Reds Epilogue
Gone, it was all gone, vanished as quickly as it came, just like the snowflakes melting on his nose. He'd lost her, he'd lost his happiness and he'd lost any reason to care anymore. What was the point, she was the only good thing in his life, period, everything from now on felt meaningless. The fact she was still alive was the only thing keeping him going, proof in his mind that leaving was the right choice for everyone.
There was something else though, a lingering hope, hope that one day he'd see her again. To see her happy and living her life. Red shook the thought away, what was he thinking? He sighed heavily, as he did so a large chunk of snow resting on the branches of the tree above him came loose, it landed square on his head. Red winced as he felt the icy cold snow melt into his fur.
Could things get any worse? pondered Red as he shook what snow he could from his coat.
Red was currently sheltering in some bushes beneath a dead oak tree. A snowstorm had hit the area not long after he had left Eclipse and Crescent's earth, Red had been forced to take refuge here when it began to turn nasty. It had got to the point where the wind and snow was so fierce that he could no longer make any progress. Cold and shivering Red attempted to make the most of his break and tried to get a little sleep.
When the sun finally broke through the clouds it was late afternoon. The snow had stopped and the wind had abated, leaving a glistening and eerily quiet landscape. Red yawned and stood up. He had travelled a fair distance during the previous night and subsequent morning, putting himself well out of reach of Scarlet and her family. Red took a moment to study the landscape ahead of him, he was presented with a field on the slope of a hill, the crest of which was covered by a dense grouping of trees. Red felt his stomach growling, he really needed to eat, it had been pretty much two days since his last meal. To Red the wooded area up ahead looked like as good a place as any to try and find something to fill the void.
Red poked his head out of the bush and sniffed the air, an odd odour caught his attention that he had a faint recognition of, but he couldn't quite put his paw on what it was. Judging the area to be safe Red began his journey to the top of the hill. The going was tough and exhausting, the snow was so thick and deep that Red found himself almost swimming in it at some points, the steepness of the incline didn't help matters either. Eventually Red was within striking distance of the wood, his relief was tangible, he certainly wasn't going to try anymore travelling today. A group of onlookers had different designs on this however, onlookers Red was completely oblivious to. As Red closed the gap between him and the fence to below ten meters he heard a sudden and loud bang, he felt something breeze past him at high speed. Instinctively Red looked around, there at the bottom of the hill was a group of humans moving quickly after him. Red didn't waste any more time looking, he was in escape mode now and already making a move towards the fence.
Red desperately tried to speed up his movement through the deep snow, but it was an impossible task, his legs just weren't long enough to get any real momentum going, the humans were gaining. Red heard and felt another two shots ring out, both whizzed past him and buried themselves in the snow at his side, Red knew his luck couldn't hold out much longer, and he was right. As Red arrived at the fence he heard another shot, this time the marksman had hit his target, Red felt a sudden and excruciating pain jolt through his right hind leg. The force of the hit threw Red forwards like a charging stag, he hit the fence head first and crumpled into a heap on the ground.
It took Red a few moments to gather his thoughts together, his collision with the fence had put him in a daze. Once the recollection of what had just happened returned, Red quickly looked down at his leg to check how bad the wound was. He was astonished to find no wound at all, not even a graze, there was no blood whatsoever. He didn't understand, he'd been shot, he'd heard the discharge and felt the pain of it, but there was nothing left that would indicate any such event, nothing except a dull numbness emanating from his leg. Red tried to get up, but his hind legs didn't want to cooperate and he fell back down. Something was wrong with the bottom half of his body, it just wouldn't move. He started to panic, it was like half his body had died leaving the other half the job of dragging it around for the rest of its existence. Cruelly it didn't end there either, the numbness started to spread. Eventually Red couldn't even move his head, he'd become completely paralysed. Red knew there was nothing more he could do, he'd been beaten, he'd just have to accept his coming fate.
The stumbling humans arrived to find a still but very alive black fox. They were ecstatic to have finally found what they had been looking for all these months. One of the men bent down and folded over Red's ear to get a clear look at the tag fastened to it, he looked up and nodded to the rest of the group in acknowledgement. Two other men moved forwards bringing with them a cage. Red could do nothing but watch as he was picked up and thrust inside. Despair started to set in, Red knew what was happening but he didn't want to believe it, he couldn't face that experience again. The cage was lifted and carried to a roadside where it was loaded onto a parked van. Red's freedom was once again lost to the sound of slamming doors.