”

And she did too. Not that she was trying to be rude, but she really did want to get away from those mammals undoubtedly looking for her. Taylor, at the time, had no idea how to defend herself, and the last thing she wanted was for Ahya to pig out and eat someone again. Even if she had managed to control her, she never forgot about how Ahya was capable of eating a whole person alive, dissolving them in seconds, and filling her with a life’s worth of emotions, adrenaline and a horrid obese fullness.

It was something she never wanted to happen again, and the sooner she was out of this crowded place and back on the road, the better.

…

*SQUEEEEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-E*

Made it. Finally.

Taylor stepped off the train, and took in the fresh country air. It was a feeling she was all too familiar with. During her travels, the kind of open roads she had been on more than anything was country road. The lack of neon lights, the light traffic, the wildlife, and the peace and quiet were truly a wonderful thing when travelling on foot. She quickly left the station, and in no time at all, found herself back on the all too familiar open roads.

“Ugh…finally…” she said with relief. “Well, Ahya, looks like it’s just you and me.”

“And company, from the looks of it.”

The teenage wolf turned around, and found herself face to face with that cheetah woman from earlier.

“Hope ya don’t mind. But I’m goin’ the same way you are.” She said.

Her paws were in her pockets, and the shapeshifter she had with her was wrapped around her neck like a scarf.

“And don’t worry about that thing eatin’ me if that’s what you’re worked up about. I’ve been in a bayou ten times scarier than your…companion.”

Taylor looked to her dear Ahya, and petted her for comfort. In return, she nuzzled the wolf, and they looked to the equally odd pair.

“Well…I guess it can’t hurt.” She said.

The two started walking, both of them staying on the right side of the country road, and heading towards a fairly lengthy forest that stretched for about a mile. The sky overhead was starting to turn from a bright blue to a bright orange, and not only because of the afternoon sun.

It was going to get dark pretty soon.

“So uh…you got a story, miss?” Taylor asked the cheetah.

“Eh…been around for a while. Started in New Orleans at the very beginnin’. Met this little troublemaker along the way.”

Ricardo smiled proudly.

“That a fact?” the wolf asked.

“Found me when I was wondering in the swamps one day. We been together ever since.”

“Huh…”

“So how ‘bout you, kid? Anythin’ noteworthy ‘bout your life?” she asked, her New Orleans accent becoming more noticeable.

“Well…” Taylor looked to Ahya as unfortunate memories began to resurface. “Let’s just say…it hasn’t been easy.”

She looked at the cheetah.

“Not since mom died.”

“Ah. Orphaned then?” she guessed.

“Pretty much. Yeah.” She looked to the ground in sadness. “Cancer.”

“Hm. Too bad. You two were close, then?”

“Uh, yeah…” Taylor said quickly, rubbing the tears she hadn’t even noticed from her eyes. “Yeah, Murana Wolford was a saint of a mother.”

The angel eyed cheetah stopped walking.

“Murana?” she asked.

“Yeah, that was her name.” she answered.

The cheetah put a paw to her chin, and thought for a moment. “Murana…Murana…now why’s that sound…?”

*St-k*

The cheetah stopped mid-sentence, and turned to her right.

“…familiar…?”

Taylor took notice of her gaze, and looked with her into the trees. Deep from within the thick Brussels the two thought that they could make out a shape. What the shape was, neither of them could quite make out however. Above them, the sky had completely turned to orange, and the shadows of the night were starting to grow. More and more they looked at what they believed was a shape from within the thin forest, and the longer they looked at it, the more shadows spread around it, slowly removing its presence from the rest of the-

*HONK*

*HONK*

The two turned around, and saw that an old red pickup had come up behind them. From what they could see inside, it was a small child who honked the horn at them, and the father was pushing him back into the back seat, making the boy pout.

Embarrassed, the mammal, feline from the look of it in the bright setting sun, rolled down his window, and waved to the two women.

“Sorry about that.” He said. “Son just likes to stir things up from time to time.”

The cheetah looked at her worm, who smiled in greeting.

“I can imagine the feelings you must get.” She said. Ricardo looked onward with a grumpy expression.

Taylor looked back to where they were staring, but the shape from earlier was nowhere to be found.

“I had uh…I had stopped because I was wondering if you wanted a ride into town?” he started. “It’s gonna get dark real soon and it’s a pretty long walk from here to there.”

