Kenyon the hunter fox (Chapter 2)

[Ashewell]

Chapter 2 – Aftermath

The sun couldn't have come any sooner, its morning rays shining through the cracked and dusty shop windows. Somewhere a bird was chirping and a fox was snoozing. Kenyon was fast asleep behind the convenience store counter, unaware of the unexpected visitor looking through the run-down store. The visitor was sniffing around the overturned racks looking for food when she caught the scent of a fox.
She peeked curiously behind the counter to where the fox was sleeping. Kenyon was fast asleep. She sniffed him before she poked him with her nose and said, "Hey. Sleeping as always I see." Kenyon rolled over, but stayed asleep grunting "...5 more minutes, mommy…” She giggled and poked him again, "Wake up silly!" Kenyon opened his eyes slowly and gave a small yawn while stretching before gazing up to the female. Aria was a beautiful white-coated female, a vixen, and one of Kenyon's friends.
"How did you know I was here?" Kenyon asked.
"Actually, I was looking for some food when I found a familiar scent."
"How did you get in here?"
"Oh, there is an opening right over there." She said. She looked around the counter to the front of the store and Kenyon, curious as he is, hopped onto the counter. Sure enough, as she said, a large tree trunk had completely destroyed the left section of the front shop windows coming to a rest in the middle of the store. Kenyon was amazed at the damage before asking, "How did this happen and I didn't know about it?"
"You didn't know?" She said quizzically. "How could you not have known? There was a huge storm last night. Things went flying everywhere. The whole street's a mess. But of course, you sleep like a rock." She shook her head, "A bear would come in and rampage but you'd stay asleep."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh Kenny, right over your head..." she said, shaking her head with a small sigh.
Kenyon hopped off of the counter and landed right in front of Aria, "I told ya to stop calling me 'Kenny.'"
Aria ignored the last thing Kenyon said and looked at the spot that he was laying on and said, "Hey, you actually found something?" Kenyon glanced back and noticed that she was eyening the necklace that he found about a week ago, "Oh, yes I found something. What? You thought I wouldn't? I am a treasure hunter." He said proudly. "No." she said, "I just thought that you wouldn't actually find something that's something, ya know? This is very pretty." Kenyon thought about this for awhile before asking, "Hey, do you want it?" Kenyon thought that if he gave the necklace to her, he wouldn't have to carry it and still be able to have it, or at least be able to see it when he wants. Aria looked back and Kenyon can see in her eyes a sparkling glint of adoration. He blushed a bit at this look.
"Really, I can have it?"
"Yes, you really can." Kenyon trotted past Aria and picked up the necklace chain in his jaws. Aria bowed her head and let Kenyon slip the chain around her neck. She then looked down at the tarnished necklace and back up into Kenyon's eyes. Then she did something that surprised Kenyon; she licked his cheek, "Thank you." Kenyon felt flustered, and could only stammer, "Y-your welcome." Kenyon stared into Aria's brilliantly dark amber-colored eyes, shinning in the morning sunlight, and his heart started pounding in his chest. He didn't understand why he felt this way, after all, Aria is his best friend since puppyhood. Their fathers were best friends since their pup days and he and Aria grew up together. They played Tackle and Hunt the Fox, and had found the first thing that got him interested in treasure hunting; a worn bottle cap, which he still has. But now, after months of separation, his heart is racing on this reunion. Little did Kenyon know, Aria was feeling very similar.
Aria stared back into Kenyon's somewhat dull golden-colored eyes, with more of a quizzical look. She wanted to ask why he was staring at her, but something else said to stay quiet and enjoy the moment, so she did. Then her mind wandered back to those days when they played together all the time… The time he caught those fish in a river outside of the city for her… The time they played Hunt the Fox and she'd always win. The time they laid cuddled together when a large storm was blowing through....
A large crashing sound resonating from outside shook them from their stupor, and they both blushed heavily before Kenyon spoke. "What was that?" They both took fleeting glances at each other and Aria shrugged before they backed out of the convenience store. Kenyon saw for the first time the destruction of last night storm, which he slept through. The street was littered with debris, cars were flipped over and destroyed, and telephone poles were uprooted and strewn across the floor. His store was hit the worst, with the large tree trunk protruding from the front windows. The crashing sound came from one of the few remaining telephone poles left standing toppling over into one of the other buildings, cracking and breaking the windows. The streets all around were covered in splintered wood and broken shards of glass. "Wow" was all that Kenyon could think about saying. He was a bit stunned at the sight of the damage. He glanced towards Aria and she just smirked slyly and shrugged.

