Art by Julis-Rocks

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Everything felt slow. Well, slower than usual. Kate’s eyes began to open slowly. Oddly enough, she felt well rested. That’s when she began to remember what happened just before she fell asleep…and immediately heaved to her paws, remembering the dart gun and the humans from the train track. Her breathing picked up fast as her surroundings became clear. She was trapped within a chain link pen. In the corner to her back left side, there was a little wooden shed that acted as shelter. Kate’s heart sank, the full reality of the situation setting in.

“No…..no no no no no….no! This isn’t happening!” Kate murmured and exclaiming, trotting up to the fence.

With a rather tense growl, she lifted up on her haunches and pushed her weight into the fence in a vain attempt to break through. No use. Kate backed up and sat on her rear, panting. Her case then snapped down to her bloated belly, feeling the unborn litter inside squirm for a brief moment. At least they seemed to be okay, but to give birth in this place would surely complicate things a million times over. One of the worst things that could’ve happened on this trip has just happened, and she had no idea where she was. Knowing how low her chances were now, Kate began to feel an overwhelming despair wash over her, and tears welled up in her eyes. But then, someone spotted her from the next pen over.

“Oh! They finally filled that spot!”

A male voice chirped frok just beyond Kate peripheral vision. When she turned her gaze and shook the tears out of her eyes, she saw something she hadn’t seen before. At first glance, it appeared to be a wolf. But the longer she took in the features of her new next door neighbor, the more she knew that this was no wolf. He had grayish fur with large ears that were far too wide. His muzzle and snout were too short, with more broad teeth. His back sloped down a bit, which gave way to a longer neck. Indeed, this wasn’t a wolf. Especially not with those stripes dotted around his body. Said body was quite plump, almost as overweight and bloated looking as her own body.

“H-huh??” Kate eked out, trying to make sense of the new animal who had appeared before her. It almost made her feel weirded out. It looked like one of her kind, but was different enough to elicit a sort of uncanny valley effect that made the golden wolf hesitate. The animal in the other pen stepped closer to the chain link barrier between them.

“Sorry, I wasn’t sure they’d ever put anyone there. Were you wild caught too?” He asked with a light smile, clearly trying to make some sort of conversation.

Kate felt at least relieved that she could understand what he was saying. Despite being a different species. Other than birds, she’d not met many other creatures that could or would speak back to her. With a shaken breath, she replied.

“Yes…yeah, I was. They shot me with a tranquilizer gun and I woke up just now. I don’t think I’ve ever seen your kind around here before. Wherever we are..” Kate trailed off briefly before focusing back to the conversation.

“Oh! I’m a hyena! We’re from Africa. Maybe you’ve heard of it. You’re a wolf, aren’t you? I heard the humans talking and I was able to put together what the sign there said.” The hyena pointed his dark furred paw over at a rather cheap looking two way sign in front of Kate’s pen.

‘Grey Wolf’

Kate’s gaze went from her sign and over to the hyena’s. Sure enough, there was a sign there too.

‘Spotted Hyena’

“Huh…” Kate breathed. “I see. So, do you have a name, hyena?”

The hyena nodded. “You bet. I’m Zoww. Not a typical Swahili name, I know. What’s yours?”

Kate tilted her head in a bit of confusion. “Huh? Swahi-…nevermind. I’m Kate. Look, Zoww. What are they planning to do with us in this place? Because I don’t know about you, but I cannot stay here. I have a litter of cubs that are about to be born, and I have places to be that aren’t here. Where is here, by the way?” She stepped closer to Zoww, or at least the fence between them.

Hearing the obvious desperation in her voice, Zoww came closer and sat down on his haunches. “Well if what happened to me is any indication they’re probably gonna just put you on display for other people to come look at. It’s called a Zoo, I think. Apparently we’re not…the best zoo either. I mean, I’ve only been here a few months and uhhh…” He looked down towards her body, especially towards the rounded curve of his stomach. He used his front paws to lift up his gut, and let it wobble once he let it go. Kate gasped softly, seeing how plump he was. Zoww flushed at Kate’s reaction.

