Vixen crawled back into the den under her tree stump, laying down in a comfy position position as she broke open the muscles and began to eat them. She thought back to the other creatures. What odd lookng things. "Why would they want to just stay in the water like that? Surely it must feel weird. Having water surround you all the time like that.." She shrugged to herself, satisfied by the muscles by now. She yawned, peeking outside before closing her eyes to sleep.

To be honest I was nervous, I could only hope this meeting would go well. Loe left with his youngest son to go get the one around my age. So now it was just me waiting because my dad had to continue swimming in our area. I appreciate his reassurance, because it helped, but my anxiety was still there.

I sigh as I lay against the rock that faced the direction of their section of territory. I saw something dark swimming out in the distance as it stood out against the blue all too well. Instinctively I hid, because not many things in the water were that dark unless they were a predator.

When it got close I realized it was only Loe’s son, he was black or a very dark grey. He seemed confused because he clearly saw my pink scales but I disappeared. Hesitantly, I swam up a little.

“Hello.” I said with a pause “I’m down here,” I said causing him to look down

“I didn’t know what you were at first so I hid. Your father didn’t say you had dark scales,”. Explained awkwardly

“Hello, sorry for the scare. I get that a lot, especially from younglings,” he explained. “I’m Dike by the way,” he said

“I’m Axl,” I responded with a soft smile

+ Small Time Skip+

“Goodbye,” I said, finally feeling a little more comfortable around him finally. I was nervous the entire time but it was probably just the fear of it not working out.

“Goodbye, I hope we get to talk again soon,” he said with a large smile and a tint of blush showed on my face. I can only thank the mother that my scales were pink and pretty much hid it. I watched him swim off and I went back to the section that I sleep in.

“How did it go?” My dad asked, appearing out of nowhere.

“I think it went well,” I said calmly

“Do I need to send word that you have found a mate then?” My father asked teasingly and I turned red.

“No, we are going to continue talking. We mainly just chatted to see how well we get along. We didn’t exactly talk about being mates just yet.” I explained while I was red with embarrassment. My father just laughed and swam off, and I proceeded to lay down. I needed to sleep because Dike caught both of us a fish, so I had a full stomach and was tired. I needed to rest so I could digest everything in my stomach.

Vixen's eyes fluttered opened to the smell of smoke. Her nose twitched and she peered outside. She let put a loud yelp, darting out of her den as she realised the surrounding area was on fire.

Vuxen quickly ran towards her pond, but it was all dried up. All that was left were some dead fish. Confused, she looked around, heat feeling as if it was coming closer to her fur. (Sorry this was short. Got to go to my volunteer barn)

Uri lay there asleep, unaware of what was happening on the surface. Her father knew all too well what was happening, so he moved her into a safer place as she slept. He hid with her as well, because this wasn't something they could try and face alone either. It didn't take long for Loe and his family to make their way over. They hid with Nire and the sleeping Axl, Dike couldn't seem to take his eyes off the sleeping Axl though. The older males were too focused to notice, and the younglings were just terrified.

}][-= (I decided to leave this here. For context, my puppy just decided to lay his head on the keyboard lmao)

(XD) Vixen soon realized that she was surrounded. She let out a desperate call (for reference, this is a fox call https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIR8RtI9kaw

////

She went back into her den and closed her eyes, the smoke starting to burn her nose as she took a deep breath. Tree branches crackled above the heat, some of the smaller branches falling and adding to the fire

Under the water, the two families could only faintly hear the calls that were distorted by the water, but no one wanted to leave their family. Even if they were to respond to the calls, it was a land creature, they didn't know how far inland it was. They wouldn't risk their life and for a creature that wasn't even related to them.

Axl woke to the screams but she stayed in place, sitting up. She recognized this place as the safe cave and just stayed silent, Dike finally stopped looking at her. He didn't want to get caught staring at her tribal markings and deciphering what they meant or stood for. As he was familiar with the male tribal markings, but not the female ones.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the surface, a silver fox heard her cries. Quickly he went in and removed the top of her burrow and dragged her out. Clearly, she was weak from inhaling too much smoke so he picked her up and carried her into the shallows. leaning her against a rock so she wouldn't drown, they were far enough away from the shore they couldn't be licked by the flames if they got to the water's edge.

Vixen panted, laying on her side as she took gasps of the fresh air. she took a moment to study the fox that had saved her. "Uhm...thank you." She gave a quick nod before laying her head back down, taking a few laps of water.

....

Dike paced around, finally giving Nire a worried look. "When do you think the fire is going to burn out?"

Nire hummed,

"It should be out by the end of the day because it rained two days ago. So it should only burn the dead things, leaving the new plants untouched." He explained as he stared off

Axl lay propped up against the stone and she closed her eyes, attempting to drift off to sleep. Unfortunately, she could only struggle to find comfort against the rocks.