As the winds started to change and the clouds thickened, the fox's cheerful demeanor faded and brought them back to the cruel jab that was surviving. All the cicadas and crickets in the grasses stopped their chirps, making the fields an eerie place to be. Not a soul was out there, save the foxes.
Jade and Blake were only ten meters away from the woods edge. They placed their meals in the grass with the wind blowing over their bodies. The weather might have changed, but really, it was just like any other night.
Jade looked to the sky, deep in thought. 'Thank you for giving me confidence throughout that experience, Blake.'
'You would have done the same for me,' Blake replied, hiding a proud grin. He turned slightly to her and found a firm smile of appreciation on her muzzle, and her tail flicked happily.
They continued to grin sheepishly at each other as they began to eat. Chickens weren't that easy to eat. The task of defeathering seemed too much of a hassle. Yet the distant taste of chicken made imaginary flavors dance on Blake's tongue. He began slowly, but not before being startled that Jade had already dove through. First, he pulled all the feathers away from the body before they got to skin. Every time they grabbed a feather, he would get a tickle in their noses, or a small fluff snort up his nose, causing he to sneeze. Once a mouthful patch of feathers covered the ground at his chest, as well as a couple caught in his whiskers, it was an easy bit of food.
At first, Blake was put off by the sight of pink chicken breast. Normally, consuming poultry in this state would give him wicked stomach aches, not to mention salmonella poisoning. He wasn't sure if the same could be applied to his new, stronger digestive system. Considering foxes were known throughout history to raid hutches and eat chickens, he thought little of it.
Plus, he had eaten worse...
Our first real hunt together, Jade thought as she ate, occasionally catching a glance at him.
For them, the beginning of every night would always start the same: they would wish each other luck with the other's hunt and go their separate ways. Although she liked being alone so she could concentrate, she reveled when she thought of coming home to him. And this raid made her love having him near even in a hunt. She was more than happy to have him stay in her den. With dark thoughts, Jade wished he would never find a new den. It would kill her to see him go.
Suddenly, she flicked her ears, stood up and looked at the hill they had come over. She stared at it and listened very carefully. Over the winds, she could hear a ghostly rage aimed in their direction. Something was wrong. In an instant the pleasant heat that fluttered in her face vanished.
'What are you looking at, Jade?' Blake asked as he chewed
She couldn't answer. She was concentrating so hard that she couldn't hear anything... But the inaudible sound she was straining to listening to. Blake couldn't hear a thing, but he could see that Jade was worried about something. She then heard the silent rumble and her ears perked.
Blake left his chicken in the grass and went up next to her. 'Is something wrong?' He still couldn't hear anything.
Once again, Jade didn't answer. The wind started to blow hard, making the blades of grass slash past their bodies. The clouds had clogged up the sky. The light of the moon was no longer visible. With the sky locked up and the night becoming its darkest, the rumbling got noticeable, even for Blake.
'It's happening again...' whispered Jade, her eyes wide.
She pointed her ears back against her head. Her blood ran cold. The terror she felt was so strong that Blake could sense it. The undeniable aura of unbound horror resonated from her. She began to slowly walk backwards, cowering down to the ground. She was fully lying on the grass with terror in her eyes. Her body was shaking as she relived the upcoming moment she had experienced a mouth ago.
'Not again! It can't be!' she gasped for air as her chest tightened.
Blake's own naive fear reflected hers as he couldn't quite grasp what was happening. With the clouds as thick as they were now, he had only thought that a thunderstorm was setting in. 'Can't be what?'
Jade slowly turned and faced Blake. She was paralyzed with fear, but she managed to get out two words: 'He's coming!'
Blake could now feel what she feared. The sound of thunder was just over the hill, getting closer every second, yet not the kind Blake was thinking of. Through the ground, he could fell the murderous anger approach. A faded light could be seen on the top of the hill, getting brighter like a rising sun.
Blake realized all too late.
The source of the light and sound came over the hill with a vengeance. Its blaring lights blinded both Jade and Blake as it beamed directly at them. It came thundering down the hill with incredible force, faster than anything Blake had seen before.
'Jump!' shouted Blake, not knowing if it was the right thing to do.
