Chapter I: Inside the humble home A sleek shadow paces the walls of the dim room. With silent steps she grows closer. It's an ember vixen, she jumps onto the table and sits with a saddened look. Wrapping her bushy tail around the elegantly supple legs, she hides herself in the silky fur. She waits for her owner to return. It's been 3 days and the wind hums between the boards of the old door that separates its warm room from the frigid outskirts of the village. A loud thud and ring break the silence, the church's bells mark midday, it whimpers. She hears them every single day, she is used to them by now, yet these ones aren't like the usual ones. These merely remind her daily of the one thing she does not want to accept. Her owner may be dead, hanging under a willow tree or maybe not, maybe just drunk at an inn, it wouldn't be the first time... or the last. The wait crushes the little soul, she wants to run, try looking for him, but how would someone know she isn't just a wild fox and swiftly kill her, people value quality fur after all. So that soft, silky fur of an unfathomed perfect ember would please any countess. She whimpers once again, burying her nose deeper in the tail's soft fur, she’ll wait some more. The room is quiet now, an uneasy silence. You never notice the outside rustles until they are no more. The vixen rests while looking at the timid flame of a candle long forgotten. It's half gone, burning still, over the puddle of fragrant beeswax. It would remind oneself of the way life continues unimpeded until the subject ceases to exist. She snuggles inside her soft tail thinking her owner must return eventually and falls asleep. “One more day” she thinks... one more day and her owner will be home bearing many gifts as he usually does. Silence again, it pulls the small soul to wonder, to dream, to close her sparkling green eyes and to forget what once... was unforgettable. It makes her set aside her slender frame, bushy tail and piercing glance like they never existed. Yes, she is falling asleep... to pass time... hopefully. A clearing shows itself, a lush field, bordered by nothingness. A huge expanse, unconquered and unknown sets out for miles. She walks slowly, unafraid yet cautious. The field ends with a tattered road, tracks are all along the windy stretch of gravel, yet they seemingly end just to continue further down the path. As the little soul peeks and leaps across the little path, bit by bit, second by second … trees emerge, flowers, bees... all slowly show themselves. The low treetops of birch, the towering spruce, the giant oak... home to plenty of unbeknownst to us souls. She is witness to all, all that is nature... all that is green. She continues, step by step... until another fox shows itself, a cub, in the middle of the twisty road. Why? She thinks, or better... How? She gets closer, her paws start leaving no marks, no sound... she can’t feel them anymore yet she is walking, getting closer as everything disappears into a whitewash. Only her and the cub remain... While she’s trying to get closer, the cub stands ... motionless ... like a stone statue weathered by many centuries. She is so close to touching the little cub, yet every step seems to take longer and longer... every breath... every second... until at last... she touches the cub's nose with her own... eager to get a reaction... eager to meet another fox... eager to look after the seemingly poor soul, eager to look after her own self. She looks in its brown, matte eyes as their noses touch … yet there is nothing, nothing behind those eyes, no reaction, no cub, not ever a sound made by the small fox uneased by her presence. Only a motionless statue... cursed if nothing else. Yet she looks around, the same tranquillity, the same white nothingness that birthed her dream remains... only to envelop the two once again. So, she gets even closer, looks at the cub from all angles, dumb-founded at its lack of a response. It’s off-putting, yet she lays next to it and covers its small body with her tail. As she sits there, thinking of the next move, to what’s happening, to why she’s dreaming this... the cub moves, it lays down too, closer to the warmth of her tail, burrowing itself in the fur on her hind leg. Startled by this, the fox looks into its eyes once more, they no longer stare into the white abyss, they sparkle happily. The cub gets closer, touches her cheek with its nose and remains there. The fox wraps her tail around him and they lay there as the little soul drifts asleep leaving her to ponder once again the meaning of this. She knows she’s dreaming, yet it must mean something, it always meant something, for better or worse. What must it be though? She continues to reflect on the matter as she too drifts asleep alongside the cub. A soft sound breaks the two apart and the fox jolts wide awake, maybe her owner is at the door... that’s how it sounded at least. She jumps off the wooden table, looks out the windows yet there is nothing... her owner didn’t return... the wind was just blowing the branches of a sapling against the foggy window. [TK] That was the last straw, she can’t wait for him anymore, something must have happened and she has to find him... risky or not, she must venture forth. It doesn’t take long to brew a plan, to find everything she may need. The home may be humble, but her drawer is filled with gifts her owner brought back every time he went out. A leather cloak, a set of small pouches and a vial lantern come to mind at first, she’ll need them for sure. The small soul pulls the cloak out the drawer and lays it on the floor, she tries to hang it by the tail loop in one of the wooden hooks bolted on the drawer. She can now slip through the other two loops of the cloak. While it’s not that tight, it’s enough to keep it onto her back. A few pouches are next, they are merely a couple leather boxes with an open flap that springs closed, they have some metal hooks on the back that go onto rows and rows of small cloth loops on the sides of the leather cloak. (?) Last thing is the vial lanterns, small glass jars with holes on the side of the lid covered by another lid with holes as well so it’s protected from the elements but can be opened by twisting them to let air inside. The jar contains a candle with a small piece of sodium and magnesium next to the wick. [TK]” They were specially prepared by her owner out of sheer curiosity”. They can be lit with a drop of water that reacts to the sodium and lights the wick, the magnesium just helping the fire to last long enough, until the water evaporates. Everything is prepared onto the floor, the fox slips through the loops of the cloak and jumps to unhook the tail loop. She picks up the pouches one by one and hooks them onto the little loops on the left side then picks up the vial lanterns and hooks them on the right side of her cloak. She packed as much food as she could in the pouches. A few unsalted sausages prepared for her from the pantry, some old biscuits forgotten there too. She was able to fit a small pear in one of the pouches as well. It should last a couple days at most, she’ll hunt in-between... that ought to help stretch the supplies long enough.