The Bones Below | ONC 2023 | ✔️

TEN

"Give him back!" Kip screamed into the storm clouds as another jagged chain of lightning lit up the sky. "Give him back!"

But the eagle didn't even look back as she carried the fox kit further and further away into the city.

Kip couldn't run fast enough to keep with her, and soon the flapping silhouette and the cries of the young prey it kidnapped disappeared.

The vixen let out a howl of rage. She limped down another block, turning a corner and praying to catch even a glimpse of the eagle. But only towering thunderheads occupied the sky. The fox kept running, ignoring her pained body. He's just around this next corner, she told herself. She kept telling herself that with every new block. Neer's just around this next corner!

The sound of sobbing behind her made Kip stop dead in her tracks. Her tongue dangled from her gaping mouth as the exhausted, panting fox turned to find her other kit limping yards behind her. She considered turning tail and going after the kit who needed her most, but the sight of tears rolling down Vin's silver and red face made her heart cinch up.

Vin slowly caught up with her mother. She sniffled and swallowed another sob and uttered. "M-Mom...You're bleeding."

Kip looked down at herself to find that her daughter was right. Her paw pads were raw and chafed, and she'd left behind a trail of red paw prints in her wake. Her wound from the eagle's son's claws seeped again. Kip licked out her wound, then curled her lip at the sour taste. "Vin," she said. "Stay here."

The kit shivered with her tail wrapped over her paws and looked around the empty gray city. "By myself?"

"I'm going after your brother."

The young kit sobbed again. She shivered so hard Kip could almost hear the kit's bones rattle. More fat tears streamed from her eyes. "No. Mama, please..." she leaned against her mother and wrapped her little paws around Kip's foreleg. "Please don't leave me. I don't want to be alone!"

"Vin."

Kip couldn't waste any more time. Neer needed her. She couldn't lose him. It wasn't too late to save him. She refused to believe otherwise. She tried to pull her leg away from Vin, but the kit held on tighter. "Vin! Let me go!"

"No!" squealed the kit.

The fox snarled and shoved the kit away from her with her snout. Vin rolled away from her and lay on her side pitifully where she fell. She didn't sob anymore, but her tears continued to fall, mixing with the rain that started to fall again.

Immediately, Kip's heart split into two pieces. She hurried to her kit and ran her tongue over her fur, but the kit pushed her away with a paw.

Kip stared solemnly at Vin. "Get somewhere safe," she whispered. "I will be back with your brother. I promise, Vinling."

"No, you won't! There is nowhere safe!" the kit cried, laying her head on her paws. She glared at their reflections in a puddle instead of looking at her mother. She sniffled again. "You're leaving. Just like Dad."

Kip shrank back at that with a gasp. A clap of thunder shook the skyscrapers as rain trickled down their broken windows. Somewhere, dozens of blocks away, one of the skyscrapers finally met its end and capsized. It collided into the ground in a thunderous explosion of dust and debris.

But neither fox acknowledged its demise with even a twitching ear.

Kip opened her mouth to say something—anything. But the rumbling of growls from an off-shooting alleyway made her arch her back and stand in front of her kit protectively.