An anthropomorphic fox sat on a car that had seen far better days back in 2022, the last year of the European Union. The street was empty despite being in London, yet his black and orange triangular ears heard a mob breaking into stores a few streets away. His green eyes lowered down from the sky to his smartphone, its surface reflecting his foxy features, showing his orange fur around his dark fur. He pressed a button on the phone, and it flashed on, displaying an image of two humans, a boy and a girl, with their arms over each other’s shoulder. The guy’s green eyes shone as bright as stars while giving out a wide grin towards the cross fox holding onto that phone, who was once that guy.

It had been two months since the Great Change, an event where half of the human population had transformed into anthro animals. Since then, the world had changed for the worse with many nations like the United Kingdom and China having societal breakdowns. Anthros like Daniel were labeled as heathens or demons and hunted down by mobs of fanatics. What didn’t help their case was that some anthros developed magical powers as well. That made the demon label stick harder despite humans also gaining such abilities. It was thought that the Great Change was the reason why some had magic, but no one had any time to do research. If the breakdown continued, no one would ever know.

Daniel’s mind flashed back eight years ago, to 2018, where a news broadcast showed an object in the United States only referred to as the LD. The LD was a jet-black sphere, 1.7 meters in diameter, that floated 50cm from the floor. The orb didn’t cast a shadow regardless of lighting, almost as if it was an illusion, yet it was a physical object.

That news shook the world all over in part because, as revealed by the Saquu Elohi lab researching the LD, it was continuously emitting energy and could be an infinite energy source. Every major nation wanted a piece of the LD, but the president of the United States wished to keep the research on American’s soil. A significant reason why, he explained, was that the energy emitted warped electronic equipment and he wanted to explore the reason why. Another reason was that the LD had an odd effect whenever it was being probed by the most advanced computers, instead of measurements and information, designs for new weapons would be recorded. Such an object, he explained, should not be approached recklessly.

The EU raided the lab and stole it a year later, placing it in their own lab, the Eine Welt. It was then that it was revealed to the public that the LD had another unique ability: humans who touched the LD transformed into anthro animals. Such a revelation only increased interest in the LD’s infinite energy since it required a massive amount of energy to cause such a change.

The United States’ president demanded the return of the LD, but the EU rejected it and Congress were divided on whether to declare war or not. The president, faced with a war that could go nuclear or losing face by conceding the LD’s ownership, chose to withdraw all American troops from Europe and declared sanctions.

Within only a few years, the EU collapsed from invasion attempts from the outside and insurrections in the inside, all seeking the LD. Such chaos, Daniel thought with bitterness, made Brexit look like a minor affair.

Over the next couple of years after the EU breakup, the LD bounced from one nation to the next. One month it could be owned by the British and the next month its new owner could be the Germans, with the only stable thing about it was the labs holding onto it, Eine Welt, since it was an EU lab before the split. It wasn’t until 2024 where France had stable ownership of the LD. Since then, the French’s Eine Welt had built up a massive research plant to study the LD despite invasion attempts from the rest of the world (outside of the US, ironically enough).

Then, two months ago, at the peak of ‘the LD wars,’ when even France was in a civil war, they used the fruits of their research to activate a machine connected to the LD. This machine, they declared, would make a better world, where humans would become angels and live in harmony.

All that it did, Daniel thought as he looked upwards with a deep glare, was create a dystopia.

Daniel’s white tipped black tail twitched as he slid down the car. His black paws landed onto the cracked road as his green eyes looked around the carnage that happened since then with flipped over cars and smashed glass on the sidewalk. His open button shirt flapped against the breeze, exposing his lanky frame with no sign of a muscle under his fur. His brown pants were loose around his legs to fit in his digitigrade paws as it held a large knife on his belt.

