Solace: A Tale of Foxes [Chapter 2]

"Run...Keep running...."

Fiery flames sprouted out of the treetops, its contours mingled with the fiery red of the setting sun. Giant torches were bundled together and set afire.

"I can't move..."

Pillars of thick black smoke tunneled into the clouds. Sizzling sparks spurred through the air. Smothering heat took over the crimson sky.

 "Hold me. Keep going...We made it out..."

She barely looked up. She itched forward with all her might as he desperately waited. She stumbled and dropped to her knees. He speeded to her side and took her arm, wrapping it around his shoulders.

"We are so close. I can feel it..."

Somewhere in the distance a tree was lit in a brilliant glow. It crackled and grunted, and in a strainful holler it descended slowly into the sea of grey familiar figures - a landfill of lifeless charcoal, a graveyard of silenced cries. And by its side remained a few slender trees, their twigs and branches dangling out, their heads drooping from their trunks, their roots slipping from the ashes as they tottered on the thin line between life and death.

They scrambled on and on, rocking to and fro as they moved, intruded incessantly by the scorching scent of burnt carbon, deafened by the piercing shrieks of crackling wood.

Bursting out of the surging fire came a few recognizable figures. The moose, screeching at the top of his lungs, tramping over the incinerated cadavers of ferns and ramps, galloping frantically into the open fields. A bison tripped and fell headlong into a dry riverbed, lying at the spot lifelessly with patches of raw skin exposing on his torso. Squirrels and stoats sprinted at all directions, letting out intermittent shrieks as they waddled their way through the smoky fog. A drove of hares circled around the muddy meadows, their faces stricken with shock and terror, their ears shivering uncontrollably while their younglings cried for comfort. Voles of all size and shape sprang out of underground tunnels that led deep into the heart of the conflagration; some of them limping and barely alive, while others stopped by the exit to drag the carcasses of their hardly identifiable loved ones, clinging to them as they wept over their icy bodies.

"It ends...the world falls before our eyes."

She mumbled feebly. He could feel the warmth drifting away from her veins, her heartbeat enervating.

"We're almost there...stay...stay with me." He insisted. His throat was dry and his legs were weak. A loud bang was heard from the distance. A weasel hurried past them, followed by a faint roar and an explosion. The moon reared its head in the dimming sky. The sun buried its face deeper into the mountains. The last of its rays shone onto their new frontier, an urban setting, an image stranger to most wildlife. The grumpy, stoic caricatures of edifices stood half a mile in front of them, behind wired fences and metal gates. They could hear the whispers of the city.

 It lingered in their ears, a word of welcome. Destination is nigh.

"Just a few more steps..." He sputtered.

"No... not near enough..."

He looked at her. Her face was pale, the color of her fur draining away. Her eyes were shut and her head looked like it was about to fall in any given second.

"Don't do this...Don't let go..." He could barely think straight, for all he would imagine is her dying in his hands.

"The trees..."

He turned to her instantly.

"What? What did you say?"

"The trees," she muttered, "trees are all...dead."

She opened her eyes, locking into his confused face.

"It is so sad, the perishing of these lovely giants. For a while it was scintillating in beauty, and now it's just skinny and naked, its flourishing leaves detaching from its extensions and deserting it. It loses everything..."

"Good sake enough of that, please Tulip. You're driving me insane."

She pointed at a pine wood a few feet to her side, swaying tiredly in the middle of the tundra.

"It died..."

"It lives forever, Tulip. It lives."

"But it is still so sad, isn't it Cirgale?"

"Get in! Get in! For the love of God. Can you not hear me?"

He spun around. A weasel was yelling right at his face. A dozen forest dwellers creatures gathered in front of a huge pipe opening, shouting at all direction, as the others scrambled in. All sorts of noise could be heard echoing inside the massive tunnel.

"Do you two want to live?" The weasel bellowed.

"Forgive me but allow me to stay out of the crowd, please," he pleaded. "She is very weak right now. She needs some fresh air."

The weasel gave him a questioning look and turned away with a scorn. Slowly and carefully, he dragged her fragile body away from the throng, the commotion. He settled her down on a flat ground next to a precipitous slope, where individual survivors could be seen walking around in heavy breathing, sighing and panting as they began to process what they had been through.

She felt the soil on her back, the soft texture of moist earth, and she opened her eyes for a few seconds and closed them. He waited urgently for a response, a signal for relief, but all he could see is her emotionless pallid face. He didn't know how much is left in her. Someone came with water and he poured it all into her snout. She forced a cough, and after a long while turned around to faced him, her eyes barely opening, and she smiled.

"Hold my hand, Cirgale. Hold me close..."

He held her hand, shaking his head as he looked into her blue eyes.

"No...no...this can't happen..."

"Myrtle," she whispered, "so that is what it feels like, Mrytle. Tell him...that I know now..."

"I remember, Tulip. I'll tell him that we both know." He choked, tears swelling. "He saw it coming. He sure did."

"Yes," she smiled, "he said it all, and he was so right about us. It is like I both remember and don't remember. All that happened today subsides. My dear, you don't need to remember anything. It all ends...now..."

He took a deep sigh, his voice shaking.

"Tulip. I swore I would tell you this. That...that...rose I had, that I insisted I killed. It never was a victim of my malice. It was lying on the ground, and fate brought me to it. "

She gave a hearty chuckle.

"Silly... I knew. She died in peace, and you played no part in her passing. All along I was bullshitting you, and you even said it yourself."

He eked out a smile. He listened and digested every word she said. It felt so surreal. The conflicted emotions in his head overwhelmed him and almost topping him over. Her impression, the pristine beauty, was blurring out. The setting sun projected her shadow far across the vast land, a fiery glow shone on her ebbing body.

"You hideous monster..." she whispered.

"And aren't you a rude meddler yourself..."

"I love you..."

Her voice faltered away. He arms slid down his neck and landed on her furry chest. Her eyes were shut and her labor breathing could be heard no more.

And so he laid next to her and cried while others watched as they went by. The air grew cold and the gust was strong. The melancholy land of withering pines and larch submerged into darkness, and the clouds gathered to shower the vicinity with chilling raindrops.

"No..."

He was still, wet and undone, and as he gently shook her it was as though all hope was lost, and he would double down and curl up at a corner for eternal. There was nothing, like a barren wasteland.

Thunder and rain. Lightning flashed. It was all implied. It was all connected. And this is where we get off.