Humankind has long since perished.
But life goes on.
Nature is slowly reclaiming the planet. A fire forces a young red fox named Kip to flee her den for the first time. Now alone and left half-blind, Kip must struggle to find refuge for herself and...
Kip frustratedly shook her pelt to fend off the bothersome magpies swooping at her. The persistent little thieves had been following her for the last few blocks, all trying to nab the mouse from her jaws. In between growling at the pests and renewing the scent makers for her territory, the vixen kept her eye on the sky. Luckily, for the moment it was free of any eagles. Not that there was much to look at on the ground, either. The leopard had long succumbed to the fear of water, and the eagle had used her bones to line her nest.
A shriek in the distance had the magpies fluttering away and Kip diving for cover beneath the scorched carcass of a car. She briefly caught the fleeting glimpse of three soaring silhouettes reflected in the windows of a skyscraper. She waited a few moments after the eagle and her two children flanking her disappeared behind another listing highrise. When the coast was clear, the fox darted out of hiding and hobbled home as fast as she could.
Every bone in her body ached. The fox had to blink her heavy lids to keep the encroaching bleariness at bay. Exhaustion made her body feel slow—as if she were wading through water.
Sleep was a stranger to the fox. Ever since the loss of her mate weeks prior, visions of siblings perishing in fires, of parents sacrificing their lives, and of lovers falling to their demise haunted her every dream. But when Kip crested a hill in the park and saw her little den before her, her exhaustion evaporated in an instant. Before her was the reason everyone gave their lives.
A little fox kit was giggling near the den, playfully hopping after a toad. Her coat was just beginning to turn red, and was also dappled with silver and black patches. Kip padded up to the little fox.
"—I bet I can jump higher!" the kit was telling her friend, not yet aware of her mother behind her. "Watch!" The kit lowered herself to the dirt and shook her haunches. Then, with a wiggle of her tail, the cub leaped straight in the air and landed flat on her stomach with an undignified "Oof!" Despite her tail flopping over her face, the kit never ceased her laughter. "Did you see?" she asked her friend.
The toad belched a croak, puffing out his throat like a balloon. The kit laughed even more. "Okay, okay. I think you won. This time." The wind changed, and the kit sniffed, then leaped with excitement when she turned to find her mother. "Oh! My mom's home!"
The kit's tail wagged at full speed as she licked at her mother's smiling mouth. In response, Kip dropped the mouse at the kit's paws. The tiny fox ravenously tore into the morsel.
"Who is your little friend, Vin?" Kip asked her daughter. She set about licking at the little cross fox's mussed up fur.
"He's a toad. I call him Mud. Because he looks like mud," Vin said in between bites. She chewed some more before continuing. "He was teaching me how to jump!"
"Oh?" Her daughter's friend had already made a hasty exit when he noticed the adult fox. It wasn't uncommon for Kip to return home to find her daughter chatting with a new tiny animal—frogs, toads, squirrels, the occasional stray kitten...it was a surprise every time. Kip couldn't help shaking her head. Her daughter had quite the imagination; an unusual thing for a fox. Animals of differing kinds had no way of understanding each other. Nonetheless, she indulged Vin as she struggled to smooth the particularly unruly tuft of fur between the kit's ears. "What else did you two talk about?"
With her mouth full, the kit answered, "Mud says all the animals with fur keep getting sick. He was wondering why they don't hide in the water or fly in the sky to avoid the sickness." Vin licked her lips and stared up at her mother with huge, round eyes brimming with curiosity. "Mother? Can foxes fly?"
Kip winced. "Where is your brother?" she asked her cub.
"Oh." Vin pointed a tiny black paw inside the den. "He's inside. Talking to his friends."
Kip lost her valiant battle with the tuft of fur. She left her daughter and ducked into the den. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dark. "Neer?" she whispered into the tunnel. "Neerling?" She pivoted an ear toward the sound of someone speaking from the back of the cavern. She crept forward until she found her son, sitting by himself with his back to her.
"—could it happen again? What happened to the flat-faced animals?" Neer was saying to the shadows. The young tod cocked his head to the side, listening to an answer Kip couldn't hear. "...I see," was his response.
Kip couldn't help flattening her ears against her head. "Neer? Who were you talking to?" Though she wasn't really sure if she wanted to know the answer...
The kit whipped his head around to peer at his mother with bright orange eyes—Fell's eyes. He even had more wisps of silver in his pelt than his sister. Neer gave the shadowy corner of the den one last glance before flatly telling his mother, "No one. They're gone now."
The vixen wrapped her tail around him. "Come on out and eat before your sister leaves you nothing but bones."
The kit let out a yip at that and scurried outside. Kip limped after him, finding her kits squabbling with each other for food. The vixen, again, stared off into the sky that was turning pink. The skyscrapers that hid the setting sun swayed and creaked in the breeze. No eagles occupied the sky for now, just listless cumulus clouds with red halos. She realized, then, that this place was not where she wanted her kits to grow up. Most animals in what used to be Fell's domain had either succumbed to the disease or were snatched away by the eagle. She didn't want her cubs—who were currently fighting over meager scraps—to slowly starve under the care of a single parent who could barely even keep herself alive. The fox narrowed her eyes as the sunbeams painted glowing stripes of red light down the sides of every building.
Was there anywhere safe out there?
Someone chomped on her tail, startling Kip from her thoughts. Vin grinned up at her with her mother's fluffy tail still in her mouth. Kip chuckled and batted at her daughter, eliciting laughs from her. She watched as her two cubs wrestled with each other, lost in the sound of their ringing laughter. For some reason, her heart became heavy in her chest.
Eventually, the vixen gestured to the den with her head. "Come," she purred to her kits. "Inside. It's time for sleep."
Vin released her brother's scruff from her mouth and let out an exaggerated groan at that. "But I'm not tired!"
"Yeah, the sun's still out!" Neer agreed.
Kip shepherded her complaining kits inside with her nose. Her kits tried to wriggle free from their nest. Kip even caught a kick to the face from Neer, but she managed to wrangle them with both paws, and hugged them close to her, exclaiming, "Oh, no you don't!" She nuzzled into them, and all three foxes laughed and squirmed in a furry heap together in their nest. Gradually the two kits stilled. Despite their objections, the kits laughter soon subsided into gentle snores before the sun had even fully set. Throughout the night, Kip remained awake with her paws wrapped around her cubs and her nose pressed into their fur, breathing in their scents.
When dawn arrived, they would have a journey to make.
Kip was going to free her family from the eagle's domain.
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اوووه! هذه الصورة لا تتبع إرشادات المحتوى الخاصة بنا. لمتابعة النشر، يرجى إزالتها أو تحميل صورة أخرى.
