Humankind has long since perished.
But life goes on.
Nature is slowly reclaiming the planet. A fire forces a young red fox named Kip to flee her den for the first time. Now alone and left half-blind, Kip must struggle to find refuge for herself and...
For the second time in her short life, Kip's entire world fell apart, obliterated in a single fiery blast. She stood rooted to the ground while timbers fell, eaten by red voracious flames. Her forest that was once peaceful and full of her family became a leveled landscape of ashes and bones, and she was alone in a pit sheltered by her mother's corpse. And soon, the flames would take that away from her, too.
"Mom!"
The she-fox blinked at the sound of her daughter's voice, coming from so far away. Smoke still choked her and scorching heat still bit at her skin through her thin pelt, but she found herself in the middle of a collapsing cathedral with her terrified son clinging to her. Kip wrapped her tail around Neer, searching for the exit, but all she saw was more fire. There was a terrible crack from above. The immaculate painted ceiling of the church came crashing down. Yiping, the vixen shoved her son out of the way to safety, yelling out a strangled, "Run!" And then something even heavy threw itself atop of her, taking the brunt of the damage from the collapsing rubble.
The vixen coughed and effortfully crawled her way out of the smoldering heap of melted painted plaster and what used to be rafters. Mountain, the proud leader of the pack of strays, lay unmoving beneath the rubble.
"Mountain!" the fox exclaimed. She nudged the dog's jowled snout with her nose. But the dog smiled at her and wagged his tail just once, and then lay limp before her. Kip bowed her head, but she would have to pay her respects to the brave mutt later.
Her children were nowhere to be found.
"Neer?" she cried, though it was difficult to speak with all the smoke in her throat. "Vin? Where are you?"
Her son had just been right beside her. And she had seen her daughter's face only a few short heartbeats before the fire! How could she have lost them both? "Kits!" she screamed into the flames as she sifted through the wreckage. Her paws were already raw and her fur singed, but she didn't care. "Answer me! Please!"
But no one answered her.
Kip was alone amongst the flames.
...Save for a single, newly hatched butterfly—born in the cathedral from the chrysalis Neer had carried just moments ago amongst fire and smoke. The creature fluttered around the fox, unbothered by the heat, and it alighted on the tip of her nose. Kip's heart skipped a beat. "Kits?" she whispered to the fragile creature.
The butterfly flapped its orange black-veined wings—already dried by the heat. Then it took off into the rubble.
And Kip hurried after it, clambering over blackening skeletons and slithering under charred beams. The butterfly landed on a turned over pew, and that's where Kip heard coughing.
"Neer!" she wheezed into the black smoke, and immediately she dug into the rubble. She saw a flicker of silver fur amongst the orange flames.
Neer blinked blearily up at her. "Mom?"
She could barely hear his weak little voice. "I'm here, Neerling! Just hang on!" She threw her body against the wreckage, desperately trying to free him.
"I'm stuck, Mom..." her son rasped, and Kip could smell his fear. "This thing is too heavy..."
Kip scratched at the pew that pinned her son under rubble, ignoring any breaking claws. It was then that she heard another voice pipe up amongst the flames.
"Mama...?" Vin squeaked.
Kip's ears snapped upright. She could hear her daughter from somewhere far away, but she couldn't see her anywhere. Kip's heart sank with a painful pang when she realized both her kits were trapped, and she was running out of time to save them both. There was another terrifying crash as a whole other section of the church collapsed, feeding the flames even more. The fox hissed as a fresh wave of fire scorched her. She continued to fight with the rubble, this time using her teeth.
"Mama, please..." Neer begged, sounding weaker by the second. "Please hurry..."
From somewhere else, Vin wailed, "Where are you, Mom! Help me!"
The vixen screamed, both from the flames licking at her and the agony of listening to her children cry out for her.
And she couldn't save them.
There was a horrible voice in the back of her mind—the realization that she could save them. But she'd have to make a choice.
She could only save one of her cubs.
Blood from her broken teeth painted the wooden pew she's chewed into. Kip spat out splinters and then dug in for more. The whole while, that voice never silenced—always reminding her that the clock was tick, tick, ticking. Glass shattered and panels sloughed from crumbling walls. Skeletons reclined in their seats, perfectly calm and collected, with smiles on their fleshless faces while they watched the fox struggle.
But Kip would never leave her babies.
She would walk out of this inferno with both of them. Damn that wretched voice in her head!
And damn the monster that trapped them all here in this hell!
Kip shoved away splintered wood and then snaked a forelimb into where her son was trapped and reached for him. The trembling kit reached back for her with a tiny black paw. Their paws almost touched. He was so close...just out of reach by a whisker's breadth...
The scream of an eagle overshadowed the crackle of the flames. Talons sank into Kip's flesh. The fox let out an enraged snarl as something lifted her into the air and carried away from her young. A sea of flames boiled beneath her until the eagle tossed the fox into the pulpit like a rag doll. Kip barely had any time to gather her bearings before the beast set upon her, ripping and tearing with her beak and claws. Kip fought back, though her bleeding maw and paws pained her. But the pain that this monster kept her separated from her young burned even worse than the flames. She ripped feathers from the bird's throat. The bird tore out her fur in return. Snarls and screams filled the burning cathedral. Kip didn't back down. If she died then, so be it. But Neer and Vin were going to live.
And in that moment, Kip understood that her mother had been glad to give her life for her so long ago.
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