Jade managed to get up and they both jumped out of the way of the monstrous thing, just in the nick of time. Blake jumped to one side and Jade jumped to the other, out farther into the fields. The humongous object just missed them, but ran over the mangled remains of the chickens, crushing the bodies that were left in its way, not leaving any bones intact.
With the blinding light gone and a little night-vision was retrieved, Blake could see what it was. It was just as he expected. It was the lights of his father's 4WD. He thought that they had got away from the house without being seen. They were both tragically wrong. His hindsight mocked him. The outcome of his inability to shut the gate when he should have ran struck through harshly.
His father thought it odd that the chickens went silent so quickly, and went to investigate again.
Jade continued running, trying to find the closest thing to hide behind in the bareness of the fields. In the corner of her eye she saw a wide flat rock in the middle of the field. She ran towards it and jumped over it. She pushed herself in the tiny crevice it made with the dirt and rested there, but still her heart was beating hard in her chest. She knew that things seemed the same as the last time she was shot. But this time if she got shot, she would not be able to be reborn.
The car skidded into a turn and went back for Blake. The vehicle came at him faster this time with even more force as it roared into the peak of a rev. Blake didn't have any time to react. He stood there staring at the blinding lights of the car's high beam. Like rabbits on the road, he was fixed in one spot, solidified to the ground.
Just before the car hit him, he shook the glare out of his eyes and threw himself to the ground. He flattened himself down as low as he could. The 4WD went directly over the top of him, the rear axial grazing his back. The dirt encrusted tires missed him by an inch. When the 4WD completed going over him, it did a handbrake turn and stopped.
Blake saw his chance to run. He got up to his feet and ran like the wind to the woods. It seemed so near but it took forever to get to. His father got out of the car with his gun and pointed it at him. He took aim.
Crack!
The bullet just missed him as he bounded into the shrubs. The bullet hit a tree, sending splinters of bark into the air. Out of sight from the scope of the gun, Blake stopped when he was under cover and watched, hidden, what his father was going to do next.
'Bloody fox!' shouted Blake's father furiously. 'Oh well. It least I got one of you guys.'
For Blake's father, this was just another night of keeping the fox population down. He never knew the series of events this night was going to unfold by this hunt from him on his son.
Jade cringed as she heard the gun shot, but she was relieved when she heard Blake continuing to run after the crack. She began to relax, thinking the human would go away. But she couldn't be more wrong. She was totally unaware that at that point, the human was on his way to where she was hiding. He had spotted her briefly in her futile attempt to escape unnoticed.
The hysterical grin she wore faded when she heard his footsteps getting closer. Bowing her head in shameful defeat, she knew that this was the end of her road. The life of survival was going to end like it should have to begin with: a bullet to the brain.
Blake could see his father heading for Jade. He looked on, feeling he could do nothing to prevent the death of the only creature he felt close to. With every step the human got closer, the more furious he became. He expected a plan to pop into his head which would save the night, but nothing happened. He closed his eyes and began to feel a regretfully familiar foe within him, rising to meet the occasion.
Think, damn it, he thought with increasing frustration, holding back his wanted solution.
All Blake's muscles flared up with rage to the point where he seemed to be twice his original size. His father was right beside the rock with his gun poised. Blake was no longer in control of his emotions. He had no choice but for let it go. Once again he had to let his vice sort it out.
He boosted his body out of the bush and barreled towards his father with a snarl. The ultimate fight was about to start. A fox verses a human. This was going to be a fight that Blake couldn't afford to lose. Even if he felt like he had already lost it by letting his weakness win.
Whimpering, Jade waited behind the rock for the inevitable. For the second time in less than a month, she would be shot. The human was just on the other side. She could hear the click of the bolt as a bullet as loaded, could feel his muscles focus on holding the barrel straight, and sense the tension as he sighted down the gun. She didn't want to die like this, not by the same human who killed her parents.
Hearing the patter of footsteps, the hunter turned around quickly to see the fox he believed had escaped charging straight at him. Blake's father threw his gun around, but he wasn't quick enough. Blake jumped in the air, curled himself into a tight ball and slammed himself into him with incredible force.
