Burnt Fingertips (Book 1)

Prologue

The dark shelter of the dense forest was the perfect refuge for the weary, aging Fox Karavan. Although he hadn't seen his rival in more than ten minutes, his heart was still thudding painfully against his ribs and throat. Beads of sweat were rolling down his forehead and neck, causing his dark hair to stick to his skin. His lungs were screaming for air, but he wouldn't allow loud gasps to pass from his lips. His eyes, emerald green and narrowed into silts, scanned the thick foliage  anxiously and quickly. 

Just when he thought all was clear, a sound reached his ears. Freezing, the Fox clamped his mouth closed and searched for the source of the sound. The voice, distinctly male, was a murmur of unintelligible words; ones that couldn't be understood even when the old Fox tilted his black fox ears toward the voice. 

What on Alandia is he up to now? the exhausted Fox wondered in annoyance, his anxious nervousness rising in his chest. 

His eyes caught on a rustle of movement to his right. A young Fox was walking out of the thick brush around him, swatting away thorns and vines that snagged at him. The Fox's hair was a dazzling orange, matching the base color of of his black-tipped ears and white-tipped tail. His eyes, a deep brown that looked black in the darkness, were half-lidded in lazy boredom; but his mouth, tilted up in a smirk, was muttering those odd, foreign words. His trousers, baggy and held by a belt that his shirt was tucked into, were ripped from the previous chase. 

"I know you're out there, Timin," said the young Foxlan, a Fox Karavan between the ages of eighteen and forty. His voice was calm and collected, and his gaze traveled smoothly across the dense forest. 

Timin wasn't at all surprised when the Foxlan's dark eyes landed directly on him. But, holding his breath, Timin remained still - and the dark slits miraculously glided away.

Clenching his jaw, Timin told himself not to get his hopes up. It was obvious that the Foxlan had seem him, but why was the former doing nothing?

"Come on out, old man," the Foxlan said in a peaceful tone, a large and toothy grin spreading across his face. "There isn't any use in hiding. You know I will find you." 

Timin narrowed his eyes, not daring to take them off the Foxlan. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words in his mind were that of a basic, Fox Magic spell to throw off his voice. "What is the meaning of all of this, Rakah?" 

Just thirty minutes before, the Foxlan named Rakah had used his Fox Gift - the type of Magic a Fox was best at - to burn down the village called Mitha, which was home to hundreds of Foxes. 

Including Timin and Rakah. 

Rakah lifted his head and laughed, halting where he was. His fangs glinted in the moonlight as he responded. "I'm sick of the niceties, old man." His eyes landed again on Timin's hiding place, which meant that the trick Timin had used had been futile. 

"We Foxes shouldn't be bound by all your ridiculous laws," continued Rakah, his toothy grin slipping away as his voice raised with loathing. "We are Foxes, old man. It is nature to be free and deceiving. I don't care how much you resent violence. You should have done something, like a good leader would have. Like a father would have!" 

Timin flinched, his ears flipping back at the painful reminder of his mistakes. He knew what Rakah was talking about - Timin's once wonderful, turned violent wife, and Rakah's adoptive mother. Because Timin was, admittedly, a paranoid and pacifistic Fox, he never did anything to stop the beatings.

But he knew now how wrong and hypocritical he had been. As the husband and as the leader of Mitha, Timin should have done something. 

Rakah put a lid on his anger and continued. "I'm freeing the Fox race from the oppressive laws that we've submitted to. If I have to do it village by village, then so be it." 

"But why would you kill all of the Foxes in Mitha?" Timin asked brokenly, not bothering to cloak or throw off his voice. His people had done nothing wrong, so why had the innocent been burned to death?

Another cool and unsettling grin cracked across Rakah's face. "Oh, I didn't kill all of them. Mother, yes. But did you think I was just going to let you and your children go?" 

Fear snatched Timin's heart in its icy grip. "Where are they?" he demanded frantically. "What did you do to them?" 

"Don't worry, old man," said Rakah in a reassuring tone, but he didn't sound the way it was supposed to. "They're perfectly safe."

The Foxlan snapped his fingers, and suddenly a large piece of foliage beside him melted away. Standing in its place were two young Foxlings, a seventeen year old boy and a fourteen year old girl. So Rakah had cloaked them using the concealing spell. 

Relief flooded through Timin's mind, and he foolishly hurried into the open. He spread his arms and wrapped them around the Foxlings, drawing his children against his chest. Rakah was merciful and kind enough to spare them, but what was his plan now? 

"Father," the young girl breathed gratefully into his shoulder. "You're okay." 

Timin didn't reply, lifting his head and meeting his adopted son's eyes. "What did you do?" 

"Oh, nothing yet," Rakah said coolly. "But don't worry, Father, I won't hurt my half-siblings." Rakah was the only adopted one of the family. Timin and his wife had adopted him back when Timin's wife had been loving and sweet. 

"You, on the other hand..." Rakah grinned deviously, raising a sharp knife from his belt.

"Rakah, no!" the Foxling boy yelled, squirming in a panic against Timin's arms. The Fox's father was frozen in disbelief and fear. 

"Hush, Toda," Rakah snapped at the boy. "You might get in the way. I told Timin that I wasn't going to hurt either of you, did I not?" 

Through Timin's fear and shock, relief sparked in his mind that Rakah didn't have the heart to hurt his siblings. 

Rakah's grin returned. "Don't worry, I won't kill him." 

And he drew the dagger fiercely across Timin's shoulder, chanting those foreign words as he did so. He then raised the dagger, licked the blood off the tip, and breathed in deeply. 

"You and your family line," Rakah said with an evil, fanged grin, "are now bound to me for as long as I live."

~

Hey, thanks for checking out this book!! 

I hope you like the chapters to come!! I am writing this separately in a journal, so I will try to update it every time I complete a chapter in the journal.

Thank you again for reading this! 

I hope you enjoy.

Love you all!!

P3ac3!!!~~~