Anthrofiction Stories Web Site

This store was like all of the others… Fake dust, fake products, not even another person in sight to make sure that their videos didn’t get stolen in broad daylight. Or at least, Nile thought it was daylight. He couldn’t really tell anymore with the d**ned fog.

“Hey TK” Nile said softly, staring blankly in front of him with an expression that any statue would envy. “I… I think we should head back”

As much as he hated to admit it, Nile knew that if they hadn’t found them now, there was no hope for them. They had walked along the streets for what seemed like hours, checking every door and every alleyway. There had been nothing, not even a single clue that would have led them to Milo or Rellian. But every shop they had gone into was the same thing: desolate, untouched, and all too fake. Nile was already past the fantasies of this being a ghost town. It was far from that, and at points, Nile truly wished it was abandoned, seeing as he had already been chased down by a knife throwing lunatic.

“You’re… Right” Came the large tiger’s response as the door closed behind him. Despite his massive size, he moved with the grace that Leena always managed: completely silent. His bare footpaws just seemed to slide an inch above the ground at times.

“C’mon…” Nile sighed, turning around and facing the door. He was about to take a few steps, but he froze instantly, and stared blankly out the window, as if hypnotized by a swinging watch that happened to be outside. There was no swinging watch though, there was only a shadow, a shadow of a shadow even, standing right outside the window. It was as though it was some sort of statue who’s endless gaze watched them unrelentingly. With a shiver, Nile tried to recall the outside of the store, and there had been no statue.

TK instantly turned around to see exactly what had Nile so freaked out, and saw it too. With a silent nod, they walked towards the doorway, wondering if the stranger could see inside the store from where he was standing. Nile wasn’t quite sure if the windows were tinted, or even if the fog had messed with the opacity of the glass at all. With a shrug, Nile made his way over towards the front does, praying that luck was on their side.

Thankfully, the figure didn’t stir, and Nile began to wonder if it actually was a statue, but wrote it off quickly as a harebrained idea. Whatever machinations ran through his mind needed to be suppressed for the moment.

After what felt like a marathon, they finally reached the window, and TK held out a paw for Nile to stop where he was. Nile was more than happy to agree, and stayed where he was, pulling his knife out of his back pocket. Thankfully, he hadn’t cut a hole in himself yet, but he probably should have kept in on hand in case they were snuck up on.

“NOW!” TK suddenly roared, and as Nile blinked, he heard the glass shatter, and TK was already lost in the fog. He never thought somebody that big could move so quickly, and so- Both the shadows were laying on the sidewalk, the taller one, obviously TK, having the other pinned to the ground silently. There wasn’t a word from either of them, not even a growl or a snarl. Either they were both stunned, or both… Dead.

In a rush, Nile hopped over the shattered glass, his mind rushing in all sorts of directions. The person was probably armed with a throwing knife or something, and assuming TK had leapt onto him at the wrong point, then… No, he wouldn’t allow that. TK wouldn’t die, he was too strong for that, too perfect, too-

“Rellian?!”

Nile could only stare as TK sat upon the yellow snake with the same shock Nile had. Hell, even Rellian looked spooked out of his mind, and who wouldn’t be? He had just been standing by a window, then some huge tiger with a knife leaps through the glass and tackles him… Nile would’ve been scared out of his mind.

Slowly and silently, TK got up and tossed the knife to the side with a clatter, and the weapon slid down the street noisily. “Dumbass” he chuckled, putting a massive paw over his own mouth to cover up the fact that he was rather amused by the fact that he had almost killed his close friend.

Rellian just stared up with eyes that were wider than dinner plates, his slitted pupils barely even there. In fact, from Nile’s point of view, it almost looked like his eyes were just a sea of calm hazel, no black, no white… Just a bland spread of hazel. “N… Nile?” he stammered, looking over towards the coyote.

Nile, who was about to just crack right there, suddenly dashed right over towards the immobilized snake and crouched down beside him, chuckling mirthlessly. There was nothing funny about this, it was just… It was just that they were desperate for anything that could be taken as lighthearted, seeing how things had been so far. “Yeah…” Nile said, almost crying with relief. Rellian had always been a great friend to him, never asking anything beyond the normal, never getting in the way of anything he shouldn’t be… He had been, in a sense, Nile’s best friend from high school.

“You…” Rellian started, almost sounding angry, but that anger instantly vanished from his eyes and he was flooded with relief. Without having to say anything, Nile instantly leaned and hugged the yellow snake around the neck for amoment before returning to his crouched position. “TK…?” Rellian asked, his tail, which was half crushed under him, was trying to flick about. “Can you… Get off now?”

