Hello there! This is the first chapter of my first book, and I would like to thank you all in advance for giving me a minute of your time, I hope you all enjoy it!

[Here] is my Google Drive repository, with all the latest versions.

P.S.: This is my first draft, any suggestions, insights, and critiques would be very much appreciated. I bet that there is a bunch of typos and grammar errors still needing to be fixed xD

You can also find me on [Twitter] / [Reddit] / [FurAffinity] / [SoFurry]

Thumbnail image by [John Bevan]

Chapter 01

(LUCAS)

It was a refreshingly cool morning, the smell of fresh grass and dew filled my nostrils, mixed with the comforting vapor of the coffee from my mug as the wind ruffled my tawny ears.

I was leaning in the porch railing of the farm, observing the jungle line in the distance, a few cows in the meadow between me and it. Lost in daydreams I barely noticed the black figure in a sturdy branch of a big tree, its black fur as dark as the depths of the dense rainforest, its body lean and muscular, lazily draped over the branch, just relaxing and observing the landscape, like myself.

I heard my father's footsteps coming closer to the porch door, opening it a few moments later, but I was so transfixed by the rare visage in front of me that I didn't pay much attention to it. I vaguely registered my father's words, he grunted something, probably a good morning, and went back inside.

The jaguar got up and was now liking its paws, its tail lazily sawing, oblivious of my staring eyes, such a majestic creature. My mind trailed to the image of its bipedal non-feral counterpart, swimming in the river by my side, his taut muscle well visible under his short fur… 

I closed my eyes and sighed, cursing myself and shutting off those thoughts, I shouldn't be thinking like that about a friend, certainly not from another male. As I was recovering, I heard footsteps approaching again, this time louder, in a hurry, it seems.

I pushed those distractions aside, took a sip of my coffee and went back to admiring the beautiful beast by the tree line, now liking its fur, calmly cleaning itself. The door from the porch opened again, but I tried not to pay much attention to it, it was only when I heard a mechanical click that I turned my head.

My father was holding the old family rifle, finishing to reload it, and aiming. It took me a moment to register what was going on, and then I lunged at him and pushed the rifle aside, just as he pulled the trigger.

A loud bang ringed in my ears, followed by a high pitch sound of momentaneous deafening. With my ear folded, eyes wild open, I turned to look at the tree line and only saw the blurry motion of the jaguar disappearing in the depth of the forest. I sighed in relief and turned again just in time to see my father open paw swimming in my direction, striking me hard on the muzzle.

His ears were folded, his eye narrowed and his canines were visible as he snarled “What the fuck was that? Do you have any idea what you have done?"

My eyes were moistened, and my tail was tucked hard under my legs as I tried to blurt out a response “Y-you was going to kill it!"

“Of course I was going to kill it!" he snapped back getting even louder than before “it would eat our cattle otherwise!"

“It is only trying to survive…" 

“So am I!"

In the heat of it, we barely noticed the school bus approaching, and by then it was already by the road next to the farm. My father waved me off as he stumped back to the house, hackles up and still grunting.

I lifted my bag from the porch floor and started jogging to the bus, trying to dry my eyes as I went. Reaching the bus, the driver, an anteater, looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

“Wildlife Trouble?" he said as he switched his gaze to the forest line.

I gave him a quick nod and walked inside. He acknowledged it and started pulling the bus out as the door closed. On my way to the back of the bus I was assaulted by the smell of half a dozen different species, and by their gazes. I tried to ignore them and sat down next to the short capybara at the back of the bus. She looked at me, her eyes displaying compassion and concern, she said. “Hey Foxy, everything alright?"

“Yeah… kind of." I rested my tail on my lap and started stroking it, looking down at my knees, ears down.

She leaned closer and whispered. “What happened?"

“There was a panther by the tree lines, my father tried to shoot it," I said in a low voice, still a bit shaken by the role affair.

“Poor thing," her lips got slightly downward as she shifted her gaze to the window at our back. “was it hit?"

“I don't think so" I looked at her as she turned back to me.

“Well, cheer up Lucas, everything is alright then" she patted me on the knees.

