Before the two vixens entered the vent a loud screaping of metal sound filled their ears, making them perk up. They stopped and looked at eachother staggered. Five crouched down and peeked her head through the vent to recognise the source of the mysterious sound.

   On the other side she noticed the kangaroo monster, the one who has kidnapped their friend. He was dragging a cage on the ground out of the room. A small paw, of a mammal who seemed to be a wolverine, was protruding from between the cage's bars. The child was clawing the floor, trying to save itself from its inevitable fate, before disappearing behind the door, which soon closed.

   When it had seemed to be safe, the two foxes came out of the vent and found themselves on a wooden shelf. The room was dark, similarly to the previous one. The only two sources of light were a lantern that was placed on a cage and a lamp above the door. They walked along the shelf searching for a way to get down. Eventually the girls found stacked up cages that could be used as a ladder. Six made her way to the cages and carefully started climbing down. Before Five had joined her, a chink in the wall cought her attention. She peeked her head through it and scanned the place. It was small, lighted by a tiny bulb on some kind of electrical box. Various kinds of pipes were sticking out from different directions.

   But the little vixen's attention was focused on a small critter in the corner of the room. By looking at its paper pale skin and cone hat shaped head Five recognised the critter was a nome. Its presence surprised her a little, she thought nomes could only be found... In The Maw.

   Small triagular ears poked out from under its head as it tilted its head to look at her. Its tail curled up in curiosity. Shortly after observing her, the nome suddenly jumped and quickly backed up against the wall, as if the fox posed a great danger to it. Five seeing the little creature's dread had quickly backed away slightly worried, but shrugged it off and climbed down to join her friend.

   While Five was still up there, Six was checking the cages, hoping to find their lost peer. Unfortunately only finding nothing. However, one cage remained right in the middle of the room. As she noticed it, she walked up and looked through the cage's bars. Her expression brightened as she found a familiar tiger face in there.

   – Ten! – Six whisper-shouted, her tail was wagging in joy. – I'm so glad we've found you all fine.

   – So I am to see you again – he stopped and looked around. – An where is-

   – Over here – Five said showing up from the other side.

   – Great, now can you just get me out of this cage? – Ten asked with typical for him slightly malignant tone.

   – Well obviously just... – Five looked on the padlock of the cage. – It's locked.

   The tiger just roled his eyes.

   – That I've already known.

   – Do you know where possibly can the key be? – Six spoke.

   – Pretty sure not in there – he answered looking to the side. – This kangaroo man either has with him or has hiden it somewhere.

   Five sighed and looked at the door.

   – Well, time to find out – she walked away.

   – Do you want me to come with you? – Six followed her.

   – No, it'll be safer if only one of us will go – she stated and climbed up on a cage to reach the button that would open the door.

   She hesitated for a few seconds before pressing the button, while Six hid behind the cage, concerned. Five took a deep breath and pressed the button then instantly hold her breath dropping in an escape position. The doors opened and there was silence. Five's ears perked up as she looked through the door.

   The room was just as small as the one she had been in. It was lighted by one lamp, that was hanging from a shelf above another door, next to which the cage, where the wolverine kid had been locked was opened, with no sign of the kid. And this craftman was nowhere to be found either.

   Five's sight instantly laid on a key, placed in a jar on the wardrobe just infront of her. Tip of her tail curled up in hope.

   – I think I've found the lost – she announced.

   Six peeked her head scanning the new place, instantly noticing the key. 

   – I'm heading to get it – Five jumped off the cage and turned to her. – And I want you to close the door behind me.

   Fur on Six's tail bristled in surprise.

   – Wait, why? – She asked.

   – I'm afraid this glass vase the key is inside might make some din, so just in case if it'll drive this monster there, it'll save you the trouble.

   Six looked down, understanding her friend's concern.

   – Well then, how about you?

   – I'll be fine – Five tried to ensure her peer, and herself as well.

   She walked through the door and turned back to Six.

   – I'll give you a signal. When I'll start scratching the door, you'll open it, ok?

   The other fox nodded then jumped back on the cage and pressed the button. The door swiftly shutdown, then silence occurred. She let out a sigh and could feel worry gripping her heart.

   – She said everything is gonna be fine, chill – her ears perked up. – I can feel your tense even from here.

   Six rolled her eyes and looked towards where the voice came from.

   – You haven't spoken for a suspiciously long time – she said and walked up to him.

×

   Meanwhile on the other side, Five headed towards the closet, on top of which was the jar with needed key. Walking by she looked inside the cage, shivers ran down her spine at the thought of this kid's unfortunate fate. But quickly shrug it off and focused on her objective. Five opened the closet's door and began climbing up on the shelves to the top.

   Once she got there, she approached the jar and tried to take out the key. Yet it turned out it wasn't so easy. The jar was was big, slightly taller than her and weight of the key didn't help either. Five jumped a few times, trying to get it, but it slipped out of her paws every single time. The fox didn't notice that with each jump the jar moved closer and closer to the edge. Eventually teetered and fell of the closet. Five's eyes widened as she watched the vessel getting closer to the ground, shattering into thousands of shards. The following sound of broken glass filled the whole room and made her ears lay flat on her head.

