What else could the next few hours around that humble dwelling basking in the mellow sunshine be described as?
Idle waiting?
Dreaded patients?
Silent penance for a regretful choice?
No...
Though not much had happened after Ray had returned from his duties, exhausted and spotted with grease, what did happen though was a collected discussion, brimming on the edge of a furious argument staccato with screams, on Doug's irrational behavior around the children that took place away from their fragile ears as they calmed themselves inside soon after Doug had tried to explain why he did what he did. The sudden fury from Doug, as his only leverage was taken so humiliatingly by a rodent aiding a devil, had scared the three of them bad enough that the fooled man was almost sent home to his still being repaired house. And if it had not been for the apologetic pleas of a broken man and previous attempt to apologies to the kids before Ray had got home, it would have happened. Soul shattering discords had finally cracked the surface from the strong figure, and the innocent had seen the full grunt of it from a being driven by an idiotic cause, as seen by an outside mind. The genuine regret for his outburst cooled some tempers, enough for Ray to let him continue to watch the kids.
Although, the clandestine fires flowing through the blood of a man seeing an end to an arduous crumbling road had burned hot enough to melt the tentative connection that held the bond that he and his son still shared, a fire Doug would soon channel with great delight through his arm to a bullet, whether it be to the fox or his girl. This personal vandeter the animal had against him seemed to not want to rest till his life was in tatters. It had taken all he had with his son, save for this lifeless bond, and now it was set on wanting his life long friend, someone who had been with him through it all right from his first days growing up.
That was not going to happen.
And with such resounding turmoil consuming the man he had regarded so highly as a human, as well as the horrifying threat made against the wistful life stricken in the hutch, Blake was intent to the point of insanity to make this plan work. His mind pulled on the leash that held his wild self back, that being held waveringly by his human trait as it wept for a strong man brought to his proverbial knees, and a solemn desire to console the distress of a life quickly becoming meaningless right before his eyes. This was not the same man driven by mild determination during the onslaught half a year ago. Blake had been down that dangerous path of demons and doubts of his self worth. Before him, as he peaked through shades of full bracken while the sun drifted peacefully overhead, he saw a man clutching vainly to his last threads of hope. Blake's actions of needing to be with his life's meaning stretched his quivering bond with the man so desperate for release of grief that the fox couldn't rest, retreat, or reprise. So thick was the denial within his father that he couldn't see through to acceptance.
Blake had his means of getting his love to freedom, he had support from an unlikely friend, and after his father's reckless stunt in front of the children, he knew this breakout had to be done tonight with fluidity. Yet with each thought of how to do it, there was a certain niggle that wished for him to help the one who intended to kill him, for him to see who the fox was. But this beaten and down man wanted his blood spilled, or Jade's was going to be spilled in his place.
And that was not going to happen.
Blake felt it the air.
His father felt it in the air.
No... There could only be one appropriate description for this place on earth at that moment.
Tense.
Indeed, the aura constricting around the two distraught souls turned the atmosphere into a shattering discontent, being made all the worse as the sun began to set, bringing on the dark, and the clock ticking down to the inevitable. The air breathed with reserved angst. The warm day cooled with the absence of any lively joy, threatening to chill the fox kept warm by his rich coat, and the man with potent alcohol preventing him from feeling the tepid change. Despite there only being four spirits watching intently the slow passing of time, only one really showed signs that she was scared from the feeling transcending their plane of existence.
'Is it even possible?' Astrid asked, the quiet night swallowing all sense of normality. From the house, Doug had turned on the spotlight from his 4WD to the trees, the veranda lights to illuminate the entire yard and a sliver of the the fields, plus a large torch at the ready by his side. 'He's ready for you.'
'It won't matter,' Blake sighed, his inner struggle clear to them.
Astrid looked empathetically up at the fox preparing himself. His eyes were drooping and fur rough from his stress. 'You haven't slept. He'll be on you before you can react.'
Blake blinked some sense of collectiveness back to his demeanor and furrowed his brow. 'It doesn't matter.'
Astrid shuddered at a terrible prospect. Just what could she say to convince him of a different way? 'Losing my mate was hard, but time has made it easier for me to understand it to the point were I can find another mate with a clear conscious.'
'Don't say it, Astrid...' Blake said with his focus on the house waving slightly.
The squirrel sighed despondently. 'All I'm saying is... after seeing what she was willing to give for you during the fires, I know she would want you to be safe and... move on.'
Her proposition would have sent him into a tirade of righteous indignation and, had he have been in a comfortable place away from misgivings from loved family, would have sent her off, yet his mind was so firmly locked on the man sitting on the decking that all cognitive perception of irritation and distaste were replaced with solemn content. 'Then you would also know that I would never give her up. I have failed her once already, I'm not going to have her die confused and frightened, alone, because of what she believe I should be.'
