Mitz and A-cam approached the wall of the manor house. Between the brickwork and the road was a greensward of uncut grass upon which stood a row of trees. The two foxes were able to slip through the grass, remaining hidden from the cars that flashed along the road. All along the wall, rooted at its base, was a cloak of ivy. The two foxes used this to scramble up, to reach the top. Once there, they travelled its length, sniffing, listening, and peering down into the gardens occasionally with pattering hearts, to catch sight of the giant dog they had been threatened with as youngsters and warned off more recently.
‘I don’t think there’s such a dog,’ said A-cam. ‘I think O-ha made him up, just to scare us into doing as we were told.’
The little vixen shook her head. ‘No, I heard Camio talk about him too, and anyway, O-ha doesn’t tell lies – you know what she’s like.’
‘Well, where is he then? Shall we just drop down inside and have a look around? There might be some juicy frogs in that pond over there.’
She tested the air for dog scent and listened hard, but could detect nothing unusual. Frashoon was veering off in a funny direction though, due to the concave shape of the wall, and she was not sure which was upwind and which was downwind. To trust to her sight was not a fox’s way, so she found herself relying on her hearing. There was plenty of sounds in the air, but none which might indicate the presence of a dog.
‘No,’ said Mitz. ‘That’s not a good idea at all. You stay up here.’
Just as she said this, A-cam stepped out on to the branch of a tree growing on the garden side of the wall, and walked along it to its trunk. He dropped down to a lower bough. Then he called to Mitz, ‘See, I told you there was nothing to worry about …’
Just then a blur of brown caught Mitz’s eye as something hurtled through the bushes, at the same time the scent of hound hit her nostrils.
‘A-cam!’ she screamed.
A-cam must already have caught the dog’s smell, because he was in the act of jumping back up to the higher branch when the hound launched himself from the ground, his wide jaws slavering. There was a horrible snacking sound as the ridgeback’s teeth cracked together. A-cam gave out a yell and his face registered pain. For a moment, Mitz was unsure what was happening.
The dog fox’s forepaws caught on the upper bough and he hung there precariously, as the hound crashed down into the bracken surrounding the bottom of the tree. There was blood pouring from A-cam’s hindquarters and Mitz saw with horror that his tail was gone: bitten off at the base. The wound was awash with red.
‘Hang on!’ she cried, trying to keep the terror out of her voice. ‘Oh – get up, get up A-cam!’
A-cam’s face was twisted with the effort of regaining his safe perch, and the agony of his injury. His back legs scratched at air, trying to get a purchase on something to help him haul himself up. For a moment he dangled there, his front legs hooked over the branch, and his body hanging.
Below, Sabre was back on his feet, the bloodied tail still in his mouth. He shook his prize as furiously as if it had been a dead rat, and then spat it out.
‘My second fox this season,’ he said. ‘I chew them up and then throw them to the crows. You won’t get away from me now.’
He retreated, to give himself a run up, in order to spring from the ground again.
At last A-cam managed to get one of his back legs over the bough and Mitz ran out and gripped him by the ruff. The hound came thundering back, took a flying leap and failed to reach the height of the second branch. The two foxes were now on top of the wall, though A-cam was still in a distressed state, with blood gushing from his wound. He fell, rather than jumped, from the top of the wall to the greensward. There he lay, on his side, when Mitz joined him. He was panting, tongue lolling out, the grass behind him stained scarlet.
‘A-cam,’ said Mitz, ‘can you get up. What shall I do? Shall I go for O-ha and Camio?’
‘I don’t …’ he managed to force himself up into a sitting position. From the other side of the wall came the sound of taunts and jibes. Sabre knew they were there, and in trouble.
‘I’ve got your brush, fox,’ he called. ‘Going to give it to the chickens, to pick clean.’
‘Please, try to get up,’ begged Mitz.
A-cam did as he was asked, dragging himself to his feet. But then he staggered a few paces to the edge of the greensward and, next, walked dizzily into the road.
