Foxy Trails
Growing up, my childhood has been an overall struggle. Let me explain. My name is Alani Fox and I have the gift to be able to communicate with animals of all kinds, kinda like Doctor Dolittle, but in real life. This ability started to show itself when I was only five when my parents took me to get my dog, Ginger. I started to hear the puppies talking to me, instead of barking. When I told my parents what was happening, I'm pretty sure they just played it off as me having a crazy imagination. But as I grew older, they started bringing me to therapy thinking it was some psychological problem I was going through that needed to be healed, though it never seemed to help in the slightest. Unfortunately, my gift caused me to struggle to make friends throughout grade school, except for my best friend and neighbor Ray Rodgers. Now that I'm in college, I've tried to hide my animal communication abilities from everybody except for Ray. This proved to be a lot tougher than expected when Ray and I moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to attend the great college University of Michigan, but I managed to keep myself from talking back to the various animals in the city. The summer, after my first year away at college, Ray and I had made a plan to go on a hiking trip with the small group of friends we made. We made our way up to Grayling, before the sun even came up that Saturday morning, in order to give ourselves enough time to make stops along the trail and still make it to the camping grounds.
"Alright, looks like we made it here before the boys" Ray said, as we were parking our van near the trail entrance.
"Should we get a head start and see if they can catch up to us?" Ember Woodard, our other friend with curly, bright red hair and super pale skin asked.
"That might not be the best idea, Ember" I stated, looking at the nearby sign that had a map of the trail "we wouldn't want to get lost."
"I feel like we wouldn't get lost with you around, though, Alani" she pointed out.
"Why would you say that?" I asked, curiously.
"It just seems to me that you're more attune to nature than the rest of us" she explained, "it was your idea for us to go on this backpacking trip, after all."
"I guess I just thought it would be a fun thing for the six of us to do together" I stated, "something to strengthen our friendships."
Ray seemed like she was going to add something, but instead said, "While we're waiting for the boys to get here, I'm gunna run to the bathroom so we don't have to make too many unnecessary stops."
"That's a good idea" I stated, "we better make sure our water bottles are filled up too."
When we got back to our van, the boys were huddled outside their SUV with their hiking bags leaning against the SUV. The tall one with short blond hair tapped the other two and pointed in our direction. "What took you girls so long?" he asked, with a big smirk on his face.
"You must be joking, Maximus" Ember replied, "we beat you guys here by a good ten, maybe fifteen minutes."
"She's right" Ray echoed, "what took you boys so long? Did you get lost?"
"No" the tan, dark haired boy stated, "Ben got distracted by this super-hot chick at our last stop."
"And did he get this 'super-hot chick's' phone number?" Ember asked, as I found myself glancing at the brown-haired boy, who was shockingly quiet.
He looked as we were waiting for his answer. "No, I didn't get her number" he replied, "Brice made me leave before I could get that far."
I relaxed as a big sigh of relief left my body, as I might have a slight crush on Ben Anderson. "Alright, enough chitchatting" I spoke up, "we're burning daylight!"
So the six of us began making our grueling four-mile trek to the camping site. I decided to take the lead to start out, with Ray not far behind and the others staying relatively close to us, as not to get lost. "So, how are you doing?" Ray asked, making the move to walk next to me, instead of behind.
"I'm on a hiking trip with my best friend, why wouldn't I be anything but okay?" I replied.
"Alani, I've been your best friend since like the second grade" she stated, "and I know when you're crushing on someone."
"Is it that obvious?" I asked, looking back at the stragglers.
"Clearly not if he's talking to random girls at rest stops" she pointed out.
"I'm just glad he hasn't seen me use my 'gift'" I stated, "I'm afraid it'll drive someone like Ben away."
"I don't think it would drive him away" she stated, "but then I've always thought being able to communicate with animals was a cool ability."
"Speaking of which, I'm surprised we haven't come across any animals at all along this trail" I stated.
"They're probably just aware of humans and stay away" Ray pointed out, "maybe we should stop and let the others catch up with us, they're not as use to these kind of hikes as we are."