With an embarrassed blush and a smirk, TK stood back, walking back over down the street to pick up his knife, leaving Nile and Rellian to just look at each other in confusion. After a moment of silence that any high school would be proud of, Nile finally spoke up.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked, quirking a brow. He would have to talk quietly, they had already made enough noise for the killers to be on them at any given moment. “You should be back in the hotel, safe…”

“I was about to ask you the same thing…” Rellian chuckled, sitting upright with a slight wince. Either that landing had really hurt him or he was stiff from all of the running they had done.

“Ah hell, who cares” Nile finally groaned, and leaned forward and gave the snake one more embrace. Right as Nile was about to pull back from the quick hug, he found himself trapped it in, seeing as Rellian’s arms were wrapped around him as well. Then, on top of that, he felt the snake’s snout rest on his shoulder. He could hear his breathing, feel his heartbeat, and-

Tap tap tap.

“Woo…” TK chuckled, tapping his footpaw on the pavement behind them with his arms indignantly crossed. “You two never told me…” He just burst out laughing, shaking his head at his own joke.

Nile would’ve laughed if he wasn’t the one being made fun of, so he could only flush with embarrassment and pull away, quickly getting back to his feet. “Sheesh…” Nile chuckled, turning back to him. “Friends hugging… Oh no, the whole world’s gone gay…”

Rellian said nothing, just chuckled a little bit, closing his eyes. Nile would have said something to cheer up his friend, but TK beat him to the punch.

“Kiiidding, kiiidding” he sang, rolling his eyes in annoyance. Nile almost swore that the large tiger was blushing, but with the gray fog that seemed to create a wall between them, it was impossible to tell anything more than facial expressions.

Speaking of, this fog was lasting much longer than any other he had ever seen. Sure, he had always lived close to sea level, down by the Gulf of Mexico, but there weren’t too many low-flying clouds there. But in this forsaken hellhole, it was like they were living in the stratosphere.

Again, the silence fell around them like a thick sheet, and the three of them took turns chuckling nervously under their breath, trying to pretend the awkwardness didn’t affect them. Of course, after a while, Nile had to at least say something. If they stood around like this, laughing and staring at each other, anybody could sneak up on them before they could even think. “C’mon” Nile sighed, turning back down the street where he came from. Well, where he thought he came from. Directions had a funny way of changing once visibility was near zero.

The other two nodded in agreement, and as they walked, that d**ned silence danced around them mockingly, daring them to say something and break it. Again, none of the spoke up.

It wasn’t until a few minutes down the street that Nile’s ears perked. There was somebody else with them, he could hear the footsteps. With a quick look down, he measured his own steps and the two others, but TK never made a sound when he walked. The thing unsettled him the most about this… Was that the steps were getting louder. And with a quick look at Rellian’s face, Nile knew that he wasn’t the only person hearing things.

Strangely, the snake seemed rather calm about this, like having another person walking towards them in the fog was nothing. Nile could almost swore he knew who it-

“It’s you…” He said softly, stopping and holding his arms out in front of Nile to stop him. Of course, the coyote obeyed without question. If Rellian knew whoever was approaching him, that was fine with him. Any friend of Rellian’s was a friend of his. But the one thing Nile didn’t quite understand was how the snake knew who was approaching them before he could even see the shape assimilate into the fog.

But when Nile finally did get a good look, he was stunned. It only took him a few seconds, but in those few seconds his mind turned into one massive train wreck. He was staring right at a paradoxical existence. A teal snake without any kind of underbelly color… She had to be… A dragon.

TK, who had stopped right next to him, shared the same expression that the coyote did. Pure awe, confusion, and excitement mixed into a priceless thingytail.

“Yes…” she replied in a voice that probably could pass for a symphony by itself. Her tail swished around behind her with a grace that held both of their attention like moths to a flame.

“Everybody had better still be okay…” Rellian threatened, taking a few steps forward so they were right next to each other. It was only then that Nile noticed something.

The two looked uncannily alike. There was nothing else to it in Nile’s mind, just the fact that the two almost could’ve passed for brother and sister, was it not for the difference in coloration. Just the way their bodies were built, aside from height, made them almost…

Nile almost gasped when the thought came to his head. That wasn’t possible; there was no way that Rellian… Rellian was Rellian, not some mythological and supposedly extinct creature! Rellian was… He wasn’t half dragon, there was no way in hell.

The dragoness seemed completely ignorant of the gawking stares she was getting, and simply nodded in response to Rellian’s question. “They’re all inside the hotel, and Milo is explaining the situation to everybody… I hope”

Nile could only stare in disbelief as to what he was hearing. Apparently she not only knew Rellian, but Milo as well. When did she see Milo though, and- Wait a moment. His train of thought soared past something, a small inkling, but slowly that idea began to grow in his mind. She was the one who had been carrying Milo when he was fleeing from the shapes in the fog. She had saved his friend’s life.

