{"sf1_id":2034257,"sf2_id":"0mvq29je","title":"Chapter 8: Shower Fiasco","author":"HeatherOBunn","words":941,"posted_at":"2023-08-06T15:20:00.000Z","tags":["Buck","Bunny","Fear","Fox","Novel","Predator/Prey","Rabbit","Romance","Shock","Shower","Vixen","surprise"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2034257-chapter-8-shower-fiasco","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/0mvq29je","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/1f/fe/1ffe43ce-dee6-489d-bd05-aa5aa9cb3fa0","description":"#8 of Flora: A Tale from Vulpineva\n\nPete's nightmare scenario occurs.","content":"Chapter 8: Shower Fiasco\n\nPete could hear someone in the shower next to his. He couldn't smell what species they\n\nwere over the shampoo and thick water vapor, and the lack of this knowledge put him on edge.\n\nPete normally showered early, before anyone else took theirs. However, this evening, he had\n\ngotten busy studying and hadn't noticed the time until Bill had entered their room. He had found\n\nthe three shower stalls mercifully empty, but someone else had entered the one to his right\n\nshortly after he'd started his. It probably isn't a predator, Pete tried to reassure himself.\n\nPete was fortunate that the largest predators he usually encountered on his floor, cats,\n\nrarely, if ever, showered, preferring instead to groom themselves with their tongues. Pete had\n\nconsidered this alternative, especially since rabbits chilled very easily and thus preferred not to\n\nget wet unless proper drying equipment were handy.1 However, licking his fur had gotten him a\n\nmouthful of hair, and since hairballs could also be hazardous to rabbits, he decided to continue\n\nwith his showers. Pete felt the process of wetting, conditioning, and drying his fur was important\n\nto remove dander, which would show up starkly on his black coat, and loose fur, even if he only\n\nshampooed himself once or twice a week to avoid over-drying.\n\nThe bathroom was arranged with three sinks and three toilet stalls on the left side from\n\nthe entrance and three shower stalls, three communal blow dryers, and four electrical outlets on\n\nthe right. The showers were across from the sinks, and the dryers were across from the toilets.\n\nThe floor was white and red checkered tile, and the walls were white tile with a thick red stripe\n\nabout at the height of Pete's ears. Both toilet and shower stalls had latchable doors, so at least\n\nPete felt some security within the shower. Of course, someone might have climbed over one of\n\nthe tiled walls on either side of him as they didn't reach the off-white plaster ceiling.\n\nToday, Pete was shampooing his fur, and he was relieved when he heard the other\n\nshower shut off whilst he was applying conditioner. By the time he'd rinsed again and patted\n\nhimself partially dry with his fuzzy white towel, he'd heard the blow dryer stop and the door to\n\nthe bathroom bump shut. He'd unlatched the door to his stall and pushed it open when the\n\nbathroom door creaked. A split second later, the gray vixen from the Northeast wing stepped in\n\nfront of his open stall. She was carrying her own pastel green toiletries basket and had a yellow\n\ntowel slung over her shoulder. Pete froze, stricken with terror. The vixen's sharp, green eye\n\ncaught him, and in what seemed to be slow motion, she turned her head to regard him with\n\nsurprise. Pete felt the floor fall out from under him, and then everything went black.\n\nPete awoke only a second or two later, lying on the floor with his head throbbing.\n\nHowever, his heart jumped, and he almost fainted again when he opened his eyes to see the\n\nvixen looming over him, a worried expression contorting her angular features. In fact, she wasn't\n\nmerely looming over him but crouched nearly on top of him in the narrow stall, with one foot\n\nplanted on either side of his belly and her anxiously thrashing tail lying between his sprawled\n\nlegs. One clawed hand pried his eyes open wide to allow her to stare concernedly into them\n\nwhile the other pressed at the side of his neck. Her long jaws parted, emitting agitated vulpine\n\nchirps, but Pete's panicking brain was momentarily unable to parse them into words through the\n\nshrieking in his head and the pounding in his ears. Instead, he stared at the devilishly sharp,\n\n1 Don't bathe your rabbit!\n\nwhite fangs that lined her jaws and waited, petrified, for the moment when they would sink into\n\nhis throat.\n\n\"P-please, just make it quick,\" he managed to whimper.\n\nThe vixen blinked at him, frowning with concern and confusion, \"What?\"\n\n\"J-just make it quick! Hurry up and eat me!\" he wailed.\n\nThe vixen's visage took on a pained expression. Slowly, she stood, collected her things,\n\nand stepped back the way she'd come, out of view of the shower stall's opening. Pete heard the\n\nbathroom door creak open and thump shut.\n\nPete lay on the floor, stunned and unable to process what had just happened, until he\n\nnoticed he was getting cold and pushed himself to his feet to go use the communal blow dryer.\n\nAs the numbness of shock began to recede, Pete began to feel something he couldn't explain:\n\ndisappointment. Why did he feel disappointed?! He was alive when he ought to be dead! I didn't\n\nwant to be eaten! he reassured himself. But as he dried himself off, his disappointment didn't\n\ndisappear; instead, another emotion crystallized: guilt. The vixen had been hurt and upset when\n\nshe'd left, but why was that? He'd only asked her to be quick about it, to get the natural\n\nconclusion of their ill-fated encounter over with.\n\nPredators pretended they weren't killers, but if they got you alone and helpless, like he\n\nhad been, they would eat you. This was what Pete had been taught since he was a kit: never let\n\na predator get you alone. The vixen could have devoured him, bones and all, and in the shower,\n\nthere would have been no trace of her bloody meal. So why hadn't she done it? Why did the\n\nlook she'd given him as she'd stood to leave upset him? Why did he wish the encounter had\n\ngone differently?\n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"Flora: A Tale from Vulpineva","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2034254-chapter-7-fox-and-wolverine.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2034650-chapter-9-new-understanding.json"}}