The Real Folktale Blues Part 2

The fox cried in response, sounding like a couple of small bells ringing at once, and smiled up at me.

I scooped up the tiny fox with both of my scarlet-gloved hands and lifted it to my face. It licked my nose under the shadow of my hood and let out a tiny yawning cry.

Stupid cute fox.

"Ma'am?" The soldier boy asked.

I glanced over to see him staring back at the body he had been trying to put back together earlier. At the same time I tucked the fox under my cape, slipping it into one of my ma.s.sive cargo pockets. The heart-born fox fit perfectly and poked its head and paws out slightly.

"Soldier?" I responded.

"I'll kill the monster that did this." He stated plainly. I could see the fury in his eyes and the single tear rivers down each side of his cheeks.

"I wish you could kid. It'd make my job easier." I sighed again and laid a hand on his shoulder. I heard the fox let out another yawning cry and then felt it settle down in my pocket.

"I will."

"Yeah. Maybe."

"No. I will." He rea.s.sured me. Not that I needed it.

"Yeah, I know."

What else was I supposed to say? The guy just lost the girl that he liked enough to go into the militia for. I could never give that kind of dedication to someone. Sure there were a lot of people dead around us but as far as he was concerned she was the only one that mattered. She was the reason he threw up. He knew there was some crazy stuff going on. But that didn't matter. She died; he wanted revenge.

I envied the soldier. I only knew two things for sure and neither involved revenge.

One: Gabbi didn't do any of this here.

And Two: I now had a golden fox in my pocket.

What can I say? I follow smoke trails and brick crumbs and don't find my way home. Instead I find a fox of gold in a heart.

I really need a new job.

Three.

Golden Blues "You found a what?" Bonny roared in that bellowing voice of hers. She had to be half dragon or something.

"A fox." I reiterated while the soldier boy off to my side glanced back up at the tower we were just inside. The yellow smoke was curling up into the clouds above the tower now. It looked like smoke signals.

"Where in the seven and seven lands did a fox come from?"

The second time someone asked me that in one day and I still only had the same answer. "A heart."

Once her only visible violet eye returned to a manageable size I told her as much as I knew about the scene and showed her the fox. Technically now the fox was my only witness to whatever happened here.

"Well what are you going to do with it?" The eye-patch wearing soldier asked afterwards.

I shrugged while the fox licked my hand. "Feed it. Name it. Pet it. I guess? It would be better than adopting a kid."

She laughed; a big, healthy dragon roar of a laugh.

I joined her.

Roberts looked at us both as if we killed some babies. He didn't understand yet that if you didn't try and laugh off the insanely messed up stuff it would just continue to pick at you until all that was left was an empty cavity where your mind used to be.

I couldn't blame him though. Any onlooker would have thought we were insane as well. There was blood and bodies all around us with smoke trailing from a smashed up tower. We would have looked like the ones that had done this horrible damage, laughing as we did.

"So you are sure it wasn't the Wolf?" The salt and paprika haired officer asked again after the laughter died into a few moments of silence.

"She's Gabbi, not the wolf. And the tower was definitely not her; I can't say the same for the rest."

"Right. Right. Gabbi." She scrunched up her face in annoyance. Her brilliant crackling purple right eye fluttered over me before she just turned away from me to direct attention to the one who had been my companion in the tower.

She didn't understand the whole importance of using a name when you knew it. Or at least the importance it had to me.

"You understand don't you?" I asked the fox in my hands that was licking my glove.

It made a yawning cry that I took for yes.

Great...

I've had the fox for five minutes and I'm already acting like it can talk back to me.

I sighed and dug into one of my other pockets for something to feed my new pet, apparently.

I don't exactly keep bountiful amounts of food on me. So the only things I managed to find among my pockets were a metal coin, an ink bottle, a little string, and a lemon scotch.

The fox eyed the lemon scotch with interest, so I held the nasty candy in front of it. It sniffed the treat and tried to lick it out of my fingers before I even un-wrapped it.

If you don't know what a lemon scotch is, then you are one of the lucky ones. Lemon scotches are like eating lemons combined with bland caramel syrup and a dash of pepper. The one I possessed was likely left over from my visit with Mister Boots. Other than boots, lemon scotches were that d.a.m.n cat's favorite things.

The fox snagged the treat from me, after I got the wrapper off, and sucked it down instantly. Once that was done I slipped the fox back into my pocket, and heard it make a smacking sound of enjoyment before wiggling around and settling.

Well the *feed it' portion was done. Guess next thing was naming it.

"Gnidori? I sent Roberts back along the trail to get the nearest troupe to help us clear out this mess. I do not believe we need you anymore." Bonny explained to me, sounding a little annoyed. I looked to her, then around the area. Apparently the boy really was gone.

"Do you know who did this?" I asked.

