Fox Run

by Robin Roseau

  She began running a big circle centered on the stream, trying to find my trail. Of course, she didn't find it. She ran it twice, and then I heard her huffing her displeasure.

  It probably confused her that my scent was still live. I'm sure some of it was wafting down from the tree. She began searching for me downwind, then kept working her way back to the stream.

  Then I heard her shift.

  "Oh, little fox," she said. "Did you climb a tree? I am probably the only wolf who knows you can do that, too."

  I wished I hadn't told her.

  I listened as she walked on two feet to the stream, then began walking back. Wolves don't track by footprints, but humans do. She found my tracks and followed them to the base of my tree.

  "Oh, little fox," she said. "Very clever. A half hour. No one else would have beaten you. Come down now."

  Well, she may have me treed, but she hadn't caught me, and I most certainly hadn't submitted.

  "Michaela," she said. "The agreement was you had to escape. This is not escape. Come down, or I'll come up after you."

  I stayed very quiet. Maybe she wasn't sure. I didn't need to prove she had found me.

  Then she began climbing.

  She climbed slowly but surely. Furry wolves don't climb trees, but two legged wolves are perfectly capable of doing so and are probably better than a four-footed vixen.

  She climbed halfway to me and stopped. "Michaela, I can smell you now. Please come down."

  No way.

  She climbed a little further than said, "There you are." I looked down, and she was only about five feet below me. She looked pretty darn hot in her birthday suit, climbing a tree after me. I grinned a foxy grin at her and chuffed.

  "I love you too," she said. "Now climb down and submit like a good little fox."

  I bared my teeth at her.

  She sighed and climbed closer. I looked up higher in the tree, and she froze.

  "I'll keep coming, Michaela. You'll run out of tree."

  We would run out of tree sooner for her full weight than my fox weight. I looked up considering my choices.

  "If you make a move up, Michaela, I am going to come after you as fast as I can. I bet I can climb faster than you can, but one of us will make a mistake. Come on, honey."

  I stared at her sadly. She was right. She was going to win. I hated that, but I stayed where I was.

  She stared at me for a moment, then she put her hand on the branch above her and I immediately scrambled a branch higher.

  "Wait," she said. "If you come back down to where you were, I'll go back down one branch, too. Let's talk about it."

  I looked down at her. For me, going down is much, much harder than going up. It is frequently a controlled fall. I whimpered.

  "Honey, you can climb back down, can't you?"

  I whimpered again.

  "All right," she said. "You stay right there, I'll stay right here. I'll say my piece, and you can decide if you want to play this out or not."

  "Honey, no other wolf could have caught you. If I didn't know you could climb trees as a fox, I wouldn't have found you. I only knew that because you told me, and you only told me because you were helping me."

  I stared down at her. I loved her, but there was a touch of despair, too.

  "Honey, I didn't think you would last fifteen seconds. I thought this would be easy. You were amazing. I was wrong. I should trust you. You know your skills far better than I do. When violence comes, all I see are your weaknesses, but not your strengths."

  "Michaela, I know your pride makes this very difficult. You are thinking of desperate steps, steps driven only by pride."

  I huffed lightly. She was right. She smiled.

  "But there is nowhere to go. No other wolf could have won, Michaela, and you were magnificent, truly magnificent. Honey, please come down."

  I looked down at her. I looked up higher in the tree.

  "Don't do it, Michaela. I'll come after you, and I am faster than you are."

  I clutched the tree tighter, and Lara relaxed.

  "Honey, can you be a gracious loser?"

  Then I thought about what this represented. If I surrendered, it meant the big bad wolf was about to eat me. This wasn't just about whether I won or she did. This was about whether I lived or died. If I surrendered, I died. And any chance is better than no chance.

  I pushed off from the tree and began to fall.

  "No!" she screamed. Her hand reached out, and as I fell past her, aiming for the branches below, she caught me by my scruff and pulled me against her.

  "Why?" she screamed. "Why? Michaela, why?"

