It's been a while since I put up a commission, but here is my newest commission, just put the finishing touches on it today. This was a commission for  DeludedChimera that he wanted based off the picture he gave me (Artwork by  Rhyu) It was the biggest commission I've done so far and it was really fun to work on, hope you all enjoy it and as always both positive and negative comments are welcome.



Escape


“Spread out, he couldn’t have gone very far.” The lion growled as the device in his hand beeped rapidly, letting him know the one they were looking for was close. The group of hyena that the lion had brought with him split into smaller groups of two and slowly began sweeping the area, using machetes to cut through the different plant life the rainforest had to offer. “And don’t kill him, boss still wants him alive.” The lion snapped out as the groups got further away.

Not more than 15 feet away, curled up in a bush, was a small canine. His chest sharply rising and falling as he tried to catch his breath in the cold, each breath a painful reminder of how poorly fed he was as his skin tightened around his ribcage. He quickly put a paw to his muzzle as he heard the hyenas grow closer by the moment, doing his best to muffle all sounds that he could make. He felt a knot swell up in his throat as the footsteps got closer, eyelids falling shut as he waited for them to pass by.

“I heard him, over here!”

He wasn’t sure how they had heard him or maybe it was something else they heard, but adrenaline rushed into the canine’s body as he felt he couldn’t stay in his hiding spot. That rush allowed him to quickly get to his feet and make a run for it, but as soon he was up shouting behind him, several hyena yelling at him to stop, but he wouldn’t, he’d never stop running, not until he was safe.

For weeks he had been forced to go out into the rainforest to gather food and plants for the slavers to use in their strange concoctions. This made him feel as if he had the advantage in knowing where he was going, but all it took for the canine to lose his advantage was a vine that was hanging slightly lower than the day before, catching him by the neck as he turned to see how far behind his captors were. His body continued to move forward as his head was caught in place, eventually gravity took over and he found himself on his back, the air taken from his lungs on impact, vision blurry as his head hit the ground soon after his body.

The hyena were coming for him quickly, but he didn’t have the energy to move anymore no matter how hard he tried. Blurry figures quickly moved up to him as he slowly gave in, eyes closing as he waited to be dragged away.

“You shouldn’t have tried to run mutt, you know what’s going to happen to you now.”

A rustling bush nearby put the hyena on alert, both of them readying their machetes for whatever wild animal might come out. What came from the bush caught both men off guard.

“It’s Diablo!”

A bulky creature stepped from the bush, black and white fur covering his body save for the pink skull markings on his ears, hands, knees and back. His eyes narrowed at the machete-wielding hyena as they stared at the horns that jutted out of his head, letting out a grunt as he moved towards them. So many rumors had circulated through the slaver camp about this creature that the hyena simply turned and fled.

With the hyena gone, the canine was left with the monster, opening his eyes to stare up at him. He mouthed the word ‘diablo’ as a strong paw picked him off the ground and held him in the air, flailing around uselessly in the strong grip as if his life depended on it.

“Le-lemme go! Put m-me do-own!”

“Heh.”

‘Did Diablo just chuckle?’ The canine was confused for a moment, but didn’t get to continue that train of thought as the creature turned and walked away just moments before all the hyena showed up with the lion.

“He was right here, sir.” One of the hyena spoke up before pointing at the bush the creature had walked out of.

“Well he’s gone now, grab the mutt and get back to camp.” The lion stared off into the rainforest for a moment as the hyena grabbed the canine before they all made their way back to their camp, a short but tedious two-mile walk.

The camp was small, made up of mostly tents and crates full of food and medical supplies, but there were also several cages. Most of the cages were occupied with one or two poorly fed slaves, a few were empty for new occupants or because the slaves had been neglected too long.

“Back to your cage mutt!”

One of the hyenas barked out before shoving the canine to the ground, laughing for a moment as the canine hit the ground with a groan before walking off with the lion to the main tent.

The canine picked himself off the ground and tried to brush the dirt out of his fur as he walked to the cage he was usually locked in, tail between his legs as he let out a whine when the cage is closed and locked. It wasn’t the first time he had tried to make a break for it, but it was the furthest he ever gotten and that made him feel a little bit of pride. The feeling, like all positive emotions, didn’t last long while in that cage. The feeling of being a trapped animal soon overcoming every other emotion, tail sliding between his legs before he curls up in a corner, hugging his knees to his chest with a whimper as he slowly falls asleep.

