FSE

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A warning to all you readers, this part will contain detailed violence, gore and death. Therefore, you shouldn't read if you don't like and are upset by that kind of stuff. Also, don't rate it down just because you wanted it to be fluffy, because it isn't. Just rate it on how well it does what it's trying to do.

This will most likely be the most morbid part in a long time, so if you don't like this, just skip this part and wait for the next where it will be more optimistic and happy like the parts before this. I have a feeling that only one of these parts are needed to get across the seriousness of the Reklan's position. That's about all I have to say, so enjoy :3 -

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The fox just stood there, staring at the message written on the card. He was horrified at how cold-hearted Humans could be, and sent out his sympathy for any Reklan parents who have had to suffer through this. How they could even raise up the courage to bring up children in such a dangerous environment, he did not know.

The fox was brought from his thoughts by a sharp tug on his shoulder. The Human holding onto him was scowling at him, rather upset that he, the fox's captor, was not strong enough to make the fox move and instead had to ask the fox to do it for him. The fox reluctantly complied, knowing that the teenager would cause trouble if he didn't.

The fox could already see groups of people who had gathered to see the execution. There were already at least twenty standing on the paved square that was in front of the platform. The group of teenagers shuffled the three Reklan to a spot that was close to the platform and waited while keeping the Reklan restrained.

A crowd began to form around the platform and soon there were at least a hundred people standing, with even more sitting on balconies that surrounded the area. Children were held up on parents' shoulders, all of them squealing with delight. It disgusted Voss at how they'd even brought up children to think of this as a fun occasion.

Eventually people stopped arriving and the crowd began to settle. A well dressed Human who looked as if he was around fifty years old, probably the mayor or someone else of importance, stepped up a flight of wooden stairs onto the platform and started the ceremonies.

"Today, on the twentieth of May, twenty five-fourteen A.D, we are gathered here to witness the execution of slave 241B who is charged with 'speaking in a manner of hatred or disrespect to a Human'."

Voss was amazed at how such a small thing could even be considered a crime, let alone deserve such punishment. The fox watched as a Reklan that looked like a leopard was dragged onto the platform by a strong-looking Human who was holding a chain that was attached to a set of metal cuffs that were around the leopard's wrists and ankles.

The Reklan must have been wearing the cuffs for quite a long time as there were patches of raw flesh lacking any fur, slowly oozing blood from the gouges the cuffs' edges had made in the leopard's skin. The fur covering the rest of his body was matted with dirt and dried blood from when the Reklan must have been whipped before the event. His golden eyes seemed glazed over with despair as he was slowly led to the back of the platform while the mayor continued to speak.

The mayor continued to talk, listing out previous 'crimes' and calling up witnesses who were most likely faking. However the fox's attention wasn't on the mayor, it was on the unfortunate Reklan standing at the back of the platform. The fox couldn't help but imagine the Reklan being free, gold and black fur rippling in the wind, shimmering in the sunlight. The leopard being able to use those muscles to run and hunt, not to perform manual labour for his Human captors.

Then in the middle of his imagining, he caught a glimpse of something in the leopard's eyes. Whether it was amusement at the Humans, or hatred towards his treatment, the fox knew what was going to happen next. He could see the leopard's finger and toe muscles contract and relax, his claws sliding in and out of their biological restraint. The fox mentally willed the Reklan not to do it, that it would just make his suffering worse. But then again part of the fox wanted the leopard to take out as many of the humans as possible in his fight.

Eventually the fox saw the leopard's claws settle, fully extended as he took a moment to plan before he attacked.

"Bill White, do you proclaim the defendant guilty or not guilty?", questioned the mayor.

"I proclaim-", the man's voice was cut off by the shrill scream of the guard behind him.

The leopard had brought up one of his feet and kicked out at the guard's leg, producing a loud 'crack' as the force of the impact broke one of the guard's bones. The guard shouted out in pain, but was quickly silenced by the Reklan bringing down his wrist cuffs onto the guard's head. The Reklan then went for the mayor, but was intercepted by two more guards who had rushed onto the platform.

The leopard snarled in anger, feral instincts taking over as he knocked one of the guard's arms aside, leaping forwards and latching onto his throat. The fox could hear the crunch of bones and the muffled scream as the Reklan crushed the Human's neck, rivulets of blood running down the Reklan's chest as he held on to his prey, only releasing it when four sets of hands worked together to prise the leopard's jaws off of the guard he had killed.

The Reklan was quickly restrained by the four guards and dragged over to the back of the platform. A stretcher was brought up for the guard with the broken leg, but all the second guard got was a black body bag. Shocked, the mayor returned to the stage and finished off his speeches and then left the platform, leaving the executioners to do the work.

The leopard was rather carefully taken over to the metal pole, the Humans being as careful as possible around the Reklan, although the fox could see that all of the Rekan's energy had been spent on his last attempt at revenge. All that was left was a submissive husk of what used to be, all personality inside drained by the years of servitude forced by the Humans.

Voss felt sorry for the Reklan and any friends he may have had. There had always been a crime comitted for every Reklan killed, but most of the time it had been the Humans comitting the crime, not the Reklan, yet it was always the Reklan who ended up dead. The wrist cuffs of the leopard were hooked onto the pole, leaving him slightly suspended off of the ground. The Humans then proceeded to grab wood from a stack and chuck it onto a pile at the Reklan's feet.

Eventually the pile was built up to the Reklan's knees and the Humans backed off. One of them grabbed a lighter and walked up to the pile, setting one of the bottom logs alight and backing off again to join the others who were watching and enjoying from the sidelines. The leopard just hung there dejectedly as the fire spread further and the crackle of the logs became louder.