Mitz cried, ‘Come off there, you’ll be hit …’
There were several cars going along the road. One of them swerved to avoid him, narrowly missing running him over. The vehicle behind this one, however, screeched to a halt.
Mitz crouched in the grass, hoping that she had not been seen, as a door came open and a human emerged, barking to someone else inside the vehicle. It was a male and he marched over to where A-cam lay panting on the tarmac. Hands reached down and A-cam snarled, ‘Don’t – don’t you touch me, you …’
But the almost-grown cub was too weak to move, and the human went back to the car, put on thick gloves, and then quickly picked A-cam up from the ground, putting him in the boot of the vehicle. The man got back into the car and then it drove off along the road. Soon, it was gone.
‘A-cam,’ whispered Mitz.
She was shocked at how quickly it had all happened. One moment they were playing a searching game, the next A-cam was mortally wounded and had been abducted by a human. Mitz knew that her brother was going to die.
She had seen the size of the chunk that Sabre had taken from the cub’s rear, and the amount of blood that had flowed. Now she had to go back to her mother and tell her that one of her cubs had gone, probably forever.
O-ha’s grief at the loss of her cub was almost more than she could bear. Perhaps it was because she still retained a certain amount of those maternal instincts that have such a powerful hold over an animal following birth, that she missed the cub more than she had missed her mate A-ho? Over the next few evenings she lay outside the earth, waiting for the fox-spirit to come, to lead her to the body of her dog cub. One part of her hoped it would never appear, but since it seemed almost certain that he was dead, she desperately wanted to find his body and perform the last rites over it. Once again, the waves of hatred went out towards the hound at the manor house.
Camio, too was devastated. Of the three cubs, A-cam had been his secret favourite since he shared much with his father. Mitz was her mother’s cub and A-sac belonged to some supreme being, rather than his parents. A-cam had been idle, but lovable, and though there had been a restlessness in his nature, which meant that the time would have come when he would have left his parents for a life on the road, Camio felt that part of him would always have been with the cub, wherever it was.
Mitz wailed, constantly at first, believing that it was her fault that her brother had been taken.
‘It was me that persuaded him to go to the manor house,’ she whispered to Camio. ‘He wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t suggested it. Why am I so stupid?’
‘You’re not stupid, Mitz. You’re still a cub. It’s not your fault, but mine,’ he said. ‘I should have kept a closer watch over you –explained more. You see, that dog at the manor has already been responsible for a lot of grief in your mother’s life. He nearly caught the pair of us, once, when we got our messages crossed and each of us went down there to save the other …’
‘You and O-ha?’ said Mitz, wide-eyed.
‘Oh, yes. We’re quite capable of doing stupid things too, you know. Just because we’re fully grown, doesn’t mean we know all there is to know, or follow our own good advice. Now, you have a life to lead. I want you to put this out of your mind as quickly as you can, because survival is tough enough, without bearing the weight of past mistakes on your shoulders. Look to the future, little one.’
‘I’ll try,’ she said.
The summer moved on and the remaining cubs grew stronger. By the time Melloon was blowing across the land, the dispersal began in earnest in all the fox ear
ths. It was time for A-sac to seek a mate, if he was so inclined, which he was not.
‘I have heard of a great fox who lives in a mound that was not made by natural movements of the land. It’s a hill like a mole makes, only much smoother, much rounder, covered in turf. A giant molehill. Inside, I am told, there are chambers and passages, and in the centre the ancient remains of a human who must have been very important at one time. O-toltol, the fox who lives in this hill, says the corpse must have been one of those who came up from the sea-of-chaos with the cats and dogs.’
‘O-toltol?’ said Camio, thoughtfully. ‘A vixen?’
‘A vixen, yes, but not a breeding one,’ said A-sac, ‘if that’s what you’re thinking – which you are. She, like myself, scorns the body’s needs. For seventeen seasons she has lived inside the hill, and has not seen the light of day. She intends to die there without ever going out into the world again, or setting eyes on another two-legged beast …’
‘On a human?’