The mutt dreamt of freedom that night, like he always did, walking through a city street, a forest and then they sky. He dreamt of walking in the clouds, going wherever he pleased whenever he pleased, it was his favorite dream. Unfortunately it always ended the same way, the clouds slowly became dark before rising up to surround him. He always tried to run, but the clouds wrapped around his feet like snakes wrapping around their prey. Swirling up around the mutt the clouds began to take a familiar shape, caging him in place, stripping his freedom away just before he woke up with a start to find himself in that exact cage.

His ears flatten to his head as a group of hyena stood outside the cage, knocking on the bars with their machetes and cackling loudly.

“Wake up mutt, it’s time to get to work.”

Worry flooded over the mutt’s body, the last time there was no obvious punishment for him running away he was starved for three days and retaliating the last time made it even worse. So he carefully picked himself up as the cage was unlocked, flinching away from the hyena as one of them grabbed hold of the collar around his neck and brought up a little device to activate its tracking chip.

That collar had caused him hell, they started out as normal collars, easy to unhook and run off, but there were so many slavers it was impossible to get very far at the time. As time went on the collar changed a few times, they tried chains for a while, then added a tracking chip into the tag. Now the collar’s were a single strap of leather, soaked in hot water and then put on the slaves before they shrunk in to hug the neck. The mutt was confident if they still used the collars they started with that he knew enough of the area to finally get away.

With the collar inspection finished he was pushed away from the cage and roughly escorted to a short line of slaves that were picking up baskets from a pile on the ground. Each day the same group was sent out into the rainforest with empty baskets and had to come back with a full one, come back a couple days in a row with anything less than full and you’d be starved or they might decide you are no longer worth the effort and execute you on the spot.

With basket in hand the mutt set out from the camp and into the rainforest, following a route he had made up in his head, picking plants and berries to fill the basket, occasionally a small feral animal whose luck had run out. As time went by he began to hum to himself, ears flicking at the various sounds around him as he picked stuff off bushes and from around trees. A few hours went by without much out of the norm happening before the rustling of a nearby bush caught his attention, ears flicking as his eye went wide at the pair of horns moving around just on the other side.

“Diablo…”

He regretted saying the name out loud almost immediately as he watched the horns turn to point towards him, bush rustling before the creature emerged. Not quite as frightened this time, the mutt stood his ground and took in a good look of the creature they all called Diablo. He didn’t look as big this time, maybe it was because he was calm instead of running on adrenaline. Diablo definitely wasn’t as tall as all the rumors made him out to, but what he lacked in height he made up in muscle.

As the creature walked closer to the mutt he found that he wasn’t standing in place because he was being brave, but because his legs wouldn’t let him move. He slowly found his hands tightening around the basket, toes curling and ears flattening against his head.

“Do-don’t come any closer!”

The creature smiled at that, continuing to slowly walk over to the frightened canine. The mutt found the strength to take a single step back as a whimper escaped before he could get any more words out.

“Stay away! Please! I don’t have anything, just some plants and berries! But they are yours, just don’t eat me!”

He whimpered again, turned his head and closed his eyes as one of the big paws of the creature reached out for his face. The mutt found his legs trembling for a moment longer before feeling confused and strangely relaxed as Diablo’s hand simply tussled his ears.

“You talk too much.”

The mutt’s ears stuck straight up the moment Diablo’s paw was away from them, staring at the creature as he continued walking right passed him.

“You c-can talk? Wa-wait! Wait where are you going!”

The canine turned to follow after the creature, tail swaying slowly behind him as he thought Diablo might actually be a friend instead of a monster. Of course this was only based on the fact that Diablo had just made the first friendly gesture the canine had ever received, at least that he could remember, having been a slave for so long.

“Where are you going? Can I come?”

“No, stop following me.”

His walking slowed to a stop as the canine was given a no, but he soon started walking after the creature again.

“Why not? You can help me escape! Please!”

His legs froze in place this time as Diablo turned his head, bared his teeth and let out a growl. He stood in place, watching as Diablo walked away without another word, whimpering as he was left on his own again. He looked to the sky for a moment and then down at his half empty basket, quickly hurrying off to find more berries and plants to fill it with.

It took him a couple more rather uneventful hours to fill the basket, letting out a sigh before turning back towards the camp and starting back. It took a little less than an hour to get back, a few of the other slaves already presenting their full baskets to the lion who took one look at the baskets before sending the slaves off to grab some food. They weren’t fed much, gruel would have been better, but when you are only eating one meal a day you learn to enjoy what you get.