This world became hell, he noted again for a thousand time, as he walked towards the glass on the ground, the broken glass moving out of the way from his paws. Every former EU nation had devolved into some sort of fascist government in an attempt to control the chaos while Russia was under another revolution. China, on the other hand, was under the control of the anthros and used it as an excuse to decrease their human population. At this point, only a few nations like the United States were able to adapt to the Great Change and even then, it could only be a matter of time before it devolved into the chaos like the rest of the world.

Daniel stopped in his tracks with that thought in mind as his mind focused on the United States, a place he visited once as a kid in 2016. His mind, continuing the cynical spiral, recalled a memory about Avil when she revealed to him that she planned to go to the US a month ago. His heart felt a regretful pain as more memories were strung together about his second to last meeting with Avil, his love.

“You wish to go to the States?” Daniel asked as his green eyes widened. “Why?”

Avil looked back at Daniel with her own yellow eyes, which seem to glow under the half-moon light. Her dark hair, still retained even after her own change, was long and blew against the breeze as her gray fur bristled from the cold. Her wolfish muzzle pointed upwards to Daniel’s foxy muzzle in a kind smile as she reached up to his cheek.

“Because I wish to go to a place where there might be a future for us,” Avil answered. “There’s no point in living in a dark place like here where there’s only death and being hunted. I want to live in a place we can go as we please without being attacked. Why do you ask?”

Daniel gave out a heavy sigh. “To be honest, I don’t think there’s a safe place like that anymore. Everywhere I look all I see are ruins and, even when I see some remains standing, I also see a bomb ready to go off. Why go to a place where it’ll eventually become something like here?”

“You mean you wish to stay here? And that I leave you behind?” Avil asked in a surprised voice.

“I don’t wish to watch you leave. That’s not what I mean. But I just don’t see a point in going to a refuge when it’ll eventually explode into violence and chaos.”

“I admit that the thought did cross my mind,” Avil said as her ears flattened back. “But I don’t wish to live in a place full of despair. I wish to have hope that the United States will be a far better place even for years to come. What’s the point of living if there’s no hope?”

“I.” Daniel hesitated. “I lost hope. I feel like I’m dead inside since they came to my home last month; when they burned it to the ground.”

Avil looked away. “But you survived thanks to God’s gift.”

“I’m not sure if it came from God,” Daniel said as he shook his head, his ears flattened back. “Even if it did come from God, I wasn’t able to stop them from killing and skinning my little sister. All of that power and I wasn’t able to save my family.”

“Daniel,” Avil said as she nuzzled the cross fox’s cheek, “I do understand your grief as if it were my own. But you shouldn’t delve into your failures and fall into despair. You should instead walk forward into the future, despite everything you lost. Please, come with me to the States and let us build a new future.”

“Avil, I,” Daniel said before pausing. “I want to be with you, but I can’t. I don’t know how to move forward out of this misery and into the light again. All I wish for is to die and end it all.”

Avil sighed before she kissed Daniel, a tear falling out from her right eye. “In that case, I’ll go on alone.”

Daniel felt a tear falling from his left eye as the memory ended in his mind. He was still alive despite being hunted down by those monsters in human skin. He might have given up on living, but he wouldn’t make it easy for them. He wondered how Avil was doing there or even if she made it to the states since there were also ships run by those fiends hunting them down. At the very least, the United States hadn’t become like the rest of the world so she might be safe. Half of him wanted to follow her on another ship to the States, but the other half, the one that lost all hope, kept reminding him how fragile the peace there was and the inevitable betrayal to come.

“Get back here, demon!”

Daniel looked up and saw a fox child running towards him out of an alley. His sea blue eyes were wide as his red hair brushed against his triangular black ears. The anthro fox ran behind Daniel, wearing nothing but pajamas, and hugged against the cross fox’s leg. Daniel blinked and lay his right hand on the child’s head, sensing the boy yet not feeling any fear-like shaking nor did he see any expression that indicated the boy was scared. In fact, he sensed no emotions at all.

