Alone - Chapter One - A Usual Day
A new series that I have decided to write. It is the first one I have posted here as well. I hope you like it. Please vote and comment. Its not very long, but this is just the beginning.
Warning: Contains Nudity
All characters and plot are property of Ruark
Chapter One - A Usual Day
Ruark awakes, as usual, at 6:30 a.m. to the sound of a screaming alarm clock. He lightly touches the top of the clock to stop its noisy rampage. The king cheetah lies there in bed for a few moments just staring up at the ceiling just thinking of how his life is going to change after the next few months. He greets the feeling of leaving home after graduation with a sense of excitement. He can't wait to get out on his own. By all means he loves his parents, but it is time for him to begin his own life out from under their protection. After a few moments he shakes the thoughts off and lazily gets out of bed, grabs his towel, and heads for the bathroom.
He strips down exposing his rather fit body. Because he is a king cheetah, his back has three bold stripes running the length of it. The center stripe continues out his tail and stops about halfway. The left and right stripes both curve around and under his tail and merge together right under his tail, turning the area under his tail completely black. The black continues between his legs and to his groin, thus making his crotch completely black. The black color then splits again into two thin stripes that go up the sides of his rib cage and then curve inward to be dissolved by the white of his chest just under his developed chest muscles. The black that engulfs his groin cannot be seen unless he is completely exposed. Even his boxers are enough to cover it up. Most cheetahs have the white from their chest continue down to their groin, but Ruark's coloration is different even though it appears to be normal unless he's nude. The rest of his body is decorated by an intricate pattern of small stripes and spots. His longer head fur, his mane which marks him as still being relatively young (cheetahs are born with a mane that run the entire length of their body and as they mature they lose this mane), continues down the back of his neck and stops at the shoulder. Ruark stands at about 6 ft and is considerably agile. He doesn't have tons of muscle mass but he is extremely well fit and this fitness definitely shows.
Ruark fiddles with the knobs and gets the water running, he steps into the shower and allows the water to completely soak through his soft fur. After he is thoroughly wet, he presses the button that changes the shower of water into a stream of shampoo. The shampoo mixture flows over him and into his fur for about 15 seconds then stops, which is plenty of soap for most male furs. He rubs all of the shampoo in, being sure to wash very thoroughly. Ruark hates to smell bad. He believes that it is rude to smell bad in public if it can be prevented, unless of course he is in some sporting event. The soap in his fur turns him into what looks like a white sud monster, which is a rather funny sight. After he is satisfied, he hits another button which turns the water back on and with the assistance of a comb, Ruark rinses all of his fur free from suds. He stands there for a moment, just enjoying the warm water flow over his body and through his fur until he hears a yell from his mom that he is going to be late unless he hurries up. Reluctantly, the cat turns the water off, cleans the hair filter on the shower drain, and steps out onto the rug dripping wet. He grabs his towel, and dries himself to the best of his ability and then steps back into the shower. He hits another button which activates the driers He stands there, moving around to help the driers dry him completely and he constantly combs his fur so that it doesn't stand up on end making him look like a fuzz ball. Once he feels dry enough he steps out of the driers and brushes his teeth then heads back to his room to get dressed. Once fully dressed he heads down to the kitchen to begin his day.
"Good morning Ruark."
"Mornin' mom."
"How did you sleep."
"Rather well," he said smiling to himself. "Isn't dad leaving again this morning?"
"Yep, he has to be in Austria by tomorrow so he has to leave now just incase there is a problem with the flight."
"Oh, wish I could go."
"He may be able to take you, just for a vacation, before you head off to college sometime." On this Ruark's father walks into the kitchen carrying a rather large briefcase.
"Mornin' son, are you going to pick up Shekara again today?" asked his father.
"Yes sir, I have to pick her and her little brother up and I have to drop him off at the elementary school."
"Oh, I like Jake. He is the cutest little kid I have seen in a long time. Since you grew up actually," teased Ruark's mother.
"Yep, he is cute. He comes from a great family. I mean, look at his sister for instance, she is probably the hottest...."
"Oh, okay enough of that. You don't have to get back on the topic of how hot your girlfriend is again. Don't get me wrong, I really like her and her family. But it get monotonous hearing about her every waking moment of the day," interrupted his mother.
