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Chapter Ten

The wind fluttered through the fur of Janus as he drove carefully down the open, dusty road. Traffic had been an absolutely nightmare getting out of Crystal Lake due to closures on several of the direct bridges to the mainland, causing him and Obsidian to take the ferry.

Obsidian, who was busy making sure that his long black main was not falling out of place due to the wind, had been forced to come along when Janus had turned up unexpectedly at his small flat in the Lower City and demanded that he had come with him to show him Everonth.

It really seemed as if Obsidian had not been given a choice. The death of so many people had driven Janus to an almost unnatural obsession with getting to the bottom of this case.

He had been suspended pending further investigation as the new Police Chief, a rather critical female Vulnira, was instantly suspicious of his tale of a sniper attempting to murder him. Janus was absolutely sure that they would try to pin Marilyn's murder on him eventually but at the moment, lacked critical evidence of such.

So Janus had decided to take matters into his own hands. He had handed over his identification and his sidearm but he had not handed over this case. This case was his and he was going to solve it.

Janus's car was rather expensive for the salary of a Police Officer. It was one of the newest models, a Stalis convertible, one of the most glamorous and expensive models on Terra, used by all the top celebrities.

Obsidian had enquired in a less direct way, how he managed to afford such a vehicle and Janus had responded with a cryptic response about how his father had once owned a sizable company and he received a multimillion pound inheritance when he died.

In actuality, Janus had seized the company from under his father when he was eighteen and then sold it. He had spent years, slowly buying up shares within the company until finally he had enough for a corporate takeover. He still remembered how good he felt, making his father suffer for all the years that he had let that evil witch Elise abuse him.

He had even claimed that Janus had pushed Elise at the time of her death but the local police found no evidence of that and her death was ruled as accidental due to the rather large quantity of alcohol in her bloodstream.

He had not meant to push Elise on that fateful night but now...

Now he wish he had.

However even he could not have anticipated how far he went...

For after he had seized Everson Systems and sold the company for the lowest bid, for his revenge, his father committed suicide.

Janus could still remember the bitter taste of the air at his father's funeral. Suddenly, victory did not taste as sweet as he thought,

He had won the war but was it worth it?

However by his twenty-first birthday, he had blown most of the money on lavish parties and on drugs and orgies, ending up in hospital multiple times. Was he simply trying to replace his feelings of abandonment with that of constant drinking, drug taking and countless sexual encounters with both men and woman?

He was not sure but he could not go on like that.

After one particularly indulgent party, he had landed himself at hospital, close to death. The doctors were forced to give him an emergency stomach pump and for a brief second, he saw his mother.

Whether it was the medicine, his imagination or a profound spiritual experience, it had a profound experience on the young fox. Once he recovered luckily, he changed his life, giving away all his remaining money to charity except the things that he had bought before, like the car and enrolling in the Crystal Lake Police Department.

Now he was a changed man from his youth, but still somehow scarred by it.

"I don't know why you wanted me to come with you Officer..." replied Obsidian, who took out some rather dorky looking sunglasses from his bag. They did not fit his long Equus face at all. "I don't see what more help I could be?"

"Simple!" replied Janus, shouting over the wind as they drove down the empty, dusty plains of northern Vulnira, towards the large mountains which were beginning to form in the distance. The road was almost completely empty, giving them an easy straight drive there. "I will need help getting into the Archeological Dig. That's where you come in."

"But I was only a minor historian!" replied Obsidian, who clearly wished that he had stayed behind. "I cannot even get into the classified areas myself!"

"Just help me get into the dig site and I'll do the rest!" replied Janus, though he had absolutely no idea what to expect from this. It was entirely possible that Phoenix Grace employed their own private security to this dig site, especially if it was as important as Obsidian had claimed it was.

"Look, I'm not getting shot for you..." replied Obsidian, almost immediately.

Janus looked at him, keeping one eye on the road. "Nobody is asking you to!" he responded curtly. "Once you get me inside, you can piss off back to Crystal if you want!"

Obsidian gave a rather feminine pout of disapproval as he crossed his arms in the chair. "I never asked to be involved in this in the first place" he said, making his annoyance obvious. "And... if Phoenix Grace discovered I helped law enforcement, I'll lose my job."

"Look... don't worry!" replied Janus as he picked up speed down the highway. He smirked and then said quickly. "It's not like you make that much anyway..."

"Oh you bitch!" replied Obsidian, looking at him in shock and annoyance, his white fur going a little pale due to the dust on the wind. "This dust is going to ruin my complexion and when we get back, I'm reporting you for kidnapping!"

