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Chapter Nine.

Zack's heart was racing as he tried to think of what he could say, while Kyle's blue eyes bored into his green ones. He remained frozen for several seconds, his ears slowly returning to their normal state as he digested the question presented to him.

"W-well..." He managed to start, and tore away from the other canine's stare to look across the room, "It's...hard to explain..."

"Just start easy then." Kyle urged, shuffling on the bed, the erection he had been sporting was gone, diluted by the tense situation and now only shown by small bulge in his shorts. "What was the invisible thing attacking you?"

Zack sighed, staring down at his still knotted up cock. Even though he didn't feel a shred of arousal anymore, canine anatomy kept his cock twitching with the beat of his heart until his knot would start to go down. He closed his eyes from the sight as he realized he was going to have to trust Kyle, after what they had been through today.

"What was attacking me was a demon. They're called Dollmomin, and it had been with us the entire day, they had also been around that couple in the mall. Remember them?" He started softly, but continued to let it spill from his muzzle, "They appear to fed on anger and hate, and they can intensify the emotions of people around them who are feeling that."

Zack lifted his head to look back into Kyle's eyes, which now showed hints of questions and curiosity at Zack's beginning explanation. The wolf tried to twist his arms in the air as he kept going, "They look like a mass of...just inky smoke, but sometimes have a distinct lizard like form with red glowing eyes. They were at our first date, there was one of them that had been hanging around that family that had suddenly erupted and started yelling at each other. Then three had been hanging around that buck as he was in the corner of the diner. They saw me looking at them, and that's why I had to leave, that's why I pulled you with me. When we left, there were over a dozen of them that began to chase us, and that's why I pulled you with me. I knew you couldn't see or hear them, but I had no way of knowing if they'd leave you alone, they can still touch people even if not seen, so I had to keep you safe too..."

"So you really were trying to protect me." Kyle nodded, giving a smile, "Why wouldn't you just tell me that?" Kyle asked, tilting his head.

Zack gave a half smile, "Would you have believed me then? After I dragged you halfway across the city without any seeable danger? Would you really have believed me if I told you demons were chasing us?"

Kyle looked down a moment, "Maybe not right away, but after I found out about that stabbing by the buck I would have." He looked back up then and questioned, "But why is it only you can see them? Have you been able to your whole life?"

"I suspect there may be others who can see them, perhaps a psychic or something." Zack shrugged but shook his head as well, "But I haven't been able to see them my whole life, I've only started seeing them starting a few weeks ago, when-" He cut himself off suddenly, realizing he was almost to the point of revealing to Kyle what he was.

"When?" Kyle prompted when Zack failed to continue after some time, and the wolf sighed and he whispered.

"When I became a werewolf..."

A few seconds passed as Kyle leaned in, "What did you say? When you became a what?"

Zack sighed again and he said it louder, so that there was no way Kyle could think he misheard him, "When I became a werewolf."

Another few moments passed before Kyle gave a whisper of his own, "No way...that's...hard to believe." Zack folded his ears back, but the dalmatian continued on, "But that does explain your strength, the way your arms and ears transformed..." He hummed softly as he asked further, "How did you become one?"

Zack decided to continue, given that his companion wasn't out right telling him he was crazy, "Weeks ago Linus told me of some big "exploration" event that he had heard a lot of the other football players were planning that was going to be at the old warehouses on the opposite side of the city. You know the ones?" Kyle nodded as Zack kept going, "The whole thing was called off but Linus didn't get the chance to call and tell me, so I went. It was midnight and that night was a full moon. I happened to look up at it and...I don't know, I guess I could say something was "awakened" inside me. I had visions that I can barely remember now and got a massive headache but when they ended and I recovered one of the Dollmomin were standing right next to me. I panicked and when it realized I could see it it tried to attack me, but then a werewolf jumped in and saved me."

Kyle's eyes had widened, "There are other werewolves here in the city?"

"Not in the city exactly, just outside of it on the west side, up the mountains a bit, they found a cave. I'll get to that in a bit." Zack said, waving his paw as he continued his story, "I ran away, but another Dollmomin was there. Another of the werewolves stopped it, but as he fought it he got thrown and one of his fangs scratched my knee. It penetrated skin, and that was enough to turn me into one it seemed. Looks like that part of the legends are true. I blacked out, that first transformation hurt like hell..." He shivered a bit. "When I woke up I was back here, in my dorm room, and with the Alpha of those werewolves waiting for me to wake up, with eyes exactly the same color as mine. Now that I was one of them, I could understand him. He introduced himself as Luran and told me that they had come to this city specifically to find me."