"I said the same about you all the time when I was his age," argued his father.
"Oh whatever, just save it for yourself."
Ruark had grabbed something to eat out of the cabinet and finished it by the time they had finished their morning conversation.
"Well, I need to head out to get to school on time. Bye dad," said Ruark as he walked to give his dad a hug goodbye. "When will you be home?"
"The day after tomorrow. This is just a quickie," replied his father. "I love you son."
"Love you too dad. Bye mom."
And with that he walked out the door to his truck and headed to his girlfriend's house. In about 10 minutes, he arrives and walks up to the front door. Almost as soon as he rings the doorbell, the door flies open and out flies a little fur ball. Jake grabs onto Ruark around his neck and hugs him the tightest he can.
"Woah, take it easy kid. How do you have so much energy this early."
"Guess what Ruark, guess what," said Jake with his high, childish voice.
"What?"
"Shekara got you a secret present but she asked me not to tell you," said Jake in a hushed sly voice. "So don't tell her I told you okay. Okay, Ruark? Say okay."
"Okay, buddy I won't tell."
"Tell me what?" demanded Shekara as she walked into the doorway. Shekara is a cheetah (not a king cheetah) as well and is exceptionally attractive. She has a perfect body. Her fur is the softest thing Ruark has ever laid his hands on. Her face is full of depth and detail and she has a scent that is just overpowering. Her presence alone used to make Ruark horny before they started dating. "He told you about my present didn't he."
"What present?" replied Ruark playing dumb.
"This one." And with that she pulled him close and kissed him. It was short but it was rather passionate.
"Dang your good at that," exclaimed Ruark.
"Thanks."
"That's gross, she could have cooties Ruark," interrupted Jake.
"Oh well. Go get in the truck kid"
"Ok." Jake ran with his book bag up to the truck. He opened the door but had to jump to get into the cab.
"Lets go darlin'."
"Another day of school.... Joy."
They walked to the truck, Ruark held the door for her and shut it once she was in. He then walked around and jumped in the drivers seat, and together they headed for the school.
PHWEEEP! "Thirty seconds left, faster!"
All Ruark heard was the sound of the whistle, which told him he only had 30 seconds left to swim as far as he possibly could. He just counted in his head One...Two...Three...Four, One...Two...Three...Four, over and over again in order to keep his strokes perfectly on-time and in harmony with each other. This also allows him to put aside the screams from his resilient muscles, begging for a break. This mind control, seared into him since he was a child, is what makes him so good at anything strenuous he put his mind to. He is one of the team's best swimmers, which is rare for a cheetah. Most of the swimmers were canines, however Ruark really enjoyed the water and he was good at it.
PHWEEEP! PHWEEEP! "Times up, stop!" yelled the coach. Immediately all the swimmers stopped where they were and began to tread water so that the manager of the team could record the distance each of them covered in the 5 minute swim. "Good job Ruark! You surprise me everyday kid." Coach Dow is a black Labrador retriever who is a very good swimmer and a very good coach. He was Ruark's first and still is his swimming coach. He taught Ruark all the technique that now makes Ruark such a great swimmer. "Alright, out of the water. You got ten minutes to shower and get to your next class." With this all the swimmers got up out of the water and headed for the showers. As the guys headed for the lockers, Ruark's best friend, Fayolahn walks up beside him.
"Nice swim, Ruark." Fayolahn is a pitch black wolf with faint streaks of white running through his fur. He isn't a very big, but like Ruark he is very well built.
"Thanks man, you were not far behind though right?"
"Yeah, I was like a foot behind you I think"
"That's great." They reached the lockers. Ruark opened his, grabbed his towel and stripped off his speedo briefs, revealing everything he had. Most of the guys either showered with their speedo briefs still on or with a paw over their stuff, but showering completely nude really did not bother Ruark at all, even with all the other guys in the room. He glanced over and noticed that Fayolahn had done the same and couldn't help but notice the wolf's jet black package, which was not quite as large as Ruark's, hanging snugly between the wolf's legs. Ruark isn't gay but he is secure enough with himself to know that Fayolahn has a very good-looking body. They then walk to the showers in full glory, quickly rinse the chlorine from their fur, towel off most of the water from their bodies, and step inside the blowers to get completely dry. They both comb their fur while in the blowers to help dry the water and to prevent any fuzziness. This whole process took about six minutes so they only had four minutes before the bell rang. Almost in unison, Fayolahn and Ruark head back to their lockers and began to dress. Ruark just slipped into his boxer briefs, when he heard a "humphhh" from Fayolahn. Ruark looked up and saw three, figures standing before him.
