A young girl with short orange-ish, red hair that fell down on her shoulders, hid in the shadows of the forest near a path. The girl wore a orange cloak with slits in the hood for two large fox ears to poke through. The cloak was held together around her neck by two blue gems and chains strung together. On the orange cloak was a fox tail desighn and specks of ashes that continued down the cloak. Under her cloak the girl wore an redish, orange shirt with a red, orange and blue patterened belt, with chains dangling from one side of it. She also wore grey pants and large brown hikeing wedge boots with fur at the top and tassles near the toe tips. The girl watched as a couple of people came walking down the trail. The girl smiled a sort of crafty smile, and the tip of her fox tail started flicking back and forth with excitment. Just then she left her spot in the bushes and ran really fast till she came to the spot in the forest where she could see the main path split in three. She quickly went down the right path and went up a little ways then turned around and made her way down to the main path again, just as the people came. She walked up to them and asked,

“ Oh, hi, my name is Fawn Foxear, are you two lost?” The woman who wore a light, sky blue dress with a black and white checkered desighn in the front and had long blonde hair pulled back by a light blue hair band, said,

“ Oh, yes… me and my husband are headed to the falls for a picnic, umm, but I do believe we are lost, do you know the way to the falls?” Fawn smiled and said,

“ Yes, just take the middle path, it will lead you right to it.” She waved at the couple as they passed her to take the middle path. Once they were out of earshot she gave a snicker and took her other hand from behind her back to see in her hands was a bracelet with pearls on strung around it, and a necklace with a silver leaf locket on it. Fawn smiled at the treasure and said to herself,

“ Oh, I am just the sneakiest fox ever.” With that she ran back into the forest at top speed, dodging bushes and making sure all her senses where attentive. Suddenly her nose picked up something and she quickly stopped. She looked around and saw many fallen leaves covering the ground, but some of the tree roots stuck up. Fawn sniffed the air that smelt like metel and blood, covered with the scent of a hunter and leaves, she put her hands on her hips and said to herself,

“ Hmm, no one can out smart a fox, all the hunters should know that by now.” With that she easily walked through the forest walking around a few bunches of leaves where secretly under them were large Bear traps. Fawn then continued running at top speed through the forest.

                                                           ******

Finally she came to a part of the forest which she knew very well, she jumped onto a high rock and quickly lept from the rock onto a branch and swung herself up and over so she was on the branch, then she started climbing the tree and when she came to a thick branch she grabbed the pair of handles that were on a zip line. Fawn jumped from the branch and went zipping down towards one of the large oak trees she then let go and pinned her legs together and crossed her arms over her chest as she flew straight into the hole and went sliding down on a slide to the main floor. When she stood up she looked and saw in the small living room that her dad was sitting in the chair reading the news paper he stole earlier that morning while Fawn's younger brothers played a checkers game on the floor. She then spotted her mom baking cookies in the small kitchen across from the living room. Fawn started to walk passed her brothers when suddenly she felt them jump and grab her legs. Fawn looked down and said,

“ Hey, Todd, Dawn, get off me!” She finally was able to kick her brothers off her legs, just as she came around the breakfast bar. She then asked her mom,

“ How are you?” Her mom smiled and said,

“ Well, I heard of our neighbors who just found these two new dresses and I was able to snatch a glance and I think you would like them, so how would you like it if you would sneak into their house while I distract them?" Fawn smiled and said,

“ Yes! But first I want to show you what I snatched today?” She took out from the small pouch on her belt, the pearl bracelet and the silver leaf locket. Her mom gasped and took a hold of the bracelet and said,

“ Oh, Fawn! These are both gorguose!” Then Fawn added,

“ Actually the bracelet is for you.” Her mom smiled and hugged Fawn, then once Fawn was free from her mom's hug she hung the locket to the chains dangling from her belt. She smiled then looked back at her mom as her mom said,

“ I'll put this in with my other secret treasures… but just out of curiousity who did you steal this from.” Fawn put her teeth together and gave a smile as she said,

“ Uh… from two travelers on the main road.” Immediatly her mom gave her the stare that Fawn knew she was in trouble, and the tips of her fox ears immediatly bent and she felt her tail go between her legs as her mother said loudly,

“ You interacted with strangers! Not to mention real people! If they ever tell the Normal police then our kind could be in danger!” Fawn made a sort of soft whimper, suddenly her dad who was still sitting on the couch said,

“ Oh, it's too late for that… someone spotted one of our kind, but it wasn't you Fawn, so we are safe for now.. it was our cousin Chula who was spotted.” Fawn heard her mom say,