He pick up the key at his paws, stood, subtly disturbing the ferns that warranted a squinted glare from his father, and began to walk quietly into the deeper woods. Astrid jumped on his back as he gave a wide birth to the house, away from the light, exited the security of the redwoods and into the rear, less guarded portion, of the eerily quiet structure. Astrid glance back as her own security blanket of leaves was pulled from her and she hugged the fox's neck fearfully.
He placed the key down and eyed the unsupervised rear of the house from the only safe angle. 'The night is my time, Astrid.' He sat calmly after he left the tall wooded embrace. Astrid slid off with a bit of reluctance and stood helplessly as the fox that had shown her that some things could be nice if given the chance turned to face her with an endearing smile of an unlikely friendship in a derelict world. 'Thank you so much for all you have done for both me and Jade.'
The red squirrel felt her throat clenching up. 'Now don't you dare say it.'
The peaceful home they stood behind with the wan glow of the side veranda lights barely casting their shadows to the dispersed woods and the silent murmurs from the lit windows through colorful curtains upstairs failed to take this moment from them. The flick of disappearing light from a switch from those higher rooms signaled the beginning.
'You can go, Astrid. Go find that male again. He has a wise survival instinct if he ran so quickly from me. He will be good to live a long happy life with.'
Stunned, Astrid simply starred heartbrokenly at Blake. In those glorious deep eyes glistening with longing moisture of an approaching end, she felt a desire to lift a burden placed on him since his transformation. There was a relief deep within him, one that she felt came from the release of Jade. There was none though for his own.
'A long life would be okay with him,' Astrid grinning. 'But a long happy life is one where I can annoy you for many more years to come.'
Blake chortled. He lowered his head, and before Astrid could contemplate what he was doing, the fox gave her a long, wet lick right across her face. She grimaced and gagged at his meaty breath and the slobber that hung off her nose. 'Eww!' she exclaimed. 'That stinks! Gross!' She wiped off the viscous dag and shook it to the ground. 'Now you definitely have to come back. I owe you something big for that.' Blake just smiled warmly again. 'Promise you will come back?'
The wistful look he saw from a creature he thought long ago had left him from his unstable temper was short of begging. He would have assured her that he would be fine, and if this were a fairy tale, the promise would have been made with a genuine hug. Instead, he picked up the silver key, turned, and trotted to the back of the slightly discolored white weatherboard house and skulked along the to the opposite wall, away from the woods and where the spotlights were dimmest, leaving his disheartened friend to sit in the dirt and joylessly take in his brave figure vanish around the corner.
Although none of the veranda lights were positioned on the walls on this far side of the house, the subtle ambiance from the fully exposed front decking was enough for Blake to see in shadows this forgotten side of the dwelling had been made the designated storage area of various discarded objects, mainly broken larger toys and pieces of leftover equipment that had not found the time to make it to a proper shed. Now the remnants of reckless play and hard work lay with weeds claiming them back to the earth one rust particle at a time. Blake stalked under worn pellets leaning against the dark side of the house and over rolled up sections of leftover fencing. A children's swing set with tangled chains and seesaw with a broken plastic seat greeted the anxious fox as he found his quiet path to the edge of the house to the front yard. Here he found the crisp line of light glaring from the decking casting an intimidating threshold he refused to cross.
He could feel Jade's heart rate as well as he could taste his father's. He peaked around the corner from the raised decking to see if there was any cover he could use to get closer. Apart from the far off hutch and a few plastic toys, he couldn't comprehend anything in time to formulate an effective plan of attack before he had to act again. Some movement was made in the hutch and he felt an overjoyed thrill leap at him. He quickly drew his head back, and the joy turned to threat. It was a furtive thought at best, yet he had hoped Jade would not be as desperate as she was to escape. As it was, she was looking for him, experiencing first hand the mans brutality spurred on by his own anger. Blake now had to get past the eyes of the hurting vixen, also.
Carefully, he lowered himself under the wrecked plank of the seesaw with no plan in mind. Blake's heart was beating fast. His best means of approach now were not clear to him until he took some timeout to think the situation through. His father's head would never turn from the hutch or the woods on the opposite side of the house, and with all the lights making stealth impossible, as soon as he ventured towards the enclosure, the affect an additional shadow would cause would be a trained gun on him. He continued to mull as he knew the children inside were the only things he could work with. They had helped him against his father unintentionally by giving Astrid something to work with, now Blake only prayed they weren't obedient when it came to bedtime.
When that ecstatic thrill turned painful disunion from Jade had completely vanished, her having understood now that he needed a controlled environment to think clearly, he peaked his head out again. The few stray things he had glanced before were a tricycle, a stuffed bear, and various sizes of colorful buckets half filled with the yards dirt. But more importantly, next to them was an over turned children's wheelbarrow halfway between him and the hutch. Blake sized up his body compared to it as best as he could imagine and found that if he curled up his body tight enough, he could use it as a checkpoint. The problem being was that between him and the wheelbarrow, the light coming from the veranda was at its strongest. His father would instantly spot anything entering that light. So Blake stayed his motions as he thought up another plan.