"No, it's going down as the Wo-" I eyed her and she cut her words short, before continuing. "... as Gabbi's doing. Since we have another one that is the same on the opposite side of the Tsar's palace, minus the smoke." She explained, nodding down to the fox in my pocket to elaborate that there wasn't a fox either at that location.

"Wait." I stopped, holding my hands out in front of me as if to prevent me from falling. "This happened somewhere else without the whole fox and smoke thing?"

"Yes. Why?" She narrowed her eye at me.

"Because this means there were two different operations in the same place. The person who did the first attack isn't the same one who came back to finish off the survivor." I explained. This wasn't my job. But at least it was looking like it wouldn't be a waste for finding Gabbi, maybe.

"Which means a group working together?" Her purple eye seemed to be swirling with ideas now.

"I don't think so. I think someone just wanted to cover up Gabbi's tracks. But they did it poorly, like they weren't even trying."

"Sounds like someone just wanted to make you think they were covering it up. Maybe it was one person, did the first one to make it look like Gabbi, then came back and changed the style." Bonny explained pacing in front of me.

"Midnight Magic." I swore. "This happens every time I come back to Charming's territory."

"What? People die?" She asked while stopping and looking at me like I was the cause of all this death.

Unfortunately it crossed my mind too.

I would have explained what I thought but I wasn't afforded the time, as I yanked a hatchet from my cloak and knocked Bonny out of the way from a cleaver flying through the air toward her.

A clink sounded and the thrown weapon I blocked kicked up some of the dirt in front of me as it landed and slid on the ground.

Bonny scowled at me from the ground. I just smiled back at her. What else was I supposed to do?

There was only one other person that I knew whom used axes like me and could throw them with that much force.

Midnight Magic.

"How close are we to Hue's territory?" I asked the graying woman, picking herself up off the glittery ground.

"Do you mean Prince Blue's? Right on the edge."

"Flying Fey! This can't be happening."

But it was.

He made sure I knew it was, by sounding his trumpet as he strolled casually around the broken tower.

He was dressed in his normal suit of robin egg blue, with a tie and everything. He had a fedora the same color on his head and an expression of serene chill on his dark-skinned face. His coal hair was always cut so short it could hardly be seen under the hat.

"Hue." I commented while he continued walking with light steps, kicking up not even a mote of dust as he moved. He had always been graceful.

"Red." He mused with a playful note in his voice, despite his dark face not revealing a trace of any emotion. He lowered his horn and let it hang by the cord around his shoulder.

"I'm not in your territory. So the violation is not in place."

"I know."

"Then why did you throw the axe at me?"

"Not you."

A man of many words he was. Trying to get anything more than a simple phrase out of him was equivalent to getting one of the three little pigs to fly without any huffing and puffing going on.

"Okay. Why did you throw the axe at her?" I gestured next to me.

"Personal." His cool voice flowed like a natural and gentle winter breeze.

"She p.i.s.s you off too?" I asked with a smirk.

"Possibly."

"Faerie Fudge, Hue! Give me a real answer for once." I fumed and narrowed my eyes at him even if he couldn't see it.

"Imaginary answer." He smiled his perfect teeth at me as he spoke his line and shook his head.

It was my turn to scowl. "Ha. Funny. Not like I haven't heard you say that one before."

Bonny glanced between us, her face contorted inquisitively while she was in a crouch. I gazed at her with one eye still on Hue.

"Look Hue. I've got enough on my plate. What do you want?"

"Drop off." He explained with his amazingly wonderful language skills.

"For me?" My eyes fully fell back on him.

"Yes."

"How sweet of you to bring Charming's package to me like that." I showed him my teeth. He showed his, back at me. He couldn't see my face but years of knowing him and he probably knew all my little quirks.

"Not me."

"You aren't bringing me the package? Or it wasn't your idea?" I asked with a sigh. I don't know why I still do the mouth work anytime I talk to Hue. It just makes it easier, I think.

"Second one."

"Wonderful. Maybe we can get this conversation finished by next week now." I lightly laughed while Bonny tugged at my pant leg. I didn't pay attention to her. "So who's idea was it?"

"The package." Hue didn't point. That was too impolite for him to do. I didn't have to turn around either to see what he was talking about. There was a long steel blade against my neck, pus.h.i.+ng in my hood. A second later the hood was pulled back from my head. I felt bare to the world without that hood on.

Guess I should have paid attention to Bonny or at least to the scent of honey, poppies and porridge lingering about.

"My, My, Goldie. What big toys you have." I smiled, trying to glance back at who was there even if I could recognize her from her scent, it was incredibly distinctive.

"The better to impale you with, dearie." She breathed into my ear. Her remaining hand shot to grab my empty fingers before they could draw another axe. Oh well.

"As if I don't hear those lines all the time. Really, you could have put a little effort into it, Goldie." I smirked while I could still feel her breath running against my left ear.

"You aren't worth the effort, no matter what you tell yourself, dearie." Goldie's gentle honey voice actually sounded sickly. It was like that really hard, crusty honey instead of the fresh stuff.