The Vixen Trials

The She-Fox

Dakkoul

He told his legs to move forward and they did, plunging into the ice-cold water that soaked through to his skin as the She-Fox came to the edge of the clearing and raised her snout in a lingering howl. Four large foxes bounded up behind her, joining in her eerie song, that abruptly finished as she advanced.

​"He's mine," he heard her snarl as his heart thundered. It was too late for Flaming now. He had not been forceful enough in ordering him away. Now one of the five would get him, for sure. The stream couldn't save them. Nothing could.

​"Help us, Christ," Flaming screamed.

​The She-Fox halted to give a yowl that sounded remarkably like a laugh. "He can't save you. No one can." She whined, and pawed the ground, "I thirst for your blood, Hattavah."

​"You can have me, my Queen, I won't fight you. Only let the boy go." 

​"My friends are hungry, Hattavah. I'll not deny them a snack" and she jumped at him, paws first, her sharp long claws aiming for his face. He moved with as much haste as he could muster, backwards. The She-Fox hit the stream instead, skidding on the smooth rocks beneath her paws before springing back up, shaking her wet fur with her jaws open showing her pointed teeth.

In front of him now, somehow, stood Flaming. "Stop it, Fox-witch," Flaming commanded. "In the name of the Christ, all of you, come no further."

​All of the large white foxes gathered by the edge of stream, but they stayed there, still and watching.

​"Not you perhaps, but the Hattavah is mine, by blood right," the She-Fox snarled. "He came to me willingly and pledged to serve me always. Is this not true, Hattavah?" She came and nuzzled him, so that the hair all over his body pricked up. He tensed himself, for one final last struggle. He'd fight as long as he could, so that Phil-Aemon could escape. She finished sniffing and raised her head.

​"No longer," Dakkoul got out weakly, "I am of you no longer. I choose Jagur's god, the Christ, instead."

​The She-Fox let out a scream of rage, raising her forepaws upwards him and he rammed her as hard as he could, with every bit of strength he had left. With his weight pushing against her, she scrabbled to keep her place on the rocks and slipped and fell, leaping up with wet fur, snarling, jumping towards him, but miscalculating somehow, so that she missed and fell instead. In desperation he ran towards her, thrusting her snout down into the icy water. She thrashed against him. At first it took all he had to hold her, but her movements grew weaker and weaker. She was drowning, he thought triumphantly, when he felt a voice say, "Do not kill".

A rushing came in his chest, a pounding in his ears, and he found his hands releasing her in obedience. She flung out from beneath him, running to stand panting underneath an old oak tree. He only had a short time before she came for him. Why would the voice - God? - tell him to let her go. It made no sense.

The She-Fox lifted her head and jumped in his direction, when three other foxes sprang from behind the thicket of starberries and attacked her. He watched stunned as they ripped into her until she stopped twitching. The air above her shimmered as her form shrunk down to that of a fine-boned old lady, grey hair bunched behind her. He took a second look. It was not the Queen-Priestess. The other foxes then turned their dripping snouts in his direction. This was it then.

​Something strange and unfamiliar possessed him. A calm. An unearthly calm as the lead fox, smaller than the others, with a ringed snout padded towards him, stopping before the stream. With a quick shudder it transformed back to human form. The Prince stood before him.

​"Forget how to kill, Hattavah?" the Prince sneered. "Why did you draw back your fist? I'd hoped you'd do me at least one favor. Or were you too weak to hold her."