Week 1 Story: The Fox Against Himself

One cold snowy evening, there was a fox that needed a place to sleep without any disturbances.  A place for solitude and hiding.  What is he hiding from?

"Look! Over there!"  The hunter shouts, pointing towards a rubble of garbage outside of a tavern.

The sly fox then dips under the building and finds a pile of hay where he can lay restlessly.  "I hope I've lost them.." The fox thinks to himself.  Huffing and puffing, he finally relaxes and drifts into a deep sleep.

In his deep slumber he fidgets his legs as if he is dreaming a wild, uncontrollable dream; more so having a nightmare now as he howls as loud as can be.  His eyes and his body jolt up!  He realizes it was only a dream and he is back to reality.  A reality where he is trapped.

Upon waking up, he anxiously jumps out of the hay stack and searches for an escape.  "The woods are my best bet.." He tells himself.  Dashing towards the woods, he runs and runs until he can not see the town any longer.

Looking back behind him, he bumps into a cabin.  As he falls to his side, he looks up to his right and sees the cabin.  "Perfect..I hope nobody is inside."  He slyly enters the cabin, making sure no one is around, he sniffs the air.  "Even better...the place to myself."

                                                                                     

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Cabin in the Woods.  Flickr.

Trotting the cabin leisurely, he notices the entire area is filled with many props and costumes.  Clumsy as the Fox is, he knocks his shoulder against a table and there drops a few items.  He jumps back, snarling..."Grrrr..." showing his teeth and licking his mouth ever so intently.."Show yourself!" He shouts.  Nothing happens.

He slowly walks up to the table, assuming someone is sitting around the table, hiding from him; he thinks to himself, "How did I miss their scent?  I still can't smell anything.."

He inches closer and closer....he jumps up, with his two front paws against the edge of the table and barks!  To the Fox's surprise and pleasure, it is just a mask.  Next to the mask, a mirror.  Seeing himself angry, yet relieved, the Fox pushes off the table and walks away.

                                                                                   

Mask of Beauty.  Flickr.

Sullenly, he asks himself, "Why are people so afraid of me?!  I will never understand."  He walks further away from the mask, this time not looking back.


Author's Note:  This story was quite a difficult one to convey, especially in the right way.  Well..there is not right way, though for me, it didn't feel right unless I could tell it the way that seemed close enough.  The original story is complex in itself and short.  The Fox is fearless, yet he scares himself by seeing something that he thinks is threatening.  It is only a Mask and yet he wished it were a real person, possibly for food or just because it wasn't what it seemed to be.  I came to writing my version in terms that, nothing is always as it seems on the outside as it is on the inside.  People and animals are all different.  Different from each other, from within.  People can be afraid of things that they shouldn't have to be afraid of, without experience or even proof.  It can affect themselves or even the ones that are 'supposedly' scary/strange.

Bibliography:  "The Fox and the Mask" from the Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs.  Web Source.