Fox Run (30 page)

When I had stepped out, there wasn't anyone in the courtyard. There were no trees to provide obstacles, either. But two of the SUVs were parked there, and I knew I could go under them much faster than Lara could.

Elisabeth stepped out of the house, and then so did Gia, Angel and Francesca.

I turned around and Lara was two big leaps away from me, stalking me slowly. She was grinning. I think she anticipated an easy win.

"I know all your tricks, little fox," she said. As if. Then she took two leaps after me. I feinted left and dashed right, but she had anticipated the feint and leapt to my right. I shifted direction just barely fast enough, and she almost had me, but I got past her to the left, yipping like crazy to draw more attention.

Lara actually got fingers in my fur, but not enough to grab hold. That had been close.

I dashed straight for Elisabeth, listening for Lara. She had rolled to her feet and was stalking me again. I spun around to face her, my back to Elisabeth, Gia and Angel.

"Friendly game of catch," Elisabeth told them. "Don't interfere."

Lara smiled, approaching slowly, crouching down with her arms out. I would have loved to kiss her right then, but I that may have been a tiny bit cocky.

I continued to yip and bark at Lara, and people were streaming into the courtyard. Elisabeth kept telling them not to interfere.

Finally, Lara leapt at me, and I didn't really have anywhere to go except straight back between the small gap between Elisabeth and Gia. I'd picked that gap instead of the one on the other side because I thought Gia could take it better if Lara plowed into her than Angel could. One backwards leap brought me right through the gap, and Lara came up short, not wanting to run through her wolves. She tried to shove through the same gap, pushing everyone aside, but she lost time and I ran around the other side, still yipping for attention.

Someone laughed. I wasn't sure who.

After that, I used the other wolves as obstacles for Lara, but then I miscalculated and she made a lunge, grabbing me firmly by the scruff.

"Gotcha!" she said, lifting me into the air.

I instantly shifted to human. The fur she'd been holding me was suddenly gone, and she lost her grip. I took two steps, yelling, "I hope you're timing this, Elisabeth," and then jumped and shifted. Lara made a tackling motion, and she almost had me, but my shift shrunk me just enough her arms closed on open air, just brushing my tail.

"Oh heck, Michaela," Elisabeth said as I ran around behind her. "I forgot to time it."

"Thirty seconds have elapsed," Lara declared. "You have another ninety to go. Start timing, Elisabeth."

"Alpha," Elizabeth said. It had been a lot longer than thirty seconds.

"Thirty seconds, Elisabeth," she said again. And then she was running straight at me. She leapt, turning wolf, and again almost had me, but she lost time untangling from her clothes.

After that it turned serious. Twice she managed to knock me off my feet, but both times I rolled and kept going, diving between Jason's legs at one point. Lara tried to follow me, but they got tangled together, and I made a dash for the cars.

"One minute," Elisabeth declared.

Lara untangled from Jason and came straight for me. At the last possible second, I dashed under the car and she came to a skidding halt, banging against the car hard enough to leave a dent.

"Hey!" Jason said. "Watch the paint!"

"A minute fifteen!" Elisabeth yelled. Lara crouched down, shifted human, and almost had me. I hadn't expect her to shift. I dashed out through the front tires, the cut back underneath the second car and gained several seconds while Lara went over the top, shifting in midair, and leaping over me to land just in front of me. She spun faster than I would have thought possible, but I cut left. She kicked me with a rear leg, and I rolled once, yelping, but then I was on my feet and running. I heard her leap and cut right, directly into a group of wolves, then turned and ran right back out of them.

I batted at her back leg on my way past, which actually threw off her timing.

At a minute thirty, I was behind Elisabeth again. I shifted human and put one hand on Elisabeth's shoulder, one on Gia's. The two shifted apart, leaving a wolf-sized gap instead of the wall I had counted on.

"Hey!" I said. "Not fair."

"This is fun to watch, Michaela," said Elizabeth, "but deep down I want the alpha to win. She'll catch you eventually, you know."

