Lex and Ella Greenstone were racing down the winding country path, when something white rushed across their way. They both swerved and Lex disappeared down a stream running next to the path.
“shit” .Lex cried out as he fell face first into the water. Sputtering he stood up and grabbed his bike from the water, looking it over he noticed he had virtually bent the front wheel in half.
“well that sucks” Ella said as she looked down at her wet brother.”moms gonna be pissed of at you for wrecking your bike”.
“oh c'mon , this wasn’t even my fault this time .Did you expect me to hit what ever that was”?
Lex looked up at his smirking sister as he tried to climb out of the muddy trench. After a struggle he managed to pull himself and the bike free.
“ Yeh thanks for the help sis, What's the matter don’t want to get dirty? ”flicking mud at her as he stood on the path.
Grinning as she ducked she flipped him the bird.” just because we’re related doesn’t mean we both have to get dirty. Moms already gonna be upset with the state of you, if we both come back wet she’ll lose it”
“well looks like I’m walking the rest of the way”.
Ella looked around.” wonder what it was that ran in front of us? We should at least have a quick look just to be sure its not hurt.”
“ok but just a quick look, I’m cold and just a little soggy” Lex said pointing at himself"
The pair looked around the bushes and found a bundle of fur curled into a ball shaking.
Ella knelt down to get a closer look.” I think it hurt “she said
“what is it, a dog? Is there an owner around? Maybe we should call out to see if they can help”.
“i think it’s a fox” Ella said
“are you sure? We don’t get white foxes in the Uk usually. Do you think its someone pet that got out?”
“dunno. Maybe, but we need to get it some help”.
Lex tentatively reached down to touch the fox .”do you think its safe for us to pick up? I don’t want to get bit and catch rabies or something”.
Ella took out her hair band “ how about we put thus over it’s mouth like a muzzle and wrap it in your coat, its already dirty”.
“that will work. We’ll have to be careful not to hurt it too much though!.
Lex gently wrapped the hair band around the muzzle and folded his coat around the foxes body. He picked it up and handed it to his sister.” I’ll take the bikes so you can carry the fox”.
Pulling his bike on to its back wheel and just pushing his sister bike they headed home.
After a short walk they reached the cottage. Lex dropped the bikes and walked into the house. Ella unwrapped the fox and lay it on the couch in front of the fire .The fox didn’t try to struggle or bite.
“it must be hurt quite bad if it’s not fighting you” Lex was looking over her shoulder as she checked it over looking for injuries.
The fox whimpered as she touched its leg” sorry baby” she said as she pulled back from the leg.” can you get mom. looks like we will have to take it to a vet seems as if the leg may be broken or something.
She run of and starts calling for mom. Lex looked down at the fox and continue checking it over while avoiding the back leg. It was a bit guarded around its side so maybe bruised ribs. Mom comes walking in the room while putting on her jacket.
“lets have a look at this beautiful animal you tried to kill” mom smiled at him with an evil glint in her eyes. She looked down at the white fox. “Oh she is stunning, you don’t see white foxes in this country.”
“That’s what I said to Ella” he said to her, he looked down at it “ so its a girl fox then?”
“and a cute one too, we better get her wrapped up and get to the vets soon. Hannah is just getting some blankets to keep her warn.”
We wrap up the fox and walk to the car. As we drive to the vet I lay the fox on my lap and play with her fluffy ears. She seemed to like it so I carried on doing it to relax her on the sort journey. As we get out the car mom looked at me.
“ It’s best if we say we own it and it got out and was hit by a bike, or they might take it away from you and put it in a zoo or something. We can take her home and look after her till she’s better, then we can look for the owner.”
Typical of her to think of herself. he knew she just wants a new pet.
“Ok, but this is my fox, she wrecked my bike and nearly killed me so she’s mine.” Lex said
they enter the vets and approach the desk, the receptionist smiled at them and looked down at the bundle in his arms.
“hello, I’m here with my pet fox, she got out and was hit by some kid on a bike, I’ve checked her over but I think her leg and ribs are hurt could you check her please. “Lex said to the girl behind the desk
“Aw poor thing , lets have a look at her. Oh she’s white, how pretty. I’ll get the vet now. “ she picked up the bundle and walked to a small room and they followed her. She explained to the vet and they checked the fox over, she started biting and clawing at the vet. the receptionist called Lex over to hold her and she calmed down. Well ok she must like me then, Lex thought. He held her head and stroked her ears to keep her calm while the vet checks her over.
“Ok it does seem to be at least one break, but I think I may have to anaesthetise her so we can xray her to see exactly how many she has. Can you hold her while I give her a needle”.
