A quiet whine escaped Five's mouth as she held her aching because of the fall jaw. Curling up her tail closer to her, she raised her head to look up at Six.

   – Is everything alright? – Five asked her.

   The vixen shook her head and covered her mouth with her left paw while trying to sit down. She looked up at her fox friend and answered:

   – I think I might have accidentally bitten my tongue, but besides – she quickly but precisely checked on any potential injuries she might have got. – Everything seems fine.

   Six's tail wagged from side to side few times as she sat up. Small smile appeared on her snout. Five sat up and sought for any possible injuries. Fortunately, she was completely fine from head to claws.

   – Same for me here – her whisker twitched in relief. – So if both of us are alright let's not waste any more time.

   Five stood up to get better view outside of the basket. She placed her paws on edges of the basket and scanned the small room in which they found themselves trapped in. Her gaze landed on a small chink in the wall right infront of them. She tilted her head and her eyes lighted up. Her ears perked up and nose twitched in joy that the gap she had used long ago to escape this room hasn't been covered behind some rubble.

   – I have found the way out of here – Five jumped out of the old basket and walked up to the chink. – Follow me.

   Six's ears twitched along with her whiskers at the quick announcement of finding a way to get out of there. She walked up to where Five was standing and looked to where her older friend has gone. She could only see raincoated fox's tail disappearing in the shadow of the hole. Six swiftly jumped out of the balloon's basket and followed after Five, disappearing in the dark.

   As soon as she got out of the chink she looked around exploring the inscrutable area. Her ears were straightened up, sensitive to the softest sounds. Five was standing beside, waiting for her. She gave Six signal to follow her and the two vixens walked ahead.

   The place was dark and quiet. The only source of light was coming from a gap in the ceiling. The silence was interrupted by cooing of pigeons, who made this place their hideaway, and soft sound of claws tapping on the wooden planks. Young foxes swiftly, but carefully walked along the wall as it was the only place where the remnats of the floor remained. Great parts of it were gone, revealing nothing but darkness that was engulfing the bottom.

   Looking down into the seemingly endless pit made shivers ran down on Six's spine, making her fur raise up. But she picked up speed quickly and caught up with Five.

   The calm walk didn't last long as the sudden sound of creaking wood filled the ears of two vixens, making them perk up. Before Five could even do anything, the planks broke under her feet. Her eyes widened under her fringe in fear when she was about fall down into the darkness. Fortunately for Five, Six caught her by the raincoat and pulled her back, preventing her fox friend from certain death. Both of them fell over on their backs, breathing rapidly from the sudden rush of adrenaline. As they managed to calm down, Five turned her head to face Six.

   – Thanks – she said nodding. Her tail wagged gently.

   Six smiled slightly revealing her clenched teeth.

   – No problem – she answered. – Sooner or later I had to repay for your help from before after all.

   Both girls giggled then got up and jumped above the freshly made hole and continued their journey. Two pigeons which were sitting on the way, flew away as the two foxes approached. They walked past by more remains of the floor, making another possible way to get out of this place. Five glanced on the left to check out the new path, but continued walking straight ahead.

   The walk didn't last long as another fragment of the floor's remains broke just few centimeters away from Five's foot, making bigger than the previous one gap. Fur on her tail bristled even though she wasn't in danger of falling this time.

   After few seconds of scanning the gap that was separating them from the other edge, the raincoated fox turned back to Six, who with slightly tilted head tried to see what just had happened.

   – We won't be able to jump through this one – Five informed her. – Thus we need to go back to this another path. You're now in lead, so be careful.

   Six nodded with small smile on her snout.

   – I will – she ensured her friend and turned back, heading to the second way, that hopefully won't broke under their feet.

   They turned right and eventually got on the other side of the room. Then turned right again and walked along the wall. Six cautiously step by step headed forward, without taking eyes from the way. Meanwhile Five took the opportunity to more precisely scan this place. Right above their heads, there were hanging various, bird-house like structures, with ropes, tied to each of them, like if they were to be intertwined. Here and there hung a few rugs, seemingly filled with some kind of wheat. Is someone trying to farm the pigeons there? – Five thought.

   The fox successfully snaped out of her thoughts as she gently bumped into Six, who suddenly stopped. She slightly turned her head to look at her raincoated friend but looked ahead again.

   – Sorry – Five grinned lightly – What is it?

   – The way split up, again – Six explained, slightly irritated. She tried to looked up to get better view. – But the path right ahead of us seems to be a dead end.

   Six walked forward, to make sure this path was actually a dead end. Five, in case, was right behind her. As soon as she was able to see the chosen way was going to end, stopped.

   – Like I have said – Six turned back to Five. – A dead end.

   Five sighed slightly looking down. She was as well tired of this maze like place.

   – Well – she started lifting up her head – Let's go back to this second way and leave this room once and for all.

