One late November morning, after catching a rabbit, Bramble trotted into a hollow log so she could eat it alone. She started to get tired, and fell asleep. When she woke up, she heard a gunshot and a human yelling “Fox!” Bramble dashed out of the log. When she looked back, the log was on fire. She didn’t stop running. She had to find somewhere to hide. Just then, she saw a hole. She crawled inside, and she heard more yelling from outside. Then, a bullet landed right next to her, and she decided to go deeper into the tunnel.

Bramble sniffed the air. It smelled as if another fox, specifically a juvenile male fox, was digging the tunnel. As Bramble went further, she saw another fox lying down in the tunnel. He was weak, and he lifted his head up.

“What are you doing in my tunnel?” he growled.

“Humans are outside,” Bramble barked.

“Who are you?” he growled again.

“I’m Bramble. Who are you?”

“I’m Rufus. The humans chased me so I dug this tunnel.”

Rufus stood up, and slowly walked to the entrance. Then he crouched. Bramble stood up and did the same. There were no humans outside. Bramble placed the rabbit she had caught right outside. They trotted out, and soon they heard another gunshot. The tunnel that Rufus made was destroyed. As soon as Bramble grabbed the little bit of rabbit meat that was left, Bramble and Rufus ran away from the humans that destroyed the tunnel. Soon, they were in a clearing. Rufus looked around. He saw a big grayish green machine that had a star on the side of it. There was a long horizontal tube that was sticking out of the upper front. Then, a bullet came out of the tube, and Rufus realized that it was a gun. Bramble started sprinting for the forest.

“We’re not safe!” Bramble yelped while dodging a bullet.

Rufus followed Bramble, and after a while it started to get dark. They slowed down as they got deeper into the forest. Bramble dug a neat den, unlike the one Rufus built. Then, they ate the little piece of rabbit that was left, and went to sleep. When they woke up, It was raining. Bramble and Rufus were cold and shivering. They huddled against each other for body warmth, but the rain didn’t stop, and after another day of rain, Bramble became sick.

Rufus walked further into the forest. Then, he spotted a few tents. He went back to Bramble and he carried her on his back to the tents. He dropped her off near the tents.

“I’m going to get some food. You dig a den,” Rufus quietly barked.

Rufus poked his nose under the side of the tent. After he sneaked into the tent, he froze. There was a gun lying on the floor, and it was pointing towards him. He moved to the side, and crawled under a little plastic table. Then he smelled something. When he looked at what was on the table, there was a big, brown, non-bloody chunk of meat. He put his paw on it and it was warm. He sniffed it, and he smelled different herbs and spices. He grabbed the piece of meat with his jaws. Then, a large round white platform came crashing down and broke to pieces. Rufus was so startled that he flung the chunk of meat across the tent.

A human with a dark green and gray uniform came storming into the tent. He glared at the cracked platform and then at the lump of meat. He walked back to the entrance of the tent, turned to stare at the meat one more time, and stomped away.

Once the human was out of sight, Rufus grabbed the meat and dashed out of the tent with the meat held firmly in his jaws.

“I got food,” Rufus barked once he got to the entrance of the little den that Bramble dug at the base of a tree.

Just then, Bramble crawled out of the little den and sat up, looking at the proud little den that she had just created. Then, she felt a little vibration, and she lay down on her back and rolled back. A small explosion blew up her den. Bits of dirt went flying all over the place. Bramble growled. She was furious. She started brushing all the dirt around while lying down with her front paws and tail. Soon she uncovered some wires. She bit at the wires a little bit, and sparks came flying out. Rufus lept beside her and nudged her to the side. Rufus grabbed a long branch and put out the little fire that had started.

Rufus carried Bramble slowly walked to another spot near the tents.

“Dig.” Rufus barked.

She started to dig her den there. Rufus dropped the meat off to the side and helped dig the den. Slowly but surely, the two foxes dug a small den, just big enough for both of them to fit along with the meat. As Bramble crawled inside, Rufus used his nose to push the lump of meat into the den. Once they were both inside, Bramble helped herself to a big bite of meat. It did not taste like anything Bramble had eaten before. After they halfway finished it, Rufus brought it outside and buried it. Then Rufus came back into the den and they both fell asleep.