"Hey Ruark, who do you think you are walking around like you've got something to show off? Or are you and your little friend gay or something," barked a great dane named Sam. "I don't want to see your little dick so why don't you cover up next time ya queer."
"Well Sam, first of all I don't shower with clothes on like a pussy. I'm secure enough with my self and my body to not give a care what you think and to know that I am pretty sure I have just as much, if not more to show off than you. Second, no I'm not gay, and third, if you don't want to see my dick then don't look. Seems to me if you have a hard time not looking at other guys' dicks, you're the gay one here."
"Cat, you better watch who your talking to or you and your little queer friend here are going to get seriously hurt," replied Sam. This remark really angered Ruark but he kept his cool as always and retorted back,
"You touch Fayolahn and I will beat you senseless. However, there probably wouldn't be much for me to deal with after he got through with you."
"Ruark, one of these days that mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble."
"We'll see," and with that Sam and his little dog posse left.
"Thanks for that Ruark," said Fayolahn
"No problem man, what are friends for. You know I love you and would never let anyone push you around."
"Yeah, I know," said Fayolahn, and after a few more seconds he asked, "Do you really think I could take him? He is a lot bigger than me."
"Yes, after what my dad has taught you, I don't think there are many people in school that we couldn't take. Besides, when it comes to Sam I believe his bark is much worse than his bite."
"Yeah, that's probably true," said Fayolahn as he closed his locker
"Alright man lets go, we have to get to class. See you at lunch." Then the two friends went their separate ways.
"Alright, listen up, I want a 3 page essay detailing sophistically the way in which the Allied forces took control of the beach at Normandy and how the Axis powers reacted. For extra-credit you can explain the other objective the Allies had other than taking the coast with 1 extra page. Have a good Friday and I hope to see you all back here in one piece on Monday," said Mr. Gardner, the A.P. U.S. History teacher, just before the bell rang.
Finally, lunch time, thought Ruark. I am starving. Ruark walked out of the classroom and headed for his locker two hallways across. The school was comprised of 4 main hallways that ran parallel to each other and that were numbered 100, 200, 300, and 400. These hallways held all of the main classrooms and all the other wings of the buildings jutted off from these four hallways. Ruark's history class was on the 100 hallway and his locker was on the 300. The lunchroom, gym, and main offices were located at the beginning of these four hallways. As Ruark was walking along towards his locker, his friend Breck, a rather large lion, walked up beside him.
"Hey, Ruark. How has your day been," greeted Breck with a slap on the back.
"It's been fine, nothing out of the ordinary. I'm just ready to eat."
"Yeah, I'm hungry too. I'll see you in the lunchroom." And with that Breck veered off and went down the 200 hall for something. Ruark really had no idea what was. Ruark made it to his locker, twisted the knob to enter the combination, opened the locker, grabbed his lunch, and began walking down the 300 hallway, directly to the lunchroom. When he reached the cafeteria, he walked to the table that he and his friends always sat at right in the middle of the room and sat down. He was the first one there as usual so the table was deserted, but in about a minute and a half, the underclassmen would be fighting over the left over seats on either end of the long table. Seniors had an hour to eat but the underclassmen only had 30 minutes so Ruark was in no rush to eat his lunch. Right then a friend of Ruark's, Keenan, a red fox, walked in with his girlfriend, a rather attractive vixen named Keara.
"Hey Ruark, how's it goin'," greeted Keenan.
"Pretty good, ya'll?"