He then heard someone stepping from inside the house. A spike in fear from Jade caused him in poke his head above the raised timber decking, fighting the instinctual trepidation of a man fueled by fury, and saw Ray step out, keys jingling in his hands. The fox dropped back down and pushed his body against the ground silently, trying to blend in with the bulky seesaw. Blake listened as Ray stepped out.
A change in shift, maybe? Blake thought sanguinely.
'Alright,' Ray said, the displeasure from the afternoons events still reverberating sorely. 'Going to pick Clair up from the airport.' Ray stepped from the stairs and towards the woods side of the house where both vehicles were parked, one hiding behind a glaring spotlight. 'You'll be right watching the kids?'
Blake couldn't help but raise himself back up slowly to take a glimpse at what was happening. With a groan from the timber deck, Doug had turned his attention and stood, walking with Ray along the deck as he walked to the 4WD. 'Don't worry. I got them,' Doug replied with a minor slur, the accumulated beers having the desired effect Doug was after.
This was the fox's chance.
Blake crept as fast as he could for the wheelbarrow. He was half way there when Ray got to his 4WD. Here, Ray paused and sighed disconcertingly. 'Just give me a ring if they're any trouble.'
Ray reached for the drivers side door and paused. He looked back at the barren yard and noticed Doug following his vision to the letter. The stillness to it was small comfort for leaving his children in the care of a person, no matter how much he loved him as a friend, who had gone passed the point of reconciliation with well founded yet stagnating depression, not to mention his method of coping by the means of an empty bottle and delirium.
'I'm trusting you to do the right thing here,' Ray said quietly, his sullen stare on the man with preoccupations swirling through his. 'I was alright with your actions before, but they're frightening my kids now, Doug.'
Doug had to break his anxious glare from the yard to acknowledge him. Then he dropped his sorrowful eyes at the betrayal and pain his grief had caused. 'I know. And I know I can't apologize enough to you, Clair, or your kids.'
'Just...' Ray opened the vehicles door forlornly and sat at seeing Doug return his gaze to the woods, then back to the yard. 'I don't want to see that animal in that hutch when I get back in the morning, what ever happens!' The command struck Doug hard, not used to being ordered so passionately by him. 'I want this over with. Blake's passing was hard on all of us, but this madness has to stop tonight. Its gone on too long. Or else...' Ray was about to releasehis indignation against his friend, instead, he simply huffed them away as he normally did, finding patients he had for his children. 'Just make your priorities the kids, will ya? They're in bed now, so you should be alright. Keep an ear out.'
It seemed so hard, if not impossible, to do. Doug had simmered over his son's disappearance for so long with everyone telling him what he refused to believe, that bargaining for a alternative train of thought, even a folly that sent him to believe an apparition of death was stalking him, that even the possibility of anything other than tonight and thinking of the logical conclusion stirred his mind in a disturbingly dark way. 'I realise that,' Doug lied, 'your kids are my priority.'
As satisfied as he was going to get, Ray closed the door and roared the engine to life while Doug walked back to his seat and continued his watch.
Blake had managed curled his tail around his body behind the smaller than he expected wheelbarrow as Ray had glanced out to the yard. He heard another groan from the timber decking as well as the idle from the vehicle. Blake held his breath and narrowed his eyes, to avoid a risk of any light from the 4WD's headlights reflecting against them, and watched Ray roll passed him along the fence bordering the fields. He rolled down the long driveway headed away from the woodland along an unknown road the fox couldn't make out until those twin lamps were hovering and bobbing their way down it. Soon he heard the distant higher pitch from his vehicle as it reached the tarmac and journeyed away.
With the kids asleep - supposedly - all there were were two determine souls knowing this fateful night would be it.
While he waited with his nose facing his tail for his next moment to act, Blake noticed a small beam of light shimmering through the motes of dust particles left from the passing car through the bottom of the wheelbarrow that shone on his backside. With the flimsy children's wheelbarrow on its side, Blake mused at the next resting place of it in the very near future with all the other junk at the forgotten side of the house and looked through the hole. His father watched attentively at the woods while glancing back occasionally to the fields. The man's eyes were stern and focused. Blake could tell he was ready to get him. The tension that gripped the night was ever prevalent with him. Having Jade trapped was a gift. Even from where the fox was, he could smell the alcohol on his father's breath at being comfortable enough to indulge. The man had been drinking from early afternoon and even now he was still focused on getting the fox despite being intoxicated.
Lying down in the dirt with his tail wrapped around him, Blake started to think hard. There was no way that he could get to Jade or run away without being spotted and possibly killed. Suddenly, there came a dull thump from inside the house, then yelling soon after it.
'Uncle Doug!?' called someone from the top floor.