"Specifically to find you? Even before you even became one of them they were looking for you?" Kyle tilted his head once more.

Zack nodded, "Apparently, It's my eyes." He pointed up at them and Kyle looked sharply at them, "I know one thing, and it's that eyes as brightly green as mine are really, really rare, I've never not once seen someone with eyes like mine until that night. In fact, I wasn't born with these eyes. I was born with blue eyes. When I turned twelve, on the date of my birthday exactly, they suddenly changed color to this. My parents tried to find out why, I was taken to multiple doctors, but none of them could find out the reason why they would suddenly change color. Nothing was wrong with me, if anything, my eyesight improved. It wasn't until I became a werewolf and met them that I've found out the real reasons why it happened."

Zack sighed at this point as he looked down at the floor again. His knot was starting to deflate, his sheath already peeling back over it on it's own as his length was retreating back into its home. "It appears that these bright green eyes are significant among werewolves. On the twelve birthday for a werewolf, if their eyes turn bright green, it marks them as one with the power to be called "Alpha" in their pack. As Luran has told me, where there is usually only one Alpha, himself, I have been made a second. For some unknown reason, their god, who I can't remember the name of right now, has made me an Alpha, even though I wasn't a werewolf at all then. They had came from their home from who knows where to find me when he was given a vision of my existence, he said they had travelled for months. Luran thinks that I'm a new breed of werewolf, one that can turn back and forth from the werewolf form to normal. Luran and his pack cannot transform, they were born as werewolves, and I'm apparently the first fur ever transformed by a bite who's been able to change back. There's only five of them, Luran and four others. It seems they are in a war with the Dollmomin, who want all of them dead for some reason. They are the last of their pack...the rest have been killed by the demons. That's why they came to find me, to enlist my help as a second Alpha."

"So..." Kyle started, awe in his voice, "You're already an Alpha for the werewolves, have you been turning others to build your pack?"

Zack scoffed, twitching his paws a bit dismissively, "No, and if only by that's the title my eyes earn me, sure. Alphas seem to have several different abilities from a normal werewolf, but if one of them tried to challenge me they'd probably kick my ass. None of them call me by the title, I haven't earned it, Luran's still the only Alpha in their eyes." He grimaced at that point, remembering what it would mean if the other werewolves ever did call him by that title, "And I honestly hope they never do see me as one."

"You don't want them to?" Kyle asked softly, and Zack shook his head, making the dalmatian question further, "Do you not want to be a werewolf?"

The wolf chuckled, "No, I don't. At first I denied Luran and the others nearly any interactions, even after knowing they were the last of their kind I was still reluctant, but not too long ago I came face to face with the person controlling the Dollmomin." Zack's eyebrows furrowed as he growled softly, remembering the way Balthazar had sicked the demons on Luran's leg. "He calls himself Balthazar, who knows if that's what he really is called, but he's different from the Dollmomin. He looks like a regular person for one, but he's shrouded in darkness and wears a cloaked hood that makes it impossible to tell what species of fur he may be. He confronted me about a week ago, close after you left actually, here on campus, on the roof of the science building." Zack pointed out his window a moment, "He had several Dollmomin with him. Luran had been visiting me here in my room, and tried to attack him, but the Dollmomin were too many and Luran got pinned down and hurt. Balthazar told me then, that he needs me to help the werewolves, and wants me to embrace it."

Zack looked down at his arm, flexing his paw a bit, "He needs my blood, he says. But not my blood as it is now, my blood after I've gotten the others to call me their Alpha alongside Luran. He wants me to turn others into werewolves and expand that influence, gain more power as an Alpha. What he needs the blood for exactly I don't know, but he's forced me to help Luran and the others. He even further said that even though Luran is an Alpha, that his blood won't work for what he needs, it has to be mine."

Zack looked at Kyle, the canine still listening, ears perked in continued interest and he asked him, "Have you been watching the news lately? The sudden rise in the amount of crime in the city parks? Several incidents of violence in restaurants and stuff? The riot that happened at that concert just a few days ago?"

Kyle nodded, "Yeah, it's been really strange, I hear rumors at work sometimes recently, and at school. People think that a crime boss has moved into the city."

