Fire Fox

Siren's Song

      The next day, Ember woke way before the others. She was used to it, sleeping right when the sky became dark and waking as soon as light hit the sky. Being as quiet at possible, she snuck out of the cave and breathed in the fresh, cold air. Winter was a problem for her, as much as she wished to touch the snow, she couldn't. It hurt her very badly. Instead, she hovered just above it, like she was walking on it. She sat down on a nearby hollow log, closing her eyes. She enjoyed meditating, just sitting there and letting the world around you move. Until she heard small footsteps behind her.

      "How can you sit on that without burning it?" A voice said behind her, she turned to see a fox walk up to her. One of her sisters children.

      "I can choose to burn things and not to burn things." She answered, the little fox sat up next to her.

      "That's pretty cool!" The fox said, Ember smiled at her.

      "Kind of, though water and snow hurts me." She said, the little fox furrowed her eyebrows.

      "How'd you die?" It asked, Ember was taken aback by its question.

      "Layla! Don't ask her that!" Her mother shouted behind her, Layla groaned and went back into the cave.

      "It's alright, I get that quite a lot." Ember said, a fake smile on her face. She didn't like being asked that.

      "But it's still rude to ask." Her sister replied. They sat there in silence for a couple minutes until ember spoke up.

     "I died from fire." She said, her sister turned her head towards her, Ember had a saddened look on her face.

      "How'd you get near fire?" She asked, Ember closed her eyes, but her mouth didn't move as she replied this time.

      "Humans, they left burning wood out. I got too close and my fur caught in flames. I burned to death..." she answered, her sister seemed to have anger, hatred and sadness on her face.

      "Humans are stupid." She said, Ember nodded.

      "Yes, they really are." Ember said, she got to her feet and looked at her sister.

      "When they wake up, we'll take you to the river." She said, Ember nodded.

                                        ~•~

      Ember watched the small foxes eat. They offered her food but she declined them. She never really had to eat, but if she did it would just burn in her mouth. So instead of tasting burnt food, she decided not to eat. They seemed so happy, she wondered what her life would've been like if she was alive this whole time. She would've been with her family. A thought crossed her mind. How was she able to recognize Ember? The fox was made of fire!

She shook the thought away when they were finished eating. But she couldn't help it, it was uncomfortable. The fox family had shown her the way to the river, she stared down at her reflection to see she looked just like a regular fox. But how did they know she was a spirit? Of course, her eyes stood out. They were the same blank white, almost making her look as if she was possessed. She shuddered, though it still made no sense to her. She found herself becoming wary.

     She turned to see the foxes near the water, a song flew through the air. It was a nice song, relaxing. With half lidded eyes, she turned to the water, following the song. The fox family had disappeared and she was left alone. Fog surrounded her as she got closer and closer to the water. But her eyes snapped open and she flew backwards, the siren's song. She turned and ran, ran away from the song.

     She returned to the den where the fox family was, they had just woken up. Was all that happened... was it all just a siren? She shook her head, the little foxes greeted her with a smile, she smiled along with them, as if nothing happened.