Blake quickly looked through the hole again and saw his father getting up, frustrated at the level of discipline his friend's children had. Doug walked briskly inside to check who was yelling and what had fallen. Doug did agree to babysit them after all. The responsibilities he had to them were more important than a simple fox. In Ray's eyes anyway. For Doug though, the amount of things these children broke had quickly diluted any worry of them having hurt themselves. Nonetheless, he investigated, as he needed something else to help him keep his head clear.
Once his father's shadow turned and stepped upstairs, Blake took his chance and ran for the hutch. He quickly got into its shadow and jumped on the milk crate that rested beside it. A long time of jumping on boulders and felled trees caused him to think of this crate as just that until he tried to stop suddenly on it. His kinetic energy sent the rough crate tumbling over and took the unsuspecting fox with it, making him tumble back on it. Not missing a beat, he righted himself swiftly and tipped it back to where it sat in the divots from the day. Blake was able to position himself back on more carefully so that his figure blended in with the enclosure before his father came back out with a small black radio in his hands. Yet still the fox wasn't fully covered. His legs stuck out from under the floor level. But thanks to the shadow and the tiny box that used to house pet rabbits, his father would have to look very carefully to construed the fox's blacked out figure from the hutch.
Blake rested his front legs against the wooden box and looked inside the open wire enclosure. Through lingering pain and shaken anxiety, Jade's longing eyes and loving smile stared at him. Like when he found her after the wildfires, his joy was hard to keep contained at being close to her once more.
'Hey,' he whispered as quietly as he could with the key-ring hole of the silver piece of metal hanging from his canine.
'I'm going to bite you as soon as I get out of here,' Jade whispered back with a jubilant smile, a tad more menacingly than Blake would have liked. 'You do know that, right?'
Blake simply grinned at her threat. He was glad for any contact so long as it came from her. 'I deserve it. It's time to get you out of here. But for now we need to keep quiet. He doesn't know I'm here yet.'
Jade pushed her nose through the wire and tried for reach Blake's. He leaned out from the gloom of the enclosure enough and their cold nose touched. Their thankful auras blended into one the veil of despair and all hopelessness vanished for those few seconds of ever loving partnership. Jade had never been so glad to see him, let alone feel him. After having that cold barrel rammed against her scull, she thought that he would have surely gotten killed by the time he got to the fence. She wanted to tell him of her experience, but she knew she couldn't say another word until they were in the safety of the woods. Even with the radio from the decking being turned on and soft country music began played, a slight change in tone from the yard would have the hunter on his feet and gun in hand.
Blake then saw the small brass padlock holding the door shut. Biting down on the key, he reached up and slid it in the barrel and twisted his head. With a soft pop covered by the delicate frets being plucked by a somber musician on the decking, the only thing holding Jade in place released. Just before he went to pull it off the twin rusted hoops holding the door shut, he paused. He realized if he opened it now, he would only put himself and Jade in more danger. He noticed the hinges to the hutch were rusted. If Blake opened it, they would creak, giving their position away. He had planned on running off into the fields with the long shadow of the hutch covering their escape long enough for them to get a head start. The creak over the soothing acoustic guitar would be their undoing.
There were only two things that he could do. He could risk the life of Jade and himself and run for it, or they could stay and wait until something happened to distract the his father again. He wasn't willing to risk the life of his spiritual partner, and inside the house all commotion had settled to soft murmurs of sleepy children.
Blake glanced down at his rear paws as the pads uncomfortably dug around the rough contours of the crates structure. His was sleepy and hungry. Yet none of that mattered. They were only small sacrifices in what was a life or death moment.
He made the difficult decision to wait.
*
Blake was quick to learn that children could not be trusted, even the more free spirited ones. Hours past and still nothing had happened to distract his father but the forlorn - sometimes upbeat, but mostly grim - plucking of guitar strings emitting from the small radio. The subtle notes appearing to send the obsessed man into a focused zen-like state of transparency able to zero in on the slightest change in atmosphere as fine as a candle dancing in the wind of a firestorm, which only deepened his resolve to finish of the so called apparition once and for all if it meant having his conscious cleared. The fox hidden in the hutches shadow winced back all agony as his paws were killing him as they seemed to continue to painful sink around the rough plastic edges of the crate. Throughout this whole time he never shifted his hind legs for fear of any minute movement sparking a gun shot. Despite all he did to ward it off, his body started shaking. It had been two nights since he slept, two days since he ate anything, and now an entire night of standing on his hind legs propped against a old splintery rabbit hutch.
Meanwhile, all Jade could do was remind him that his hardships were going to be worth it in the end through tense radiating comfort parted by cold chicken wire. Her rosy gaze picked him up whenever he felt weak, yet as the long night dragged closer to its finality, he wavered more than she could handle. No matter what support she or their bond could provide, the mind and body were separate to the soul; sooner or later, one would fail, and the spirit was eternal. Flesh and hope were finite.
