Carl.

Return of Fall.

For as long as I can remember, every fall brought with it brown eyes and a fiery red coat. With every fall, I fell more and more out of touch with those around me. Choosing the sight of the stranger who stared at me from behind the tree line of changing maple and aspens instead of the people who called me their friend. He never uttered a word as he watched and I never uttered a sound as I watched in return.

No one understood why I choose to stay in this house on the outskirts of town. No one ever wanted to understand. They all thought I was crazy, they all thought I was mad. The truth, however. I didn't have a reason. I couldn't find words good enough to explain what drew me to the house or the forest backing onto it.

All I knew was since my parents had brought me to visit my dying Grandmother in her last years, I had loved this house and had loved how every fall I'd visit, brought him. Brought the rich orange coat dashed with reds, browns and whites. The fall brought the whiskers and the sly grin on his muzzle, it brought the million unspoken promises when he snuck into the yard leaving faint prints beside gifts he'd scavenged on the back deck.

Grandma had been the only one who had listened to my endless talk about him and never criticized me. She had been the only one who felt the same as I did about the forest, the only one who had shared my love for it.

The winter of my sixteenth birthday changed everything. Grandma passed and my parents moved us south to warmer climates. I cried as I promised I'd return to him but it was a vain oath. Uttered into the freezing winter morning as I searched the treeline one final time, fearing I would never see him again because I was sixteen, and no sixteen-year-old knew if they would return to the place they loved.

*** Ten Year's later***

Movement. There was movement in the human den. Was it her? Had she returned? Ears straining to hear the sounds coming from inside. I wondered why they choose to make dens so large and obvious.  Any predator could find them easily. I could never understand the two- legged but I could understand her. She was different.

Every change of summer she had come, every time the trees shed their leaves while the ground turned cold and food became hard to find, she had been there. She had watched and I had watched back.

Hearing scrapping near the strange square thing.... a window, was it? The two-legged gave weird names to things. I picked my pace up. My father had told me what danger the two-legged brought to our kind, they didn't like us; they hunted us like all the other predators but she had never hunted me. She had gazed upon me and watched, only watched.

Hearing the awful scrapping again, I had to know if it was her, hoping it was. The rustle of the drying leaves under my paws would alert her, would tell her I was still here waiting. Stepping on every dry leaf between me and the edge of the woods, I wanted her to know I was here.

"Well, you were right Thalia. The view is differently how you described it. All the way down to the line of aspen and maples growing right up to the boundary. But why didn't your Grandmother ever have someone build a fence? I can't imagine what feral and rabid vermin could just come stalking out. I'll build a fence once we finish settling in."
"David please, we've discussed this. We are not building a fence, my Grandmother would never allow it and neither will I. The woods are the reason we came here, the doctors believe it will help the rehabilitation process. Anyway, only the occasional raccoon or fox wanders into the yard and they're more scared of us then we are of them."
"you said that you woke up to a bear on the back perch once. Don't tell me the woods are harmless Thalia. Not if I'm at work and your helpless to protect yourself." A bear? Did the strange male mean Owen? That old grizzly was welcome here. Something was off about this male. He wanted to fence the house, keep me away. Did he know?

The two-legged were different from us, I knew they followed different customs but did he know I would come to her? Was he fearful that she'll remember her promise? It's been ten winters and we've both changed. I should just find out that it's her first, then we'll go from there. I'd find out after the two-legged male left.
***

When would David drop the topic already? I wasn't going to change my mind on building a fence. All I wanted to do was walk in my woods, not sit here looking at them longingly.

Since the damn accident David caused last year, walking in my woods again has been my dream. 'Ambulophobia' The doctors called it, they agreed that moving back was the right choice.

If I didn't overcome my fear of walking, I'd never find him again. I'd never get the chance to see his beautiful coat in the foliage. Why couldn't David understand that?

"Hello? Is anyone home? I wanted to introduce myself. I'm the Garender." Gardener? What gardener?
"Hi! Uh-in here! the door is open!" The surprise made me sound nervous. I hated it, I hated being reliant on others coming to me. Cursing the stupid oversized wheelchair, all further thoughts vanished from mind at the sight of the man in my doorway. It simply couldn't be. "C-Carl?"
"Thalia." My Fox, my brown eyed fox. Human. It couldn't be!