Change in Life

Chapter 8. Jade's Home

The Smell. By all that was holy, the Smell! It was so... sweet. An impact of everything floral and green was so richly intense it instantly gave Blake a headache.The air smelt fresher than ever. He could actually smell the sap from the oak and cypress trees.

The woods seemed a lot different. One thing excited him straight away. His human eyes were nothing compared to his fox eyes. His sense of smell and hearing were beyond anything he ever thought. He did not really need to see with these abilities. He was now smelling and hearing things that he had never imagined before, in places so far off the world suddenly became smaller in a heart beat.

Now that Blake was so much smaller than his human size - he would now only stand at knee level with most people - the trees seemed to be the size of looming skyscrapers. The whiskers on the side of his face shifted slightly and gave him the exact direction of the wind and its strength. All of these things made his head thump painfully again as it dealt with everything at once.

Blake heard a quiet grunt come from Jade which brought his attention. 'Follow me, Blake,' she ushered. 'I'll show you the river. It's the least I can do for you.'

She began to speed up gradually from a trot to a sprint. Blake had never seen the river before. It wasn't on his family's property. He had seen it on maps but never thought he would see it himself. Now, since he was a fox, there was no such thing as property or borders anymore. No fences to envy all the wonders on the other side at. He was free in the wild.

The chase was on and Blake ran after Jade with incredible speed. It was easier to run through the woods now. His sense of balance was remarkable. Dodging trees and jumping over rocks was as simple as leaning his body and letting his tail do the rest. He soon caught up to Jade and ran a few meters beside her. As he ran, he couldn't help but glance at her. She moved like she was almost like a small red wraith with a tip of luminescent white on her tail acting as a lamp. She sprinted around trees and over rocks so swiftly that it made her like mist sweeping through the woods, gliding over the land like she had wings for feet.

Preoccupied by what he was seeing and not paying attention himself, Blake almost darted straight into an oak. In half a breath, he found himself on the other side. Unknowingly, he used his new split second reactions and jumped as high as he could. Like a dart, he flew through the fork of the tree and landed on the other side. All of which he didn't notice until he looked over his shoulder as he ran to see what he had just conquered. A jolly grin appeared on his face as he looked back in front of him.

*

They continued running right through the morning darkness until the light started change the hue of the sky to purple. Blake didn't even notice the journey. Unlike his human body, his fox form was fleet. As he ran closer to Jade in an attempt to make conversation, he noticed the sound of running water shimmering through the trees.

Soon, the river was in sight. They slowed down to a trot and went to the water's edge. Blake couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was so different to what he imagined. He expected to see a wide river surrounded by trees that sipped directly at the waters edge.

He sighed disparagingly as he was wrong. It was skinny. Some of the redwoods along the bank were taller than the river was wide. There were trees on each side of the river, of cause, but there weren't so many trees that the area seemed crowded. The tree line ended a few meters from the river's edge. The bank was built of thousands of grey and white inch sized rocks and pebbles. All smooth at the touch to the point where they felt wet.

Hearing a muffling thunder, Blake looked to his left and saw the edge of a beautiful waterfall flowing quickly. He guess it flowed over the same cliff his little haven was situated who knows how long away. Blake looked out over the fantastic country land as the sun slowly greeted the morning from behind the mountain ranges in the distance. Walking close to the edge of the falls, he looked down and noticed, horridly, a much longer fifty meter fall to the bottom. As he looked down, he started to get dizzy. He backed away from the edge and went back to admiring the beautiful view. His attention was soon drawn back to Jade as he heard her tongue lapping at the water.