"We're doing fine," answered Keara, then they both sat down to the left Ruark. Keenan and Keara were both juniors so they only had thirty minutes to eat. Ruark didn't like the junior class to much. They think that they are the best things to have walked the planet. They believe they are the smartest and most athletic group of students anywhere and it really annoyed Ruark, but Keenan and Keara weren't that way so he likes hanging out with them. Keenan is actually a really good student. He wasn't too much into English and social studies but he is a genius in the life sciences like biology and anatomy. He is currently training to be a doctor or some sort of surgeon. Already he is volunteering in the hospital in the next town over so that he can learn what there is to be learned before he goes into college.
The lunchroom was getting real crowded about this time and there were kids racing for the seats at the end of the table. Ruark watched them, amused. They knew where the seniors table ended and theirs started so even though the table looked rather empty, in their eyes, there were only a few seats left so they had better be quick. Some of them looked at Ruark, but immediately looked away once they made eye contact with him. Even though Ruark was never mean to the underclassmen, he still intimidated them. Everyone knew Ruark to be kind because of his actions, but just the status of him being a senior with a hot girl friend made the younger students shy away from him. His status from their viewpoint didn't bother him. In fact he liked it. They knew him to be kind but they also knew that he wouldn't be someone you would want to mess with. Ruark just had that sense of power about him, even though he rarely did anything to show it. He would put up with most actions however, Ruark wasn't someone who would put up with bullies. One day Ruark was walking back to his table after throwing his trash away when he saw a group of punk sophomores trip-up a freshman carrying his lunch to his table, which really angered Ruark. The little tiger fell and spilt all of his lunch on the floor, right in front of Ruark. The kid looked up at Ruark scared to death because some of the food fell on Ruark's pants, but Ruark just put out his hand to help the kid up. Ruark lifted the kid off the floor and got him back standing then asked the kid if he had money for another lunch. The kid silently shook his head no, staring at the ground. Ruark then noticed that the kid was probably not in the best condition financially at home because his clothes looked a little small for him and because they showing more wear than usual. The tiger whispered "thanks" and began to walk off, but Ruark caught him by the shoulder. The cheetah pulled out his wallet and pulled out two dollars and handed them to the kid. The kid just looked at the money, completely taken aback. Ruark said, "Take the money and go buy another lunch, don't worry about those kids. They will not bother you again, I promise." So hesitantly, the tiger took the money, said "thanks" more confidently and walked off to the lunch line. Once he left, Ruark's expression turned from kind to pissed-off as he focused his gaze on the rich-prick sophomores. As soon as they caught his eye, they immediately turned around and fell silent. Ruark casually walked over to the table, spotted the kid who tripped the tiger and walked right up next to him. Ruark spun the kid around, grabbed him by the front of the shirt and lifted up from the table (the canine weighed nothing). The dog looked at Ruark with huge eyes scared out of his mind. Ruark said in normal tones, "If you or any of your mutt friends here do something like that again, me and you are going to have some trouble. Keep your paws to your pathetic self and don't pick on others less fortunate than yourself just to try to make yourself feel better. Got it, punk?" The sophomore quickly shook his head yes and Ruark dropped him and returned to his table without another word spoken.
Things like this are what make Ruark such a good friend and is what makes him such a good leader. He can take a bully's taunts himself but when one of these bullies does something to someone who can't help themselves, it infuriates him and he takes action. Ruark does his best to lead by example. He doesn't put up with bullying and with people who like to make fun of others just to get a laugh.
A few moments after Ruark sat down, Fayolahn walked up to the table.
"Man, I am so tired of tests! I have had a test in every period so far and I have two more. I don't understand why the teachers just don't spread the tests out so that we could have a decent amount of time to study for them," complained Fayolahn. "It's just too much, I can't wait to graduate."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I am so tired of high school," said Ruark.
"You and me both baby," came a voice from behind Ruark. Shekara gave Ruark a hug around the neck from behind. "How did your swim go?"
"Ruark was great, fastest time as usual," interjected Fayolahn. "He is really fast."
"Good job Ruark, at least you are going to finish out at the top your senior year," complemented Shekara.
Ruark said thanks and Shekara sat down next to him and Fayolahn sat on the other side. Clesek, a rather popular black panther who played as the starting safety on the Varsity Football team who was also friends with Ruark, walked up to the table and sat down next to Keenan.
"Hey Ruark, Fayolahn told me about what happened in the locker room with Sam. Man, I don't understand why you don't beat the crap out of him one good time and then he would never bother you or Fayolahn again. I know it wouldn't be too difficult for you."
