A Fox's Whisper

6: |几卂尺|

The smell of fish cooking over a fire made my mouth water. I had to hand it to Kazuha...he was incredibly proficient at catching fish barehanded. In a matter of minutes, he had three of them strung up over a cook fire, and their fragrant aroma made my stomach growl.

Kazuha had headed off to find some seagrass to dry over the flames to work as a garnish for the food, and I was tasked with making sure the fish didn't burn. It wasn't a hard job. We'd set the fire up in the sand, between the two halves of the ship. He'd said it would do a better job of concealing smoke from any curious thieves.

As I sat on the sand, I reflected a little on our conversation of the gods and the Archons. It seems cliché, does it not, that I have a grievance against the Archons? But I ask you: what Archon would allow an entire race to vanish from this earth into statues of stone without a single thought as to how to free them?

My dislike of the Archons seemed as justified as my hatred of Dorobo. My heart felt very cold, like an empty shell in my chest. The heart can grow frigid if all it knows is winter, but my anger was the one thing that would never cool. Not until I took back what was rightfully mine.

The sun warmed the sand around me, and I ran my fingers through it, sifting it out of my palms. That combined with the heat of the fire caused sweat to break out on my skin. I wiped my forehead and stood up, moving to where the splintered deck of the upper part of the ship provided shade.

Mixed with the scent of fish came the disgusting stench of wet dog. I ground my teeth in annoyance. Not only had that Shiba Inu scared me half to death, thus humiliating me to no end in front of Kazuha, but it no doubt would be lured by the smell of food.

Well I wouldn't have it. I'd get rid of that dog if it was the last thing I did.
I turned around, but there was no dog to be seen, much to my surprise. I sniffed the air. Yes, the smell of the animal lingered. But it wasn't there. I cut my eyes over to the cookfire and gasped. There were two fish cooking instead of three.

I rubbed my eyes, wondering if the lack of sleep from the night before was causing me to hallucinate. But no, there had been three fish skewered on sticks to roast. And now there were two. I frowned. So that dog must have been stealing our food.

I picked up a rock from the ground and hid behind several rotting crates. No doubt the dog would come back for more, and when it did, I would nail it with the rock. That's one of the things that disgusts me so about them. They eat, and eat, and eat until they grow sick. Then they vomit and try to eat that. It made me nauseous to even think about it. Dogs have none of the refinement of foxes.

My hearing was greatly decreased now because I'd hidden my ears and it irked me.  But before I could even try to listen better for the telltale sounds of the dog, I saw something else.

A young boy, probably in his late teens, stepped into view, the dog (noticeably with half a cooked fish in its jaws) at his heels. He was handsome enough, I suppose, with chestnut hair that hung messily about his face and ears, and soft hazel eyes. He was dressed in robes of a coarse brown material and had a satchel slung about his shoulder. In his right hand, he held a large staff.

I huddled down lower in my hiding spot, clutching the rock in my hand. Kazuha hadn't been alerted of this stranger's presence, and I didn't know what they would try to do.

"Huh. Was this what you were trying to show me?" The boy said to the dog. He grinned and crouched down. "What luck!"

He reached forward to take one of the fish, and I felt my blood boil. Who did he think he was, stealing someone else's food?? If he had any brains he'd realize that a burning fire and mostly cooked fish meant that someone else was around. If there's anything I hate more in the world than Dorobo stealing from me, it would be a human stealing from me.
So I hurled the rock with all my might at the back of the boy's head.