The Fox Hunt

Back home he was greeted by a duet of meows. The two cats were lying around the empty plate.

“Hi kitties,” he waved at them. He picked up the plate and the tabby cat stood up and rubbed its head and body against his leg. He let it go on for a bit, then bended over and extended his hand towards it. The cat hissed and jumped away from him. He sighed and went inside. There he was met by another cat with a dissatisfied look on its face. It pierced him with the green eye.

“Where have you been? I hope you were making progress on your task.”
“I was visiting my friends. Look I need to keep up the appearance of being alive. Otherwise it will become more difficult to do things for you. I can give you my night, but I need to keep my day.” The cat smirked and grinned widely. Exposing its pointy teeth
“Talking back already are we? Fine, have your day. But now it is night-time.”
“Yes fine, I will go set up everything tonight.”

“Good.”
“I will just set your food before I go.”
“That should go without saying.”
“Right …” Emil said but rolled his eyes when he turned around. After he set the food for all the cats he went and gathered all the materials for his mission. He took an axe, the paracord, water canisters and a lantern. He was thinking about also taking the wooden mask, but decided against that idea.

“Not like I’ll even meet anyone. Still better be careful.”
He put the axe in a backpack, tied the canisters together and hung them on the backpack as well as the lantern. At the door he came to a stop. He realised he forgot about the bait. The meagre pantry was raided and the loot was three tins of mackerel, that he showed in the backpack. Fairly certain that he now had everything he left and headed towards the park, making sure that he took the path where less people would spot him. In the park he walked off the path, so he could walk around shrouded in darkness and avoid the few people that still roamed in the night.

“If somebody saw me now I would seriously get reported,” he mumbled, and gave a quiet chuckle. As he approached the forest he began humming to himself. Once again it was a melody from the glade. He remembered the beauty of Yarilo and the flowering willow tree.

“Stumbling into the glade with all this gear would be kind of inconvenient.”

Encumbered by the gear, he was making slow progress through the forest despite avoiding areas where the undergrowth wasn’t as heavy. When he arrived at the stream he filled one of the canisters with the cold water. The burden was quite a lot to bear, but Emil was aware that he will have to come back at least two more times. He went on towards the place he found the fox den. Every now and again he could hear rustling in the leaves all around him, other times a branch broke or an owl hooted. Looking up he noticed the Moon was almost completely gone. It dwindled so that only a slender curve remained. He trod along through the ferns and reached the uneven ground where he found the den last time. He put down the canisters and took two of the empty ones. He left the lantern on where he left his other things. He hurried back towards the stream each hand clutching an empty canister. Once those were filled as well he made his way for more. This way however was noticeably slower. He wondered whether the dead still get sore arms the next day. He returned and made another round with the final two canisters. After he was done he could finally get on and start his task. He looked around the den and tried to see if there were any paths that the animals took regularly. He found a couple of them and decided to get to work. He gathered a bunch of branches and chopped some more off trees and brushes with the axe. He cut short sticks with acute angles, short straight sticks and longer straight sticks. When he was satisfied he hammered the acute angled sticks into the ground on either side of the path, a bit away from the entrance of the den. He hammered a short straight stick further along the trail. One long stick went between the y-shaped sticks and the other from the middle of the long stick to the third short stick. He threw the paracord over a thick branch and tied an end to a short stick and the other to a water canister and pulled it up into the air. He was glad that he had practised tying knots before. He tucked the tied stick behind the long one and supported it with the other one so it didn’t come free. The paracord was then tied into a noose and placed all around the trap. He carefully let go of everything and to his surprise the trap didn’t trigger itself. Relieved, he went right along and started making one on some other path.

Somewhere along the way he realised he was actually having fun making the traps and then he reminded himself what he was in fact here for. He would need to kill the entire skulk of foxes.