The impact sent his father falling to the side of the rock, forcing him to drop the gun so he could break his fall. Jade was stunned to see the human on the ground. The gun bounced before discharging the round when it hit the ground. As the human struggled to get up from the unexpected fall, Jade saw who she thought would never see again. Blake bounced over his body to the gun and picked it up. He turned and ran with it in an attempt to lead his father as far away from Jade as possible.
Getting up off the ground, the human looked at Blake in dumbfounded rage. Blood still soaked the fox's face. The evidence was there. These were the foxes he had to kill. The human began to chase after him vainly. He dived at the red fur, but the nimble fox just jumped out of his way. He tried this a number of times, but Blake was too quick for him, even with a firearm almost longer than the fox in his mouth. Blake had to keep this up in order to distract the human long enough for Jade to get to safety.
The vixen poked her head around the side of the rock and watched as Blake toyed with the human. Not only did she notice what Blake was doing, yet despite the situation, she also noticed how enraged Blake was by the flare of his muscles. She had never seen him in this state before. It frightened, yet disturbingly, pleased her.
While Blake distracted his father, Jade crept around, sticking low to the ground.
Concentrating solely on his father's movements, Blake failed to notice Jade's. As he parried the lunges, he jumped in Jade's path. Then he dodged again, sending the human stumbling directly towards her and falling to the ground at her paws. The safety of the trees was only a few meters away. The human noticed the crimson guilt on her face as she turned to him, stunned.
Another culprit! Blake's father thought savagely.
Jade got up to her feet and ran the last leg of it before he could grab her. She ran with speed she never thought she had.
'So that's what you're doing,' the human mumbled, grinding his teeth. 'You're letting your lady friend get away.'
Blake looked over his shoulder and saw Jade's tail disappearing into the woods. He smiled, glad that Jade had made it safely. There was only one thing left to do: he had to get himself out of there.
He ran to the woods with his father close behind him. The only way the gun was a hindrance to him was its weight. It was now affecting his speed as its mass overcame him. Blake was nearly there, but the off center weight of the barrel made it dip to one side, causing the stock to drag on the ground. It got caught as he turned to see how far behind the hunter was. The sudden stop of the gun made Blake tumble over the top. The pain in his mouth made it feel like his fangs had been snapped off. He was forced to let go. It was stuck firmly in a tree root.
Dazed, he got up and shook his head, completely taken off guard. He quickly ran in tongue around his mouth and sighed when he felt all his teeth still there. He thought that he was in the safety of the woods, but when Blake looked in front of him, all he could see was the empty land of the fields, the 4WD idling, and the barrel of his father's gun pointed at him. Blake froze as his father reloaded it.
'I let your friend get away.' Blake's father locked the bolt with a firm thud. 'But I'm not going to let you!'
Blake's head still spun. He wouldn't be able to run. Blake cringed and slowly bowed his head, waiting for the pain that a bullet brought. His heart was in his throat as the barrel of death pointed down at him. He knew he couldn't get away. He was going to die...
Here...
Like this...
But in doing this, he was saving his best friend. In this knowledge, he started to relax. His sacrifice had not been in vain. He could feel the pain along his back where the metal beast charged over him and the a dampness as blood trickled through his fur. The chill of the air had somehow been dispersed by the blood coat. He supposed this was his subconsciousness final gift to him. At least he would be comfortable from the cold before the end.
However, something else inside was telling him not all was lost. There still might be a chance to get out of this without further injury. He knew his father's movements, knew how he would react to them. A spark of extra adrenaline fueled his already aching muscles. He knew it wasn't over until he knew that it was finished. After all, he was no ordinary fox.
His father took aim. He took pleasure in the fear of an animal that he was about to end. This one would bring him even more satisfaction. It had taken the lives of all his chickens, his only living reminder of his son, completely unaware he was staring at his child, ready to put a bullet in his head.
He didn't see fear though. Instead, he saw courage in the foxes face.
Blake lifted his head up and looked at his father in a strong glare. The human closed one eye and put the open one parallel to the barrel. Blake grinned as he thought of what he was going to do. It was time to put his martial arts training to the test. It was time to finish what he started.