He picked her up and cuddled her while the vet jabs her and she fell asleep. He handed her to the vet and he walks off. They followed the receptionist back to the desk.
“right I’ll get some details while we wait to see how she is. I need to know her name, age, your name and address and details about vaccines and such. Oh and if she isn’t chipped we can do that for you” she handed him a bunch of forms and they sat down to fill them in.
“ What the hell am I supposed to do with these things. We don’t know anything about her. We can give her a name and guess her age but that’s it.” Lex said.
Mom clicked her fingers and put out her hand. She just started writing crap down and looked up” all we need if a name. Any ideas?”
“Tatty, short for Tatiana.”
“your crush” he said “you’re really gonna name my little girl after you bloody crush. Although I must say I do agree she is hot.”
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She slaps his arm ,” there’s no way she would look at a geek like you. She’s perfect, and the girl ill marry one day.” Ella dreamed.
“oh c’mon” he grinned,” you have as much chance as me, none” I love my sister but she has a strange taste in girls. “ ok though I’ll let you name her but don’t go kidnapping her.”
They handed the forms back and the receptionist tells them to come back tonight after six, if she isn’t ready by then we will ring you to let you know. they thank her and go home on the way home they shopped for pet stuff and food. Lex picked out a stunning black collar with crystal studs on it.” I think this will look cool on her” Lex said
The vet called them and asked them to come and collect the fox.
Ella picked up the new blanket she picked out and they got in the car and returned to the clinic.
The receptionist comes out and informs him that he will have to get tatty from the cage as she wont let anyone near her. He sighed and followed her to the cages. As he approached the cage the foxes tale starts wagging and she bobs around excited to see him.
“ looks like someone missed you.” she said.
He looked down as the vet opened the cage. “ have you been causing trouble” he said to her “I can’t have that, I won’t give you cuddles if you act naughty”
Her ears drooped and she looks up at him with big blue eyes and almost seemed as if she understood him and was sorry. he ruffled her fur and they all went home. mom handed Lex the treatment sheet that the vet sent home with her, it looks like she had two breaks on her leg and three cracked ribs. We got pain killers and antibiotics.
As the weeks past they all became closer to the pretty fox, and she seemed to have claimed them as her own. they had become very close and she followed Lex around the best she could with a cast on her leg and her ribs strapped up. On the day she had her cast off and bandages removed she almost squealed with joy. My pretty little fox was whole again. Lex said as he gently stroked her ears.
they went for their first walk. She ran around jumping around like a puppy, she was just the cutest.” We will have to make this a daily thing Lex said” i love walking this fox and even though we argue and jab at each other I love spending time with my weird little sister.”
Today is her birthday she is seventeen so Lex is taking her out for a meal that’s why they are having a long walk now so tatty will be ok on her own for a little bit. So Lex, mom and Ella and her girlfriend all went out for their meal. It was a nice night they ate lots of food, good food, expensive food.
They returned home at midnight so Lex decided to walk tatty before bed, he called for Ella to see if she wanted to come and walk off the food they just had, She agreed. They put on their coats and Lex picked up a torch. they left the cottage and walked up the country lane. they walked their favourite route with tatty just chatting about the meal and how thing were going with her girlfriend.as they came to a clearing in the woods a soft glow emanated from behind some trees tatty ran towards it stopping and looking over her shoulder at Lex as if to tell him to follow. So he did. they walked round the tree and saw a small door. Well that’s not something you see every day he thought.
“Is that a real door on a tree.”
Tatty scratched at the door trying to get inside,
“ I don’t know what it is.” he look at Ella,” shall we open it? Enquiring minds need to know”.he opened the door and they stepped through into a dark room.
While looking around with his torch he notice its a small living room.
A blue glowing ball fell from the sky and crashed through the ceiling he grab tatty and Ella and cover them just as the ball explodes and he passed out with the pain.
Ella screamed with fear at the explosion and felt a heavy wait on her. She remembered that her brother had jumped on her to protect her from the meteorite as it crashed down. She rolled her brother off her and gasped as she notice that his right side from neck his arm down his side and almost all of his right leg was covered in a white hot metal she could see even though he was unconscious he looked as if he was in terrible pain. She couldn’t even touch it because it was so hot. Tatty woke up and started screeching she tried to claw the metal but burned her paw and howled in pain and passed back out again. Ella picked up her brothers torch and looked for a water source. She found a tap and it had running water. She took off her jacket and ran it under the tap. She ran to her brother and rung it out on the metal to cool it down and it hissed with steam. Over and over again she repeated it. Finally she managed to cool it enough that it was touchable. It felt odd, soft but also hard, a little like corn starch its soft but when you hit it its a solid. She couldn’t understand it. She remember tatty had burned her paw so she soaked her jacket jacket again and wrapped the front paws up to help with the burns. With nothing else to do she dried her brother and pulled tatty close and all three slept together covered in her brothers dry coat as a blanket.
