Stiles stared.

He was pretty sure he was frozen with fear. His thoughts were going a mile a minute, and he was pretty sure they'd gone multiple miles, but the hunter in front of his hadn't moved an inch.

Stiles had no idea how he had ended up in front of a hunter in his fox form. He guessed dimensional travel.

Well, it could be time travel too. The hunter had on a green-gray cloak that looked used, what looked like an old fashioned longbow, and had eyes way too intense for a ten year old.

Yeah, go on, laugh. Stiles Stilinski was scared of a kid playing dress up.

Except that kid wasn't playing dress up.

Stiles didn't know what it was- maybe the practiced ease with which the person handled the boy, make the way the cloak blended in with the forest like it belonged there- but this kid was a hunter, without an inkling of doubt.

Hopefully Stiles hadn't been zapped to the past. That would make things more complicated.

Of course, he could just have been teleported to another place on his own earth, but then again, Stiles' luck was never that good. He couldn't think of any other reasons for suddenly appearing in the middle of a hunt when, just a moment before, he had been driving to Derek's loft.

Right, Roscoe! Stiles hoped she didn't take too much damage crashing into the trees like she had probably done.

Woah, okay Stiles, focus on the hunter in front of you that could kill you at any moment, please.

The staredown was still going on, to Stiles' surprise. This hunter must have the patience of a Saint.

He was wondering why the kid hadn't walked away yet, actually. Had he seen Stiles appear out of nothingness, hear the barks, and shift in panic? Stiles was pretty sure nobody had been near him, but then again, he hadn't been searching for anyone. He had been panicking.

No, Stiles remembered smelling the boy walking towards him. After seeing he had been de-aged, somehow(Stiles still needed to figure that out), he'd shifted back. Like an idiot, he'd ignored his instincts, and his senses. He had seen something in the corner of his vision and missed the obvious footsteps. Which, of course let to this problematic situation.

Was the kid part of the hunt he'd been hiding from?

But he wasn't attacking Stiles. Why? Was he waiting for backup? The ten year old hunter could easily take down a normal fox on his own, judging by the way he handled the longbow.

Did the hunter know he was a shifter?

Will did not, in fact, know that the fox before him was a shifter. He didn't exactly know why he'd been having a staredown with a fox for the last fifteen minutes either.

After he had swiped a longbow and arrows similar to his own off a hunting party not far away, he'd contemplated opening the letter in his pocket, but decided against it until he had found a safe place.

Will didn't think he would be attacked, but in unfamiliar territory, survival comes first. Halt had taught him about priorities the hard way.

He'd been walking around, inspecting the bow he swiped (the right sort, but not his own bow. He missed it already.) when he'd suddenly come eye to eye with a small reddish orange fox.

The fox had frozen, looking as if any moment it could go into fight-or-flight mode.

Will had stood stock still, lowering the bow a bit to show he wasn't a threat. He stared at the fox.

Now the fox and he had been standing there for a while. Will didn't know why he didn't just walk away, but something about the fox was compelling him to stay and watch. It was such a small one. Will wondered how it had survived in the wild.

On a side note, mammals weren't extinct after all. That's good, he supposed.

Okay, damn his instincts. His legs were falling asleep and the sun had begun to set. Whether he should walk away or feed the animal or something, now was the time to do it.

Slowly, Will lowered himself to the ground. He made sure not to startle the fox.

The animal tensed up(when did he stop being tense?), but didn't flee.

With slow movements, he put down the bow and pushed it away from him. He almost chuckled at the surprise in the fox's eyes, but managed to stop himself before he startled the little thing.

He'd recognized Will's bow as a weapon. This one was smart.

The fox had relaxed slightly, probably subconsciously. The threat had lessened. That was the point of Will's show of trust.

A bit more confident that the reddish orange animal wouldn't flee at a movement, Will took the envelope out of his pocket and opened it.

This was as safe as an environment as he was going to get right now. The fox still recognized him as a threat and wouldn't attack him, but if a human or larger predator came close, it would sense them and flee, or at least tense up. Thus warning Will that something was coming.

Before he began reading, Will glanced at the fox. Well, he glanced at the place where the fox was just a moment ago.

Wait, what? How'd he get away so silently? Sure, foxes were made to be stealthy, but Will was trained to be stealthier-

His thought process was underbroken by the fox walking back into his field of view, carrying something in his maw.

To his surprise, when the little fox dropped it, it was revealed to be an envelope identical to his.

What was happening? Since when did foxes get mail? How far in the future was he exactly?!

--continued next chapter