It was time for a fox to defeat a human!
Blake slammed his right paw on the ground and braced himself as he stood his ground. His father took both of eyes away from the gun briefly and looked into the animal's eyes. He was shocked to see such courage. In the depths of the fox's eyes, he saw something familiar, a solemn determination that was all too real. Despite the anger this creature felt towards him, he saw a friendly glow. For some bazaar reason, he thought he knew the fox.
He couldn't let courage get in his way of killing the fox that stood there though.
Quickly, Blake's father put his eye back along the barrel and shot in practiced motion. In that split second, just before the human shot, Blake jumped to the side. The bullet just missed his head, sending a big clump of dirt into the air. Quickly, Blake jumped through the dust and grabbed hold of the side of the barrel. In the motion of his jump, he swung his back legs up and kicked his father in the face with more force than he wanted. His father's head jarred back. Blake continued the motion of his swing all away around, completing a full loop. He had hoped to dislodge it from his father's grip. Once level and failing to remove it from the human's hand, he let go of the gun and then bit the fingers that was holding it. The gun was now out of the hunters grip.
The fox grabbed the gun and ran as fast as he could to the spot where Jade had gone into the woods. Before Blake entered, he looked back at his father who was now on the ground, dazed.
'Come on, Blake!' shouted Jade from inside the tree line.
Blake heard her, but refused to move. He dropped the gun on the ground and stared at his father who was now looking at him in shock, bleeding from a few small cuts on his cheek where the fox's claw had nicked. Smiling, Blake then gave a single howl, celebrating his impossible victory. It was official. The fight between a fox and a human was over. And the fox proved victorious.
Blake grabbed the gun and ran off into the woods to meet Jade. They both ran together as far as they could go until they thought it was safe.
When they came to a rest a while away from the wood's edge, Blake started to dig a hole. When he finished digging, he grabbed the gun and placed it in gently.
'This thing will never hurt anyone again,' uttered Blake, short of breath. It pleased him to no end to see this thing being covered in dirt.
Jade couldn't help but gawk silently at him. She had been watching what he was doing from behind a tree. She had never seen anything like it in her whole life. A fox finally defeated a human. She began to look at Blake's body, which was still bulked up with muscle from the adrenaline. Each individual muscle could be seen through his fur. He had told her once that he was strong, but now Jade saw it for herself, she all of the sudden felt extremely safe whenever he was around. She lay down on the ground, catching her breath.
'I can't believe it!' she panted.
'Can't believe what?' Blake pushed over the last of the dirt.
Jade had suddenly become rather smitten with him. 'You saved me. You could have died,' she said with lilt.
Blake lifted his head and looked in the direction they had come in as he heard something in the distance. 'I couldn't let you suffer for my mistakes,' he said briefly, listening to the sound.
'I've never seen anyone so bold in my life!'
Blake was flattered, and normally he would have returned the compliment with a flustered grin, but all attention was elsewhere. He was concentrating on what was coming towards them. He thought Jade would have picked it up already.
Jade noticed the lack of blushing, which she liked to abuse him with, and lost her smile. 'Blake? Did you hear me?'
'Quiet, Jade!' The sudden order stunned her. 'Don't you hear that?'
Jade stood up and listened to what Blake was hearing. Now that she was concentrating, she heard it, too. With every second that went by, the sound got heavier. It wasn't a human. The footsteps were too quick and the crashing was too intense. It was an animal of some kind.
Blake knew exactly what it was. 'You've got to be bloody kidding me,' he groaned.
'What is it?'
He now knew the true reason for his father's trips to the fields with Clio and Shadow when he was a human. All the obedience training was only half of what his father had instilled into their heads. For him, they were more than family pets. They were tools.
'Dogs!'
His father had Clio and Shadow in the car with him, and being Saint Bernard's, they were extremely good trackers. With their weight, they would surely win if they got into a fight.
Jade's jaw dropped in shock. 'We won't be able to hide from them. They will sniff us out!'
'But we can still run.'
Blake quickly covered the hole with even more dirt as well as sticks and leaves before they started running, not knowing what to do. The dogs heard them and they too started to give chase, crashing through the shrubs like they didn't exist, barking.
