1Disclaimer: The Fox and the Hound is the property of Daniel P. Mannix and Walt Disney Studios, not mine.
SunRise19: yes, spellchecker always saves the day, lol! keep reading!
The Next Political Dynasty: i'm all right, i'm getting over it finally, but anyways, thank you and keep reading!
Forever Young: don't worry, everything will through in the end . . . if I can ever get there, lol!
Anonymous but Impressed: thank you, yeah, i feel sorry for ALL of them as well, but I personally feel for Smoky, you know since he's based on my own dog and all. keep reading!
Frostbite-Obsessive Idiot: Kill Tod, heaven forbid! I can't do that, WON'T do that, the guy is in the title of the movie for pete's sake! but you have to understand, smoky thinks he's doing the right thing in doing this. but he'll get snapped back into reality, i have some supernatural events coming along sooner or later, so hang tight!
The Fox and the Hound 3: The Next Generation
Part Two: The Older Years
Chapter Twenty-Four: Good Samaritan
Copper woke to the rising of the sun, something that hadn't been seen in a while. Glad to feel the long-lost warmth of the sun, he rose on all fours and stretched himself awake. He looked down at what remained of his family—his wife Belle, poor dear had cried herself to sleep after Ace's funeral; his daughter, Beulah, was sleeping peacefully after a long night of trying to comfort her mother; and his remaining son, Smoky, was . . . gone?
Copper's senses came rushing into him and he became fully awake. Where was his son? He scanned his eyes around the yard and found no trace of Smoky anywhere. Where had he gone? Why did he leave? Whatever the reason, the hound decided he should go looking for him and make sure nothing else happened to the family.
Tod was beginning to believe he wouldn't hold out much longer. He was growing weaker by the minute, and the sun still hadn't fully risen. His mind flashed images of Swift getting killed in the woods, Vixey and the children getting attacked by a vicious predator, his own self dying a cruel death alone in the forest.
He kept himself propped up on the tree stump he had found, hoping it would help his airway stay unblocked. If he were to die right then, he wished he wasn't alone when he did it. Personally, he preferred not to die at all, but the odds were looking slim at that moment.
Gotta keep myself awake, he thought to himself. If I go to sleep, I may not wake up.
He would have gone to sleep in fact, except that he heard something moving in the near distance in front of him. He slowly perked his ears up somewhat half-way in hopes of being able to distinguish what the sound was coming from. But he couldn't. He just prayed it wasn't a predator coming to have him for an early morning snack.
Copper had found a set of pawprints which, after analyzing them with his nose, turned out to be none other than Smoky's. They seemed to be maybe a half-hour old, so perhaps he was not too far behind him. The hound made his way through some bushes, but when he crossed the other side, his eyes widened in shock and surprise. What he saw . . . was a fox, bleeding from the neck, clutching to a tree stump for dear life. Why did the fox look so familiar . . . ?
"Tod?" Copper asked quietly after a second, not able to tear his eyes away from the terrible sight. Tod cracked his eyes open after hearing his name being called, and it took him a minute to register who he was talking to.
"Copper?" he said hoarsely. "That you, old buddy?"
"Oh my gosh!" Copper gasped, trotting over to his childhood friend. "What on earth happened? Who did this to you?"
Tod coughed a little bit. He didn't want him to know that it was his son that had done this to him. What father wants to hear that their child is a delinquent who goes around wounding innocent foxes? Besides, he highly doubted that Copper would believe the story anyway, so he replied,
"I don't . . . rightly remember. I was . . . walking along . . . minding my own business . . . when a strange creature that I'd . . . never seen before jumped out . . . and attacked me."
"Holy biscuits, Tod, you need help! You're going to bleed to death!" Copper cried. He could see that his friend was going fairly quickly, and he for one did not want to see his friend die in front of him. What could he do, what could he do?
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. No, would it really work? Surely it would, how could it not work? It didn't matter, it was the only thing he could think of and if the person he was thinking of couldn't help Tod, then no one could.
Copper slowly managed to get Tod positioned to where he was lying across the hound's back as to where Copper would be able to carry him. Tod was too weak to even realize that he was being jostled about. The hound slowly turned himself around and headed in the direction that he had just come from . . . except he bore more northeast as he did so.
Yay, perhaps Tod won't die after all, ol' Copper's done found him! But what is Copper's plan, who does he have in mind for help? You'll have to keep reading to find out, so please review! yeah, and sorry if it takes me a few days to update, i have been SOOO busy with school and all, so be patient and i'll eventually finish this!!