"That's kind of what is happening. It's Balthazar using the Dollmomin to raise violent intentions out of furs. They seem to be able to latch onto what makes you uneasy or angry and increase those emotions, plant thoughts in your brain to make you act on them." Zack sighed, "He told me if I don't continue to develop so that he never gets the blood he needs, he'll slowly start making these crimes become murders, then mass murders..." Zack whined, folding his ears back, "He has the whole city as his hostage, and as much as I normally wouldn't care about a stranger's troubles, I can't sit back and let that happen..."

Kyle folded his own ears back and he whimpered, "Wow...but so, at the mall, the thing- the Dollmomin, that attacked you, why was it there?"

Zack looked sadly at the dalmatian, "It was inciting your dad, I can only guess that it was attracted by his feelings of hate towards your sexuality." Kyle's eyes widened, and the wolf explained, "It was already in the back seat of the car, when you picked me up. It was whispering in his ear nearly the entire time we drove to the mall...It knew I could see it but that I could nothing to it without looking crazy, it was taunting me. When your dad hurt you, it made me so angry I was shaking. It latched onto that anger and tried to incite me as well, told me to kill your dad. That was when I reached out and grabbed it by the neck. I don't think it expected me to try and attack it, but I was upset, and I thought you weren't looking because you were trying to bandage your paw...I crushed its neck and killed it, it had been trying to claw my arm when I did, those were the marks you saw."

"And then you left the body there? You said people can still feel them, what if someone finds it?" Kyle asked in surprise.

"The body was gone after everything was said and done." Zack shook his head, "I'm not sure what happened to it."

Zack fell silent then, as Kyle stared at him and began thinking through everything he'd just learned.

"You said they're the last of their kind." He stated and Zack nodded, "Why can't they just bite more folks?"

"I thought of that myself." Zack chuckled, wagging his tail slightly at the connection Kyle made to him in that thought, "I asked them that and they said they could continue their line by biting others, it appears though that if a female is bitten they become infertile. They'd have to survive by biting others for the rest of time, and those they bite would have to do the same. There'd never be a pure blooded werewolf born again, and they're really down about that. That's why Luran thinks I'm a new species of werewolf, and that I'm meant to start that revolution of werewolves reintegrating into normal fur society or something. I haven't bitten anyone myself, but Luran thinks if I did, they'd be able to transform back and forth as well."

Zack saw Kyle's eyes lit up, but as he opened his muzzle to say something a gruff voice sounded from the nearby window, now suddenly open.

"Hold your tongue Kyle, you're not ready for it, and neither are we."

Zack looked to the window as Kyle jumped on the bed, towards Zack, falling onto him in surprise as they both stared at the brown werewolf now leaning into the window a bit. Urie was grinning slightly at them both as was leaned in halfway into the window.

"What the heck!?" Kyle shouted, eyes wide once more and gaping, jaw open, at the hulking werewolf. "You're huge!"

Zack made a clicking noise with his tongue, "Wait till you see Shade..."

"Who? Shade?"

"One of the werewolves." Zack nodded towards Urie as the brown furred lycan crept the rest of his body through the open window and then he stood up, towering over the bed and the two canines with his werewolf size. "He's nearly a foot taller than Urie here."

Kyle continued to gape, his body still and he eventually turned his head to Zack, "How...how big do you get?" He turned back to the werewolf, "Also isn't this dangerous? Someone could see him!"

"They've been very good about not being seen, even my own senses become so sharp I can just tell if someone is looking at me." Zack shrugged, "And the rooms adjacent to mine are empty, no one could hear him. It's also very late at night." He glared at his window, "Though I don't enjoy how they broke my window lock so they could let themselves in."

Urie rolled his eyes, but said nothing as Kyle continued to stare at him, slowly recovering from his shock. Zack watched his boyfriend look at the werewolf, and grinned as he watched Kyle's eyes hovering several more seconds then they needed to at Uries sheath and balls.

"Yes, I'm naked." Urie grumbled, a hint of playfulness in his otherwise gruff voice.

Kyle looked up with a deep blush covering his white furred cheeks and Zack chuckled, "How long you been listening Urie?"

The blue eyed lycantrophe shrugged, "About a minute, but it was enough for me to guess that you told him that you're a werewolf. Were you planning to bite him?"

