Chapter 25: A Fox's Misadventure?

Stone Kole goes canoeing in the mountains, but things don't quite go as planned...or do they? I'm not saying that something like this happened to me in collage but if you found a cast iron dutch oven on the bottom of the Elk River, it might have been mine.

Congratulations to USA's Caroline Marks and Tahiti's Kauli Vaast for winning Gold in Surfing at the Olympic Games.

This chapter's song is "Edge of the Ocean" by Stick Figure.

"I don't know about this?" softly whined the fennec fox in the gray sleeveless T-shirt and red board shorts as he tried to climb into the canoe. Even though the back half of the canoe was still on the pebbled beach, the aluminum craft precariously rocked back and forth while he attempted to sit down. The small surfer definitely appeared out of his comfort zone in the rugged wilderness of the Green Mountains, just north of the metropolis known as Zootopia.

"Stoney, it'll be just fine. We are only going down the river to a small island to camp out, and then we will paddle out tomorrow," the pretty sand cat sitting in the front of the canoe answered with an excited grin. "What could possibly go wrong?"

"Now you've jinxed us!" another sand cat scoffed. Karen's sister, Jill, was sitting in the front seat of a canoe just down the rocky beach. Her current boyfriend, a muscular highland wildcat named Angus, was busy tightly securing bundles of gear in their canoe.

Turning his attention back to Karen, Stone gave a long uncertain sigh.

"Honey, this river is slow and so we will just lazily float downstream toward the island," Karen confidently stated. "Did you tie down our sleeping bags?"

"I guess so? I mean it's not fancifully tied all up like your sister's Rambo wannabe boyfriend has knotted theirs down."

"Lashing...he lashed their gear down," Karen corrected him.

"Whatever!"

"I wish we had bought a waterproof bag for our sleeping bags."

"I'm sure that the garbage bags we are using will keep everything dry," the fox replied in a confident tone. He sat there in the canoe as if he was expecting something to happen.

"Stoney, the canoe is not going to launch itself into the river. You're going to have to hop out and push us further into the water," Karen commented.

"Oh!" He climbed out of the canoe and grunted as he shoved it into the flowing water until it freely floated. He quickly tried to climb back inside but slipped and fell with a splash. After sputtering a few choice curses, he pulled the canoe back and heaved himself over the side, almost tipping over the craft.

"Watch it!" the sand cat protested.

"I'm already drenched and we haven't gone very far," Stone grumbled in frustration while he yanked off his now soaked tee shirt and tossed it aside. He picked up the paddle and held it up as if inspecting it.

The other canoe was in front and made a swift u-turn in the river before they paddled up to them. "You need to do what we are doing!" the wildcat called out as he dipped his paddle into the water and began to do a series of strokes, propelling their canoe down the river. Stone and Karen did their best to mimic the other two and soon they also were making progress down the river. Stands of trees went by and they passed a gaggle of ducks serenely floating on the water. They passed between some dramatic rocky cliffs as they slowly made their way. "This isn't so hard!" Stone exclaimed.

The further down the river they paddled, the faster the current became and soon the fox's large ears went erect when he heard the sound of rushing water.

"There are a few small rapids in front of us," Angus called out. "You two need to follow us down through the rocks!" With that the highland wildcat began to paddle toward a space between some large rocks and then past a huge boulder.

"Go more to the left!" Karen yelled as they tried to follow, but the rushing water had caught their canoe and it began to twist sideways toward the boulder. "Watch out!"

"Aw, sh..." Stone began to curse when the canoe slammed with a loud clunk into the boulder. The canoe got stuck and suddenly rolled over, spilling him and Karen into the rushing water. He felt himself being dragged underwater by the raging current. Finally he struggled to the surface and splashed around as he desperately cried out, "Karen!"

"Right over here, Stoney!" She called back. The now drenched sand cat was standing nearby. "You can stand up. The water is not that deep."

"Oh?" the fox answered as he stood up in the chest deep water. The now swamped canoe had broken free and slowly floated past him. "Yeah, that didn't go as planned," he lamely added when he saw Angus wading toward him. The wildcat just shook his head and grabbed the errant canoe. Slowly the two of them dragged it toward the shore and turned it onto its side to drain the water.

They righted the canoe and floated it back into the river. Stone helped Karen climb aboard again before he rather unceremoniously flopped into the canoe and took his seat. Angus waded over and handed him a paddle. "You might need this," the cat chuckled.