Jade and Blake started to tire. They had been running longer than both of the dogs. Slowing their pace, they began to think hard. Eventually they stopped running, panting heavily. Their legs couldn't take them any farther. They were ready to collapse.
'Go on, Jade. I'll distract them while you get away.' Blake insisted.
'But Blake - '
'I said go!'
Jade looked at him remorsefully. These words were the last thing her mother had said to her before she died. Was history repeating? Spontaneously, she got close to him and nuzzled her head against his, rubbing her check against him. He had already saved her once and hearing that he was going to sacrifice himself for her a second time made Jade scared. She didn't know if this was going to be the last time she would see him alive.
'Good luck, Blake,' said Jade as she nuzzled him.
This was a genuine hug of fear. Blake was taken aback by her compassion. 'There's no such thing as luck. It's what I make it to be.' He tried not to show his real feelings. Doing it could lead to Jade having a subconscious doubt and come back to help. He didn't want her anywhere near here.
Turning around, Blake headed back in the direction of the hungry mouths of death. Jade looked on as he disappeared into the bushes. A tear came to her eye. She knew that she was to keep on running, but she couldn't. Just what was he planning? Surely he wasn't going to fight them! It was a fool's errand.
She eventually turned her tail and started running for the river.
Blake was tired and he wanted to stop and run back to Jade. But if he did, he would put both of their lives in danger. He kept on running. The sound of the dogs barking got alarmingly louder. Blake hadn't thought of what to do. The initial plan was just to get Jade to safety. But now it was just him again. It wasn't long before he came up with a plan though.
Stopping dead in his tracks, he looked around for a suitable tree. He found the perfect one not far in front of him. The branches of the fir pine were close together and low to the ground, making a good ladder. He ran to it and began to climb on the branches one by one. As he got higher the branches got skinnier and denser. Just as he got to a spot where he could see the ground, he could see something moving in the bushes and held himself ridged.
Two huge dogs jumped out and began to sniff. Blake had never seen the dogs as a fox. They appeared monstrous, almost four times his size. He always thought that he could beat them easy in a scrap, but now that he was smaller than them, he got scared. They could crush him just by laying on him.
Abruptly, the dogs stopped and started sniffing around the tree. They knew that something was around there, even over the potent scent of the tree's sap. Blake watched as Clio and Shadow started circling the tree, sniffing at the same time.
'One of them is around here somewhere. I can smell him,' growled Clio.
'I can, too.' replied Shadow.
Blake's heart was beating so fast that he had trouble catching his breath. Not only were they frightening in size, their voices where deep and foreboding; strange for females, not like Jade's light fluid like tone.
In the corner of his eye he saw something crawling across a thin branch that was nearly pricking him in the eye.
Give me a break! Blake thought frustratingly.
Blake held his breath as its skinny hairy legs got closer. Blake hated spiders, and this one was the biggest one he had ever seen. This one was the size of his whole face. With his own legs getting weak and the spider getting closer, he began to shake involuntarily. The dogs looked up in the tree at the shaking, but they couldn't see him through the denseness of the needles.
'What's that?' asked Shadow.
Tenderly, the spider's leg tested the new surface. Once the hairy legs of the spider touched his nose, Blake couldn't help but shift his position slightly. He misplaced his footing and he tumbled out of the tree, hitting every branch which he used to climb up on the way down. When he landed on the ground, he was thrown out from the needles and he shook his head, dazed. He looked up and saw the two beasts leering down at him.
'Well, well, well, what have we got here?' Clio slammed her heavy paw on his back, holding him down. 'What shall we do with this pest, Shadow?'
Blake flattened his ears and almost whined. Clio's rough pads dug into his cuts. Their drooling mouths made them look like savage beasts from another realm.
'I don't know, Clio. Should tear him to shreds? It's been a while since we've had fresh meat.'
'If we don't take him back to our master in one piece he'll hit us. He likes them whole,' Shadow reminded her sister.
Cleo glared. 'But we'll have more fun tearing him to bits! And I'm hungry. I'm willing to take that paw to the face this time.'