When Rufus woke up, Bramble was coughing. She had inhaled a lot of smoke from the bomb, and from the fire. Rufus trotted outside to get water. Once he found a small pond, he sprinted back to the big mass of tents. He sneaked inside a tent, and sniffed around. Then he found a odd-shaped hollow rubbery object with strings on it. He brought it outside, and suddenly he heard a human say “Where’s my boot?” Then, he ran all the way to the pond. He threw it into the water while still gripping tight onto the string. When he pulled it up, it was full of water. He dragged the water-filled boot right outside of the den. He motioned for Bramble to come out, and when she did, she was still coughing. She thrust her head into the water and spilled some while she was drinking, but she was definitely looking better.

After a few days, Bramble was fully healed and was ready to move on.

“The humans are coming closer,” Bramble slowly growled mysteriously. That convinced Rufus.

After walking for some time, they reached a hole. Bramble cautiously sniffed around it, and it smelled of mouse.

“Copy me,” Bramble quietly ordered.

Bramble lay down next to the hole. Of course, Rufus did the same. Bramble closed one eye, and left her tongue hanging out of her mouth. Rufus followed. After a while, a mouse came out. Thinking that the two foxes around him were sleeping, the mouse slowly tiptoed out. Without warning, Bramble pounced on the mouse and swallowed him whole. Then Bramble stepped to the side, and let Rufus try. When Rufus pounced on the next mouse, it was too fast and dashed back into it’s hole. Rufus tried again, but did not succeed. Soon, Rufus was so busy trying to catch the mouse that he did not notice another bigger, older, oranger fox sneaking up on him. Then, the older fox pounced.

Rufus snarled. He pounced on top of the older fox again, and knocked the older fox onto the ground.

“Who are you?” Rufus growled.

“ The real question is who are you?” the other fox growled back.

“I’m Rufus,” Rufus growled sounding annoyed.

“Call me Ken,” Ken growled in response.

“Now!” Rufus barked loudly.

Bramble jumped off a small tree and landed directly on Ken holding him to the ground.

“What do you want?” Ken snarled.

“Let us stay here,” Bramble calmly barked.

“Only over there,” Ken barked as he pointed to the space in between nine trees. “No hunting, fishing, trashing, or making noise beyond those trees.

“Fine.” Rufus barked.

They walked to their territory space that they had earned. They sniffed around. It wasn’t too bad, considering that there was some rock, a whole pond, a rabbit hole, mouse holes, and quite a few trees. Rufus decided to mark his new territory. He put scents on the trees all around their territory, and then helped Bramble dig a nice large den. Then they hunted for turkey and when Bramble got tired, she went to eat berries.  

The next day, Rufus woke up to a howling sound. He peeked outside, and there was a coyote. He dashed back into the den. He nudged bramble to wake her up. Bramble peeked outside. There was a coyote. He was prowling around. Then, he sniffed the air. He smelled a strange scent. He started sniffing the ground. He started coming closer and closer to Rufus and Bramble’s den, when a bullet came out of nowhere and knocked the coyote onto the ground, unmoving. A human came running. “Bingo!” he said. As he bent down to pick up the coyote, he turned his head and saw the hole. He picked up his gun and aimed it into the hole, but before he could shoot, Rufus snached the gun from the human’s hands and brought it deep into the hole. The human was confused. He reached into the hole with his arm, but Bramble bit his hand. Then, he screamed and ran away.

For a few days, Rufus’ territory was peaceful, but that didn’t last long. Rufus woke up to a strange noise. He peeked out of the den and he saw a strange bird. It was dark green and gray and it had a thin black wing growing out of it’s head that was spinning around in circles. It had long talons, with only two claws on each talon. It’s tail was long, with a little feather on the end that was also spinning in circles. When it started to get closer to the ground, Rufus realized that a human was sitting on this bird. Then he realized that it was not a bird at all, It was a flying machine. It came closer and closer to the ground. As it came closer, there was more wind. Soon, the entrance of the tunnel was blown away from the wind. Then dust started blowing into the tunnel so much, that the tunnel became very small. Rufus and bramble frantically dug and dug, but there was no success.

“Follow me,” Rufus gently growled.  

Rufus rubbed the dust from the ground onto his back. Then, he rubbed some of the mud right at the entrance of the den on his back. They were the same color as the flying machine. They crept out of the den, Rufus in the lead. The flying machine was not flying now, and the human was busy planting a brown thing connected to wires in the ground.

Rufus and Bramble climbed onto the flying machine. Then, he hopped onto a small ledge that was slightly padded. Bramble hopped onto the other one. On the ledge, he could see a platform with round things that were sticking out. Then he turned. The human was walking back now. When he saw Bramble and Rufus his walk turned into a run. Bramble was so frightened that she lept onto the platform with round things that were sticking out.