Zack shook his head, "Wasn't planning to persay." The wolf picked up on how Kyle's shoulders dropped, "I'm not ready to try that yet, and just like you said, I don't think the rest of you are ready for me to try forming my own pack either." Zack looked off to the side, "I don't even know who'd I want to bite? I mean what if they can't change back after all? It'd be like killing someone..."

Kyle folded his ears back at this and Zack believed the dalmatian may have felt a moment of selfishness at that, realizing he'd been so eager to be bitten at first before Urie had interjected on the conversation.

Urie turned his eyes to Zack then, "Then we're on the same page with that, at least." He grumbled, "Luran has woken, I came to tell you what he wanted to say."

"He's awake?!" Zack repeated, relief flooding through him. "Oh thank god...does he seem okay?"

At this, the Guardian crossed his arms, "He's apparently been all right for some time..." He growled, "He woke up a day after you treated him, he's been meditating this whole time instead."

"Meditating?" Zack repeated once more, a flash of irritation replacing the relief, "This whole time we thought he's been passed out he's just been...doing whatever it is he does?"

Urie nodded, he shared Zack's feelings on the matter. "I know, it made me upset too. He'd been apparently spending all this time trying to find out any kind of information he could about Balthazar, and this is what he found." Urie took a breath as he began to relay the knowledge, "Luran wasn't able to find out much, but he found out some of his origins. He isn't from this world, he was summoned here by someone or something else to lead the Dollmomin. Luran also believes he's found out what he needs your blood for, and that's why doing what he wants can't be done."

"Why? What is it the blood is needed for?"

Urie shook his head, "Luran doesn't know for sure, but he thinks Balthazar plans to use your blood to infect others, but in such a way that they're...wild beasts. Werewolves with no mind, not even thinking, not even a mind enough to know danger. Even a wild feral wolf will show thinking ability, but these will be mindless. They'll attempt to kill anything not a werewolf. The visions he had showed such ferocity in them." The brown werewolf looked at Zack sternly, "As much as it may not be okay to say it, if that's truly his goal, we must never allow you to develop at all until we know how to stop him."

"If we do nothing though, won't he start killing people?" Kyle asked.

Urie shook his head again, "If some must be lost to keep this from happening, then so be it."

Zack stared at Urie when the brown werewolf said this, but then he stood up from the bed and turned to stand before the large Guardian. He stared up into the blue eyes of the lycantrophe as he stated, "I can't accept that." Before the other could reply he continued, "I'm not ready to advance yet, I know, I can't say I'm ready to commit to trying to form my own pack. It would mean I'd have to nearly leave my entire life behind. I won't let it get to the point that he tries to kill anyone though, we'll just have to work together to find the means to stop him before I get to the point that he seems to want."

Urie looked down a moment at Zack before he nodded, "I suppose that is as good as I can ask for. I don't want people to have to die as well." Urie turned away and made his way around the bed again to the window. "That's all I came to inform you of though, I'll be returning to the cave now, I need to return to Luran's side. He once again got me to run off on an errand for him but I'm not going to let that happen again."

Zack nodded, "I suppose you guys don't mind if Kyle came with me next time I came up to visit?"

Urie paused and he turned his head over his shoulder to look at the spotted canine, his eyes roving Kyle's form and he shrugged, "If you trust him, we will have to as well. If he is to be the first one you bite, eventually, might as well get him accustomed to us."

Zack looked at Kyle, who sheepishly grinned at the wolf. He did want to be bitten, Zack could tell, but he wouldn't do that yet, not until he knew he was ready for that kind of responsibility, especially if Kyle wasn't able to transform back.

He nodded to Urie, "All right, see you guys later tomorrow." And with that, Urie began crawling out the window, he perched on the edge and then launched himself forward into the air. He seemed to vanish into the bushes as he hit the ground.

Zack sat back down next to Kyle with a tired sigh. It was now nearly four in the morning. While he'd been staying up later than he'd normally do so since he'd become a werewolf, trying to help the others, he still felt dead tired. He felt Kyle lean against him then, the dalmatian giving a yawn of his own and one of his paws placing itself on Zack's bare thigh.

"I still have like...a hundred questions, about them and the future of us and the like." He groaned as he tried to stifle another yawn with his words, "But I think we both need to sleep, yeah?"

Zack nodded with a little chuckle, "Yeah, let's get to sleep, we can talk more tomorrow. I'm glad it's the weekend and I don't have to worry about classes."