   Five turned around and headed towards the other path. Six followed her. Both turned left, then again, and finally found on themselves on the way that had no other intricacies. As the two vixens walked, the path had gone more and more rifting apart from the wall. Making the way right in the middle of this place, with gaping darkness on both sides.

   They walked not interrupted. Six's attention was caught by few planks that jutted out from their path, forming a small platform. She took her eyes off of this and looked forward again. Right after passing the wooden platform, multiple planks that made the floor were replaced by two long planks that were rising more and more up.

   The sudden sound of falling metal made ears perk up. Right infront of them a metal barrel had fallen from somewhere above and started rolling towards them. As Six saw from over her friend's shoulder she started backing up, eventually turning around and running away. Five's eyes widened under her bangs and she immediately turned back and ran right behind her. They felt their pulse quicken as the sound of the approaching barrel filled their ears

   Six swung on the previously seen stood out planks and pulled Five next to her right before the barrel passed by them and fell into the dark. Both vixens let out a sigh of relief.

   – That was close – Five started and looked at Six. – Thanks.

   – You're welcome – she nodded smiling.

   The raincoated fox smiled back and with perked up ears, looked back from where they had to escape.

   – No more surprises – Five said as if to herself.

   The girls continued walking eventually getting on the more stable platform, made from four planks that stretched from wall to wall. On the left there was another metal barrel, embedded in the floor.

   Infront of them was wall, or more like scaffolding of the wall. Countless of wooden beams were stuck in the scaffolding, creating something like a ladder. Here and there were some ropes loosely wrapped around wooden beams. The two foxes with no second thought startes climbing up.

   Once they made it to the top, they found themselves on small wooden platform.  In the middle and in the corners there were more of the metal barrels and some broken planks lying between them.

   Five didn't pay much attention to the new environment as she had been there once. Nothing has changed. She passed by the rubble in the middle and went towards a hole in the wall. Unlike Six who carefully scanned the new place. Her gaze landed on a huge fan was tied up with a rope and was hanging from ceiling overhead. Why would someone hang it there? – She thought.

   – Are you coming? – Five called peaking her head outside of the gap.

   Six jumped slightly and turned to her waiting friend.

   – Agh, yeah – she shouted and ran up to where Five was.

   The small fox quickly made it to her. With swift leap she passed the two small planks that had once blocked the hole.

   Both girls found themselves in a dark room. The only source of light was one big lamp located in the middle of the wall and few lit up oil lamps, which gave bright glow on metal pipes and countless of cages. These small metal prisons were filling the room, stacked on top of each other formed towers. On top of one of them the two vixens were standing.

   Six's whiskers twitched in curiosity. Her eyes brightened as she had noticed the ventilation shaft extending above the pipe, right under the ceiling. Hope filled her heart and her tail startes wagging.

   All these sudden emotions made Six not even notice that Five had already started climbing down the cages. As she realised that her younger friend had not followed her, she stopped and called:

   – Six, what is it?

   – I recognise this place – she answered. – See this vent behind this lamp – she pointed towards the mentioned objects. Even when Five couldn't see it, she managed to guess what her friend meant.

   – I see now – the raincoated fox stated.

   – That's where we had gone – Six continued. – Above the other end of this pipe is another vent, which we used to leave this place.

   In the meantime Five looked for any possible ways to get there.

   – There's no way we can get up there – she pointed. – But atleast we know we're on the good track. Now let's move on.

   – I'm coming – Six said and started climbing down the cages.

   When they got down from the tower of cages, they found themselves standing on narrow metal platform, made from strange boxes and more cages. Five looked over the edge. Another oil lamp on the side gave shine on the cages' bars that will serve them as ladder down. One of the cages down there was opened. She noticed that, then looked to the side, where were another cages, that would get her on a small plank and would make it possible to get close enough to the cage and close it.

   Although, they could easily get down by jumping from platform to platform, Five turned left and walked over to one of the cages, that was standing out above the rest and jumped on it. From the cages edge there was a long plank, that was held on the other edge by nailed to the wall hook. She focused on another, this time smaller, made of three cages tower. The construction was a bit lower than her position, and was connected to another tower of cages by a plank as well.

   The fox in the raincoat crouched down eyeing the lower cage. Her paws lied down on edges of the cage and swiftly jumped on the cage, landing with no problems. She got up and walked on the plank, to make space for Six, who jumped right after.

   Both crossed the board to the other side. From there they jumped down on a made from metal boxes and cages, straight path, that was leading to another ventilation shift.

×[A/N]×

Word count: 2080 words

We made it. It's over 2k words :D

Sry if some parts are written clumsy, especially the ones in ugh... VLN first part? xD

Also, I have a feeling that actually many parts of this are actually clumsy and some things do not have sense. Eghhh... Welp, if I'd ever remaster this book I'd eventually notice and fix that

Also, I have a feeling that I'm overusing the word "platform". Do you have any replacements/synonyms?

Bye c: