Ten years later. Jax is walking through a lush green forest when he suddenly stops, sniffs the air and pricks his ears up  hmm there’s a storm rolling in, i better find some shelter for the night, he thought to himself as he starts moving again looking for a place to bunker down for the night out of the incoming storm. A few minutes later he comes across a cave in the side of a tall cliff face, he walks inside and puts down his bag a few meters inside the entrance before heading back out to find twigs and branches to make a fire with.

He comes back a few minutes later with a bundle of twigs and a few branches just as the storm hits, he puts them on the ground and lights a fire.

He sits down next to it and takes the pendant off from around his neck and holds it in his paw looking at it. It’s the pendant he received from beth, it’s a double ended scythe. It has a green fox head at each end of the staff, with a black curved blade coming out of there mouths, the blades have a line of different colours running down the center of them and at one end of the staff there are four ribbons coming off it, one for each of Beth’s tails, red, blue, black and purple. He smiles and pulls out a dirty, crumpled bit of paper from his pocket and opens it, it’s the note she gave him all those years ago.

He begins to read it “Jax we maybe going our separate ways for now but please take this pendent to remember me by until we meet again someday. This pendant will help you on your journey also, it will grant you discounts and places to sleep and rest in certain towns all you need to do is show it to the person behind the desk and they will help you with whatever you need. The hotels and shops will have a hidden scythe symbol on the door. Best of luck on your adventures and stay safe. Love Bethany A Fox.”

He looks up with a smile on his face “I will” he muttered to himself and folds the note back up and puts it in his pocket, he sits there for a while staring at the fire before laying down on the hard ground, putting his head on his bag and slowly drifts off to sleep. The next day Jax awoke to the sweet familiar sound of birds singing, he lets out a groan as he sits up, his body is stiff and sore from hiking all of the previous day and the rough night sleep.

He gets up and has a good stretch, groaning as he does so, he opens up his pack and pulls out a bag of mre, “this will have to do until I get to the next town” he mumbles to himself as he opens it and starts eating.

After his meal he packs up his things and continues his journey, an hour or so later jax leaves the Forest and starts to trek up a hill. He’s traveling up to a small town nestled on top of the tallest hill that overlooks a vast plan below. After a while he gets to the top and stands at the edge of town, he walks up the main street expecting to find it bustling with people but there was no one to be seen or heard only an eerie silence. The town is called furtropolace, it’s a refuge for young anthropomorphs who have been cast out of society. In some cases the mother or father will travel to the town with their young and drop them off, on the rare occasion the parent will stay to help look over and run the town.

As jax makes his way up the street he couldn’t help but shake the feeling that he was being watched, he placed his hand on his sword and kept walking. Eventually he comes to the town centre where a Statue of a human woman with wings stood and around her she also had anthropomorphic children looking up at her and under it was a plaque that read “this statue was erected in loving memory of miss Fox, founder and Mother to all anthropomorphs who live in the village, she might be long gone now but her kindness and generosity lives on forever inside of everyone in the village.” Jax finishes reading I wonder if this is referring to Beth, it does look like her he says mumbling to himself before continuing on and approached the nearest building.

He knocks on the door but no one answered, he tries the handle and it turns, pushing the door open he knocks again and calls out hello but there was no answer so he goes inside.

The house was cold and dimly lit because of the curtains blocked most of the light, the floor was dirty and the furniture was covered in dust and cobwebs along with the corners of the walls and ceiling, there was a musty smell in the air along with the smell of off food. As he walks through the house he comes into the kitchen and over to the dining table, there were two plates and two sets of cutlery, there was pots and a pan on the stove it looks like they left in a hurry but why he thought to himself, he explores the house more and finds nothing about a sudden evacuation so he goes into a bedroom, puts his bag down and lays on the bed for a little rest.

A few hours later, Jax awakens to a loud noise outside. He gets up and quickly grabs his sword. He goes to the window to look outside but sees nothing. He walks quietly to the front door with his hand firmly on the hilt, he opens the door and walks outside. His ears prick up and turns towards the sound. He quickly ducks as a clawed hand swipes at him just missing his face. He stands back up drawing his sword and looks at the figure standing in front of him. The figure is a female anthro shark, she’s tall and quite beefy she has long black hair with strips of colour on her fringe, blue, pink,purple and yellow. Her eyes are two different colours, one blue and one red, she smiles a toothy grin “that’s some sharp hearing you have there, it’s a shame your reflexes aren’t as sharp” she says in a somewhat mocking tone mixed with eagerness for a fight.

“Possibly but I’m sure your aim was off” replied Jax mockingly. her grin grows wider and more menacing “well I guess I’m just going to have to try harder then” she lets out a devilish laugh and swipes at Jax with her tail, he gets a quick glimpse of a metallic shine on her tail and blocks with his sword but it breaks from the force and is sliced across his chest.

Blood starts running down his chest, his wound starts healing and she strikes again with her claws, weaponless Jax dodges and kicks her in the chest and she flys backwards a few paces. Just as the woman Steadied herself Jax’s pendant began to glow and react to his blood touching it.

It starts to vibrate and grow as the nanites start to wake up and multiple, Jax dumbfounded pulls the pendant from his neck and holds it in his hand. The scythe pendant keeps growing until it gets to its original size of six foot.

The woman comes at him again with swipe of her powerful tail, Jax puts his other hand on shaft of the scythe and blocks the attack but is sent flying.