"Yeah me too." Kyle shivered as he followed the wolf when Zack began to lean down along his bed, cuddling up against him, "If I had to go to school after what happened today I wouldn't be able to focus on anything. My dad being arrested which I'm sure I'll probably be called into the office at school with my principal worried if I'm all right or something, then finding out you're a werewolf, and then getting to see one of them...I'm exhausted."

Zack took a moment to help Kyle out of his clothing, Zack couldn't help but notice for the first time that on Kyle's sheath and balls where two black spots, one placed on his left orb, and the other covering part of the right side of his sheath. It was cute.

Zack wrapped his arms around the other canine, chest to chest, he wrapped his legs slightly around Kyle's and pressed against him holding the slightly smaller canine against him, his head over his, and their sheaths pressed against each other.

The wolf murred softly as he held his boyfriend and he felt Kyle's sheath thicken against his own from the closeness and intimacy. The tip of Kyle's cock peeked from the white furred sheath, but Zack did nothing to further the arousal and eventually that faded and they both fell asleep.

_______________

Another week passed by, the weekend he got to spend with Kyle living in his dorm room went by quickly. Besides cuddling and having sex a few times, they played video games and Zack transformed for Kyle once to show him what he looked like as a werewolf. Zack could tell that Kyle was falling for him all the more because of this aspect of him, and while that made him happy, he was worried about what Kyle said when Zack asked him if he did want to be bitten.

"I do...I really, really do..." Kyle had said softly, ears pinned back, "I mean, I know it sounds really selfish of me and tons of people would tell me my life could get better now that my dad's out of the picture, but...I just think I'd have a better time with it then trying to pick up those pieces. At the same time too, like you said, if I'm not able to change back, that's like I'm dying to live another life and I don't want to put my mom through that. She'd deserve to at least know what happened to me."

While Zack figured there was no reason Kyle wouldn't be able to tell his mom in secret before going into his new life, he figured he'd let Kyle hold that reason until such a time in the future that they could discuss the matter further. On Saturday evening Zack had Kyle drive them to the nearest park area on the west side of town to the pack's cave, and Zack led the dalmatian up the mountain trails to their cave.

Zack introduced Kyle to Luran firstly. The Alpha was still resting, his leg was still rather torn up even though he had woken up much earlier than they had realized. Luran seemed very tired and he didn't speak much, but he did tell Kyle that he thought the dalmatian had good looking eyes, and wondered what he'd might look like as a werewolf. Zack thought about that himself then, would Kyle keep the spotted pattern of his family, or would his fur become something completely new? As close as wolves and dogs were genetically, how much could turning into a werewolf change a dog? Zack pictured then Linus, or Drailsin. How would their bodies be if they were transformed? Could a feline even feasibly shift into a canine? He shelved those thoughts for a later time.

The others also were nice to Kyle, in their own ways. Urie was respectful but kept his distance, keeping close instead to Luran. It seemed he was taking what he had said true and was not going to leave Luran's side if he could help it anymore. Raze kept mostly to himself, but smiled at the both of them occasionally as he was working his herbs or tending to Luran's leg with the first aid they still had from earlier. Shade only gave a grunt and made a single, gruff comment once when Kyle had been gawking at him for too long, "See something you like pup?" The big black werewolf had said with a grin, followed by a deep laugh which made Kyle blush heavily and made him refuse to stare at Shade for long periods again.

Tarn accepted Kyle's presence and continued to be his cheery self most of the time, but Zack realized that the red furred wolf's attitude was distance and unfocused when they ate that night in the cave with the werewolves. He was often staring at Kyle or Zack blankly, so lost in his thoughts that Zack would have to speak up to snap him out of it. When he eventually asked the red furred wolf what was wrong, Tarn had folded his ears back and said he didn't want to really talk about it. Zack ended up giving up after a few tries of trying to get Tarn to speak to him about what was bothering him.

He and Kyle left later that night and returned to his dorm, and they spent the next day just relaxing in his dorm room, cuddling or playing games. On Monday morning, Kyle returned home early to be able to prepare for school while Zack also returned to his college classes. The dalmatian stopped by every day after school though. They helped each other with homework, cuddled, had sex a few more times, visited the cave, and played more games during the evenings throughout the week.

