Fox Magic

Chapter 4

Twister's pov

It was a nice, peaceful morning as I climbed to the top of the rocky hill above our den. I'm ready to go off in search of my own home, so I look around to figure out which direction to go in. I spot a forest a little ways off in the distance. I've seen this forest many times before but I've never actually been there, so I decide this is the perfect time to go explore. I climb down the rocky hill and after walking for a while I finally make it to the treeline.

From out here, it looks closed in and dark. As I stepped into the shadows, though, I could see a lot better without the sun in my eyes. I marveled at how ginormous the trees were up close and how much vegetation there was. I could smell a lot of small prey that must have been out last night and I could hear many more birds than I ever heard in my life.

As I walked, taking in every detail, I eventually came to a stream. I stopped for a cool drink and relaxed at the bank watching a pair of long, sleek, brown animals playing in the water. After a few minutes, the brown animals disappeared under the water and I continued on my way.

I didn't get far when I realized something didn't seem right. It was suddenly too quiet, not even the birds chirped. As I looked around for anything out of the ordinary, a red-furred fox appeared from the bushes and I jumped back just in time before he could ram into me. His muzzle was covered in blood and there was terror in his eyes, and he was panting so hard I almost couldn't understand him when he said "run!"

Before I could question him, I heard the barking. Quickly, I said, "Follow me," and turned to run back towards the stream. I didn't know if he would trust me right away, but when I turned my head, he was right on my tail. When we made it to the stream, I jumped straight into the water. The red fox looked at me as though I had grown antlers, but at the sound of the barking getting closer, he quickly jumped in after me.

We ran downstream for a while until I spotted a hole in the bank, with water going in at the bottom. There was plenty of room so I motioned the red fox to follow me in. We went as far back as the water inside would allow us before we stopped to rest.

Once we caught our breaths, the red fox asked, "What if they find us in here?"

"Don't worry," I assured him, "They can't track anything through water."

"That's what that was about," he mumbled to himself. To me he said, "Thanks for helping me back there."

"No problem," I said, "I'm Twister by the way."

The red fox smiled and said, "I'm Blaze."

We stayed in the watery den for a while, waiting for the hounds to give up their search. There was no way of knowing if they were still out there, but neither of us wanted to give away our hiding place, so we just stayed put and talked. I told Blaze about how the hounds tracked down other animals for their patch-head masters to hunt.

"What's a patch-head?" He asked.

"Ugly creatures that walk on two legs and speak gibberish. They're called patch-heads because they have no fur except for a patch on their heads," I explained.

Blaze made a face and said, "They sound super ugly." I laughed at his remark.

When it was his turn to talk, he told me how he had been sleeping inside a fallen tree when the hounds found him. One had trapped him inside and he had to bite its ear open to escape.

'That explains the blood,' I thought.

We eventually started shivering from being in the cold water for so long. We didn't know weather the hounds were still out there or not, but we got up the guts to sneak outside. We crept to the entrance and looked out to see the sun was beginning to go down.

"We were in there that long?!" Blaze exclaimed.

"At least the hounds are gone," I said.

Both knowing it would be harder to find shelter in the dark, we made our way out of the stream and into the forest.