The snake was on the verge of telling her something, but was instantly cut off by her sharp, yet still melodious, voice. “Enough, we’re going back to the hotel” she growled, and taking off from the direction she just came from, she disappeared into the fog.





A skeptic silence was brought over the entire room. Eyes bored into him, some bordering on hilarity, the others bordering on fear. Nella, in particular, seemed more than fearful of what she had just heard. She sat there, completely frozen in her reclined and relaxed position on the couch. She almost looked like she was spacing out in front of a television.

“It’s true!” Milo shouted at them, standing up on one of the chairs so everybody could see him. He didn’t need a psychology major to tell him that the entire room was on the verge of laughing at him. All it would take was one person to lead the rest of them in mocking, and-

Yep, sure enough, Ren was the first to laugh, just like always. He would never hesitate to make somebody else the end of his punch line, even physically… Half of the pranks they pulled on Milo were Ren’s idea, and Milo was never to happy with the playful fox. And right after, following suit, Yani choked out a small laugh, and within moments, the entire room was roaring in hilarity. They were laughing at him. For telling the truth.

Then again, Milo couldn’t exactly blame them for not believing his wild tale, hell, he wouldn’t have believed it either if he were in their position. Instead of shrinking back into himself like he usually did when something like this happened, he straightened up and pushed out his chest a little bit, hoping it would make him more imposing. “Shut it!” he shouted, trying to make his voice a little lower, but only ended up making it jump an octave.

Again uproarious laughter spread like wildfire throughout the room. The coyote’s expression slowly warped from urgent to downtrodden in an instant. Ren never believed him, Yani always went along with Ren, and Leena and Nella were probably too skeptical to refrain from a few chuckles.

Without trying to explain anything further, he hopped down from his pedestal with a slight flop of his oversized ears and headed towards the nearest wall. He knew who his real friends were. Rellian, Nile, TK… Especially TK, he had always been there after everybody had left, comforting him and telling him it was okay. Milo knew that when the three of them got back they would tell everybody the truth. Rellian… Would hopefully tell them about the dragoness he had almost come to blows with. When Milo actually got to thinking about it, he began to ponder exactly why Rellian had thought that the dragoness was trying to kill him. The only reason he could come up with made the assumption that snake had seen her captors firsthand, but if he had, he probably wouldn’t have gotten away from them so easily and showed up by himself at the hotel. Whoever was out there was as fast as Rellian and the dragoness was, and just the thought of running from them made him shiver. Things just weren’t adding up.

“Milo…”

A voice snapped him back to reality, a sourly sweet voice that he had heard many times before. One that was perfect for an evil laugh.

“Hey Leena…” he sighed, rolling his eyes. Knowing how sarcastic and pessimistic she was most of the time he was sure she was going to go on and on about how much of creative writer he was, and how if he could just harness all of that wild energy into one poem, or maybe an entire book, that-

“What was her name?”

Milo’s eyes shot straight back towards her angled face, and he was surprised to find that she was actually serious. Her expression was completely solid, not even on the brink of a cynical laugh. This was the first time he had seen her being dead set on something.

“She… Doesn’t have a name” He replied, trying to get rid of the shock in his voice. Maybe she actually believed him.

“Oh” she said softly, her eyes suddenly losing a bit of their luster.

“But!” Milo suddenly interjected, leaning a bit forward and whispering gently in her ear. “I did promise to give her a name…”

She closed her eyes and sighed, and from what the tiny coyote could tell, she didn’t seem all too heartened that she had no name. “Well…” she said softly, looking him right in the eyes and holding his gaze. “I believe you, and I’m sorry for laughing” With that, she simply stood up and walked away, her hips flicking a little bit with each sultry step. Milo swore she had to practice that seductive gait.

But finally, there was at least somebody who thought he wasn’t making all of this up for attention. He had finally found some respite, a little break from his constant humility. Maybe he could get a calm moment to himself before-

Slam!

Milo’s head snapped instantly over towards the doorway to see Nile, TK, and Rellian dash in, with that familiar somebody in tow. The teal blur darted by them and slowly came to stop a stop in the middle of the room. Nile and TK stopped where they were, closing the door behind them, and Rellian went over and slumped against a wall.

Everybody’s expressions were priceless, and in that moment, Milo felt a certain sadistic sense of satisfaction, that he had been right and now he had the evidence to prove it. That smug victory was quickly overshadowed by the fact that everybody now knew that their lives were probably in some kind of real danger.

Leena instantly shot Milo a knowing glance, but she was just as taken aback as everybody else. A true, living breathing dragoness, standing in the middle of the room. This was no joke, no prank, this was pure reality, and as much as Milo hated to face the truth, he knew that it was standing right there in front of him.