Stepping up to the lion, the canine presented his full basket to him, wincing a bit as the lion’s paw moved towards him. He thought he was about to be hit for trying to escape yesterday, but the lion’s paw instead reached into the basket and pulled out less than a handful of berries and held them up to the canine as a hyena pulled the basket from his hands.

“This is your meal for the next few days mutt, don’t eat them all at once now.”

The canine quickly held out his paws to take the berries, but the lion dropped them down onto the floor instead, making the mutt scramble to the ground to try and pick them all up. He managed to pick up most of them before a pair of paws tugged him to his feet and roughly guided him to the nearest empty cage, shoving him forward and locking in him. He stumbled when he was shoved, whimpering as he fell to his knees, dropping a few more berries, but a little more dirt wasn’t going to make them any worse. In all honesty he wasn’t that worried about not having much to eat, he always found more berries than anything else so he could eat while he was foraging so getting a bit of extra food each day wouldn’t be too hard.

Slowly the canine crawled to the corner of his cage where he slept and sat, staring at the world outside as he popped a couple of the berries into his maw, rolling them on his tongue as he contemplated escape. ‘If I can just find a way to remove the chip then I know I could get away.’ His eyes moved along the trees and then up to the sky as a few birds flew off, extending what was left of his claws out to run over the collar. ‘Guess I’ll have to be patient.’ He popped a few more berries in his mouth as he slowly laid on his back, in a much more relaxed position than the night before. With nothing left to do for the night he continued to stare up at the sky until his eyelids grew heavy and he eventually fell asleep.

He didn’t dream that night, but he wasn’t asleep for very long either, ears twitching at the sound of a few hyena chatting near by. He didn’t open his eyes, not wanting them to see that he was awake, lying still as he kept his body relaxed while listening in.

“Can you believe he’s still letting mutt eat after that? If I were in charge I would have executed him on the spot.”

“Yeah, but you’re not, so learn to live with it.”

The canine could feel eyes watching him, ears twitching instinctively at the sound of the two hyena approaching the cage.

“Little genetic freak, just looking at him makes my stomach turn.”

He wanted to lash out at them, he had heard all this before, that he was created in some lab somewhere, but he didn’t really believe it. He was forced to stay still though, knowing they’d rough him up if they found out he’d been listening the whole time. So the canine remained still, even as his fur on his cheek grew wet from the spit of one of the hyena. With all of this happening he still couldn’t help but smile, confident and more determined than ever to befriend Diablo and escape.

“If he ever gets deemed as useless, I hope the boss will let me put him down.”

His ears twitched as he listened to the two hyena cackle while wandering off back on their nightly patrol. With them gone and only the sounds of the various feral creatures around him, the canine was slowly able to fall back to into a deep, dreamless sleep.

His eyes opened to the faint sunlight that broke through the trees of the thick rainforest trees. He scrapped his paw along the ground and collected the dirt covered berries, pressing the rest of them into his mouth with a smile at the flavor despite the dirt, savoring the juices that wet the inside of his usually dry maw. He stood up as the cage was unlocked, waiting for the collar inspection to finish before grabbing a basket and heading out.

He walked slowly into the forest, traveling along one of the several routes he planned out in his head. He always found a good amount of berries as he headed deeper into the rainforest, but today he wasn’t finding as many. Luckily there were still different traps the slavers set up to catch smaller ferals. Though there didn’t seem to be many traps setup today, he still managed to find a few with feral rabbits in them, setting them free if they were alive, collecting them in his basket with a frown if they weren’t.

He was beginning to get into the deeper part of the forest and starting to find more berries, but he also had to slow down his walk and listen more carefully. He stopped as his ears flicked, picking up on the sound of a loud growl that wasn’t too far from where he was. He closed his eyes and focused on the noise, something seemed out of place, but he was having trouble figuring out exactly what it was. His curiosity slowly got the better of him and he began walking towards the sound, moving under vines and brush till he came upon the source of the noise.

A large jaguar had latched onto Diablo’s leg, sharp teeth digging into the flesh beneath the monster’s fur. The monster was doing what he could to get the jaguar off, but he was doing so with care. He never tried to hurt the jaguar, moving his leg around to try and get the large feline to let go, occasionally pushing on his head. With a pained groan the monster reached down and took hold of the jaguar’s jaw, using his brute strength to open is and move his leg away before letting out a surprisingly loud roar that sent birds out from the nearby trees and the feline running off.

The canine looked to the monster’s face and then to his leg, watching red run into the black fur on his leg as the fresh wound bled steadily. Without thinking about it he used his dull claws to rip off the bottom part of his shirt before moving up to the monster and wrapping the fabric around the bleeding wound.

“This should help...does it hurt?”