In an hour, the light of the sun would be upon them, taking away the safety and cover of darkness with a simple yellow glow from the horizon. Ray would soon be back, if he wasn't around the corner already. His 4WD's headlights would spot him hiding behind the hutch where they had overlooked the fox on his departure. Blake began to think that running for it was the only thing left to do. Once the sun touched them, or once a vehicle was manned and ready to cut him off, he would be done. Blake reached up for the lock and grabbed it. Jade watched on anxiously and waited for Blake to open the door ready to leg it as soon there was a gap.
Just before Blake slid the lock off, they both heard another sound coming from inside the house. Or rather, from the window upstairs. Doug turned his head slightly to radar in on he unusual thumping on the back upstairs window barely audible from where they were, yet breaking through the disheartened melodies of a broken country singer. They all heard a quiet creak of an opening window, then heard a loud startled scream of the little girl. Light running footsteps sounded from inside, down the stairs and through the hallway before Sarah burst open the front door.
'Uncle Doug!' Sarah wept, her sleepy eyes wide in confused panic and fright. 'The squirrel's in my room!'
Both Jade and Blake looked to the house and saw his father running in, swearing loudly with the little girl close behind him. Through the open door, Blake watched on to see what had happened inside.
Astrid, doing more than could ever be asked, jumped down from the mid landing of the steps to the hand rail then across the hallway to the lounge room, running startled circles around their frightened legs before dashing to another room. Blake couldn't believe it. He was frozen in shock at her continued vigilance over the two struggling at being trapped in the open.
'C'mon Blake!' yelled Jade, the opening to their own window closing rapidly.
Quickly, Blake pulled the padlock off, realizing Astrid's gift. Jade pushed the door open with her nose and jumped out. As the hutch door swung open, it made the piercing sound Blake dreaded. It screeched loudly, cracking the air passed the commotion inside. Together, they ran as fast as they could towards the fence at the woods. Then Blake stopped with a slide. He looked back at the hutch and saw the door wide open, then back at the house. Jade left unbridled fear continue to push her body over the fence and across the no-mans land. Once the comforting pillars of the woods surrounded her, she dared a glance over her shoulder before she entered the thick bracken. Blake had paused just on the far side of the wire, still in the yard. She didn't know what Blake was doing. She thought he had finally lost his mind and wanted to go back. She wanted to turn back and chase after him, but her instincts told her to run for freedom.
'Blake! What are you doing?' she shouted, terror amounting to that past that of the onslaught.
He didn't answer. There was only two things on his mind at that time, and that was to get the hutch shut, and make sure the squirrel got out. Astrid's sacrifice would not be worth anything if they didn't get away unnoticed. Doug would quickly scoot the panicking rodent out the open front door, whether Astrid willed herself to stay or gave in to instincts. He knew that if the hutch stayed open, his father would notice straight away that Jade had escaped during her surprised distraction. The cross hairs would be on them in seconds. He had to make it look like Jade was still locked up by the time he got to the door. He quickly turned and ran back.
As he ran, he picked up the stuffed bear Ray had kicked out of the way while moving the decrepit hutch. Jumping on the crate, Blake threw the bear into the hutch and pushed the door shut with his nose. Blake then turned his frantic glare down, trying to find the padlock. When he dropped it, he didn't take note of where it landed, not thinking at the moment that it would be important. But now, with Astrid coming back into be escape plan, it was crucial. He had to make an open window for her, too. He quickly jumped back to the ground and shot shaken furtive glances around the hutch. He could hear his father's cursing and lack of shrieking from Sarah as the moment inside was coming under control, Astrid being herded closer to the front door.
In the corner of his eye, glaring in the light, he saw what he had been looking for. The lock had tumbled to be out in the open with the veranda lights reflecting a brass glow off it. Ignoring the bright light and the possibility of being seen, he ran out from the shadows and safety of the hutch. He grabbed the lock as well as a mouthful of dirt and spun back on a dime. He leaped and landed on the crate, making it tilt slightly, wanting to throw him off again. He placed a paw down to stabilize it, wasting a second he didn't have, before stepping up and against the enclosure. The amount of adrenaline pumping through Blake's body was strong enough to make his muzzle tremble. Although he struggled, he managed to slip the lock back in its slot and pushed it up with a click. Once that was heard, he quickly jumped off the crate and ran back towards Jade as she returned to the fence, his legs a blur.
'Go Jade! Go!'
Jade turned and ran a little before glancing back, making sure he was following...
And froze.
Blake was about to slide under when he felt the terrified aura encompassing them, quickly spreading out to envelop another. The stricken fox stood still and looked over his shoulder. On the veranda, with the gun pointed at him, his father stood, aiming. Sarah had fled upstairs while a desperate squirrel vainly tried to lure the mans attention back inside, running circles around his legs.
'Fool me once; shame on me,' he clicked the safety off, 'try to fool me twice; shame on you.'
