Second jolted upright, a powerful sense of unease thrumming through his chest. Nestled away in the den the fox cub could hear something. Danger. There was scratching against the ground outside, the quiet of the forest pierced by the persistent rustling. His littermates were already up, the three of them a frozen pile just a length away. Second squished up next to them, cowering together as they listened in silence. Their sanctuary had been disturbed before, the screams and cries of the world beyond listened to in hushed moments filled with fear. Fear of being noticed. Fear of this. Mother had left the den hours ago. It hadn’t been long before they'd heard her tortured screeching echoing down to them. She wasn’t coming back.
The scratching slowly but surely moved closer to the entrance. As the noises grew closer, more could be heard, wet sniffing and horrid gasping, like each breath was an annoyance forced by the need for air, a distraction from its hunt. Louder and louder the sniffing continued as the cubs huddled together, until finally a single searching snuffle echoed down to them right from the opening to their home. Second held his breath, hoping it’d leave, hoping it’d stop. It stopped. Then the barking began. Harsh, urgent, loud barks beating down on their ears. He trembled, his siblings shivering back against him his only comfort. Violent clawing picked up at the entrance to the den. Second's instincts screamed danger as a vicious pounding began, dust filling the air. He was frozen in terror, he knew he had to get out, had to get away, had to escape and yet he was stuck, paralysed by fear as the walls of the only home he’d known began to crumble around him, dust growing painfully thick in the air.
The chaos became too much, it wasn’t clear who moved first but as one ragged group the four of them staggered forwards, out from their hidden cove and upwards, towards the only way out, towards the murderous invader battering their home down. Flashes of the creature’s jaws could be seen in the entrance, its paws powering into the narrow tunnel. He hesitated, they all did, but when the roof began to fall around their heads the litter started forward, and with a brief lurch of fear, even greater than that of the beast outside his home, the fear of being alone, he rushed after them. That delay was what saved his life.
Bursting forward into the open for the first time in his life, Second didn't have time to look around, didn't have time to take in the world he'd only dreamt about within the den for so long. Instead with a terrible crunch he saw, heard, felt the beast viscerally snap Third out of the air just ahead of him, its jaws clamped tight around his sister's skull. He and his remaining two brothers scrambled to get past - to get away - from the terrible sight. The beast whipped its head back and forth, once, twice, before flinging Third’s limp body away, out of the clearing they now found themselves in, an arc of blood trailing behind. She never had a chance to make a sound.
The beast wasn’t the only danger. Two tall creatures stood in the centre of the clearing, strange multicoloured animals balanced on only two legs that stank of things he didn't know. They didn’t seem to be in pursuit, simply watching the cubs as they darted across the clearing. The creatures called to each other, following the group with their gazes. He and his brothers were split up, scattered from their desperate dash away from the monstrous creature. First was still with him, but Fourth had been separated. The beast wasted no time charging after its prey, to Second's frantic, selfish relief after Fourth, not him. The two disappeared into the undergrowth at the opposite end of the clearing together, the beast howling as it chased its prey. Second didn’t have time to worry about Fourth, he and First continued to scamper towards the trees, their promise of cover drawing ever closer. He started to believe they would make it, that all was not lost. A rushing thwack boomed, a huge length of wood tipped with feathers implanting itself inside First, brutally pinning his brother against the ground.
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First yipped pitifully around the chunk of wood, writhing in agony but it was no use. He was well and truly stuck, the wood sunken deep into the earth. First's blood was red on the shaft, his futile struggles already petering out. Second's pace faltered, eyes meeting with his brothers. He lingered a moment, emotions he’d never felt before today rising up like a tide within. Not fear. Second knew little but he knew fear. This was worse. A twig cracked behind him as the creature that had done this to his brother turned its attention towards him. With a groaning shriek he left his brother to die and escaped into the forest true, a second wooden spike thudded into the tree beside him.
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Frederick’s boots crunched over the twigs as he made his way to the cub he’d shot. The meagre amount of energy that flowed into him from the kill hardly even worth incorporating, scant reward for the time they’d spent retracing the steps of the mother fox to find the den. He knelt down beside the cub, it laid still in a small puddle of blood.
“Damn! We missed one!” Sally kicked at the root of a nearby tree, her face twisted into a scowl as she let out a string of profanity.
“Relax, it was only a cub anyway… you get too worked up over the small stuff. This one had next to no spirit and I don't doubt the same is true for the lot of them.”
“You know I don’t like to let any go to waste Frederick. It all adds up. Out here we can’t let any advantage be.” Sally continued to stalk back and forth, grumbling bitterly to herself.
Frederick considered the pinned cub, its eyes glazed over. Yanking it out of the earth along with the arrow, he turned the cub in his hands as he spoke, “We could go after it if you really want to. Couldn’t be too hard to find.”
Sally sighed, dropping her arms back to her sides. “Forget it. It doesn’t matter. Let’s go back to camp. We need to find real prey, not waste our time chasing mundanes, I guess the mother was the only half decent one of the lot.” Facing into the forest at the other end of the clearing she hollered into the trees, “Come on Spike! Come on boy! Come to Mummy!” The dog raced back into the clearing, eagerly running up to its owner, prize clutched in its jaws. “Did somebody find something good? Huh? And how much energy did that net you buddy?”
Frederick lingered a moment longer, peering out into the dense greenery the last cub had disappeared into. His eyes glittered in the mottled light of the forest as he paused, thinking of the young fox out on its own now in the wild, before dropping the carcass to the ground and following Sally.
“We’ll get a real opportunity soon.”
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Bursting past the trees Second didn't stop for a moment, tearing through the growth of the forest. His heart pounded in his chest, racing faster and faster. He was exhausted and yet he could not, would not stop. His ears strained to catch so much as a hint of pursuit, flinching as he bolted past every tree, potential terrors lurking behind every one.
Darkness encroached on his vision, black pooling around his periphery. He strained to keep his eyes open, every time they flicked shut visions of his sister's head clutched in those jaws flashed in his mind, images of his brother's eyes stretched wide in shock and pain. The smell of his family's blood. The slope he raced down turned steeper and steeper before, feet scrabbling against the ground, he lost control. Bouncing, sliding and tumbling down the incline Second struggled to right himself, the world whirling before him when with a wicked crunch he smashed against a tree. Faster than he would have thought possible Second sank deep into the tarry blackness of oblivion as it stretched across his sight.