Hana lifted her tear-streaked face when she felt the gentle nudge on her head. She knew Kuro was on the other side of her cheek, trying to cheer her up. The touch could only come from the adorable Shiro.

As Hana lifted her face to look at Shiro, she was shocked with the purplish trail of blood on the cave floor. She immediately looked everywhere to find where did the fox hurt itself. "Why are you bleeding now dear…" She exclaimed in sorrow as she saw its bloodied paw and related the bloodied claw-like thing in Shiro's mouth. She gently took it away and placed it on the floor beside her before giving Shiro a tight hug.

Why am I so useless! Even my pet hurt itself to help me. The tears in her eyes increased in intensity as it rained like a broken dam. Anybody who see it would've understood Shiro's selfless intent of replacing the crumbled chisel with its own nail as a cutting tool. She couldn't waste Shiro's good intention. She must treasure it well.

"Thank you, sweetie. I'll use it well." She held Shiro's cheek with both hands and placed her forehead on its nose in mixed feelings. She was extremely touched and happy, but at the same time she felt guilty. It must've hurt badly. 

She stood up and took a small amount of water from the water filter leaning on the makeshift rack carefully. She then looked everywhere for her baby napkin cum 'towel'.

"Can you fetch that napkin over Kuro dear?" She immediately squatted down beside the white fox and checked on its paw gently.

...

Kuro was baffled by Shiro's determined action. Now, it had seen the fluffy white fox in a new light. Previously, it thought the fox was just leeching on Hana's goodwill. So, it exacted a small revenge on it when it finally offered its help for once. Now it felt slightly guilty. 

Kuro quickly dashed towards the towel its mommy used to wipe her own body and pass it to Hana with mixed feelings. Hana had never treated it with her own personal towel before. Should it try to injure itself next time?

It shook its head multiple time with the ridiculous notion. If it got hurt bad enough and the fox was out too, who would be able to accompany their mommy in her daily playtime inside the dangerous forest? She was weaker than a chicken! Even chicken would know how to run when sensing danger. Hana was so senseless that it feared she would freeze in front of danger. She wasn't even sensitive to incoming danger as she walked blindly without fear in a few occasions.

Forget it. The dumb fox deserves the treatment. It did well this time. Kuro tried its best to contain its unhealthy dose of jealousy. It knew how precious the claw of a glacier mirage fox and how hard it was to cultivate a new one. Although Kuro won't admit it, in its heart, it already considered the fox as part of their family and trusted the fox to care for Hana's safety when it needed to go a bit far from their home.

...

"How do you feel now dear?" Hana wiped the injury with her napkin soaked with plain filtered water. She wiped it carefully while observing the wound. The thick blood has crusted and showed signs of self-healing. The blood dying the napkin was diluted into the shade of light purple. She was anxious as she didn't know that was simply Shiro's original blood color. 

The fluffy fox whimpered a little and kept quiet. Hana could sense its nonchalance towards pain. She rubbed its fluffy head dotingly and went to fetch a piece of antibacterial wet-wipes in her handbag. She then continued again; wiping carefully with the wet-wipes this time. She could only do so much. There was no iodine or alcohol lying around to treat her pet's wound. She wrapped the wound with the pieces of cloth she had from her inner yellow shirt. Afraid it could get infected, she used another clean wet-wipe to cover the injured part before she bound the wound carefully. 

Hana took this opportunity to check on the homemade cast she made on Shiro's left hind leg and its left front leg. She had once learned some first aid from Red Crescent Moon, but treating animals was really not her forte. Normally when the pets at home looked somewhat listless, she immediately pester Arash to ferry them to the nearby vet doctor. 

Woah! Surprisingly the broken bones seem to connect well. Isn't it just about 3-4 days? What high speed recovery! Do I have a knack to be a vet? The aunty praised herself incessantly inside her heart. She gently felt the bone structures underneath all the fluffy fur with her hands and found the discontinuity was gone. Her face was plastered with a happy smile. She opened the cast made from random branches tied with her own teared yellow inner shirt. She never thought that Shiro would get better just a few days later, if not she would’ve reused the yellow cloth bandage rather than teared a new one to bind Shiro’s paw injury.

