Micro Christmas
Micro Christmas
A shadow appeared above the head of a fleeing fox; toes large enough to cover his entire frame flex and cause the shadow to grow and shrink around him while shifting forward along with the rest of the foot to stay in position. A slight musk fills the air along with a giggle; standing above, moving her foot and watching with glee as the micro fox runs and screams is a skunk. The fox shakes his head, not daring look back. "No please! Please stop!" He shouts as his little legs move as quickly as they can.
From a distance, hiding against one of the giantess' boots is Shoul, a wolf . He watches with lowered ears, shivering. He didn't know the fox, but for the last three days he'd been cooped up in some cage, which had been wrapped in wrapping paper, full of another fifteen or so micros and this fox had been one of them. He watches as the toes of the skunk lower and flick, knocking the fox onto his stomach before those broad pads press into his back and grind him firmly into the floor.
The sound of the fox scrambling and clawing on the floor is audible to to Shoul while he moves to duck beneath the bed, running past a few of the other micros trying to find hiding spots. He's not sure why, the hiding spots won't be effective soon. He moves towards one of the legs of the bed and stares across the room at the cracked door. It's right in front of the giantess but he'd have to make it if he was going to escape this. A crackle snaps his attention back to the fox.
"Awww, poor little micro; which of your bones did I crack?" The skunk asks, picking her foot up and peering down at the fox whose leg is clearly broken. The vulpine struggles and drags himself across the floor as soon as the pressure is gone, sobbing as the giantess mocks him above.
"Ohh, you're pretty strong if you're still moving after that... hmm..." An evil glint in her eyes tells Shoul that the fox should've just stayed there and taken solace in the notion that he would be less fun for her to kill. The giantess leans down over the little fox, white-tipped fingers grasping his good leg and holding it for a moment before there's another sudden SNAP. Shoul winces and clenches his fist, how could she be so cruel?
The fox screams and starts to attempt to struggle but the pain shooting through his nerves from his legs stop him. Shoul starts to creep from his hiding place thinking, perhaps, that the giantess is too busy with the fox toy to pay attention to him. After only a few steps he hears a shout, "Wait! Danny don't!" Shoul turns to see a vixen holding her arms out and chasing frantically after a fox kit. Following the kit for a second with his eyes, Shoul can see the kid clearly running towards what must be his doomed relative. "Stop! T-that's my dad! Stop!" The kit shouts as the giantess whom only peers over to him and grins.
The skunk lets go of the father and brings her paw up above the little kit, splaying her toes out with a smirk. She says nothing as she brings it down with enough force to destroy the kid and Shoul can only close his eyes. "No..." He moans to himself, turning his head.
Several pops and a crunch is heard along with two separate screams. Shoul opens his eyes and looks up just in time to hear the kit scream again. "Mom!!" A quick glance tells the wolf that the vixen had somehow saved the kit but at her own expense. The skunk lifted her paw with a mrrl, giggling a bit and peering down at the red stain on the ground. "I missed" is all she says as she brings a single toe over the sobbing kit. "Now stand still this time..."
Shoul growls, tensing while adrenaline pumps through his body. The fox male nearby crawls and claws towards his son. "R-run! Run!" He moans out as he tries to work through his wounds; it's obvious he won't make it to the kit, though. Shoul darts out, running as quickly as he can. The giantess notices the sound, laughing as the wolf scrambles across the floor.
A blur of black and white and then a sharp pain is all the wolf remembers from the kick the skunk gave him. Shoul flies back after the skunk's toe slams his frame. He hits the wall and then collapses on the ground, feeling several of his ribs shift a little too freely in his chest. It was a foolish move, why did he think he could save the kit? He stands up slowly and the skunk peers down at him. "You micros are fun" she smirks, leaving the kit alive for now as she walks across the room and opens up a carrier.
From inside of the carrier walks a massive, feral feline. The nose on the cat twitches and sniffs around, causing screams to echo from across the room. Micros that were previously hidden now run, knowing their end would inevitably come if they tried to remain hidden. The cat moves towards the broken fox first. "D-dan! Get out of here! Run!" The fox shouts at the sobbing kit hugging to his damaged frame. "Get out of here!" He shouts frantically right before the cat bats at him with claws drawn. Blood splatters as several gashes appear in the fox's side and the kit is thrown from his father's arm by the force of the blow, causing the giantess to smirk from above.