Reluctantly, Shadow rolled her eyes. 'Okay. We'll do it your way this time. But you owe me.'
Blake yipped loudly, 'spare me, please,' he pleaded. 'I have cubs!'
'Shut up, you!' Clio ordered, pushing her paw harder into his spine, 'you have no right to live.'
He cried out into the air in pain as he felt a muffled click in his back. He had never been so scared in his life. He tried to pull at their sympathy with the news of cubs, but it seemed it only aggravated them.
While pinned, they grabbed him; Clio latched onto his head and Shadow grabbed his tail and both bit down hard, instantly breaking his skin. He could feel them going through the same urge for blood he had gone through just before.
They really were going to tear him apart!
In the final moments before death, all Blake could think about was Jade. Was she safe? Would she still be safe? He had to know. He wasn't going to give up without some sort of fight. If he died, they would go after her. He would only be buyer her futile time.
Physical strength here was useless. He had to use intellect. He had to think of something quick in order to stay alive.
They pulled slightly, lifting his light body off the ground.
'Three...' Shadow started a countdown, 'two...'
Blake's heart stopped.
'One!'
He shouted in terror just as they jerked with all their force, 'I know what happened to Blake!'
Clio and Shadow stopped in their tracks, dropping and stepping away from him in surprise. They began to think of how this fox knew that title.
'How did you know our old masters name, fox?' demanded Clio.
Blake was in pain, but luckily they didn't get in a full tug. But it was enough to almost rip his tail off. He struggled to his feet, thinking of making a retreat. The look in their eyes though demanded an explanation.
'Because I'm him!' Blake almost yelled.
'You can't be. He died a long time ago,' Shadow explained.
'He didn't. And I'll tell you why if you'll just listen.' Blake hoped they were too far trained that they would not listen to reason.
Clio and Shadow started talking among themselves. Blake held his breath as he waited for their reply.
'Okay, fox,' demanded Shadow. 'If you are who you think you really are, then prove it.'
Blake took a deep breath before he began to explain what had happened to him. At first he didn't know where to begin, but he eventually started to speak as they became restless. 'I was your master. I was an extremely nice human. I used to live in a house not far from here. I slept in the room upstairs, and on occasion they would let you in to jump on me.
'A month ago, under the tree next to my window, your masters found a note written in the dirt that explained what I had done to myself. You got the impression that I had killed myself.' He never talked this fast in his life.
After a moment, Clio spoke. She was surprised he knew so much. 'Okay, but that still doesn't explain why you're a fox now.'
Blake relaxed, knowing that Clio and Shadow knew now who he was. He tried to think of how to explain it to them. It was harder to explain than he had thought it would be. Clio and Shadow stood with ridged bodies, waiting to make a move if they saw through his lie. Being animals, surely they would know about the spiritual connection?
'You know that night when a fox raided the chicken hutch? The night I vanished? Well, I was watching the whole thing unfold. When my father, your master, shot her, I jumped out of my bedroom window and went to help her. When I got to where she was, she told me that she could turn me into a fox with the spiritual connection we had if I helped her. She's my spiritual partner!'
Their eyes widened. Indeed, they did know about the connection. They felt it, yet only softly. They had contented themselves knowing they would never in their lifetime find their spiritual partners. In awe, they stared at the only known creature in history to complete the bond. Blake could sense there amazement.
Clio turned to Shadow, her stomach growling. 'Leave him. If we're quick, we can still catch the other one.'
After Shadow nodded, they ran off.
The fox fell into instant despair. They were letting him go to go after Jade, his worst nightmare. It sounded simple in plan: convince them to leave him alone and they would go home. It had worked, to a certain degree, but they needed blood for his father. His mind took over his body and in a blur he was standing in front of the monsters.
'Heel!' he ordered.
Immediately, both beasts came to a stop and sat down. The power of a master's command was still strong within Blake.
'Don't you dare touch her!' Blake threatened. 'She's...' He paused. What he was about to say was an obvious lie and the dogs would sense it straight away. This had to be said with feeling. He had to believe it himself more than making them believe. 'She is my spirit partner, and now, close friend,' he spoke softly, yet proudly. 'And when her time comes in mid-winter, we're going to pair.'
