The Fox awoke the next day to the 1st Sun high in the sky giving off a calming level of warmth. Stretching out sleepily to help wake up, the Fox felt very content with his sleep this last night.

 

‘Nice, Sleep’

 

He was a very simple creature at his core, he just wanted to continue napping and lazing about through his days if he could. Unfortunately such days did not even come to him before this Hunger awoke in him.

 

‘Hunger? Gone?’

 

One thing unique that he noticed was the fact that the blaring Hunger he felt before was gone, he didn’t feel extremely pressed any longer. In fact he lacked hunger overall, that one mouse was far more filling then he ever imagined.

 

‘Den, Return’

 

Despite the Comfort the Fox feels near the Black Lily, he still wanted to return to his burrow. His food storage there needs to be eaten soon lest it become spoilt. Well there may not actually be much food currently, the day that marked the arrival of the Hunger was hunting day. 

 

His laziness had backfired on him back at the burrow, he was almost out of food when he had left it. So perhaps returning isn’t that important, but the Fox isn’t one to think so deeply about his actions.

 

That was his den. The same den that his parents had lived in before him. No reason to let such a good den go to waste…. Well once again there is a flaw, his parents and ancestors were very similar to himself, lazy.

 

The den was frankly barren of any kind of passages that normal White Foxes would have. All it had was the bare minimum of a den for raising the young, a single food storage, and one exit…. 

 

Honestly, the Fox felt very lighthearted and happy at this time, it was time to go back home. The Hunger was gone, even normal hunger was gone! 

 

‘Satisfying’

 

That was the jest of what he felt. It purely came down to that one word: Satisfying. 

 

With steps even lighter than his prowl, he sauntered towards the larger exit to the cavern. He continued down the crack ready to really start his journey back home.

 

Seeing the light at the end of the crack he finally exited the crack….Well perhaps it should have been mentioned he doesn’t have the best memory when he feels satisfied.

 

‘DANGER!’

 

Having taken quite a few steps away from the cavern he has been hiding in, his senses gave him the strongest sense of danger he has felt yet.

 

Reflexively jumping backwards he avoided death, but only by a hair. The claw that came from his left dug into his left shoulder. Blood immediately started to soak the Fox’s fur as he looked to his left preparing to run.

 

In his forgetfulness he had managed to walk up to the very place that the Wolf was sleeping at. The Wolf having just been awoken from his nap was mentally awake, but his body wasn’t. This caused him to have a slight pause between his first strike and his upcoming bite.

 

The Fox seeing the jaws of the Wolf quickly approaching his neck, turned and bolted away.

 

‘DANGER! RUN! SAFETY’

 

Despite the best efforts to get away in that moment, it could be considered too little too late. The Wolf’s bite managed to clamp down on the Fox’s right hind leg.

 

*Yelp*

 

Yelping in pain as the Fox drags his paws in the ground in hopes of stopping himself from being pulled back to the Wolf. The Wolf gave no mercy, he effortlessly lifted the Fox into the air with his jaws firmly clamped on the Fox’s leg. 

 

‘PAIN, PAIN, DANGER! DANGER!’

 

After making sure the Fox was completely off the ground the Wolf shook his head from left to right making his teeth rip and tear the muscles of the Fox’s leg. After shaking for a brief moment the Wolf let go in the middle of swinging to the left launching the Fox directly into a tree.

 

With a slam the Fox hit the side of a tree hard, but as he hit it at an angle he was launched past the tree still in motion. Soon coming to a stop by rolling through the dirt the Fox lay on the ground his white coat completely covered in the dirt. 

 

Having plowed through the loose dirt at such speeds a cloud of dirt was kicked up causing the Fox to be camouflaged in the cloud because of his dirt covered fur. Losing sight of the Fox the Wolf mentally cursed his own new found strength that sent the Fox too far.

 

Being the careful one that he has always been, the Wolf approached the cloud of dust slowly, after all even a rat will fight back when cornered. To the Wolf’s credit his caution was well founded.

 

‘Danger, Run, Can’t, Fight, Run’

 

The Fox was currently deliberating whether he should fight back or run. While deliberating the Fox didn’t stop his attempts to stand back up, unfortunately it wasn’t the fastest process with a ruined hind leg and the rest of his body injured from the toss. 

 

Before the cloud of dust had completely cleared revealing the Fox, he managed to stand up. Having solved the largest concern of standing, the Fox made his decision.