‘Yes. They have defiled our world, and she wishes never to hear or smell a living human again. The mound has been sealed for seasons out of time and there is no possibility that such creatures will enter it again.’
Camio nodded.
‘And you? You intend to lock yourself away in the dark for the rest of your life?’
‘No,’ said the white fox scornfully. ‘I am merely going there to consult with O-toltol, learn from her. The darkness and the silence have sharpened her mind, have concentrated her thoughts, and she has considered many things which normal foxes would not even contemplate. She has visions and the depth of her understanding is beyond our ken.’
‘In that case, we shall expect to see you again.’
‘It’s my belief,’ said A-sac, ‘that cubs should leave their parents’ earth and never return. If we do meet again, it should be by accident and not design. I must find my own way to spiritual greatness, which means putting my origins behind me.’
‘You’re ashamed of us?’
‘Not ashamed, but I have moved into a different sphere of light – you were merely the instruments of my happening into the world. Now I am here, there is little to connect me with you.’
‘If I and your mother were priests of darkness, it would be different I take it?’
A-sac shook his white head and his pink eyes bore into Camio’s.
‘Now you’re hurt,’ he said, ‘because you think I won’t acknowledge you, once I leave the earth for good. You’re wrong – you are my humble parents, who will be exalted with me, once I find my way along the path to truth and my name is used in praise. I expect you wish it had been me that had gone instead of A-cam. So do I. I think my spiritual rise would have been swifter had I lost my tail to a hound of the Unplace and had been wafted away by humans in one of their vehicles.’
Camio shook his head.
‘Well, A-sac, I hope you find what you’re looking for out there. Whatever happens, your “humble” parents will be happy to give you a roof over your head, should you ever feel gracious enough to pay us a visit once glory has descended on that great brow of yours.’
‘Yes, of course. I feel affection towards you, Camio, really. It’s just that I must suppress such feelings once I have left the area of your earth.’
After that encounter, Camio was pleased to chat to his little vixen, who was less happy about going away from them.
‘I don’t want to go out there,’ she said.
‘But you’ve slept outside for months now,’ replied Camio.
‘That’s different. Once I leave here I’ll be grown up. You won’t bring me titbits any more. I’ll have to hunt for all my food, won’t I?’
‘That’s true, but you’re a good hunter and scavenger – you feed yourself already. I don’t think you have any worries. Just make sure you cache your finds in a safe place, for the lean periods, and always get plenty of vegetables. You’ll be all right – I have no worries about you. Tough as they come.’
‘I don’t want a mate yet,’ she said, firmly.
‘Well, that’s up to you. Chase those dog foxes away, if you want to stay on your own. We’re scared of you vixens, you know. All you have to do is bare your teeth and say no.’
‘I will – for the moment, anyway.’
‘You’ll always be welcome here, you know that.’
‘When must we go?’ said the little vixen.
‘It would be proper to leave us quite soon now. I suggest you look round for a suitable earth within the next few days, then come back to us to say goodbye. I believe A-sac is doing the same thing, though he’s warned us that he might not come back at all. If you really don’t want to leave us, of course you must stay, but I’d like you to consider the outside world before you make up your mind. Lots of cubs do remain with their parents, but you can’t know what’s best for yourself unless you have a look and give it a try.’
So, the lead up to the dispersal of the cubs had begun. They were about to make their own way in the world. Both O-ha and Camio felt sad about it. Cubs often left home never to be seen again. They had been lucky, though. Half their litter had survived to reach the dispersal time. There were pairs left with only one cub, and many with none at all. The mortality rate of the young was high.
‘It’ll be quiet around here, won’t it?’ said O-ha.
‘It’ll be very different from what we’ve grown used to, that’s for sure,’ replied Camio.
‘I’ll hate it, won’t you?’
‘Yes,’ he said, simply.