I tried to smile, her good spirits already calming me down. “Yeah Isah, I guess you are right." She smiled back and nodded, then turned her gaze to the window at her side as the bus moved through the countryside. 

The slow journey to the school in São Felix went as usual, a long way by the dirt road, a bunch of small farms in all directions, and the sea of trees slowly vanishing on the horizon. Now and then the bus made a quick stop for a few more students to join in, mostly native species, even a few other hoary foxes like myself.

For a while I tried to relax and forget about what happened earlier, it wasn't until we got to one of the few tendrils of dense forest on our way that I started wondering, when will I ever see a panther again? Even normal jaguars are rare to see, agile and stealthy as they are. Then I started thinking about what my father said, and my tail fur got frizzly once again, as I worried about what might happen.

I tried to calm myself as I smoothed my fur down. Isah seemed to notice it, and gave me a concerned look. I gave her a half-hearted smile and said, “it's okay, really," I moved my tail to my side, resting it on the seat next to me. “there isn't much I can do anyway."

She tilted her head, raising an eyebrow, “about what?"

“My father."

She looked at me for a moment, thinking, then said “are you worried that he might kill the panther?"

“Yeah... and he was quite angry when I stopped him, what will happen if our cattle start dying?" my ear got down as I said it.

She rested a paw on my shoulder “Well… we shouldn't be here in the first place, it's not your fault."

“I'm sure he's gonna see it that way," I grumbled back, ears still splayed.

“Well, no point worrying about it." she squeezed my shoulder briefly, then removed her paws as she leaned over her legs to get something from her bag. “How is your rainforest assignment going?" She took her school handout from the bag and started flipping through it.

I stroked my arm, diverting my eyes. “I was hoping to spend today's afternoon in the library doing it."

“That is a great idea!" she said, smiling broadly at me, “may I join you?"

“Sure" I replied, ear partly up, half-smiling.

We spent part of the ride talking about our assignment and the upcoming end of the semester. By the time that we got to the main road, we were discussing what we were going to do after high school. Isah told me about how she was preparing for the admission exam for a few public colleges by the coast, as I wondered if I will ever leave this place at all.

***

As the bus approached the small city, I turned my gaze to the hills to my left and was quickly lost in memories. I remembered the beautiful day on which my friend Luiz and I decided to go up those hills. 

It was already evening and the air was pleasantly cooling as he guided me to the top, and I couldn't take my eyes out of him. His tawny yellow legs taut with muscles, well visible under his soccer shorts. His shirtless back covered with those lovely rosettes that are almost hypnotic, as they dance with his gratefulness.

I tried to divert my memory forward, to the part when we got to the top. He was sitting on a smooth boulder as he beckoned me to sit by his side. I approached and sat next to him, and we stayed there for a while, in pleasant silence, just watching the sparkling river in the distance. Even now, just thinking about it spreaded warmth in my chest, and I remembered how hard it was for me to not reach out for his paws.

I was shaken from my pleasant reverie when the bus went over a pothole. We were already inside the city proper, and to all sides, the only visible thing were small houses. 

The bus turned left at the downtown boulevard, an asphalt street with a small line of trees at its center. Here the small houses gave place to shops, restaurants, banks, and so on. The business heart of the city.

We stayed at this boulevard almost to its end, when we finally turned left again, this time to a small dirt road that goes to the base of the hills, where the Carmina Highschool is located, a charming conglomerate of three small brick buildings, linked by a central gazebo and surrounded by a simple garden.

As the bus approached the school, I looked around to see if I could spot any of my friends by the road, since a bunch of them lived nearby, and came either by foot or on bicycles. Today I spotted a handful of them, but not the particular one that I was thinking of.

As we reached the school courtyard, the bus came to a stop and we quickly vacated it to get to our classes. This year, there was only one senior's classroom, so I walked there with Isah, and we joined the rest of the students.

The room was under the constant noise of fans and student's chattering. The air was filled with the smell of a dozen species, slowly rising in temperature, as the cooling breeze of the morning was giving place to the warmth of the tropical sun.