Taylor looked to the driver, and she and the cheetah looked at both him, and the boy, who was pressing his face into the glass window, leaving a trail of saliva and hot breath on the glass.

“We’ll sit in the back.” The cheetah said.

…

When she said ‘back’, she had meant the ‘back’ back. Both Taylor and the cheetah were sitting in the pickup’s back compartment, sitting in silence as they watched the road trail behind them. From inside the truck, the boy was still staring at them, and at this point, Ricardo and Ahya were both making faces at him. Faces the boy was eager to return.

“He still staring?” Taylor asked.

“Ricardo’s keepin’ him busy.” The cheetah answered. “Your ‘friend’ too, by the look of it.”

She looked at the wolf with an interested look in her eyes. As the sun began to fully set and turn to red, the blue in her iris’ and pupils started to look like they were glowing.

“Yeah…sorry she tried to eat your friend.” She said, slightly blushing with embarrassment.

“Mm-hm…” she said in response. “Damn shame, too. I’m pretty sure he was singin’ that song for her.”

“You really think so?” Taylor asked.

“Well, it’s not every day that someone like Ricardo actually meets somethin’ that shares his body structure. Poor dumbass prob’ly thought it’d be love at first sight.”

They both looked back to them.

“Don’t think it’ll be like that now.” She finished. “Now that she’s tried to, ya know…eat him?”

“I swear, miss, she had no idea that it was a self aware mammal. I’ve taught Ahya to control herself around mammals like us.” She looked back in worry. “She can’t always help it, but…she’s a lot better off now than back then.”

“Whatever you say, girl.” The cheetah said. “Wanna change the subject?”

“Uh…yeah. Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” Taylor answered.

“Heh-heh. Okay.” She said with a chuckle. “You said your mother’s name was Murana?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Why?” Taylor asked.

“I think I knew someone named Murana. Back in my first visit to Zootopia…she a grey timber wolf? Owned a business company?”

Taylor was taken aback. This woman knew nothing about her, and she knew nothing about this woman, and yet by name alone, she correctly deduced the identity of her mother.

“Uh…yeah, actually. How do you know that?”

“Then it is the same mammal.” The cheetah concluded with a raised brow. “Huh.” She looked back to the road and cracked her first smile.

“Met her one night when I went out to a bar in Tundra Town. We were both in the mood where we needed to relax, and got harassed by some prick who wanted to pick up a chick all nice and easy.”

She looked to Taylor. “And get this; his opening line was: ‘My daddy owns a dealership.’”

At this, Taylor couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit. She hadn’t ever heard about that story before. The phrase she heard plenty of times from horny teenage boys, but never had she heard this story from her mother.

“So we look at him, and then at each other, and…”

She held up a paw.

“…keep in mind, I already had a car at the time, which I drove all the time. And even though I didn’t know what she did when I first saw her, I did know that she could afford a nice car of her own due to the suit she wore.”

“Right; her pinstripe suit?” Taylor assumed.

“That be the one.” The cheetah confirmed.

She looked back out to the road, and Taylor continued to look at her.

“So we’re looking at each other, and then back to him, and together, we give him the darkest pair of shiners physically possible, and then threw him out onto the street.”

Taylor chuckled again.

“Pfft. Dear God.”

“So after that, we take notice of each other, because up till then, we just wanted enjoy some quiet time to ourselves. And we just talked ‘bout some things and we had a pretty decent time.”

She smiled again.

“Pretty cool canine, Murana. Actually did pretty good in the drinking contest we had afterwards.”

“You had a drinking contest?” Taylor asked. “Who won?”

The cheetah chuckled. “Honey, if there’s one thing I can promise you; it’s that nobody has the stomach to out-drink me.”

She looked to the teenager.

“I’ve literally been drinking since before even she was born, and I’m pretty much positive I can’t even get drunk any longer.”

The two of them looked at each other for a moment, and then back to the road.

“Yeah. But anyways…”

*SCREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAA*

The truck stopped all the sudden and the two found themselves hanging onto the end of the truck while Ricardo and Ahya hit the back window face first. The looks of their faces scrunched up against the glass was finally enough to make the boy scream.

“Ahgh! The fuck?”

The two girls stood up, and looked at the now pitch black road as the father stepped out. It had gotten so dark out, that the only visible road was about five to ten feet in front of them, which was barely enough for the father to stop in time to keep his truck from hitting a large boulder parked in the middle of the road.

