Chapter 5: Waters of truth
And so, after resting and having a bite to eat, Wolf and Virginia continued on their journey, only now with Rena along as well. Over the next few hours. Virginia rode with Wolf on the horse while Rena walked alongside. She had no objections to this, as she would not want to make a pregnant woman walk for miles, nor force her to ride with a stranger instead of her husband.
As evening set in, they made camp in a small grove of oak trees. Wolf and Virginia built the fire while Rena hunted for something to eat. That night they sat up talking and eating the delicious rabbit Rena had cooked.
"Well, I'll be sure to steer clear of cows from now on, Wolf," Rena said with a laugh. Wolf had been entertaining the ladies with tales of sheep poaching gone horribly wrong. "So, Virginia, do you know what you want to name the baby yet?"
"Well," she said with a glance at Wolf, "Wolf's pretty sure it's a boy, so I was thinking maybe James, or Nick…"
"I knew a guy named Nick once," said Rena. "Real jerk. But, you know, I've always liked Russell or Dominic for a boy. Not that I'm really expecting to have kids or anything…"
"Oh?" asked Wolf. "Why's that?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, I've never felt like much of a mothering type. I'm afraid getting married and having kids will just weigh me down."
"Well, being married hasn't weighed me down yet," Virginia told her, smiling. "But I'll have to get back to you on having kids." She turned to Wolf. "Honey, I'm going to bed, join me?"
"In a minute," he said tenderly planting a kiss on her cheek. She nodded and walked over to where she'd laid out a blanket her and Wolf to share. Virginia laid there for a while waiting for Wolf, but he didn't come. She raised her head up and saw that he was still by the campfire with Rena. They were smiling and laughing and having a great time in each other's company. As she watched them, Virginia felt a sadness come over her. And maybe it was just the hormones, but she found herself questioning Wolf's loyalty. With these unhappy thoughts in her head, Virginia laid her head down and fell asleep.
That night she had a dream which had her feeling very disturbed when she woke from it. She was in King Wendell's castle and Rena was there with a big crown on her head. There were five little children all dancing around Rena, who smiled and said, "It's okay, Virginia, Wolf won't let our kids run away." Then she woke up and found herself in Wolf's arms, who was still sleeping. She sighed and joined her husband in peaceful slumber, and didn't have any more dreams that night.
The next morning, Wolf made bacon sandwiches while Rena and Virginia packed up camp. When they were ready to move out, Wolf thought it was only fair that Rena ride for a while and he walk. At first Rena protested, but ultimately she gave in and sat behind Virginia on the horse. Throughout the day they rotated riders, but Virginia walked the least. They stopped at noon to have a bit of lunch, but other than that they moved at a steady pace all day.
At about 5 o'clock, the air began to get colder. Not severely, more like a cool autumn day, and in fact the trees bore red and gold leaves as well. Wolf was now walking while the women rode, but he suddenly stopped sniffed the air. Virginia turned the horse around. "Wolf, what is it?" she asked.
"Men, " he said with his nose still in the air. "They're following us…trackers…Oh, huff puff, they've got dogs too!"
"How far off are they?" asked Rena.
"45 minutes at the rate we're traveling, but they're closing fast."
"Is there water nearby?" she continued.
He checked the air. "Yes," he said. "About a hundred yards that direction."
"I've got an idea," said Rena. "Lead us to the water."
Wolf sped off towards the source of the water's scent and Rena took the reins and followed him. He led them to a large creek running with clear water. Rena dismounted and helped Virginia down as well, then she approached Wolf again. "Do you have any rope?" He removed the coil of rope from the saddle bag. "Good, here's what we need to do. We take the rope and tie it around our waists, connecting us to each other, then we get in the water and walk upstream about a quarter of a mile and get out on the other side. The water will carry away our scent and confuse the dogs. Any questions?"
"Yeah," said Virginia. "Who made you the boss around here?"
"Virginia, this is not –," Wolf started to say, but he was cut off.
"Why should we just follow her into the river like some kind of disciple?" Virginia argued.