Next, five men ran out from the alleyway and encountered the two anthropomorphic foxes, each man holding some sort of improvised weapon like a two by four or bat. They gripped onto them tight enough that veins appeared from under their skins as they glared at the two foxes in deep anger. Daniel cursed himself in his mind on finding himself on this situation as he folded his left arm behind his back.

“Hunting down a child who can’t defend himself, are you? You must feel so brave,” Daniel said in a mocking tone as his thumb pressed against his middle and ring fingers, and his index and pinky fingers extended themselves straight.

A dark-haired man stepped forward, wielding a large crowbar with his right hand. “I don’t give a damn about what you think, heathen. All I want is that demon. Give him to us, and we will let you live.”

Daniel gave out a harsh laugh. “Even if you weren’t lying, I still wouldn’t give him to you.”

“Very well,” the dark-haired man said in an arrogant tone. “May you both burn in the lake of fire for all eternity.”

“That sounds like a great place to swim in,” Daniel said as he transferred energy to his left hand. “However, I’m not in a mood for swimming in my afterlife now, so I suggest that you leave here in peace. That is your belief, isn’t it? Peace?”

The man gave out a nasty glare. “As if you and the demon will leave here alive.”

Daniel, with a gentle touch of his right hand, pushed the red fox child off his leg. “Don’t look.”

The child took a step back as Daniel’s face darkened and flung forward his left hand before the mob. A fireball formed in front of his hand and flew towards the dark-haired man’s weapon. It exploded upon impact, and the sudden force ripped the crowbar out of the man’s hand. The man stumbled back, his eyes wide as baseballs, as the bar, half-melted, landed on the road.

The man stared in shock for a second before he gritted his teeth in anger and pulled out a long knife. “He’s another demon. Kill him now.”

The five charged at the two foxes as Daniel sighed and unsheathed his knife. “That was a warning.”

The cross fox felt his fur shiver as energy transferred to his right hand and to his knife. Its blade glowed blue as the rest of his power fluxed throughout his body. He then sped towards and through the group, stopping a quarter of a second later ten feet behind them. The fox spun around and saw their backs as his body’s speed cycled back down.

During that period, the mob stopped their charge when their target disappeared in plain sight. They then heard several clanging sounds and saw, to their horror, their weapons reduced to pieces, having been sliced to bits by the demon fox’s knife. Pain then registered in their brains as they realized they had been stabbed in the arm multiple times.

“If left untreated, you’ll die of blood loss,” Daniel said as he glared at the men. “As a final warning, leave the boy and me alone, and you’ll be able to walk away and get your wounds treated.”

The dark-haired man whimpered for a second before it turned into a low growl. “Go back to Hell, demon.”

He then pulled out a small gun from his pocket and pulled the trigger. Daniel blinked as he once again felt a flux of energy throughout his body and time slowed. The bullet was still fast as it flew out of the muzzle and towards the cross fox. Daniel dodged, but it still grazed his chest. Pain flooded his brain, breaking his focus. Gritting his teeth, he used what little time he had left and threw the knife at the man’s neck before he had a chance to fire again. The man fell to the ground, the blade bisecting his neck.

“Anyone else?” Daniel asked in an angry voice.

The rest of the mob got up and scattered out of the area as if the ground was on fire.

“Good,” Daniel said in a growl as he rubbed his left hand against his chest side. It wasn’t deep, he noted, but it was still painful. He took several steps forward and ripped the knife out from the dead man’s neck. He looked up and once again noticed the fox child, his sea blue eyes gazing at the cross fox in a curious expression. Daniel’s face flushed, realizing that the kid was watching everything as he cleaned off the blood with the dead man’s shirt. Daniel walked over to the boy, who was standing on broken glass.

“Sorry that you had to see that,” Daniel said in a kind voice to the fox boy, who looked up at the taller fox. “Are your parents nearby?” He waited for an answer, but none came. “Any relatives?” Again, he waited and again no answer. “Do you know where you live? Do you wish to take me there?”

