Lorelei still hadn't opened her eyes... Two days had passed since the fox dragged her back to the cave; in those two days, she hadn't shown the slightest hint of life, not even a flinch, yet the fox still hadn't desisted from warming her body; he wasn't going to give up, not so easily.
On the third night, the fox felt something move under him. It was a sudden movement, but he felt it. He got off the body and looked at it, nothing. He then thought that it was only his imagination and got back on. Once again, the body moved. This time, he knew it was real. He got off and pressed his muzzle against her delicate cheek; it was still warm. He felt as if the warmth had gotten even hotter than before. Once he lifted his muzzle up, he saw her face, her eyes staring right at him. They were barely opened, but he saw them, those delicate brown eyes staring.
He couldn't hold in his excitement any longer and licked her face as a sign of affection. The little girl smiled at him and playfully told him to stop, but he wouldn't. He was way too thrilled to see her again. As soon as the fox stopped licking her, Lorelei tried getting up, but the fox angrily pushed her back down and howled at her. Not understanding what the fox meant, she told him ''I'm HUnGrY'', the fox howled again and pushed her down when she persisted in getting up until she gave up. After making sure she wouldn't move, he brought her the food he had saved for her. The ration wasn't much, only enough to last a few weeks, but that didn't matter for now, he was excited that his lifesaver finally woke up.
He slowly brought to her the nuts and edible herbs he found; from a distance, he could hear Lorelei coughing; it was a sign that she truly was alive. He had to slowly feed her the herbs to avoid her choking, but it was hard for her to swallow, so he went out to bring water. The river was completely frozen; the thick layers of ice had formed over the surface of the water, freezing everything in its way. Getting water from there wasn't an easy challenge. He went around the river until he found a small crack in the ice. With his paws, he then began to repeatedly tap on the ice with the weight of his whole body pressing against the crack. It did not take long for the ice under him to shatter, revealing, under the flowing water, that had been dormant. The fox then realized that there would be no way to bring the water back to his master; there were no buckets or containers to get it to the cave, so he would drink from it and bring it to her.
He surprisingly was very smart for an animal; it's like he was able to sense and feel how Lorelei felt. The weeks went by, and Lorelei slowly got better under the fox's attentive care. At night, he would make sure she was covered and hot, and during the day, he would make sure she never felt lonely.
The food ration was slowly getting smaller and smaller as they both ate. He made sure to leave most of it to Lorelei, but he himself was hungry. He often went out to find food, but nothing in sight, not even the tiniest herb, was growing around, and the storm, everlasting, did not seem to be stopping any time soon.
He handed over the last bit of herbs left to Lorelei; he already knew what was going to happen in the following days: hunger. Two days went by without them eating. The fox was gradually growing tired, and so was Lorelei.
The fox went a few times to the river to drink water and came back to bring it to Lorelei, since she was too weak to even move, but water won't last them for much longer; something had to be done.
On that night, the growls of their stomachs could be heard; these growls reminded them of hunger, something must be done.
The fox walked up to the knife Lorelei made out of stone, dragging it to her. She shook her head in denial as she saw the animal's pleading eyes. She couldn't do such a thing; they both knew what had to be done.
Tears filled her eyes as the fox relentlessly tried to place the knife in her freezing hands. She pushed him away many times, as many as it took.
She was determined not to do it, yet hunger still had its last word.
She couldn't take it anymore; her stomach ached horribly. The fox sat next to her as he gently touched her lap, as if he was saying, 'Everything will be fine, do what you must do'.
She was already blinded by hunger as she picked up the knife and stabbed through the fox's leg. It was a morbid sight, the fox, howling in pain as Lorelei tried to cut through his leg. She cried and cried repeatedly.
''I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry'', over and over again.
His bone was getting tangled in and wouldn't come off, she had to rip his legs into tiny bits as she ate, something... must... be... done.
The animal was still alive, she had simple knowledge such as that, if he died, the meat would spoil in the span of a few days, she felt horrid doing so to the fox. Every bite she took made her gag, but she couldn't vomit; the hunger had already taken over, and all that was left in her was the desire to fulfill it.
The fox stayed there, still breathing. He was in agony, he stayed there as Lorelei cut pieces through his body, howling in agony at every stab. Something had to be done.
Days went by as such, the fox on the verge of his last breath, limbless, as Lorelei made him rest on her lap, she was humming, the same tune the man would sing, but she was still weeping, she was crying in horror of what she had just done to the fox, as she gently closed the fox's eye.
''Thank you..'', she said with her arms trembling in horror and her face filled with sorrow.
For the second time, she purposely took the life of one who was important to her. The storm abruptly came to a stop after storming for weeks; it finally ended.
The sun could be seen beaming with radiance, gracing the snow with its rays.
Lorelei slowly peered out of the cave, for the first time in weeks, her face bathed in sunshine.
She looked back in the cave as she took what was left of the fox and the rotting head of the man with her. She crawled back to the grave, the fox and her dug and started digging off the snow.
After a while, the soil they dug showed up, she slowly placed down both of their remains. After doing so, she went back to the tree she buried the man's gift in and took it out. With the gift in hand, she crawled back to the grave.
She gently took it out; it was still packaged there, sitting under the tree. The fall must've made her forget about it.
She observed it, she wanted to think that she did not deserve such a gift, and placed it back in the grave; she remembered the promise she made with the man.
She couldn't abandon his last wish, so she quickly took it back and held it close to her chest.
Lorelei held it with such strength that she felt like her freezing fingers became warm and opened the gift.
She saw gloves, not a pair of gloves, but a singular glove, destined to her. At the bottom, there was a letter, she didn't know how to read yet; only a few words, the man had taught her how to read.
When she opened it, she was distinctly able to read words such as capital, and at the bottom of the letter, she read Thank you.
The tears that had been swelling deep within her as she dug the grave all came out at once; it was a mix of joy, sadness, sorrow, and anger directed toward herself.
She then covered the grave with the snow and put a branch on top to mark where the grave was.
Lorelei held the glove and gently whispered...
''Thank you, mister, Thank you, fox, I'm sorry.''.
Arc 1: The unwanted, end