It must have been at least five minutes when the fox could see the leopard's face twitch with pain as the fire reached where his feet must have been. The leopard continued his brave facade for a while, the murmurs of people in the crowd betting whether he would cry out or stay silent until the fire started to grow rapidly, making the leopard's face contort with pain as the red tongues of flame licked around his ankles.

The smell of burned flesh soon became noticeable as the strength of the flames increased, half of the pile now flaring while it ignited the new fuel above it. The fox tried to shut his eyes and block out his senses, but his eyelids were pulled open and he was faced with the scarred teenager.

"You better keep your eyes open, cock-sucker, unless you want to be up there next?"

The fox winced at the thought, slowly opening his eyes to the sight of the leopard and the ever encroaching flame. After fifteen minutes the whole pile of wood was alight, tears of pain running freely down the leopard's face, and tears of sympathy running down the faces of both the foxes. The fox wondered how the burning was supposed to kill the Reklan if the wood was only piled up to the knees, but the fox's question was soon answered.

The fire must have reached the critical temperature because suddenly, the leopard's fur started to catch alight. The fire inched slowly up the Reklan's body, the golden fur merging with the bright yellow of the flame, the black fur blending with the ash that was left behind. As soon as his fur had started to burn, the leopard cried out in a cross between a human's shout and a cat's yowl of pain making the crowd cheer as the acrid smell of burnt fur reaced the fox's nostrils, seeming to burn them with the same ferocity as the fire that was consuming the leopard.

The fire spread quickly and as it reached the Reklan's chest, the shouts turned into cries, and the yowls turned into mewls. The fox was completely paralysed with horror as the fire completely shrouded the leopard, the crowd whooping as the last, piteous sounds escaped from the dying creature's mouth. The body burned for a while longer, but eventually the fire died out and revealed the blackened corpse of what used to be a living thing, now no more than a lump of ash encrusted flesh.

The fox struggled to keep himself from vomiting at the sight as the teenagers laughed and cheered at 'another of those scum being dead', poking jokes at the three Reklan that the fox didn't appreciate at all that moment. The fox stood there completely unable to think as he watched the body be cleared away and stuffed into the back of a truck, presumably to be dumped somewhere out of the way. The fox was so out of it that it took him a while to realise the the scarred teenager ws speaking.

"We did have some more things planned for you, but I think we've had enough fun for today, don't you?"

Voss noticed that the teenager was talking to Sam, who nodded his head rapidly in response to the question.

"Well then, see you later, mutt! And don't think that you can hide from us so we can't have any fun tomorrow."

With that, the group of teenagers walked away, presumably to their homes or to another hapless Reklan who found themselves as a victim to the group of tormentors. As soon as the group had left, the fox was surprised by the vixen embracing him, just as traumatised as he was by what they had seen.

"Please don't let that happen to you", the vixen pleaded.

"I'll try not to, but I have a feeling those teenagers have other plans", answered the fox, returning the embrace with even greater strength.

He hoped that nothing like this would ever happen to them again, but he highly doubted it now that they had been targeted by the group of teenagers. The Reklan walked to their homes in silence, the foxes staying as close as possible to one another, the dog walking further behind, blaming himself for what the two foxes had been forced to experience that day.

They arrived at Dan and Liz's house at one in the afternoon. They could've spent longer in town, but after what had happened, all three Reklan were sure that they didn't want to stay any longer than they had to. Sam walked up to the door and pressed the doorbell button, waiting a while before the door was finally opened.

The three Reklan were greeted by the surprised face of Dan, and the two foxes were invited in while Sam said goodbye and was dismissed. The fox walked stiffly indoors, and couldn't help but re-think the events of that day, clutching on tightly to the vixen, who held on to him in return. They saw Liz sitting on the sofa as they entered the room and sat down in their normal spot themselves, still cuddling each other for comfort.

The fox tried to hold back his emotions, to keep a plain face but he couldn't help but imagine his caring owners as horrible Humans who would watch them suffer for their own entertainment. Liz was curious about the foxes' behaviour, and asked a question.

"So, what was it like?", Liz asked, immediately regretting talking as she saw the two's reactions.

The question had opened up the floodgates to the fox's memories of the last hour, and his body was overwhelmed with feelings of anger, fear, sadness, despair. Everything he had felt while he watched the leopard burn over the space of twenty minutes returned to him in two seconds, fresh tears starting to form in his eyes as he remembered the jeering of the crowd when the Reklan was brought up, the cheering of the crowd when the Reklan was finally dead.

The fox saw Liz get up and walk over to him, trying to comfort him, but all he could remember was the cruel teenagers who had caused him and the vixen so much pain. As Liz reached out her hand to calm him down, the fox bared his canine teeth and snarled as he pulled the vixen behind him to protect her from the Human.

Liz was surprised at the fox's protectionism, and so was the fox as he held the vixen close, the vixen too feeling scared of the race that had just mercilessly enjoyed the killing of an innocent creature as she hid behind the fox who had looked after her since the first time they had met.

As Voss calmed himself down, he realised what he'd just done. His eyes widened with fear at Liz standing there looking over him, and he quickly bowed his head, an unintelligible stream of apologies coming out of his mouth. He quivered with fear as he braced himself for the reckoning to come, wondering whether he would be the next one to be killed on that platform. The fox flinched as he felt a hand rest carefully on his shoulder.

"Shh, it's okay", Liz consoled, her hand making stroking motions to try and comfort the fox. "We can talk about it, and I'm not going to hurt you, alright?"

The fox just nodded dumbly, hoping that the talk wouldn't last too long.