The news stunned them, including Blake. The dogs felt what he said and took it to heart. Slowly, the canines put all the pieces together. Two foxes had raided the chickens at the same time for food, and had spent most of Blake's new life together. The food they had would last them most of the winter. Bloodlust had gripped them, but the dogs couldn't destroy a relationship like this.
Without saying a word, Clio and Shadow turned and ran back through the woods, heading back to the fields. Blake had never felt so relieved to see the back ends of them. He and Jade had escaped from death twice in just one night.
Before the dogs disappeared into the woods, he barked out to them, 'nice to meet you two again!'
'Likewise!' Shadow shouted back.
With that last goodbye, Blake turned and headed towards the river. His heart could, at last, have time out. He knew that Jade would be waiting for him to come back to her in one piece.
What he said to them before, concerning him and Jade, sounded strange, yet it felt... right. Had he really convinced himself for that moment that he was in love with Jade... or was it genuine?
*
Pacing up and down the riverbank, kicking the same pebble back and forth each time she passed it, Jade waited for her friend to return. She would stop pacing every time she heard a noise in the woods, but every time she thought Blake would jump out, it would just be a bird or the wind. Her eyes became watery and finally her heart cracked. At this point she knew Blake had been killed. He had risked his life twice just so that she could live. It was one sacrifice too many.
Blake trotted out of the woods to find her crying beside the riverbank. He instantly knew that she thought he was dead. He walked slowly towards her and sat down beside her. All Jade could hear was the sound of her own sobbing. She didn't notice him sitting down beside her.
'Why are you crying?' Blake asked, not expecting a reply.
Jade lifted her head and looked to her side and saw Blake sitting tall. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She was convinced she was seeing his spirit and not the real thing. She rubbed the tears away from her eyes and looked again. It was real!
'Blake?'
'Yes, Jade. In one piece, too.'
An uncontrollable amount of joy exploded from inside Jade and she started crying even more, but now a overwhelmed smile replaced her grief. She lent her head against Blake and started nuzzling him harder than she had done before, sharing her tears with him. She let the warmth and scent of his fur sink into her after thinking she had lost it.
This made her overjoyed smile contort suddenly into a bitter frown. Jade quickly darted forward and bit his shoulder. As Blake withdrew in shock, Jade glared into his confused eyes. 'That was stupid!' she declared his actions to be. 'Do something that idiotic again, and I'll be the one to rip your tail off! Got it?!'
The impact of Jade's fangs to his shoulder was nothing. With all he had endured this evening, a nip came off as trivial. The anger he saw in those hazel eyes was true, and understandable, yet the glow of her trust with him was still stronger.
He sheepishly curled his bushy tail around his legs defensively with a playful grin. 'No, don't,' he pleaded with an air of sarcasm. 'It's my favorite part...'
Just like that Jade's frustration seeped away with the motion of the river behind her and a relieved smile found itself back where it really belonged. She leapt at him, making him cower back slightly cautiously before Jade made contact. Blake tumbled back over a few loose stones and fell onto his back. He yelped out involuntarily, which caught Jade of guard.
'Take it easy, Jade,' Blake said softly with a whine. 'The dogs didn't exactly leave me alone without -'
'Then why?' Jade interrupted furrowing her brow, knowing their hunters had hurt him. 'Why put yourself in that position in the first place when there were other options?' She lent forward again. This time nuzzling him affectionately.
Blake sighed and smiled at the warmth; the true reason behind his choice. 'Because I got to meet, and say my last goodbyes, to my old friends,' Blake ended up saying. 'The two dogs were once my pets as a human. When I told them that I was their former master, they wouldn't lay a paw on me.'
Jade pulled away from Blake and smiled back. She didn't care who they were. To her, they were predators wanting their hides. 'I'm just glad you're okay,' she said as the last tear left her eye.
She gazed at him and smiled happily as he rose back to his paws. Now she was calm, she saw both sides of his head. Two puncture marks, just behind either cheek, from the dog's fangs had just stopped bleeding. She examined his body further and found more crusted over wounds. His back had bled all the way down and his tail too had blood patches.
