Fox tales

„Sky!", a voice called. „Come back!" I ran after the white rabbit and nearly caught it. „Sky! Don´t! That´s the wrong way!", the voice called behind me. „I´ll be right back. I nearly have it!", I anwered breathing heavily. „This is not the place to hunt!" The voice called. I ignored it. I followed the rabbit into a bush and jumped. Then I fell. „Skyyyyyyy!" The last thing I heard was the voice calling for me from far above as I fell into the dark.

I woke up, wet from the sweat soaking my fur. „Kira, are you awake?" , Luka called for me from the outside. Luka was my best friend. He and I were foxes born in this zoo. I was lying in the cage inside a flat-face building. Next cage was the old tigers cage, but he seemed to be sleeping. I lived with my mother, my uncle, my aunt and luka and his parents. We were all born in this zoo. Only the elder was born in the outsideworld. He always told me stories about out there. I always loved listening to them.

I stood up and walked outside. The flat-faces were already there, starring at us from behind a wall. "Kira, you look terrible. Did you have a strange dream again?" Luka looked worried. „I´m fine, don´t worry. But I feel like I´m starving, are there some rabbits around?" Luka looked at me with a stange expression. „Kira, are you really alright? We get our food from the flat-faces. We don´t hunt.", he said with a serious expression. „He is right, Kira. You should stop listening to the elders stories all the time, then those silly dreams will stop as well.", my mother commented, comming closer from the river, flowing near the wall. „But mom. There´s a whole different world out there. A world without walls, a world without flat-faces starring at us the whole day. A world that we can be free in. Isn´t that great? I want to go there some day..." „Kira, that...", Luka tried to say, but my mother interupted him: „That great world of yours is full of monsters! There are bears and flatfaces killing you for your pelt. The nights are cold, you have to catch your food by yourself and if there is no prey, you starve! That world is dangerous! Don´t even think about going there!", she cried at me. I tried to say something, but she interupted me: „And I don´t want you to talk to the elder anymore." She walked back to where she came from. „But I feel like that world is calling for me..." I wispered, when she was too far away to hear it. „I don´t belong here." „What are you saying? You are a fox just like the rest of us. You do belong here, just like me or our parents." Luka said, sitting next to me, looking even more worried than before. „We will always be here, play together, find new friends. This world is great. I mean, we never have to starve, we have a nice warm cave and no monsters attacking us. You shouldn´t wish to be anywhere else..." „Alright, alright... I won´t have the chance to leave this place anyways." I answered, annoyed by his enthusiasm.

At that time Luka and I were five moons old.

Only one moon later the flat-faces came to get Luka...

We here playing hunt. Luka didn´t like that game but I loved it. It was lukas turn as the rabbit, I was the hunter. Luka ran away, changing his direction frequently, just as the elder had described a rabbits behavior. I ran after hin, trying to catch him from behind.

Just as I was behind him, I saw something hitting luka´s side. He tripped and I ran right into him. I stood up quickly, asking „Are you ok?" Luka was trying to get up, pulling his leg in a strange way. „What is it? Too tired to get up?" I asked playfully, not realizing that he had real trouble getting up. He looked at me with a fearful glace and then fell to the ground, not moving anymore. „Luka?..." I asked carefully, then screaming louder: „LUKA, get up!" He didn´t react. There was something sticking to his fur. It was pink and fluffy at the end and had an eye-stinging smell. It was what we called flying sleep.

I tried to pull it out, as a few flat-faces steped inside our territory. They were coming close fast, stamping in the ground, making strange noises, as they were trying to calm me. I turned around, growling at them. I noticed my mother hiding in a bush. She was affraid. But I wouldn´t back down without a fight. They wouln´t get Luka that easily...

The flat-faces stopped. One of them stepped closer, still making those strange noises. As it reached out to me, I bit in it´s strange paw. Making a yelling noise of pain, it pulled back it´s paw. Then another flat-face grabed me, more agressive than the first one. I tried to bite it, but it´s skin was strangely thick, tasting like mud and smelling of fear. The flat-face carried me to the cave, threw me inside and closed the entrance. I was trapped... I tried to get out at all cost, calling for help, until my voice was gone...

When the entrance finally opened I ran outside, calling for Luka, searching for him everywhere. But he was gone. And he never returned...

A few weeks later the elder assumed, that luka might have died in the blood room. Old and sick animals were taken there by the flat-faces. Some of them were cured, but some never returned.

They had taken my best friend and when I was nine moons old they came for me...