The Bones Below | ONC 2023 | ✔️

THREE

Kip winced when her pupils constricted painfully at the brightness outside. She limped along after the much quicker silver fox, both of them leaving scattering butterflies in their wake. But the pounding of the leopard's paw steps rapidly gained on her while the other fox's tail grew further and further away.

Kip's shoulder screamed. She let out a stifled bark when the useless thing gave out on her and she collapsed. The leopard let out a victorious snarl as it pounced.

A fox's teeth found the vixen's nape and dragged her out of the way just as the cat landed. "This way!" the silver fox huffed before dashing down into an off-shooting subway tunnel. And in the span of half a heartbeat, Kip elected that she'd preferred her chances following a strange fox into a dark tunnel than to try to outrun a furious leopard on three legs.

The leopard swatted at their tails as it followed them down the subway steps. The roar of a river filled Kip's ears when she followed the other fox through the pitch-black tunnel. She kept as far away from the track as possible, finding that it had long ago become a gushing underground river of white rapids. Her eyes barely had time to adjust to the dark before the leopard let out a roar that echoed the whole way down the line.

Kip screamed when the beast fell upon her, pinning her to the ground. She fought for her life as the cat struggled to find a place to sink its fangs. Kip thought fast. With her catch in her grasp, she maneuvered her body beneath the cat just as the beast's jaws shut with a resounding crack—splitting the deer's limb in two instead of her.

In frustration and with its prey returned, the beast swatted the fox away.

—Straight into the rapids.

The fox sank beneath the water's surface in an instant. And she desperately wanted to scream. She kicked. She struggled. But every direction was water, and air was always out of her reach no matter which way she turned. Everything was dark. And cold. And the fox's body—tossed around like a broken toy—tired and she was swallowed by the swirling water.

Against her will, instinct took over, and Kip sucked in a heaving lungful of water.

Everything dimmed. The light. The sound. Even the pain of her lamed leg. Her fear died, killing with it any compulsion to fight back. Was this really how she was going to die, alone while the world grew black like a pit covered by her mother's smoldering body?

She stopped kicking and curled up into a tight ball instead, surrendering herself to the current. Finally, she could stop running.

Kip shut her eyes.

The muffled sound of a splash made one of her water-logged ears twitch. She almost felt compelled to snap at whoever was making such a racket. Couldn't they tell that she was trying to finally get some damn rest?

But again, someone else's fangs grabbed her and pulled her to safety.

🦋🦋🦋

Kip gasped awake.

...And immediately choked on that gasp when a heaving lungful of river water spewed from her mouth.

Then the scent hit her.

She sat up with a jolt and surveyed her surroundings. Kip found herself in a tiny excuse for a den that absolutely reeked of that other fox. And, sure enough, a fluffy shape soon darkened the entrance tunnel of the shallow den. Immediately, she raised her hackles and showed the other fox her teeth.

The silver fox strolled on in with a fresh kill dangling from his maw. He shook his coat free of specks of snow. Kip snapped at him, and the male let out a yipe and dropped his prey, and rolled over unto his back submissively.