Chapter 3: Playing In The Woods

“Thanks for the food, the eggs were delicious” Alopex finally finished her meal and was doing everything in her power to avoid acknowledging Peter’s offer. She could see how anxious he was for an answer, but she simply didn’t have one to give. At least not yet.

Pete pretended to not notice the food awkwardly stuck in the Arctic Fox’s sharp teeth and decided to make a move to fully convince her. “Much better than having to scavenge for food in the wild right? You could get some scrambled eggs, pancakes, hash browns, bacon and even delicious smoked ham for breakfast every day if you decided to stay, y'know?” Great, now the teen felt as if he was starting to sound clingy.

The young vixen laughed at the comment, it was quite odd to see the vicious predator of yesterday acting like just a normal girl (as normal as an anthropomorphic arctic fox could look at least). Even while she was unconscious there was an aura of danger emanating from her, but now it was almost like a completely different person. Maybe desperation and anger can truly reshape how someone looks to the outside world. “I know how to feed myself, I don’t want to leech off your family and put them in danger. Look, it really would be better if I-”

“Hold on! If feeling like a burden is a problem you can always work at the store! My Uncle is always talking about how he needs someone to handle the storage, plus you can always serve as extra security! You wouldn’t even need to interact with the customers.” The boy couldn’t wait for the mutant to finish her sentence before he interrupted, it didn’t matter, Peter knew exactly what she would say. He had to at least try to convince her, this was his one shot, if he missed she would be gone forever.

“So you want me to stay, start living here, meet your family and even work with you at that Gas Station?” At this point Pete could tell Alopex’s patience was going to run out at any second. Her previously anxious expression had fully given way to a frustrated one.

Perhaps the job opportunity was not the best choice for an argument, so instead of annoying her with desperation he decided to just be honest about his current feelings. “I know how this might sound, but you need a place to stay anyway don’t you? You’re not an Animal, you shouldn’t be out there living in the woods alone” 

“I’m not a human either…” The Fox seemed sad while saying that. It wasn’t even that she wished to be human, it was merely the feelings that came with being completely alone. Sure, she wasn’t like the others in her old “family”, but at least she belonged somewhere, had something to fight for, someone to fight against… Now that was all over, her past had burned away and going out there on her own might actually drag the smoke back to choke her. This could actually be her only chance to belong somewhere again.

“I get that you’re a… Mutant, but how do you expect me to forget you like this, to let you run out there to get hurt again when I know I could’ve helped you. Please, give it a chance…” Peter poured his heart into his words, he was actually worried about her, why? He first met Alopex less than 24 hours ago, yet here he was practically begging for her to stay. Maybe it was just the way she looked at him with sad eyes, maybe it was the need for any kind of excitement in his life, or maybe something inside of him found this Fox interesting in a great variety of ways… Deep down, the confused teen hoped it wasn’t that last one, the fact she still wasn’t wearing pants, which showcased her confusingly large hips, certainly wasn’t helping. He hoped those feelings would go away soon, he wanted to introduce her to his family as a friend, not as a… Well, y’know. 

Alopex was about to dodge the question again. Tire him out with excuses until he gets distracted or too frustrated and let her slip into the wild. Hopefully to never cross anyone’s path again, and to be alone… For the rest of her life.

At this point, maybe staying here truly was the best option. “Alright, I’ll stay, but I'm warning you. I’m not an innocent lost girl, I have these scars for a reason” She pointed at her fading scars, they had healed way faster than anything Pete had ever seen before, maybe something to do with her being a “mutant”. 

But his mind changed focus rather quickly, after all, she actually took the offer! Sure that last part was really ominous, but she took the offer! “You won’t regret this, things will work out, you’ll see!” Peter tried not to show how happy he was, but he couldn’t help but smile at the thought of his life becoming exciting (and that he’d get to know this girl better) “Tomorrow on Sunday I'll introduce you to my family, maybe we’ll meet my little sister first, trust me, you’ll love her”

“Alright, alright, so what are we doing until then?” The Fox actually seemed happy now, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. It was a temporary illusion of course, she knew that things could still fall apart at any second.

“Hmm… I think staying here isn’t the best idea, how about we talk in a clearing in the woods near the backyard? It’s right next to the fence we’ve got around it, I’ll just leave the TV on so my mom thinks I'm still here. We’ll probably have about an hour before she checks up on me” By the time the sentence was finished the TV was already on and Pete was grabbing his coat, ready to sneak his way outside and finally get to know his new “friend”.

“The woods? And here I was thinking you were going to keep me locked in your room to make sure I didn’t run off” Alopex joked, it felt good to let her guard down and seemingly be able to trust someone, hopefully this actually worked out.

“Ha ha ha, very funny. Look I just don’t want you to meet my family outside of a controlled environment. Anyway, the place we’re going to is not actually “in the woods”, more like around the edge of it.” Even with his sarcastic laughter Peter still felt good to see her in a good mood.

