Dimensions of Change
By Zipper
Chapter Seven
“Rain, rain on my face. Hasn’t stopped raining for days. My world
is a flood and slowly I become one with the mud.” Alicia mumbled as she
walked, the name of the song those lyrics harkens from, long forgotten. The
clouds had recently opened up into a down poor, drenching her to the skin, but
she seemed not to notice.
She pulled her thin sweater closer and walked on, eyes always watching three
inches in front of her. The air smelled the sweet smell of rain and damp dirt,
but she did not want to partake in any pleasantries the land provided. ‘I
do not deserve it.’ She thought, but the land was a jealous thing, and
craved attention.
Soon, Alicia found her self far from were she intended. She had never been this
far from the observatory. It was like she was transported to another land, far
from the nightmare of reality. Here, the grass was green; the water flowed fast
and clear. Here she could rest, far from her problems. Finding a dry spot under
a bush near a flowing run-off, she finally found sleep.
“I don’t know, are you sure Jimmy?” Jane asked with uncertainty.
She was the younger cub, a litter behind her adolescent brother.
“Ah, Jan, you worry to much!” Jimmy called back to his sister. “Besides,
They don’t even know were out here.”
“But there might Vampires out here.” Jane called as she checked over
her shoulder. The wind played gently in her gray fur and bushy tail. She sniffed
the air. There was a faint sent, not unlike that of pray, but fouler, that made
her uneasy. “Come on Jimmy, the airs not right. Lets go back to the tree
before we get into trouble.”
“We won’t get into trouble, unless some one tattles on me.” Jimmy
said with a growl. He showed his sharp teeth in what he hoped was a display
of dominance.
Jane’s tail grew in size as her fur stood out on end in anger. “I’m
no tattle tail! I just think it’s not safe. Out here, so close to our old
den.”
“Your just afraid of the water. You’re just a silly Fox.” Jimmy
declared with an upturned nose.
Jane’s voice cracked. “Mommy said I didn’t have to swim until
I was ready.”
“But Moms gone over to their side.” Jimmy said with venom and a hint
of remorse.
“No!” Jane shook the tears from her eyes. “Mommy’s dead.
SHES DEAD!”
“Fine, whatever. Just get your weak, cowardly, bad excuse of a Fox, tail
over here, unless you’re a chicken.”
“I’ll show you who’s a chicken!” Jane said to steel her
self and joined her brother by the water.
Alicia listened as the rain whispered across the park, it voice rhythmic and
soothing. Memories danced in her head, ghosts of the past that she had forgotten.
She dosed, feeling content and satisfied, a feeling she had all but forgotten.
All around, the world seemed to be at peace as the rain cleansed mind and soul.
But alas, this, like any other moment, could never last. It came to a crashing
end with a splash.
Alicia jumped. Her heard pounded as blood sounded in her ears. There, in the
river, an adolescent fox had fallen in. It tried to swim to shore, but the water
was deep and the current swift. Alicia had to think fast or else this fox would
die from exhaustioun.
She servayed the area for tool with cold efficiency. Down the stream was a bridge
covered with grasses and lichen from a couple years of being untended. She scrunched
her eyes. Leaning against the side of the bridge, in the protected side, was
a fishing pool.
“I hope the line is still good.” She huffed as she ran, trying to
beat the current. The bridge was farther than she thought. She was running harder
that she thought she could. She could see it, the fishing pole, the line still
threaded on it carbon shaft.
Her attention as placed on her goal, and she frogot about the path, and the
mud she had just reached.
Her foot landed and kept on going. Alicia hit the ground with an ‘oof’,
sliding the last foot and a half to the pole. She was covered with mud from
head to toe, but she did not delay. Using her teeth, she snapped the line.
Before her, the water bubbled and churned with the fox fast approaching. Line
in paw, she scurried up the bridge, the rocks giving little or no foot hold
on their slimy surface. She pulled her self onto the handrail and ran to the
center and jumped.
She fell, experiencing free fall as time it self seemed to slow so she could
react. Below, the fox fast approached until its gray fur filled her vision.
She hit its back and held on to its fur by a clump as water spray filled her
eyes.
“Hold on, I’m here to help!” She said with a mouth full of water.
Carefully, she tied the line around on of the foxes paws, its energy exhausted
from fighting the tide.
Wiping her brow, she looked back to shore. The line flowed freely off the real.
Alicia took a moment to think things through.
“No!” She declared “I’m such an idiot!” The realization
that there was no one to pull them in hit her likes a bag of dog food. Her small,
half forgotten life flashed before her eyes.
