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The alarm buzzed annoyingly as Lokai rolled out of bed. His head had still hurt and his eyes were cloudy. Slowly, he rose to his feet and slammed the alarm, seeming to break it once again. As if in a daze, he preceded through his regular morning routine. After cleaning his teeth and finishing off his morning meal, he walked out upon his back porch. The sun still hung low in the sky and the stars could still almost be seen, as if a vail had been cast over them. Lokai turned, running back into the house to hug his mother before descending his front steps and heading out into the establishment. His house had been located near the edge of the city, near the giant wall that surrounded them. Stretching briefly, he preceded to run as fast as his paws could take him to the school. It was going to be a glorious day, Lokai thought to himself. As he sped off into the distance, the sound of metal on metal, and footsteps thunking into thick mud seemed to follow him only enough to keep him unaware of the strange sound's movement. This is where our story begins..

I sped down the street, as fast as I could, not caring who or what were to get in my way. My eyes were still clouded with sleep, but my ears and nose told me which way I should go. People began moving in and out of my way, and one man had tried to grab me by the hairs of my neck, but luckily for me, I was just too quick for the poor old geezer.

I had arrived at school almost an hour before it was to start. My heart still racing from the morning jog, I set my books down and drew sketched in the dirt. My sketches seemed to blend in with the dirt's disorientation, as everything I drew seemed to be pitifully horrid. turning away from the dirt momentarily, I stood up and stretched again, my back, this time, cracking comfortably.

I stood there for a good 5 minutes until another friend showed up. "Ryudo!" I said wildly, running up to him and tackling him. Ryudo's fur was a dark grey and his eyes were a bright blue. He was about my age and we had been in the same class together since our younger years. I helped Ryudo up and collected his books. "Lokai, you shouldn’t hit so hard..." He said rubbing the back of his head. "C'mon. I went easy on you!" I said with a smile. Ryudo and I talked for awhile, complaining that the day was a Monday and school was to be in session soon. As we chatted, a number of students arrived early and sat on the steps of the school, chased other students, or just sat in the dirt, waiting for the place to open.

As Ryudo and I chatted, a fox snuck up slowly behind him and began approaching him from behind. I tried my hardest not to laugh, as I realized that this fox was Linia, one of our other friends. Ryudo hadn't noticed until it was too late and Linia had pounced on his back, knocking him easily down. "Gah! Linia! What'd you do that-" Ryudo attempted to say, but Linia had interrupted him. "Slow as always, Ryudo. With those reflexes, you'll never become a good hunter." She said in a bossy tone. Linia had never seen us as her equals, but more as her grunts whom she could test or fight as any moment to gauge their abilities. Ryudo almost always failed.

"Seesh, you could have warned my, Lokai!" He said, standing up and massaging his head once again. "Yeah, but it was more fun this way!" I said, laughing. Soon, we all began laughing out loud, looking like complete fools in front of our school. We were all happy to be alive, and happy to have each other. I started walking towards Illia to pounce on her for practice, but I was stopped by the sound of footsteps behind me, approaching fast. I dodged to the side just in time to see Kolt run past me at a blazing speed into Illia. Kolt was a fox as well and had been Illia's neighbor since they were born. "Oww!! Kolt, watch where your going! Lokai's over there, not here!" Illia said muffled by Kolt's body. "Oh...Heh, sorry, Illia. I guess I don't have as much traction on the-" He was interrupted by Illia picking him up and throwing him off of her. Ryudo and I stood back with gaping mouths, wondering where Illia's sudden strength came from. Illia laughed sweetly, "Guess I don't know my own strength..." She said as Kolt landed face-first into a puddle of mud.

Before we could laugh at Kolt's misfortune, the first bell had rung and we were instructed to enter the building. As we climbed up the steps, a tall Dalmatian stood in the main entranceway, staring angrily at Kolt. "You think you'll enter my building with dirty paws like that? Oh no, mister. Back outside! We'll get a hose..." She said, pointing Kolt back out the door and into the front yard. I made my way to my locker and to my home room, the smell of lunch already fresh in the air. As slow as I possibly could, I opened the door to your fifth grade classroom and made my way to my seat, in the front of the class, directly in front of the teacher's desk.

I wouldn't say I was a trouble-maker, but I had managed to drop a bucket of water on our teacher, fill her desk with mud, exchange her writing utensils with sticks, break most of the windows, tear apart the class books...Well, the point is made that I wasn't the best student. But my teacher didn't hate me for that reason. She hated me because I was smart. My tests were almost always perfect, and she'd look every single time to see if I was cheating. I never cheated and she was constantly perplexed as to how I got these awesome grades. I feel it's just luck, but others say I should be a few grades higher...But I could never leave my friends behind.