“Alright then, lead the way”

-

Peter looked out his door, nobody in the corridor, his dad was probably at the Gas Station, so he wouldn’t be a problem until lunch. His mother and sister were still a mystery, were they in their rooms ready to jump out and discover their new family member before it was time? Could the nervous teen risk making a run for it and just hope he wouldn’t get spotted? He normally slipped by pretty easily, but adding another person to the mix messed with his plans. “Hey Alopex do you have an idea on how to-”

SHE’S GONE

SHE’S NOT IN HIS ROOM

THE WINDOW IS OPEN

GOD DAMMIT

That’s that, curtain call, looks like she didn’t actually accept the offer. Pete walked up to the window feeling defeated, she was gone, probably for good, running around with the forest animals. His call to adventure was gone and he’d never know if she lived a happy life or got herself killed out there. Then he looked out into the backyard and saw her hiding behind a tree with a cocky smile, doing a small hand gesture calling for him… well, that made things easier.

The boy slipped into the corridor without coming across anyone, he could hear Agatha in her room talking loudly to her pets while a documentary about turtles played in the background. He guessed that her noise drowned out the conversation with Alopex to his mother, one of the few times he was thankful his sister always left her door open.

The backyard wasn’t that impressive to look at, just a small border between the woods and the house itself. A large tree stood in the middle, much older than the very town it resided in, hanging from it was a swinging bench, big enough for two people to sit on it. The young fox girl stood behind the tree waiting for Peter to arrive, she was thinking about how she couldn’t remember ever actually using a swing in her life. Maybe if things actually worked out this could be her new home and she could use it whenever she wanted, maybe...

“Alopex! How did you even do that! Wait, don’t tell me yet, let’s go over this way and you can explain it when we get there” Her longing thoughts were interrupted by the sight of Peter, who had finally reached her. She had kept a sharp eye and nose for anything nearby but found nothing besides the boy and the 2 others inside the house. Things were finally safe and quiet, she would enjoy this moment for as long as it lasted, no more pain, she finally had time to heal. At least until it was time to come clean about her past.

The trail to the spot wasn’t particularly interesting, it was a short beaten path taking to a small clearing in the forest. Even the supposed wilds near the house had been thoroughly remade for safety, with a tall fence prohibiting them from going further into the woods and from letting any undesirable animals in. Pete sat down on a rock that made for a nice spot to relax in, the mutant soon followed, sitting in a somewhat uncomfortably close position.

“It’s not much, but it’s a nice spot. I probably made it sound more interesting than it actually was, heh…” The teen spoke, clearly nervous now that he actually had to have a real conversation with Alopex about who she was.

“It’s nice, I needed a place like this, I can see why you would live here.” The mutant was being careful with her words now, her mind was telling her she’d have to actually tell him about her history, about who she was and the things she did. There couldn’t be any lies in her explanation, she had lied and deceived enough in her life, maybe it was time to finally be honest with someone.

“Where did you live before?” Peter wasn’t sure what questions were appropriate to ask, so he went with an easy one, something that might get the fox to open up, even if only a little.

Alopex mindlessly scratched the back of her hand with her sharp claws, it was now or never, time to spit it out “I… I guess you should know more about me, since i’ll probably stay”

“That “probably” will become a definitely once you actually meet everyone, trust me” 

“We’ll see, we’ll see…” This is it, no more stalling, time to reveal more about herself. She’ll start with the basics, before going into the painful memories. “I’m a ninja”

Peter couldn’t believe it, it’s like something out of a movie, and it was exactly what he had always hoped for. “That’s awesome! Is that how you got out of my room so fast? Can you show me some of your moves?” Could she teach him how to be a cool ninja? Maybe they could sneak back here and train. Imagine all the other people in town finding out that he had crazy ninja skills.

“Hey, calm down a bit, we’re just talking now… but I might show you some later…” Alopex attempted to make the excited teen settle down, perhaps leading with that wasn’t the greatest idea. But then again, maybe she could actually teach him a few things, even if just as a pastime.

Pete felt like this couldn’t get any better, not only was she opening up but he might even get to learn cool ninja tricks! “Nice! What kind of stuff did you do as a Ninja anyway?”

“Mostly… Uhm… Sneaking missions… Some Spying” Again the vixen carefully chose her words, but with a clear lack of confidence. Hiding who she was and what she had done would only cause pain, so why not just say it? If she got rejected then it would be back to the original plan of running away into the woods, and doing that would be better than lying again.

“Oh that’s really cool, I’m not great at sneaking as I’m sure you saw yesterday” Peter didn’t even notice the mutant arctic fox’s struggle, he was too focused on thoughts about how many cool things she could teach him. “Where do you come from anyway?”

But enough was enough, now was the time for both of them to truly know each other and see if things could truly work. With that Alopex began her monologue: “I was born in Alaska, as just a normal arctic fox, living purely on instinct. I focused my life on hunting food for my family, only trying to survive for the next day, we relied on each other to keep going and through that we stayed strong against the…” 

The mutant paused for a moment, going through these memories was never easy. Meanwhile Pete stared at her, the look on his face showed his unwavering curiosity, but a warm smile reassured Al’s spirit “Eventually I got taken for experimentation by a group of scientists that had a lab in the area. After some painful injections I started to understand the humans around me, and the mutagen that I received had fully changed me into what I am now. Their most successful subject, but still confused about what I had become. In this… vulnerable state, I was taken in by a ninja clan known as The Foot. They operated in New York City, and with them I personally trained and worked for their leader, my former master, The Shredder, he wa-”

“Hold on, What is up with these names? Why would a NYC Ninja Clan even have a lab in Alaska? This story really isn’t adding up” The human teen interrupted his new companion. It felt weird to draw a line of what he thought was ridiculous or not in front of a humanoid animal that was mutated in a lab. He probably shouldn’t have done that.

