Fox Fun

It was another day like any other. Work at a fox sanctuary wasn’t glamorous, with its moments of both unbounded joy and stifling disgust, though it all averaged out to be pretty fun, regardless.

Sure, it may not have been caring for dragons, but you had shied away from that profession ever since you were a child. Growing dragon tails or horns was cool, but you couldn’t ever imagine having to retailor all of your outfits because of it.

It also wasn’t caring for selkies, or unicorns, or even the odd chupacabra, if those could be considered magical. You’d always laughed at the fact that a goat-sucker did all of its goat sucking through magic, imagining it using telekinesis to snatch goats away in the middle of the night.

No, the fox farm was the place for you. They were fluffy and cute, and with a bit of incentive, could even be trained a teeny bit. It was nice and quiet, except for when the foxes weren’t nice and quiet, but those days were few and far between. It was as if the foxes at the sanctuary knew you were trying to nurse them back to health.

“Morning, Jen,” you said as you entered the front office.

“Hey, good to see ya.” She straightened up in her seat behind the desk. “Little Riley’s been waiting for you.”

You scoffed and rolled your eyes as you picked up your badge. “Please. Riley waits for her food. I just so happen to be the one bringing the food.”

You would never admit to your coworkers that you looked forward to working with Riley, too. One of the more well-mannered foxes, she had been found injured on the side of the road after defending her kits from a predator. With no kits in sight, she’d been taken in to get her well enough to rejoin the wild population. You had a feeling that would never happen. After all, what wild animal would give up the guarantee of food and shelter?

“Well, see you for lunch, yeah?”

You waved farewell to your coworker as you headed into the sanctuary itself. It wasn’t much, a fenced-in area that did well to keep the foxes in and the hawks out. There was always a handler on at all times, but during the day, there were enough to parse out the foxes evenly.

You took a quick glance at your coworkers as you headed for the feed bins. Some of them had transferred from other professions, and you could see it in their bodies. One had literal bronze wings from when they’d cared for those pesky Stymphalian birds from Greece. Another had two wolf heads sprouting out from beside her own, the result of running a hellhound nursery for a few years. Each one always made you wonder why they’d left their old jobs behind.

You got what you needed from the feed bins, and almost immediately, Riley was right beside you. She sat in front of you, staring up with her bright amber eyes. In the light of the sunrise, her eyes almost seemed to flash golden. Her fur was a lovely russet orange, perhaps the truest, most vibrant fur you’d ever seen on a red fox.

As she waited for you to offer a treat for her sitting, her tail wagged like she wasn’t a wild animal.

“Yeah, don’t worry, Riley. I got you.” You knelt to her level and scratched beneath her chin. “Here.”

You pulled a treat from her pocket, then dropped her breakfast in one of the bowls beside the bin. It was a nice, healthy mix of eggs, berries, and a couple of small crawfish.

“Enjoy.”

You didn’t leave Riley’s side as she ate, however. After losing her kits, Riley had been scared to eat by herself. So, you knelt there beside her, running your hand down her back and through her fur. Sometimes you scratched between her ears, other times you let her curl her tail around her hand. She was adorable, and it hurt to think that she’d lost her children, especially when she seemed so carefree now.

“Don’t worry, Riley. You’re safe here.”

When she finished eating, you stood up. One of your coworkers came over before you could take Riley elsewhere, though.

“Hey, what’s up?” you asked. They had a somewhat concerned, somewhat bewildered expression on their face. “You okay?”

“Um …” They pointed behind you.

You turned, caught a glimpse of something vibrant auburn swishing behind you, and panicked, thinking it was another fox coming for Riley. You spun, but the auburn remained just at the edges of your vision.

When you finally managed to reach out and take hold, you felt your own grip. “What the—”

You tugged and felt the tug on your own skin. You pulled it more gently, bringing the fluffy tail into view. That was when you realized it was attached to you. “What the hell?”

You looked first at your coworker, then at Riley. Riley sat there, squinting with her tongue stuck out, tail wagging in the sunrise. It was the shadow, however, that revealed eight more shadows than should’ve been there.

Recognition dawned in your eyes, and with a breath that was equal parts defeated and proud, you muttered, “God damn it, Riley.”