Chapter 1

He doubts, so he thinks. He thinks, therefore he is

Some things are repeated every day, almost the same – the sun rising and it "chasing away" the darkness of the sky, starting another day. For some it is hard, for others it is beautiful and for others it is sad and desperate. Only with time did I notice how many different views you can have of one thing... for me, for example, the sunrise is unique yet sad. Unique, because I see the golden summer fields illuminated by the glow of warm, life–giving rays; birds waking up, combing their feathers with their beaks and searching for food; and I also see how the navy blue sky mixes with the pleasant, bright blue... and here begins the sadness, I say – looking at the sky at night, I see thousands, billions of lights... and yet, the sky is still empty and black. Isn't that what our life and our world is like? There are billions of us, and yet we still cannot find our place in the great world, and it is... empty. The stars are almost like us. When one disappears only a few will notice, and the world still continues. And it is tragic that we often hide the pitifulness of our fragile existence under false smiles and lies, just as the stars hide behind the blue sky. And even if we were honest with our feelings – those positive and negative – we will disappear one day. Either in the glory, or in the shadows of poverty. So, do we really exist when we leave a practically negligible trace after our lives disappear forever?

Small beige paws moved a piece of manuscript, reading it with a sour face. Orange, extremely bright eyes stared at every word, written in a very careful, almost calligraphic writing. The fennec, who sat on the ground, surrounded by similar notes, read them fiercely, but with its mouth crooked and bored. After reading it, it grabbed one piece of paper in its mouth, then the second and the third... it placed them on a pile on the desk, on which they should have been lying since the evening, but as always it was bored in the morning, so it dropped a few of them with its tail on the ground, so as not to make too much noise. This fennec was a female, as the long eyelashes and a well–groomed, redheaded, long fringe could indicate. She sat on the desk trying to kill time, hit it with her tail, exposed her tongue, scratched her ear. She looked out the window, the sun was lazily rising from behind the horizon, it was very early in the morning. She sighed hard, full of irritation.

She jumped off the desk and started walking through the corridor. It was an extremely well-built house, with large rooms, a beautifully decorated courtyard and a sturdy wall. But it wasn't as big as it might seem. The wealthy citizens of the city could boast about their truly monumental houses - in comparison to them this one seemed tiny, but by the village standards, such as Rebellar village, the house seemed gigantic. The surroundings were virtually deserted, although you could see a bit of grass, small shrubs and miniature trees here and there. The desert landscape was ruined by a green forest visible from afar, a real work of magical art. Under normal circumstances it would be impossible for such lush greenery to grow in a habitat like this, but it's not the first time magic could work a miracle. Nobody was surprised by its progress anymore.

The fennec climbed the pillars, then jumped on one of the walls and went through a tiny window at the top. She fell down with a quiet squeak. She landed on the ground with a few books and fell into them. She quickly got up and looked around the room when she saw a young man sleeping between some books – she came to see him. She lowered her ears downwards, twisted her mouth again, and sighed deeply. She started hitting the floor with her fluffy tail, and after a while she approached one pile of the books and kicked it with her leg. They collapsed on the ground, waking up the boy sleeping on the floor. With a mean smile she announced:

“Kalimera (1)! I don't know how much longer you were going to sleep, but that's enough, honey. There's work to be done, and now you can stop reading your stupid boo...”

She glanced at him. He was sitting comfortably on a stool with an open book and reading it calmly. He wasn’t listening to her. The beige fennec looked as if it was about to explode from anger – she jumped on another stool and then on the desk, right in front of the boy. She then jumped on the book he was holding and looked at his face. He calmly shifted his gaze on her and blinked several times.

“Go away, you’re bothering me”, he said without much emotion, and then he started reading again.

“YOU WEIRDO, LEAVE THESE BOOKS AND LISTEN TO ME!”, she snapped, then pressed the book firmly with her front paws, knocking it out of his hands, which fell down on the desk with her. She approached his face, closed his eyes and made a serious face. He grabbed her by her giant ears, then put her down on the ground and went back to reading. The fennec growled again.