"Sam isn't worth the trouble. He is never going to do anything and if he ever does, it won't last long. I don't feel like missing a couple days of school just to shut him up," answered Ruark. "Besides, who cares what he thinks? I know I don't. There may be people who like him now but as soon as we graduate he will become nothing and he will lose that so important reputation that he has worked so hard to gain."
"Yeah, I guess your right. But I would still like to see the fight. It would be great. I could sell tickets and everything."
"Ha, Ha. You probably could," laughed Ruark.
"The funny thing is is that everybody would think it was going to be a slaughter in favor of Sam. Everyone would be in for a big surprise after the fight started and everyone got to see how good you fight. Dude, you may even get to be as popular as I am," said Clesek.
"Yeah, but I doubt I will ever be as popular as you. I am not the "popular" type."
"You're popular to me sweetie," bragged Shekara.
"I know, but still, I really don't care to be popular. I have obviously already impressed the only person that matters, and she is right here," argued Ruark while putting his arm around Shekara.
"Yep, you got that right," chirped Shekara. Ruark pulled Shekara close and gave her a kiss.
"You two get a room," objected Fayolahn. "Ya'll act like a dang married couple sometimes."
"Whatever, each your lunch."
"I'll call you tomorrow morning. Maybe we can go out and do something," mentioned Ruark as he walked Shekara to her front door. "Or you could come over and we could watch a movie or go walking or somethin'."
"Whatever is fine with me. I'll see you tomorrow. I love you."
"I love you too."
"Drive safe."
"Always," and Ruark got back into his truck and drove away towards his house.
Finally, I'm done, thought Ruark as he typed the last words on his History assignment. He always likes to finish his homework before the weekend so he wouldn't have to worry about it. He saved the document on his computer and then pressed print. A few moments later the 3 and half page paper spat out of his printer. He took the four sheets, aligned them perfectly and stapled them in the top left hand corner. He put the paper in his notebook then put the notebook in his book bag and put the book bag in the corner of his room, to be forgotten until Monday morning. Ruark then walked down the stairs to tell his mom goodnight. His mom was sitting in a chair in the den reading a book. She looked up.
"Goodnight mom, I'm going to bed."
"Goodnight sweetie, I love you," replied Ruark's mom.
As she said that a very strange feeling hit Ruark. He really couldn't explain it. It felt almost as if this was the final goodbye. He didn't know what to think. He just walked over and gave his mom a hug, longer than usual.
"Are you alright Ruark."
Ruark shook off the feeling and said, "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking."
"Well don't let your thoughts disrupt your sleep."
"I won't," said Ruark reassuring his mother. He then walked back to the stairs, took one look back at his mom with the same feeling of this being the last time he would ever see her, and slowly walked up the stairs. He brushed his teeth and then went to bed. It was 11:00 p.m.
Ruark was sitting somewhere atop the world. He couldn't see much but he could hear everything that was going on. All the cars, all the people, all the animals, all the conversations taking place, he could hear them all just by focusing his attention to different areas. He stood up and took a step. He saw the Earth spin beneath his feet as if he was a hamster atop a ball. He saw the faint outline of North America and could just make out all the major cities in the states. They were little clusters of light. When he looked at one, his ears were filled with noise. He could hear everything. Everything going on in that area he could hear. He then tried to focus his attention on the entire continent. The noise was louder and more jumbled. Everything was pitch black except the faint specks of light representing civilizations. He just stood there, atop the world, watching... listening. He was about to take a step forward when he saw something change. It wasn't much of a change, it just looked as if the lights became even more faint, but then something changed that he heard very clearly. Just after the lights changed everything became much louder and then at once...
...Silence.
Complete and utter silence. Ruark awoke... gasping.Ruark just sat there in shock. He had never had a dream like that before. He looked over at his clock. Its was exactly 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Dang, I was only asleep for an hour. Ruark heard the crickets and frogs outside still chirping away. At least there is still sound here... That was strange. Ruark tried to forget the dream, all he could do was think about that moment when everything went silent. It was so strange. After a few moments Ruark was able to shake off his thoughts.
Ruark fell asleep, never to wake up the same again.