Without taking his manically victorious eyes from the sights, he pulled back his boot and kicked forward, collecting the shocked squirrel and sending a limp Astrid hurling over the steps to skid on the ground between Blakenext to the hutch. The stunned squirrel weakly pushed her body off the dirt and stared sorrowfully into Blake's eyes.
'I... I tried,' she stammered quietly, pain rippling around her body.
Doug lowered his sights onto the rodent and squeezed the trigger.
But he held back from setting the bullet off as Blake darted in front of his reticle, his body blocking any attempt to shoot his dear friend. Doug released pressure on his finger slightly as the fox held a mournful glare with his father through the clear sights, the spotlights singling out the animal bent on refusing to lose it all. Letting go of all his nerves, Blake sighed and slowly looked back at Jade on the far side of the fence.
The vixen's eyes showed distraught loss.
His were of knowing that all this turmoil, which he started in the first place when he chose to leave his family so tragically, finally coming to an end.
'Go on, Jade,' he said calmly. He then glanced down at Astrid, a hurting squirrel not barring the ache of seeing his determined yet broken frown foreseeing his own death. 'Thank you again, Astrid.'
The squirrel reached out silently to him as he turned from her and began the short walk to the end of that long path of life. Though obscured by focused glass, covering his only open eye, it was undeniable that the grief thumping through his father's blood had reached its pinnacle. The distance closed, and Blake's anguished will to help his father understand his disappearance grew, banishing the will to satisfy the man's bloodlust with his death, and be assured of Jade's safety until her natural death. Between them, he felt the strained bond reaching its limit, a spiritual connection that couldn't be lost by simply changing a body.
If I can... Blake thought, with distant memories of whispers of Jade's mother willing to him to do something when he was a broken man feeling alive again. Maybe...
He concentrated, searching on the other plane through still white clouds and conflicting motions. His chest churned and glowed when he found a great disturbance. The physical air around then stiffened in return, and the melancholy tones of the performing singer humming through the radio faded into soft static.
Then, as strangely as the ambient flow of invisible pure air waving around them, Blake's own wants in his new life then cascaded through as another lovely energy helped push him for a lesson that taught the meaningless of his planned sacrifice. He had been willing to give himself up, and the equally powerful vibe from that other world pulsing from his father would have allowed it. In the man and surrounding them as potently yet absently as the air they breathed, a pure energy was forcing a conclusion it desired. But inside the fox and the vixen he loved, a new power just as compelling and frightful as the force that turned the earth fought back.
Doug continued to aim and adjusted his footing as the fox calmly walked towards the house with his eyes never straying from his father, those hazel jewels sparkling in artificial light screaming for reconciliation. Each step done in silence, yet the ground seemed to quiver irritatingly under his toes. Through the sights of the .308, Doug watched ruefully as the fox continued towards him. He tightened his trigger finger, the perfect shot presenting itself with each step closer the fox came. Surrounding them, as the night time breeze passed around them, the essence of the wind made itself present as it blew through a wavering opaque aura surrounding them, becoming invisible again as soon as it left their tremendous clashing spiritual bubble. Slowly, Doug's hand began trembling under the strain, throwing off his sights. With burning eyes ready to shed the final tear, Blake stopped at the base of the steps and stared up at his father, holding him in his desperate gaze, feeling the loving bond of son and father within him that his father now could not. Yet the human did not pull the trigger.
He could not.
The natural force wanted it, but the unnaturally mixed glow from both foxes wanted another way.
There, the pair stayed. The feeling was recognizable, too familiar to be compassion. Inside, Blake's father ached deeply as well as the fox. The human felt the tattered family blood within this creature. All year they had to deal with each other as opposites, forgetting they were more one than anything with what they shared. The fox thought he had soothed man broken by loss with the donation of his fur in front of his photo after the onslaught. Once again, because of his failure to close the front door when he left the house, his father blew it away with an idle sneeze. Doug thought it, but denied it. For so long he denied it.
With one front leg forward, the fox slowly lowered his head with the cross hairs following him down, faced the dirt and bowed to him, bringing his chest to the ground. From the unreachable level of spirituality, Blake begged his father for forgiveness.
'I'm sorry, dad,' Blake pleaded, the frightful spiritual anger of his father's resolve being held back by something of the ethereal plane made by the wild. 'I never meant to hurt you. I'm sorry of what I've done to you for my own wants.' The grunts and whines traveled through the opaque hue, but only broken whispers of them reaching the man, and those being lost in the turbulence of the spiritual force fighting to push the trigger down.
The fox, the depressed boy that was, never meant for all of this to happen. He saw a chance to start again and took it mindlessly without thinking of what it would mean to those he loved. He thought they were coping by the sights on the mantelpiece. Blake never understood that his father was forever in pain because of him. But now he could see that the stress they both gave each other was too much. Now, Blake just wanted it over with. Through one way or the other, the fox wanted to give condolence. He wanted to give his grieving father acceptance. He wanted a free life for him and his friends.
He wanted peace for all of them!