  She clutched me tightly to her, her hand still in my scruff, another wrapped around the tree. I hung there in her one arm, her heart pounding in her chest.

  I shifted. She almost dropped me, but I reached out and grabbed branches, then my feet found footholds.

  "You won," I said quietly. "And that means the wolf ate the fox. That's what happens when a fox loses a fox hunt."

  "No, honey."

  "That was the symbolism, wasn't it? I can't take care of myself. If I couldn't escape, I was dead. That's the wager we made. If you caught me, symbolically, I am dead. Wouldn't you rather I had fought, all the way to the end, than surrender to certain death?"

  "So you gave up a different way, a different death?"

  "Of course not. Look down. How many branches would I have landed on? I'd have clung to one and made it out of the tree long before you did."

  "Not that long," she said.

  "Long enough to find another tree."

  She hugged me tightly to her.

  "I will climb down now," I told her. "You won."

  Then, slowly, I slithered down the tree, earning a few scrapes from the rough bark on the way down. Lara followed, landing on the ground a few seconds after I did. I shifted to fox then rolled over and exposed my throat. Lara knelt down, her head over my throat, and kissed the fur. "I love you, little fox," she said. "No other wolf would have found you. Now, we are both going to be gracious about this."

  She backed away and shifted to fur. I rolled over and slowly climbed to my feet. Lara pointed her nose to the compound and bounded off. I slowly followed, my head hanging from my shoulders. Lara got quite a distance ahead of me before she stopped. She huffed. If I huffed back at the same volume, she wouldn't have heard me. So she howled briefly, but I didn't respond.

  She ran back and came to a stop in front of me. I sat down facing her, my head still hanging.

  She huffed again and nudged me.

  I tried to shake out of my mood. I had done amazingly well, far better than anyone could possibly have expected. I would have beaten any other wolf. I should be proud. But in the end, the only point that mattered was the last one. I wouldn't have made my foolish promise if I'd realized it was Lara I would compete against. I just kept going around and around in emotional circles, and I couldn't shake it.

  There wasn't anything to be done about it now. I climbed slowly to my feet and walked past Lara, heading towards the compound. Rather than bounding ahead, Lara walked with me. It must have been painful for her, keeping to a fox pace.

  I finally decided I was sulking, and I picked the pace up marginally. Soon, we had picked up an escort of furry wolves. Both of us got licks. I hated being licked, but I put up with it. I knew they meant well.

  Suddenly I lifted my head, bounced ahead two steps, then ran to the left. I managed to get everyone to follow me, which surprised me. Then I reversed course again and, very deliberately, used my claw to draw a line in the ground.

  Lara looked at the line, chuffed, and fell to her stomach, her toes right at the line. I licked her once, listened for a moment, then dashed away. Some of the wolves tried to follow me, but Lara called them back.

  I had to put some distance between us. They had scared all the game. But eventually I heard a rabbit. I approached it slowly, the stalk taking a good ten minutes, but when I pounced, I caught it. I snapped its neck clean
ly then proudly carried my kill back to my alpha. When I pulled into the clearing, she was waiting for me, her toes at the line. I walked straight to her and dropped the rabbit at her feet.

  Lara lifted her nose to the air and howled a victory cry, which was quickly picked up by the clustered wolves. Then she reached out with her claws and ripped the rabbit open before nudging it back to me.

  I took a small share for myself then backed away. One by one, the assembled wolves partook of the rabbit I had caught, each of them taking the smallest of pieces When each wolf had taken a share, Lara took hers. Then we turned our noses to the compound and began to run.

  Becoming Less Unsettled

  Dinner that night was a large communal affair. There was to be food and a large bonfire. I was still upset, but no longer felt dead. Still, I couldn't stand the idea of everyone congratulating Lara on having caught the fox. When I tried to beg off, Lara sent Elisabeth to talk to me about it.

  "Spill," she told me while sitting on the sofa in Lara's bedroom. I was staring out the window into the back yard, which was mostly a view of the forest.

