1
	Gus partially woke up with the all too familiar need to take a leak.  He tried to roll over, stupid bladder can wait. He caught a whiff of something in the air, something was burning, he was jolted awake, that could not be ignored.  It sure was dark in the room and he did not recognize where he was at.  He tried to get up but couldn't quite do so.  All he could manage was a crawl.  Something was not quite right with his body.  He was wearing strange grey pajamas and he wasn't totally with it yet.  Everything seemed so huge in the room.  A small popping sound got him moving, he was running as best as he could on all fours.  He got to a doorway and looked through, seeing a long hallway both ways.  He wasn't sure which way to go.  
	He saw a strange blue light down one of the paths.  He tried to focus his eyes to figure out what he was looking at.  It was a ghost or something, he never saw anything in his life that looked like that.  He had a forceful urge to move toward the ghostly thing despite it being a bit frightening.  He followed the ghost down the hallway, he could deduce it was a dog like thing.  He heard and felt a decently loud explosion, he was moving with a bit more urgency now.  The ghost was moving along faster and he was following it as best he could.  He got to a stairwell and he could smell the smoke much more strongly, time was getting short, the carbon monoxide would gas him out if he couldn't get out soon.  He ran down the stars sliding around on each one a bit.  He got to what he hoped was the bottom floor.  He nosed a door open, he could barely see anything but could still see the ghost. He could now feel the intense heat and could have sworn he smelled gasoline.  He just kept running seeing possible flames on the way and avoiding them as best he could. 
	 He finally got to the entrance of the building.  The door was immense, and unfortunately closed.  Oh fuck, he was trapped.  He desperately looked around the door trying to find another way out.  The area to the sides of the door were made of glass.  Outside it was very dark and raining hard.  He smashed himself into the glass in an attempt to break it.  He heard a click sound around his neck and the glass cracked.  He made another desperate body slam into the cracked glass and it finally broke, he fell partially through the glass.  The glass sliced his belly but he barely noticed.  He squirmed his way through.  
	He was finally on the outside.  He could barely catch his breath before he heard another explosion, this one he felt the vibration.  He began to run away from the burning building as fast as could go.  He ran for a couple minutes until he could barely see the fire now.  The rain was miserable and he was leaking a little blood.  
	He paused to catch his breath, he was panting hard, he saw something out of the corner of his eye coming toward him quickly. Enough rest he thought, he made a run toward a tree and without conscious thought ran up the tree.  It did little good as the creature easily followed him up the tree.  What the hell am I doing, he thought and lost his balance falling down.  He hit the ground with a slight thud.  He saw the creature launch from the tree, he could barely move as the creature landed on him.  It didn't seem any bigger than him but it was vicious and fast.  He tried fighting it off but he had been weakened from the carbon monoxide inhalation.  The creature had it's mouth on his neck and seemed ready to rip out his throat.  
	"Interesting", the creature said, "maybe I won't kill you .... just yet, this could be entertaining". 
	In a flash the creature was gone.  Gus was never able to make out what it was.  He stood there in the rain for a minute gasping for air and wondering what just happened.  
	Despite his exhaustion he had to find a quick place to get out the awful rain.  He moved along a bit slowly looking behind him every now and then for that thing. He could see better than he would have expected despite the darkness and rain.  He saw an old bus in overgrown field and thought maybe he could squeeze under it. He easily popped under the bus then rolled over and promptly passed out.

 
                                                                                           2
	Gus woke up under the bus.  He was feeling a bit better though still had some crap in his throat.  The bladder was actually not quite as annoying as he would have expected, he must have pissed himself during his escape from the fire or subsequent animal encounter.  He looked at his injured belly.  His belly was covered in white hair, and he could see the crusted up blood.  He wondered what the hell he was.  He knew he was a small critter of some sort.  He could see a large black and gray fluffy tail.  Luxurious he thought.  He looked at the rest of himself, he was mostly covered in gray and maybe brown hair.  He couldn't quite make out some colors very well.  He could feel something on his neck.  It was a collar of some sort, though it did not seem to be a shock collar as it lacked probes.  He couldn't really take it off as he really didn't have usable thumbs.  He wondered if he was some sort of dog. He had to find a mirror or something to see his face.  	He carefully left the safety of the underside of the bus.  He took the opportunity to finally empty the bladder.  It felt wonderful to finally be empty.  He had to admit the fur was pretty nice and comfy, though he felt quite awkward too because it was like fluffy pajamas but your balls are always hanging out.  He looked at his little hands/ paws? No opposable thumbs of course, that kind of sucked.  He had somehow managed to climb the tree using his little claws.  He walked to the front of the bus and looked at the bumper, it was chrome though hazy with dirt and rust.  He found a less bad area and rubbed a paw on it to clean it off.  He looked at his reflection carefully.  He was astounded at what he saw.  Giant eyes, pointy nose and snout.  Fairly large triangular ears with rounded tips.  He opened his mouth, lots and lots of sharp teeth and of course the usual four fangs along with a long pink tongue.  He wasn't a dog after all but a fox, perhaps a gray fox. 