As he staggered from the alcohol, a tear rolled down the cheek of his father as he forced himself to take a breath. All he had to do was pull the trigger. It would be done with. The hunter was trying to force his trigger finger down with all his physical might, yet he was unable to. This kill would mean his pride could be returned, and the fox's blood spilled would elevate him enough to finally move on. The amount of grief he felt towards this pest could finally be lifted. But now with this creature bowing to him, he felt a strange sense of calm pushing back against his urge to fire. The firing pin of the gun rattled in tune with the radios static and Doug felt it harder to hold the sights in front of him as his arms became heavy.
'Why did you take him?' Doug asked through clenched teeth. 'Why did you take my son?!' Blake raised his head for a moment to stare agonizingly to the human he loved, needing desperately to tell him that he was here and still loved him.
'It's still me,' Blake barked hopelessly. 'This is who I am.' The mans eyes were unwavering as the furtive grunts were again lost in his own spiritual aura. 'This is me! Please! See me!'
'We knew he was troubled,' Doug continued solemnly. 'We were going to help him... And you took him away!' He then shouted, short of an agonizing scream. 'Why!'
Unable to give his father the release he so desperately needed, Blake lowered his head with a heartbroken wince. His parents did love him enough to want to help. The pelt of Jade's mother given to him as easily as a gift had started the avalanche of grief that would see them instead face each other as enemies when all that was needed to begin with was a condoling hug. Although both consumed by each other's pain, the only sound made was that of the wind and faint rattle of the firing pin with radio static blended in. The fox still held himself there, not moving a muscle, praying to be free, wanting his father to know who he was.
Begging for an end!
Blake's father finally succumbed and he lowered the barrel as he took a shaky breath. Nothing more could be done other than hold back his sorrow as his trigger finger cramped. Still, the fox didn't move. Doug reached around the gun and pulled back the firing pin, holding a constant sullen stare with the fox. He took out the single bullet and held it in his hand, rolling it around his fingers. He sighed before he dropped it on the timber decking when he left his arm to fall to his side. It bounced down the steps and landed at the fox's paws, rolling to sit under his chin. Once the bullet settled, a tear from the fox's eye dampened his snout and dripped next to the bullet. Slowly, Blake lifted his head mournfully. With this action, after all his father had suffered, he felt his loved ones of the woods could be safe.
'Get out of here!' his father said tersely with cold distress.
In the same calm motion of his arrival, Blake took one more agonizing look at his father, unable to find the peace they both needed.
'I'm sorry...'
The energized aura faded. The subtle static of the radio tuned back to a more downtrodden husky voice of an older man singing away his life of struggle with a soft plucking of guitar strings, and the opaque hue in the air calmed almost instantly.
Blake turned around and walked back Astrid who was still struggling to find her feet after seeing the terrific aura surrounding them. Blake picked her up gently with a tear logged muzzle and cradled her to the fence where he placed her on Jade's back. The soft guitar went silent with a click. Looking over his shoulder again, he saw the front door of the house slam shut. Another tear fell from his eye as he sighed. He wanted to help him as much as his father wanted to help him while he was still human. He wished that that could have happened sooner, before he received the pelt with the spirit trapped within. None of this would have happened.
Blake tucked himself under the fence and walked slowly through the woods with injured friends providing the comfort his father needed more than him.
*
They got back to their den when the sun shone over the tree line. They were panting. Blake was ready to fall asleep, yet he knew he couldn't, the same as his want to eat but unable to even swallow. Yet as bad as he was feeling on an emotional level, his friends were in physical pain. Astrid, especially, seemed worse off.
'You're staying with us for the next few days,' Blake said firmly, yet all authority in his voice felt as mild as the breath of the autumn air.
At that, Astrid picked herself up slowly, yet defiantly, with a cringe and held her own on Jade's back. 'Being hit with hard things is something I'm not a stranger too,' she said mindlessly with the first things coming to her mind being that of a tree being slammed into her back. Her bitter tones struck a sensitive cord with Blake which she quickly apologized for. 'I mean... I'll be fine.' She jumped down, landing and fragile legs. 'Thanks for the offer, but after you two being apart for so long and after... whatever that it was that happened tonight, I'll sleep in the oak above you guys. Just keep it down, alright.'
Blushing must have been a seasonal thing. Blake's cheeks burned pleasantly and the small throbbing wounds on Jade abated. Before the squirrel started her long climb to the lowest branch that called her name, both Blake and Jade leaned forward and nuzzled her affectionately between their muzzles.
'Thank you for everything,' Jade said with a genuine smile, glad to have this animal as her friend, not a snack.
Clearly a bit overbearing, Astrid shivered off the two with images of teeth flashing around distantly and she sighed, then turned to the tree. 'The things I do for you two.' With that, she scampered up the trunk and slumped her body over the first branch she reached obscured in thick leaves.