The monster let out a little grumble as he eyed the canine that was helping him, watching as the canine came over with part of his ripped shirt and a vine from a nearby tree to wrap it in place.

“It’s fine.”

The canine looked up at the monster as he coiled and tied the vine around the ripped clothing, slowly standing back up.

“I know it’s not much, but it should help with the bleeding at least.”

Diablo stared at the cloth around his leg for a moment, wincing as he put weight down on it, finding that the jaguar’s teeth had sunk in deeper than he thought. He let out a grunt as he walked to a nearby tree and sat himself down, leaning against it before letting out a slow sigh, eyes on the canine.

“Why are you helping me?...”

“I just...I like to help.”

Diablo watched him cautiously as the canine came up to him and held out a closed paw, lifting a brow as he started up at him from his seated position.

“What?” Diablo grunted out.

“Open your hand, I want to give you some food.” The canine smiled at the monster.

“Why? Is it poison?” Diablo’s lips lifted a bit to bare his teeth.

“Of course it’s not poison, it’s so you don’t have to worry about looking for food for a while, let your leg heal a bit before walking on it.”

With a grumble Diablo held out his hand watching as a large number of berries hit his outstretched palm, brow raising once again as he stared up at the canine, still a bit weary of the kind gesture. He looked back to the berries in his hand, letting out a bit of a huff at the situation before popping half of the berries into his mouth, closing his eyes as he felt the tasty juices flow over his tongue and slide down his throat. He didn’t open his eyes back up, resting his head on the tree with another sigh as he let himself relax.

“I’ll be fine, you better hurry to make up for lost time.”

The canine’s ears lifted as he looked at his basket, almost empty aside from the few feral carcasses he had picked up on his way. Diablo was right, but how did he know that? Had he been watching him and the other slaves? Did he know about the slavers and what they do? He couldn’t dwell on it much longer if he wanted to fill up the basket and make it back in time.

“I’ll be back tomorrow to check on your leg, meet me here!”

The canine couldn’t wait for a reply, turning and running off into the forest, grabbing all the berries, herbs and small feral carcasses he could find along the way. He rushed towards camp, doing his best to follow the path he took to get out there in order to avoid traps, hoping nothing would give chase and catch him. He made it to camp without incident, panting as he walked up to the hyena and handed him the full basket. The hyena looked over the basket and then at the canine.

“What happened to your shirt, mutt?”

Mutt looked down at his shirt, cursing himself for forgetting about it, but it was easy to cover up for.

“Jaguar tried to attack me, got a piece of my shirt and it just kept getting caught on branches after that. So I ripped it off.”

He gave a shrug afterwards to try and put emphasis on the fact that it wasn’t a big deal, the hyena giving a similar shrug a moment later and motioning for him to head to the cage. The canine moved to the cage with a sigh as it was opened and he was pushed in, always being pushed, stumbling in before sitting down with his back on the bars. He stares out of them at the forest, ears flicking as his stomach growls at him, groaning a bit as he realizes he forgot to eat.

He clenches at his stomach for a moment, ears flickering and then lowering to lay against his head at the sound of the lion’s voice as the large feline walked up to his cage.

“Almost didn’t make it tonight I see.”

The canine was shaking lightly, tail sliding close to his body as his ears remained flat against his head. He never knew why the lion had this effect on him, maybe it was the fact that he was in charge of everything. Maybe it was because the lion could lock him away and let him starve to death as he had done to so many others. Whatever it was, just hearing his voice made him whimper.

“I wa-was attacked…”

“Oh were you?”

The powerful feline eyed the weak canine for a moment, a wide smile coming to his face as he stared at the mutt, his voice sounding out again, making the mutt shake.

“Don’t let it happen again.”

With that the feline left the canine to his cage, chuckling a bit to himself as he walked off. The canine whimpered once more as he slowly turned his head to see the lion chuckling to himself. He brought his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, resting his chin on top as he returned to staring at the rainforest. ‘I have to get out of here...’ The treeline became blurry as his eyes watered up, arm quickly rubbing them away as he slowly laid on his side before curling up in the dirt, trying to ignore his empty stomach as he closes his eyes to sleep.

Sleep didn’t come easy and when he finally managed to drift off he was greeted with nightmares of starvation and being left behind, forgotten by all until he was nothing. He awoke with a start, sitting up and looking around, confused as to where he was for a moment before realizing he was still in his cage. He looked to the sky and sighed, the sun hadn’t come up yet, he woke up early. He grimaced a little as his stomach rumbled once more, pushing his fingers against his body as it cried out for food.

