Lost…….
1. Lost Youth
It was spring and for the animals living in a small wood on the banks of a river this meant only one thing. New life had just entered the world. The wood suddenly felt alive again, the trees had grown new leaves, plants had burst from the soil and the sun shone down basking the land in a warming glow. It was clear from the actions of the animals that their parental instincts had kicked in. Each of them went about their business with a renewed sense of vigour knowing that for the moment they lived to serve a greater good. No less so than inside an old foxes earth on the northern side of the wood.
Inside a middle aged pair of foxes lived with their recently born family. The couple had been together two seasons thus far but had failed to raise any cubs last year due to sickness. This spring though they were quite delighted to see six cubs still with them, four male and two female. Of the six three tended to stand out from the rest.
One of which was a fairly large male with a vibrant red coat of fur. He was defiantly the most forward of the litter, challenging the others whenever possible. He had been named Fang by his farther after it was noticed that he had a predominantly larger tooth on the right side of his mouth.
The second was a female, she had the perfect sleek form of a hunter with a keen sense of sight to match. She was very protective in personality and tended to be more interested in looking out of her brothers and sister than herself. Her fur was a deep red save for a stripe of black running along her back and a black tip to her left ear. She had been given the name Flame by her parents.
The last of the three was a very striking male, he was the largest of the six and quite possibly the largest cub either of his parents had ever seen. What really set him apart from all other foxes though was the fact that his fur was entirely black. From the tip of his nose to the end of his tail he was as black as the darkest night. But in spite of his imposing appearance he was very quiet and tended to keep his distance from the other members of his family. Whether it was due to any of this or not his father always seemed to resent him. As a result his brothers began to call him a freak whilst his mother tended to admonish them for this, his father let it go and even seemed to agree with them. He was named Red by his father as a blatant dig at his abnormal appearance.
The remaining cubs were average by fox standards and were named Brawler, Rage and Siren.
The weeks began to pass quickly and the six cubs started to grow up. Soon it had come to the point in the young cub's lives when it was time to go on their first hunting trip.
"Looks dark enough tonight" the mother vixen thought to herself looking up at the stars.
"Ok all of you be quiet and form a line" said the mother vixen
The six cubs proceeded to scramble into some sort of vague order although it was clearly not a line.
"Yes, at last we get to go hunting" whispered Flame in a gruff macho voice
Siren looked at her and giggled "shhh stop making me laugh"
The mother vixen glared at them.
"A line, that's not a line" rebuked the mother vixen "go hunting like that and you'll never catch anything"
The cubs continued to jostle and scramble around. At this point she realised she had to step in, she pushed the cubs around gently with her snout until all six were lined up immaculately.
The mother vixen scanned up and down the line "hmmm that's much better, now I want you all…... What is it Fang?"
"I'm not going to catch anything if I have to hunt like this" moaned Fang
"What on earth do you mean" said the mother vixen fast running out of patience
"It's this ugly beast next to me" quipped Fang referring to Red. "It'll only take one whiff of his foul stench and there won't be anything left alive to hunt in the whole wood". Both Brawler and Rage found this highly amusing. Red turned to Fang and growled bearing his teeth. Red had discovered a new feeling over the past few weeks, that of anger. His brothers had pushed him so much that he had almost snapped on a number of occasions. Each jibe had left its mark and unbeknown to all present it would only take one too many to destroy the family.
"Shut up Fang that's not funny" scolded the mother Vixen "Now I want you all to concentrate and watch me closely, I'm about to teach you the most important lesson you will ever learn"
She stole another look at each of them in turn, noting the look of readiness in their eyes. Once her stare fell to Red she noticed there was something else besides readiness in his eyes, what that something else was she could not tell. Good or bad only time would unveil this mystery.
With that thought in her mind she turned to face south. "Follow me to the river…….and stick together all of you"