	He never really thought about gray foxes,  everybody always seemed to love the red version.  He never realized how cute a gray fox was.  
	He stood there thinking about what the hell was going on, this was getting a bit ridiculous.  He wondered about that ghost and what was that animal was that attacked him, perhaps another fox, but why, and it could talk too.  He would remember later that the creature didn't seem to have any scent.  
	In any event he had to decide what to do next.  This area didn't look at all familiar and in fact he was a bit disturbed that he couldn't remember much about his life other than his name.  He seemed to keep all his general knowledge but couldn't remember squat about things that pertained to his life.  He walked around inspecting everything around him and noticed much more detail in things than usual, lots more smells all around, some quite pleasant and some not so much.  Some smells were interesting though he wasn't sure the possible significance of them.  He realized he was covered in smells, smoke, pee, oil, blood and maybe fox smell.  
	He would have to eat something at some point even though he wasn't hungry at the moment.  Dead animals didn't seem all that appetizing though.  He knew foxes could basically eat anything subject to the same restrictions as dogs.  No more chocolate bunnies for him anymore though.  
	He decided to explore a little, maybe see if he had any other superpowers other than being cute, as that didn't exactly pay the bills. He decided to attempt another tree climb.  He looked for a suitable beginner tree.  He found a nice basic tree and looked up to the top.  He felt a bit intimidated, he wasn't exactly thinking during his last tree climb.  He noticed himself sniffing the tree, though he was clueless what any of the smells meant.  He grabbed onto the tree, his little claws digging into the bark, he slowly climbed a few feet up the tree.  It was kind of fun and a bit scary, he wasn't going to press his luck too much and carefully backed down the tree.  At least he could climb if need be.  He decided to try to slow down time a bit and see how fast he could run.  He found a nice pathway and went for it,  he was amazed at how fast he was able to run though he realized he wouldn't be able to keep it up for long.  He tried to make a quick turn and felt a sharp pain in his stomach.  Shouldn't have done that he thought as he came to a stop. He stood there panting for a few seconds to catch his breath.  	He looked at his injury, it was bleeding a tiny amount.  The cut had been awfully close to certain sensitive areas and he was glad not to be hurt there.  He poked the area with a little paw and his little red tip poked out.  Ok enough of the perv shit he thought.  He would actually forget that he was actually naked sometimes, the fur did a darn good job of reducing the draftiness.  He was reminded of those dreams he used to get when he was naked and nobody else ever noticed.  At least if anyone saw him now they wouldn't think anything of it, just another random woodland critter.  
	He wasn't sure what else to do other than wander around.  He had decided to keep using the bus as a home area for the time being so he wasn't going to wander too far away from that.   After a couple hours he decided to go back to the safety of the bus.  


                                                                                            3

	He woke up under the old bus which had become his crappy home for the last few days.  The collar was a bit itchy and he mindlessly scratched it with a foot.  "Oh fuck, I am getting worse" he thought.
	He thought he heard something outside, he was a bit frightened, in his present form a large housecat could probably wax him.  It was nighttime as per usual, he couldn't sleep at night anymore. It sure seemed like he was being watched, but he couldn't let paranoia prevent him from doing what needed to be done.  The cat food just tasted kind of crappy and he wanted something better.  Even more of issue for him was his mental wellbeing, he thought a couple times he might lose it.  The world seemed so huge and he was so tiny and alone.  He carefully nosed out from under the bus and carefully padded his way to the old shed. 