Class had started, and a very wet, shivering red fox that was Kolt entered the room, a towel draped over his neck. His clothes were soaked to the brim and he had obviously been cleaned very throughly, as not a speck of mud was on him. Throughout my day, I watched outside the window, looking for a distraction that might aid me in my futile escape of the boredom of the classroom. Birds, the sun, and the wall were all my eyes could see. As the math lesson slowly progressed, I drew my pawprints all over my paper for some extra time consumption, but nevertheless, with my paper covered in paw marks and my pen out of ink, I was forced to listen to the lesson drag onward with absolutely nothing to do. Ryudo sat next to me, almost as bored as I was. Illia sat behind me, vigorously copying down notes and formulas and Kolt sat on the other side of me. But before I could even notice what Kolt was doing, I let out a snicker so loud that the teacher stopped her lesson and stared at me. It was hard not to laugh, as his fur had puffed out so much he looked like a huge furry ball. I lowered my head into my lap and began snickering under my breath, holding back the laughter and tears that welled in my eyes. Even though I had probably looked the same at some point in my school career, it was always funny as long as it didn't happen to you.

Lunch-time had finally arrived. I was right, as usual, as to what they were serving. Today was sushi day. Raw fish, rice, vegetables and many other delicious things awaited us as we, the four of us, entered the café. Kolt's fur had receded to it's natural form and his attitude towards me had soured since my laughter in class. He would forget about it as he ate, though. We all did. The fish was excellent and I even at most of the vegetables, even if my taste buds weren't accustomed to their "delicious" taste. As we talked and finished our food, something strange began happening to me. My tail stopped wagging as it usually did whence I ate, but instead began to flick, un-naturally, from side to side. Suddenly, a huge crashing noise and an explosion followed. My ears and tail went upright. The hair on the back of my neck had raised. "What the..." My wolf ears had heard it, but only a few others seemed to be affected. Ryudo stared at me with wide eyes, his ears perked as mine. "Lokai, " Kolt said, "Your fur...why are you on edge? Are you okay?" I looked at him and saw my black fur reflected in his eyes. "Kolt...you didn’t hear that?" I said, now growing ever more worried.

Soon the entire cafeteria had quieted down. No one made a move or even twitched. The other animals without good senses had been told by us wolves and foxes to quiet down so we could tune in for more noise. Then, it happened so fast, I barely remember what I was doing. I can remember the men. Huge men in black suits armed with guns, breaking down windows and shooting my classmates with what looked like to be darts. I got up and grabbed Kolt, running as fast as I could into the hallway. 3 soldiers were waiting there for us, but were distracted by other fleeing students. Kolt, Linia, Ryudo and I had made it down another hallway where no one seemed to be. As quietly as we could, we stepped into the classroom. Illia screamed, Kolt turned away and Ryudo gaped on in horror at the sight that lay behind us. A teacher, not ours, but another teacher lay face down on the floor in a pool of his own blood. I looked away as well, only to meet Ryudo expelling his sushi over the floor. "Lokai, I don't want to hide here..." He said wiping his mouth. My head was swimming with thoughts and questions. What was going on? Were we under attack? How long would it be until they found us? Would they kill us like the teacher?

I cleared my head and grabbed Ryudo's wrist. "Come on, we have to hide." I said. Quietly, we maneuvered our way to the back of the classroom and hid in an empty cuppord. But it wasn't before long that I had realized that I had made a mistake. There was a window directly above the cuppord and it wasn't before long that a man had burst through the window and entered the classroom. He immediately walked over to the dead teacher and inspected the body. After noticing that he was killed, he fired more rounds into him, making the sure he was dead. "This is Thomas. Sector 1 is clear." He said into a remote on his chest. "Excellent, Thomas. Remember, the children should not be a threat. Do not eliminate them." "Understood sir." He responded into his remote. Illia had been quiet for so long, I had wondered why she hadn't yelled yet. However, my wondering came to an abrupt halt when Illia began sobbing loudly. My heart pounded heavily in my chest as the man noticed the wails and walked over to the cuppord, just noticing our presence there.

"Well, now. What are you kids doing in a place like this?" He said, raising the rifle to Illia's head. "Such a beautiful coat. My Wife would love such a fine coat to drape around her neck." As he raised the rifle towards us, I leapt out of the cuppord and sank my teeth into his leg, tasting fresh blood. "Lokai! Don't!" I heard Illia yell, but the man had already screamed in pain. "Son of a (edited for explicit content)! You little mother (edited for explicit content)!! I'm gonna skin you alive!" he said, pointing the rifle at me and firing. The dart had penetrated my shoulder, but I could still move. Growling angrily now, my neck hair raised and my eyes glowing a piercing yellow that reflected off the visor of the intruder, I kicked off his leg and made way for his throat. My jaws clenched around it and locked as he began scrambling to force me off of him.

"LOKAI!" Illia yelled, "Don't do it! Please...Please, Lokai..." The sedatives had began to kick in and everything began to slow. "Illia," I said muffled by the mans throat, "Look away." I said biting down and hearing the fabled crunch and pop that I knew was coming from dealing this finishing blow. My fur now covered in blood, I stood, lazily up and tried to navigate myself back to the cuppord, but my knees felt heavy and my eyes became once again clouded with sleep. I knelt, then fell face-first onto the floor and drifted to sleep, one arm still outstretched towards my friends.