“Why do you seek pain?” the child asked in an emotionless tone.

Daniel blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Is being in pain makes you feel alive?” the child asked.

“I,” Daniel replied before pausing for a second. “I don’t know. I don’t seek out pain. Where can I take you to your mom and dad?”

The child reached out to the bullet wound on Daniel’s chest side, causing him to wince. “You and the others fight and kill each other for small reasons. If you don’t seek out pain, you won't do that in the first place. Why do you?”

“I did it to protect you and myself,” Daniel answered. “I hardly consider it to be a small reason.”

“But you celebrate being in pain,” the child said, unblinking. “You don’t move on from it and instead stay in it. Why?”

“What are you talking about?” Daniel asked as he held back a snarl. “Nobody wants to be in pain. I went through so much from the last two months that I hate being reminded of it. What makes a kid like you thinks that I enjoy it?”

The fox child placed his hand in his pocket and pulled out a folded paper. His sea blue eyes continued to look at Daniel’s own green eyes without a blink as the child handed the paper to the cross fox. “If you hate being in pain so much, why don’t you move on from it?”

“A kid like you have no idea what you’re talking ab—” Daniel said through gritted teeth before he paused. His eyes looked at the side and saw something drawn within that seemed familiar somehow. His fingers felt through the smooth paper and unfolded it. His eyes widened in amazement and horror. It’s impossible, he thought, this boy could not have known.

But his eyes could not deny the figure that was drawn on the paper. The anthro wolf standing there, looking back at Daniel with her long hair flowing behind her. Her casual clothes of a loose jacket and shirt also fluttered in the breeze that only she could feel with a hand in her jean’s pocket. Despite it being nothing more than a sketch, he couldn’t deny the identity of the wolf.

“Avil?” Daniel said loud enough that everyone could have heard even if London was still crowded with people. “How did you know about her?”

But the child was gone without a trace. Daniel looked down at where the child had stood, and there wasn’t a drop of blood on the shattered glass he stood on. Daniel looked around and saw no one around as he felt his heart beat faster. If it wasn’t for the drawing he held, he might have believed he imagined the child.

His eyes then turned back to the drawing as another memory forced itself to the forefront of his brain. He remembered the last meeting with Avil where he helped her get to where the ship comes and takes people to the United States. His chest felt a regretful pain as he remembered.

“Are you really sure you want to stay?” Avil asked as the two waited by the shore for the boat. “You know you’ll have nothing here.”

“No matter where I go, death will follow,” Daniel replied as his ears lowered. “I lost hope for a chance to be happy when my family died before my eyes.”

“Daniel,” Avil said as she rubbed his left shoulder, “trying to avoid pain like this will only make you suffer. Trying to avoid creating new bonds or love to avoid being hurt will never make you happy. It’ll only hurt even more since there’s no love to balance the pain in your life.”

Daniel lowered his head in shame before Avil reached up and kissed his cheek.

“Once you realize it, please follow me to the States.”

Daniel lowered his head to the ground as his chest felt heavy with shame and guilt. His mind reflected on the words of the fox kid who asked about living in pain as his ears folded back. Did he enjoy living in pain? It couldn’t be, but he was there, remembering how his sister was hung on the tree and getting skinned while Avil was trying to live a better life despite all the suffering she went through herself. As much as he tried to convince himself, he realized that he wasn’t moving forward from his unhappiness. He once had something, but he decided to have nothing when Avil chose to leave. Nothing but his own grief.

But one could always move past it.

Daniel then looked upwards at the sun, his eyes reflecting the light as if they became stars themselves. His chest felt a swelling emotion, one he thought could never return. Then, with nimble fingers, he folded the paper and placed it with loving care to his pocket.

“I can now see hope in my future,” Daniel said to himself as he turned around and sprinted down the sidewalk. “No longer will I live in darkness but return to the light. Avil, wait for me. I’m coming.”