The morning was started with the Fox lazing around in his little silhouette wishing that he had 5 more minutes. So he took 5 more minutes, he isn’t in a rush. Either way the Fox’s mornings aren't really the morning now, rather it's the afternoon.
With the cycle of the suns and moons the Fox has two times a day when he can sleep causing his days to revolve around those times.
After taking his much appreciated 5 more minutes the Fox got up to go eat his morning meal. Walking over to his food storage he was quite satisfied with the current spoils.
‘Hunt, More’
With the satisfaction of seeing his spoils his motivation to hunt was once again ignited, after his meal though. Surveying the variety of choices he settled on the biggest of the spoils, a rabbit. Honestly the rabbit was something far more troublesome than the mice he catches, oftentimes the rabbits notice him and run away before he can act.
Lucky for him though he did have one successful rabbit hunt yesterday which he will gladly eat. Bringing his spoil back to his “bed”, the imprint, he started to have his meal. The meal was longer than most as the rabbit has far more meat then the mice and it takes longer to digest the rabbit fully.
Finished with his meal he got up to get ready for his hunt. In recent times with his constant hunts the Hunger has more or less left him alone to do what he wants. Fully satisfied with his meal and now finished with his morning stretches he headed to the large crack at the front.
Reaching the exit of the crack he still took the time to do a quick check for danger, afterall almost dying can be a brutal lesson on caution. Taking in the air at the exit of the crack he checked for the scent of the Wolf that he oh so dreaded before.
His body froze at that moment as he caught the scent of the Wolf that had plagued his days ever since he started living in the cavern. The Fox still hesitated though in confirming it was the Wolf as the scent was very similar but also different. The scent gave off a feeling of bloodthirst unlike before.
‘Danger’
Knowing that the Wolf is nearby the Fox’s instincts were already screaming danger, yet the Fox was far more calm then he was before. His recent hunts had instilled a sense of confidence into him that he didn’t possess before.
With his new found confidence, the Fox decided to look to see if the Wolf is actually at the exit. He took his time to really look closely and after a few minutes he finally saw the Wolf.
‘Danger!’
The sight of the Wolf took any confidence he had and threw it out the door. The Wolf was to the right of the exit, beside one of the many trees, with his head deep into the stomach of a deer.
The Wolf’s fur had become blood red and instilled the feeling of fear into all who see it even from afar. That is just his physical changes that the Fox saw on the surface, observing the Wolf with a little fear he noticed a few more changes.
The “Good Smell” was now far stronger on the Wolf, but instead of making the Fox feel like it would taste better it just made the already present fear all the more prevalent. There were no real changes to his size but the fact that he was currently eating a deer that emitted the “Good Smell” and seemed to have more horns than normal spoke of the changes in strength on its own.
‘Leave, Safety’
Not willing to stick around for the Wolf to spot him, the Fox retreated back into the cavern where he felt safe. After arriving back into the cavern he felt unwilling to just give up on hunting just because the Wolf was outside the main entrance, the Fox headed to the second crack that was his original entrance.
Squirming his way through the crack, now with much less pain with a healed leg, the Fox noticed one problem quickly. Instead of light coming into the tunnel as he got farther it just continued to get darker.
Eventually reaching the end of the tunnel that led to the end of the crack the Fox came across the main problem. The crack that was originally there was not caved in and blocked by multiple rocks of different sizes. There were so many rocks blocking the way that not even a sliver of light made its way into the tunnel.
Staring at the wall of rocks in slight shock, the Fox soon started to feel frustrated.
‘No, Hunt’
He knew that hunting today was no longer something that can happen, the Wolf had stopped the chances of that. Retreating back through the tunnel with his tail down in disappointment the Fox came back to the wide open cavern.
After pacing around for some time, the Fox flopped down onto his “bed” and just stared at the rays of light coming from the main crack. Eventually succumbing to his natural lazy bone he decided to sleep for the day and see if there were any changes in the night.
His sleep passed quickly as he never had any dreams, and the start of his usual second hunting period arrived. Getting up to once again check the main crack the Fox arrived at the exit in no time.
Not even checking the air first, the Fox started to look around to see if the Wolf was nearby. After looking around for a few minutes he failed to see any signs of the Wolf. After checking visually he decided to still check for how fresh the scent was.
Taking in all of the scents of the area the Fox swiftly identified the Wolf’s scent based on the feeling of bloodlust that still was present in the scent. The scent was fairly fresh and the Wolf had obviously not been for very long, but the Fox started to think that he had a chance to hunt if he got by while the Wolf was gone.
This train of thought was cut off quickly by a howl that came from nearby followed by the dying screech coming from a rabbit. The Fox was once again filled with fear of the Wolf.
‘Danger, No, Hunt’
Knowing that the danger was too high, the Fox retreated back into his den and decided that this night was going to be another period of sleep.
Confirming his thought of sleeping the Fox soon gave in and fell asleep quickly. When he awoke the next day he once again went to his storage to decide what he will be eating today. He decided to eat the oldest mouse that was in there, not that he could really tell much considering they all seemed to be brand new despite not being so.
After going through his morning routine he decided to check to see if he could hunt today. The check for this morning ended quickly with the Fox’s eyes meeting the eyes of the Wolf almost the very moment he started to look outside. Not taking any chances the Fox immediately turned around and went back into the cavern.
Knowing that today will be another fruitless day of hunting the Fox went back to sleep in the hopes that tonight would be different, he would rather not be cooped up inside the cavern again like he was originally.
The night came around and the Fox woke up. After doing his stretches again because he slept longer than usual today, he went to once again check. The check this time also ended rather quickly with the Fox noticing the Wolf laying in front of some bushes seeming to have more concern that the creatures inside the forest might see him than the fact that the Fox will see him.
Giving up on the hunt once again, despite his sour feelings, he let the embrace of sleep once again take him. Though he did notice that the sun seemed to be a little hotter than usual tonight.
Author Note: Oops looks like the chapter went longer than I thought it would so I'ma split the chapter here and release this one early and the next part will be the usual 5 pm Central Standard Time that I've been trying to do recently.