   Then the sudden sound of opening doors made Five curl down and cling to the wall, wanting to appear smaller. She forcefully kept her ears down as the familiar creak of the wheelchair entered the room. Don't move - that was the only thing on her mind right now.

   The Craftsman was standing in the door, not bothered to actually come inside. He was only looking around the room searching for the cause of the noise. Seemed like that he has been distracted from some work.

   Five didn't need to wait long for the monster to quickly loose interest in his search and go back to his work, or whatever it was. The doors shout down with loud bang and there was silence. After few seconds she slowly lifted up her head and scanned the room. Finding the threat gone she quickly climbed down and headed to where the key was. With her tail she swept away all the glass shards that could wound her feet. She wondered how the kangaroo monster didn't notice some of the shards, but shrugged it off as it was better for her.

   The last pieces of glass had been swept to the side, revealing the key. The raincoated fox was about pick it up, but as if reflexively she wrapped her tail around the key and lift it up. At first Five was surprised that her tail so quickly became this strong and elastic, without any of some training or this... Essential power.

   Five took the key from her tail and walked to the door. When she looked at the metal object, she felt scolded on how much she had risked for them just to get it. As she was taught, these mammals are nothing compared to them, so only approach them for your own benefit – these words echoed in her head in a familiar voice. The fox's gut was stung with an unsettling feeling. Five believed in the righteousness of her advice, but the thought of leaving Six and Ten as if they were nothing but tools felt so horrid.

   She shaked her head to get rid of all of these thoughts. She didn't want to think about this right now. Letting out breath she focused on the present. With unhinged claws she scratched the door a few times and waited.

×

   Six's ears perked up at the light, but sudden sound of scraping of claws. She ran apace from her friend's cage towards the source of the noise. Ten pressed his face against the cage's bars, trying to look what is going on. The fox swiftly jumped on the cage and pressed the button immediately. The door opened, revealing the friend of them with the key held in her paws.

   – You made it! – Six cheered, wagging her tail she jumped down to Five.

   – Heh, yeah – the other fox admitted. – With no problems.

   – So maybe instead of chatting there you'll actually use it? – Ten has spoken, visibly irritated.

   The two vixens looked at eachother and giggled. Six took the key from Five's paws and ran up to him, the raincoated fox followed behind. She placed the key inside of the padlock. Ten's tail curled up and smile revealing his clenched teeth at the thought of sweet freedom. With three twists, the padlock opened and fell on the ground witn a clatter. Six didn't even have a chance to move from the way as Ten immidiately opened the door of his cage. Harshly pushed back Six lost her balance and back fell on her butt with a small thud.

   – Owch – she crouched down – That was not necessary.

   Ten looked down at her smiling with his teeth exposed as she got up.

   – Well sorry, puppy. I just couldn't stand spending in that cage any one more second – he explained, Six only growled quietly in response.

   Five covered her snout in silent giggle as the two toyed eachother.

   – Besides, I'm pretty sure you would want some of these.

    His words drew attention of the two foxes, who looked with tilted heads in curiosity on what their friend ment. The answer came quickly as the scent of bread and meat filled their nostrils, reminding how hungry they actually were. Ten pulled out from the further part of the cage almost all of the food he had collected while his food expedition with Six. A smile appeared on the snouts of the two foxes.

   – Woah, that's a nice surprise – Six stated wagging her tail.

   – Surprise? – Ten repeated. – You had seen I collected a lot of food and thought I'd eat it all?

   Six hesitated before answering.

   – I mean, I'd not be surprised if you did.

    A silly smile smeared on her face, while Five covered her snout silent giggle.
 
   – Now all that we need is just some water – the tiger continued.

  – Enough of that for now – Five spoke. – Let's eat quickly, we don't know how much time we have left before this crazy kangaroo will come back.

   The two nodded in agreement and all three ate the food fast. Now that they finished, they decided to better leave the room. All three walked to the room, where Five must had gone earlier, scanning the place firstly just in case. Finding no threat, the three headed towards the door infront of them. They startes pushing against it until it finally, mainly thanks to Ten, opened with a slight grind.

   The room on the other side was dark and narrow yet very long. With a trolley on a rails to the other end of this place. Now that they all were in, Ten pushed the door closing them for safety. The place instantly became darker, but their eyes quickly adjusted to this darkness.

   – So – Six started and looked at Five. – What now?

×[A/N]×

Word count: 2100

Over 2k words again WOOO! -I should've finished that sooner

I actually quite like on how this chapter turned out, but I think some stuff could've been worded and handled better.

Also, since Szariik stated that Six is technically "baby of the group" I couldn't resist not calling her "puppy" xD And now I think it has officially been confirmed, Six indeed is baby of the group.