Masquerade Rogue

Chapter III ~ Urban Foxes

A white whiskered snout peeked out around an alley corner, the black nose twitching as it sniffed the air for new scents. A silver fox with a black ring around his neck stepped out of the dark shadows of the falling sun, his fur tipped with gray and white. His thick black tail swished back and forth, the white tip gleaming in a patch of light. Black ears pricked, listening to the loud sounds only a little ways away. Amber eyes pierced the darkness. Caléo sniffed again, his mouth open slightly, drinking in the new smells.

Across the street, another shape was perched carefully in the shadows of a coffee shop’s outdoor table. His fur was unkempt and scraggly looking, although the fox himself wasn’t thin by any means. This fox, known as Kaz, had his eyes trained on Caléo’s. The other fox could smell the delicious human’s food wafting from down the street as well.

Last time the two had met, it ended in a fight when Caléo’s sarcasm went one step too far. He felt no regret. However, tonight was a special night, when the Kitsune herself was in town, and even the humans were celebrating. It was against the unspoken laws among the fox community to get in a fight tonight.

However, there’s only room for one fox at the human’s festival, Kaz thought to himself, and it isn’t going to be him.

Kaz shot from under the table, heading towards the food. He knew Caléo would see him, but didn’t care. Even though Kaz’s pelt was a mixture of red and black, two colors that hid well in the dark, another fox would spot him easily in the open like this. Kaz slunk low to the ground and moved as quickly as he could, flying over the hard concrete the humans used to walk on without a glance back to see what Caléo would do.

Anger seethed through Caléo, making him bear his teeth. Kaz thought he was so special. Caléo hurried forward, his thick fur gleaming in the growing moonlight. The scent of the food from the humans was overpowering; the burnt smell of the torches that glittered in the twilight cloyed with the sickly sweet scent of flowers that the humans had strewn across the asphalt. Caléo’s black paws ground into the stone, his breath streaming out of his mouth in gusts. Kaz’s tail whipped before him, bobbing as the fox ran farther ahead.

Kaz could hear the paws behind him, feel the breath hit the very tip of his tail. The cross fox shot under the tarp of a tent set up by the humans. No one was around to see him, and he had ran into a tent set up simply for a human artist to display and sell his works.

The other fox raced passed the tent, which was stained a pale yellow, almost running into a human carrying a big tub. The human let out a shout of alarm and water sloshed out, a few drops spraying across Caléo’s muzzle. Caléo shrank quickly back into the shadows and slunk along the side of the tent, his amber eyes darting around in search of Kaz. A flash of white on the other side of the street caught his attention and he set his eyes on it.

Kaz had wanted to get out of this tent as quickly as he could and avoid the eyes of humans, but the scene before him demanded all of his attention. Two white foxes were streaking down the center of the road, both of them clamping their muzzles on the same chicken as they stumbled along next to each other. Caléo watched with confusion. He could tell the foxes were female from the way they placed their paws daintily on the ground. At a closer glance he saw that both were white, but one sported black markings, and the other a brilliant scarlet muzzle and spots down her back ending in a red tail tip. They stumbled slowly down the street but it seemed as if the white vixen was trying to race faster, almost dragging the red vixen along.

Behind them, humans were fighting other humans and tripping over their own feet in the race to catch up with the foxes who undeniably stole their chicken. Kaz couldn’t suppress a huge grin despite his one raised brow. After watching the two foxes try and fail to make a speedy escape, he ran out to help them before they caused any more chaos. “Follow me!” He said as he took the chicken and gently tugged it. They both let go and almost tripped as they stared at him in confusion and fear. Kaz shot off to the left, tearing from the human’s street and in between two of their tents and right into a forest that had little to no undergrowth. He leapt onto a tree root and glanced back to see them following in the most awkward way, but they made good enough time catching up.