So much had happened after merely setting foot in the human realm, and Calhoun was beginning to suspect that the entire experience had been poorly designed.
He was tired.
Profoundly tired.
He was not one to express that he was, just so you can understand the length of how exhausted he truly felt.
His body remained stubbornly fragile, traitorously weak, as if it had not received the proper briefing of who, exactly, it belonged to. There was nothing to be done except conserve what little strength he had left, which he did with great reluctance.
It had not been easy.
The day turned into the night as he navigated the woods.
He had crossed a narrow, chattering stream that dared to splash at his paws. He had picked his way over roots thick as serpents, and stepped through patches of fern. He passed beneath birds that wouldn't stop announcing his presence to the woodland, and there had also been mud.
Lots and lots of mud.
Calhoun chose not to dwell on it.
He wasn't sure how long he could keep himself together like this. The thought crept in, unwelcome and unbecoming, that perhaps refusing to visit the shelter had been tactically unsound.
There would be many humans there.
Many.
A veritable buffet of potential servants.
But therein lies the problem.
What if he was chosen by someone dreadful?
Calhoun did not fear being unwanted. That was statistically improbable.
He feared falling into the wrong hands.
That was precisely why he would choose the human personally. That was the only acceptable arrangement in his book. Even if he had to dramatically collapse in front of the correct one to ensure it.
As he continued to trudge forward, daylight crept in, and his keen sense of smell suddenly caught something unfamiliar in the air.
He stilled.
Someone was coming.
Instinct urged him to stay out of sight after everything he's been through, so he slid behind the trunk of a broad tree, just in time to see a figure emerge from between the trees.
The human was a young woman.
And she was limping.
Calhoun watched as she made her way through the forest with slow, uneven steps, one hand occasionally bracing against tree trunks as though the act of remaining upright required a negotiation. A white bandage was wrapped around her knee, slightly stained, and she wore nothing but a long shirt that hung loosely over her frame as if she had left wherever she came from in a hurry.
She looked exhausted.
Tragically so.
Her hair was disheveled, and her clothes looked wrinkled. She appeared one unfortunate step away from collapsing into the nearest patch of moss.
And yet—
Calhoun paused in his tracks.
For the first time since arriving in the human realm, he encountered a human he found… quite appealing to look at.
Her eyes were large and strikingly blue, even beneath the weariness that shadowed them. There was something soft about her face, something quietly lovely despite the obvious fatigue and the limp that slowed her steps.
A very unfortunate state of affairs.
A beautiful human should not be wandering around a forest half-dressed and injured like a misplaced woodland spirit. She had not noticed him at all, and that left Calhoun feeling impressed, as well as mildly insulted.
What could he possibly do to gain her attention? More importantly, what were the chances that she would willingly accept a stray fox?
Calhoun found the matter deeply problematic. Humans were unpredictable creatures. What if she decides to turn him into food?
He studied her for a moment longer, contemplating the situation with grave seriousness. Perhaps he should choose someone else?
Distracted by both the sight of the appealing human and his own careful deliberations, Calhoun failed to notice the thin wire loop hidden beneath the scattered leaves and loose soil behind him. As he shifted his weight and took a retreating step back—
Snap!
The ground suddenly jerked beneath him.
Something snapped mercilessly around his hind leg.
A sharp cry escaped him before he could stop it, the sound ripping from his throat as pain shot through him like lightning. His body lurched forward instinctively, his claws scraping against the forest floor as he twisted his head around.
The wire had yanked violently upward, hoisting his leg and throwing him off balance. His ears flattened as pain flared through his limbs. The thin wire had tightened around his leg, the cruel loop attached to a bent sapling that now stood upright, trembling from the sudden release of tension.
Calhoun bared his fangs.
It was one of those barbaric devices! Humans and their ridiculous traps. Were they determined to scatter these stupid things across every inch of the forest? Why was this even happening to him?
He tried to move, but the wire only twisted painfully into his fur, making him freeze instantly.
Calhoun glared at the abomination of a trap with sheer spite as if that might convince it to release him.
What, exactly, was he supposed to do now?
He tugged once more, more carefully this time, but the trap only tightened further, drawing a quiet hiss of pain and irritation from him. He really needed to stop moving.
…Right.
He slowly stilled.
There was, regrettably, only one obvious solution.
Calhoun's expression darkened as the realization settled over him like an insult.
He would have to seek the help of the human. The very same one he had only just begun evaluating. His ears twitched as he listened for movement through the trees.
Hadn't she heard his first, rather undignified cry?
Surely she had.
And surely, she was not so heartless to leave a poor, injured fox suffering alone in the forest. Not when he could very easily sway her with his adorable charm.
…In theory.
Just for confirmation, he simply swallowed what little dignity he had left and let out a pitiful whine, loud and drawn enough to be heard from across the perimeter. He paused, then repeated it again, the sound echoing faintly through the trees before fading into silence.
Calhoun's ears lowered slightly.
Had his cries only succeeded in driving the human away?
But then, her scent grew stronger.
Calhoun immediately looked up when someone shuffled through the bushes, and moments later, the human stepped into view. He soon found himself staring directly into those mesmerizing blue eyes. And those same eyes were staring right back at him.
Wait… what was this feeling?
Calhoun snarled in a low tone when she took a cautious step closer, baring his fangs at her in warning. But her attention was on the trap instead,to the wire twisted around his hind leg.
"Oh… you poor thing," she murmured softly, and the sound of her voice made his mind instantly short-circuit.
Calhoun blinked, caught off guard by his own reaction.
What… was that?
His ears twitched in protest.
He didn't like that one bit. Or perhaps he did.
Her voice had reached him only for a moment, and for reasons he couldn't quite explain, the sound had settled strangely pleasantly in his ears.
When she stepped closer, carefully crouching despite the obvious strain it placed on her injured knee, he found himself staring.
Up close, she looked even more mesmerizing.
Her large blue eyes were clearer now, framed by lashes that cast faint shadows against her tired skin. A few loose strands of hair clung stubbornly to her face, slightly messy from the long walk, and the oversized shirt she wore hung awkwardly around her shoulders. He could perceive a scent that was not hers from the shirt, and that did not sit right with him.
By all reasonable standards, she should have looked disheveled. Exhausted. Entirely unpresentable.
Yet…
Calhoun found every small detail about her oddly agreeable. The softness of her voice, the careful way she lowered herself, and the genuine concern in her expression as she studied the wire in the trap.
None of it should have been particularly impressive. But he found himself watching her with unusual interest. He momentarily forgot about the pain he was in.
What was this woman?
"You must have been stuck like this for days, haven't you?"she had whispered, and for reasons he couldn't entirely explain, he decided to play along.
A small, pitiful whimper escaped him, his ears flattened as he stared at her with those wide golden eyes. They shimmered with helpless innocence, and every sound, every movement, was designed to appear utterly harmless, helpless, and completely deserving of her rescue.
That was her undoing.
Her lips parted, and she let out a soft gasp before quickly reaching into something he had just noticed she was carrying.
Things were about to get a lot more interesting than he expected. He might have just found himself his new companion, and naturally, she hadn't even noticed the part of him that was already calculating how to make her completely devoted to him.