"Aww, he just wants to play. Why so serious?" The skunk asks while she brings one of her feet over the form of a mouse micro, crushing him easily before reaching down to grab a few more micros. She tosses these into her muzzle and begins to suckle over their little frames, watching now as the feline mrowls with a predatory glee before he finally grabs the father in his jaws and with a few snaps of his muzzle, consumes the male. The kit is bawling by this point, and Shoul isn't sure what he's going to do.
"Tina? Dinner!" A voice screams from somewhere below the floor.
The skunk perks and awrs, "But mom I'm--"
"Dinner! Now!"
"Fine..." The giantess picks the cat up and walks back over to the carrier. Her muzzle keeps working over the micros trapped inside but soon enough there are two bulges traveling down her throat, towards her belly.
Thinking she found them, another pair of micros jump from behind the carrier and start running but they're intercepted when a large, heavy, hot paw slams down over both their frames. Tina smirks and grinds her foot into their forms, placing her cat back into the carrier before she leans down and picks them both up. "Wanna play with Tibbs?" She asks with a smirk.
"W-why are you doing this!?"
"Because it's fun." She says simply before tossing the two in with the cat. There're more screams and a lots of scrambling in the cage as the cat attempts catches its prey. Meanwhile, Shoul scoops up the kit who has been laying in the same spot he was thrown to when the cat hit his father. He sighs, feeling bad for the little fox. "We have to get out of here..." He winces and walks as quickly as he can towards the door, feeling the bones in his chest shift. There are a few rumbles but the wolf is too focused on making it to that door to realize what was making them.
"Where do you think you're going?" Shoul's fur stands on end and he turns to see the massive toe of the skunkess settled before him. He stares up past her breasts and towards her grinning face. "Please..." He says gently, backing away slowly, feeling his muscles giving out from the sheer weight of his own helplessness. "J-just..." He lowers his ears. "M-make it fast..."
The giantess laughs and nods. "Thatta boy, now hold still..." She lifts her paw up and Shoul closes his eyes, holding the kit close to his chest.
"Young lady! I said DINNER!" Shouts something in the distance and just as sure as the paw was coming down one moment, Shoul finds the ceiling to be the only thing above him the very next moment. He looks around and notices the skunk's mom dragging her down the stairs.
"Mom! I was p-"
"That's enough out of you."
Shoul slumps and falls to his knees, breathing deeply while the kit clasped to his chest shivers and whimpers to himself. Shoul looks around the massive hallway of the giantess' home, grinning as he finds a little tiny hole at the base of one of the walls. He gets on his knees and squeezes into the hole, chest burning from both respiratory and structural exertion. The pain starts to come back now that the wolf isn't in danger and he decides to rest there for a while. Settling the kit down next to him, Shoul leans against the interior of the wall and tries to keep himself from passing out. He fails.
"They're dead." Are the words Shoul wakes up to. He looks around before he sees the little kit shivering with his knees clasped in his arms to his chest. "Why would she do it...? What'd they do to her?"
The wolf knows all too well the pain the kit is feeling, but he doesn't know what to say. It's a lesson many micros learn, something most come to realize at a certain age, some earlier than others: You have no worth in the eyes of the giants. Not past being made into some sick form of entertainment.
"They didn't do anything." Shoul speaks as he stands up, cringing as pain shoots through his chest again. "You can't trust the giants, that's all... we can't stay here."
He shivers, standing up and looking to the kit who stays in place.
"We have to go, we can't stay here. They'll find us and we'll both end up dead too!" He growls gently. "Comeon, we have to go!"
The kit doesn't move and Shoul ends up leaning down to pick him up again. "I'm sorry about your parents, I really am. I wish it didn't happen, I wish we were all back in our separate homes but we're not.."
Words aren't spoken as Shoul expertly finds his way through the infrastructure of the home and before an hour has passed, the cool winter air brushes over both his and the kit's bodies. The wolf pets over the child's head as he walks through the grass towards the sidewalk where there is less snow to worry about.
"I'm sorry..." The kit suddenly speaks, hugging against the wolf's neck, causing Shoul to perk his ears and then smile. "Don't be, this isn't your fault. My name is Shoul, what's yours?"
"Dan. I...I think I can walk."
Shoul settles the fox on the ground and the two walk together along the side of the snowy sidewalk, keeping close to the edge of the grass while Dan adjusts a collar strapped to his neck to make it more comfortable. Shoul notices the collar but doesn't ask, assuming the skunk or some other giant put it on the child.
