Chapter 1 - Prologue

Place: A Correctional Facility
in the suburbs.
Time: A few years after
Sly became an orphan




Little 6-year-old Jade sat in her chair in the usual place she would when she got caught and plopped back into juvenile hall. She had been forced to wear a pink and white dress with a yellow ribbon in her hair. It was the uniform requirement for the current correctional facility. What did they call it again? The name was too long for Jade to remember.

She sighed and placed her head in her hands. “Don’t even try to find my parents. They’re long gone.” The white fox kit said not even looking up at the thin-faced greyhound standing over her.

“Why? Where did they go?” the greyhound said in a childish voice, “You can tell me, my name is Victoria. But you can call me Vickie! What’s your name?” ‘Vickie’ had a pasted smile on her face and it wasn’t very sincere. She had a tacky pink and white floral dress on, and the length of her soft, yellow curls went down to her chin. She sat down beside Jade without asking.

“Don’t even try to be my friend. I know your type. You people are just ‘friends’ with us ‘juvenile delinquents’ until we become ‘outstanding citizens’, then you move on to the next brat.” Jade was strangely sarcastic for her age. “Oh yeah, and the name’s Jade.”

Vickie looked pained for a moment, then softened a little, “We need to take this one step at a time, err.. Jade. Tell me, do you know why you’re here?”

“’Cause some cop caught me when I tried to steal his donuts.” A smile played about Jade’s lips, “Note to self: Don’t mess the Government’s Pastries.”

By now, Vickie’s pasted smile was gone and was replaced by a sneer. She jumped out of her chair and pointed an accusing finger at Jade. “Well aren’t YOU impertinent. Yo-” Vickie was cut short by a policeman dragging in a young bat by the collar who had not been given a uniform yet.

“Here’s another one. She-“He stopped for a moment to crinkle his face stupidly and stare at Vickie towering ominously over Jade, “Say, you don’t look so good. Is everything alright over here?” he asked slowly.

“Just…. fine.” Vickie said replacing her smile although her fury was obvious. She stood up and ushered the little bat over to Jade. “Just what we need, a little ‘Friend’ for our stubborn ‘Storm Cloud’.” Vickie pushed the bat into the chair next to Jade’s, “I’ll just leave you two to become ‘acquainted’ with one another.” Then the flustered greyhound made her escape. After long stare, the policeman gave a snort of approval and swaggered away, mumbling something about no one taking HIS donuts.
For the longest time, the two children glared at each other, the fox twitching her tail and the bat flexing her wings. Jade softened and looked a little bit humored, “So what’s your name?”

The bat looked at her suspiciously, “….Rolle..”

“Mine’s Jade.” She shoved her hand at Rolle for a handshake, but Rolle scoffed and pushed it away,

“I don’t talk to amateurs.”

Jade just enlarged her smile mischievously, “Yeah, and that was REAL professional getting caught.” Rolle sneered and turned away crossing her arms and giving Jade the full view of her leathery, black wings. Jade could obviously tell that this bat wasn’t looking for any new friends. With a flick of her ear, Jade leaned back in her chair and watched the ceiling fan spin slowly.


“J-Jade Vixen?”

“zzzzz-huh? Wha-? I didn’t do it! It was that bat with the social issues!” Jade stared around the room wild eyed. Rolle was gone, and from the shadows on the floor she suspected that it had been awhile since she arrived. Jade yawned and scratched at the back of her head. “Guess I dozed off.” She leaned back and extended her arms for a long stretch. But if she fell asleep, what woke her up? It was then that she noticed a miserably frightened little being hiding behind the clipboard it was holding.

“W-welcome to V-Vi-Victoria’s Correctional Facility f-for Young W-women. My n-name’s Beverly.” It stuttered from behind the clipboard, trembling with fear. “w-we found a room for you, p-please come with me.” It started to back away slowly though it never stopped trembling.

“Huh?” Jade was still trying to figure out what in the world that thing was. It was a Beaver, she thought. Finally Beverly’s words sunk in and Jade followed her hesitantly out of the room. Beverly led her around a corner as soon as they entered the hallway. That was all that Jade could remember because after that, she followed Beverly through a maze-like corridor that she would never be able to recognize if her life counted on it. The entire time, Beverly kept her shoulders hunched over and hid her face from Jade, who was constantly leaning over to the side in attempt to make eye contact.