Desperate for something, he put his paw to the ground and felt for any plant life, pulling it from the dirt before putting it in his maw. He closed his eyes as he chewed on it, not enjoying any part of the taste or texture, but he needed to try and occupy his stomach until he could get out to the rainforest and get some food. He chewed on the plant for as long as he could stand, swallowing down some liquid and a bit of the plant itself before spitting it out and rubbing at his tongue with his paw, coughing a bit at the taste before smiling as he caught sight of a bit of sunlight. ‘Not long now.’

As the sun came out, so did the hyena. They walked out from their tents, stretching and growling at eachother as they walk over to the cages, starting to unlock and open all the cages of the collectors. When they came to the mutt he stood up and moved out of his cage, exposing his neck with a bit more confidence this morning, letting the hyena check his collar before moving to the basket line with a sigh. He takes one of the baskets and immediately sets out into the rainforest, walking pace quickly speeding to a jog. He moved as quickly as he could while still feeling like he could safely avoid the many vines, traps and feral animals that were in the rainforest.

He slowed as he came upon the meeting spot, flattening his ears against his head when he didn’t see Diablo where they had agreed to meet. ‘Maybe he’s late?’ He looked around for a moment as he heard rustling, a noise that was quite common in the rain forest and one that usually meant something was coming. The canine stared for a moment, but when nothing emerged he started to move in a circle around the area, trying to fill his basket as much as he could while he waited and hoped for Diablo to show up. He slowly started to hum, picking out berries from different bush and even being lucky enough as to find a couple feral animals that didn’t have the same luck he did.

He was doing the best he could to fill his basket in the area, but there just wasn’t that much around. He started to think about leaving the area, but as he was about to leave Diablo walked out into the open, leg still bandaged up by the canine’s shirt. He grunted with each step he took, limping a bit as he walks to the canine, the same grumpy expression on his face that he always seemed to have.

“I almost forgot to come.”

The canine had a look of worry on his face as he moved over to check out Diablo’s leg, looking over the blood stained fabric of the shirt.

“You bled quite a bit, are you feeling okay?”

“I feel fine.”


“If you say so, i’m going to remove the shirt, okay?”

Diablo simply nodded as the canine moved down and started to loosen the shirt, slowly pulling it away from the puncture holes on the monster’s leg. He nods a few times as he checks them, he was no medical nor had any medical training, but the holes didn’t look like they were infected. He stood up and smiled at Diablo with a nod.

“It may hurt to walk on, but you aren’t bleeding and the wounds don’t look infected.”

“That’s good.”


The canine chuckled this time as he looked Diablo over for a moment, giving him a bit of a smile.

“Not much of a talker are you?”

“No.”

“Well I’ll just have to fix th-”

“GET HIM!”

The canine was interrupted by a yelling hyena, several of them coming out of bushes and trees, surrounding Diablo and the canine. One of them ran up to grab the canine and pull him away, but ended up catching Diablo’s fist instead, stumbling back while a yowl of pain. The sight made the others slow their advance, even with the number they had they were still scared to approach the monster.

“We don’t want to hurt you, just give up and come with us.”

Diablo’s response to the speaking hyena was a simple grunt before he bared his teeth at the group in front of him as they switched to a quick approach. The first hyena close enough caught a fist to his gut, dropping his weapon as the air was forced from his body by the strong hit. The next one had a chance to take a swing at the monster, bringing his down with machete in hand to slash the creature’s shoulder, but the momentum of his arm was stopped as Diablo grabbed the arm and pulled him forward. The hyena’s eyes went wide as he saw the fist moving towards him, but was unable to do anything to stop it, dropping to ground as the powerful strike connected with him. While Diablo was distracted the hyena were able to successfully grab the canine this time, pulling the starved canine away with little struggle.

“He-help! Diablo!!”

The monster turned his head to see the canine being pulled away, the distraction costing him a few body blows, but the hyena’s punches didn’t seem to do much more than make Diablo look more pissed off. Diablo took a step forward and then faltered as pain shot up from where the jaguar had bit him, wincing as he limped just before he was jumped. Five hyena all rushed forward at the sight of the monster limping and grabbed onto him, holding different parts of his body, slowly bringing him to his knees. They were slowly winning until Diablo started to put up a real struggle, pulling hyena off of him and starting to stand back up. He was slowly starting to get to his feet before his vision suddenly went black, pain rushing from his head down before he was simply out.

The canine could do nothing but watch as a few hyena brought down the handles of their machetes on the monster’s head, watching Diablo as his body went limp.