"Try to walk a little sweetie." She ushered the fox to walk. There was still a slight limp on its hind leg. The front looked absolutely fine.

Hana gave herself an illusory pat at the back. 

Now was the time for checking out Shiro's gift for her. 

Hana walked up to it and carefully hold on the blunt end. It was evident that the claw had been yanked from its roots since a clump of purple blood covered the blunt end. The claw was actually slightly large in proportion when compared to Shiro’s body size; about the size of a fruit knife. For the size of a fully grown German Shepherd, the size of the claw should only be about one-third of this. Nonetheless, to serve as a kitchen knife, the size of this claw was still considered unsatisfactory. Hana hesitated a bit on how to use such a small 'knife' to cut the bamboo. However, she knew she had to use it somehow to give some face to her pet (1). She didn’t want her pet felt its sacrifice was in vain. Children’s feelings were as fragile as glass.

Hana sighed. Alright. Let's make a handle first before anything. Even if the knife couldn't handle the bamboos, she planned to keep it close to her for self-defense.

Hana washed the yellow fabric she used on Shiro's cast and tied the knife on its blunt end with a piece of wood. After all, with lack of materials, it’s good to recycle. 3R spirit (2)!

Hana got ready and squatted down inelegantly in front of the bamboo clusters. She chose a different one this time just to check on the knife's sharpness and strength.

"Huh!!" She grunted while pushing the knife with as much force as she could muster to start the familiar scoring motion.

The knife cut through the bamboo just like hot knife on butter! It didn't even stop and cut down the wood she placed under the bamboo together for support. It also went down into the cave floor until only the handle was left. She nearly fell face down on the knife too but was saved by the protective little snake as usual. It jumped lightly like a spring and slightly pushed Hana on her shoulder before landing suavely on her lap, awaiting some well deserving praise.

"Thanks sweetie." She stroked Kuro's head distractedly with a blank expression.

Returning to her senses, she had finally understood the quality of the homemade knife. 

Danggggg! This is super sharp! Hana sweated in fear. Her fingers would've been cut off just with a gentle touch! 

However, she was not overly shocked with the sharpness of the knife. It reminded her of the one knife she longed for when she visited an expo before. The kitchen knife was so sharp but costed more than RM500 (around USD125) per piece.  She could only bitterly swallowed her saliva; she had no courage to ask from her hubby for such expensive knife when she already had a set of four knives which function well to this day at a fraction of the cost.

Hana took a deep breath, feeling slightly overwhelmed. She was lamenting on how the world works. She got her dream kitchen knife made from a claw of a fox when she got lost somewhere in the forest, of which forced her to sleep on a cave floor without indoor toilet, constantly protected by a tiny harmless looking little snake. 

She silently vowed to be mentally prepared for new surprises ahead. If not, her heart won't be able to take it. Her life right now was like a roller-coaster with an explosion of surprises after surprises nonstop every single day.

Hana fetched the same bamboo again to cut. This time she controlled her strength to carefully cut the whole circumference of the bamboo. She was pleasantly surprised to find how easy her work could be with a good knife in hand. The knife went through the bamboo pole just like when one was cutting a banana, smooth and easy; no scoring needed.

This time, Hana was set to make herself the new shelf. In fact, the aunty was so pumped up, she planned to build a few things besides the shelf; as it seemed that the bamboos outside was truly quite a lot. 

Those kids really love me. Hana chuckled to herself in happiness. 

How about I built something for them as well after I finish all the major things. Hana pondered while looking at the bamboo. She would love to return their devotion. She hadn’t even realized whatever she’d normally did was enough for her pets.

Such was the behavior of a true mother-like figure, albeit a rather clumsy one.

...

Author's Note:

(1) give some face to her pet = in Malaysian language (short form is BM), there really is a proverb “give face” although Mrs Moon is not sure it’s a local thing or a standardize one. It has the same meaning of “preserving the dignity of the other party”, same as the ones use in c-novels. 

(2) 3R spirit = based on the government 3R policy, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse. There's even a popular song about it on pro-gov TV when Mrs Mooncat was little. Now Mrs Mooncat isn’t sure since she didn’t have time to watch TV anymore