“What if there are even cubs?” He worked on despite the dark thoughts that crept into his mind. He placed the next trap away from the trails and one very close to the entrance of the den. After he managed to use up all of the water canisters he realised that he still had a bunch of rope left. He didn’t want to set these traps again, so he decided to make more of them right away. Since he no longer had anything that could serve as a weight and didn’t want to spend the night chopping down thick branches or even entire small trees he needed to change the strategy. He tried to bend some heavy branches and when he deemed one of them satisfactory he hammered a y-shaped stick into the ground nearby. This time he only needed to use two short sticks. One tied to the end of the rope, that was also tied to the taut branch. The other was on the ground next to the y-shaped stick and prevented the strung up stick from moving. Emil attached another separate string to the branch, with the other end ending in a noose placed around the trap. He made three of these traps spread around a wider area and then run out of paracord.

He checked to see that all traps were still not triggered and returned to his backpack. He pulled out the tins of mackerel and with utmost caution placed the fish on the traps. He tried eating one, but was quickly reminded of the new-found distaste for food. After finishing the snare traps he went back home. It was much easier to walk without the extra burden however he felt a lot more anxious.

“I don’t know whether to hope that this works or that it just completely fails.” With a cloudy heart he continued treading across the leaves and thorns. He walked in low spirits, at times even dragging his feet. He thought about going faster just for the sake of not wasting his time, but decided that he didn’t really feel like doing anything else that same night.

Once he was back home, he didn’t see the small cats, but inside Eon was sleeping in his bed as usual. He looked at it with irritation and even slight malevolence for forcing him through all this. The feelings faded as quickly as they came but left in their stead a deep sorrow. Emil slowly sat down next to the cat and gently petted its head. It opened its eye just barely, exposing a thin green line but then closed it again and ceased responding at all. He covered it with a blanket and went to study. He did not stop until Eon began walking around the room in the morning. Emil got up to prepare food.

“Did you manage it?”

“I lad down a bunch of traps, but I don’t know whether they will work.”

“I see, well good effort anyway I suppose. Check them tomorrow.”

“Yes, I was going to do that without you saying it… hey.”

“Yes?”

“Is it really necessary,” he was cut of immediately.

“Yes. It is.”

“Are any of them cubs?”
“No, all three are reynards and vixens. No kits.”

“I see.” Emil went and finished preparing the food and water for the cats. The two awaited him outside. They didn’t look as scraggy as they were the first time Emil saw them. Back inside he began preparing for the lectures. The point of his scar was sticking from the makeup so he spent a while trying to hide it as well as he could.

“Bye,” he said reflexively as he exited. On the way to the faculty he looked at the faces of people passing by him and wondered whether the reported creep would also be out and about in daylight.

“Wait a minute that’s me,” he tried smiling, but felt somewhat bitter. He wondered if any of the traps were already triggered. When he arrived he removed all these thoughts from his mind so that he wouldn’t look the way he felt inside. It was a relief for him that for the first lectures he was separate from both of his friends. He was in no mood to calmly chat about. They still met up for lunch so he had to pretend to enjoy eating as well as talking. After the lectures were over he couldn’t wait to get away from everyone.

The relief faded soon enough as the inevitable future began staring at him. He took the long way home and even stopped by the convenience store to buy even more chicken. The meat forced him to return faster. The kittens were nowhere to be seen this time, but the food was gone. Similarly once inside Eon wasn’t there either. Emil looked in all the rooms, but couldn’t find the cat.
“Hey cat!” Emil called, but nothing stirred. “Eon!” Despite the louder shout there was nothing. With the lack of response he considered going to see if his task was successful.

“If they are still alive I’ll need the axe. I can’t walk around with it during the day. I can’t let people see me.” With nothing better to do he decided to practice violin. After tuning and warming up with some scales and arpeggios he tried playing a melody from the glade. It gave him some difficulty, but he was able to reproduce more of it. Despite remembering the music it was harder to play then than it was together with the nav. After a while he also played the pieces that he played before obtaining the old violin in the forest. Despite not practising them for a week or so he found that they felt easier to play than he remembered. He could play most of them without really looking at the sheet music. He was completely in the flow state as he played on.

