Waking up around dusk, the fox again headed out into the forest to experiment some more. Last time he had tried pushing the sensation in his head outward in a sphere, so this time he tried making it into a tendril, seeing how far he could push it outward from himself. Before he knew it, he had been sitting still for so long that a rabbit had wandered into his sight.
Considering for a moment, he decided to try touching the rabbit with the tendril of energy he was controlling. As he touched it, for the briefest of moments, he could suddenly feel its health, get a tiny glimmer of what it was feeling, and tell with absolute certainty where it was in relation to himself, even more so than his sight allowed. However at the same time, the rabbit jumped as if something had bit it, startling him and causing him to break the connection.
After a few quick hops, the rabbit settled down again, so he retracted the tendril of energy and raced after it. After a short chase, he managed to catch it and broke its neck, settling down to feed on his prey. The odd sense of danger flared up again somewhat, but it was faint enough that he could ignore it and continue eating.
Upon finishing his meal, he decided to go back to experimenting, particularly testing out that odd sensation of pulling in something else. Expanding the energy outward in a sphere again, he tried making it hollow, then pulling it back in. This resulted in a sharp spike in his sense of danger, followed by an intense mental pain and fogging of his thoughts. Clumsily thinking to himself that he wouldn’t do such a thing again, he slowly hobbled back to his den and collapsed in pain.
After a significant period of time, he was able to sleep as the pain subsided. He awoke again near dawn with a pounding headache and a vague sensation of loss. His memory seemed vague, and his thoughts slow, causing him quite a bit of fear. With immense effort he put together his thoughts, realizing that the sense of danger that seemed to flare up from time to time was clearly linked to his intelligence, and he shouldn’t ignore it like he had been.
Considering the sensation was faintly irritating him at the moment, but reduced as he considered visiting the humans, he decided to do just that. Once again he found himself sitting atop a hill watching the young humans playing, and once again the same human noticed him. This time there wasn’t any feeling in his mind, however. Reaching out with a tendril of energy, he tried touching the oddly perceptive human, only to jump in fright as he felt thoughts that were not his own, causing him to break the tendril midway, yelping in pain. The human stared at him for a moment before starting to walk toward him. Unwilling to risk confrontation, he fled back to his den as rapidly as he could.
Fortunately, by the time he got back to his den, the feeling of danger had entirely subsided, and he was able to rest easily, though his mind kept going back to the odd thoughts he had picked up when he touched the human. Thinking back, he also realized he had sensed something that was almost a smell, almost a taste through the link; picking up dirt, grass, and trees along with something undefinable.
This set the pattern for the next several days; wake up, get some food, experiment with the energy he controlled, then go watch the humans. He continued fleeing a few more times when the one young human approached. However, he eventually let them get a bit closer, watching as they sat down with their legs folded below them.
Knowing from having watched that it took a long time for them to stand up from this position, he felt a bit safer at coming closer. As he approached, sniffing, he picked up that odd half-scent of nature from them as he felt a touch on his mind again, a hint of otherness. The human patted the grass beside them while saying something he couldn’t understand. Shocked by the sudden motion, he jumped backwards. As he did so, the human stopped moving, letting him work up the courage to move closer again.
Another child began to run up, shouting, so he quickly turned and fled from them, hearing the first human shouting as well, and feeling a surge of anger or annoyance from that connection between them. Upon returning to his den, he realized that the connection was still there, though faint, and shook it off as he had the earlier feelings. He then curled up into a ball and fell asleep.
Upon waking up around dusk, he found his thoughts flowed more smoothly once again, the fog receding from his memories. As he stretched, he found he could actually see the energy around himself as an incredibly transparent mist. Pushing out his own, he was able to see it was slightly more substantial than what was around him.
Deciding to put off experimenting for a bit, he headed back towards the human village to see if the children were there still. Upon arriving, he did not see any, but his stomach told him that it was quite displeased at him skipping breakfast, so he headed back towards that strange field on the other side that had mice. Due to his speed, he was able to catch two of them to fill up, noting that he had a faint sense of danger as he finished the second one.
As he headed back towards the side with the gate, he heard the voices of the young humans again. He headed back to his hill, waiting as the same human as before spotted him and headed his way. This time they shouted something at the others as they approached before sitting down and patting the grass again.
Feeling more at ease than last time, he approached slowly, stopping a few body lengths away and sitting down, feeling the ebb of the energy between them as a connection formed once more. Somehow he felt safe around this human, and scooted closer, letting them touch his head. He was careful to keep facing them, and they seemed to pick up on it, scratching below his mouth where he could have chosen to bite them if he wanted.
‘This human trusts me,’ he thought to himself as the human moved to scratch behind his ears.
He could feel contentment through the link between them, as well as desire to learn and teach. As he was considering this, he noticed movement in the plains heading towards the city.
He got up and walked away from the human to get a better look, seeing a large object made of stone and wood traveling across the plains on large spiked wheels. Upon it sat several large humans, along with a massive amber colored stone. As he was watching, one of the humans looked at him and shouted at the others.
A flash of orange left the hand of one of the humans, trails of dense mist arcing up into the air towards him before detonating in an ear-splitting crack, flaring light throughout the area as streamers of yellow fell from the sky.
The children screamed and fled back into the town, even as he himself shrieked in pain as his sensitive ears were assaulted by the noise. He felt shock and fear through the link with the human as they tumbled over before scrambling to their feet and shouting as well. Confused and terrified by this situation, he fled back towards his den.