Fox Magic

Chapter 9

Blaze's pov

"Blaze, wake up!" I could hear Twister's voice interrupting my dream.

I yawn and rub the sleep out of my eyes. When I look up at Twister, he looks half asleep.

"My turn already?" I guess.

"Yes!" He says a little too harshly, "I've been trying to wake you up for ages!"

"Well I'm awake now," I say, fully awake now.

I get up and walk over to a nearby tree stump while Twister curls up in my spot to sleep.

Night watch is actually kinda fun. I get to see how different the forest looks in the moonlight and hear the night creatures scurrying around. I can also guess what everyone's dreaming about by listening to them sleeptalk. And I mean everyone. Most of what I hear is just small barks and growls and random words about family and prey, but it's still fun to listen and guess.

After a few hours, I eventually get tired. It's Aurora's turn next so I walk over to wake her up. But when I got to her side, I stopped. Like everyone else, she was sleeptalking. But some of the words I've never heard before, like 'snow' and 'lemming.'

"What in the world is she dreaming about?" I wonder.

For the first time ever, there's actually something interesting about Aurora. Come to think of it, she's actually pretty strange, even for a girl. Her white fur stands out in any environment, making her an easy target for predators. That's probably how the patch-heads found her. Her fur is longer and a lot thicker than mine and her ears are smaller. Even her body is smaller, not slimmer like Twister's, but shorter.

I prod her awake and she looks up with tired eyes.

"You're turn for watch," I tell her.

She yawns and stretches before heading to the watch stump. I curl up against a tree, out of the wind, and instantly fall asleep.

I wake up to the sound of soft growling. I look around and in the dawn light I see Aurora standing in front of a huge wolf. I prod Twister to wake him up.

"Go away, it's not my turn," he grumbles.

"Get up! There's a wolf!" I tell him, urgently.

He was about to protest again when he spotted the wolf. He got up and we hurry over to where Aurora and the wolf stood glaring at each other. What really caught me off guard was that this wolf is alone. I wasn't taking any chances. Twister and I stopped beside Aurora, our fur bristling.

"What are doing here?" I growled boldly at the wolf.

"Calm down, I don't want to fight," the wolf said calmly, "I just want my pup back."

"What makes you think we have your pup?" Aurora snapped.

"I've been tracking the bald thieves since they took him. When I finally caught up with them, I saw my pup escape with you three," the wolf explained.

He must be talking about Hunter. But Aurora was being stubborn.

"How do we know he's your pup?" She growled, defensively.

"Because he's a wolf!" I snapped at her.

"There are thousands of wolves all over the world!" She snapped back.

A cold chill seemed to radiate off her. Or maybe it's just me, I don't know.

"Ask Hunter. Even a pup will recognize his own family," Twister said from behind us.

I didn't even notice he left. Hunter came running up from where he had been sleeping, Twister must have just woken him up. As soon as Hunter saw the wolf, he raced over to him, his tail wagging happily. The wolf bent his head down to greet his lost pup, his tail also beginning to wag. The wolf looked back at us, his eyes looking brighter than before.

"Thank you for saving my pup," he said.

"Thank you for not eating us," I said, politely.

Twister glared at me while the wolf just gave me a strange look. We all said goodbye to Hunter, but it seemed especially hard for Aurora. I guess I can understand though, they were locked up together.

We watched as Hunter and the wolf left. As they disappeared into the trees, I could hear Hunter telling the story of how we rescued him. And of course, like any good pup, he exaggerated with more action. And added zombies.