Creative Writing: "Crow" part 3

There is a certain delicacy to the way a fox moves through the forest. Many times, I’ve asked myself why the Forest chose me for this animal when in reality I am a graceless and clumsy thing. I drop dishes and leave my windows down in the rain and trip over nothing. But when I enter the Forest, I am a sleek and crafty Fox.

There is a certain delicacy to the way a fox moves through the forest. Many times, I’ve asked myself why the Forest chose me for this animal when in reality I am a graceless and clumsy thing. I drop dishes and leave my windows down in the rain and trip over nothing. But when I enter the Forest, I am a sleek and crafty Fox.
 As my soft paws pad against the mossy ground, as we near the flowering clearing of our meeting place, I ask Crow to fill me in on how exactly Mouse got stuck here. He takes me through what I already know, the reason I left the Forest in the first place: our former friend Wolf’s reign of terror. Wolf became obsessed with our power. He proclaimed us not only inhabitants but guardians of the Forest. He tried to establish martial law, set up cages for the animals that would not do as he said. Eventually, he stopped listening to us, his friends. His last days in the Forest were spent trying to imprison even us, and they culminated with a heated battle between us and Him. The downside of being a fox, or a crow, or a tortoise, or a mouse, is that we did not have the brute strength given to a wolf. It took all of us, and a certain amount of cunning, to banish him to the Wasteland. Since Wolf was my brother as well as my friend, I chose to leave the Forest. Forever.
What Wolf has not told me, the news that I consider to be worth mentioning at least once in the visits I’ve gotten from Mouse or Crane is that Wolf has tried to return. Many times. 
“The Forest kept us safe before this,” Crow tells me. “Every paw step he took onto our sacred ground burned his body until he could not go on. Now, he walks with barely a limp across the forest floor. Mouse, Crane, Tortoise, and I have visited at least once a month for the past two years. We talk, we help each other, we reminisce. We keep Wolf in his place. But last month, when we met, we found Wolf roaming the grounds, whispering into the ears of those who wish they could have power. Unfortunately, he’s had quite an effect. He has followers now. We tried to put down his rebellion, to send him back to the Wasteland, and we could not. Only when he was on his own could we defeat him, now he has followers. Mouse was injured quite badly standing up to him. Our friends, while wounded themselves, have taken to caring for her. I alone escaped the battle unharmed. I alone could return to the human world. That’s why it was I alone who came to find you. I know you really didn’t want to see me after all this time.”
Crow had been the first one to say that we needed to banish my brother, Wolf. It was necessary, but I hated it nonetheless. 
“So you brought me back here to fight Wolf? Again? What makes you think I can beat him?” Wolf meets my dead stare with an apologetic one of his own. 
“You’re the last card we have to play. We had to try something. And Fox?”
“Yeah?” I reply.
“We didn’t bring you here to fight him. We’re hoping you, of all people, might be able to reason with him.”
“Sure.” I take a breath. “I’ll do my best.”
The trees break in the distance; our clearing draws closer. I can see even from here that the grass is stained red and the plant life has been trampled under many paws. There is a darkness to the Forest I have not seen before, a shadow cast not by the trees nor the animals, but by fear. When Crow and I reach the clearing, he flaps off my shoulder and lands near a hunched over trio of battered animals. I’m shocked to see that my former friends, the powerful protectors of this Forest, have been reduced to trembling things that jump when my paws come down on a branch.
“Mouse. Tortoise. Crane.” Despite their worn-out state, the three smile when they see me. 
“Fox,” Mouse breathes. Her words are soft and almost inaudible, her fur matted and clumped with blood in places. I lower my muzzle to touch my nose to her tiny head, and she sighs. 
“Mouse, you look horrible.” She lets out a feeble laugh in response.
“You’re not looking so good, either, Fox. City life has not treated you well.” She observes.
“What do you mean?” I ask. “I’m content now. I live a normal life, doing normal people things.”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” she responds, “the Fox I know would never have been content. You need more than what a ‘normal’ life can offer you. You should’ve stayed with us.”
“Because I could have stopped this? Is that what you’re saying? I left to get away from this!” I hiss.
“Fine.” Mouse settles back into the ferns and moss that have become her bed. “Fine, you left to get away. I was just saying we missed you. I never said it was your fault.”
“I’m sorry, Mouse. It’s just hard to be back. I thought I was done with all... this.”
“I know. I did too, sort of. But the unfortunate reality is that none of us will be done with this until the Forest is safe and Wolf is more than banished. Until he’s gone, completely, we can never be done. I just hope I live to see that accomplished.”
“You’ll be fine, Mouse.” I grin at her, showing my rows of teeth. “You’ve got a big strong Fox to fight for you now. I’ll make sure you’re safe again.” I look up. “All of you. I won’t rest until every one of us is safe.” It’s not until I see the eyes at the edge of the clearing, the animals gathered closer around me, and the knowing smirk that graces Crow’s face, that I understand what I’ve just promised. These animals needed a savior. I have given them one. And I cannot leave until I deliver, or die trying.