“Not bad,” said Eon as it suddenly appeared behind Emil, who convulsed in surprise.

“Whoa, hi Eon,” he replied, happy that he managed to not drop his violin.

“Hmm, took you long enough,” the cat replied with a puff.

“What do you mean?”

“You finally used my name, Emil. I told you the first time we spoke what you should call me.”
“Oh I didn’t even realize I never called you before. Wait, what about you? You just used my name. You also never used it before have you?”
“No, I didn’t.” It jumped on a chair and then up on the top of the backrest. It looked Emil straight in the eye.

“I believe you have some work to do tonight.”
“Yes, I will go and check after dark.”
“Good.”

“Where have you been up to now?”
“I had some business to attend to, nothing of your concern. That is not yet anyway.”
“Whatever, how did you get in?”
“Your home is always open to me.”

“All right, well I’ll just feed you lot and then I will be on my way.” Eon said nothing and just let out a sound that could be interpreted as assent. He prepared the food, gave some to Eon and took the rest outside. There was still no sign of the two little cats. Emil frowned and returned inside.

“You know you don’t actually have to feed those two. I have no connection to them.”

“Yes, I didn’t think you did, but somehow it felt right, so I did it.”

“As you wish.”

Emil started preparing for the task. Once again he placed the axe in the backpack, the end of its handle was sticking out. He sighed and hung the lantern on the side of the backpack and went to get a knife from the kitchen. With all the gear he needed in place he began leaving.

“Emil,” the cat spoke and Emil looked back. “Take care.”
Emil nodded and left the house. Unlike the night before when he was able to go to the forest with a light spirit and a song in his heart, this time he was in a dark mood and nervous.

“I can’t believe I worried about looking like an axe murderer before and now I will become one anyway. Why couldn’t I just make traps that are sure to kill?” Emil thought to himself and mumbled as he walked the dark streets. Despite his ill humour he made sure to keep his wits about him and avoid getting spotted by a potential person going home late from a bar or a criminally overworked job. He took the same path as he did the night before and though he was unhampered by awkward canisters, he walked slowly. The task ahead was repulsing him, but taking it slower would just keep him feeling like this longer.

“I could at least have gotten drunk before this,” he thought but knew that he can no longer stomach it. As he reached the park, he walked straight across the grass, avoiding all people. He looked up at the sky and realised it was new Moon. The Moon was nowhere to be seen, though the sky was still lit by countless starts. A breeze blew and it was somewhat cooler than the past days. The forest seemed as if it invited him to come closer, before enveloping him completely and swallow him whole forever. Remembering the green one-eyed stare of Eon he strengthened his resolve and took a firm step into the dark woods. The path to his destination had become so familiar to him, that even in the profound darkness of the night during new Moon he had little difficulty finding his way towards the fox dens. The axe was fairly small and not heavy, yet he still felt a substantial pressure on his shoulders, that extended all the way to his insides as if pulling down his internal organs. He fluctuated back and forth between hardened resolve and dejected emptiness like a pendulum that instead of working properly spends significantly more time on one side than the other. He crossed the stream. The night wasn’t only darker than usual but also quieter. Unnervingly noiseless background meant that each of Emil’s steps seemed like a scream into the void.

He continued past the stream and wondered whether he would need to use it on the way back home. When he was nearing his traps he began hearing various animal noises. From squealing to growling and whimpering. He knew that there were animals awaiting him in the traps. He slapped himself over the cheek and took a deep breath. Moving forward the noise grew ever louder. He entered the area where the traps were laid out. He felt sick. There were six animals hanging from the branches of trees. He turned on the lantern to have a better look at the victims. He saw the foxes, but there were also some other animals. He took the axe from the backpack and went to the smallest animal first. It was a dormouse. The noose was tightened around its belly. He took out the knife and attempted to cut the rope. It was made difficult by the wriggling of the small rodent and its attempts of biting Emil’s hand. He ended up cutting the string above the dormouse, beyond its reach and then loosened the noose slightly. As soon as it felt the slight release of tension it squirmed and fell out of the noose. It ran off at a great speed and was lost to sight immediately. The sound of rustling that followed it faded seconds after that.

