Gabby the Vixen
A Prequel to the Fox and the Otter
The Story of Gabby the Forefather of the Scottish Clans
By Vincent Xavier
Her eyes were a subtle shade of purple, which is rare for a young fox like her, you could say that she was one of a kind; it’s the same with her fur, it was brighter than other foxes, more vibrant and alive, almost as if it was the fires of her soul burning as her fur, her tail was very bushy and soft, soft enough to just curl up in and sleep for days, boy she must have been toasty and warm in the winter with that tail.
Pity I never got to curl up in it, that was just hers and her mates, now he was a strong fox he was, his fur was short and it clung to his muscular physique well, it moulded around his strong features, all except his tail mind, that was just as bushy as hers, all us other male foxes and even some of the vixens really envied him, for having her, she was beautiful, and every autumn around about October time she would come into heat, and we could smell her pheromones for miles, it drove us wild knowing that we could not have her, but we survived and lived with it as always.
I’m guessing that now I have tempted you as to what she looks like and smells like you want to know her name, well, she is called Susan in our Clan, and he Malcolm, they were in fact our Alpha’s, she was in-charge of all the happenings around the den and surrounding areas, and he was in-charge of Discipline and hunting.
We all pretty much did what he asked, and in doing so we knew that our home would be safe, and free of violence, that was until George spoke out of turn, oh boy did that cause a ruckus, it wasn’t just for the fact of speaking out of turn but it was also what he said, it was mean, evil and deceitful, Malcolm fought him there and then, he banished him to the far woods, the ones past the farm and highway, in the territories of no-man’s-land we knew he wouldn’t survive long.
He wasn’t very bright, his only skill was cleaning the den and that was it, Malcolm wouldn’t ever let him hunt after the havoc he caused on his first hunting trip, the idiot scared of our prey, the young chickens that had roamed too far from the safety of the farm yard, we hated him for that, and from then Malcolm banished him to the den and to cleaning duties, so for that reason he wouldn’t live for long unless he found a clan that would take him on, but that wasn’t likely, he would have had to walk over 30 miles to find another clan.
We were the biggest and strongest in our area, we had taken most of our land from the neighbouring fox clans, the Family Clan of the Smiths, they were in the field to the right of our den, they were the first to be taken over, they now live with us and support our efforts, along with the Jones clan and the Freye Clan, who also fell when we invaded and attacked them for poaching our prey animals in our field, they never did it again, so since those 3 clans joined our clan we have grown in numbers and strengths, our clan is 57 foxes strong, no wait I should say 56 since George was banished.
Still a very big clan, but we are getting bigger every year, for this year there was 4 new cubs, we had Milo, he was the first that Susan gave birth to this year, he was very sweet and playful when he was just a few weeks old, and then she had Fran she was a pretty little vixen, and there was Geoff he was a big cub, and he is likely to grow up to be a warrior for the clan, and finally there was Anna, she is just delightful, at 6 months old she is so gentle and kind, I can see her being a nursing fox when she is older.
Now you know who we are I’m supposing that you want to know why I’m talking to you in the first place, well my name is Carlos, I am the Story keeper of the Clan, I am charged with the passing on of the stories from the elders to the cubs, so you could say that I am the story teller, of the librarian, you see with Foxes we are always keep to learn more, to hear the stories of our ancestors, and of those who also tend the land and live within its grasp.
So what story have I been asked to tell you about, well ... Malcolm asked me to tell you about Gabby the Fox, she was one of our Great-Great-Great-Great-Great grand parents, yes a true predecessor, she was one of the first foxes to live within the British countryside, she had guided her family across the seas from the Baltic coast, as legend tells, she was the most beautiful foxes to have ever lived, and you know she looked just as Susan looks today, so slender and beautiful, and so full of life and ambition.
Gabby looked danger and adversary squarely in the face and just said “Boo” and scared it off, or at least that’s what the legend says, personally what I think is that Gabby was simply an amazing fox, but a fox none-the-less, but still continuing on, Gabby had stared danger in the face and said boo, she ad then lead her family and friends across the icy sea, on nothing but a small raft, barely big enough for all of them, but still they followed their Alpha, they followed her onto the coast land of the eastern stretch of the Scottish beaches, her followers were glad to have survived the crossing.
Bearing in mind they were only on a raft built of 5 dead trees and roped together with some roots, but Gabby’s support, guidance and instruction held them all together, especially when Julius a young cub at the time, had fallen off the raft, Gabby herself went into the water to get him, he was trying to swim but couldn’t and before they knew it he had gone below the surface, Gabby swam down, going deeper and deeper until she got to Julius, she grabbed the scruff of his neck with her teeth and swam back to the surface, she dragged him to the raft and hauled him up onto it, she then pressed on his chest a few times to expel the water from his lungs, and then all of a sudden Julius started coughing and spluttering, which was a good thing as he was to be next in line to be the Alpha Male of the clan when he was old enough, and after the current alpha retired or passed on.
Enough of Julius this story is about Gabby, now when they reached the Scottish coast Gabby lead her clan off the beach and into the woods, just beyond the pastures of moor land, as soon as they got to the woods, the older males were tasked with digging, and lots of digging indeed, they spent the next 3 days digging the den, yes readers that’s the den that I am sat in now telling you this story, it was first dug all those years ago, and ever since we have been digging it deeper and longer, making it bigger, we have even dug a story chamber, that’s the part of the den that I’m sat in now, on the walls, we have drawn stories of old, and tales of past, but thats for another story.
We are still talking about Gabby remember, while the male foxes were digging, the females lead my Gabby went hunting, they left the protection of the woods and headed for the Moorland again, they stayed low to the ground, fanning out as the crossed the land, keeping their noses down as the sniffed out rabbits and hares, then Gabby got the scent of rabbits non her nose, she slowly stalked forward, the rest of the vixens followed her knowing that she had the best nose out of them all, she then nodded to one groups of the vixens as to say “go to the right” and then nodded to another group “to the left” so they were flanking this rabbit warren.
Then she let out a low growl and they all just stormed the warren, some trying to go down the rabbit holes and others digging down from above, and as if it was planned by the gods, they all managed to get a rabbit each, as they did Gabby barked as to say “thats it, back to the boys” and they all headed back in unison to the boys who by now were hungry after digging for so long, the Vixens placed the rabbits in a pile in the middle of the woods, and the boys came over, they all lined up and nodded in appreciation to Gabby, who smiled and nodded back.
The boys then took one rabbit between two of them and shared them between themselves, after all of the boys had gotten their rabbits Gabby and the other Vixens got the rest, sharing them as well so that all were fed.
After all of the foxes had finished their rabbit dinners Gabby inspected the new Den, she smiled as she liked what she saw, she then came back out and looked to all the foxes and vixens in front of her, she then called for silence and started talking in the tongue of the foxes “my brothers, sisters, friends and neighbours, we have made it, we are home” she said in a calm voice “we are to live here and survive, now that we have escaped the tyranny of our last home, we are to thrive here and I envisage that our clan will be here for many years to come” she said now raising her voice “our new motto shall be ‘We Will Survive, We Will Beat Adversity and We Will Flourish’” as she said this the other foxes and vixens cheers on, howling and barking in acceptance of what has been said.
Well my readers this story is over now, there are many more like it, and when Malcolm asks me to tell you another story you shall be the first to hear it.
The End