"Because," said Rena forcefully, "Unless you have any better ideas, this is a tactic that has been used by animals to evade predators for thousands of years. Now, we can't waste time, they'll be on us in half an hour. We need to get the horse across and get moving."
Rena tied a line onto herself and led the mare across the creek to safety, then came back and told them the order to be in. "I'll lead, and Wolf you take the rear in case Virginia slips so you can catch her."
"And what if you slip?" Virginia asked.
"I won't," Rena replied.
"But how can you—"
"I said I won't." Rena fastened the rope securely around Virginia's waist. "Trust me."
With everyone's ropes secured, Rena led them into the water, which was really cold, but bearable. The hardest part was fighting against the current without slipping. Despite their efforts, Virginia and Wolf each slipped once, and Rena got soaked from head to toe helping Wolf. They made it to shore safely though, Rena's borrowed animal trick had worked.
When Wolf climbed out, he dried off in a dog-like manner, shaking his entire body until most of the water was off. Virginia, however, simply began wringing out her clothes and hair. Rena dried off similarly to Wolf, only she shook one limb at a time. When she tried to shake her head, she cursed at her hat and threw it on the ground so she could dry off her curly red locks.
Such a cry escaped Virginia's lips that the others immediately turned to look at her. She was gaping wide-eyed at Rena and pointing at her head. "B-b-big…ears!"
Sure enough on the top of Rena's head was a pair of large, furry ears that looked they belonged on an animal, not a human. "All the better to hear you with my dear!" Rena quickly turned to Wolf. "No offense, I just couldn't resist."
"Wh-what the hell are you?" Virginia asked, shocked, bewildered. And feeling a bit embarrassed that she missed those things this entire time.
"I, Virginia, am a half-fox," Rena said, standing straight and confidant. "A very rare and interesting creature. I'm even rarer than Wolf over here."
"A half-fox?"
"Yeah, but I don't feel like talking about it now," she said. "So I'm going to find the horse and maybe another rabbit. Wolf, feel free to fill her in." And with that, Rena left.
"Wolf," said Virginia, "Who the hell is that girl?"
"She's a half-fox named Rena," he answered simply.
"Okay, what the hell is a half-fox?"
"Aright," he said, trying to calm her down. "Just sit down and I'll tell you…
"It all started when a thief broke into witch's house and stole a bunch of her potions things. Not a good idea, I think he got turned into a toad or something. But, anyway, as he was running away, one potion fell and shattered on the ground. Then, a pregnant vixen came and lapped it up. Now, no one knows what effect the potion was supposed to have, after all magic can sometimes work differently on animals, but a month or so later, the fox gave birth to five half-fox children.
"There were 3 boys and 2 girls, each with little fox ears and tiny fox tails. I think the dad wanted out soon after they were born, but somehow the mother managed to raise them to young adulthood. All except the youngest daughter, she died when she still a little girl. But the rest grew up and did their part to populate the kingdoms with half-foxes.
"Now, you have to understand, half-foxes are very different from half-wolves because they were created by magic. Half-wolves tend to lose more and more wolfishness through the generations as they mix with humans. But foxes stay the same mostly. Because of their large ears, they hear much better than half-wolves. But unfortunately, they can often have poor constitutions, and many don't make it to adulthood because of that.
"Also, many times when a fox falls in love with and impregnates a human girl, he's either run out of town or killed before the baby is born. Then the mother doesn't know how to take care of it, and it usually dies. However, many fox-women's children do survive, but still, the mates leave them a lot. I don't know Rena's story, but I'll bet she was raised by a half-fox woman."
"Two half-foxes actually," said Rena, standing back by the trees with the horse. "Both parents. But I'm not in the mood for sob-stories, so let's keep the mood happy, shall we?" She held up a brown rabbit by the foot for them to see. "This rabbit won't keep forever, so let's get a fire going. "We're a few hours from South Arctic Village, we should leave tomorrow morning."
Wolf and Virginia got up together, and began collecting wood for the fire. In the west, the sun was setting, filling the sky with purples and pinks and oranges. Rena took just a moment and watched it, twisting her star pendant around on her string.
