Your Life In an Anthro's World

Strategies and Technicalities

You nodded, "I look forward to it.'

"In the meantime," Malcolm interjected, "We'll walk you out. I'd hate to think that you were late for your appointment because you unwittingly used the backdoor."

You cringed as the mayor finished his sentence. You'd hoped that he hadn't been paying attention. Unfortunately for you, he had been. The mayor and his secretary walked you out to the front of the building.

"Kara should be along to pick you up soon," The mayor stated as you neared the double doors that formed the entrance of city hall.

You forced a smile and a positive attitude, "Great."

The mayor chuckled before turning to go back into the building, "Let's go Selica, we have much to do."

"Yes of course," The mink replied before giving you a friendly wave goodbye along with a smile. She the turned on her heel and followed Malcolm back into the building.

You looked to your left, and then to your right. You had expected to find a cheetah speeding towards you. However, you did not see anyone that you knew in the hustle and bustle of the city.

"Guess I'll just have to wait a bit longer for her," You muttered to yourself. However, as you sat down on the sidewalk and stared up at the cloudy sky you grinned. "Or maybe..." You muttered as you stood up, "I might just get 'lost' somewhere." With that said, you turned and ran down the street with a smirk tugging at your lips. "After all, it's her fault for being late, right? So why wouldn't I assume that today's appointment was cancelled?" Of course, you were well aware that she was probably only a few minutes late and you were completely rationalizing the situation. But that wasn't going to stop you from trading a day at the university for a day on the town.

Meanwhile, Malcolm sat in his office at his desk with Celica bringing him a few documents to read over. As she laid the documents on his desk he looked up at her with a inquisitive expression, "Well?"

Celica glanced down at her employer, confusion plainly written across her face, "Hm?"

"How was the game?" Malcom elaborated.

"You witnessed the ending for yourself," She replied.

"Yes, yes, I know how it ended. But I want to know what it was like playing him.

Celica crunched up her nose and furrowed her brow in thought, "I have to admit, he wasn't a normal opponent. His strategy continuously adapted. He lost a lot of his pieces to me through mistakes and missed opportunities early in the game. But once he realized what my tactics were, he began to effectively repel me. Even with diminished forces, he put up quite a fight."

"Yet he still lost," Malcolm replied as he put his fist to his chin in thought.

Celica shook her head, "No... he didn't. Though victory is ultimately achieved through capturing the enemy king or eliminating all forces and cornering the king, he didn't necessarily lose. He realized that he couldn't achieve total victory over me, so he changed his terms for victory. In order to defeat him, I had to capture his king and the same went for him. However, he knew that I was going to target his king. I assumed he would do the same. But he didn't, instead he did everything he could to protect his king while taking minimum losses rather than attacking my forces to capture my own king."

"So in essence, he found his victory in denying you yours?" Malcolm surmised.

"Essentially yes."

"Do you think he realized he was playing against the three time regional champion?" Malcolm asked.

"I don't believe so," Celica replied.

"Hm... he surprises me at every turn," Malcolm muttered, "His thinking is so three dimensional. He can perceive things from viewpoints that simply don't occur to us as anthros. Something that I'm sure my sister is desperate to exploit. If she could learn to think like that, or even use him as a thought engine... it's frightening to think of what she might do. We must protect him..."

Celica tilted her head as she looked down at her boss, "For his sake or ours?"

Malcolm looked back up at her with an intense expression, "For both his sake and ours. And it's the right thing to do."

Celica smiled and nodded, "Yes sir."

"So tell me," Have we heard back from Sally yet?"

"No," Celica replied, "I know she's self sufficient, and she's pretty good at what she does. But I'm starting to get worried."

"Hm..." Malcom grunted, "We'll give it another day. If we don't hear back from her by then, I'll begin preparations for a rescue operation."

"Yes sir," Celica replied.

"No need for that," Came a sultry feminine voice.

Malcolm turned in his chair to regard the owner of the voice. A fox bat anthro stood before him in grey cargo pants and a skin tight black t shirt. Unlike the species of bat that the name eludes to, this anthro was quite literally a hybrid between a fox and a bat. She had the body of a fox to be sure. Black and gray fur with lethal claws on the ends of her fingers and toes. A canine snout, and glowing amber eyes. Her ears though, were large and angular. Similar to a foxes, but more bat like in actuality. Her wings lined the sides of her arms, running from her wrists to the back side of her upper arms. A long bushy tail swayed behind her as she stood behind Malcolm's chair.

"So you've returned," The mayor noted.

"How observant of you," Sally replied.

"Why didn't you contact us? We were starting to worry."

"I was on a deep infiltration mission," Sally explained, "Answering my phone was not only in bad taste, but it was also an unnecessary risk."

Malcolm sighed as he leaned back against his desk, "I can't argue with that logic. And you did come back before we actually deployed a rescue operation..."

"Would you like me to relay my report now?" Sally asked as she moved to sit in one of the plush chairs in front of Malcolm's desk.

Malcolm opened his mouth to speak before his personal phone rang. He answered the phone In a somewhat irritated tone. "Yes what is it? He's what? When did you get there? Then he can't be far. No, get back to the university and expect his arrival, I'll have it taken care of. Yes, thank you."

Sally crossed her legs and raised a brow, "Problem?"

"I'm not sure I'd call it that," Malcolm replied, "But I have an AWOL human running around somewhere and I need to find him and get him to the university. I'll be sending Cody to make sure he gets there in a timely manner."

"Would you like me to lend a hand?" Sally asked.

"At what cost?" Malcolm cautiously asked.

"Getting to meet this infamous human will be my fee this time around," Sally replied. "I want to see with my own eyes how he escaped Sylvia Deluma's ambitions."