“ Now I know what you and Chula have in common… you both take too many chances and don't use your heads! Now go to your room, you won't be coming with me to snatch the dresses." Fawn sighed and walked off into the wide and tall arched hallway, then turned right up a spiral staircase, passing by a small platform that allowed you to go into another room that belonged to her parents, then another one a little ways up more that belonged to her brothers. Finally she came to the last room at the very top and went into her open wooden doored room. When she got in she went over to her bed which was laying horizontal against the wall across from the door wall, and jumped laying face flat on her pillows. She let her body go loose, finally. When her face started to get hot she turned her head so it lay sideways on her pillow with her face looking towards the door, but instead she looked at the wooden night stand next to her bed and saw a picture of happy family before they moved to the forest. Fawn sighed and flipped onto her back looking up at the ceiling. She just lay there letting her mind wander when suddenly her ears caught the sound of her parents arguing. She strained to listen and was able to hear her dad say,

“ You can't punish her for stealing, especially since she gave you something.” Then her mom said,

“ But she stole from normal humans! It's a rule that we don't steal from normal humans.” 

“ Yeah, like you ever followed a rule when you were younger, Sinopa… Come on, atleast go see how she's doing.” Added Fawn's dad. Fawn heard her mom sigh before saying,

“ No, because the last time she got in trouble, she was so upset that she finally told me to just let herself deal with overcoming the problem, so that's what I'm going to do, I'm going to finish these cookies and go steal those dresses, and hopefully by then she will be cooled down.” With that the conversation was over. Fawn sighed and was about to give in, when a thought popped into her head, What if I steal the dresses first? She got up from her bed and walked over to the rather large circular window a little ways on the wall from the end of her wooden bed. Fawn unlatched the small wooden latch and pushed the window open. Then she crawled out letting her legs dangle, suddenly she heard one of her brothers coming and quickly reached out for the large sturdy branch to the right of her and then used her foot to push her window closed. Next she swung up and stood up on the branch balancing herself. She then heard her brother come in asking,

“ Fawn! Can I borrow a pencil, dad says I need to do my homework… Fawn?” Fawn held her breath all till she heard her brother leave her room after getting a pencil from her desk which was next to her dresser. Once her brother was back downstairs Fawn quickly scaled down the tree grabbing a hold of the tree and inching her way down. She finally came to the ground just as she saw her mom walk to another large oak tree home. Fawn was about to follow her secretly when suddenly her ears caught a sound she never heard before and her nose caught a scent of something more delicious than her mom's baking. Drawn to the smell she ditched following her mom and quickly ran through the forest. She made it to another one of the main paths and immediatly saw a girl and a boy walking down the path. The boy had white hair with black streaks that stood straight up. He wore pants with one leg pant white with black streaks and the other black with white streaks. He also wore black boots and a black belt on his waist. The boy also wore a black shirt and a black and white leather jacket with black and white fur on the back, along with red sleeves. While the girl with long wavy dark brown hair wore dark purple caprees and a silver belt with spikes on it. The girl also wore a black shirt with a purple and green leather jacket with a lopsided colar flipped down. On the girl's hands were leather gloves with finger holes and a black spiked bracelet was around one of her wrists. Just then a man wearing a dirty brown jacket came out of the trees, he also had a leather brown bag on his shoulder. The man came up to them and Fawn heard the man ask if they were lost. Suprisingly they weren't, and the man then asked,

“ I would like it if you could make a bargain, young boy… how would you like to work with me, as an electronic tester?” Fawn watched and listened intently as the boy thought about it, finally he said,

“ No thanks, I need to help a friend get home, she needs to help her mom with something… thank you though.” Fawn watched as the two teens walked passed the man who blinked in astonishment, and so did Fawn who thought, How exactly did that kid say no to something so amazing!

Fawn ran through the trees and jumping from branches to branches till finally she saw the normal human village up ahead through the gaps in the trees with the large buildings and barns and shops with weird roofs. Fawn watched as the boy and the girl walked down the road into the village. Fawn followed them all until she saw the boy say bye as the girl came to a house. Fawn who was hiding behind a near by barn decided to follow the boy who started walking towards a fancy hut with metel instead of wood as the walls and roofs. Fawn quietly and quickly climbed up onto the roof of the barn and made sure she was laying low as she climbed along the roof, and many others till she came to the same hut that the boy was going to. It helped that her tail kept her balance on the unstable wooden roofs. Fawn went onto the metal roof and quickly slid down the roof on the side without a door. She then flipped off the roof and landed on the ground tugging at her hood. Fawn went up to a near by window and saw the boy just walk in and another man who was way older, sitting at a clean wooden desk with crazy grey hair and he wore a brown dirty robe, stand up saying,

“ Ah, Carlos you finally decided to show your face… I've got fifteen orders for that ipad thing you made last week.” Carlos sat at the mans desk saying,

“ I better get to work then.” With that he started to use the metal pieces and small colored chips with weird markings and putting them into an interesting box thing. Fawn watched the boy intently. At some point she got tired of standing and grabbed a bin and sat on it watching the boy.                                                    ******