Emil turned to the second small animal. On the way to it he passed an empty trap. He saw that it had been triggered, but the paracord was either torn or chewed through. He continued towards the animal. A pine marten was hanging by its back paw. As he got closer it began hissing at him and tried to bite and scratch. Staying as far away as his reach allowed him he began to cut the noose from within the loop. The marten fell down from the snare and lunged towards Emil, hissing loudly. Emil jumped backwards and tripped over a branch. The pine marten ran up the nearest tree and then jumped to the next one. It was soon gone as well.

He continued on to the next trap and his hart froze over. It was a small fox kit.
“Damn that cat,” he said quietly. The cub didn’t try to bite him or otherwise resist, so he was able to easily release it to the ground. It immediately ran into a hole that led into the den. He carried on without a second glance. He passed a trap that was still waiting to be triggered. He carefully triggered it himself and let the canister down to the ground slowly. He continued walking towards a fox. He felt his insides trying to escape from him. When he got near enough he realized. The fox had been hanged by its neck. It was completely still. Emil approached it cautiously and it didn’t stir at all. He poked it with the axe and still nothing happened. The body was cold and hard. Its limbs were already stiff with rigor mortis. He lifted the dead fox and freed it from the noose. He carried the body aside and laid it down next to a tree.

Emil looked towards the other foxes still trapped in the snares.
“I could just leave them up there to starve,” he said to himself, but knew that a death like that would likely be much more horrible. He made his way to one of the foxes. It was hanging by one of its front paws. It barked and growled at Emil as he approached it. He saw that the rope holding it in the air was already partly torn up. At that point he realized he couldn’t leave the fox to die even if he decided to, since there was a possibility of escape. He corrected his grip on the axe. Despite his negative feelings from before he felt coldly calm, composed and prepared for what laid ahead. He advanced towards fox and came within the extended reach that the axe provided him.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly and lifted the axe. The fox still growled at him. He swung the axe down at the head of the fox, but as it convulsed he hit it in the vicinity of neck and shoulder. It howled with pain and Emil came with another strike that hit the top of its head. The fox went limp. With shaking hands he released it from the noose and let it drop to the ground. It made no movement. Emil struck one last time, aiming for the neck. The was buried and got stuck. Emil turned around, but after a single step he stumbled, fell to his knees and began throwing up. Before he stopped he was already sobbing loudly, with tears and snot covering his face. After the sobbing calmed down, he picked himself back up with trembling arms. He felt light-headed and almost lost his balance again. With a bit of struggle he was able to remove the axe from the dead fox. He picked it up and placed it next to the previous one.

With dread he looked at the final fox. It stared back at him, its eyes reflecting the faint light of the lantern. He slowly neared it with the axe hanging limply from his hand and resting on his leg. The fox was hanging by its back paw. Emil was carried towards it by legs that didn’t even feel like his own any more. The fox barked at him. It was larger than the others. It was foaming at the mouth.

“Forgive me,” said Emil with his voice cracking and breaking. He delivered a horizontal strike, twisting his entire body and hit the head of the fox. Its limbs sagged and the body began swaying back and forth on the rope. Emil noticed the shallow moving of the chest. It was still alive, but unconscious. He cut the fox from the rope and let it fall to the ground. He chopped twice more with the axe. The neck was mangled and barely held on to the rest of the body. He took the carcass to the others. He felt cold, as if all emotion was drained from him. He took his backpack, lantern and axe and started making his way back home. He walked quietly, his face like carved stone. On the way back he washed the axe and his hands in the cold waters of the stream.