A deep breath in, then an exhale.  The autumn winds were bracing, and the whispers of winter were turning the trees scarlet and gold- one final act of defiance before growing dormant for the wintertime.
She drums her digits on the steering wheel.  The car hummed sweeter than her’s did, it was a shame she wouldn’t get to keep it.  After all, it took a few months of meticulous planning, the right words in the right ears, and far too much luck for comfort, but as her prey loomed closer, barely aware of his fate, she couldn’t help but crack a smile.
Benett paid little attention to his new chauffeur, head buried in his phone.  A dim awareness, some distant red flags were silenced by his favorite Let’s Player going on a tangent about today’s advertiser.  After all, once he got home, it’d be all business and reminders about homework.  “It’s Friday,” he’d say to himself.  “Might as well get relaxing early.”
This is what the kangaroo in the front seat was counting on.   His early exit wouldn’t raise any eyebrows from the surrounding guardians as the otter boy was loathe to help with cleanup after Manga Club.  He preferred to scurry off after stuffing his pockets with leftover sweets.  So engrossed in his videos that the lullabies coming from the radio, lilting and slow and potent, seeped deep into his psyche.  Slowly, the phone slipped from his paws onto the floor of the car, never to be used again.  She’d find it a little later at a rest stop, toss it away, and there it laid for the cops to find, the kidnapper long gone.
Confident that he was sound asleep, music stopped.  She removed the noise canceling headphones from her head, and in went a disc- classical music, for the refined kangaroo.
---
Benett’s dream found him in the midst of a storm, on a pirate ship!  He’d read the stories and watched the movies, and as he took a breath of the salty sea air, he couldn’t help but let out a grin.  Lower the sails!  Batten down the hatches!  We’ll weather this any any other storm, come hells or high water!
He steered the ship with confidence until a bolt of lightning ground the ship to a halt, causing it to take on water quickly.  His bravado vanished in an instant as the waters swallowed him along with his crew!  Only one thought remained as his head sank beneath the turbulent waves.
I can’t swim.
---
The otter awakes with a scream, still caught in the high pitch of prepubescence.  His tail thrashes, bolting upright and trying to scramble away out of the sheets.  But the sheets, for all their comfort, felt off.  Wrong.	
The first thing to hit him is the cold, clammy wetness.  Pajamas that stick to his body in this awful way, his fur slick with urine.  He throws those off, too, and huddles away from the wet spot on his bed like it were some sort of demon.
The second is the fact that this is not his bed.  Instead of the silky satin sheets he grew up with, these are a cozier, rougher cotton.  But they make the most *awful* noise with every movement, explosive in the silence.  His fur stands on end as the worst possible scenarios started running through his head.  He was used to nightlights and the hustle and bustle of morning maids outside the door.  The relative silence and complete darkness confirms his worst fears.  
He was not home.
His ears finally pick up hushed bickering in a language he didn’t know.  Japanese, perhaps, like in animes?  Maybe, he wasn’t sure.  But his breath catches in his throat all the same, paralyzed with fear.
“Look who’s awake!”  The first to enter turns on the lights, blinding him.
“I must say, he is far more musky than when I picked him up.”  The other comments.  As his vision returns, his stomach drops.
The two furs in front of him are giants, far taller than anyone he knows.  Eight feet or so, and partially obstructed by bars.  A cage?  No, a crib, one built for a cub his size and one a kangaroo leans down to peer through, a little over an arm’s distance away.  A similarly large sheep stands at the door, her paw lowering from the light switch.
A panicked look around the room that was definitely not his reveals it less suited for a boy his age and more a cub a quarter that, though sized up for him, just like the crib.  Toys that would have made younger him squeal with glee now fills him with terror and he let out another scream.
“Loud one, isn’t he?”  The sheep leans over beside her partner in crime and flashes him a smile, as if this was the most normal thing in the world
“Let me out!  I want to go home!”  He demands, tears forming in his eyes.  “What do you want with me?  Money?  My parents have lots of money!  Just give me a phone and-”
The kangaroo cuts him off.  “Money?  Yes, your parents are in possession of a fortune.  A veritable one, at that.  Had we been in search of such, you likely would have been dropped off at a parking lot hours ago.”  A cryptic smile reveals nothing more.
All the emotions he feels just seemed to spill out.  The smell of urine was still to him shamefully.  His tears grow into a full crying fit.  He couldn’t take it, he needed... something!  Anything!  The sheep woman lowers the crib bars.  Instinct took over seeing an escape opportunity.  He leaps out into the kangaroo’s deft paws, who passes him over into a secure hug.  His kicks and screaming were met with gentle shushes from a mammal almost twice his size and built like a truck under the wool.  It didn’t take long to tire himself out, resigning to as many curse words as he could muster between choked sobs.  She rubs his back as he blew his nose on her coat, a final act of defiance.  Neither seemed to mind.
Powerless and defeated, he manages only token struggles during the shower, the two working in tandem to rinse off his body and lather a bit of sweet-scented shampoo all over his body, taking his hair gel along with the residual pee.  He seethed, exhausted, while the two speak in that strange language again. He allows them to dry him off with a pair of towels, one purple and one a deep pink.  With the door to the bathroom closed he didn’t like his chances of escape, so he stayed quiet as the kangaroo lifts him into the air once more.