Mostly, the week past by for what Zack accepted as normal for him now. He continued to see a Dollmomin every now and then. When Kyle was with him, he would point them out, but the dalmatian of course could not see them. He got to witness their effects more closely though when some people would suddenly start arguing with each other. Asides from those incidents, reports continued to come in on the news about attempted thefts in the parks and now in the streets of the city, attempted assaults at other public places. On Wednesday, when the news did a segment about the rise of crime and how it appeared that it was starting to give the city negative publicity for the rest of the world, the city mayor did a press conference the next day. Zack wasn't surprised about this, tourism was the city's main source of income, after all. Surrounded by mountains but by the sea to the south, it was a mixture of beach paradise and mountain resorts that gave the city its fame. The mayor, Tyrone Russ, was a well built black bear. He'd been handling the city well for nearly seven years now. In his conference, Tyrone assured the citizens of Trent that he was going to be working very closely with the city police to get to the bottom of the park and street muggings. When questioned about incidents in other places that weren't thefts, the mayor said that it appeared to be mostly personal issues that sparked those attacks. There was nothing much that could be done without invading people's personal lives, so unless someone came to seek help from them they couldn't do much, but further stated he would work in increasing patrols where most of the incidents seemed to take place, namely being the mall. Zack wondered what would happen if Balthazar became public knowledge, would the police and government be willing to help him deal with the demon?

It was Friday evening now, the day of the play that Zack had bought the tickets for, and Kyle was with him as they waited for the doors to the theater to open and be let in. Zack was looking forward to this. It'd been some time since he'd seen any kind of acting on stage, besides what'd he'd seen when he got that small sneak peek when he met Drailsin.

When the doors opened they sat down at their designated seats, next to a spotted raccoon and a fox, and settled in to watch the show.

At first, the director was the one who came up on stage firstly. He gave a brief telling of how he was proud of the students for the amount of work they'd put into making the show as great as possible and how thankful he was to get to work with them, he asked that everyone hold their applause for the end of the show since the play was done by script and sung to music tracks which couldn't be paused, before he eventually stepped off stage to take a seat reserved for himself in the front middle row and the curtains were pulled back to show just one actor, the portley badger that Zack remembered seeing when he had snuck his peek at the play before.

The badger was looking sullen and upset, before he looked up to the crowd. Dark and dreary music began to play from the stereos in the theater and he began to sing in a baritone, a small microphone by the collar of his brown dress shirt put his voice through the speakers at a medium volume, so as not to drown out the music but so that he could be heard throughout the theater..

"Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd

His skin was pale and his eye was odd

He shaved the faces of gentlemen

Who never thereafter were heard of again

He trod a path that few have trod

Did Sweeney Todd

The demon barber of Fleet street

He kept a shop in London Town

Of fancy clients and good renown

And what if none of their souls were saved?

They went to their maker impeccably shaved

By Sweeney

By Sweeney Todd

The demon barber of Fleet street

Swing your razor wide, Sweeney

Hold it to the skies

Freely flows the blood of those who moralize

His needs were few, his room was bare

A lavabo and a fancy chair

A mug of suds and a leather strop

An apron, a towel, a pail and a mop

For neatness he deserved a nod

Did Sweeney Todd

The demon barber of Fleet street

Inconspicuous, Sweeney was

Quick and quiet and clean, he was

Back of his smile, under his word

Sweeney heard music that nobody heard

Sweeney pondered and Sweeney planned

Like a perfect machine, he planned

Sweeney was smooth, Sweeney was subtle

Sweeney would blink, and rats would scuttle

Sweeney, Sweeney, Sweeney, Sweeney

Sweeney

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd

He served a dark and a vengeful god

What happened then, well, that's the play

And he wouldn't want us to give it away

Not Sweeney

Not Sweeney Todd

The demon barber of Fleet street."

At this, he began to step back, as another actor, this one a golden retriever wearing very plain, but what would have passed for basic lower middle class, clothing for the time the play was set for. He held his arms out as he walked across the stage, a bright smile on his face as he began to sing as well, the music changing right as he did to a more bright and cheerful tone.

"I have sailed the world,

beheld its wonders

from the Dardanelles,

to the mountains of Peru,

But there's no place like London!"

"No there's no place like London..."