Beverly was about Jade’s age, though she looked nothing like that crazy fox. Her tail was flat and she had small, round ears that she was repeatedly pushing her short, brown hair behind. Only for it to fall back into her face as she chewed on her nails nervously with her abnormally large teeth. She wore the same uniform that Jade did, but it was obviously kept more neatly. Her clipboard was now pressed so tightly to her chest that her knuckles her white from gripping it so hard. They turned one last corner and arrived at Jade’s room, which was being guarded by none other than Vickie.

“Hello Beverly!” She chimed, “How’s my favorite-“her expression changed when she saw Jade, “Oh, it’s you.” She stepped aside to let Jade and Beverly inside. “You will be sharing your room with some other girls. We have breakfast at 5:30 tomorrow morning.” She turned to walk away, “and Beverly?” She looked over her shoulder, “You will be sharing your room with Miss Jade here.”

“What?!” Beverly squeaked, that was all that she could muster before she just stood there with her mouth agape and her eyes popping out of her head.

“Keep an eye on her.” Vickie smiled reassuringly at Beverly, winked, and disappeared around the corner.

“Better close your mouth before you start catching flies.” Jade said in a sing-song voice as she entered the room. She glanced around and saw that there were 4 beds lined up along the wall and 2 chairs in front of an abnormally large window. (Vickie thought that young ladies mustn’t hide themselves from the world.)

There was a leopard (also wearing the pink and yellow uniform) lying on one of the beds nearest to Jade, who had been staring at the ceiling out of shear boardness until Jade entered the room. The leopard was now staring at her with a look on her face that said that ‘pink is definitely not that fox’s color.’

“Beverly, who is this?” the leopard asked getting to her feet and staring at Jade.

Beverly trudged into the room and put her clipboard on one of the beds, “Sasha, meet Jade. Jade, Sasha.” She collapsed onto the bed and pulled the covers over her head.

Jade smiled broadly and held out her hand to Sasha, “Hiya Sasha!”

“Hello… Jade.” She grasped Jade’s outstretched hand, and Jade pumped it eagerly up and down until Sasha almost got motion sickness. Jade shook Sasha’s hand so hard that they lost their balance and spilled onto the floor. Sasha looked at Jade, Jade looked at Sasha, and they broke into a fit of laughter so suddenly, that Beverly rolled off of her bed and collided with the ground. This made them laugh all the harder. Sasha grabbed Jade’s arm and pulled her to her feet. “You can have the bed next to mine!”

“OK!” Jade pounced into the bed and turned back to Sasha, beaming radiantly. This was the first time in a long time she had made a friend, and it felt great. Now she wasn’t so lonely.

Just then, a figure rose from one of the chairs. It was wearing a pink and yellow uniform like everyone else. And her leathery black wings cast a shadow over Jade. “This is just great.” Rolle growled, “You’re the first person I hated in the rotten dump, and now I’m stuck with ya.”

Jade didn’t even turn around, “So, Sasha. Have you met miss sunshine here yet?” She pointed behind her with her thumb.

Sasha frowned and crossed her arms, “Yup.”

“That’s it! I don’t have take this from you!” Rolle turned around and stomped back to her chair. “Don’t talk to me, don’t touch me, don’t even remind me of your existence, and we won’t have a problem.” She sat down in the chair glared lividly out the window. Jade and Sasha just laughed.

That night, Jade couldn’t sleep. She had been forced to wear a nightgown so frilly and poofy she could not get comfortable. Beverly was asleep because she must have been used to it, and Rolle simply refused to wear the nightgown she was given. She just slept in her day clothes. Jade stared at Sasha’s sleeping form, she couldn’t believe that she had a friend! This was amazing! She thought of all the great times they would be able to have. Jokes and games, joy and laughter. But wait, Jade had almost forgotten about where exactly they were. You couldn’t just play around in a correctional facility. They were more likely to be learning to sew and have good manners. Jade shuddered at the thought. She decided the only way to preserve their fun was to escape. But how? There had to be a way out of here. Jade looked everywhere around the room. The door? Couldn’t be THAT simple. Could it? Jade slipped out of bed and tiptoed over. She tried to turn the knob. Locked. She turned around and sighed. She went over to her bed and lifted the sheets to climb in. Then stopped. She stared at the sheets then looked up at the window, slowly, a smile grew on her face.

“Sasha, hey Sasha! Wake up!”

“Uhh? What? Jade, what are you doing out of bed?”

“You feel like getting out of here?”

“Do I ever! But how?”

“I’ve got an idea……”

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment