**Bang!**
The bullet grazed the fox's hind leg, and the hunter cursed under his breath as he fumbled to reload.
**Bang!** Another shot struck the earth where she had stood a heartbeat before. **Bang! Bang! Bang!** Gunfire echoed off the mountain rocks, shattering the silence of the forest.
Yet not a single bullet found its mark. In the span of a blink, the fox vanished from their sight.
"Where did that creature go?!"
The men reloaded frantically, their eyes sweeping the underbrush.
"Don't damage the pelt!" one shouted. "It's worth more than a tiger's!"
Red foxes were common enough, but a silver fox—one with fur this lustrous, shimmering like moonlight on water—was rarer than legend. Even the most seasoned hunters went their entire lives without glimpsing one.
"There she is!"
**Bang!**
The shot went wide. Before the hunter could adjust his aim, the fox launched herself at his face, claws raking across flesh.
"A-a-agh!"
She sprang off him and lunged at the next man. Someone fired blindly in her direction.
"Ooh—!"
The hunter clutched his chest where his comrade's bullet had struck and crumpled to the ground.
The fox moved like quicksilver between them, a blur of black and white fur. Her claws flashed faster than their hands could follow—she struck one man's face and leaped onto another before they could so much as raise their arms.
"My eyes... *my eyes!*"
Several collapsed, tears of blood streaming down their ruined faces. Others screamed as they stumbled backward over the cliff's edge, their cries fading into the ravine below.
The fox darted behind the trees, then burst out again from an unexpected angle. In their terror and confusion, the hunters turned their guns on each other.
---
Finally, only one remained.
"**Kya-a-a!**"
The fox hurled herself at him with the last of her strength, claws aimed at his throat—but he swung the rifle's butt and caught her mid-leap.
"**Kyaaf!**"
Her body struck a tree trunk with a sickening *thud*. The impact stole what little strength she had left. She tried to rise, legs trembling, but collapsed back into the dirt.
"Damned creature."
The man's boot came down on her neck.
"**Kya!**"
Her yelp echoed through the silent forest. She writhed beneath his weight, claws scraping uselessly against the frozen ground. Her breath came in short, desperate gasps. Her vision darkened at the edges.
"I'd gladly tear off your paws," the hunter growled, pulling a coil of trap wire from his bag, "but that would ruin the pelt."
He knelt beside her, grinning with cruel satisfaction.
"You'll stay alive—barely. The mistress has been wanting a new stuffed fox for her collection."
Rough hands gripped the scruff of her neck. She tried once more to fight, but her claws only dragged weakly through the leaves.
_At least Dohvi will be safe now..._
The wire pressed against her muzzle, cold iron burning where it touched.
_I hope he finds somewhere safe... somewhere far from hunters like these..._
The man wound the wire tighter. Each breath grew harder than the last.
_I wish I could see him one last time..._
_If I had known that morning would be our final goodbye, I would have said something kinder. Something true._
_Actually... I always knew you were a tiger, Dohvi._
Her thoughts drifted, soft and fading like snowfall.
_But you were so small. So lonely. I couldn't leave you there in the cold._
_How hard it must have been... all those years alone..._
The older Sohwa had grown, the more she understood she would have to let him go someday. But by then, she had already given him too much of her heart to take it back.
_Your warmth became everything to me._
_I would rather have remained a foolish fox, blind to what you truly were, if only you would stay by my side forever._
_Don't grieve too long when you learn I'm gone._
_You were the most precious being in this world to me._
_You were my treasure, Dohvi..._
If only she had shown him her heart—just once. But the fear that he might vanish had always stopped the words in her throat. If she had known farewell could arrive so silently, so suddenly, she would have offered him every fragment of her tiny heart.
_I love you, Dohvi..._
---
Just as the darkness began to swallow her whole, a **crash** split the air.
A growl—low, resonant, and utterly *inhuman*—pierced through the forest. The sound burrowed into the hunter's bones, vibrating through his chest like the tremor before an earthquake.
He froze.
Then came the **roar**.
It erupted from the shadows like thunder given voice, as if the mountain itself had awakened in fury. The sheer force of it buckled the man's knees. His knife slipped from trembling fingers.
"A-a-a-a—!"
He tried to run.
A massive paw struck him before he could take a single step. His skull cracked like a clay pot beneath the blow, and he crumpled lifeless to the earth.
---
Dohvi stood over the body, chest heaving, his breath misting in the cold air.
He had lost his way. Her scent had led him down toward the village, and he had wasted precious minutes circling back. The entire time, dread had clawed at his insides, pulling him forward, faster, *faster*.
_Where is she?_
His golden eyes swept the clearing—and stopped.
A small ball of fur lay motionless in the grass. Black and silver, so still it might have been a stone.
His heart seized.
Dohvi rushed forward, lowering his massive head, and nudged the tiny body with infinite care—as gently as if waking someone from sleep. When he saw the wire wound cruelly around her muzzle, his blood turned to ice.
"No... no, no—!"
He shifted to human form in an instant, hands shaking violently as he worked to free her. Each second stretched into eternity.
_What if she's already gone?_
_What if my fox is dead?_
He had never once imagined this. Never considered that this small, precious life could simply... vanish from his world. His blood felt like it was evaporating. A terrible cold gripped his body from the inside out.
All he could feel was Sohwa—and the faint, fragile flutter of her breath.
He hadn't even confessed to her. Hadn't told her how much her care had meant to him. All he had done was sulk and push her away when she wouldn't accept his feelings. And she—this tiny, foolish, *brave* fox—had thrown herself at armed hunters to protect him.
His fingers finally pulled the last of the wire free.
Her pulse was there—weak, but present. Yet her eyes remained closed, her breathing shallow and labored. Death hovered close, patient and waiting.
_That's not why I kept it..._
Dohvi lifted her gently by the scruff of her neck, cradling her body against his chest. With his other hand, he carefully parted her jaws.
Then he brought his lips to hers.
A pearl emerged between them—**scarlet-red**, luminous, pulsing with ancient power. The precious stone he had taken from the Imoogi.
Slowly, tenderly, he let it slip past her teeth and onto her tongue.
He closed her mouth and began stroking her throat, her stomach, coaxing her body to accept it. At last, with a small, labored movement, she swallowed.
Now everything rested in the hands of the heavens.
Dohvi transformed once more. The great tiger lifted the small fox in his jaws with impossible gentleness, as if she were made of glass and moonlight, and bounded into the night.
The path home had never felt so long.
---