Page 34 of Foxin' Around

“Maybe we should wait until morning,” she suggested and yelped when a branch caught her hair, tugging sharply at her scalp.

Fixi plastered himself against her leg, his tiny teeth sinking in her sock-covered foot with a growl, but she took little notice of him as she battled the tree’s hold on her. When she finally got loose, she was alarmed to see that Syrix was even farther away, but at least he appeared to be waiting for her. Fixi sank his teeth in harder, biting the hell out of her when she attempted to follow after him.

“Ouch! Shit. Fixi!” she scolded him, and the fox immediately let her got, his ears and tail lowering contritely. “Go home if you can’t cease being a menace.”

Scooting back a few paces, the fox laid flat on the forest floor and gave her a beguiling look that made her shake her head in exasperation.

“Alright come on, then,” she sighed. “But behave!”

He immediately sprang to his feet in response and though he practically trembled as they trailed behind Syrix, he made no more efforts to stop her. She shook her head, marveling at his weird behavior. Why would he interfere when it came to Syrix? Unless, perhaps, he thought of coaxing them back to the cabin. If that were the case, she could hardly fault him for that, as she would prefer to return with Syrix as well.

But the real question was why was he so far ahead of her now? He wasn’t even making an effort to wait for her to catch up. Here waited for merely a moment or two as if to be certain that she was still following and then he continued on.

She frowned as she stumbled through the overgrown parts of the forest, far from the usual paths they walked until she realized abruptly that they had crossed out of his territory. There was no river on this side to mark the boundary line and she couldn’t even say for sure where his territory ended there, but upon stopping for a moment to breathe, she noted the distinct change in the air that made her tremble with unease.

“Syrix, where are you?” she shouted, suddenly realizing that she had completely lost sight of him. “We shouldn’t be here.”

“Just a little farther,” his voice called from within the trees. “It is right over here. Hurry, and then we can go home.”

She bit her lip, unease crawling through her as her secondary sense of knowing screamed at her. She took one step and then another, the sound of lapping water making her tremble harder. This was wrong. She shouldn’t be there. And her stomach dropped as she finally stepped out from the trees and stared fearfully as the Mallory cabin rose from the lakefront like an angry ghost. She didn’t move for a long minute, her stomach churning and her eyes skittering around the property. Where was Syrix?

“In here, my love. There is a really important secret I discovered, and I want to share it with you. And you did mentionraiding their food supply. We can do that afterward. You were right. There is place is a treasure trove.”

“Oh, okay,” she replied hesitantly as she made her way to the porch. “Just… let’s make this fast, okay? I don’t want to be here long. This place gives me the creeps.”

“Of course,” he answered, but his voice sounded even more hollow and distant as if he were drifting farther into the cabin without her.

Gritting her teeth, Krystal hurried across the porch and in through the front door, leaving it wide open for Fixi as the little fox darted in after her.

The stench was the first thing that hit her. It smelled damp, as if the lake had flooded through it a few times, and something almost metallic with a foul odor of something rotting somewhere. She gagged a little and covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve, her gaze flitting around the dark living space. She could barely make out the once expensive furnishings, electronics, and designer art pieces that inhabited the room along with the hunting trophies that hung from the walls in a grim shadow play. Fixi pressed hard against her leg but then suddenly he darted forward, abandoning her as he raced at full speed through the cabin.

Krystal frowned in the direction he disappeared. “Damn it, where did you just take off to?” she muttered as she slowly inched her way after him, nearly blind from the darkness.

Cursing beneath her breath as she banged into things randomly, her fingers slid across something sharp driven into the table she collided with. She gingerly explored it with her fingers, noting the sharp, long blade and the wood handle. A hunting knife? Although it was a strange place for the large blade, she wasn’t about to complain when she was suddenly feeling very vulnerable. She curled her fingers around the hilt and tugged, whispering a prayer of thanks when it suddenlypopped loose. Holding the blade to her side, she continued to make her way through the cabin.

“Syrix?”

“Down here. You are never going to believe this.” His voice floated up to her from an open door.

Down there? She opened the door a little farther and shuddered, trying not to gag as the smell of decay wafted even heavier from inside the doorway. Drawing her borrowed tunic over her mouth and nose so that she would have both hands free, she squinted down into the darkness. Sure enough, she was able to make out the vague, dark impressions of stairs descending into inky blackness.

“Syrix, I can’t. It’s too dark. I won’t be able to see.”

A little light flickered to life and a faint glow rose from below, casting a light illumination onto the stairs. Despite the quick response, for some reason it brought to mind a descent into hell. Cold sweat popped out on her skin, and she shuddered. She just needed to get through this and then they could go.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, and she descended the stairs one by one until she finally reached the floor level where Syrix stood waiting, a wide grin on his face.

Tension bled from her, and she returned his smile. “Okay, what did you want to show me?”

“Come here first,” he enticed. “You were so brave that I think it deserves a reward.

Her smile grew more relaxed. That was her ridiculous and far too cunning fox. “Okay, but then you show me what you’re so excited about so we can get out of here.”

“Agreed.”

Chuckling quietly to herself, she crossed the distance to him. The closer she got, however, the thicker the foul scent grew, as if the entire cellar was filled with something putrid.

“The smell is disgusting. This is hardly romantic,” she joked.

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