Where Foxes Hunt with Wolves - K.A. Merikan Page 0,39
neck.
But Yev shook his head. “I know, I know. It’s like a… barrier to keep people out. You’ll feel much better soon. I promise,” he said when he reached the bottom of the cliff and gently removed the backpack, holding it up with one hand.
Radek yelped when he realized that there was a crack between the rocks, and that this was where they were headed, but Yev ignored him and slid into the narrow cave, which forced him to lower his head and move sideways.
The damp scent of the dirt under their feet had Radek hiding inside the backpack, which swung with each of Yev’s steps. But then, unbelievably, his nose picked up the juicy aroma of grass at the height of summer, of daisies and clovers, and he peeked out just as Yev placed him on the ground.
He was surely dreaming.
This could not be real.
Fireflies floated in the dark like tiny lanterns to celebrate a place where summer had retreated to survive the long and harsh winter.
Yev stopped at the bottom of a gorge with steep rock walls, but they might have as well stepped into a different dimension, where the air was warm and scented with flowers and where their breath no longer created vapor.
“Incredible, right?” Yev asked, removing his coat as if he’d come here expecting this.
Radek took the opportunity to jump out of the backpack, into soft moss dotted with wild flowers, enchanted by the beauty of this secret garden. He had found out about true magic, and there was no going back. His heart beat so fast it might burst out of his chest, as he breathed in all the unexpected scents. A yelp escaped his muzzle when a firefly buzzed too close to his ear, but when he jumped away, he landed in smooth grass, amazed at the warmth hidden in the ravine when the world beyond its borders was frozen and covered with layers of snow.
Yev’s laughter was warm and sweet like the smoothest cocoa, and Radek rolled to his back, staring at him with a silly expression. Water whispered somewhere nearby, and above their heads, a massive tree stretched its branches to protect this amazing ecosystem that shouldn’t have existed yet was very much real.
The calloused fingers slid up and down Radek’s throat, as if this glimpse of a summer to come within the next few months had been enough to relax him too. Radek allowed the massive hand to caress him, embarrassed just how much he enjoyed the touch. He wouldn’t have been such an ass to Yev if he’d known how friendly the guy was.
In the past days, despite the strain on all his routines and the money he needed to pay the vet, Yev hadn’t lost his patience with Radek once. Including that time Radek had climbed into the sink to have a bath and then had accidentally broken several dishes by knocking them to the floor with his tail.
Yev’s hair was just long enough to touch his cheeks when he leaned in, and as Radek looked up at him, he wished there was a way for him to verbalize how sorry he was about his initial behavior. But the moment was soon gone as Yev’s face stiffened, and he pulled away, switching on a flashlight.
Radek sighed and jumped to his feet. As usual, a pang of pain resonated from his stump when he touched something too firmly, but he followed Yev. What was he to do? He’d been turned into a fox, and was now being led to a witch through a valley of endless summer. In this new world he inhabited, this made perfect sense.
He sensed other animals in the gorge, and spotted rabbits peeking at him from behind thatches of grass, but their presence didn’t turn on his hunting instincts, as if this were the Garden of Eden, where even the fiercest of predators lived as vegetarians.
The glade soon transformed into a miniature version of an ancient woodland, and the farther they went, the larger this place seemed. Radek could no longer see the rock edges on either side, as if the forest of massive trees that belonged in fantasy movies stretched for miles, and anyone who strayed from the path might not be seen again.
Radek wasn’t sure how long they walked, since Yev first adjusted to Radek’s speed, and then picked him up, but they eventually stepped into a small clearing and faced a wooden cabin made of gingerbread.