The Past and The Present

A Suprise For All

Authors note:

Hi once again. Considering that I have a major fascination with The Fox and the Hound, I desided to take it a bit into the unknown. Hope you enjoy. Please R&R.

Days pasted by which felt like weeks with Copper trying continuously to reach Tod and check up on his progress, but Widow Tweed would not let Tod out when he was near. Chief had become concerned and worried about the two of them. Amis Slade noticed the hound dog wondering off to the farm. He didn't quite like his dogs' affiliation with the fox, but never tried to stop them.

One night, about a month after Tod's stroke. The two dogs were sitting outside, finishing of their supper, when all of a sudden, a slightly familiar scent passed their noses and caused them to stop eating. It was the scent of an approaching fox. To Copper, it was the smell of a female fox, but to Chief, it was a scent like no other. 

Without warning, the wolfhound stood up and charged towards where the smell originated. Copper got up soon after and ran after Chief in fear of him finding Vixey, Tod's mate.

Copper eventually caught up with Chief who had found and cornered the female fox. "Chief, wait!" Copper raised his voice to the snarling wolfhound. Chief was not happy that he was being commanded by his adopted son. He turned his head to face the hound dog, frustrated by his order. 

"Why?" asked Chief, practically shouting, "Do yea know who this is? This is the very first fox who ever escaped me." 

"Just wait!" shouted Copper. Chief was not happy at all about this. 

"Make it quick!" reprimanded Chief, he sat down and kept his eyes fixed on the vixen. "Hello, my name is Copper" he said, slowly walking to the old fox. She slowly started to bear her teeth. "It's alright. I am not here to hurt you. I just want to talk. Are you Vixey?" he asked as he was only told about Tod's mate.

"No. my name is Rose. I used to live around here until I was hunted by him," the vixen says, changing her faces direction to Chief. Rose was quite slender for her age. Her soft red and white coat starting to become grey with two small bald spots in the middle of her back. Her voice was smooth and soft. Her body language showed that she had been through a lot in her life and was stronger because of these times.

Chief knew who Vixey was and was not pleased about the fact that Tod's mate had sent the fox he least liked to them. He started shifting impatiently, "Copper, come on boy. Hurry up." 

"Chief, wait. Rose, why did Vixey send you here?" Copper asked. His face was a mixture of curiosity and uncertainty. Rose then started lowering her head, struggling to keep her memories from overflowing.

She looked back up and said, "I was being hunted my him and had to save the last piece of my family. I remember it like it was yesterday. I placed him down by the fence post and ran the other way to draw the attention away from him..." her explanation was cut short as she started crying, her emotions became more apparent. Sniffling, she continued, "I was shot in my back twice but managed to get away. After I got back when the hunters were gone, he was gone."

Rose had, by now, started crying more audibly and felt exhausted. Copper walked over to her and tried to comfort her, sitting beside her and looked at Chief, who had been sitting quietly for some time. Copper noticed that his guardian's expression had become more guilty then angry. Slowly rising to his feet, Chief realized that there was a way to rectify his actions. He approached the two in front of him and said, "Well, I think I can help yea with that. Follow me." Chief then turned around and waited for the others to get up before he started walking off.

Meanwhile, on the Tweed farm, Tod had become more aware and used to his disability. This, however, would not stop the determined fox from trying to walk again. He might not have had full control or much feeling in his rear legs but he never gave up. He started walking about a week and a half after his stroke and although it was a slow process, he eventually became strong enough to walk around the house and, occasionally, to the barn and back.

Widow Tweed had found books in the library and started reading and understanding more about strokes. She also allowed her fox to walk around freely but would go searching and calling for him after fifteen minutes.

Copper, Chief and Rose had reached the dark farmhouse. Copper turned to face Rose and Chief, saying, "I have a plan. Wait out of sight while I call him out." As the two left for a hiding spot, Copper turned around and quietly walked to the living room window, leaped up and peered through the glass to see if his best friend was home.

However, before he could find Tod, a streak of red came at him from the bush, hitting him hard on his side and sending him crashing hard on the ground, causing a whine to escape from his sore body. As he lay there in pain, a dark figure approached him and jumped on top of him, growling at the hound dog beneath it. "Shh..." said the dark figure said. Copper realized the dark figure was another vixen. She stopped growling and said softly, "It's me Vixey. Can you please tell me what you are doing," she said uneasily.

Copper lay there on his back. The pain shooting through his side did not stop a confused expression from showing in his face. Climbing of him, Vixey shook her head and stared at Copper as he got up. She said, "I hope you know that Widow doesn't know of your friendship. So imagine what she would do if she saw you, a hunting dog, staring through the window, looking at her fox. I mean... you know what you did not too long ago." The hound dog then remembered that he had hunted the two of them. "Why don't you go and wait with the others while I help you out?" she continued and walked to the door.

Copper turned around and left in search of Chief and Rose to report on the change of plans. He reached the two, only to find that they had made up and began chatting away like long lost friends. Rose turned around, expecting to see Copper with a fox but only saw Copper. Chief only heard Copper a second later and turned to face him. 

The hound dog looked at the two who gazed at him. They became confused as to why he was with them and not finding his friend. Chief was the first to express his confusion and asked, "Sonny, what yea doin' over here. I thought you was out findin' him." Copper turned his head to face Vixey.

Once Vixey was at the door, she looked around to see of her friends were out of sight. She then turned around and scraped her claws against the door. She heard two sets of footsteps closing in on the door. As it opened, Tod went straight for the gap, trying to get out, but his efforts were for nothing when Widow Tweed reached down for him and tried to pull him back. Once Tod realized that his mate was trying to enter, he backtracked to allow Vixey to enter.

After she entered, she looked up at Widow and nodded as if to say thank you. "Tod!" she screeched at the sight of her mate alive and standing. She ran up to him and nuzzled her face and body along his neck. Tod gave Vixey a light lick on his cheek and asked, "How are you? I've been worried sick, I heard what happened. How bad is it?" Tod really didn't want to talk about his condition but his mate deserved to know.

Lowering his head and folding his ears down, Tod took a deep breath before saying, "It's quite serious. The doctor suspects that I... have just a few days left." Vixey gasped and stared at her mate, whose eyes had begun to fill with tears. He sobbed softly, trying not to alert Widow Tweed. The vixen dropped her head, trying to show sympathy. Her watering eyes shut as she tried to hold back the tears. She could not bear to see her mate crying. She then took control over herself and continued with the plan. She then stood up, without warning, and turned around to walk to the door. Tod noticed this and followed her.

"Wait...Where are you going?" Tod asked as he managed to get next to her while she scraped at the door, calling Widow Tweed to open it for her. 

"I think you mean where are we going," Vixey said as Widow reached the door, swinging it wide open. The two foxes walked out side by side, letting their owner know that they would stay together. The door closed behind them as they made their way towards the barn. Once inside, Vixey told her mate to wait quietly as she needed to go somewhere quickly. Tod lay down on the hay pile as she watched his mate leave through the front door.

She turned her head around to see if he had listened. She then raced towards Copper, Rose and Chief. She arrived to see all three of them watching her with content. "OK, we will have to do this is stages," she said looking at Copper, "You first, just keep in mind his condition. Once you are ready, you give us a signal, me and Chief will go in, and only once he has calmed down, Rose will enter. Everybody fine with that?" Everybody nodded in agreement, as Copper stood up and left for the barn.