"I hate to do this to him, it's not right!" Martha said as she followed her husband,who was carrying their four-year-old son. "We need the money, dammit! The mercs will pay a pretty penny to have their own boy!" Jack wasn't a person who would be called a good father; in order to finish up the mortgage payments, he was going to sell his only son to a band of mercenaries."Please Jack, he's your son!" she begged but her pleading seemed useless; it's different for a mother, it's harder to give up a child when you carry them in your womb for nine months and then have your husband tell you that that child needs to be sold.
Once they arrived at the campsite, the mercs greeted them with loaded weapons ready to fire, but their leader was a bit more welcoming; he told his men to stand-down and he welcomed the family into his hut. "I am sorry about my guards, Mr. Fergusson, but with the government on my back, I cannot let my guard down." Then he saw the frightened kitt in Jack's arms. "This must be Slade," he said as he stepped closer,"It's ok, boy, I'm not gonna hurt you." He said in a reassuring tone, but Slade tried to hide his face in his father's chest; he knew why he was here, and he didn't want to leave his family. The merc leader grinned and snapped his fingers and two teenage boys, probably slaves, brought in a trunk full of gold coins. They opened it to display their contents. "Fifty thousand dollars worth of gold for the boy," The merc said, "and not a penny more." Jack was smiling from ear to ear as Martha ran out of the hut and away from the campsite, crying. "Agreed," said Jack as he handed Slade over. But Slade wasn't about to be sold that easily; he wrapped his tail around his father's wrist and begged him not to leave, "Daddy, please! Don't do this! Daddy!" But his cries were heard by no one who cared, except for one woman: one of the mercenary sergeants heard the poor boy and felt pity for him. She went to the leader's hut and stood outside the doorway as the two boys placed the trunk of gold into the back of an old pickup truck. She watched as the father of the boy walked out of the hut and get into the truck. Once the father was away, she walked into the hut and saw the poor fox that had been making such a fuss. "Is this the boy you were talking about," she asked her leader, placing her rifle against the wall, "or is he just another slave?" The tall, burly man looked at the sergeant and grinned. "This is the boy, the boy who will help the soldiers when they are at war." He said as he sat down with the crying kitt in his arms. "There is no need for tears, young one. If he was truly your father, he wouldn't have sold you." The boy looked up at him with a tear-struck face and the large man cuddled with the boy, trying to make him feel a bit better.
"Do you know anything about children, boss?" Asked the sergeant with an upset look on her face. "Why don't you let me take care of the boy for a while," she suggested, "just until he gets used to us." The leader looked at her and thought for a moment. "Okay, Coco," he began, "you may take him and teach him the ways of being a slave. You will be his teacher. Understood?" She stood and walked towards Slade in the man's arms. "Yes, sir." She replied as she took the sobbing boy from his arms and walked out of the hut. She then walked across the camp to a large motorhome and carried the boy inside, laying him down on the sofa across from the refridgerator and sitting next to him. Coco was a mother of two, until some renegade soldiers took and killed them. Now she could be this boy's mother, at least, until her leader sold him off to another buyer. She looked at the fox, "There, there, it's ok. You can trust me." She said in a calming tone, trying to calm the poor boy. Slade looked up at her with a tear-struck face and she wiped his tears with her thumbs and he smiled weakly, "W-who are you?" She smiled caressed his face, "I'm Coco, I'm going to be taking care of you for a while."
~End of Intro~