  I continued to stare out the window. "I don't think I could listen to everyone congratulate Lara on catching me and making me offer my throat."

  "So two hits to your pride, one that she caught you and one that you offered your throat."

  "Yes."

  "So you're better than everyone else in the pack?"

  "I'm not of the pack," I said.

  "Don't quibble. Are you saying you are better than all the rest of us? We've all offered our throats, and before Lara was Alpha, she offered hers to her father."

  I turned to face her. "Just so you understand, I hate losing arguments."

  She laughed. "I will keep that in mind. It's a good thing this is a discussion, not an argument. If anyone is pleased that you offered your throat, they are pleased because it is symbolic that you are part of the pack."

  "But I am not. I am fox."

  "So? We're all were."

  I stared at her. "You really believe that?"

  "Yes."

  I didn't have a real response to that. I shrugged instead.

  "Can we at least agree that there is no one here, except possibly you, who feels you should be embarrassed about offering your throat?"

  "All right."

  "So the other issue. You think this is about Lara winning."

  "Yes."

  She looked away, clearly thinking. Finally she said, "Michaela, I wish to ask a favor. Trust me."

  "That's the favor?"

  "Yes. Trust me. Come to dinner. Trust me."

  I sighed. "All right, Elisabeth."

  * * * *

  Still, I hid in the room as long as I could. Eventually Lara sent Gia and Angel to fetch me. I let them cajole me downstairs and out the door. Someone handed me a beer, which I immediately handed to Angel. She looked at it gleefully, but Gia took it away from her before she could drink any of it.

  "Oops. I guess you and I are the only ones not drinking, Angel," I told her.

  "Naw," she said. "There are a few other teenagers. Want me to get us cokes?"

  "Sure." She disappeared and came back moments later, handing me a cold can.

  There was an advantage to being my size in a crowd of giant wolves. I was difficult to spot, being below notice most of the time. Conversations happened around me, and I was able to avoid them.

  Jason found me. "There you are," he said. "Wow, that was amazing today."

  "The alpha is really something," I said neutrally.

  "She is," Jason agreed. "But I was talking about you. You're so small; you're easy to under-estimate. But wow. That was amazing. You really gave her a workout. I wouldn't have lasted that long against her, that's for sure. She'd have caught me in seconds."

  Then he squeezed my arm and wandered off.

  Angel and Gia had both wandered off. I roamed the crowd, looking for them. Angel was sitting in the grass with a group of teenagers. I started to turn away, but Jeremy, one of the boys we had rescued, saw me.

  "Fox!" he said. He stood up and ran over to stand in front of me. "Would you talk to us for a little bit?"

  "All right," I said, joining them in the grass. "What's up?"

  "Well," said Jeremy. "We heard about the kayaking. We were wondering, do you think you could talk our parents into letting us come to Bayfield, and teaching us how to kayak?"

  "How did you hear about that?" I asked.

  "Rory told everyone how you saved his life," Derek said.

  Angel smiled. "If you weren't with the alpha, I think he'd want you."

  I smiled at that. "Rory is a nice wolf, although not exactly my type."

  "So, how about it?" Jeremy asked. "Will you teach us to kayak?"

  "Let me ask you guys something. I'm not the alpha. I'm not an anything. I can't cuff any of you hard enough for you to notice. If I tell you to do something, and you don't do it, there's nothing I can do about it. If I were teaching you to kayak, you would have to do exactly what I said. Could you do that?"

  "Sure," Jeremy said. "Besides, there'd be adult wolves there somewhere, and even if you didn't cuff us, they would."

  I laughed. "That's probably true. But what if there weren't?"

  "We'd do what you said," Angel said. "You would be our teacher. And you might be small, but you're older than we are. If you told us to do something, there would be a good reason."

  "All right," I said. "I'll talk to your parents if you guys bring them to me sometime. But in the end, it will be their decision."

  "Thank you, Michaela," Angel said. The rest of them thanked me, then started peppering me with questions about kayaking.

