Terveta-Chapter 4: Professor Knetter (Part 1)
The sun was starting to dip low in the sky as the blue husky moved through the streets. His feet were dragging, the ache from a full day's worth of running finally coming down on him. It was painful to walk, and that, coupled with the fact that he didn't even want to, caused him to be slow.
He was so groggy that he didn't even see the ball come flying for his side. It struck him hard in the cheek, jerking his head to the side and causing him to stumble. It was something the size of a basketball, but with a stronger case that made it heavier. The ball dropped to the ground, bounced a few times, and stopped a few feet away.
Blizzard blinked and growled while he rubbed at the cheek where it hit him. After recovering, he stared down at the spherical object before plucking it from where it lay. He looked it over for a moment until a voice came from the side.
"Hey, sir? Can we have our ball back?" A young rabbit asked, walking just up to the end of his yard. Another stood just behind him, a bit more timid and maybe a year younger. Blizzard looked at the rabbit for a moment before a female's voice spoke up from the side.
"Jonathan!" she yelled and raced to the first boy's side. She stopped just a few feet from the blue husky and stared at him with an uneasy smile. "I'm sorry, Blizzard. I should have kept a better eye on them." The woman and the husky had known each other for quite a while. She was very young, just in her late twenties, with a petite form, beautiful eyes, and perfect curves about her body.
"It's fine, Kim," he grumbled, trying to make his voice sound as friendly as possible. He flicked his wrist and lobbed the ball for the younger boy off to the side. Jonathan laughed happily and beamed as he caught it and raced to play with his brother.
"Thank you!"
The husky just nodded his head, his eyes trailed up to the other adult's. "How old are they?" he asked, trying to sound warm.
"Jonathan is ten and Erick is nine."
Blizzard nodded again calmly and leaned close to her, his lips just a few inches from her ear, to whisper. "I know what it's like to lose something like you did. Keep an eye on them, alright?" he told her, his smile turning into a sad frown.
She nodded her head and she whipped the back of her paw across both of her moistening eyes, understanding his double meaning. He wrapped his arms around her gently, holding her protectively before releasing her and continuing on his way as he had been before he was interrupted.
Professor Knetter's lab was deep in the ground underneath the Terveta settlement, but the entrance was above the earth. Blizzard walked up to the small building's access point and slammed his fist against the panels. He waited for a moment, but no answer came and he shook his head, deciding to push the doors open.
"Professor Knetter?" he yelled out as he began to descend the steps that came directly after the entrance. There came no response. He thought about advancing and what might happen if he just decided to continue without the professor's permission. He could be running an experiment that would be interrupted by his presence, or there was the possibility that he just couldn't hear him. He did tell Keisha that he wanted to see him, but he would have expected to see him at the estimated time of arrival instead of the earlier time.
He thought hard on all the possibilities before finally concluding to go down the steps. It was a long descent; the stairway was large so he didn't have any size issues, but it wasn't very well lit. A naked light bulb dangled from a wire, suspended from the concrete ceiling every several feet. One light would stretch on for a long ways, and just as it was becoming dull there'd be the faint radiance from the next bulb. It continued on this way until he reached the bottom, perhaps a couple hundred feet under the ground.