'You really have been in the wars, haven't you?' Jade observed.
He looked over his shoulder and saw blood covering his back.
Wow... he thought, quite stunned at the damage.
'Oh that. When the car came at me the second time, I had no choice but to duck under it. It must have cut my back. And the dogs tried to rip me apart as well. It's nothing to worry about though. It'll heal.'
He dismissed it as though it was nothing! Jade wasn't thinking as lightly like Blake. She was worried. She put her head to his back and started licking his wounds to clean off all the blood. Blake felt the stinging sensation in his back and whined. She cleaned his back then moved tenderly to his face and licked those wounds, too. For some reason, this didn't sting as much. Maybe Blake was preoccupied on whether he should tell her what he had said to the dogs to get them to turn a blind eye.
Then the mental pictures started forming. Of which, many horrified his human self.
Stop it... he thought to himself, trying vainly to pushed down the giddy heat that rose into his cheeks.
'I told you Jade, it's nothing to worry about,' he said, trying to hide a coy smile.
He had told her a bit too late. She had already finished cleaning his fur. The damage was not as bad as he believed. The blood had made it look so much worse.
'I had to Blake. You were hurt.'
They lapped at the water and cleaned the chicken blood off their muzzles and necks before they trotted back into the woods, side by side. The sun was coming up; there was no time to go hunting. Most of the creatures they hunted sheltered during the day. Thinking after everything they had been through that night, they chose the easy option and headed to their food stashes. After all, their first chicken meal was spoiled by shooters.
*
The way they came into the valley placed the stash was on the other side of the tangled up ground. Now they were on the opposite side, and there was over five meters to the far end.
'Don't worry. I'll get you something,' insisted Jade.
She began to work her way to the other side, stepping very carefully, trying not to get tangled in the loose ground cover or fall into any hidden holes. She made it look easy. Within seconds she had got to the other side, grabbed a single chicken and got back to Blake.
'You didn't have to do that,' he said with a thankful smile.
'It's the least I can do. After all, you did save me.'
They decided to eat on the spot, in the shelter of the gully, so nothing else could go wrong.
*
'Master...' barked Shadow as she trotted the last few legs back to her human carer, 'we found him!' She was swiftly joined by her sister and they shared their overjoyed revelation with excessive panting.
The hunter had tracked his way quite easily through the woods along the trial the Saint Bernard's had so easily rampaged. And once he had got to the spot where he found a recently combined pile of leaves and sticks did he stop and investigate, purely for the fact he needed to get his mind off other more depressing matters. The excited deep barks of his dog had gone on deaf ears.
That afternoon's event was an undesirable walk through the agonizing reminder of his regretful failures, and he almost never made it back out of the house to double check the chicken hutch as it still weighed on him greatly. Moreover, he cast aside everything that had come heart with bitter indignation, and threw out any thought to the contrary that the loved ones around him thought. He felt his bond with his son still there and held onto it stubbornly. All their family and friends had been around that day to celebrate and remember his son's life, yet all the while he repentantly denied it silently. He would not be persuaded, even with the countless condolences given to him so sympathetically.
Brushing the branches away as his canines reached his side with their tails waging happily, trying to get his attention to lead him deeper into the woods, his grief stifled these hard emotions to focus on something unique. The fox that had just humiliated him had the thought to bury the gun before running off. Not only that, but also try and disguise it by blending it into the surrounding woodland. It was clear this fox was above the scroungy flee bitten pests he knew off.
This fox would have simply filtered out of his mind, yet the man's chest hurt as he knew what it had the gall to do. It was hard enough to remember the good times he had with his boy and not choke up, but now that sorrow turned into fury. Each morning since Blake's disappearance he had looked at those chickens and smiled, knowing one day he would be back home to feed them again with him. With them gone - all of them... GONE - there was no hope to hold on to.
Pulling a small cloth out of his pocket, he dabbed at the still bleeding cuts to his cheek with a handkerchief when a drop of blood glanced off the side of his trembling hand. His fury became more intense to the point his dogs lost their cheer. The last two points of his pain- repudiation and anguish - melded to his anger... and a resolve was made.
This fox had to pay.