“Thanks for leading us to him mutt, it’s the most helpful you’ve ever been.”

A shiver went up the canine’s spine as the lion spoke out and stepped into view, walking over to inspect Diablo for a moment before setting his gaze on the canine once more.

“Take them both back to camp, put them in cages and get a new collar ready for our new friend.”

The lion put on a toothy smile as the hyena dragged both Diablo and the canine back to the camp.

It was dark when Diablo’s eyes slowly opened, pink pupils moving to look into at the stars, but only seeing dark clouds tonight as rain fell from the sky. He slowly sits up and rubs at his head, groaning a bit as he checks his palm and looks to the blood on it, a wound having been opened up where he was hit, rain washing the blood from his paw as he lets out a huff. He let his paw drop to the dirt below, ears moving as he heard a familiar voice.

“Diablo, Diablo are you okay?”

He turned his head to look across the way at the canine who looked quite happy to see the monster moving around. Diablo watched the canine’s tail wag for a moment before moving to relax against his cage, letting out a frustrated huff.

“I’m fine, where are we?”

“This is the slave camp I’ve been coming from everyday.”

“Makes sense…”

Diablo stared at the canine for a moment, looking at his neck before reaching a paw up to check his neck, letting out a quiet sigh of relief as he feels no collar around his own neck. He slowly tilted his head back to look at the clouds again, letting the rain hit his face before he got to his feet, rubbing at his injured leg a bit as he took hold of the cage bars. The muscles in his arms flexed and the bars slowly started to give way, it seemed like Diablo was simply going to pull the bars apart and walk out, but after a few long moments of trying the bars barely budged. With a frustrated grunt he stepped back and sat down, looking over to the canine as the dog’s tail slowly stopped wagging when Diablo was unable to pull open the bars.

“I tried…”

“It’s okay, you gave it your best, we’ll find a way out of here, together.”

“We’ll see...”

“Try to stay positive, we’ll get out.” The canine barked out happily, tail wagging quickly again.

“Heh...Well let’s hope we get our chance. Better rest up.”

The canine gave Diablo a nod before going to the corner he always slept in, laying on his side and curling up a little as Diablo picked a corner to sit against, slowly staring off until he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer and eventually fell asleep.

The pair was awoken by the clanging of machetes against their cages, it was still dark and rain was pouring from the sky even stronger than before. Diablo looked to the one that woke him and growled, causing the hyena to back away from the cage, even behind bars they were still scared of him, which put the smallest of smiles on the monster’s face. Diablo looked to all the hyena and slowly stood up in his cage, putting his hands on the bars again, staring them all down silently as his usual grumpy expression came to his face. As he stood there he noticed how well rested he felt, despite the darkness of the sky a good amount of time must have passed and the sun was just being blocked by the tree and clouds.

The canine noted that the sun wasn’t the only thing missing today, having fully expected to see the lion today out here to look over his prize catch, but maybe he was afraid of Diablo too? He wasn’t expecting to be let out today after what had happened, but the hyena opened his cage and pulled him out to check his collar like it was a normal day.

“Come on mutt, you got work to do.”

He was shoved to the basket line and that’s when he learned why he had been taken out of his cage, there was one less gatherer than usual and the camp couldn’t spare being down two, even for a day. It was convenient for the canine, almost too convenient, with how things went yesterday he thought it might be another set up, maybe they’d try to follow him into the woods? Maybe he was just being paranoid. Either way he would have to be careful. He looked back at Diablo one last time, hoping they weren’t going to hurt him before turning to move into the rainforest.

Diablo watched from his cage as the canine left, looking at the hyena as they moved to surround his cage, one of them unlocking and opening the front of it. He could tell that the hyena was trying to be brave, but he could also see the hyena shaking as he approached with a pair of large cutters. He wasn’t sure what the hyena planned to to do with those cutters, but he wasn’t planning on finding out either as he suddenly charged the hyena and threw his considerable strength against the approaching slaver, knocking him against the cage without slowing himself in the least. The slavers had grown weak from pour food rationing, though they had felt strong while managing the even more poorly fed, they were no match for the charging monster and either got knocked down or moved out of the way so they wouldn’t be.

Once he was passed the hyena he just kept going, ignoring the pain in his leg as best he could as he made his way into the rainforest. The hyena were stunned, things had gone wrong so fast that they weren’t sure how to react for a moment before the decided that the best course of action was simply to chase after Diablo.