“Hey... at least maybe you'll be tempted to see my naked body, and not just read those dumb books, huh?”, she said with a stupid smile, expecting his reaction.

"Stupid... You have to tease me like that every morning?”, he sighed without taking his eyes off the text, “Besides, it would be pedophilia. And also zoophilia... since you are in this form.”

“Pff”, she laughed. “And right now you have lost your only chance in your whole life to see a naked female body, you dolt.”

“The only one? Why do you think so?”

“What woman would want someone like you? A blond guy who writes strange things on paper, a loser who reads sick books and the most important ones, a YELLOW BOY WITH A STRANGE MUZZLE?”, she pointed her paw at his face. The boy had golden, sun-kissed hair tied in a long ponytail, bright green eyes and slightly rounded cheeks. His clothing consisted of a black jacket, a black T–shirt and black trousers. He wore heavy military boots, which were now placed beside him, for he took them off before sleep.

“Do I have a strange face?”, he asked, still staring at the book.

“Of course; a round snout, a long nose, big, bulging eyes, a smile that looks like a muscle cramp, and a ponytail like a girl’s!”

He finally looked up from his book and looked into a rather blurry mirror. He patted himself on the nose, cheeks and the mouth, and even smiled once.

“Come on, my eyes aren’t protruding and I have no long nose.” Before he finished looking at himself in the mirror, the fennec jumped on his head. She pressed her paws on his cheeks and whispered:

“Stupid sucker with a weird muzzle”, she said it as if she wanted to sing it.

“A redheaded monkey with a terrible personality.” He answered with a smile.

“Whaaat?”, She slipped off his head and hung on his ponytail, pulling him hard. He bent backwards from the pain, grabbed her gently by the neck and put her on the desk.

“Ouch... Well, don't get upset,” he said, laughing and massaging the back of his head. “You never change. You do this ridiculous, meaningless teasing in the morning.”

“Just so you don't get bored, Eddie. Are you reading your philosophy thingies again?”, she asked when she looked at the book.

“Yes. I'm getting ready to go to the college. The Yodiara’s Academy doesn’t accept just anyone.”

“And you've been writing even weirder texts since you discovered the subject.”

“Kasei, have you been reading my notes again?”

“Well...,” she admitted with shame, “Because when you sleep, I'm very bored because I can't call you names, so it's extra boring.”

“Then sleep longer or find yourself a job.” He sighed and smiled. “Unless it's your morning duty to read my notes when I'm lying between the books like a drunkard, then you're welcome to read them. I won't suffer from it.”

“But you will suffer from insults.”

“Come on, I don't care what you think.” He stuck his tongue towards her and she scratched him on it. Edward whined and Kasei ran away with a disgusting smile. The scratch wasn't deep at all however, but Ed suddenly remembered that he had some work to do today.

“Kasei, come on, I'll give you a snack before we leave so you don't complain about being hungry afterwards. When we get back, I'll make you something.”

“A poisoned one?”

“You're messed up,” he laughed. “Change into the human form, and sit down.”

Ed took an apple out of the closet and put it on his desk. Before he knew it, a girl around ten years old ran around him. She had long, red hair, a tanned complexion and bright orange eyes. She was wearing a yellow shirt with a brown bolero on top, and some brown shorts. She quickly took the apple and ate it in the blink of an eye, crushing the pieces with her sharp, fox-like teeth. Her beige fennec ears stood at the top of her head, looking exactly the same as they had under her animal form.

“And where are we going to go?” Kasei asked.

“We have to go to the city to renew the registration, I'm supposed to get some herbs for Peter... Oh, I can't even have a moment of peace, because Ian and Peter are bussing around and inventing new medicines...”

“That's a good thing, isn't it? Thanks to this, many humans and animal-people were saved.”

“But they still don't have a cure for one thing...” he sighed. “It's almost six o'clock, so we have to go. Have you finished eating yet?”

“Yes.” She got up and approached the boy.

“So let's go to the city.”

(1) From Greek – "good morning"