“You…” Nella suddenly stammered, taking a slow step out into the open, as if the dragon was some wrathful god, ready to smite whoever didn’t grovel on their knees. “You’re…”

“Yes, yes, I know” the dragoness snarled, which made everybody in the room except for those that knew her leap out of their fur a little bit. “I’m a dragon. Yes. I’m here. Yes. Deal with it”

With such a succinct and punctual explanation, it was hard for anybody to even raise a question about anything that had happened. Everybody had questions on the ends of their tongues, but none had the guts to ask it and splinter the silence that always seemed to follow the dragoness.

Milo knew, that right now, he had to show that he could stand up for himself, that he had courage, and that he wasn’t a shy knock-around kid like he had been in high school. After fighting a few butterflies in his stomach, he made his way to the center of the room, standing by the dragoness, and seeing how she wasn’t much taller than him, the height difference didn’t make him look like he came out of a happy meal. This was his moment of truth, his defining moment. This was his time to shine.

“Now do you see?” he asked, throwing his arms out to either side of him like he was expecting some kind of friendly hug. His tail was raised high above him, curling a little bit at the end, showing that he meant what he was saying. And he wanted everybody else to know that he meant business. “There are people out there, trying to kill us, and she’s the proof!”

He let these words sink into the silence and fade until there was only a memory of them before he continued on. “This is no movie, this is no video game… This is reality, whether you like it or not. I can tell by the shocked looks on your faces” He smirked as Ren, who was dumbstruck. “That you’re not quite sure that this isn’t a dream… But believe me, you might not wake up from this one. Pardon me for being rather blunt with all of you, but… If you want to make it out of this alive, we’re going to have to hole up here and wait for the fog to roll over. When we can see clearly, we might be able to take what cars are left and hightail it out of here before they notice anything.”

He paused for a moment to catch his breath and survey exactly what the reaction was around the room. Ren and Yani were both horrified beyond belief, and Nella seemed to be on the point of running away in pure fear. What they all had to be afraid of was an obviously apparent danger, but Nella seemed to take it a bit worse than everybody else. Leena, though she supposedly believed him, still seemed about half as shocked as everybody else. And considering how much emotion she usually showed, this was a landmark for her.

“Now!” he continued, returning his attention to the center of the room and keeping his gaze straight at the wall in front of him. His ears perked up the best they could, and seeing as they were rather horizontal most of the time, they stood on end, almost a foot in the air above him. “We need a strategy… So if any of you have anything that could be used as a weapon, I suggest you get it from your rooms and bring it down. Now!”

As if to follow his own example, he immediately stepped from his position in the middle of the room towards the nearest hallway.

From the stunned silence behind him, he could tell that nobody was quite sure what was happening at the moment. Ren was probably still reeling from Milo’s sudden boost of courage, Leena was probably already on her way to get something, and TK-

“Wow” came the rumbling voice from behind him. With the combination of the voice and the large paw on his shoulder, Milo knew who was congratulating him. “Way to go…” TK just smirked as he looked down at Milo, but seemed to be looking up to him instead.

“Heh” Milo chuckled, flattening his ears against his head in emberassment. “I… Always wanted to be important” He said, his cheeks tinting pink even under his lightly creamy tan fur. “I just… Kind of lost myse-“

He froze where he was. His footpaws lifted off of the ground, and he blinked in a bit of disbelief. Sure enough, TK had lifted him up into a gentle hug, just to congratulate him for his successful speech. Milo… for some reason, felt rather odd, being hugged by TK like this. There was a kind of warmth in the pit of his stomach, almost like he was drunk. Time seemed to freeze, and before he could even say something, he was let back down to the floor by a proud and beaming tiger.

“Well, good job” TK smiled, and craned his neck to scan the room. “Everybody’s taken the news quite well, and are off to their rooms to get something”

“Thanks…” Milo said, his ears lowering a bit further, almost sloping downward behind him now, since they were usually rather horizontally aligned anyways. He had to say, he was a bit embarrassed, being bear hugged by TK like that, but TK was just a friend, so it was okay. Right?

“Well, everybody’s getting their stuff together…” TK said suddenly, breaking the silence with his thunderous yet gentle voice. “We should find something… I may have a knife, but…” He trailed off and reached into the back pocket of his cloth pants, which had no front pockets at all. “I think it won’t help much” He sighed and put it back. Milo wondered for a moment why the blade didn’t tear the fabric and make it very awkward to walk behind him, but quickly dismissed the thought from his mind, telling him to think about something else other’s than TK’s pants ripping.

After breaking out of his trance, Milo blushed a bit more and nodded, turning down the hallway to head to his and TK’s room. Of course, they shared a room, being best friends and all, and also because their parents had insisted they room together to save money. Milo wasn’t complaining, he got to spend all of this time with his best friend!

The finely carpeted hallway led them away.

Your vote:

Current rating:

1

2

3

4

5