The Fox and Her Bow

-3-

After Addison leaves, I eat my apples in silence. I always like having her around, and now, I'm going to have to watch her walk away.

What am I going to do?

Feathers flies from her perch and lands on my arm lying on the table. She gives a sympathetic little hoot and I scratch her feathery chest.

"What am I going to do?" I ask her.

She cocks her head to the side and asks "Who?"

"Addison! She's leaving! For a month!" I say. "What am I going to do?"

In response, Feathers nuzzles her head into my shoulder and I smile. "Yeah. I just have to be strong." I move my arm so I can face my feathered friend. "Will you help me?" She nibbles my nose, making me laugh.

Soon, it's time for dinner at the Great Hall. Feathers hoots and flies out the window to catch her own evening meal, while I slowly walk to the Great Hall and order my food. I expect, and get, a no different reaction from the villagers as I got at breakfast. Typical. After getting my food, I sit down at my table and Addison joins me.

"When are you leaving?" I ask.

Addison sighs. "Tomorrow."

Suddenly my food doesn't taste any good. "Really?"

She nods.

Sighing, I forcefully swallow my dry cabbage salad and leave the bowl on the table for the cleaning crew to come pick up. "I'm really going to miss you."

"Me too." Addison turns to me. "You'll be fine."

I sigh, and she puts her hand on my shoulder.

"Come on. Give me that Foxy smile I like."

I smile, exposing my glinting fangs and let out a little growl.

She laughs.

After a long hug, all the villagers set off towards their houses for some well-earned sleep. I go as well to my house, but only to grab my cloak and rush towards the Forest. This retreat is one made for thinking. I don't know what I'm going to do without Addison, but I know that letting her do this is best for me and the rest of my tribe.

Tomorrow is going to be a very difficult day, seeing her off.

After a light jog to the middle of the forest, I see the camo flag marker I set up about a week ago, marking where the best trees are. No one ever came this far into the deep forest, at least from what I've heard and seen, so it was safe for me to shoot the trees without hurting anyone.

I scanned the forest looking for any trace of footprints, scratches, or anything that would give me a sign that a wild animal had passed through these trees. Sometimes, if I didn't want to practice shooting, I would hang out with the wild animals that roamed these forests.

Letting out a small, quiet growl, I listen for any noise of any kind of wild animal that might respond. My eyes focus on a bush swaying and rustling. I get down on my knees, not wanting to scare it with it my height. After a few moments, a little rabbit peaks out from behind a leaf, and hops forward, sniffing the air curiously. I immediately recognize it. It's Hazel, the runt of a litter of five bunnies! She hesitantly bounces towards me, giving my knee a cautious  sniff. After a couple of sniffs, she realizes it's me and hops into my lap, letting me cradle her in my arms. Her fur is soft, and a little wet. 

Soon, many birds and squirrels follow Hazel and nuzzle or sniff my legs and feet.  I put down Hazel, not wanting to make any other animal jealous of my favoriting.

I pet a small bird with a red heart of feathers on his chest, and a small chipmunk with dots all over its body. Animals seemed to like me sometimes, but others take my Fox blood very seriously. Even Hazel took a long time to get used to me. 

Soon, when the moon is high above my head, I say to the animals, "It's time for me to go. I will see you all soon!" and scurry off towards my village. 

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In the morning, I wake up staring into Feathers' golden yellow eyes. I give a little yelp and she flies to her perch by the window. 

"Feathers! My goodness!" I say in between startled laughs

I get dressed and head off to an early morning training session.

Training started off the normal way they always did, then continued the same. We did the same game, with the arrows full of paint, and, as usual, everyone was splattered with red or blue except me.

The rest of the day went on as usual, villagers quickly move away from me before they get too close and a lonely, silent dinner. Soon it was time for my best friend to leave.

Me and Addison met at the edge of the village, and had our last quick chat of the month.

"I'm really going to miss you." I say.

"Yeah, I know. Me too." Addison gave me a hug. "But you know I'll be back!"

I nod once.

"I'll be ok. I promise." She says

When I don't respond, she adds "Come on. Give me a good smile!"

I smile widely, showing off my sharp fangs one last time, erupting in a growl. She laughs and we hug one more time.

Waving and smiling a sad smile, she walks to her ride. 

And then she was gone. Addison stepped onto her horse and galloped off into the distance.

No more Addison.

I turn around. The forest is on the other side of the village, while my hut is in the middle. I decided to take the longer route and walk around the village, skipping my hut. I don't need my cloak because at the moment, I'm wearing my black leather jean jacket, so I continued the quiet route around the loud village.

As I walk, a lot of the animals were waddling, sniffing and scampering behind and in front of me. I see Hazel was in the middle of the group in front.

In a couple minutes, I walked past a few of the Forest trees and went deeper into the Pines, all my animal friends, new and old, following silently behind my fox tail.