"Where are we gonna go?" Dan asks, staring towards the larger wolf.
A frown appears over Shoul's muzzle. Where will they go? There's nowhere he knows of nearby and it's the middle of winter... he might make it through the night but the kit won't. Anger wells up inside as he starts blaming the giants. This is all their fault, after all. If they'd just stop being so ruthless then he'd at least be able to scrape together some sort of life. His thought process derails after a moment, though. This kind of thinking won't get them out of the cold.
"I don't know." He answers.
After a few hours of walking, Shoul finally leads the kit into an alley, exhausted. He sits and leans against the brick wall of a massive building and picks the kit up to hold the child close to his torso for warmth. "I'm sorry, Dan, I don't know what we're going to do. I don't know where we are and I haven't seen any other micros..."
A simple nod is all Dan gives, shivering into the wolf's body. "Do they hate us? Is that why?"
The question comes as a bit of a surprise to Shoul but he answers as best he can, "I don't think they hate us, they're just cruel. They think killing us and destroying our lives and families is fun. Trust me, Dan, if you can avoid running into the giants for the rest of your life then you'll have lived better than most micros I know."
"Do you think we'll die out here?"
"No... I'll think of something." Shoul says gently, smiling reassuringly down at the kit despite having no clue what he'd 'think' of.
The morning comes fast and the fact that he wakes up is Shoul's only way of knowing that he fell asleep. He can feel his bones freezing but the kit remains warm, cuddled against his stomach. He smiles a little.
"He woke up, better grab him before he runs."
Shoul's eyes dart upwards only to see the massive fingers of a giant wrapping around both him and Dan. He tries to move but the fingers are too fast, he tries to bite but they're covered in gloves. He pulls Dan up so that he's not crushed against his body and shivers as the face of an even larger wolf fills his vision. The two are separated with Dan, only just now waking up in one hand and Shoul in the other.
"This one's the tracer micro, says he belongs to a Ms. Tina. They must be the two that escaped." Says the wolf to his otter partner.
"H-how did you know? What are you going to do!?" He shouts up to the wolf who only smiles. "The little fox here has a tracer collar on." he explains. "And we're takin' you back to your owner."
"No! Wait!" Shoul shouts, cringing. "Please don't... she's gonna kill us, she killed his parents yesterday! Please..."
"S-shoul? What's happening?" Dan shouts as he realizes he's settled in a giant's palm.
"You're both going back and that's all there is to it. Sorry." The wolf shrugs a little and walks back to the van with the other giant.
"Comeon! You can't do this!" Shoul shouts, quivering and almost hoping the giant just kill him right here. "You can't! Anything but back there..." He looks down, still quivering.
Dan stares at Shoul and begins to become afraid himself. "A-are we going to be okay, Shoul? W-what's gonna happen?"
"It is christmas eve, Rick." The otter giant finally speaks, peering down at Shoul and Dan for a moment.
"What're you saying?" Snaps the giant wolf. "We can't just steal someone's property, Jake."
"I know... but look at them, they're just kids. I mean, sure they're micros but... I dunno, it just doesn't feel right to me, especially not on Christmas Eve." Jake says with a shrug. "No one, not even a micro, should have to deal with something like that on Christmas Eve."
Rick rolls his eyes, "I'm not putting in extra hours for this. If you take care of them, I won't say anything." The otter smiles.
Dan and Shoul are taken to a small office several miles away where they're left with Jake.
"Want some food? I bet you're both hungry." He says gently, pulling something out of a container and settling two pieces of meat down before the wolf and fox.
They both hesitate at first but, eventually, Dan walks forward and starts to bite and chew pieces of the steak; Shoul follows suit shortly after. Shoul isn't sure he can trust this giant, but he's damn glad to not have to go back to that skunk's house.
"Thank you." Dan says with a slight smile, looking up to the otter whom smiles back. "It's my pleasure... though, now that you're eating, I have a bit of a proposal. You see, my son has always wanted to have a micro... and this year I think he's old enough to take care of a few."
"So you want us to be his pets?" Shoul asks, trying to mask his distaste for the notion. The otter had saved them from certain death so he didn't want to seem ungrateful but, at the same time, he doesn't want to be a pet.
"I know it probably doesn't sound that great to you, but, believe me, I know you all aren't treated well out there. This is probably your best bet at anything stable."
