The Foxes

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven: Brody

I ran into the clearing, after Maple. She whispered something and then passed out. She fell over  and the fox, that had been laying on the ground, got up. He trotted over to where Maple was  and then to me. I figured that he meant for me to pick up Maple and carry her so I did. The fox started to leave the clearing so I followed him.

We walked along an overgrown path for a few minutes until we came to small cabin. The fox started twitching and turned into a person. He looked like he was 18.

"I'm Delbert. Maple's Brother. Werefox." He held out his hand and I shook it. I introduced myself.

"I'm Brody. No siblings. Just a normal human."

"No," Delbert looked confused, "You're a werefox. Didn't Maple tell you?"

"No, it must've escaped her mind. How do you know though?"

"I can smell it."

"Oh, really? And what does 'it' smell like?" I said, in a mocking tone.

"I don't know. But I can smell it. You normally have to wait three to four days to have better smell, hearing, and sight. Even your taste is stronger. And you get stronger. Never pick a fight with Maple. She almost ripped my throat out once for taking the last cookie. I never made that mistake again." He chuckled.

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Good idea. Well, come in. you must be hungry. When you're bitten, at first you get really hungry. For werefoxes anyway. I can explain everything to you."

We walked inside and I set Maple on the couch. I followed Delbert into the kitchen.

"So, this is my family's house. All the other foxes live in another house but my parents wanted to be separated from them. After what happened with our brother our mom convinced our dad that we needed some time away from everyone else. Don't tell Maple, but I'm planning on us moving back in with everyone else." Delbert told me.

"Why? She has memories here. This is her home. Why would you take that away from her?" I argued.

"She needs more friends. Right now, she only has this guy named Duke one of her best friends boyfriends, and two people that are mortal. She needs immortal friends."

"She has you and me."

"I only have two friends. And they're both mortal. So, are you going to force me to abandon them and make new friends by force?"

"No. She's my sister. I promised my parents, I would look after  her and make sure she was ok."

"She is. She has you, her brother, and now she has me. I can be her friend. I wont her intentionally and I wont ask her out and make things awkward unless you both say its ok!"

"You don't know her. She's not doing 'just fine' like you think. You don't hear her crying at night. You don't see the pain in her eyes."

"I haven't known her long enough. But I know how it is to loose someone you care about. Foxes killed my parents. I know what its like to cry yourself to sleep. And if you were me, you would know that the pain you talk about, isn't in her eyes around me."

"You cant be serious! She hides it from everyone! How would you know the real Maple? She never opens up to anyone after knowing them for a day!"

"She opened up to me. How else would I know that your brother was tested on. I don't mean to bring back bad memories but, you don't believe me."

"That's not even the point! She needs friends! The ones she has now are just going to die one day! And then, she makes new friends. And guess what! They die too!"

"Well, if she's ok with that, you should be too! And if you're not, go find them, and make them werefoxes or something!"

"Why cant you accept that you both need new friends? Immortal friends!"

"Because, the way you put it, we have to ditch our old friends! And that's not fair to anyone! You can make new friends, but you don't just abandon people that you've been friends with for half of your life!"

"He's right, Delbert." Maple said. She was standing in the doorway. She had heard everything.

"Fine then. Don't make new friends." Delbert stormed out of the house and slammed the door. Maple scrunched up her face. She was so cute. What am I saying?

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"Yeah. That was loud." She said, quickly. She hopped on the counter and looked at me. "So, you know the same amount of stuff as before...don't you?"

"Yeah. Well, I know that you're immortal."

"So are you. Want me to explain?" I nodded vigorously. She laughed at me and I playfully punched her arm. "So, werefoxes are like werewolves, just better. And real! Were innocent except Julie and Brandon. Stay out of their way. They're the ones that killed...uh...never mind." Julie and Brandon killed my mom. "So, since we're immortal, it would look weird to be 1,000 years old, so we stop aging in our 30s 0r 40s. You normally shift for the first time when you're like three, unless you're bitten, but I shifted when I was five. Questions?"

"What's shifting? And, what was that thing when Delbert was dying and you saved him?"

"Shifting is when you change from fox to human and vive versa. And it was a fox incantation. They're really hard to use, but it can save lives."

"Oh. So, tell me more about Julie and Brandon." She told me about the things that they had don't and told me to watch out for them. By the time she finished I was ready to kill them.