Zack's ears perked at Drailsin's own singing, his voice dark and foreboding, but filled with a certain passion. Zack knew the play Sweeney Todd well enough to know what was going to happen, and he felt Drailsin captured that sinister intent in his voice well, keeping it in tone with the music that turned a hint darker as Sweeney Todd entered scene. The dragon walked out slowly from the side of the stage, wearing a flowing gray trench coat, his paws held behind his back as he walked past the dog, staring off to the other side of the theater, eyeing the crowd but making as if he was instead staring out to some far away sight.

The music continued on softly in the background, as the golden retriever spoke instead of singing, "Mr. Todd?"

Drailsin continued to sing in response.

"You are young...

Life has been kind to you...

You will learn."

He sung the last three words slowly while looking over his shoulder at the dog, who frowned convincingly and Drailsin looked back to the crowd as if staring off into the distance once more. The music picked up with Drailsin's words as he sung more quickly, his voice quick but still dark but smooth.

"There's a hole in the world like a great black pit

And the vermin of the world inhabit it

And its morals aren't worth what a pig can spit

And it goes by the name of London..."

Drailsin turned to the middle of the crowd as his lips were curled back as if snarling at the thoughts he was having about the city London.

"At the top of the hole sit a privileged few

Making mock of the vermin in the lower zoo

Turning beauty to filth and greed...

I too have sailed the world and seen its wonders,

For the cruelty of men is as wondrous as Peru

But there's no place like London!"

The music had crescendoed at the last line, as Drailsin nearly screamed it out. Zack had the urge to applaud but held it in, as the music lowered down and the dog continued with his next line, speaking softly while approaching the side of the dragon cautiously, "Is everything alright, Mr. Todd?"

Drailsin looked over his shoulder once more at the retriever, his lips thinning as his scowl faded, "I beg your indulgence, Antony, but my mind is far from easy. In these once familiar streets I feel shadows, everywhere."

"Shadows?"

Again, Drailsin sung.

"There was a barber and his wife

And she was beautiful...

A foolish barber and his wife.

She was his reason and his life.

And she was beautiful,

And she was virtuous.

And he was naive."

Drailsin stalked away, his paws twisting behind his back as he scowled once more, while in the background of the stage and on a second floor, a light turned on, revealing a very pretty vixen in a flowing dress and a doberman in a suit with a top hat. Another fur, dressed like Drailsin, the young lizard who Zack had seen acting alongside him before, came forward along that second floor with another spotlight on him as Drailsin continued singing, looking at the crowd to make it obvious that the scene behind him was a flashback.

"There was another man who saw

That she was beautiful...

A pious vulture of the law

Who, with a gesture of his claw,

Removed the barber from his plate!"

As he sung this, the actors behind him silently portrayed the scene, as the vixen seemed to refuse the dobermans advances, the lizard playing the younger Todd came forward to rescue her. He led her away and then turned back to the doberman, only to suddenly have a knife sticking out from his back. He fell to the ground between the vixen and doberman. The vixen showed a sorrowful face and fell to her knees before the doberman as the younger Todd lay before her, assumed dead, the doberman holding a smug sneer on his muzzle. The lights turned off to the scene as Drailsin continued.

"Then there was nothing but to wait!

And she would fall!

So soft!

So young!

So lost

And oh, so beautiful!"

The dog spoke once more, "The lady, sir, did she succumb?"

Drailsin turned to the the dog as he continued to sing.

"Oh that was many years ago...

I doubt if anyone would know."

Drailsin then turned back to normal speaking as he waved his arms to thank the canine. "I'd like to thank you, Anthony. If you hadn't spotted me, I'd be lost on the ocean still."

"Will I see you again?"

"You might find me, if you like, around Fleet Street. I wouldn't wonder..."

"Till then, my friend." And the dog gave a brief wave of his paw before he turned and walked away off the stage, the same way he had came.

Drailsin watched him before he turned slowly on the heel of his footpaw, and with paws folded behind him once more, began walking slowly to the other side of the stage with a stern and grim look on his face as he sung once more with the music, slowly, the scene behind him changed as the stage props were rapidly moved around by the stage hands.

"There's a hole in the world like a great black pit

And it's filled with people who are filled with shit

And the vermin of the world inhabit it..."

The play went on for three and half hours, telling the story of Sweeny Todd's tale of vengeance and tragedy, as he killed the people that had wronged him, and then in doing so, killed the women he loved, realizing it only too late, and to have his neck cut by the young boy who'd he taken in from the streets.