The words couldn't be truer and it bothers Shoul that this is the case.
"I'll leave it up to you two." Jake places a cage on the table. "If you wanna come with me, enter the cage. If not, when I return, I will return you to where Rick and I found you."
"Okay..." Shoul speaks while Jake stands to tend to his business.
"We should go with'em." Dan says, looking to Shoul. "He's nice"
"None of them are nice, have you already forgotten what happened to your parents yesterday? This is just an act..." Shoul frowns.
Dan cringes and lowers his ears which causes Shoul to quickly restate what he said. "I-I'm sorry, it's just... I've never seen one I can trust. There's always a catch." The wolf sighs a little and stands up, looking towards the entrance to the cage. He holds a hand out to the kit. "I can't take care of us outside, so I guess we don't have a choice."
A smile appears of the fox's face and he takes Shoul's hand. The two enter the cage and suddenly feel... drowsy. Shoul begins to fear the worst, turning to get out but the door to the cage closes suddenly.
"Hold you breath, D-" Shoul looks down to see the kit already having been knocked out and soon he, himself, is forced to sprawl over the ground unconscious.
"Santa clause came!"
Shoul wakes up and cringes, his head is throbbing. He looks around but he can't find Dan in the pitch blackness they're both currently engulfed in.
"Dan? Are you there?" He asks, blinking as he feels over his ribs... they're bandaged. He wonders when the otter managed to fix their wounds up? Apparently while he was knocked out.
"I'm here, what happened?"
"I dunno bu--"
The paper keeping the cage dark suddenly comes off and the looming face of a young otter peers down at them. The eyes of the giant widen and he quickly opens the cage to grab at the two inside. Shoul yelps but tries not to resist, knowing he'll only get hurt if the boy misses. Dan, on the other hand runs backwards and presses to the back of the cage.
The giant child blinks a few times and Jake comes over to kneel next to his son. "Now, Ron, you have to be gentle." He says with a smile and the child give him a nod.
"Come here, I won't hurt you." He smiles, reaching out and settling his hand palm up before the little fox. Dan shivers, staring towards the smiling face for a moment before taking a few steps forward. He steps onto the webbing between the otter's fingers and then climbs into the palm of the giant boy.
Ron pulls both micros out and examines them for a moment with a wide grin while his father strokes gently over Shoul. "Remember what I told you, Ron, okay? Be gentle with them, especially this one as he's still recovering from an injury." Jake then looks to Shoul. "I'm sorry about knocking you both out like that, I needed to bandage you up, remove the collar, and make sure everything was okay. I wasn't sure you'd trust me enough to give you any drugs. I hope you can forgive me."
Should gives a weary nod, head still throbbing while Dan nervously examines the new giant.
"I will, dad!" Ron says before he stands up and takes Shoul and Dan over to his mom to show them off, winning an "oooh" from the giantess before he leaves to get to his room.
Once there, Ron settles the two down on his bed and grins to them, letting his two webbed feet surround them on either side. "I'm Ron, what're your names?"
"I'm, uh, Shoul.."
Dan, still a little nervous, lowers his ears. "...Dan..."
Ron leans down to lick at them both gently. "Don't worry." The boy smiles a little bit, his voice calming to a steady tone. "My dad has taught me ALL about how to treat micros. I'm not gonna eat you or step on you or anything like that, okay? I promise. I don't care how little you guys are, my dad has been taking care of micros since I was only a few years old and... it sounds like it's hard. That's why I wanted a micro for myself. I want to help them be happy, like my dad."
Shoul just stares at the otter for a moment, unsure of what he should say. Does he believe him? Or is it some sort of -
"We can be friends." Dan smiles, standing up and walking over to hug against one of Ron's toes. The otter grins widely and licks the little fox again before looking to Shoul. The wolf stares between the two for a moment and then tucks his ears down and nods softly. "That sounds nice..."
That day, Christmas day, Shoul and Dan found a new home. Over time Dan would miss his parents but whenever it become too much Ron and Shoul were there to support him, and support him they did. Ron made two new friends and, over the years, finds that he likes helping the little creatures out. Later in life, he'd take his dad's kindness a step further and start the first giant-run refuge for micros. Shoul, on the other hand, came to find that perhaps all giants aren't bad. He kept this opinion for all of two weeks until Ron had to go back to school after winter break. He quickly revised the thought: Perhaps not all giants are bad, but most of them are probably bad.