"Fine... whatever" replied Janus. He cannot believe he had to spend another hour in the car with this drama queen.

***

Crystfall, was a small town on the edge of the huge Everonth Forest, at the base of the mountains. The town consisted of a few buildings, loosely strung along one main street, with only a few shops and utilities nearby.

This town had once been a mining town, mining precious minerals from the nearby Everonth Mines however the town had been greatly reduced in size over the years when the Vulperia Government had discovered that imported from Fesalis could be considerably cheaper than those produced locally.

This meant that the once great mining town, near the huge Everonth Mountains and at the springs of the river Crystal was reduced to a minor backwater town that nobody really paid any sort of attention to these days.

It was dusk when Janus's car pulled into the small car park of the local hotel, many of the shops and facilities that the town relied on almost completely were now closed but the porch light of the hotel continued to flicker gently as Janus got out the car.

"We are staying here?" replied Obsidian, looking at the crusty and dank hotel which consisted of a small office, owners residence and several rooms accessible from the porch, all made of a cheap white wood and painted about fifty years ago.

"Yeah, kinda reminds me of your place..." chuckled Janus as he began to walk over to the officer, ignoring Obsidian's camp failing at the snide jab.

The bell on the door range as he walked inside. The room was very small, consisting of a high front desk and two seats either side which looked like they had seen better days, like the net curtains on the window that had distinctive signs of mold growing on them.

Janus noticed a slight problem as he walked in the room and Obsidian entered behind him, still huffing and puffing like a child.

This desk had obviously been constructed for larger species and he was unable to reach the bell on the desk. He tapped his feet, slightly annoyed at the apparent lack of consideration in the construction of this place.

This was supposed to be his home country after all.

Obsidian let out a slight chuckle, looking at the situation. "Oh wow... you're not invincible" he said, ringing the bell on the desk for him.

Janus shot him a look that could have curdled cheese. Had he been carrying a weapon, he probably would have killed someone.

There was light footsteps coming from behind the desk as a tall grey and white deer-like Cervijord entered the room. He looked down at Janus and then over to Obsidian who were both standing there cluelessly.

The region of Everonth covered most of the northern border of Vulnira, beyond which was Cervijord, homeland of the Cervijord species which populated most of that area. Many of the people from Crystal Lake did not journey this far north without a reason.

The Cervijord looked over at both of his guests with his large black eyes. His ears twitched on the top of his head as he waited awkwardly for them to speak. He had a rather unusual pattern of white splodges scattered all about his grey fur, a pattern that Janus had never seen before but he rarely encountered Cervijord anyway. His antlers were rather small, probably cut down to keep him from smacking them on doorways which was a common problem among the Cervijord species.

"Yeah gents?" said the Cervijord deciding that he should speak first. He had been out the back, fixing a old motor vehicle, which were pretty common around this parts as most of their cars were unable to hover or completely incapable of flight, something which the modern cars and shuttles were easily capable of doing.

He smelt of engine grease and his cute tuft of light brown hair had streaks of black oil entangled in it.

"Hi, I'd like to book a room for the night please?" asked Janus, discarding his usual well-spoken mannerisms. He suspected that his normal accent would not be very welcome around these parts. Residents of Crystal Lake's Upper City were renowned for their snobby attitudes,

"Oh sure thing!" replied the young buck, from his age, Janus could tell that he could not be any older than twenty. His smooth feminine frame was complimented by a set of blue garage overalls. He turned round to grab the check in book from the shelf behind him, Janus staring at his small, perfectly formed bubble butt and small cute tail which raised up above it.

"Do you want a double room, the honeymoon suite is still available... " said the young buck, looking through the pages of the hotel check in book.

Both Janus and Obsidian looked at each other and grimaced. "We are not a couple!" they both said in almost perfect unison.

The young buck rubbed his chin with his cloven hooved hand. "Riiight?" he said sarcastically. "Don't worry, we are discreet here boys." he said, giving a short wink.

Obsidian looked mortified and Janus looked like he had swallowed a lemon. What exactly was this buck referring to?

"Look, we'll take a room with two single beds please!" he said, producing his bank card.

"Very well" replied the young buck, asking them to sign their names into the book and taking Janus's back card with a chuckle. "Room 2... You can push the beds together in there..." he said with a cheeky wink.

"Look... " replied Janus. "Listen to me here. I.. AM... NOT... GAY!" he remarked with some force in his words, behind him Obsidian was sniggering.

The young buck game him a look over and produced a set of keys which he gave to Janus for the room.

"Shame..."