Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 130955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
Yev picked him up and went back to the armchair where he sat back with Radek tucked against his arm. His skin smelled of strength and peace, as if the wolves still consuming the meat outside the door were nothing to worry about. And neither had been the rifle Radek pointed at Yev the previous night.
If this man was afraid of no one, maybe Radek was safe as well?
Chapter 8 – Yev
On the first night, Yev placed blankets and pillows on the living room floor and slept with Ember in front of the fireplace.
On the second night, he decided to be practical about it, and locked Ember in the cage for the night, but the fox wouldn’t stop whining, so eventually Yev broke his resolve and allowed him to sleep on the couch.
On the third night, Ember climbed into his bed, and it was obvious there’d be no going back from that.
The fox was cute as a button and to think that someone had tamed and trained him, just to then kick him out made Yev form so many conspiracy theories. That the person who’d brought up Ember had died, and their cruel relatives were the ones to abandon the beloved pet fox. Or that Ember had been a child’s companion, and a mean sibling or parent let the fox out to save themselves the trouble of taking care of him.
He’d asked the vet if she could leave a poster and ask around online, since his own Internet connection was patchy at best, and he wasn’t exactly savvy with it either, but three days in, no frantic fox owner was knocking on his door to reclaim their beloved pet.
It seemed Ember might be staying with him for good.
So maybe there would have been options, if he really wanted the responsibility off his shoulders, but did he? Since his pack had banished him for being caught with a man, he missed company. Sure, he prided himself on being self-sufficient, but his days had been more pleasant since Ember had become a part of his household. And while he’d always seen responsibility as a burden, nothing was painful or difficult in taking care of the little cutie.
Yev had more than enough meat scraps stored in the chest freezer to last them both a month, Ember was remarkably house-trained and always let him know when he needed to do his business outside, and Karolina the vet told him a fox could be given any treats appropriate for a dog.
If he’d ever choose to get a pet, the time was now, since it wasn’t as if he could ever have a human partner. That ship had sailed when his first lover freaked out about the knot forming at the base of his cock and encouraged Yev to go see a doctor about “that thing”.
While the little fox was still experiencing discomfort following the amputation, his wounds were healing well, and he was walking just fine on his remaining legs, even if it looked a bit wonky.
At times, Ember seemed like a real person, as if he could not only recognize Yev’s mood by the tone of his voice but actually understand the words, which was a silly thing to imagine, but Yev couldn’t help himself. He played with Ember and spoke to him, but also read to him after he found Antoine Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince among books left by the previous residents of the lodge. The fragments dealing with the Prince taming a fox held a different meaning for Yev after he’d read them with a furry pet in his lap. And the lesson about a person being responsible for what they tamed? It made him reluctant to even consider parting from Ember. Because what if his new owners were abusive or didn’t give him the attention he needed?
Yev whistled and pulled on his woolen cap before opening the door onto a brilliantly sunny day. It had gotten a bit warmer overnight, but the temperature was still low enough to keep the snow from thawing. And Yev couldn’t help but capture the beautiful contrast between Ember’s coat and their white surroundings in photos, which now crowded the picture gallery on his phone.
“Go on, boy, do your thing,” Yev said, whistling when the cold pinched his cheeks. He’d been afraid of allowing Ember to run free at first, but the fox didn’t want to leave his side, so he opened the door wider, and once the ginger bundle of joy skipped through the snow, Yev followed him to the side of the building. He was intelligent enough to understand that the dressing on his stump was there for his own good, which prompted Yev to remove the plastic cone already, because it seemed to irritate the fox more than the injury itself.
Ember had a weird bathroom ritual his previous owner must have instilled in him. Whenever he was to do his business, he would only go once Yev faced away, and would bark angrily if that didn’t happen. Yev indulged his new pet, because he didn’t feel there was any harm in it, while remaining wary of another quirk of Ember’s—digging.