TBATE - A New Start

Chapter 8

Casma POV:

Groggily I tried to open my eyes and looked around but everything came in blurry and shaky. After opening and closing them a few times everything started to come into focus. I was now lying in a bedroll. I was set a little ways off from the fire where Alice and Ellie had been making supper. They had moved off to the side where a table made out of earth was. I suspect Art made that when he got back. I tried sitting up when my head began pounding.

"Ugh, my head." I held my head in my hands. I felt movement coming from within my bedroll. Trying to ignore the pain I moved my hands to open the bedroll. Once open a streak of pure white shot out and hit my chest.

"Awo!"  I looked down at what had hit my chest and was somewhat surprised to see the white fox in my lap. It sits with its front legs up on me and looks up at me. Its head cocked to the side as if wondering why I haven't responded.

"Was that you little fella?" I said as I now felt a hand on my shoulder.

"It hasn't left your side since we found you passed out in the field," Alice said kneeling down beside me, "How do you feel, nothing hurts right?"

"Uh, no I have a slight headache but besides that, I feel fine," I said gazing into the white fox's eyes. For the first time, I noticed its eye color was brown; almost the same as Ellie's. I patted the head of the fox causing it to sit back and nuzzle its small head into my hand.

"Okay, that's good. Now care to explain why you were off in the woods by yourself, young man." I shrunk at this and it seemed the fox did the same.

"Oh no, Grandma is mad." Once again another voice came out but since Alice didn't react I knew it came from inside my head which meant only one thing... wait did it just call her Grandma?

A/N: Not only is he running on 2 brain cells, but he's also a little slow.

"Did you just speak in my head, and fluently at that?" I asked seeing if I could get this mental communication thing to work.

"Yes, Mother sped up my mentality, so I can speak and act better than most newborns. Especially the lizard over there. She seems a bit slow right now." It said. I was taken aback by its attitude, but remembering its mom I realized I probably should've expected this.

Alice coughing as she waited for a response snapped me back to the present, "Um, I'm used to the woods so I was thinking I could somehow improve if I found a place that was more comfortable than the carriage or around the camp." I told her as I scratched at an imaginary itch on my neck.

"Please, don't wander off from us again," She sighed, "If we lost you or you got hurt," Her face paled at the thought. "I honestly don't even want to think about it. On to my next question, Where did you find this cute little fox."

I looked back at it, "Hey, I know this is kind of rude to ask but did your mom give you a name and also are you a boy or girl?" I asked hoping not to get an irritated attitude.

 "First off, I'm a girl. Can you not tell?" Yup, she's irritated, "And no... She wasn't able to give me a name." I could feel the sadness radiating off of her small body, as her head drooped toward the ground. I didn't need the emotional connection to tell that. I put my hands under her front legs and picking her up, I gave her a gentle hug.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up. I'll give you a worthy name that would make your mother proud." At that, I could feel a tinge of happiness coming from her. I laughed mentally as I started thinking of a good name for her. I was never good at naming things but I thought I might be able to pick one that she would be happy to have. "Yukina." She didn't say another word but licked the side of my face, I guess she likes the name.