Operation: Escape Plan

The caves were filled with heavy breathing echoing off the stone walls. Two creatures lay on the stone floor, out of breath from their escape from the beastly Squeemother. Both Lyra and Almond were struggling to calm down. It wasn’t just the escape that peaked their adrenaline to the max, it was also what they witnessed on the surface.

 

The image of the bloodstained snow bank would not leave Lyra’s mind. That poor fox. Even if they were trying to capture her, they didn’t deserve a fate like that. They were just following Yggdrasil’s orders, and they gave their life for it, in such a brutal and horrific way, too. Lyra hoped that the Clayfox had gone quickly without too much pain. She shook her head. 

 

I… I wish I could have saved them… I wish we could’ve just talked this out…  No one should be dying over this… 

 

She looked over at Almond. Their face were shadowed with sorrow. They clearly were not taking this well either. It pained her to see them in this state.

 

“Hey…” Lyra started, voice filled with concern. “Are you-”

 

Almond’s response was barely over a whisper. “I’ll be fine. I didn’t know that guy very well anyway. I’ll just… have to tell their brother…”

 

A deep pain struck through Lyra’s heart. How much bloodshed would happen all in pursuit of her?

 

That’s when the thought hit her.

 

She was only still down here because she was looking for her belongings. If it hadn’t been for those being lost, she’d already be off Awan and on her way back home to Port Borealis. If she’d been gone, that Clayfox wouldn’t have had to come to the surface and suffered the wrath of the Squeemother. They’d still be alive.

 

A plastic bead bracelet was a trade-off for a life.

 

“We need a plan.” Almond was the first to speak again, “We can’t just keep running around the tunnels like this or we’ll get caught again. If we want to find Truffles, Sweetie, and Brick, we-”

 

“No.” Lyra cut her off.

 

“What?”

 

“No. We’re not looking for them anymore. I’m going home. Now.” 

 

“But what about-” 

 

“It’s not worth it anymore!” Lyra interrupted, the level of her voice rising. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. “Someone’s died! Getting my stuff back isn’t worth this… I can’t let this go on…”

 

Almond stared at her with a sympathetic look. They placed their paw on Lyra’s and gave it a small rub in silence. Lyra was trying to prevent herself from breaking down into intense sobbing. She couldn’t tell how well she was pulling it off, but she did know it wasn’t fully working. The two remained like that for a few minutes with no words spoken.

 

“We’ll go to your ship. Where is it?”

 

“It’s…” Lyra faltered, “... I don’t know anymore… with all this running around, I don’t have a clue…”

 

“It’s ok. We’ll find it, but we still need a plan of some sort. We can’t risk getting caught again.” Almond counselled.

 

“Right…” she sniffled, rubbing her face. She had managed to calm down slightly.

 

“I think…” Almond began, “If we can just find those caves you were put in before, I can check what plants are growing. If I can find roots of plants that grow closer to the surface, then I could possibly lead you back to where you were originally found.” 

 

“You can track directions like that?”

 

“Yes. Certain plants need certain conditions to grow. I’ve found so many shortcuts by looking for plants that grow in loose dirt. You just gotta stick close to me. If we need to hide quickly, you can’t be far.”

 

So that’s what she was doing when we first met, huh? That’s cool… And the best plan we have…

 

“I think that’s a good plan,” Lyra affirmed. “We should go. It’s not safe to stand around like this.”

 

“Yeah, I think it’s best if we go-”

 

“I knew it was you getting into trouble!”

 

A new voice rang out through the cave and Lyra and Almond froze. Almond’s ears drooped down. Someone else was here with them.

 

Shit! There’s no way someone already found us! This is bad!

 

Another Clayfox stepped forward into view of both of them. They were chocolate and caramel brown with a graying muzzle. On their head was a bright pink helmet with a line of spikes running down on it, and their legs had knee and shoulder pads. They looked rather upset with a furrowed brow, their wrinkles creasing with their frown.

 

“R-Ruth! I-” Almond tried to speak, but the older fox cut them off again.

 

“You’re always getting into trouble! Dangerous trouble!” Ruth continued to scold them. “Now you're running around with the outsider? What is going on in that head of yours to think that’s a good idea?”

 

“She’s not dangerous! She just wants to get home!”

 

“How can you be sure about that? How do you know she’s not lying to you?” Ruth continued to acost Almond, who was shrinking away. Lyra stayed in place behind Almond, not daring to speak.

 

“Well… I don’t know for sure, but…” Almond muttered, causing Lyra to grow worried. They continued, “But she hasn’t done anything wrong… It’s not fair to distrust her!”

