Down: The Fall

Chapter Sixteen: Grant

One month after:

  " Come on Bob lets go" Graydon Grant called for the young fox behind him. It jumped from the bushes and slinked towards him. " Come on boy lets check this place out" he said motioning with his head towards the house in front of them as he looked at the fox.

 Weeks back, when he'd left the farm house were he had hidden from the fox he met up with her again. He'd found her caught in an old rusty foot trap near the farms chicken pen. She had already torn her foot up pretty bad trying to get it out of the trap.

  At first he was going to leave the fox there for all the trouble she'd caused him and those other people back in the woods. As he turned to leave the fox had let out a pitiful wimper. It was almost as if he could hear her say " please, help" as she looked at him. It was then he couldn't help but think that the fox had only been following instinct back in the woods. She'd only been doing what she had always done, hunt for her food.

  Graydon had then taken the scissor sword from his back and slid it down between the clamps of the trap. He had surprisingly easily leveraged the trap open with his new strength. The fox had pulled her damaged foot out, looked strait at him, and then turned and limped away. He'd felt a weird sensation wash over his mind. At that, a distinct impression came over him that the fox was thankful. ' What was that all about?' he thought to himself.' What was that feeling in his head? Had that fox just communicated with him somehow?' Questions filling his head.

  Gray Grant began following that limping fox right then. He had to find out what had just happened to him. The fox continued on through the forest for hours until she came to a hole leading under a giant oak tree. " Yeap" came from the den as a small fox pup wandered out of the entrance. When it had seen him it backed into the hole and growled softly as it peeked out at him. The mother fox walked into the den and collapsed with a loud thud. Apparently she had exhausted herself trying to get back to her pup. Gray noticed a red trail on the leaves outside the den. When he went over he could see it led back the way they had came. He looked into the entrance of the den, the mother fox's eyes were closed. Already her breath was growing shallow as he watched the slowing rise and fall of her rib cage as she lay on her side. She had lost to much blood from the damaged paw. It was to late to save her, she was dying.

  He sat there at the entrance to the den until she'd taken her last breath. He hadn't really knew why other than it just seemed right. The little fox pup came up to it's mother and nuzzeled her snout with its own. He felt sorry for the little fox, it would die without its mother to hunt for its food.

  The next morning he had tried to coax the pup out with some of the food he had. He tried for a few hours but it wouldn't leave its mothers side. He sat there thinking about what to do, ready to leave it there out of frustration. ' Stupid fox why won't you just come out your gonna die if you don't' he thought frustratedly. To his surprise the fox's ears had perked up and it strode out of the den towards him a little. " It's that weird thing again" he thought aloud. 'Come here boy' he tried again. The fox came right to him and began sniffing him. It finally took the food from his hand and gobbled it down quickly. "Well now that's a good boy ain't it" he said softly.

  He stayed a few more hours playing with the little fox. When he decided to go he tested the theory he had about the fox and his thoughts. 'Hey you want to come with me? I'll take care of you now that mama's gone' he directed his thoughts at the fox. It took one more look back at the entrance to the den and then bounded off following behind Graydon.

  They had traveled from there to a few more houses most abandoned some were not. They picked up a couple friends two young girls who's parents had been away in another city on business during the event. They were in pink doll dresses, and were half starved. Graydon found food up on a high shelf in their pantry that they'd been afraid to climb to.