Suddenly, the machine started going up. The human was far below on the ground. The machine was going higher and higher. When the machine went above the tallest trees, Bramble got scared. She put her paw on another circle. Then the machine stopped. It was hovering in mid-air. She had to remember that the big red circle was stop. She tried pressing another circle, but a human’s voice appeared. “Copter seven,” the human’s voice said. “Have you set off the bombs yet? I repeat, Have you set off the bombs yet?” then, the voice became unclear. “H-a-v-v-e y-y-o-u s-e-e-t o-o-f-f b-b-o-m-b-s-s y-y-e-t? I re-re-peat — ” then, the voice got cut off.

“Don’t step on that one again,” Rufus yelped.

Bramble stepped on a different one. A giant black thing came out of the front of the flying machine. The black thing landed on a tree. Then there was a loud explosion and when the smoke cleared, all that was left of the tree was a big black stump. Bramble decided to press a different one. She stepped on another one, and that made the machine fly forward, and higher. Then she leaped onto the big red one. The machine stopped. Bramble decided to press another one. At least one of them must be down! The one that she stepped on seemed to not do anything. She was impatient. She pressed the same one again, and suddenly the floor slowly opened. Then, the padded ledges that Rufus and Bramble were sitting on changed. Very light puffy things got strapped onto the foxes’ backs. Then the padded ledges tilted. Rufus and Bramble fell off the machine. Above them, the machine flashed red, and it started to fall.

Bramble kicked and pushed, but could not get the puffy thing off of her back. Suddenly the puffy thing exploded, and Bramble started to fall very slowly. Rufus did the same. When Rufus and Bramble looked up, there was a big white flat thing above their heads that made them fall slowly. Those straps were actually helpful. Soon they were near the ground. They smoothly landed on a tree. Rufus pushed off the white flat thing, and climbed out of the basket he made with the straps. As he climbed to Bramble, he realized that not only had she also made a basket with the straps, but she had fallen asleep in her basket. He crawled under the white flat thing and pushed it off Bramble. Then Bramble woke up. She shook herself off, and started to climb down the tree. They stopped at a long branch with a hollow hole in the tree for the night.

The next day, when they woke up, they realized that they were sleeping in the same hole as a squirrel, except the squirrel was deeper into the hole that Rufus and Bramble. Rufus cornered the squirrel, but when the squirrel woke up, it immediately dashed in between Rufus’ legs. Rufus explored deeper, and there were more squirrels deeper in the tree. He managed to catch one, and he greedily ate it up. When he climbed out of the hole, Bramble was there waiting for him. She looked at him, and when she saw that he had eaten a squirrel, she looked at him smartly, looked down, and jumped off the branch into the water. Bramble was so fast she caught a fish when she dove down. Rufus rolled his eyes at her and made his way down the tree. When they got to the bottom, Bramble had caught four fish. Bramble ate one of them, but since she was so hungry, she ate two instead. Bramble and Rufus started wandering around the forest.

It started snowing. As Bramble and Rufus kept walking in the snow, they saw a clearing. It was the same clearing that they had been a month earlier. As they looked around, Rufus saw the giant gray and green machine with long oval tires and the star and the gun. When they walked further, Bramble saw the flying machine that the humans called a “Copter” lying sideways on the ground. After they walked even further, Rufus saw the tents, except some of them had fallen down. Bramble saw the place where her old den that got exploded by the bomb was. Then, they walked past their old territory with the coyote rotting away in the snow. The forest was now peaceful, and this is how the Foxes’ war ended.

Epilogue

Soon, Bramble and Rufus got used to the forest. When they were exploring the area around their newly built den, they came to a giant hollow tree. They peeked inside. Inside of the hollow tree there were two little fox pups. They looked scared. Rufus cautiously sniffed them. There were no scents on them. That means they were probably abandoned. Bramble placed her tail around them as a blanket and one of them made a purring sound. Then she tore off a bit of fish and placed it in front of them. The second one ate it up. Bramble gave the whole fish to them. They finished it in no time. Then, Rufus went to go get more food for them, while Bramble stayed to watch them. Once Rufus was back, he had caught a chipmunk. He placed it in front of the fox pups, and they gobbled it up. Then, Bramble came out. She had dug into the tree so the tunnel could be deeper. Then she gently picked up the fox pups and brought them into the deepest part of the den. It was getting dark, and snow was falling, so with the fox pups huddled around them for warmth, they went to sleep.