At the end, as the boy left the stage leaving Drailsin dying among the pile of bodies he had amassed in his killing sprees, the curtains closed and the music gave it's final chorus, before the lights began to turn on and Zack stood up with the rest of the theater as the crowd applauded the act, giving a few whistles and whoops here and there.The curtains pulled back again to reveal the entire cast, all holding paws as they took a bow all at once.

_____________

"Zack! Kyle!"

The pair turned to see the purple dragon bouncing up to them, a huge grin on his face as he did and they turned towards him. They had waited outside the theater for the dragon to come out, as the other actors and attendees were able to slowly fill out from the theater.

"Hey Drailsin." Zack smiled and wagged his tail, "Man that acting was something else, you really were nailing it."

The dragon smirked, "You really think so huh? I felt like I had been missing some key moments, I need to work on making my voice sound more low while keeping it smooth."

The eastern dragon flung his arms around both of the canine's necks and stood between them as he began walking, making them both walk with them towards the dorm building. "Again, it's hot as hell up there, how was it in the audience?"

"It was okay." Kyle chuckled, "It wasn't too hot, I bet it was boiling up there with those spotlights though."

"Oh you have no idea! Do you any idea how low my balls were hanging up there?" Drailsin teased the dog, whose eyes widened. Zack however, chuckled.

"All your stuff is internal." He finished the joke and Drailsin hissed at him.

"Shhhhh you're not supposed to spoil the joke, let me tease him!" The dragon grinned and turned his head back over to Kyle, "So tell me, how big is Zack? He wouldn't give me any clues, but I've felt that sheath, he's packing huh? I have to know."

"Uh..." Kyle stammered, again caught completely off guard by how direct the dragon could be.

"Enough Drailsin." Zack rolled his eyes, and the dragon looked at him again, making a clicking noise.

"You're not fun." the dragon pouted and he pulled away from the canines and stepped ahead of them two steps, his tail coming up to flick Zack across the nose. He turned around then and handed out to them two tickets. "Here, you both should take these."

Zack took one, expecting it to be a ticket to the next play, but it was instead a pass of some kind. "What are these?" He questioned as he turned it around in his paw, the other side of it read Star light tram services.

"They're passes to take the box cars up to the top of the ski lodge resort." Drailsin said, grinning widely as he pointed at them both, "Lifetime passes"

"Wait...these are really expensive, I didn't even know they had lifetime passes!" Kyle said slowly in awe, "How the heck did you afford them?"

"Hmm?" The dragon hummed, but then grinned, "Oh, they're free." At the both of their expressions he giggled, "It's simple really. My family owns the ski resort at the mountain top."

Both of the canine's jaws dropped. Drailsin only continued to smirk at the reaction he was getting before Zack managed to finally speak, "What? Your...family owns that place?"

"Oh yeah. Mom and Dad live up there too, as dragons from the north we can handle working in cold environments." Drailsin chuckled, "I normally go up there to spend my weekends and help out a bit, where it's nice and cold, so I don't actually get to know many people here on campus. I know we haven't talked much here as well, but I thought it'd be a good way to actually become better friends to spend a weekend up there in the resort. I could probably even get my folks to give you keys to my permanently reserved cabin, so you could visit and stay a weekend whenever you'd like. Course, skiing is free too, and if you come with me to the restaurant up there food is free as well. The cooks there know to feed me if I come in, I'd assume they wouldn't refuse if I told them I was having friends over." The dragon giggled with a shrug as he looked at them both. "What do you both say?"

A few moments of silence passed as Zack studied the ticket he'd been given further. It was a lifetime pass, he could visit the resort whenever he wanted. He was probably holding the most expensive item he'd ever get his paws on in his entire life! He'd never been up there before, he'd always wanted to but even a day of renting a cabin was nearly a thousand dollars, he'd heard the food at the restaurant was like eating divine cuisine. "Dude..." He said and looked back up at Drailsin, wagging his tail, then looking over to the side at Kyle, who had a similar look on his face. "That sounds awesome! I'd love the chance!" He nodded to the dragon, who waved his arms open with a big grin.

"Great! I think you know where the box up to the resort is. I'll see you up there tomorrow morning?" Drailsin said and he patted both of their shoulders as he walked between them once more, turning around and walking backwards for their reply.

Both of the canines nodded, rapidly their tails wagging like crazy, "Absolutely." Kyle answered.

"See ya up in the cold then!" The dragon chuckled and turned around to half run, half skip away from them happily.