Luiz was already seated by the windows near the back of the room, as he normally does. He was chatting with the only other jaguar in our grade, Alice, who wouldn't leave him alone since she moved here, early this year.

Isah patted me on the shoulder and went to her desk, near the front, as I walked to mine, next to Luiz. As I'm walking past him, Luiz noticed me and waved, smiling brightly. “Hey Lucas! The guys are planning to go to the field this afternoon, wanna join us?"

I noticed Alice's looks, her smiling waning, I gave her a cursory greeting and turned to Luiz. “Humm... I don't know Luiz," I rubbed the back of my ears, and looked downward. “I really would like to join you, but I need to finish Mrs. Lima's assignment, and I told Isah that I would go to the library and all."

His ears got down but quickly came back up as he seemed to figure something out. “Hey, you know what, I'm also kind of stuck with this assignment, I might as well join you guys." he smiled, and his eyes sparkled as he waited for my answer.

I couldn't help but smile, and It took me but a moment to say, “sure, that would be great!" I couldn't keep my tail from wagging, Alice on the other hand seemed to go sour and excused herself.

I waited for her to leave and then I went on. “Won't the team miss you though?"

He shrugged. “I guess, but today's game is only for fun," he looked momentarily to the chatty ocelot at the other side of the class and smirked, “I'm sure that Caio will love the opportunity to be a goalie for once."

“Yeah," I said in between giggles. Meanwhile, Mrs. Lima had already arrived, a jovial middle-aged agouti from the midwest. I settled down on my desk as she went to the door, and, as usual, a slender maned wolf came in at the last minute, the striker from our team, Aldo.

“You look so lovely today, Misses Lima," he said with his best foxish smile.

Mrs. Lima just rolled her eyes smiling and waved him off, “just go sit down already Ronaldo." As she closed the door, he hurried to his desk, and soon enough our class began.

As it's common in most small high schools here in Brazil, Mrs. Lima teaches us a broad variety of classes, and she was responsible for my favorite ones, Biology and Geography. 

That day's lesson was particularly interesting, she introduced us to the concept of the water cycle, and how crucial amazon evapotranspiration is for rainfalls throughout South America.

She went on and on about how it works as a giant water pump, extracting moisture through its deep tree roots and dispersing it in the atmosphere. How it creates actual giant flying rivers of clouds, irrigating the south. How most of the country would be arid if not for it, and so forth.

Then it was Mr. Santos turn, an old river otter, and he proceeded with his previous class about the dull concepts of arithmetic and trigonometry, at which point I was drifting in daydreams again.

I leaned on my paws and started looking around, a few other students equally distracted, looking through the windows, or watching with bored eyes Mr. Santos resolving a mathematical exercise.

Luiz, on the other hand, seemed to be giving his best to understand the lesson. He was writing notes with his sturdy paws, attentively watching with his emerald gorgeous eyes, his tail idly swaying behind his taut muscular butt. I started to feel a warmth spread through me as I stared at it...

I shook my head as I diverted my gaze and then I noticed… Luiz was staring directly at me now, head crooked, eyebrows partially raised, a quizzical smile slowly rising in his muzzle. My eyes got wide, my heart was pounding, and I diverted my gaze quickly to the chalkboard as I started taking notes with no real purpose.

In the corner of my eyes, I could still see him staring at me. It wasn't until a few moments later that he slowly turned to the chalkboard and started paying attention to the lesson once again.

When the mid-morning break bell rang, I quickly left the classroom and did my best to avoid running into Luiz. I decided that the best place for it would be the junior's building, so I got there, and sat on the floor by the end of the hallway.

In my hurry to get out of the classroom I forgot to take the apple that I normally bring for the break. So I spent most of it without much else to do instead of feeling sorry for myself.

“What will Luiz think? He must have noticed what I was staring at… I probably screwed our friendship," I asked myself silent. 

“What if others have noticed it too? I will not only lose Luiz but also be avoided by the rest of my friends. I will be the weirdo, the creep, certainly made fun of."

My knees went up, as I brought my paw to my forehead and stared down. My ears were flat against my head, my tail tucked hard around me, I felt my eyes starting to go wet as I pounded my paws against my forehead, cursing silent.