Diablo was deceptively quick on his feet, moving through the rainforest faster than the canine ever did, even the traps for ferals didn’t slow him down, it was as if he had lived in the rainforest all his life and knew exactly where everything was. He had a destination in mind, heading for the spot where he had met the canine the day before, slowing his run down to a pace he felt safe looking over his shoulder at. He glanced behind him when the path ahead was a bit more clear than usual, no sign of life, but it was hard to see anything in the downpour. Everything was soaked, most of all his feet as he moved through puddles and mud.

He turned his attention back ahead of him, picking his pace back up to try and gain more distance between him and the slavers as he made it into the opening where he had met up with the canine. His eyes moved around the little opening and there the canine was, on the ground, knees hugged to his chest. It looked like he might be crying, but it was near impossible to tell with all the rain.

“Hey...mutt…”

The canine’s ears quickly flicked before he lifted his head from his knees, looking to Diablo with an expression of relief. He had felt so bad for getting Diablo captured, it was killing inside, but seeing the monster standing there lifted his spirits and raised him to his feet. Without even thinking he hugged Diablo and for a moment he swore he felt the muscles in the monster relax, but he was quickly pulled up.

“No time, I was chased. We have to go.”

“I...I can’t, they can track me wherever I go.”

The canine pointed to his collar as he spoke, looking to the ground in defeat, but one of Diablo’s strong hands lifted his jaw up. He extended his claws out from his fingers and hooked them around the leather strap, muscles tensing up as he pulled on it till his claws broke through.

The canine took in a deep unrestrained breath.

He almost broke down in joy from the feeling of freedom, but didn’t get to bask in the feeling for very long as he was quickly tugged away from the opening. Diablo was on the move and was pulling the canine along with him for a moment till the canine came too and began to move on his own.

The two ran side by side through the forest, putting more and more distance between the group of hyenas and themselves, at least that’s what they were hoping, but the sounds of the hyena yelling at each other told them otherwise. The hyena went out into the rainforest every day and knew their way around pretty well, able to move nearly as quickly as Diablo, but he had stopped to find and free the canine, giving the slavers a chance to close the gap a bit. Diablo quickly decided running wasn’t going to get them much further and put his arm out, gently stopping the canine by one of the tall tree before pointing up it.

“Know how to climb?”

“Yeah, I had to climb in a few trees to g-”

Diablo interrupted his story by lifting the canine’s feet off the ground and holding him up towards the tree. Taking the hint, the canine latched on as best he could and began to make his way up the trunk, grabbing onto branches that looked like they could support his weight to make the climb a little easier on himself. Diablo didn’t wait, moving around to the other side of the trunk to start climbing as well, using his powerful arms and sharp claws to make the climb.

The canine had a headstart, but Diablo made it up much quicker, easily pulling his own weight up with his arms until he reached a strong branch. He pulled himself onto it and then moved to the next, the branch thick enough for him to sit on and strong enough to support well over his weight. He looked down and over to see the canine coming up, not too far behind, before he leaned down and reached out with his arm. The canine took the opportunity and grabbed Diablo’s paw, smiling as he was pulled up onto the branch with the monster.

“Think we’re safe?” The canine spoke up after catching his breath.

“For now.”

One of Diablo’s ears moved at the sound of voices below, looking down the tree at all the branches below, unable to see the ground from where they were which is exactly what he was hoping for.

“I found the canine’s collar not far from here, what do you think?”

“Pick the fastest to keep running, the rest of us will search the area.”

Diablo let out a little disappointed grunt before relaxing back against the trunk of the tree, closing his eyes as he figured they would be up here for a while with the hyena looking for them below.

The pair were silent for a while, letting a few hours pass by before feeling comfortable enough to talk more or at least the canine felt like talking.

“Thanks for finding me and getting that collar off, I really appreciate it, you didn’t have to do that, especially since I was the one...that got you caught.”

“You helped me, so I helped you.” Diablo said bluntly.

The canine rubbed at his arm a bit, not sure what else to say, he’d never really had someone to talk to before. He let his feet dangle off the sides of the large branch, slowly swaying them as he opened his mouth to speak before Diablo surprisingly beat him to it.

“What’s your name?”

“Mutt...I think.” The canine watched as breath left his muzzle at the word mutt, the air around them getting colder as time went by. “What’s yours?”

Diablo let out a soft chuckle before responding. “Diablo.”

The two shared a little laugh and then things fell silent as two voices sounded from below again.

“Still no sign of them, I think they may have gotten away.”

“Well I don’t want to have to tell the boss that, keep looking, all night if we have to.”

“Sir, it’s been hours, there is no way they are anywhere near here.”