“Ugh…very funny; a rock in the road.” He said, as he walked towards it so he could push it out of the way.

“Kids around here need something better to do.” He added.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a big cervine approached from behind, and took out a large staff.

*BONK*

“OOF!”

Out cold, the feline father fell, and Taylor gasped in shock as more large bucks came from the trees.

“Oh…” Taylor started as she fully realized the situation. “…oh no…”

“There! That’s the one!” one of them said as they got closer to the truck.

“Taylor Wolford!?” the one with the staff said. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance!” he said as they got closer to the truck. “Why don’t you come on over here, and we could get acquainted properly? There some people who are very interested in getting to know you.”

“Taylor was young. She had been on the road since her mother left her, and she didn’t know how to fight. The only thing she could do was slowly creep behind the cheetah, who immediately understood and shielded her.

“Oh come on, Angel Eyes. There’s no need for that.” The leader said. “We just want the teenager.”

She raised a brow. “You just want the teenager?” she repeated. “Yeah, that don’t sound creepy at all.”

At this, the other bucks snickered at the leader, who pinched the bridge of his nose as he realized that she was right.

“Look sweetheart; we’re sure that you’ve been getting all cozy during your little road trip, but the thing is, Taylor there has some very special gifts. See, she has the kind of gifts that some very important people would like to exploit and they have made it very clear to us that those gifts are, without a doubt, more than worth killing someone over.”

He raised his staff. “And you’re no exception.”

The cheetah narrowed her eyes.

“So why don’t you just give her to us, all nice and easy, and we’ll let you go? No questions asked.”

The cheetah, Angel Eyes as they nicknamed her (and which honestly sounded fitting), looked at the wolf girl with a calm gaze before having her worm return to her.

“Fuck you, Bambi.”

This got a series of ‘ooohs’ from the other deer. The leader feigned offense by holding his hoof to his chest. “Now that just hits the heart, darlin’.”

The cheetah jumped down, and began to approach, while the bucks began to surround her.

“Okay. If this is how you want it, that’s no problem with us.”

“Ricardo…” she started.

“Boys, block any chance of her running off and kill her quick. We got a schedule to keep.”

“Sword.”

In the blink of an eye, the shapeshifter transformed itself into a beautiful shamshir sword with a shiny silver blade, a polished wooden grip, and gold detail.

“The hell?!” one of the bucks said.

The next thing any of them knew, Angel Eyes had shifted herself at alarming speed, slicing through their attackers’ bodies like cheese. Every movement she made was like a sort of lethal dance; she moved from side to side, one foot on the ground at a time, and every time she jumped to the other end of the road, another attacker would fall without any time to scream, let alone any effort to fight back or run away as she cut through them as simply as someone cutting through weeds on a hot summer day.

Within less than three minutes, they were all lifeless bodies on the ground, and Angel Eyes stood without a scratch while Ricardo slowly began to assume his regular form. All the blood that was on him was removed with his tongue and then spat out.

The angel eyed cheetah looked to Taylor, who was still standing on the truck and was now in utter shock.

“You okay?” she asked.

All the wolf could do was nod. The boy, who was still in the truck, looked at her with disbelief, until he finally shouted out with excitement.

“THAT WAS TOTALLY SUPER AWESOME!!”

Taylor, Ahya, the cheetah and the shapeshifter all looked at him, before Ricardo stretched his mouth to an enormous size and put the whole boulder into his mouth, and held it in his cheek like a jawbreaker in ‘Ed Edd n Eddy’. As he began chewing, Angel Eyes approached Taylor, and helped her off the back of the truck. Then she picked up the still unconscious father.

“Come on. Help me get this boy’s daddy into the truck, and let’s get out of here.”

…

They had gotten the father back in the truck and placed him in the back seat, and Angel Eyes had finished getting them into the small town they spoke of earlier. In the center was a large crossroad with a traffic light, and one block on each side of the road, with only a few buildings worth noticing. On the left was a diner and an old antique store, and on the right, a gas station and a motel. Not knowing where to go, Angel Eyes parked into the diner, and got out of the truck.

“Anybody hungry?” she asked.

“Uuuuuhh…” the father stirred, finally waking up. “Wha…what happened?”

“Oh dad! You are not gonna believe this!” the boy started.

“Not now, kid.” Angel Eyes said. “Come on, dinner’s on me.”

