Running Foxes

Synizn and I run through the woods that border the track which we have been following for several days now. I always find it exhilarating to run free in my full fox form, especially on a beautiful sunny day like it is today. Birds and small animals scuttle away from us in alarm, not knowing that they have nothing to fear - both Synizn and I are too squeamish to catch and eat live prey, and so we restrict ourselves to a normal human diet eaten when we are in our more human forms.

We are still a day's journey from Walants, so we don't expect to encounter anybody. Besides, with our sharp fox hearing and sense of smell we would normally detect anyone well before they could detect us. (Except for an elf, maybe, but an elf would not ordinarily harm a fox.)

We lope into a clearing in the woods, and then are taken completely by surprise when a band of demifoxes emerges from the cover of the bushes all around us. They must have been hunting for this world's Fred and Astra, and presumably assume that we are those whom they seek. But what has brought them here, of all unlikely places? It can hardly be coincidence that has led to their being in just the right place to ambush us, but how can they have known that we would come here? And why hadn't our noses told us that they were lying in wait? I remember that this world's Fred and Astra told us that the Walants demifoxes have a human magic user helping them. I suppose he could have given them a magical perfume to disguise their scent. That doesn't answer the other question, though.

They must have some way of telling that we are not "mundane" foxes, for the one who seems to be their leader steps forward nonchalantly, and says: "Fred and Astra, I presume." In reply, I transform into my most human form (this is not the time to worry about being seen unclothed). This is both so that I can use human speech and also to make it obvious to them that I am not Astra. Oh yes, and so that I am in a position to use magic, if that should prove necessary. Synizn is transforming similarly.

1. "You presume wrongly," I say.

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