	He stuck his nose in between the door and doorjamb and it actually opened. Inside there was the usual shed junk, old lawn equipment, an old snow blower and lawnmower.  He couldn't quite make out the brands or colors.  Even in the best of light he could no longer see red.  Nothing edible in here he thought as he turned around to waddle out.  Something caught his eye, an old hand held mirror, he peered into the mirror positioning it in such a way that he could inspect his unusual collar carefully.  There was 5 green led lights all lit up on some sort of electronic box. The collar also smelled vaguely of chemicals, perhaps flea killer.  He was in no hurry to remove it because it could possibly be useful, not that he could easily remove it anyway without thumbs. 
	He walked outside again and saw something move in the corner of his eye. He found an old frisbee on the ground filled with rain water and he stuck his tongue into the water.  It tasted great, he just hoped he didn't get the shits from drinking questionable water.  He looked up again and saw some creature not too far away.  He then saw it was a fox of some type.  Perhaps it was the same kind as he was. The fox seemed to have a slight limp.
	He slowly walked toward the unknown fox trying not to scare it away but truth be told he was scared himself.  This fox looked a lot bigger than he would have expected.  When you only weigh like 10 pounds everything seems huge. The fox came up to him and he tensed up, ready to test out those afterburners if necessary.  It didn't show any sign of aggression and it stuck its nose in his butt.  "Oh yeah that's what they do" he thought a bit uncomfortably.  His heart seemed to skip a beat, he got a sniff of the fox.  It wasn't unpleasant, in fact he would describe it as cute though that didn't really make any sense either.  
	"You are a bit odd" the fox said.  
	"Whoa I can understand you?" Gus said 
	"Why wouldn't you be able to?" the fox said quizzically. 
	"Um Long story er um what is your name, uh if you have one?" he stammered.  
	"My name is Nutmeg, what is wrong with you, you seem scared shitless?" Nutmeg asked looking concerned.
	"My name is Gus" he said "just scared of um wild animals and rabies and uh everything around here", he trailed off.  
	"Your name is Gus?", Nutmeg said "sounds kind of human-ish".  "You can't live your life in fear, you're not a bunny".  "As for wild animals, none around here, haven't seen any humans in several days".  "I've been looking for a good dog lately".
	"Why would you want a?"  It dawned on him what this Nutmeg was looking for, "Oh this could get awkward" he thought looking at "her" he guessed, never really checked the downstairs, it seemed rude.  He tried to look at her closer,  she had huge eyes,  really quite cute, the same gray, brown?, and white fluff he had.  She looked perfectly snuggle able, just not in that way. 
	"You smell funny, unnatural", Nutmeg said sniffing the collar, "I could probably nibble that off".  
	"Hold off on that for awhile, I think it does something though I'll be damned if I know what, maybe kills fleas?"  Gus said. 
	"Kills fleas, that would be great",  she said, "Hate those little fuckers". "If that is what it does I want one too".
	"I don't know where it even came from",  Gus said while getting up.  "What happened to your paw"? 
	"I injured it several days ago and it seems to be taking a long time to heal" Nutmeg said seemingly unconcerned.  
	Gus was a bit concerned though, an injury like that could become infected.  There was nothing he could really do about it though. 
	"What happened to your belly?" Nutmeg asked, "that looks kinda painful". 
	Gus felt a bit embarrassed, his injury was about an inch away from his sheath.  He had to remind himself that foxes don't think like that.  "I got cut on a piece of glass while escaping from a burning building, it's actually healing faster than I expected".  
	That morning, his new night, he went back under the bus again to snooze, that he could do well.  He wasn't really sure what foxes really did for fun, he curled up and Nutmeg plopped down beside him.  She started chewing on his head.  He thought it was pretty sweet she was grooming him. He would nibble her head later though the thought of loose hairs in his mouth was a little off putting. She started nosing his injury, he was unsure if he should let her continue, she was licking the bloody area.  It was soothing and helped the pain, though in all honesty it didn't really hurt that much unless he twisted himself.       