Lara tensed her muscles and sprang for the gap. I jumped, pushing with my hands on Gia and Elisabeth's shoulders, then shifted as I leapt over their shoulders, Lara passing underneath me.

The leap was much higher than I normally jump as a fox, and I was afraid I'd break something, so when I landed, I tucked and rolled, yelping once, then was on my feet and cut left immediately. Lara slammed into the ground where I'd been just a breath before, and I ran for the cars again.

I had to avoid her twice, but I made it under the cars and spun around. She approached slowly.

"Two minutes," Elisabeth yelled. "I wouldn't have believed it possible."

I was free to escape, even with the extra time Lara had cheated out of me.

I chuffed at her, letting her know we were still friends. She chuffed back, and then with no warning, she made a leap to the thin space under the car, a space far too small for her.

It had to hurt as she scraped her back against the bottom of the SUV, but she got her paws on me.

I scrambled and kicked dust in her eyes, squirmed away, and ran out the other side, under the next car, and then dashed for the woods.

It took time for Lara to climb back out from under the SUV. I got a good six or eight seconds lead. I got to the brush first, but Lara was hot on my heels, and in a straight run, she was much faster than I was. I couldn't play keep away forever; she only had to win once, and besides, it was too dangerous. One of could make too big a mistake, and I could get hurt. I had to lose her.

Or submit.

I wasn't ready to give up yet.

If I could get some real distance, I was sure I could lose her, but I wasn't at all confident I could get the kind of distance I would need. And she knew these woods like the back of her hand. I did not.

I used the tricks I knew. I took advantage of small spaces. I went under fallen trees and through tight brush. I found a copse of thick evergreens, and I went dashing through them, hoping the thick spruce scent would offer even a tiny bit of confusion. She remained firmly on my trail, leaping after me whenever she got close, but not quite catching me.

But I wasn't shaking her, either.

I was having the time of my life.

We spent several minutes dashing between the trees not far from the main compound. From the compound itself, I heard the sounds of wolves shifting into fur. Pretty soon the entire woods would be full of more wolves, and even if they weren't interfering, it would complicate things. I needed to lose her. Or lose.

I feinted right, and Lara made a leap, then I dashed left. By the time Lara could arrest her flight in the wrong direction, I had put two large pine trees between us then took a wild path away from the compound.

It took Lara twenty seconds to find my path, but I found a downed tree, ducked underneath it, then ran along underneath it towards its large upturned root system. There was a gap, a very narrow gap, and I squeezed through it. Behind me, Lara went over the tree ran a short distance past, then came to a stop, puzzled. I gained more time. She found my trail again, but I had a minute on her.

I ran.

I found a narrow stream. I jumped over it, took three steps, then jumped directly backwards into the water and ran upstream for twenty steps before turning at an oblique angle to the stream. I gained more time.

I ran.

I found a large tree with a stream just shortly past it. I set a false path out, ran downstream and set another false path, then ran back upstream to where I had entered the water, ran to the tree, and leapt into it, climbing quickly while listening for Lara. She was moving quietly, directly on my back trail. I froze, hoping I was high enough she wouldn't smell me immediately, and she passed directly under my tree. She didn't even look up but continued to follow my trail. She got to the stream, and while she investigated my false trails, I slipped around to the other side of the tree and moved higher until I found a place I thought I could hide for an hour.

It took Lara a good ten minutes to realize I had effectively disappeared. I heard her pass underneath my tree, searching for where I'd gone instead.

By now, the other wolves were after us, but Lara howled at them and then seemed to hold back. At least I didn't hear any of them coming any closer.

She began running a big circle centered on the stream, trying to find my trail. Of course, she didn't find it. She ran it twice, and then I heard her huffing her displeasure.

It probably confused her that my scent was still live. I'm sure some of it was wafting down from the tree. She began searching for me downwind, then kept working her way back to the stream.

Then I heard her shift.

"Oh, little fox," she said. "Did you climb a tree? I am probably the only wolf who knows you can do that, too."

I wished I hadn't told her.

