The Dragon and the Fox

Kira woke to the sound of screaming.

At first, she was grateful to be conscious. She’d just been having an unsettling dream about a talking chicken,

But then she remembered why she was awake.

Her ears pricked up, and she raised her head above the backs of her siblings. They were tense, and she could tell that they were awake as well. No sound of the night was low enough to escape a fox’s notice.

The wailing came again. It chilled Kira’s blood to hear the sound of pure terror come from the mouth of a fox.

She stood up slowly and walked to the den opening.

The moon was high in the sky, the stars twinkling down from high above. But there was something in the air, a feeling that Kira couldn’t quite place, but so thick she could almost smell it. Her fur stood on end, and she arched her back, twitching her whiskers.

“Kira!” Ava hissed, poking her head out as well. “What--”

Another scream pierced the air, only this time it was followed by a brilliant flash of light towards the trees. Kira flinched, then looked back in fright.

“The forest!” she screamed. “It’s on fire!”

She sensed the pack start to stir under her uttered words. Kira stood at the doorstep of her home, frozen by the sight that greeted her sharp eyes.

It was fire. But not like any fire Kira had ever seen before.

Sometimes, during the festive holidays and important feasts related to the Dragons, the older foxes would lead the way to the Firepit, a circle of rocks deep in the forest. They used rocks to spark a fire, then tended it using wood and sticks. It was warm and gentle, providing light and shelter. It always left Kira feeling awed that something like that existed.

This fire was different. It moved with haste, flames devouring anything in its path, licking greedily at the next victim before sweeping past in a blaze of heat and destruction. This fire was made to kill.

More shouts and screams came from the Big Field.

“Move!” Kira’s father exclaimed, shunting Kira aside. The other adults and their companions were on his tail. “We must protect Aramon!”

Kira ran after them, making sure to stay out of the way. Anything to escape the fire. She knew it would soon reach her den, but there was nothing any of them could do.

The Big Field was a combat zone. Kira saw animals attacking one another bodies at their feet, blood on their claws, murder on their jaws.

Tigers and cheetahs attacked lions and leopards. Hawks and vultures attacked falcons and eagles. Grizzlys and black bears attacked polar bears and pandas. Jackals and coyotes attacked foxes and wolves. Rats and moles attacked mice and rabbits. Lizards and caecilians attacked snakes and turtles.

Each wave was another five lives lost.

Each body was a victim of their teeth and claws.

Where did all these animals come from? Kira wondered. She’d certainly never seen any of them before. She only knew what they were because she’d read about them in books. Fantasy books.

She’d once read that there was a large landmass not far from Cyalia, with many different animals that the Dragons had banished, deeming them untrustworthy. But it was always considered a fable. Was it actually real?

The smell of the different types of blood seemed to speak loudly enough, in Kira’s opinion.

More and more foxes were joining the fight, emerging from their dens on the hill, baring their teeth, and flashing their claws. They formed a protective circle around Aramon and his mate. Blue Jay was already dead, as had many of Aramon’s children.

Kira searched for her family among the crowd, but didn’t like what she saw. Three of her five aunts had fallen, along with two of her uncles. Her father was nowhere to be found, along with her mother. Ava and Evan were missing as well. Kira dared not hope, but she couldn’t help being relived. They might be alive.

Suddenly, a roar pierced the fighting. A colossal black creatures emerged from the forest at the edge of the Big Field. He towered high above the trees, his long neck craned to capture everything in his bloodred gaze. Black wings that swallowed everything in a cold void spread behind him, folding neatly behind him. A long, thick tail swept into view, stabbing foxes with its sharp point of squeezing them to death. Fangs sharper than a vipers dominated his mouth, showing when he grinned maliciously at the bloodbath before him.

A dragon.

Have they sided against us? Kira thought frantically. Are they condemning us? Sending this Dragon to bring us to our demise because we insulted them somehow?

No. Dragons didn’t destroy.

At yet, here was a Dragon, masterminding the carnage of one of the largest packs in the Fox Lands.

He threw back his head (which was pitch black except for some oddly white scales) and roared again, a sound that reverberated across the territory and made Kira want to crawl into the burning trees and disappear forever. The fear in her heart sent blood rushing to the tip of her tail.

The Dragon snaked his head forwards and plucked Aramon off of the Field with his jaws. The sound of bones crunching broadcasted all around. Blood dribbled down the Dragon’s throat, and he opened his mouth to reveal the gore inside to every fox before tipping his head back and swallowing. He licked his lips with a forked tongue, grinning again with bloodstained teeth.

There was stunned silence in the field. Then the dragon began picking off more victims, crunching their bones in his mouth with delight before devouring them. It was then that the members of the pack realized their mistake: they had run straight into a slaughter.

The chaos of the battle returned more vigorously, the growls and shrieks reaching higher volume. Kira found herself amidst it all, tumbling and running to and fro from each death.

Blood was everywhere. The screams of the dying , the limbs and bones scattered and flying everywhere, the smell of death, it all hit Kira loke a raging volley of rocks upon her head. It was too much, the blank stares of her comrades and the bloodstained grass, grass that they would never walk on ever again.

And yet it all continued.

Kira’s breath quickened her eyes darted back and forth, looking for something, anything besides the squelching of insides under her feet and the roaring of the black Dragon. But it filled her mind and brain. Who was she again? Where was she? Was there something she was doing?

“Kira!” A familiar voice shook Kira from her panic. A white fox bounded towards her.

“M-m-mother?” Kira whimpered.

“Kira, listen.” Mother put her face against Kira’s, eye to eye, nose to nose. “You have to go.”

“W-w-what?” Kira’s eyes widened. “No! I c-c-can't leave you!”

“There is nothing you can do,” Mother said simply. “There is nothing any of us can do. We weren’t expecting this, and now our leader has fallen. It is only a moment until we all die.”

“But what will I do?” Kira cried desperately.

“You must find—” A coyote lunged at them, and Mother swiped her claws at it, smashing it to the ground. She stomped on his throat, and it stilled.

“You must find the Dragons,” Mother said, panting. “Only they will be able to stop this. Find them, Kira.”

“What about Father? And Ava, and Evan—”

“Ava and Evan are dead,” Mother said matter-of-factly. “I will fight with your father, but we won’t make it.”

“But--”

“GO! You have to find them!” Mother ran back into the crowd.

Kira momentarily stood there, stunned and stricken by grief. It felt like someone was stabbing her heart, over and over again, waiting for her to break.

How was she supposed to convince the Dragons to help them, let alone find them? She was just a lowly fox.

But her mother had told her to. And her mother was about to die.

Kira couldn’t let that sacrifice be in vain.

She ran up the hill from the field, towards where the dens were burning. The pack’s territory consisted of two major parts: the hill and the Big Field. The hill held the many dens of the foxes, either dug into the ground or built up using mud and sticks. The Big Field held the Healer’s Hut, the Nursery, and the Meeting Cave, where the Gatherers and the alphas held meetings and lessons.

Kira stopped when she reached the edge of the fire. It had consumed half of the dens, and was slowing down. It had come from the west side, towards the ocean. The east side lay untouched. She ducked under the safety of the trees, letting their shadows brush her fur like a comforting paw. Kira paused for a moment, looking back at her home, covered in blood and flames.

Then she turned and ran.