	He wondered what he was doing with this situation, was he getting in too deep, was he doing the right things, he realized in some ways he didn't have a whole lot of options.  Eventually she would want something else and that would be awkward.  He wondered when that time would come.  It had been Halloween several days ago though he was losing track of the time now, that could be for the best as his lifetime had now been reduced quite severely.  He tried to get those thoughts out of his head. He poked his nose into Nutmeg and took a deep breath through his nose.  He felt a lot better now.  


                                                                                          4
	Several hours later Gus woke up and looked at Nutmeg, curled up in a fluffy ball.  He wondered what she thought about him, and just her thought process in general.  Did she realize how clueless he was.  He did still have some human knowledge and that could definitely be useful, but with almost zero fox knowledge, that was a big issue.   
	He got up and left the bus area unsure of what his next move should be.  He had tried to get up without disturbing Nutmeg but she had far too good of hearing with those huge ears.  She followed him outside.  He took a pee somewhat uncomfortably, not used to an audience for that, he wasn't exactly into water sports, not that there was anything wrong with that of course.  She came over and took a sniff of his pee spot, than followed suit and peed over it.  Oh yeah they do that too, he thought.  
	Gus walked over to the grass to think.  Nutmeg ran over to him and pushed him over albeit gently, her tail was wagging.  It took Gus a moment to realize she wanted to play, he figured what the hell, got nothing better to do.  He wrestled around with her for awhile and realized she was pretty darn strong, a couple of times she had her wide open mouth and teeth on his neck.  She was however very careful not to actually injure him and was extra careful of his hurt belly.  It actually felt a bit exhilarating, the smells of the grass and other plants they were rolling around in seemed wonderful. He wasn't used to giving a crap about such simple things.  He found himself drooling and panting after a few minutes and flopped down.   Nutmeg curled up next to him.  
	Gus looked at her furry little head.  Damn the cuteness was astounding, he thought.  He started to nibble her ears, he wasn't really sure what he was doing but she seemed to enjoy it.  "So how is the foot feeling?" Gus asked while chewing on her shoulder blades.  
	"Finally starting to feel a bit better,  shouldn't have to gnaw it off" she said jokingly.  
	Gus didn't find that all that funny.  He got a loose chunk of fur in his mouth and tried to spit it out, yum he thought.  "You know I don't know what I am doing" he said "I don't know how to be a fox".  
	Nutmeg felt puzzled.  She looked at him, yup he is a fox, that didn't really make any sense and yet something was different about him.  He seems so unsure about himself.  "So what do you know how to be?".  
	"I used to be um... something else..."  He was unsure if he should spill the beans.  He didn't want to say it out loud like that would make it worse.  He whispered it into her ear.  	"Wait what?" she said "That doesn't really make any sense, you are here, you look just like me,  how would that even happen?"  She didn't actually believe him but didn't want to press it any further.  He seemed genuinely upset and she felt bad for him, unsure of what trauma could have caused his issues.  He was so sweet and loving and she wanted him for a possible mate but how could she help him? she pondered.  "I don't know what happened in your life, I don't know what to say about what you told me, but maybe it doesn't really matter".  She paused while chewing his armpit trying to relax him.  "I guess all we can do is make the best of our life now, enjoy just being foxes, and all the other fox stuff".  She started chewing on his chest fluff,  that always worked on her when she was just a pup.  She could tell he wasn't so tense anymore and he flopped over and closed his eyes.      
 	Getting life advice from a woodland creature, he thought humorously.  He had to admit he would take any advice he could get and no better source than an actual fox.  He wasn't sure what fox stuff meant.  "Should I even  mention the fox thing that attacked me?" 
	Nutmeg looked up, "huh?"
	"Something attacked me right after I escaped the burning building, I was disoriented and out of breath, it had me by the throat and could have finished me there but he let me live after taunting me."  "It looked kind of like a fox or something but I couldn't really tell, it moved really fast, I could've sworn it had no scent".   
	Nutmeg seemed a little shook up.  "I have heard stories about such a fox though I always just assumed it was just a forest legend to scare us little pups".  "That is a little concerning to me, not having any scent is like not having a nose print."  "I don't know what else to say but both of us together could probably take him out if needed".
	Gus wasn't so sure but he did admire her confidence.  "At least I don't think he had a hook for a paw" he joked while nibbling some eye goop off of Nutmeg. It was gross but he couldn't leave it there, had to keep those eyes huge and cute.  He sniffed her fluff, her cute scent, it inexplicably always seemed to make him feel happy.  