Images of two faceless hamsters, male and female appeared. They seemed to glow
with pride. A swing on a summers day, A squirrel, face hidden except for his
blue eyes. Eyes that showed love and a care free life, eyes that pierced the
fog.
She shook her head, and watched as the fishing rod got smaller as they floated
down stream. Beside it, the grass moved hastily and a gray blur latched onto
the rod.
Alicia rubbed her eyes as a sudden jerk forced her to hold on to the foxes fur,
less she be swept away.
On shore, a second fox, this one slightly younger, was pulling and tugging on
the rod. It pulled on the line with yips, growls, and fierce shaking of the
head, like it was some game. Alicia couldn’t help but fell fear as she
watched this animal designed to kill rodents pull her closer, but swallowed
hard and bit it down.
Soon, she was on shore, lying in the mud next to the fox, glad to be on earth
again. She sat up cautiously. The young fox, though out of breath, jumped around
the prone form on the beach.
“Com’on Bro, cough it up.” She cheered as her brother suffered
a coughed fit.
Alicia had been watching the drenched fox and hadn’t noticed the young
one sneak up on her. The hamster turned and let out a yip as she came face to
face with two large golden eyes. She cleared her throat uneasily. “H Hello,
I’m Alicia.”
The fox’s tongue fell from her mouth. “Hi, I’m Jane, and my wet,
clumsy brother here is Jimmy.” She said as she bounced around. “Thanks
for saving him. He’s the only family I have now.”
Alicia felt compelled to ask what she felt was the logical, yet taboo question
to ask. “Don’t you have a mother or father?”
“We did.” A voice filled in from behind. “It happened in the
skirmish last night.” Alicia turned towards the adolescent fox. He stood
strong, but his eyes cried and his voice cracked. “Dad was buried alive
with our new born brothers and sisters. Mom was lost, no one knows were she
is, or if she’s even alive, or if ‘they’ got her.”
“They?” Alicia quirried.
“The Republic of Freed Rodents! The RFR. The Enlisted.” Jimmy filled
with venom, but his demeaner cleared quickly. “What brings you out into
the rain to save me, which I am greatfull, on a day like this.”
Alicia deverted her gaze. “I, ah, had to clear my head. What about you
to?”
Jimmy nodded. “Same.”
Jane whined. “I was looking for mommy.”
Jimmy padded over to her and nuzzled her cheek as he addressed Alicia. “Thank
you again.”
Alicia blushed.
Jane, always the optimist, quickly cheered up. She had caught that strange sent
from earlier again as the wind shifted. “You smell funny. Like there is
death about you.” She said as she came closer, her nose taking in gulps
of air.
Alicia heart beat faster.
“Your eyes are red.” Jane continued. “Your afraid. Why are you
afraid unless…” She stopped cold. Her ears flattened and she bared
her teeth. “… Your one of them.”
Alicia took off running. She didn’t know why, but she was suddenly compounded
to do so. Jane was in immediate pursuit, but was slowed by the mud and her inexperience.
“Jane!” Jimmy cried as he tried to follow his sister, but had no luck
with his wet paws and the slippery mud.
Jane was torn between the trill of the hunt and the ties of blood. A second
passed as she looked first at the moving grass were her acquisition was, then
back at her tired brother, then back again, before blood won out and she slogged
her way back.
“Let her go.” Jimmy wheezed. “She saved my life. She deserves
to live another day.”
Tears started to trickle down Jane’s cheeks. “I miss Mommy.”
She whimpered as she cracked and the realization that he was her only family
left came crashing in like their cave had.
“Shhh” Jimmy soothed. “Com’on, lets get back to the tree
and report in.”
Jane nodded her compliance.
Disclaimer: ‘Dimensions of Change’ was produced, written,
edited, and well, brought into this plain of existence by Zipper the Magnificent!
All Characters except for Widget and Grimcrack are the trademarks of Disney
Animation or some other Disney company (who knows, or cares). John W. Nowak
is credited for the creation of Widget and Grimcrack.
The lerycs at the beginning are from the song Flood, performed by Jars of Clay.
Jimmy and Jane were ‘borrowed’ from the RAS. They are experts in swift
water rescue, and prefer their hamster on a spit, but had to take a vow of a
‘meatless diet’. They can usually be found in restraints having a
hamburger under an assumed alias.
The RAS would like to take this moment to say, “We do not condone the
eating of other animals, but understand a predators need. With a proper diet,
they can get past these needs and become a productive member of the rodent community.”
Predators, on the other paw, tend to eat those who say that