"Do you think our sleeping bags got wet?" Karen asked.

"Well, there is nothing we can do until we reach the island," Stone replied. "Hey there is my shirt!" the fox scooped up his tee shirt that was floating toward them.

Once again they followed the other canoe as they made their way down the now docile river. Stone had to admit that it was very scenic, they floated past tall pine forests and along sandy banks dotted with wildflowers. The warm sun had dried his fur and he couldn't help but give a peaceful smile as he enjoyed the trip. It was late in the afternoon by the time they had reached the island and beached the canoes. Untying the sleeping bags, he carried them to a large rock and opened the trash bags. "Shit!" he snarled for both of the down sleeping bags were soaked.

"Come on and let's start a campfire, and then we can run some rope between a few trees to try to let them dry out," Angus suggested. He didn't sound very confident.

After starting the fire and hanging the waterlogged bags over a line, they set up two tents. The plan was for the girls to sleep in one and the guys in the other. After doing that, there wasn't much else they could do but prepare a simple dinner of a canned tuna and instant rice casserole, cooked in a Dutch oven over some coals.

With dinner finished and the dishes and pots washed, the two couples settled down on a fallen log near the fire. Above the crackling campfire, the cloudless sky was filled with stars. There were hundreds of stars visible this far from the city lights, more than Stone had ever seen before, and the moon cast it's silvery beams down upon the river. In the dense woods around them fireflies twinkled in the darkness. "Oof," he grunted when Karen plopped down onto his lap.

"I'm cold," she said as she wrapped her arms around the fox's neck and snuggled against him. Soon they were kissing.

"Well, it's time for bed!" Jill said with a yawn. "But I think we need to reevaluate our sleeping arrangements since both of your sleeping bags are still damp," she added.

"Maybe you and Karen can share a bag?" Angus suddenly suggested to his girlfriend, but he was looking directly at the fox as if awaiting the tod to say something.

"Hey, where am I going to sleep?" Stone protested.

"I'm not going to share my bag with you, fox!" the wildcat snapped. "Just curl up near the fire."

"Angus, that is not nice. It's going to be too cold tonight to do that," Jill tusked.

"Why don't we share a sleeping bag in one of the tents and Karen can share the other bag with Stone in the other tent," Angus answered with a grin as he wrapped his arms around Jill.

"Works for me!" Jill quickly reply before she gave him a kiss.

"Works for me too but only if Karen agrees!" Stone added as everyone looked over at Karen.

Karen hesitated while she glared at her sister. "Really?" she halfheartedly protested.

"It's going to get really cold tonight," Angus stated.

"You can't leave your poor little foxie woxie all alone in the freezing cold," Jill said sarcastically while wagging a claw at her sister. She then grinned and added, "Besides, when I was doing the laundry, I found fox fur on your dirty sheets, so don't tell me that you two haven't..."

"What Stone and I have or have not done is none of your business!" Karen interrupted her sister before she snatched up the dry sleeping bag and gripped the fox's paw, willingly pulling him toward a tent.

"WAIT!" Reggie interrupted the fennec fox, who was telling him about his adventure on the river. "You actually swamped your canoe?"

"Yeah, we got caught in the rapids!" Stone answered.

The two surfers were sitting in the sand lazily watching some tourists on the beach.

"You are one lucky fox that Karen didn't make you sleep by the fire," the meerkat said. He picked up some sand and let it flow through his paw. Suddenly, he looked back toward his friend and asked, "Hey, didn't you tell me that your mother used to scrape together enough money to send you and your brother, Storm, to one of those summer camps for underprivileged youth on Lake Woebegone in the Green Mountains during the summer when you were younger?"

"She did."

"And didn't you also tell me that you took a class on whitewater rafting during one of those summer camps?"

"I did."

"So you know how to paddle a raft through whitewater but still managed to capsize your canoe on a few small rapids!"

"It was a canoe, not a raft,"

"Didn't they also teach you how to pack your camping gear so it didn't get wet?"

"They did."

"And yet you didn't do what they taught you and your sleeping bag got soaked."

"It did," Stone answered with a knowing wink.

The meerkat rolled his eyes and laughed, then playfully flicked some sand at his friend. "You are such a sly fox, you wanted it to get wet!" he exclaimed.

Stone answered to what the meerkat said by giving his friend a very foxy smirk.