I listened as she walked on two feet to the stream, then began walking back. Wolves don't track by footprints, but humans do. She found my tracks and followed them to the base of my tree.

"Oh, little fox," she said. "Very clever. A half hour. No one else would have beaten you. Come down now."

Well, she may have me treed, but she hadn't caught me, and I most certainly hadn't submitted.

"Michaela," she said. "The agreement was you had to escape. This is not escape. Come down, or I'll come up after you."

I stayed very quiet. Maybe she wasn't sure. I didn't need to prove she had found me.

Then she began climbing.

She climbed slowly but surely. Furry wolves don't climb trees, but two legged wolves are perfectly capable of doing so and are probably better than a four-footed vixen.

She climbed halfway to me and stopped. "Michaela, I can smell you now. Please come down."

No way.

She climbed a little further than said, "There you are." I looked down, and she was only about five feet below me. She looked pretty darn hot in her birthday suit, climbing a tree after me. I grinned a foxy grin at her and chuffed.

"I love you too," she said. "Now climb down and submit like a good little fox."

I bared my teeth at her.

She sighed and climbed closer. I looked up higher in the tree, and she froze.

"I'll keep coming, Michaela. You'll run out of tree."

We would run out of tree sooner for her full weight than my fox weight. I looked up considering my choices.

"If you make a move up, Michaela, I am going to come after you as fast as I can. I bet I can climb faster than you can, but one of us will make a mistake. Come on, honey."

I stared at her sadly. She was right. She was going to win. I hated that, but I stayed where I was.

She stared at me for a moment, then she put her hand on the branch above her and I immediately scrambled a branch higher.

"Wait," she said. "If you come back down to where you were, I'll go back down one branch, too. Let's talk about it."

I looked down at her. For me, going down is much, much harder than going up. It is frequently a controlled fall. I whimpered.

"Honey, you can climb back down, can't you?"

I whimpered again.

"All right," she said. "You stay right there, I'll stay right here. I'll say my piece, and you can decide if you want to play this out or not."

"Honey, no other wolf could have caught you. If I didn't know you could climb trees as a fox, I wouldn't have found you. I only knew that because you told me, and you only told me because you were helping me."

I stared down at her. I loved her, but there was a touch of despair, too.

"Honey, I didn't think you would last fifteen seconds. I thought this would be easy. You were amazing. I was wrong. I should trust you. You know your skills far better than I do. When violence comes, all I see are your weaknesses, but not your strengths."

"Michaela, I know your pride makes this very difficult. You are thinking of desperate steps, steps driven only by pride."

I huffed lightly. She was right. She smiled.

"But there is nowhere to go. No other wolf could have won, Michaela, and you were magnificent, truly magnificent. Honey, please come down."

I looked down at her. I looked up higher in the tree.

"Don't do it, Michaela. I'll come after you, and I am faster than you are."

I clutched the tree tighter, and Lara relaxed.

"Honey, can you be a gracious loser?"

Then I thought about what this represented. If I surrendered, it meant the big bad wolf was about to eat me. This wasn't just about whether I won or she did. This was about whether I lived or died. If I surrendered, I died. And any chance is better than no chance.

I pushed off from the tree and began to fall.

"No!" she screamed. Her hand reached out, and as I fell past her, aiming for the branches below, she caught me by my scruff and pulled me against her.

"Why?" she screamed. "Why? Michaela, why?"

She clutched me tightly to her, her hand still in my scruff, another wrapped around the tree. I hung there in her one arm, her heart pounding in her chest.

I shifted. She almost dropped me, but I reached out and grabbed branches, then my feet found footholds.

"You won," I said quietly. "And that means the wolf ate the fox. That's what happens when a fox loses a fox hunt."

"No, honey."

"That was the symbolism, wasn't it? I can't take care of myself. If I couldn't escape, I was dead. That's the wager we made. If you caught me, symbolically, I am dead. Wouldn't you rather I had fought, all the way to the end, than surrender to certain death?"

"So you gave up a different way, a different death?"

"Of course not. Look down. How many branches would I have landed on? I'd have clung to one and made it out of the tree long before you did."