As the others were slowly catching up, something off the path caught my eyes. "Ray, look over there" I whispered, pointing in the direction of the beautiful creatures that I saw.
"Oh, how cute" she whispered back, "it's a little skulk of foxes."
As if by impulse, I started slowly approaching the skulk of foxes with quiet, small steps and crouching down, to try to stay hidden. "What are you doing, Alani?" Ember called out.
"Shush!" I whispered, back a bit harshly "You'll scare away the foxes!"
I kept my eyes on the foxes, who were playing with each other. Then without thinking I spoke out loud, "Hi, I'm Alani Fox, how are you cuties doing today?"
The foxes didn't seem as startled as I thought they'd be seeing a human so close to them. One of the foxes replied, with a bit of a higher pitched, feminine voice "Ugh, I'm exhausted. Taking care of these little ones while my mate is off hunting for food is such a tough task for a mother."
"I can imagine" I replied, looking at the kits "they do seem rather rambunctious."
"Wait, you can actually understand me?" the vixen asked.
"Of course, I can understand you" I smiled, "probably better than I can understand humans."
"Uh, Alani, are you talking to those foxes?" Ray asked.
I turned back to her saying, "Ray, you know I can understand anima… no I can't understand animals, who do I look like Doctor Dolittle?"
Ember and the guys were just staring at me, as I was still crouched down at the fox's level, and Ray had a horrified look on her face, as if she had just witnessed me killing an animal. Ben was surprisingly the first one to step forward. I turned my attention back on the foxes, who were watching Ben approach. "Hey, Ben, could you maybe walk a little slower?" I asked.
When he was finally standing next to me he said, "So, can you understand what animals are saying or not?"
I sighed, "Yes, I can understand animals. Before you say anything, I know it makes me a freak and a weirdo, but I love being able to talk to animals."
"Alani" he paused, "I think it's awesome!"
"You do?" I asked, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, before giggling.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
"Oh, the vixen said that you're a very handsome guy" I replied.
"Oh, did she now?" he smirked, glancing at the vixen "Would you mind telling her that she's not really my type?"
"What is your type?" I asked, "I figure I might as well ask in case she wants to know this information as well."
"My type happens to be girls with long, brown, wavy hair and gorgeous big brown eyes" he said, looking me in my eyes "and it helps if they're great with nature and can communicate with animals." Immediately I felt by face start to heat up, knowing he was talking about me. Without even thinking, I put my right hand around his head and pulled him in for a long-awaited kiss. "So, are you not going to relay my response to the vixen?" he asked, after we finished our kiss.
"I didn't need to" I replied, "the animals can understand what we say, just not very many can actually understand what they're saying back."
"We should get back to the rest of the group" Ben smiled, taking my hand in his.
I turned back to the vixen and said, "Good luck with taking care of these cuties. You seem to be an absolutely wonderful mother."
When we got back to the group, I turned back and watched the vixen gather up her kits and scurry away. Then I put my attention back on my friends and continued walking along the path. "Wait, are we not going to talk about what just happened?" Ember asked, quickly catching up with me.
"What's to talk about?" I replied, "I like talking to animals, there's not much else to say."
"Well, why didn't you tell us about your gift before now?" she asked.
"Because I was always teased in high school about my gift and didn't want to have it be worse in college" I replied.
"Alani, we're all friends here" Ember stated, "sure we'll make a few jokes about it, but we'll respect that you have a gift."
"Thanks, Ember" I smiled, "my parents made me go to therapy because they thought I was crazy."
"Man, parents are the worst" she replied, "they always turn to therapy when they think something is mentally wrong with their kids."
Throughout the rest of the weekend, each member of the group was asking me about my ability to communicate with animals and it seemed like more animals would come up to us constantly. Luckily they were only small creatures like squirrels and raccoons, so they weren't as likely to attack us like a bear might've. Since that hiking trip, it became a lot easier for me to want to pursue a career with animals later in life.