Then was a sharp yelp that Mutt and Diablo could only assume was one of the hyena hitting the other.

“I don’t care what you think, just keep looking. Have you checked the trees?”

“No sir.”

“Well then check the trees. Go!”

Mutt and Diablo shared a look for a short moment before relaxing back, they knew they would be vastly outnumbered if they got down, but they could also end up caught if they stayed.

“We’ll stay.” Diablo decided for them.

The canine nodding slowly to show that he agreed before the two settled into the branch as best they could. Diablo simply leaned back against the tree, doing a fairly good job of keeping out of most of the rain. The canine didn’t have much of anywhere to go and seemed to be doing his best to keep his balance as the cold rain came down. Mutt wrapped his arms around himself and began to rub at them, closing his eyes as he could feel the rain begin to bite at him, the weather starting to get to him while Diablo seemed to be unaffected by the cold air and rain.

Diablo watched the canine begin to shake and shiver from the cold before letting out a bit of a huff, motioning for the canine to turn around. Carefully, with Diablo’s help, Mutt was able to get himself turned around on the branch, not sure why Diablo had him turn around until he was pulled back. Diablo pulled the mutt to him as he let his legs hang from the sides of the branch this time, letting the canine’s back rest against his chest before putting his arms over him. The canine slowly brought his legs up, knees pushing to his chest as he took the position that Diablo had found him crying in before, doing what he could to make himself as small as possible against the monster.

“Thank you…”

Diablo nodded slowly and then looked out over what he could see of the rainforest, the two stuck up in the tree for the night, Diablo keeping awake on on watch while Mutt curled up as much as he could against him and tried to stay warm.

As the hours passed by the canine eventually fell asleep against Diablo, but Diablo had to keep himself awake so the two wouldn’t fall from the tree, leaning forward every once and a while to let the cold rain hit his face and wake him up. A few more hours passed and the rain slowly stopped, another hour went by and the clouds slowly began to clear, a couple hours later and the sun shined through the leaves. Diablo hadn’t heard any voices for a while now, but didn’t want to move till morning, slowly shaking the canine awake.

“We can get down now.”

“Hmmm?”

Mutt took a moment to wake up, rubbing at his eyes and slowly sitting up away from Diablo, looking around at the daylight breaking open in the forest. He stretched for a moment and then looked up at Diablo with a smile before scooting away from him.

“Sorry, I think I fell asleep.”

Diablo chuckled a bit and nodded before stretching, moving himself, turning around to face the trunk before slowly starting to climb down, keeping his eyes open for any signs of hyenas. He let out a little sigh when he couldn’t spot any, setting his feet on the ground with a little groan as he tried to wake himself up from the all nighter in the cold rain as the canine slowly made his way down. Once they were both down from the tree they looked at each other and then around the forest, not sure what to say or do for a while, Mutt being the first to speak.

“Want to t...?”

Mutt’s words slowly drifted off as he thought back to the last time he asked if he could go with Diablo, remembering the stern no he was given and the growl that followed after. His tail drooped down a bit as he looks around for a moment.

“I guess this is where we part ways, thanks for helping me, maybe I’ll see you again sometime.”

He gave Diablo a bit of a sad smile while looking up at that grumpy expression that seemed to be permanently plastered to the monster’s face before turned to leave, not expecting much out of Diablo.

“Want to travel together?”

The canine stopped in his tracks as the words reached his ears, slowly turning to Diablo with a hopeful look.

“Really?! You want me to go with you?” He looked over Diablo again getting a real good look at him for the first time as there had always been a reason for him to rush before. His ears flicked as he came to a slow realization, but Diablo spoke up before he pointed it out.

“Sure, let’s go.”

“Where to?”

Diablo looked around for a moment before pointing in a random direction away from the slaver camp. “This way.”

The two turned and began to walk together, no real destination in mind, just wanting to get away from the camp.

“So, where do you come from? Were you born in the rainforest? What do you eat? How have you survived so long?”

Diablo chuckled a bit again and slowly shook his head before running his paws through his drying fur.

“I’m not sure, but that’s too many questions.”

“Have you ever been curious about where you come from? I know I have.”

“You don’t know where you come from?”

“Nope! I heard I was created in a lab, but I don’t think that’s true, I think the hyena just said that to bother me. I’ll find the truth one day though!” The canine stared at Diablo for a while as there was a silence before he broke it with the realization he had come to earlier. “You’re just a big rabbit aren’t you?”

“You talk too much...”

The two shared a laugh as they continued to walk off through the rainforest, Diablo turning his head to give Mutt a little smirk.