All Except for One

the Cat, the Fox, and the Girl

  It was just that time of night.  The thirteen whole minutes when everything was completely silent and still.  The wind would die down until at exactly 2:26 a.m., it would stop altogether.  Just like that.  And when the wind completely stopped, so did the clouds, where they just hovered next the silent moon and stars.  Even that crazy old man who can breathe without a mask in the moon was expected to stop his chatter and become "The Statue In The Moon That Does Not Talk From 2:26 a.m. To 2:39 a.m.".  It was like a photograph.  Except that no one was there to take the picture.  The trees would stop rustling, and you could even find those pesky nocturnal animals asleep in their nests.  Yes, snoring counted as noise.

  "Three, two, one!", whispered the wind.  And the routine began again that night.  August 13th.  No holidays here.  No exception for moving or noise-making.  So yet again, all fell silent and still.  All, except for one.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  All that could be heard was a soft, snoring sound.  It wasn't the raccoons for once!  But then, who was making that noise? It came from something that no one in the forest would expect; a little eleven-year-old girl. Powerless to break the tradition that had never before been broken (without some sort of silly disruption).   She was laying on the ground with her head on her hands; asleep. And s-s-s-shivering. And hungry. Suddenly, her snoring stopped and she woke. Her breath was taken away as she opened her eyes to find the still, silent forest. The wind howled and knocked the girl over. They had almost gone 100 days without screwing up! There was no anger or stiffness in her bones, however, as she rose a second time and looked around. In fact, the intense swivel of her head wasn't an attempt to look for someone she may have lost. Nor to find who had rudely pushed her over. No, no, no. Instead, those shining eyes were lit with amazement at the forest around her.

  After taking a few steps in each direction, looking at this, and plucking at that, she had fully investigated her surroundings. Here's what she learned: 1) she was in a rough circle of a meadow in the middle of the forest, and after walking a certain amount of steps would be underneath a canopy of tree leaves, 2) it looked like there was almost a border of trees surrounding the little meadow, which was kind of spooky-looking at night, and 3)she thought that this was so super awesome! Satisfied that she now knew the meadow like the back of her hand, she went back to a big fox-hole she found at the base of one of the border-trees, not even considering the fact that foxes live in fox holes.

  She scraped away the rotting twigs and leaves with just her hands, but couldn't seem to move the thick layer of dirt between her and the big, cozy den down there...and she was so very tired after her look-around that just flopped down at the foot of the tree and back asleep.    

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

  Little did this girl know, she was counting sheep on somebody's house!  And that somebody was not exactly chill with that. So with a sigh, the figure dwelling underneath the girl, in a fox-hole, crept out of their home.  In the soft moonlight, a small, red, four-legged vixen could be made out.  Her pelt was ruffled from being woken up at this late hour.  The fox padded forward and leaned down to inspect the girl who was taking a rest on her house. After a quick, clean sneeze, the fox whisked around and turned to settle down at the exit to the fox-hole. Then, the somebody's eyes lit up and began to twinkle with an excitement that comes only to someone with a fabulous prank.  And that's exactly what the fox had.

  The witty vixen silently ran across the border-trees and into the dark forest, her back turned to the girl's meadow.  The figure made no noise whatsoever as it wove between the tall grass, ferns, trees, and Buck's... leavings.  He needed to learn to have a designated "poo patch", as the fox did.  It was terribly disgusting and rude to leave "presents" for others to step in!  After another quiet snort to get rid of the horrid smell, the fox arrived at a rather small creek.  It was only 2:32 p.m., and the waters were completely still.  And tasted stale.  This was what most animals called "Skunk Cabbage Creek" because of its huge clumps of skunk cabbage found out the banks of the small water source.  The vixen sniffed, gagged, and turned to find the fullest, smelliest skunk cabbage leaves.  Gross!  She shut her eyes, craned her neck, and nipped off two big leaves.  She was about to cough when she realized that she shouldn't even be out here!  The time was 2:37 p.m.!  Her red fur disappeared as she fell back into the shadows under the trees.  Then the fox turned and ran back to say good morning to the girl on her house.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

  While all of the vixen's crazy prank was being put in place, a feline came out of the shadows at the other end of Skunk Cabbage Creek.  The cat sat down and curled her fluffy tail protectively around her belly fur, where her unborn kittens were sleeping.  She lifted her head to the sky and leaned back to let the newfound breeze ruffle her neck fur.  Ah, that felt great!  It was now 2:40 p.m., and no one had any reason to kick her in the bottom or pull her tail for moving and making noise!  She put her head back down at the thought and purred to herself.  Then she stopped.  Because only half of her remark was true: the she-cat had been up all during the traditional thirteen minutes, searching for the father of her kittens.  She had not seen even a glance of him, or inhaled a whiff of his scent.  Sighing, the cat stood up and saw Buck prancing around the bushes near her den.  Uh-oh.  That was the face he put on right before clearing out his system.  She ran toward the disgusting deer, but it was too late.  Buck skittered away sheepishly, because when the cat checked the entrance to her den, it was blocked by a mound of deer pellets.  

  She turned and ran across Skunk Cabbage Stream, sniffing the air for Buck.  Pesky little deer!  But when she turned around to see where she was and look for tracks, she realized that she wasn't in a forest anymore, but only a moon-lit meadow!  And before her were the vixen she saw earlier with her skunk cabbage, a half-ruined den at the base of a tree, and a girl.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Author's Note ~ I'm sorry for the long chapter!  Backstory's take a long time!  If it seemed a little confusing, don't worry!  This chapter was not supposed to be clear!  I'm also very sorry for only writing about females here.  I am a girl myself, and I don't want to screw this up by writing through a male's perspective when I don't fully understand boys.  I will try to make a majority of sub-characters boys.  Anywho, if you liked it, say so in the comments!  I'll continue writing when I have at least 10 "likes".  I would also like some tips on improving my writing in the future.  If you got em', share em'!!!