 

Ruth’s eyes shifted to Lyra, which only increased her nervousness.

 

“All this ruckus has to have alerted the Cirros to us! Even if she didn’t do it on purpose, now we have to deal with that!”

 

“All the Cirrocanius are gone!”

 

“That’s ridiculous! Where did you hear that? From her?”

 

“Uh… Well…”

 

Ruth breathed out a heavy sigh. “Listen, honeynut. You can’t just trust what anyone says, that’s how you get hurt. I really hoped when I heard that Clayfox rambling about an outsider on the surface and that you had been missing for a while that you had nothing to do with it, but I guess I was wrong. How many times have you gotten hurt by getting into situations like this?”

 

“Ruth… Please-” Almond tried to speak again, but once again, Ruth did not let them get a word out.

 

“I don’t want you getting hurt.” His face fell, any anger vanishing and switching to sympathy. “This will end badly for you if they were to find out. I won’t say anything for your sake, but…” Ruth turned to face Lyra again, “That doesn’t mean I have to trust you.”

 

“I…” Lyra finally had some kind of courage to speak, giving Ruth a pleading look. “I know. You don’t have to believe me, but it’s true that I mean no harm. I just have to find my ship, then I’ll go home and won’t speak a word about Clayfoxes to anyone else. I have people I want to see again… I don’t want to be stranded here forever, or even die here…”

 

Silence fell over the three again. It took about a minute before Lyra spoke again.

 

“Please… you have to understand… I just want to leave… I just want to see all my friends again…”

 

Ruth looked away for a moment, contemplating everything. Her gaze soon softened. 

 

“Alright.” She relented. “Go find your way home. But if you even so much as lay a claw on any Clayfox, I’ll personally drag your tail to Yggdrasil, ya hear?”

 

“U-Understood!” Lyra sputtered, “I won’t dream of ever doing anything like that!”

 

Ruth let out a small “Hmph.” before turning to face Almond again. “And you. Don’t be afraid to defend yourself if anything happens, and don’t get yourself in even more trouble than you already are.”

 

“Yes…” Almond pouted.

 

“I’ll leave you to it then, honeynut. I trust you’re doing the right thing.” Ruth reached up to ruffle Almond’s head. She did it with such force that she managed to pull their hat off their head. Almond softly chuckled and put their hat back on. With a parting smile, Ruth turned away and began to walk down the tunnel she came from.

 

“So…” Lyra started, turning to face Almond. “Which way should we go?”

 

“If we want to go back to that cave area, we should go that way.” Almond pointed her claw down the tunnel. “Once we get there, we’ll pass by the hub. It’s the best bet to find the spot where you fell originally, but we have to be careful because-”

 

“You need to go to the hub?” The sudden voice came from Ruth, stopping in his tracks and turning around. “You shouldn’t go that way. It’ll take too long.”

 

“Well, we’re not going straight to the hub because there’s too many Clayfoxes there, we’re just passing by it.” Almond scratched their chin, “But why not that way? It’s a straight clear path.”

 

“A straight path to getting caught, more like! You need to take some side tunnels!”

 

Almond pondered for a moment.

 

“Hmm… You’re right… What do you suggest?”

 

“This way.” Ruth pointed her claw in a different direction that Almond originally did. “Then take the very left tunnel at the first fork in the path, then take the second tunnel from the right when you see it. That’ll get you close to the hub, and on-route to the surface. Perfect secret shortcut.”

 

“Woah, how do you know about this?” The younger fox questioned.

 

“It’s my quickest way out of there, plus my favourite practice space is down one of those other tunnels.” 

 

“I see.” Almond nodded. “Thank you, Ruth. For everything. I promise I’ll be safe. This will be all over soon, anyways.”

 

Ruth nodded back, then barked out, “Now hurry! The longer you sit here, the worse this will get!”

 

“I know! I..” Almond paused for a second, then stepped forward and gave the older Clayfox a hug. “I just want to give a proper goodbye.”

 

“Oh, hun.” Ruth returned their hug. “I trust you’ll be fine. We’ll see each other again.”

“Yeah…” Almond’s voice was quiet. 

 

“Almond?”

“Goodbye, Ruth.”

 

“Goodbye, honeynut.” 

 

With that, the two foxes’ hug broke apart, and Almond gave a small wave. They trotted over to Lyra’s side with their head hung slightly. 

 

“Let’s go.” They spoke, waking forward without waiting for a reply from the Spacecat.

 

Lyra didn’t know how to respond, so she elected to just follow. It was clear the fox was feeling down all of a sudden, but why? Were they scared of the threat of being in trouble? Had they thought about what happened on the surface again?

