Fox and the Hound

Explanations

"Baby, I promise this is real." Her voice was soft, but her demeanour was full of worry. "We need to go. Once we get home, I can explain but we can't be out here right now." Her eyes were shifting around, looking for any possible threat along the completely empty road.

Seeing that there was no way to get any answers out of her here, I sighed and simply agreed.

---

I silently followed my mother's steps as we made our way out of the woods and towards our house. My mind zones out, the twists and turns of the road all too familiar, and the next thing I know, I'm standing outside of our small three-bedroom house.

The white wooden door opened without a sound, and we tiptoed our way inside. I could only hope that my brother, Skyler, had passed out and that we wouldn't have to explain this. I looked to my left, barely making out the clock that read two-thirty in the morning. I then turn to my right, looking for my mom. She put a finger to her lips and then pointed to her room. 

Getting the message, I begin towards the stairs. I make sure to keep my steps silent, Skyler has always been a light sleeper. I could never understand how he could sleep so lightly. He would wake up at even the smallest of sounds. To make things even worse, it seems to have gotten worse over the last year. 

Once we got into the room, I took a seat on the bed and turned all my attention to my mother. Her face was nervous, and her eyes shifted to the left side of the bed where my father usual slept.

"Thank god your father is at work. I don't think I could explain this to him." 

"What do you mean? What is happening to me?" I ask. Mom looks down and stays silent for a few minutes. "Mom?"

When she looks up there are tears in her eyes. I push myself off the bed and go to her side. She immediately wraps her arms around me and holds me close. My face is pressed against her and I wrap my arms around her just as she did to me. I can hear her whispering in my ear, "I'm sorry. Baby, I'm so sorry."

"Why are you sorry mom? You didn't do anything." I ask, confused. How could any of this be her fault?

"I didn't warn you. I knew this could happen and I did nothing!" She answered, her voice cracking as she pulled me closer. 

"What?" Shocked, I pushed away from her slightly, forcing her to let me go. "Mom?"

"Sit down, Baby." Mom grabs my arm and leads me to the bed. I take a seat and she does the same. "Honey, your family isn't exactly normal... You know the tribe's legends, right? The ones about the wolves?"

"Yeah." My voice is quiet, my mind filling with more questions and confusion with every passing second. 

"Well, you are like them. I'm not sure why it started, there isn't much history or legend on it, but you shift like them. You're a fox shifter, Hope." 

"A what now?"

"A fox shifter. Fox shifters are similar to the tribe's wolf shifters but, we don't shift for protection. It's genetic, it runs on my side of the family. None of us have shifted for a few generations but, the stories are passed on. My grandmother was the last one that I know about," She said, trailing off. 

"Why me then? Why now?" I questioned.

"I don't know, baby. I-" She paused. 

"Mom?"

"I'm sorry, Baby. I just... I need a minute." She takes a deep breath and then continued. "I never thought this would happen, not to you. I thought... I thought we had breed it out over the years. I thought that maybe, maybe you and your brother would be..."

"What? Normal?" I asked, standing up.

"No," She yelling. We both looked at the door immediately, silently praying that Skyler had slept through the noise. "I didn't say that. I didn't want you to worry about this. I wanted you to focus on school, friends, life."

I shook my head as I marched towards the door, "I'm going to bed."

"Baby, wait -" The click of the door, cut her off. 

I tiptoed down the hall and into my room. The familiar white walls, adorned with posters and paintings met my now blurry eyes. Without changing, I flopped onto my bed, pulled the covers over my head, and let the tears flow.

What the fuck am I going to do now?