The inside of the diner had a buffet counter in the center, and despite being pitch black out, it was still open, and customers were still eating. The boy and Ricardo had immediately gotten to the counter, and started shoving sausages into their mouths. The father got himself a burger from the counter, and Taylor ordered some fries with a small cola. Ahya, who was of course, still hungry, looked at the counter, and looked over what she wanted to have. Ricardo poked her on the shoulder, and opened his mouth to reveal that some of the sausage was unchewed, and for that matter, not even covered with drool as it rested on his tongue, now shaped like a mitten.

As Ricardo fed the now elated Ahya, Taylor quietly ate her meal while Angel Eyes had a drink of gin. She looked over to the cheetah, who looked completely composed despite what had just happened, and slowly poked her shoulder.

“Hm?”

Taylor took a sip of her soda, and cleared her throat.

“I uh…uh…um…”

“Out with it, kiddo.” She said.

“Thank you. For saving me.” she said. “You didn’t have to do that.”

The cheetah raised a brow, and looked to her companion as he and the tail began clearing out the buffet counter; the child excitedly shouting ‘go go go’.

“Eh, I may not have known her that well, but Murana was a decent mammal, for a corporate worker.” She said as she took a sip.

“And you being her daughter, I figured that it’d be wrong to let ‘em take you.”

She downed her glass, and leaned onto the counter.

“Besides, if there’s one thing I know about all too well, it’s the feeling of overconfident men coming over to you thinkin’ they can just take what they want from you. You take it from me; it feels good to prove ‘em wrong.”

The teenage wolf suppressed a chuckle, and then looked down to the floor as tears started falling.

“You okay, honey?”

“Yeah…sure…” she said, trying to keep a strong voice. But she ended up shaking her head. “Actually…no…”

Her breathing got shorter, and she started to cry silently.

“This isn’t the first time they’ve caught up to me. Bunch of…assholes who want me for my tailmaw, and my other…”

She thought for a moment to find the right word.

“…complications.”

She looked at the cheetah.

“If you weren’t there, I’m certain they would’ve taken me this time; and they would’ve just. Oh, God…”

She buried her face in her paws, and only stopped to look at the cheetah as she rested a paw on her back.

“But you were just so…amazing. She said. “You cut through them like…like butter, and you didn’t lose your step once. I wanna be like that so badly, but I don’t know how. I don’t know any people, and I don’t know where to start looking.”

She looked away, and resumed her tears.

“I want to defend myself, and I want to be able to fight my own battles…so why can’t I?”

The cheetah looked at her as she slowly began to resume eating. She put a paw to her chin and narrowed her eyes, and then she came to a realization.

“Hey, waitress. You got a minute?”

She came over, and put her towel in her pocket.

“Yeah?”

“You got a pen and paper?” she asked,

“Sure.”

She ripped a sheet out of her notebook, and got her pen from her apron, and set them down. Taylor took notice of this, and watched as she wrote something down. From the looks of it, it was an address.

“Here.” She said.

She slid it over to her, and she looked at it in confusion.

“This address is to a combat dojo south of this place. Visited it once long ago. If you really wanna train yourself, I’d recommend there as a place to start.”

“A…dojo…?”

“Now I don’t know these roads all that well, but if you were gonna be walkin’ on foot, I’d say it’s about…a week’s journey. Two or three days if you’re goin’ by car.”

The waitress came back with a refill to her drink, and she downed it in one gulp. This got the attention of several patrons.

“It’ll probably be a pain in the ass to get there, but I’m pretty sure my word’ll get you in. They got room and board, and they’re usually nice people.”

Taylor was, again, at a loss for words. She looked at the address, and she then looked back to the cheetah.

“I…I don’t know what to say.” She said.

“That’s fine. Don’t gotta say nothin’.” The cheetah replied. “Just…don’t take your time gettin’ there. Those people who sent those deer’ll get the message you had help, and won’t be far behind once they learn you’re on your own again.”

Angel Eyes got up and out of her seat, and waved her worm over to her. She then waved over the waitress, and she came over as well.

“Ricardo. Wallet.”

The worm did as instructed, and turned himself into an old 20s wallet, and she opened him up to reveal a series of twenties, which she placed on the table. Then she pointed to the rest of the group.

“Him, him, her, and…”

She looked to Ahya, who had finally stopped eating.

“…that.”

The waitress looked at her, and then them, and her again.

