Fishing was an activity I loved doing most out here in the wilderness, although hunting was fun too.
Whatever I did, I learned new techniques and it only helped me in case I would have to go out there on my own someday.
“Hungry?” Papa asked, laughing as he watched me grin at the bucket I was carrying back to camp.
“Very hungry. And excited. I can’t wait to show Fennec what we caught,” I told him.
We continued to walk, and when we were only a few minutes away from camp, Papa grabbed my wrist and stopped me, making me turn to look at him.
“What?”
“Really don’t wanna upset you, but that’s fucked up,” he growled, his mood suddenly changing.
I frowned, thinking he had found out about Fennec and me.
No…how could he know? And why didn’t he say something earlier? Things were going great up until this moment.
“What is?” I asked, getting ready to defend myself from whatever he was going to say next.
He didn’t speak though.
Instead, he nodded upward, pointing his finger at what he was seeing.
With my frown deepening, I turned my head to look up, and when I realized what he was pointing at, I gasped and covered my mouth with one hand.
“Oh, my God!”
A foxtail was hanging from one of the branches, looking rough and dirty. Then I spotted a second one hanging from another branch, making my breath hitch at the sight of it.
As shocked and confused as I was, no words came out of my mouth.
We kept staring at the tails, wondering how they got up there.
“Too close to camp for hunters to have done this. Plus, they would’ve taken the tails with them to sell,” Papa said, stating obvious facts.
“But who…” I whispered, turning to look at him. “You promised you wouldn’t kill them!”
“Shit, Vespyr, it wasn’t me! You know I would never break my promise.”
I turned my head to look up again, and with teary eyes, I searched for clues of other animals who might’ve done this.
I didn’t wanna believe that Papa or Fennec did this.
No way.
“They look like they’ve been up there for quite some time, Ves. Birds must’ve picked on them.”
“How did they end up there?” I asked, taking a step around one of the trees and sure enough finding another tail hanging up there.
“Here’s another one,” Papa said, but he wasn’t talking about the one I had just found.
He was standing a few feet away, where a fourth tail was hanging from a branch, tied with a thin rope.
They all didn’t look as if they had been put up there in the past few days, and some didn’t even have much fur on them either.
“Papa,” I cried, walking over to him and letting him pull me into his arms.
“I’m sorry you have to see this. I promise it wasn’t me, but I don’t think it was an animal either.”
Which would only leave Fennec to be the one who’s done it.
“Why would he do this?”
“I don’t know, sweetheart. Do you want me to take them down? Would that help any?”
No, it wouldn’t.
Those foxes were dead already.
I shook my head and looked up one more time, and in an instant, I had this overwhelming feeling inside of me.
I wanted to scream, kick and hit something, but thanks to Papa’s arms around me, I was able to stay calm and collect myself before straightening my back and holding my chin up.
“I want to confront him about this,” I told Papa.
“No need to scream and shout though, all right? There must’ve been a reason why he did it.”
I gave him a quick nod and promised myself to stay calm, no matter how mad I was at him.
I tightened my grip around the bucket’s handle and started to walk back to camp with Papa following close behind.
Fire was crackling and smoke was rising from the fireplace in the middle of camp, and when I didn’t see Fennec anywhere, I set the bucket down and put my hands on my hips, looking up at the treehouse.
“Fennec!” I called out, my jaw clenching as I tried to keep my own promise of not raising my voice toward him.
Papa was already minding his own business, but I knew he was still keeping an eye and ear on me.
Fen stuck his head out to look down at me, and as if he hadn’t noticed my angry glare, he smiled at me.
“Hey, sweet girl. Catch some big fish?” he asked, then he climbed down the ladder to stand right in front of me.
“What did you do?” I asked, my hands still propped on my hips.
“What’s wrong? Why are you so angry?” He placed a hand on the side of my neck, brushing his thumb along my skin with his head tilted to the side.
“Did something happen?”
“Don’t act so innocent,” I heard Papa grumble.
There were no words coming out of my mouth, feeling the knot in my throat tighten the longer I looked at him.
No shouting and screaming, I reminded myself, so the only other option to let my frustration out was to cry.
“What did you do to the foxes?” I asked, my voice shaky.
“What foxes? Do you mean the one I shot? I told you already, Ves. It was an accident.”
“No, not that one. The tails. There are tails hanging from the trees. Four of them,” I told him, crossing my arms over my chest now to try and calm myself down.
He eyed me carefully before shooting a glare at Papa. “You showed her?” he hissed, making my frown deepen ever more.
“No, Papa didn’t know about them either,” I said.
“He sure fucking did. I told you not to let her see them!” Fennec spat, gently pushing me aside to step closer into Papa’s direction.
What the hell is going on?
Papa set the net and rods down we used for fishing today, then he turned to face Fennec with a serious look I had never seen on him before.
He wasn’t messing around, but neither was Fennec.
“Stop lying to her. I didn’t know about those tails, and I sure as hell wouldn’t have taken her there if I knew it would upset her. Tell her why you killed those foxes and stop making me look like your accomplice. I’ve not helped you do shit ever since she came to live with us, and those tails looked like they haven’t been hanging there for more than two months.”
Papa had a point, and although I hated being lied to, I had to confess to myself that Fennec wasn’t telling me the whole truth.
He didn’t reply to Papa, and when I looked at Fennec again, he turned and walked away while pulling his knife out of his back pocket.
“Fennec!” I called out, immediately following him into the forest.
“Let him go!” I heard Papa mutter, but I didn’t listen and continued to go after Fennec.
“Fennec, stop!”
“I broke my promise,” I heard him say, which made my heart break hearing his voice filled with regret and sadness.
“Fen, please stop and let’s talk about it,” I begged, but he kept walking until we were back at the place I wished I’d never seen.
“I disappointed you. I messed up.”
“Fennec, please…” I reached for his hand and tried to pull him closer to me, but he shook my hands off and jumped up to get to the lowest branches on the first tree.