  Lara rescued me ten minutes later. "Sorry, kids, I need her." She helped me to my feet and pulled me away. "Feeling better?"

  "Not that I'd admit," I told her. "Did you really need me?"

  "Not at this exact minute, but I thought you'd given the kids enough time for one night. Go mingle."

  I disappeared into the crowd and tried not to be noticed.

  Someone announced that food was ready, and the wolves crowded the tables that had been set up for food. I hung back, amazed at the amount of food it took to feed the pack. Elisabeth stepped up to me and I asked her about it.

  "Don't I know it. You should see the grocery bill."

  "Where does the money come from?"

  "Real estate investments are a lot of it," Elisabeth explained. "Apartment buildings, office buildings, and a couple of small shopping malls. Lara has a management company that handles all that, and she needs to do very little. Another big part are the tithes."

  "Tithes?"

  "Yes. Everyone in the pack with a job tithes a portion of his income to the pack. That means everyone who isn't a full time enforcer or hold some other pack position. Even Lara tithes. So do I."

  "I thought you were an enforcer."

  "I am, but I also own a chain of grocery stores." She mentioned the chain.

  "Holy shit. You own that?"

  "Forty percent. The stores run themselves, and we expand very cautiously, so it really is pretty cushy for me. Lara owns twelve percent. David had some; I don't know what happens to his share now. It may go to pack, it may go to Lara." She paused. "It may go to you."

  "Why would it go to me?"

  "There is a council that oversees pack assets. They can decide almost anything in a situation like this."

  "Well, I don't want it."

  "Anyway, you get the idea. Lara is rich. So am I. We could live comfortably just on our fixed income. The pack is really rich. Again, investments. Whenever a pack member wants to start a business, the pack invests. And pack businesses always succeed."

  "Why?"

  "Failure is not an option."

  I laughed.

  At that point, Angel and Jeremy ran over to Elisabeth and me carrying plates of food, giving them to us and disappearing before we could even thank them.

  "That was sweet," I said.

  "Pa
ck leadership doesn't stand in line for food," Elisabeth said. "Rank hath its privileges."

  "As does being a guest?"

  Elisabeth looked around. "I don't see any guests, Michaela."

  We sat down in the grass and ate quietly. People started to join us, and soon I was surrounded. I kept my head down and hoped everyone would ignore me.

  "I haven't laughed so hard in a long time," Francesca said.

  "At what?" Elisabeth asked innocently.

  "The alpha with her head and shoulders stuck under the car, scrambling to chase the little fox."

  "Oh yeah, that was good," Rory said. "But I liked it when she got tangled up with Jeremy."

  Soon everyone was taking turns, regaling each other with my exploits. Elisabeth whispered to me, "See?"

  "Wait for it," I replied.

  "So," Rory asked. "She finally caught you. How?"

  I sighed. "I was running out of tricks. I'd gotten some real distance from her, maybe almost a minute ahead, and that's when I used my absolute best trick. And no, I'm no telling any of you what it is. But the problem is, the alpha knows that trick because I told it to her once. So she finally figured out what I had done, and that's when she found me."

  "How long did it take her?" Elisabeth asked.

  "From when she lost me to when she found me again?"

  "Yes."

  "I don't know, maybe twenty minutes. It was fun watching her look."

  "Wait!" said Elisabeth. "You knew where she was for twenty minutes, but she didn't know where you were?"

  "I knew where she was the entire time," I said. "I shook her off my trail a half dozen times, but she eventually found my trail again. When you're a fox, it doesn't matter how many times you lose the wolf. It only matters how whether the wolf finds you again."

  They were uncomfortable about that, but then Rory smiled. "Well, I thought you were fantastic. I loved it when you kept shifting back and forth between two legs and fur."

  "That's just because you liked seeing her naked, Rory," one of the females said to him.

  "I'll admit," he said. "Our little fox is worth looking at."

  "Rory!" I said.

  "I wouldn't admit that too loudly when the alpha can hear you Rory," Elisabeth said.