“You don’t… you…” The Fox was angry, why was she getting angry? He didn’t mean any harm, he doesn’t know the full story, yet she started growling and showing her sharp teeth all the same.

Peter was getting scared, he touched a nerve, said something he shouldn’t have said, a quick apology might at least help mitigate the situation “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like an insult to y-”

Alopex quickly realized how pointless her aggressiveness was “It’s… It’s ok, I’m sorry if I scared you. There are reasons for their names and the locations of their labs, but they don’t matter now. What matters is that… for years the Foot were my family. Sure, I was the only mutant there and I was always sent to fight and trick others of my kind, but I still felt like I was someone, like I belonged somewhere. I was so confused after my mutation… so I did whatever they wanted me to do… Including killing anyone that went against them” She couldn’t even look at him anymore, her hands clutched tightly together. The sharp claws at the end of her fingers were about to start cutting her skin. She didn’t care, the pain of letting it all out and realizing the gravity of her past actions was much stronger.

Nothing was coming out of the boy’s mouth, the girl he rescued was a killer. She seemed to be remorseful over her actions but still, how many lives had she taken, were any of them innocent? Was she trying to kill someone before she had to run away and ended up finding him?

“I used to obey their orders without question. Mas- I mean The Shredder would send me on missions, kill traitors, take down rivals, discover and capture other mutants, but one day… I saw what I had become, and who I was working for, my former Master brought me back to my home, to destroy the lab that had made me who I am”

There was a momentary pause before her next phrase, in that second, Pete snuck in a question “Did you have to kill any-”

“NO! There wasn’t anyone inside, please… let me just finish…” There was pain in her eyes once she finally turned to meet Peter’s gaze, he smiled, wanting to know how the story ended 

“I was planting bombs in the lab when my old memories came rushing back to me, like my past was calling out to tell me to turn away from my current path. Then I smelled the smoke, Shredder set fire to the woods, destroying the place I once called home. This was his final initiation for me, a way to embrace the Foot Clan as my true family and throw away my past, but it only showed me how despicable he truly was. I feel ashamed that I followed him for so long, that I didn’t see it sooner, but I still stayed with him, biding my time until an opportunity to take him down appeared. My one shot for revenge after what he had done… after what he made me do…” 

“I missed…” She said, while pointing at the scar on her left shoulder, now almost completely faded under her thick coat of fur “After that, I was lucky to leave the place alive, I betrayed him in the middle of a war with a… rival clan, and while they retreated I just got cut up and beaten for my mistake. I don’t think they know I'm still alive, maybe… I’m not sure… you should’ve seen how much blood I left on their floors. I managed to escape in the confusion after the fight, I didn’t have anywhere else to go so I hitched a ride with the Foot’s enemies hoping that they wouldn’t kill me while I was still weak as revenge for all the times I attacked them. After that, they stopped for gas at your station… and you know the rest.”

The pair was silent, Alopex was glad to finally get this all out. She skimmed over a lot of things, but the major points were there, plus she could always clear up the details later. Now the mutant wanted to see if she would be accepted even with her past. Her hands were no longer held together in her lap, instead both were placed at her sides putting pressure against the rock almost as if she was ready to leap out at any moment if she did get rejected. Pete felt incapable of truly processing what he had heard “Alopex, you clearly went through a lot and honestly I'm not sure I fully understood everything you just said…” He couldn’t explain why he was doing this, but something inside of him said that this is what she needed now. So he took one of her hands and held it tight.

“You don’t have to hurt anyone anymore ok? Things might be a bit rough at first but trust me, you can have a place to call home here, and people that will always be there for you” Peter spoke confidently. Even after learning about the things she had done, helping the young vixen the previous day had shown just how vulnerable she truly was deep under the facade of the vicious predator. He couldn’t imagine what it would feel like if his family had acted like this crazy clan of killer ninjas and told him to take the lives of others, deep down he felt like he might’ve done the same.

Alopex gave him a full smile, this was it, she had found her new home, even knowing what she had done in the past he still accepted her. She looked into his eyes and found herself staring deeply into them for an uncomfortable amount of time, they were a deep blue, reminding her of a color of face paint she would occasionally use. Yet there was something mesmerizing about them.

“Hey, how about we go meet my sister, she’d love to know you, I know I did… I mean, It’s nice to meet new friends…” The teenage boy’s horrifically awkward attempt at talking to the mutant snapped her out of the trance she was in.

“Yeah sure, friends, I get it” She chuckled at her own remark, and even though Peter was being made fun of, he didn’t care, because he was still making her smile.