Finally the sun was starting to go down turning the sky an orangish pink color. Fawn watched still with her intent focus as the boy finally finished his last order. Carlos stood up and passed the old man who was sleeping in the rocking chair closest to the fire at one end of the house saying,

“ Good night sir.” With that Carlos walked out of the house. Fawn started to climb back up on the roof when suddenly the back door of the house next to the one that Fawn was at, opened and out came a man caring a bag of trash. The man saw Fawn and immediatly said,

“ Police! Police! It's another one of those fox people!” Fawn quickly climbed the roof, her shoes making it easy to climb the smooth roof. She came to the straight sturdy beam at the top of the roof and saw many other village people, including Carlos looking up at her. Fawn quickly jumped and slid down the roof, but when she came to the end she jumped and tucked her legs into her stomach, tightly landing on a bunch of barrels. But the barrel Fawn landed on began to wobble so she jumped twisting her hips and doing a barrel role in the air till finally she landed in the middle of the people. She felt all eyes on her and was about to run when suddenly she saw police coming her way with spears. Fawn stopped sliding on the dirt and landing on the ground, which allowed a couple of police people to catch her. Fawn flicked her tail and felt her ears slick back as she bared her sharp teeth at the police infront of her. She heard one of the blue suited police say,

“ Easy foxey… we won't hurt you… yet.” Still Fawn barred her teeth, growling. Suddenly Fawn saw one of the police drop their spear on the ground and her ears pricked up and released her tight jaw looking at him, she heard his voice ask,

“ What are you doing here foxey? Are you okay?” Fawn's jaw started to show the side of her teeth as the man extended his hands to her. Suddenly she felt one of them behind her poke her and she quickly turned around growling, but just as she turned around she felt somone grab her wrists and put something around them that prevented her from pulling them apart. She tried to struggle but suddenly saw someone put a cloth over her mouth, before pushing her to the ground. Fawn tried to struggle out of the police's grasp as they pushed her towards a carrige with bars for the door of the buggy. Just as they were about to close the door, a voice from the crowd said,

“ Wait! How do we know she wasn't doing any harm? She managed to get into the village and she never did hurt anyone.” By now the crowd parted revealing Carlos who continued to say,

“ She could be an ali when wars come, she seemed to be an excelent fighter.” The police looked at each other and one of them asked,

“ What are you suggesting we do with her boy?” Carlos said,

“ I think we should release her and befriend her, no one is to say we saw her, it could be dangerouse for her family, if she has any.” One of the police sighed and took the chains from around Fawns wrists, then made the way for her to be free. Fawn pulled the cloth from around her mouth and quickly scurried a little ways from the police, but far enough from being away from Carlos, who slowly raised his arm and hand towards her, then slowly edged his way towards her. Fawn watched, as he came closer and she thought, He just saved my life, but he didn't have to. So she made the next large step towards him, with her face, tail and ears, feeling relaxed and calm. Fawn then heard Carlos say,

“ It's okay… uh, whats your name? Mine is Carlos." Fawn felt a lump in her throat finally pass as she opened her mouth and said,

“ My name's Fawn… I never did mean any harm… I just wanted to follow you after you were so nice to stay next to that girl's side. You seemed such a nice person.” Carlos gave a small toothy grin and said,

“ Well, thats very nice of you… now take my hand.” Fawn hesitated as his outstretched hand was now in arm reach, before steadily extending her hand and arm out towards Carlos's till finally her hand was in Carlos's. She finally relaxed and gave a small smile at Carlos feeling all her senses disappearing and just filling up the moment. Suddenly out in the woods around the village, the sound of an owl filled Fawn's ears and she felt all her senses coming back to her, she let go of Carlos's hand saying,

“ I'm sorry… I need to get home, I promise I won't tell any of my family members.” With that she turned to leave when suddenly a police stopped her and at first she was startled and her tail went between her legs but then she relaxed and felt her body become strong and she felt her confidence come back to her. The police man asked sternly,

“ How can we trust you… you know, since your part… fox.” Fawn's face became bland yet confident as she said,

“ None of my kind will come after you, unless they know that you tried to capture me.” A pause came between her and the police man before finally the police man stepped aside and Fawn slowly walked passed him before finally running at top speed back into the forest, feeling the cool breeze of the cold night forest beginning to move in. By the time she came home all the lights were off in her house and instead of going to the zip line she climbed the tree up then used the branches to help her up to the window which she pulled open and slipped into. She quickly got out of her clothes and into a plain orange night gown with a hood that had slits for her fox ears, while on her legs she wore white and orange leggings. Fawn then went to bed thinking, I feel like I should be with that boy Carlos every second of my life. Why? The question continued to stick in her head all till it was drained out of her brain by the sound of the cicada's outside.