Chapter 5

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The nose pushed its way out of the shrubbery, sniffing the air eagerly.

"Come on." I muttered under my breath, hoping that I could get to see something.

The rest of the head poked out and I smiled slightly. The fox's smooth body escaped the bushes, its coat gleaming slightly in the sunshine. She lifted her head and turned to me, curious, but not worried. Then she bent down to gently snuffle up some leftover chicken that I had put down for her.

She made a slight cooing sound, and I got another treat. Two young cubs trotted out of the bushes, bumping into each other playfully as they went along. One ran straight to its mother and the food, while the other went exploring to the side.

The one by the mother was much smaller, and looked incredibly fragile. It pushed its head under its mothers head and stole some of the food she was eating. I smiled again as the mother turned around and nudged one of the larger pieces towards her cub. he ate it happily, not sparing any for its more adventurous sibling.

The sibling was dancing over at the shrubbery still, and playing with a long strand of grass sticking out above the others. It hit the grass back and forth for a minute, before finally realising that there was food at stake and running over to its family. As it ran over, it tripped through long grass that it could have just gone round, but obviously thought it was more fun to go through. The food was gone in under a minute, and the mother looked up at me, as if asking for more. I stepped back so that they wouldn't come any closer, because I knew here in America they could have rabies.

I reached into my pocket to try and find more chicken, and managed to get a couple of scraps.

My legs were numb by this point and I thought that I should probably leave them to eat in peace, so I chucked the food and stepped back to stand up. Suddenly, the mother fox perked up and stared past me, her ears twisting back and forth. The cubs darted back into the bushes and she backed away slowly, her head flicking around protectively.

I turned around to see what had worried them and saw Ash stood there, looking slightly abashed as she realised she'd scared them away.

"Hey." she said, and the mother fox ran back in the bushes.

I sighed, "What's up?"

She shrugged, "Not much, I just haven't got to speak to you really after you got your... injuries."

I reddened, feeling embarrassed that everyone knew I had been beaten up. The cast was off now and i could barely feel it, but I had been purposely avoiding people because I didnt want to explain myself.

"Yeah, so what do you want to say?"

She sat down next to me and sighed. "I came to tell you something but... I forgot."

"Well?" I said impatiently, a bit annoyed that my session with the foxes had been disturbed because of... well... because of nothing apparently.

"Nothing, I forgot when I was watching you with those foxes. Do you come here often?"

I smiled, "Yeah, about every other day or so."

She nodded, looking like she didn't know what to say.

Silence.

I looked down at the floor, trying to think of a way to break the awkward silence.

Suddenly, the silence was broken for us.

"River!" someone called, crashing through the bushes behind us. Kathryn burst through the trees, a look of terror written on her face.

"She's gone." she panted. "Tefia, she's gone."

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