CHASE

Chapter 38

Just a heads up this book will be updated twice a month from now on, rather than weekly since I return to college at the end of the week.

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"Ah, Fennel, Heron! Don't run out of the den so fast!" Chase called. She was still licking Lily's fur into place, but her rambunctious sons had already sped out of the den to play with some of the other fox kits.

"You're lucky that your brothers shortened your bath today," Chase teased Lily as she pushed her daughter forward with her nose.

Chase stepped outside into the light, squinting some as she got adjusted to the sun's summer brightness. Fennel and Heron were already wrestling with some other kits, and Lily bounded after them, ready to join in on the fun.

Chase was happy to see her kits growing already, but she missed Rock desperately. She wished he was getting to see the kits grow and play, but she knew he and the other tods were most likely having a successful hunt and were stuffing their bellies to the brim.

Life had been pretty peaceful since summer had arrived. Chase's kits and the other vixen's offspring had been growing rapidly. The dark brown fur of her kits was now transitioning into a bright auburn, like hers.

It was amazing to think that last summer, Chase would have never expected this outcome. Once meeting Yew, she had thought her future would be secured with him, but now she was happy with Rock. She was popular among the other foxes they lived with, which was strange to think considering she'd always been a bit of an outcast.

Rock and our kits don't need to know about that time of my life, Chase thought as she watched them play. Yes, life was pretty simple these days, but she was okay with that.

Suddenly, two foxes stumbled out of the bushes in a panic, both carrying and supporting sickly looking foxes. One vixen held a limp kit by the scruff, while the sickly-looking adult vixen leaned against another for support.

"Chase, we need your help!" one of the foxes called.

Chase glanced toward her kits, noticing their stares. "Go back to the den," she told them sternly. The world of danger and death was still new to them, and while she knew she could not keep them from it forever, she wanted to do so as best as she could.

Her kits slowly slunk away from their playmates and retreated back to their den while Chase followed the foxes to a nearby den. The kit appeared comatose, though she could see the faintest rise and fall of his chest, while the vixen was shivering and twitching, as if she were fevered.

"What happened?" Chase asked.

"We don't know. Iris must have taken her kit out to play, but we found both of them like this when we went on a hunt," one of the healthy foxes, Blossom, informed her.

"Iris, are you able to answer questions?" Chase asked, waving her tail in front of the sickly vixen.

Iris nodded her head. She at least appeared a bit more conscious than her poor kit.

"M-Moss..." Iris managed to get out.

"Moss? What do you mean?" Chase asked. There was plenty of moss growing in the woods. How was that relevant?

"We found them near a strange-looking moss," Blossom's colleague, Cherry, informed Chase.

"What do you mean 'strange?'" Chase asked.

"It didn't look like it grew naturally in the forest," Blossom explained.

"You've never seen this moss before?" Chase asked them. All foxes, even Iris, shook their heads.