Chapter Twenty Two
With the coming of the dispersal, Camio and O-ha talked about moving to another earth, away from the close proximity of men. Camio was concerned that the yard was growing too large and that they would soon have an Alsatian or a Doberman to guard the place. Already there was a night watchman in attendance. Apart from that, it was usual to move from the breeding earth once the dispersal of the cubs had taken place. The idea that the yard men might get a guard animal was of especial concern to O-ha.
‘Well, you know the face better than I do. Where shall we start looking?’
‘I’ve heard that the railway is coming to the town. We could make an earth on the embankment, in the gerflan.’
She looked dubious.
‘After that story you told me about the fox you met before you came here? Is it wise?’
Camio shook his head.
‘That was different. It won’t be anything like that. This will be new and clean, and there’ll be wild flowers, bushes, tall grass –all the things you like. We won’t be bothered because it’ll be gerflan. The only thing is we’ll have to get used to the noise of the trains, but I’m sure they won’t come by that often. Anyway, you do you know.’
‘Do what?’
‘Get used to the trains. After a while you hardly notice them. You can sit there, watching the carriages full of humans go by, knowing they can’t touch you, even if they wanted to. Glass boxes full of them. It can be quite fun. And you like the railway tracks, you told me so. You said they have nice clean lines, like the edges of the houses. You can sit and look at the strips of steel if you want to. Or you can laze around catching butterflies all day. Or even practise all those rituals you’re so fond of.’
She huffed at him.
‘One doesn’t practise rituals – not in the way you mean. Rituals are there to be observed. What will we eat?’
‘We can still scavenge around the town. We can just make our caches on the bank, where only we can get at them. There’ll be rats and mice too, and of course, worms.’
‘You make it sound all so idyllic.’
‘If that’s the way it sounds, that’s the way it is. I’m going out now, to scout around where the work is in progress. What do you want to do?’
‘I think I’ll wait here, in case O-mitz or A-sac comes back… or A-cam…’ she said.
He left her then, and went out into the night streets. His heart felt heavy at the mention of their missing cub, and he knew she was sti
ll grieving over his loss, but there was nothing Camio could do about it. He could search – he had searched – but the world is a big place. If A-cam were still alive, he could be many days’ journey from the scrapyard. Maybe even months! Humans could travel long distances fast and they could take up a wild animal and place him in an area so far from his original home that it was impossible to find it again. Camio had experienced just that.
Camio padded down the empty main precinct of the town, a cobbled street lined with shops on both sides. Sometimes he paused to stare at the junk behind the glass screens: the variety of things that humans surrounded themselves with. But not tonight.
He passed another dog fox with barely a nod. Territories in the town were difficult to define and there were places, the food take-aways and restaurants, that were considered neutral ground and outside the patches that foxes defended as their ‘own’. So chance encounters were reasonably common and unless there was a definite invasion of territory with an intent to steal a mate, or usurp an entrenched position, foxes were inclined to relax their parochial attitudes in the face. More so than when they were in the hav.
Camio passed through a pool of light, under a lamp, and slipped down an alley. There was a human asleep on some cardboard boxes at the bottom of the alley, exuding those fumes which made foxes gag. These creatures on the borderland of human society often made a lot of noise and shouted at foxes if they came too close, but in general they were harmless and seemed incapable of chase, so Camio did not pause in his stride. In any case, this one was snoring so heavily and had obviously been imbibing deeply of that stuff which made their breath stink so foully.
He went up and over a fence at the end, into some gardens to houses behind the shops. He almost trod on a hedgehog which instantly rolled into a ball, its spines protecting it. There was a saucer of bread and milk nearby, which had been left out for the creature by the occupants of the house. Camio took a few laps of the milk and then carried on, down the side of the building and out into the next street. One or two cars were still humming along the tarmac, their blinding headlights sweeping the darkness away before them. Camio crossed the street quickly, keeping his head down. He knew too well that those bright beams could hypnotise an animal into rigidity, if you stared at them full on, and he had no wish to be squashed into gubbins on the asphalt.
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