As the sun shone through the window Ella woke up and looked around. Her eyes fell on her brother and saw he was still half coated in metal. She checked on Tatty and her front paws were also covered in metal.
“Lex” she called out. Gently touching his untouched arm.” Are you ok."
Lex didn’t wake up and neither did tatty. Panicking Ella ran for the door to get her mom for help. She ran as fast as she could toward the cottage hoping her mom was at home.
The time difference between the the outside world and inside the tree was three days to one.
Lex finally woke up and saw a naked white haired girl wrapped in his coat curled up next to his keeping warm.
Lex gently tapped the girl.
“Er hello.” he said softly .” are you ok? Can I ask who you are”
The girl stirred and turned to look at him. “master? You smell different.”
“master? Who do you mean master?”
“you master. You and mistress Ella took care of me when I was injured. Master. Why are my hands hard?”
Lex wasn’t happy with this master stuff but he looked at the girls hands. They seem to be metal from the elbow down. “does it hurt at all?”
“yes. How about you you have shiny on half of your body. Does that hurt you?”
Lex looked down at himself and realised he was in fact half covered in what looked like silver or aluminium. He stretched out his arm and wiggled his fingers and moved his wrist and elbow. It hurt a lot, like when he spilled a boiled kettle on his leg as a child. Checking himself over he noticed his right side was covered. His leg, his torso his arm and up his neck to his ear. His face wasn’t touched but half his ear was metal. ,Maybe he could pass it off as some kind of earring. I’ll just have to wear high collers and long sleeves but what do I do about my hand.
Lexes eyes widened and he checked down the front of his underwear. He let out a sigh. ”thank god” no. His friend was untouched, that would be so bad.
“ I’m so sorry, I haven’t asked your name” Lex said “I’m Lex nice to meet you” he held out his not metal hand, then realised her hands were both metal and pulled back.
“you know me master I’m tatty.” slowly she stopped and looked down at herself. “where is my fur? Why am I so big? How can I talk? What's going on? Master I’m scared help me , something’s wrong I’m different what’s going on.”
Lex looked at her incredulously. ” You're Tatty? How the hell did that happen. Also where the hell are we. We’re lost things have turned strange and Ella is missing.”
Ella was packing clothes and shoes in a bag while waiting for her mother to get home from work. She had called her and told her there was a bad accident and Lex was hurt but she needs her to get home and help her.
She packed painkillers and antiseptic and blankets for tatty. She didn’t know how to explain to the vet about metal paws on a fox.
She made some sandwiches and packed some bottles of water , he’s got to be hungry and thirsty. She knew there was a water tap but didn’t see any food so he’s going to be hungry. She didn’t know about the time difference but luckily he had been asleep for the past 3 days.
Their mom rushed in and Ella started explaining while dragging her back to her car.
“we can get most of the way in the car and just have to walk a short distance. He’s been burnt by some kind of metal and so has tatty. I’ve packed clothes because his are burnt . he tried to protect me and tatty and got hurt bad we need to get there quickly.
They drove as quickly and safely as possible. As they reached a circle of tree Ella said stop we’re here. She jumped out and ran to the trees. Her mom closely following. Ella checked a couple of trees before finding the right one. She opened the door and stopped dead.
“Lex , Lex I’m here. I’ve brought mom in the car we can get you to help.”
Ella's mom stopped and looked at the door in the tree. thinking what the hell is going on.
A girls voice came from inside . Ella is that you? Master is getting fire wood he’ll be back soon.
“master? Who are you.” she walked in and saw a white haired girl standing by the window looking out.she was just Ella's type. Petite pretty with blue eyes and pale smooth skin. She must be between 18 or 20. Ella noticed she was only wearing her brothers coat. She had silver hand poking out from her sleeves.
“ I’m tatty. I now I’ve changed we have talked about it, master thinks it must have been the me-te-a.” she looked puzzled” falling stone. It hurt a lot but not as much as master, he had more and hurt more we caring for each other.”
Mom came into the room looking around.” what the hell is this. How can there be a room in a tree? This doesn’t make sense .”
Lex walked back in the room carrying a bunch of branches and some fruit and what looked like some kind of rodent. He had managed to make some kind of shorts from what was left of his trousers and a basic top from what looked like a blanket.