                                                                                         5
	"I think I might take a little trip back to the building that I escaped from, I want to see if I can figure out what happened to me",  Gus said.  
	Nutmeg wasn't sure what to think, if you almost died there why would you go back?  She was a bit worried about him though in this situation he seemed to know what he was doing.  She followed him along.  
	Gus carefully retraced where he had come from and found the tree he had climbed during his attack,  he looked up the tree.  "This is the tree I had climbed in my attempt to escape that animal, it had no trouble climbing up after me and then I of course fell, well you heard the story", he said. 
	Nutmeg walked up to the tree and sniffed it.  She started to climb the tree, she obviously had no fear of climbing.  Every foot or so she would sniff the tree.  Gus wasn't sure what she was doing, though perhaps being a little furry detective.  She climbed back down the tree with ease.  
	"Well?" Gus asked. 
	"The scent is pretty weak, but I only smell you up there, I really am dumbfounded", Nutmeg said.
	"I need to get back to that building, I want answers or something", Gus said.
	Nutmeg wasn't sure where this was going but she followed Gus along.  They got to the building.  The front door had a large broken section and she wondered how he managed to break through that.  A sharp part of the glass had dried blood on it.  She sniffed the blood.  She could also smell his scent and soot.  Lots of burnt smell and unnatural burnt smell was concerning to her.  "I don't really want to go in there and I am not sure you should either" Nutmeg said.  
	Gus looked at Nutmeg, he could tell she was definitely nervous about him going in there, such a sweetheart.  "I will make it quick", he said while he carefully squeezed through the broken glass avoiding the sharp parts.  He walked down the hall, most everything was charred and burned quite well and he was starting to wonder what he could possibly find in here.  He got to the staircase and looked at them, unsure of their structural integrity though they should be able to hold a measly 10 pounds.  He climbed up the stairs noticing the soot collecting on his feet.  He got to the top of the staircase and was not sure where to go.  He couldn't remember what room he had come from.  He could smell something different up here, it reeked of death and rot in addition to the burnt smell.  Despite his better judgment he decided to investigate further.  He went into one of the rooms and stumbled over the charred remains of something.  He wasn't sure he wanted to know what it was.  He looked at it closer and saw it was indeed a fox.  His heart skipped a beat and he gasped, the fox had a plastic tube down its throat,  he wondered what for,  was some sort of experiment done on this poor fox.  He wasn't even sure if this fox was the same kind as him, it was pretty messed up.  He looked around a little more and found two more foxes, they looked pretty bad too,  he could see their teeth through their curled up lips though they weren't exactly smiling.  He wondered if he was an experiment too that somehow survived.  He looked at what appeared to be a small chest freezer, though he didn't dare to nose the lid open on that thing, he didn't want to know.  
	He was sure of two things,  he was getting the fuck out of here,  and wasn't going to be sleeping very well for a while.  
	Nutmeg was waiting outside the front door as Gus got back and squeezed through the glass again.  She could tell he was upset.  "What was in there?, she asked not sure if she really wanted to know.  
	"It's bad", he said wondering if he should elaborate, he figured she could handle it, wild foxes handle terrible shit all the time.  "Dead foxes, not sure why or how, I found three, sure there is more, probably lots more", he said.  "I think I may be one of them that somehow lived, though I don't really know how or why." "I think I need to find a stream or something to clean myself in, I feel gross and reek of death."  
	Nutmeg could smell the rotting smell on Gus, it was a bit alarming.  
	They both wandered to nearest stream and Gus immediately went into it up to his eyeballs in the water.  
Gus came out of the water after he figured he got rid of as much of the stench as he could.  It was times like this he wished he had some good shampoo.  He gave himself a good shake until he wasn't as drenched.  He would smell like a wet fox now but oh well.  He made his way back to the bus and Nutmeg followed him.  He would stay out in the open air until he was dry. Gus plopped down next to the bus and Nutmeg snuggled next to him.  
	Nutmeg could tell Gus was very tense again, though obviously very intelligent, he always seemed to want to dig into things that were upsetting, she didn't really understand why he did that.  She nibbled on his ears and he finally began to relax a little.