The Fox’s Loneliness

This Christmas I will leave you with this short story I wrote. Merry Christmas!

I shouldn’t have shown myself, Kitsune thought.

Below her perch in the tree, two human kits walked toward the edge of the forest. They didn’t pay attention to her now. They had dismissed her soon after they held their strange glowing slabs toward her. The wooden slabs had somehow frozen an image of her inside them. She had caught a glimpse. But she didn’t understand why humans preferred looking at her through those slabs. In the past, they had preferred to gaze at her directly, and a few had conversations with her. Of course, more than a few had also tried to kill her.

The human kits laughed and waved their slabs, not even seeing the owl that opened one eye to regard them. They failed to see the rabbit that twitched its nose at them from the bushes.

The humans of old would’ve noticed.

Kitsune considered calling to them. It had been years since she had played with a human kit. And these kits reminded her of the pair she had mothered long ago. Since then, none of the forest animals eased her loneliness. Not since the old badger had died, anyway.

She leaped from the branch and followed the human kits out of the forest and into the rock and metal landscape humans called home. The noise of their carriages, spewing smoke and heat, pricked at her ears. And she remembered why she kept to her shrinking forest. Despite following the kits close by, they neither sensed nor turned toward her. They kept their gazes on their slabs and chattered.

Kitsune had once understood the human world and lived among them. Not anymore. She had seen too many humans with those slabs and other strange inventions. She had stayed apart in the forest for too long.

The barking of a dog made her cringe. She turned to defend herself, only to see one of the small dogs that could fit into a teacup. She dismissed it. It wasn’t a threat to her, but the human kits had disappeared while the dog distracted her. She gazed about and saw them on the other side of the stone road. She waited for a carriage to pass before crossing and continuing her pursuit.

The human kits entered a brick home and closed the door behind them. The windows cast their light into the darkening evening. She slipped behind a metal can (humans seemed obsessed with metal and that material they called plastic) and used her magic to transform into a woman. It took more effort than she wanted to admit. She looked at her reflection in the can. Her face was too long, and her clothing and hair were in the ancient style. But it was the best she could manage.

She knocked on the front door, and the female kit opened it. The kit looked her up and down with a guarded, annoyed expression, slab in hand.“Yes?”

“I am a stranger to this village,” Kitsune said. “And I’m alone. I hoped you would offer food and lodging. It is getting cold tonight.”

The kit regarded her. “There’s a hotel down the street.”

“I don’t have money.”

The slab flashed, and the kit gazed at it, fingers moving across its surface. “There’s a homeless shelter open right now. It’s over on Grant.”

“I had hoped to stay with your family. I’m the fox you saw in the forest a short time ago.”

“Okay.” She drew out the word. “Well, we can’t help you. Try the homeless shelter” She looked Kitsune up and down. ”Or the mental hospital in the next town.” The kit closed the door without even a good night.

Kitsune considered trying other homes, but she had heard about how dangerous human villages had become for her kind. She regretted following her whim and returned to her shrinking forest and her memories.