Things That Go 'Bump' In The Night

The moment the fox turns to look at his brother Chade rushes in to help.  Where was he supposed to bite?  Where was the best place?  What if the fox bit him? What if it bit Ricin?  What if it was sick?  Heart pounding too loud to hear anything else Chade charged into the fox hoping to take it off balance and chomped into the fox's muzzle before it could bite his brother.  Vicious puppy hate-filled snarls coming from his throat.  His eyes flicked to his brother to make sure he was alive and noticed closed eyes.

No time to think about it now as the fox spun its head, tilted it down planning to bite Chade.  The boy pushed himself away but likely wouldn’t have made it but finally, luck was on their side.  Even as the fox's intent was to bite Chade it paused to tilt its head down, mouth open wide and coughing out some more of that blue ooze.

Chade sure hoped it wasn’t contagious.  Snarling he glared at the fox who glared between the two kids.  The fox jerked its head up, eyed something then ran off to grab their fish.  Chade panted watching it, the notion of giving chase for a second as he wanted that fish.  Shuddering he stayed in place.  The fox would leave and there were more fish and rats and they’d be ok.

So he watched and the fox left, he glared at Ricin even as he caught his breath, “Ricin! You don’t close your eyes in a fight!”  The fight itself hadn’t been tiring, just the fear fading away had caused it. “Ricin, you can’t die, you can’t!  Never close your eyes in a fight.”  If Ricin died that meant not only would Chade be alone but that he had done a terrible thing when he chose one brother's life over another.

Word Count: 3774