 

‘Fight, Run’

 

It was a simple solution, to fight the Wolf to find a chance to run. He instinctively knew that he couldn’t out run the Wolf and even less so now in his current state. So he decided he would strike the Wolf before and find a time to run while the Wolf deals with the pain.

 

Not long after standing and getting ready to attack he saw the silhouette of the Wolf. Not taking the time to think much he just striked, throwing his right paw at the silhouette.

 

By some dumb luck, the Fox’s weak strike that by all means should have missed, struck the Wolf in his right eye. The Wolf had also just seen the Fox and had started to approach him quickly which led to this miraculous strike. 

 

*Yelp*

 

The Wolf gave a yelp of his own this time and recoiled as he felt his eyesight go black in his right eye. The strike had managed to ruin the right eye of the Wolf. Had this strike hit most any other spot on the Wolf he could have just shrugged it off with little effort, yet it hit his eye accomplishing the goal of the Fox.

 

‘RUN!’

 

The Fox seeing the Wolf recoil, caring less as to why, took this chance to start running. He turned around from where he was and did his best to get the furthest away he could, straight backwards. Not necessarily the best move, but it was in this situation.

 

With the dirt cloud having settled the Fox saw the scenery that was behind him, the cliff face was close to him.

 

‘Run?... Safety? Safety!’

 

In his moment of shock at the large thing behind him that blocked his way from running his eyes came across the crack he had just left before this whole escapade. Remembering that the crack was his only safety nearby he limped towards it as fast as he could. 

 

Well as fast as he could can’t be considered much faster than snails crawl. Luckily for him, as seems to be the theme for this moment, he wasn’t very far from the crack. While the Wolf behind him continued to recoil in pain, slowly becoming enraged that the Fox dared to harm him, the Fox managed to make it to the crack.

 

With the Wolf finally waking up from his pain and thoroughly becoming enraged, the Wolf looked around with his one good eye and saw the Fox slowly retreating into the crack. Not being able to stand the idea of the Fox getting away from him again, he sprinted towards the crack.

 

‘Safety’

 

Believing himself to be safe as he entered the crack the Fox continued at his slow painful pace as he started to feel all of the pain again. He had made it in the crack, and the crack meant safety.

 

The Wolf approached the crack only to witness the tail of the Fox entering the crack, became even angrier. In his frenzy he didn’t think much of the logistics of trying the fit into the crack and just tried it.

 

Managing to get his left paw in during his frenzy, the Wolf got one last strike on the tail of the Fox. While the tail is mostly fur there is still some flesh and bones there.

 

*yelp*

 

With the claw of the Wolf slamming down on the Fox’s tail, a weak yelp was given as the bones in his tail were broken and a few more scratches were left on the flesh of his tail.

 

Alas, the Fox had managed to escape the Wolf in the end. The Fox now continued his way in the crack as fast as he could taking no chances this time. He had managed to make it back to his safe cavern, but it couldn’t be said he was in a great condition.

 

This was also not even mentioning the Wolf outside the cavern howling and scraping against the rock at the entrance of the crack. The Wolf would rather die than let this fox get away another time.

 

‘safe’

 

Limping his way towards the one source of comfort among the frenzied noises of the Wolf, the Fox layed next to the Black Lily. He felt danger from the lily, but only when he attempted to eat it. The rest of the time was nothing but a warm feeling coming from the Black Lily.

 

While the Wolf refused to shut up about the injustice he had just suffered, the Fox managed to fall asleep, or really pass out, next to the Black Lily ending his day, not to even wake up for the next morning.

---

Author Note: So first off, been a little busy with finals so, haven't done much writing on here, Sorry about that. After all when I'm just starting the series might be a questionable choice to leave it for too long. Also I working on the next chapter as I'm posting this so hopefully I can give that tomorrow.

Anyway, besides to apology that I wanted to give real quick I also wanted to ask a question of you.

I was thinking of making a set of Side Stories that would Follow a human researcher during around the same time as the current story but still quite a ways forward, as research takes time. But the purpose behind the Side Story would be to explain some of the mechanics of how the Cultivation system for the beasts work.

Which would hopefully explain some of the odd or questionable portions of the story that might come up. Even myself would find it hard to understand some things without the understanding of the Cultivation system. These would come in-between chapters as like a Chapter 4.5 or something that I would put in to explain something about the system that I felt would be necessary to know for the previous or upcoming events.

So either way, you want me to make the Side Stories?