The fox - Part I

The fox dangled between the fine silver chains hooked to the end of its tail and the top of its head. It was beautiful, the silver of the fox glinting in the harsh white lighting of the shop. A pretty trinket, she thought as she fingered the fine lines that marked the fur on its body. She let it go a little reluctantly and the chains slipped through her fingers with a sad sigh of metal on skin. Despite making her rounds around the shop and searching for something else that would catch her eye, something still drew her back to the fox. It hung on the repurposed doorknob that served as a jewellery hanger, staring at her out of one garnet eye. After a moment’s hesitation, she decided to take it. A wild fox, cunning, wily and free. It would make a fitting animal for her. The fox shone as it was tipped into a transparent bag and slipped into her satchel. It was hers.

The fox hung neatly between her collarbones, bobbing against her skin as she walked down the hallway. The air was cold but somehow the fox felt warm on her skin. She finally arrived in front of the plain grey doors that she would be facing for the next few years of her life and with an inward sigh, pushed it open. She thought she heard the bark of a fox. Softly in her ear, it whispered for a moment and was gone as suddenly as it came. She brushed it off as a product of one too many cups of caffeine and strode into the lecture theatre. 

She felt the eyes on her the second she walked into the hall. Scanning the crowd, she thought nothing of it since there were almost fifty other students in the hall as well. Surely someone was bound to look at her. But the feeling of those eyes on her never left. She fingered the fox nervously and sat down at the back of the class. Her hands fumbled with the zip of her backpack and she pulled out her notepad and favourite pencil. Her mind calmed as she began to scribble away on the clean sheet.

He watched her from the back of the class. She didn’t even notice him sitting there. He had slouched down into his seat the moment he noticed that she had felt his eyes on her. He hadn’t meant to freak her out, but what was he to do? She had bought him after all. He shrugged, a fluid motion that rippled through his lanky body that lounged casually in the plastic seat with its tiny swivel table. He supposed he had to follow her now that she had bought him, and perhaps introduce himself at some point. He had no name since he was merely a being, a spirit trapped in a fox. A silver fox with garnet eyes to be precise. He rumpled his already tousled brownish-red hair as the class began. He would have to wait and bide his time. Or else he would be thrown away again and forced to wait another hundred years before someone would come along and set him free.