He laid hidden in a thorny bush. Although it did not conceal much with its bare winter cover. Mainly thorns and branches. Little bits of it nicking out tufts of loose fur. He had to be safe here. No big beast could fit in here like he could and it did not carry the same stench as the other place.
In the aftermath he had anxiously groomed his front paws into a raw sort of state. Not awful, but certainly noticeable when he walked too long.
He would stay here and regroup himself until he felt brave once more. Then...maybe he could try again. Elsewhere obviously. He did not fancy the idea of facing the big dark beast again.
He rarely ventured inland, much preferring the coastal areas. They had a certain je ne sais quoi. But Yeet was nothing if not curious. And reckless. Especially after Yolo literally fucked off, the little daredevil couldn’t resist the urge to visit the site of the rumble and crash.
It took him a while to pinpoint the location. What he found was a crumbling mountain and not much else. He spotted a wolf or two but was so disappointed by his findings, he couldn’t even bring himself to heckle them. They looked a lot like he felt: mopey.
He thought of his brother, achingly at first, then angrily. But all that wrath evaporated when he unexpectedly spotted him– or so Yeet thought– through the trees ahead to the south.
“YOLO!” Yeet bellowed, all his hurts forgotten. “MY MAN!”
This was how he died.
Someone yowling at him while he hid in a thorny bush. Quickly he tried to worm his way out of it, before he realized that whoever was yelling at him sounded...like him. In a way. In pitch, most likely.
Once free of the bush, he hoped to whip around fast enough to see who had come up on him so loudly.
WHAT?!
He bellowed back. He probably sounded more stressed and horrified than he did mean.
“WHAT?!” Yolo hollered in response, only… [record screech] That wasn’t his brother’s voice.
Yeet braked to a halt and gaped at the perfect stranger. He resembled Yolo, even up close, but it wasn’t him. He could’ve felt embarrassed for the mistake, though that wasn’t really Yeet’s style. Anyway, it was much more depressing than humiliating.
Swallowing his disappointment, Yeet tried for a joke and said weakly, “Y’know? YOLO? You only… live once…?”
No, Nuisance did not have a single clue that Yolo translated into the fact laid before him.
No I don't know Yolo.
He started out with, a bit bristly. I'm sure they only live once, though?!
He awkwardly served back with some hesitation as he eyed the other fox. He should have been grateful to some degree that it was a fellow fox and not some big, slobbering beast of wolves. Instead he still felt the dripping remnants of dread from the previous encounter. It was very hard to joke in such a state.
Yeet couldn’t tell if this stranger was confused or messing with him. But something about the defensive question tickled his funny bone. He laughed loudly.
Maybe that was why the other fox backed away from him. Perhaps Yolo’s twin thought he was crazy. Maybe he was, at least a little. Yeet had always been a little mad, he supposed.
Holding up two charred paws, he made a placating movement. “Chill, bruh, I’m not here to hurt you. What do they call you?”
Had this been...anything else trying to calm him down, he might exploded into some sort of rabid fit. Instead he did try to soothe himself at the words of the other.
Chill, bruh,
Chill, chill, chill. He could be chill. So chill. The chilliest.
Uh, called Nuisance a lot so, like, I guess that?
Saying that had dawned on him the fact that he maybe didn't have an...actual name. Especially if names were meant to be Yolo.
“Dude,” remarked Yeet. That was kind of tragic. “Lemme guess. Is it mostly wolves who call you that?” He shook his head and clicked his tongue.
Without waiting for an answer, he added, “I’m Yeet. Do you live around here? Do you, uh…” His eyes darted around the two of them. “You didn’t live on that mountain, did you? Looks like it got royally fucked by that laser beam from space or whatever it was.”