Autumn [PART 1]

Instructions

chapter 1- names the fox kit woke up, next to another vixen. a larger male fox stood above them, a look of pride in his eyes. ''two vixens'' he said, looking to their mother. ''ash, what should we name them?'' asked a gentle voice above the kits. ''clover, i think you should think of them'' ''ok, this one is called stem'' their mother said, pointing to the kit next to her.with her tail, ''and this one is called autumn'' pointing at her. chapter 2- outside ''your father wants you outside, kits'' said clover, nudging autumn and clover outside with her muzzle. autumn's sister, stem was excited ''we get to go outside of this tree and get to explore!'' she said. autumn, was a bit less eager for exploring she had asked, ''mother, why do we need to go outside? didnt you say it was dangerous outside? what if there are badgers?'' ''your father will protect you'' clover giggled. ''i will too'' said stem proudly. autumn sighed and followed stem to their father, who was waiting outside of the tree hole. ash. their father, was waiting outside ''there you two little kits are'' he said, nudging them playfully with one paw, ''now that you are two moons old, its time to teach you about survival. follow me'' they walked past a big length of forest before coming to a stop. autumn found a line of scents, strongly of their father and a very faint scent of their mother. ''this is our territory,'' ash said. to the east is where the island with the skulk is. do not go there. ill teach you about the territory.'' autumn knew a bit about this from when his mother told him about it in their tree hole. autumn looked nervously in the direction of the skulk, ''will they come and take the territory?'' she squealed in fear ''dont be silly, they love their island too much to leave it. just never go there'' reassured their father. ''we need to mark territory so other foxes know its our land. they can try to invade it but no lone fox would risk injuring themselves for some territory. your mother and i had always been marking the borders every day. when you are lone foxes, you should do that to but lets not think way too ahead.''explained ash. ''how do you mark them?'' asked stem enthusiastically. ash demonstrated and they both copied. autumn was not too good at it, compared to her sister but she was sure that she would be better at other things. eventually, their father said,''right kits, you should head back inside'' chapter 3- second day out autumn was less scared to go out today but was still a little nervous. ''come on autumn! we are going outside again and i think we are going to learn to hunt!'' stem leaped onto autumn excitedly. ''i guess hunting will be a bit fun'' murmured autumn, still sleepy ''you kits enjoy yourselves'' called clover as they left the tree hole. ash showed them how to pounce and hunt after they had a little recap test from the day before. autumn had answered most of the answers correctly but stem was too impatient and started leaping on a leaf. ash had told them not to trust any other fox and autumn decided to keep that information in her mind. chapter 4- flames it was late when they had gotten back from training with their father. autumn was happy to curl up in his nest and drift off in dreams. autumn woke up to panicked yelping. she stood up in a hurry, noticing the extreme heat. her vision blurred by ashes. her mother, clover has standing outside holding Stem by her scruff. autumn squealed when another branch burst into flames. ash quickly leaped into the den and lifted autumn up. he tossed her out of the tree and he jumped back out. the family stared in horror at their destroyed home. they all ran away, the two kits trailing behind their parents. they had all rushed ahead of autumn, who had tripped over and injured herself. stem had noticed and stayed behind to help her sister up but their parents went ahead and left them alone in the forest. chapret 5- loners ''what will we do?'' autumn nervously asked her sister, ''should we hunt, see if the skulk will look after us?'' ''i think we should stay as loners. dont worry, ill protect you.'' stem replied ash's words echoed through her mind 'your mother and i have been marking borders every day. when you are loners you should do that too' ''i think we should mark the borders. the smoke might have made the scent fade away and we need to show foxes that this is our territory'' autumn told stem. ''where will we sleep though? our tree is destroyed'' stem was speaking sense. they needed a new home, far away from this destruction. the flames had been put out by the rain when they made their way back to their territory. autumn's eyes were drooping from the lack of sleep. they soon found an empty rabbit burrow, ''if rabbits can live in it then we can'' stem convinced her. the two vixens crawled into the hole that only they were small enough to fit in. stem was pacing around nervously, ''how can we survive on our own?''she asked