“On you?” she asked.

“On me.” the cheetah confirmed.

“You…you’re leaving?” Taylor asked.

“Sure. I don’t really need to sleep or nothin’, and you seem like you’re in good company, so I’ll let myself out.”

The waitress watched her approach the door, and she shrugged as she pocketed the money, and then left to take care of another customer. Taylor however, stopped her as she opened the door by grabbing her hand, and hugged her.

“Thank you…” she said, holding her in a tight embrace. The cheetah was silent for a moment, but then gently pushed her away.

“See ya ‘round, kid.” She said as she turned to leave.

“I never got your name.” Taylor said, looking her in the eyes.

She smirked. “Don’t take it too personally.” She said. “Nobody gets my name.”

…

Two weeks had passed since Angel Eyes had left. Taylor had spent the first week working up enough money for food she’d be needing for the journey. The second week was spent walking; it was indeed long, and a total pain in the ass, but she’d soon learn that it’d be worth it.

The dojo was a large building, set up in an isolated field outside of the next city. It was wooden in structure, with red accents, and various trees surrounding it. Taylor looked at it with concern as she slowly began to approach, and was a little overwhelmed at its proud, large structure.

She got to the door, and she slowly opened it to find herself looking down a large, empty hallway, save for a lone mammal in a blue outfit sitting at the end of the main room. Taylor gulped, and slowly walked into the dojo and got to her knees just as the mammal was when she reached him. His eyes were closed, and his composure was solid.

“Uh…excuse me…?” she started.

The mammal opened his eyes, and looked at her. His eyes were a bright green, and his expression was as calm as his breathing.

“Why have you come here?” he asked.

She gulped again, and took a deep breath.

“Angel Eyes sent me.” she said.

The mammal looked up to the ceiling, and put a paw on his chin.

“Angel Eyes…Angel Eyes…about five feet? Snow white mane?”

Taylor nodded with a small smile.

“Hmmmmmmm…”

He looked back up to the ceiling, and patted his hands to his knees.

“Very well. You will be given a room. Meal time is at the gong, and training starts immediately after.”

Taylor opened her mouth into an overjoyed smile, but it was cut short when he pointed his finger at her.

“And one more thing!” he declared.

Taylor snapped to full attention.

“As part of the training, you will need to learn a specific style, and that will require you to choose a weapon to train with.”

He got up, and walked towards a door on the right. The door led to another hallway, and he went to the far door in the center of that hallway with Taylor following close behind. He opened the door, and revealed the inside to have a single weapon’s locker, which he immediately opened to reveal a single pair of combat weapons, from a sword, to throwing stars, all the way to a pair of nunchucks.

“Choose wisely. You get no take backs.”

Taylor looked at them as she contemplated on what to pick. As skilled as she was, Angel Eyes was a killer, no questions asked. Taylor on the other hand, was not; not at heart. It was true that she had taken life before in earlier years, one of the disadvantages to having her tailmaw. But that didn’t mean that she enjoyed it. She remembered every time Ahya lashed out and…ate…someone. It was a horrific experience each and every time, and she didn’t want to have to go through that every single time. She knew that if she were to pick a weapon, she’d need something that wasn’t immediately lethal.

Then she took notice of the staff. A long, wooden staff that was made out of strong lightly colored wood rested on the middle right of the locker.

She slowly approached, and picked it up off its perch. She felt its smooth surface, and took what she believed was the proper stance as she held it, looking forward as she got a feel for its reach. She remembered how her attackers used it to knock that boy’s father unconscious. They could have killed him, taken him out so they could get to her, but because they used this weapon, they didn’t. They didn’t kill that mammal, and they didn’t make sure he was dead. All they did was use one properly aimed hit, and that was enough to strike him unconscious; out cold. No problem. She’d be gone long after he woke up.

That was how she’d want to fight. Not to kill, but to defend, and to minimize risk of casualties, and minimize risk of Ahya lashing out again. As much as she wanted to protect herself, she still wanted to make sure that she didn’t lose that part of herself all over again. She knew that it would probably be harder in her journey, but she didn’t care. This was how it had to be, and this was how it was going to be.

“I’d like to learn to use this one.” She said, her voice filled with determination, and her spirit filled with hope.

She had gone through a long life’s journey, and she knew that it had only just begun, but now she was positive that she’d be able to continue with a little more protection and a little more willpower.

Both for her, and for Ahya.