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"You ready?" Aria said as she helped Kenyon tie up a red scarf around him, slung diagonally around his shoulder and hung below and in-between his legs, which contained the various little trinkets and treasures that he didn't want to leave behind, one of which was the bottle cap. "Yep, all set!" was Kenyon’s response. She gave a small smile to him, around her neck laid the old tarnished necklace. Then they both set out for parts unknown, as Kenyon was usually bad with directions and Aria had no clue as to where to go next. They traveled together down the cracked and forsaken street, observing all the damage that the storm had left. As they rounded a corner, both Kenyon and Aria ears perked as they heard a familiar crack-crack sound of something on fire, and sure enough, the stout building to their right was on fire. They gave the building a wide berth as the crossed the street, both giving little notice to the three large red trucks parked in the building, one of which was toppled over and the ladder attached to the roof laid broken.
After an hour or so of walking in silence, it was Kenyon who first spoke "I'm getting hungry, are you?" he asked her. She shrugged lightly and said "I could use some food, but where are we gonna get some?" He thought for a moment, then sighed, "If only there were a river nearby, we could get some fish…” But she wasn't listening, for she was gazing at was seemed to be a dark lump of fur some ways down the road. She immediately bounded for it, catching Kenyon by surprise. He glimpsed the object that caught her attention and quickly trotted as fast as he could, the scarf tied under him slowing his stride. He caught up to her a few minutes later and examined the large, furry lump which was emitting a slow rasping breath. The air was heavy with the scent of wet fur and salt air, as they were near the ocean. Aria circled around to the other side and jumped back, "Eep, a bear!" The bear, giving no notice to the two foxes, laid there with labored breathing. A large gash on the bear’s underside was oozing blood, staining the street red. Multiple trails of blood lead from a nearly completely destroyed shack with the beam of a telephone pole smack in the middle. The bear, fearing the worse from the passing hurricane, had followed its instinctual call of finding shelter in an all-wooden shack.
Kenyon stared into the dark eyes of the bear, finding a small reflection of him in those dark orbs that once were full of life. As blood seeped from the gash, blood also flowed from the bear's open maw. Both Kenyon and Aria stole furtive glances at each other as they stood before the large black bears final moments of life. One sickening cough and the bear laid motionless, the rasping sounds died with it.
After a short while it was Kenyon who suggested that they take some of the bear's meat, as they were both really hungry and Aria agreed. They warily approached the bear's belly where it was already open and proceeded to rip out flesh. Seconds turned to minutes as the two foxes feasted. Kenyon’s ears twitched at a soft tingling sound and he pulled his head back from the bear’s gut, blood coated his once white muzzle. On the ground next to his left paw was a fiery vibrant red jewel. In its center appeared to him as a small flame. He watched it in amazement and when the light struck the jewel, the flame in the center seemed to flicker, as if it were a real flame. Aria also glanced to the ground near her right paw, wondering what enthralled Kenny so much. She gazed into the sparkling gem on the floor, but instead of seeing the red that Kenny saw, she stared deeply into the sapphire crystal-like rock on the floor between them. Aria’s eyes grew wide as inside of the stone shimmered like the crashing waves of the bright blue ocean.
“What do you think it is, Kenny?” Aria asked first, “And why was it in this bear?”
“I don’t know Aria… I just don’t know. But what I do know is that this is the most beautiful jewel I’ve ever seen. We should keep it.”
Aria nodded and picked up the jewel in her maw and slipped it into the slit in the red scarf around Kenny’s body. The little jewel, oblong in shape and only twice the size of the bottle cap is settled next to glimmered weakly in the lacking light. The spark inside shifted from the small flame to the crashing waves easily then slid effortlessly to long swaying lines, tinted slightly green. Before the lights in the gem went out, the swaying lines wrapped around themselves into hard-edged dark brown shapes resembling rocks. The gem went black, blacker than the midnight sun that happens once every 216 moons; a blackness that seems to absorb any light around this object. When the stone receives no light, it’s as if it doesn’t exist.

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As the two foxes trotted down the avenue near the ocean searching for some shelter to reside the night in, a lone figured snaked its way down the paved road. The creature noticed the remnants of a bear lying in the middle of the road and cautiously approached it. She sniffed the air around the dead bear, but all she scented was the death and decay and small hints of two separate vulpine scents, one of which seemed familiar to her senses. The lone female wolf, whose pelt shined in a golden brown, was starving. This female hasn’t eaten since she wandered away from her pack and her mate. It was a tough decision, but she couldn’t take anymore of his rude and crass behavior. Also it was nearing mating season and she decided that there would be no chance for him to be the father of her first litter. She circled around to the bear’s front and noticed there were visible signs that something before her had been eating her, she assumed those vulpine scents from before. Whether that something was still around mattered not to her as she was quite hungry, so she leaned her brown furred head down and began feasting on the bears flesh.