“Woah, they really fattened you up, huh? You sure they aren’t gonna eat you eventually. That’s what they do to other animals as far as I understand.” Kate looked Zoww up and down, and eventually saw all the food wrappers littering the grass around his pen.

Zoww shrugged . “I don’t think so? They say I’m a scavenger and they just give me all their leftovers. Which is quite a bit….every day.” He awkwardly rubbed behind his neck with a paw, and Kate stared at Zoww’s stomach again, imagining just how much of that horrible processed human junk he’d put into his body. She figured he was thin when he first arrived. That kind of transformation made her stomach turn more than it already was. Kate felt bad for him now.

“That’s…not right at all. Why do you keep eating it if it’s making you gain so much weight?” Kate questioned, trying her best not to sound judgmental.

Zoww sighed. “Well, they do feed me raw meat like I usually have, but the human food just tastes so…amazing! That’s the tragic thing! It’s the best thing ever, but it fattens you up extremely quickly. I was borderline malnourished when I got here. Three months later, I’m edging on obese for my kind.”

Kate frowned. She could understand where he was coming from with that. Humphrey liked human treats too when they briefly stopped at a gas station during their journey home. Kate remembered that same trash digging excursion nearly got both of them killed…several times.

“That’s awful, Zoww. I don’t know about getting you back to Africa, but I know for a fact that neither of us can stay here any longer. Fur both our sakes…do you think there’s a way out of here?”

“You’re thinking about escaping?? I mean, I haven't really thought much about it. I know there’s a couple ways out of here. Straight behind you is the front entrance of the place. Behind me are a bunch of unconstructed enclosures. Probably way less attention over there.” Zoww said. “But how are we gonna get out of these pens? They have the doors locked behind us, and we’re both too heavy to climb up the fences.”

Kate quirked her bow. “You calling me fat??”

Zoww gulped. “Definitely not you. Me? I’d say.”

She snorted a laugh. “I’m just messing with ya. You’re right though, we can’t go up…” Kate looked down to her paws and followed the fence. It was a metal bar that ran across the ground….but didn’t go under it. A light sparked in Kate’s mind. She figured it out.
“But we can go down!” The wolf looked up towards Zoww with a grin. That’s when she noticed his eyes. They were blue like a pristine lake. Almost like…

Zoww spoke up before she could think about it anymore.
“You’re saying we dig?? That could take some time. Not to call you fat again, but I don’t know if we can squeeze our bodies under these fences without the humans noticing. They do leave at night, but there’s almost always one of them walking around to make sure nobody gets in, and they’re everywhere when the construction people come.” He explained.

Taking this all in, Kate let out a slow breath.
“Hmm…we’ve got to try. I have to get to Idaho, Zoww. No matter what. I’m an alpha who’s already lost so much pride letting herself get knocked up like this by a wolf she doesn’t love. I’m not about to be stuck in a cage for the rest of my life.” She then exhaled. “And I don’t wanna see your body get ruined any further by the food they give you. Please, we can do this if we work together. But it’ll be much harder for me without you. What do you say?”

Zoww took in her words for a moment. He considered what he was about to do. Despite being fattened up, he was in an environment where he was safe and still fed. It was a comfortable life….but it wasn’t the life he was accustomed to, and not the one he wanted, especially with Kate's determination inspiring him. With his mind made up, he smiled.

“I say that it’s better to survive out there than get fat and depressed here. I’m in.”

This made Kate smile and wag her tail. The fear she felt when she first woke up was more or less gone now. In fact, she hadn’t felt this invigorated in months. Living under Tony’s watchful eye sucked the fun and excitement out of her personality. She knew what they were going to do was dangerous, especially for herself with how far along in the pregnancy she was, but she decided it was a risk she’d need to take.

Kate sat down on her hunches in front of Zoww, now ready to start planning for what would be her greatest challenge yet. She was excited to get started.