 

The two of them had been walking for a while with no words spoken between the two. The silence was weighing heavily on them both. Lyra thought for a moment to think of a topic to talk about that wouldn’t be sensitive. An idea popped into her head.

 

“So… Who was that? You seemed to know them well.”

 

“Oh, Ruth?” Almond responded, “Yeah, I know him.”

“Is she… your mom? You looked kind of similar.”

 

“Huh?” Their voice had a hint of bafflement. “Oh, no. We’re not related… but I guess she’s like an aunt type over a mom to me.”

 

“Sorry for assuming… she seems to really care about you.”

 

“It’s fine.” Almond reassured her, “And you’re right. She’s always scolding me about not getting into trouble, but it’s because I’ve gotten myself in some… situations in my pursuit of studying plants. Let’s just say that the bear encounter we had was not a one-off…” Their final words finished with a chuckle.

 

“Trust me, I know a thing or two about getting into trouble myself.” Lyra laughed. “Not just this.”

 

“Heh, so we’re similar in that way.” Almond smiled. “I’ve had Ruth save my tail more times than I can count. I’m not sure if she can save me from this, though…”

 

“She gave us a way out. It sounds like she knows her stuff. I think she did the best she could.”

 

“Right… I hope that she doesn’t have to suffer any consequences for my actions…”

 

“I’m sure everything will work out.” Lyra flashed a reassuring smile.

 

Almond seemed comforted by it. “You’re right. Let’s keep going.”

 

The two continued to walk through the tunnels until they reached a fork in the road of three tunnels.

 

“So Ruth said take the very left path here, right?” Lyra asked.

 

“That’s what I remember. Then it was the second tunnel from the right.”

 

“I thought so, but I just wanted to confirm. I can be… rather forgetful… heh.” Lyra said nervously. 

 

“Yeah, I get it. I can be like that too sometimes.” Almond disclosed. 

 

“Anyways, let’s not waste anymore time! It’s time for-”

 

“It’s time for your game to end.”

 

Huh!? Who’s that?

 

Out of the left and right tunnels, two unfamiliar large warrior Clayfoxes emerged, glaring daggers at the duo.  Lyra’s fur pricked up as she arched her back and unsheathed her claws. Almond was standing in front of Lyra, sort of in a defensive manner but clearly terrified out of their mind.

 

How did we get caught? This path was supposed to be a secret!

 

The sound of claws clicking against the stone floor came from the center tunnel. Out of the darkness, another Clayfox emerged. They were the size of a regular Clayfox, not looking too much different from Almond. Their right eye was closed with a claw scar over it, while their left was open, staring right at Lyra. Their chin was held up high with a smug expression with a hint of anger in it.

 

“Yggdrasil!” Almond shuddered.

 

That’s Yggdrasil? Lyra wondered in shock. I’m surprised he’s not bigger… but maybe it’s scarier that way if he can order foxes around just like that…

 

“You’ve been causing enough trouble with just the idea of you being here. Let’s fix that.”

 

Yggdrasil gestured with his claw, snapping and pointing at Lyra. Before she could even blink, the two Clayfoxes next to him pounced. They jumped straight at the cat, slamming her to the ground and pinning her down. The action knocked the wind out of her, and their weight made it hard to breathe, let alone cry out for help.

 

“Hey! Leave her alone!” Almond growled, ready to pounce into action, but a quick tackle from Yggdrasil sent them to the ground as well. 

 

“Don’t think you’re innocent in all this. I have something planned for you as well.”

 

Almond struggled to stand up. When they finally got to their paws, they looked over at Lyra and gasped in horror. Lyra now had a muzzle secured over her face and a rope tied around her neck.

 

“Let’s go. We have to do this elsewhere. And you, follow.” 

 

Yggdrasil pointed at Almond with a strong, demanding tone. One of the warrior Clayfoxes grabbed the rope that secured Lyra and pulled, forcing her to walk forward. They took the lead, followed by Yggdrasil, then Almond, and the other warrior Clayfox tailed the group to ensure the two could not break away and escape from behind.

 

Lyra and Almond managed to look each other in the eyes. Both of them were brimming with fear and worry. Each of them pleaded silently to one another, trying to communicate a plan of what to do now. A plan of how to escape and get back to the ship. For Lyra to flee and Almond to be saved.

 

But they had no plans to get out of this. All they can do now is just go along with it and hope something will come up, or that this won’t end poorly.

 

Even though both Lyra and Almond knew that they were in denial and the worst was upon them.