Friends with a fox

Hidden

The pack stood in front of the burnt shell of the hale house. Derek didn't specify exactly what time to be there and Stiles was thinking he was making them wait on purpose, so the anticipation builds up. Stiles was exhausted. He should have been home right now. Instead, he was barely staying awake, waiting for Derek to show.

Derek finally arrived. "Where you been sourwolf? Hanging out with your other friends," Stiles said. "Took you long enough." Stiles glanced at Scott, who looked about to explode with the laughter he was holding in. "Not quite," Derek replied. "I think I'm close to finding out what kind of were we are looking for."Lydia popped in. "So what is it?" Derek sighed. "I've narrowed it down to three possibilities, a werelynx , a weretiger or a rare werefox." 

Stiles couldn't wait to get to his computer to research these supernatural creatures. His fingers twitched in delight."Why a rare werefox?"Scott said curiously."Werefoxes went nearly extinct when a deadly virus made by hunters almost wiped them out decades ago, in the early 1900's."Derek said."Their fur coats were a beautiful treasure and hunters wanted them for their collections."Stiles was dying for his computer now."Why were their coats so cherished?"He butted in."The colors of course." Kira said with a matter- of -fact tone. Everyone turned to her."What? don't you think a kitsune, a literal fox spirit, wouldn't know a thing or two about its physical type?"

"Their pelts came in various colors, the most common were brown streaked with orange but all the hunters craved the rarest pelt, gray streaked with red."Kira said. The pack, besides Derek, gawked in awe. Stiles would kill for a computer. He would do anything, even hug the big bad sourwolf, maybe kiss him... no, that was taking it too far.

The pack split up, Stiles ended up with Kira, Derek had gone alone while Lydia went with Scott. Stiles thought Derek was particularly smart with that decision, as Scott  would have made out with Kira the whole time instead of search the preserve."Which were do you think it is?" It took a second for Stiles to realize that Kira was talking to him."I doubt that its the werefox, if Derek says they're so rare." Stiles responded." Probably the werelynx, since lynxs are pretty common in this area, as a forest I mean, not California."Kira thought for a second,"Yea, probably that. And here i was thinking I would get to see one of my distant relatives." Stiles snickered."Yea, figures. Thats Derek, bringing your hopes up only to let them freefall down to the ground and get crushed into a thousand tiny fragments."Kira looked amused."Woah, that was morbid, even for you." They both broke down laughing.

After a good laugh that made Stiles feel way better than he had felt in a while, they finally started to walk through the forest, searching and listening for any signs of anything."We should split up."Kira whispered."I'll go left, you go right." So Stiles headed to his right and listened as the crunch of leaves from Kiras footsteps slowly faded away. He was alone. 

Stiles tried to creep through the forest as quietly as he could, but he wasn't graceful, he was the exact opposite. He kept hitting branches and tripping over roots. Any creature, super hearing or not, would hear him coming from miles away. He stopped, this was pointless. Stiles sat down at the base of a tree and listened. He could hear the wind whistling through the trees, the leaves rustling quietly. He heard a twig crack.

Stiles head turned towards the noise. A few fern leaves were rustling. That was impossible. The trees blocked all the wind. There was only one possibility, he had stumbled upon the were. Slowly standing up as to not scare the creature, Stiles tentatively took a few steps towards the fern. In an instant a few leaves moved a few feet behind the fern. Before the creature could completely hide itself, Stiles saw the tip of its tail. He saw gray with red streaks.

Stiles couldn't believe his eyes. Was he dreaming. No, that laugh he had with Kira was too real. The pain in his abdomen from heaving was real. This wasn't a dream. He ran after the animal. Dodging through trees and jumping over roots. Stiles knew what he was doing was almost physically impossible for his spastic body, but he ran with grace. It must be the adrenaline, he thought. He ran past a fairly large tree trunk and ran strait into someones fist. Yelling out in surprise, Stiles fell onto the ground, all the air pushed out of his lungs. He was too afraid to open his eyes to see what was about to kill him.