Chapter 2: Satisfaction

 

After a short rest the Fox wakes up to notice the temperature has gone down. The first sun must have set. He slowly approaches the exit of the cave to look for any signs of the wolf or any danger in general.

 

Just after the Fox approached the exit of the crack he suddenly had a feeling.

 

‘Danger, go back’

 

Dashing backwards as best as he could in the confined space, the Fox barely escaped the fate of being snatched by the Wolf’s paw that appeared suddenly. Looking at the entrance again the Fox noticed that the Wolf had only been to the side of the crack waiting for him to poke his head out.

 

‘Danger, outside, inside, stay, safety’

 

The Fox had no choice but to retreat back into the cave to watch the outside for if the wolf truly left.

 

For the next 18 hours the Fox and the Wolf played a game of cat and mouse as the Wolf kept trying new methods to lure out the Fox and the Fox acted cautiously with his high danger sense. As the 3rd moon started to appear in the sky the Wolf finally couldn’t bear the cold anymore and once again went to seek out shelter.

 

Unfortunately the Fox was even worse off than the wolf at night, when all 3 moons are out the Fox has no chance to leave lest he wants to give his life to the elements. After resigning to his fate of not leaving in the near future, the Fox bared through the hunger, that was only progressively getting worse, and went to sleep.

 

‘Hunger, Still Hunger’

 

These thoughts occupied his mind as he slept, the hunger had started to grind away at what little rationality he possessed. Still sleep came slowly yet suddenly for the Fox. Unfortunately he wasn’t destined to have a long sleep as just soon after he started sleeping, he caught the scent of the ‘Good Smell’ again. During the period of being half asleep he groggily walked towards the scent. After a moment the Fox started awake and looked around worried if he had left the cave in this state.

 

Lucky for him the scent was not coming from outside but rather further inside the cave. Seeing that he could follow the scent he was more than overjoyed to follow the scent. Of course there was one difference this time compared to last time he caught a whiff of the scent, he was very cautious in his approach of the scent. 

 

Walking for a short time the Fox came across another crack in the cave that led deeper towards the smell. 

 

‘Smell, Good, Danger?..... No, follow’

 

Noticing that the instinct for danger he has been relying on recently said nothing about this situation, the Fox decided to follow the scent in.

 

Crawling through the crack in the back of the cave, an additional cavern area was revealed. This area was far more spacious than where he was earlier and had a small crack in the ceiling that let in some light, but was also small enough to keep most creatures out.

 

His eyes naturally followed the path of the only source of light in the room and ended up noticing that there in the center of the cavern soaking up the moonlight stood a Black Lily. The lily stood there almost seeming proud that it had managed to live in this small cavern devoid of life.

 

‘Scent, Lily, Source’

 

Despite the seemingly proud nature of the Black Lily and the questions as to how it had managed to grow in this small cavern the Fox was more concerned about another fact. The Black Lily was the source of the scent. With little hesitation he dashed up to this seemingly harmless plant and immediately attempted to bite down on one of the black leaves on this lily.

 

The moment that the Fox opened his mouth and approached the Black Lily he felt a sudden extreme sense of danger.

 

‘Danger, Danger, Very Danger’

 

The Fox dashed backwards and quickly looked around the cavern trying to find the source of the feeling of danger. Yet he soon noticed that the danger that he felt had disappeared just as suddenly appeared.

 

‘Danger?..... No?..... No, Danger’

 

Confused yet happy the Fox approached the Black Lily again but this time taking a closer look at this plant.

 

‘Leaf, Black, Leaf, Smell, Danger’

 

When he bent down to smell the plant again he caught the very obvious “good scent” yet he also caught a whiff of another smell from the flower that gave a faint sense of danger.

 

Despite that slight feeling of danger the Fox was truly feeling hungry at this time.

 

‘Lily, Danger?..... Yes? …. No?...... Smell, Good’

 

The hunger had been a constant problem for him all day today and was progressively getting worse. In the end he couldn’t help but try to eat the leaf of this Black Lily again. Yet once again as soon as his mouth approached the leaf he felt a sudden intense sense of danger.

 

In response to this signal of danger the Fox stopped his movement and retracted his mouth but didn’t jump away this time. He noticed that danger was felt when trying to eat the lily but not when near the lily.

 

As the Fox started to stare at the Black Lily with a progressively more intense gaze of indecision he suddenly noticed something.

 

‘Small, very small, but…... satisfied’

 

He had suddenly noticed that his feeling of hunger was somewhat less than it was before. Happy he soon moved away from the dangerous Black Lily. Yet when he was only a few steps away he immediately noticed the hunger started to get worse again. The hunger also seemed to be telling him to go back. To stay next to the Black Lily.

 

‘Black Lily? Satisfied?..... Yes’

 

Deciding to listen to his recent abnormal instinct he went back to the Black Lily. As he got closer to the lily again he once again felt his hunger start to wane. Satisfied with this feeling and knowing that the Black Lily was dangerous he found a spot close to the Black Lily but yet not too close to the lily. 

 

As the feeling of satisfaction filled his body he couldn’t stop himself from laying down and falling asleep next to this flower.