Jade had never felt so glad to be home in all her life. After they entered the den, they lay down on the comfortable soft ground and began to rest. This felt like heaven for Jade as very real scruffs and bumps reminded her of her last dreadful home. Blake held a constant gaze with her, noting over her injuries, and waiting for her to settle after her ordeal. When at last she rested, Blake then began to nuzzle her soothingly, for she was still shaking.
'Don't worry Jade. It's all over now,' Blake cooed, yet then beginning to think that maybe it was not.
Jade shook her head, knowing she would never forget such a thing. 'I'm never going to get over this.'
'Sure you will. Everyone does sooner or later.'
'You don't know what I was put through.'
Blake looked down carefully at her body and saw the little wounds all over her through her fur. His jaw dropped in shock, not realizing what exactly was done to her before now. 'I'm so sorry Jade. I had no idea. Please know that I never wanted them to take you.'
'Then why didn't you charge them like we planned?' She thought over the situation at the baited cage and understood the look he held while he stood petrified in the open while his father grabbed her. 'You saw Beryl in that female, didn't you?'
Blake sighed shamefully. 'After seeing that frightened look on Beryl when I found her, and then seeing that same look on that girl... I just froze. I just couldn't frighten her. Please, I'm sorry for that.' Blake nuzzled her again, her shivers fading with each loving rub. Jade cringed back as he accidentally pushed against a wound. 'What did they do to you?'
The day's ordeals flooded back with a vengeance. 'When I woke up, I saw human cubs. They came over to me with sticks in their hands and began to jab me constantly. They cornered me and I submitted, but they kept poking me!' Jade began to weep. 'I was nearly bleeding all over before they were told get away from me. Then later they came out and started spraying me with hard water.' The sudden realization of what she had coaxed to get the man to help then shuddered her as she noted the same spiritual strength along with her mates that stopped the deranged hunter from firing a bullet into her lovers head. 'If your father hadn't told them to stop, I would have drowned. Then I waited until you came.'
Somewhere inside his father's being there was a side that knew what had happened. Blake felt it just as he felt it when he first started thinking what the spiritual feeling could be on his final days as a human. Blake felt his father's spirit had grieved at the torment he inflicted on him, and could not do a thing to help.
Blake began to nuzzle her again more carefully. Jade nuzzled back and she stopped shaking. 'We'll I'm here now,' Blake sighed. 'As I said before: as long as I'm alive, you will never die.' Jade's gut churned, greeted by a deeper response from Blake's. 'You must be hungry. I take it that you weren't given any food or water?'
'No. They left me there to starve. The only time I got water was when they saturated me with it.'
Nuzzling Jade one last time, Blake got to his feet and walked to the small chamber. His mind was, some what, at peace. All immediate conflict he had with his father was gone. He felt his spirit fighting to pull the trigger, yet he couldn't against the fox's wanting to do better. His father was not going to shoot him, nor Jade, nor any he loved. Blake finally felt his father knew his intentions were not malevolent. The will to satisfy the urge for blood wasn't there when it was needed. The bond they had would not allow it.
Knowing that Jade was safe in their den made Blake happy. Then it came to him that the special thing Blake wanted to do for her, since it was a year since they met, he had already done. With a lot of help, he had saved her life, repeating what he had done when they first met.
Resting her head on the ground, Jade smiled as her troubles were long gone. She was extremely happy everything turned out the way it did, despite the protests of her hurting body. She could put her life in his paws and know that it would stay safe. She was lucky that he wasn't a human mind. If Blake wanted to, he could have stayed in the safety of the woods, but his love for her overcame the fear of being killed.
Tired, Jade opened her mouth to yawn, only to have something drop in it. She closed her mouth in reflex and popped a ripe raspberry with her teeth. With a satisfied smile, she chewed the fruit and swallowed the juices. While she ate, another lumpy red gem rolled out of the small chamber. She lapped it up and smiled as another one came. A quick sugar rush seeped into her blood and she could almost feel her wounds healing. With each one that showed itself, she lapped it up and her body began feeling great again. After the sixth one, she struggled to fit all the pulp in her mouth. Starting to giggle at the absurdity of it, a small wave of raspberries flooded the main chamber, followed by Blake who then threw himself down on top of half of them joyfully, squirting juice into his fur. His face held nothing but joy as Jade promptly began eating the berries that squished out from under him. He laughed as she pushed him over and rolled over herself. The rest of the raspberries popped and the juices soaked her fur as they rolled around with each other like young cubs, demolishing any berries they may have missed.
After finally calming down, they finished off the ones that didn't burst in their immature time of play and rested. Like Blake had wished, they spent the rest of the day cleaning raspberry juice from each other's fur mirthfully.
'You two have become something so much more than I ever intended.'
The sudden haunting voice inside Blake's mind took away his wondrous smile briefly as Jade groomed his chest lovingly. Along with these familiar hollow words came with it the same frightful energy that tried to kill him only hours before, only recognized now after his encounter with his father.
'Why won't either of you die?'