The Fox and the Girl

It began raining</b> not long after Dimitri had left his unfinished earth to go hunting, but long enough that it would be much easier to just seek shelter elsewhere. He soon found it in that form of a large metal shed that looked like it stored hay. Cautiously, the fox meandered over to it, but stopped just outside the open door to see if anyone was inside. Unfortunately, he could see hardly anything since the sun, which was already touching the horizon, was on the other side of the shed, and the rain dampened his sense of smell as well as his rusted-red coat. Deciding that there could hardly be anything dangerous in this weather, he skipped inside.
However, as soon as he sat down on some strewn hay he could already feel that there was someone else in the shed with him. Sitting perfectly still, as his eyes adjusted he could see a girl sitting in the corner. She looked harmless, so he came closer, but not so close that he’d frighten her when she saw him.
“Hullo,” he said cheerfully.
“Fuck off,” she replied, not even bothering to look up. Dimitri waited a moment longer until she did finally see him. Her red-rimmed eyes widened alarmingly, but no sound came out of her.
“That’s not very nice,” the fox said.
“Oh,” the girl murmured breathlessly. “Uh, sorry.”
“So, care to share your problems with me?” Dimitri asked her. She went from a look of utter surprise to one of dark suspicion in a very short amount of time.
“Why do you want to know?”
“Oh, just wondering. Don’t worry – I don’t hunt your kind. Though, it’s very hard to find food these days without going near you. Did someone try to kill you today?” he asked suddenly.
“What? No, nothing like that!”
“Oh.” Dimitri looked somewhat baffled. “Well, it’s okay. I’d be a bit shaken too if it had happened to me. So what happened?”
“It’s…just everything, really,” the girl mumbled uncomfortably. “I mean, at school, I’ve got, like, five different assignments to hand up, and Mr Johnson had a go at me just ‘cause I asked for an extension in Chemistry, and for some reason all my friends have decided to stop talking to me, especially Nell, but that’s okay, ‘cause she’s a complete retard—”
“School,” interrupted Dimitri, trying very hard to keep up. “That’s some kind of meeting place?”
“Well, yeah,” the girl replied, who was actually beginning to feel a little stupid. “We go there to learn, apparently.”
“Learn what?”
“Er…” she said hopelessly. “Everything?” she eventually suggested.
“That’s odd,” said Dimitri. “Of all the animals I know, they learn everything from their parents.”
“Well, you aren’t expected to know about co-ordinate geometry and the diatonic scales and all that crap.”
“That’s true, we don’t need to know about…that,” he said, afraid to try to pronounce all these new words. “But why do you?”
“‘Cause, then I’ll look like a complete idiot – I’m not calling you an idiot!” she said quickly. “It’s just…why am I even talking to you in the first place? You’re a fox!”
“You’re a human,” Dimitri pointed out amusedly.
“Yeah, well, humans who aren’t my mum don’t get shot when they go near my dad,” she retorted sardonically.
“Hmm,” he said worriedly. “I don’t suppose your dad is anywhere nearby, is he?”
“Lucky for you he isn’t.”
“Yeah.”
The girl stared at him, frowning slightly. “You’re really lucky, you know,” she said. “You don’t have to think about things like humans do. You don’t have to be clever, or smart. If someone pisses you off at school or wherever, you can’t just go and kill them. Well, I suppose you could, but—”
“So why don’t you?” Dimitri asked relentlessly. “If they are so bad to you.”
“But you’re not allowed to! You have to either put up with them, or go and complain to someone who probably won’t do anything about it anyway. In…your world, you don’t have to put up with people like that.”
“Hmm,” was all he replied.

Outside, it was still raining. Both of them stared through the open shed door at the darkening world outside.
“Damn,” said Dimitri. “Doesn’t look like I’ll be able to go hunting tonight. Even if there’s a mouse stupid enough to be outside in this weather, I won’t have a chance of finding one if I can’t smell or hear or see anything else but the rain.” The girl looked at him thoughtfully as he said this, then suddenly she stood up.
“Wait here,” she said shortly, before throwing a hooded jacket on and sprinting nimbly out into the rain.
“Can’t do much else, can I?” Dimitri called after her, confused. When she came back several minutes later, she was carrying a paper package. He could feel slight warmth coming from it when she sat it down right in front of him.
“Fish and chips,” the girl announced happily. “Don’t worry; Dad will be so drunk by the time he gets back from the pub he won’t notice. I don’t want any,” she added, when Dimitri looked at her bemusedly, and so he nosed open the package without hesitation and began eating.
“One could get used to this,” he mumbled after a few minutes, in which the rain had sufficiently died down. “You’re lucky, you know.” he added, and both of them promptly stopped still. Then they laughed.
“I suppose you’re right,” the girl said humbly.
“Of course I am,” the fox replied proudly, lapping up the last chip. “Well, I suppose I’d better be off…”
“Yeah.”
“See you.”
“Bye...”
Dimitri was just outside the doorway when the girl called him.
“Um…” she said nervously. “Where can I find you?” Dimitri looked at her, surprised. “It… it’d be nice to have a friend who…you know, doesn’t…”
“Doesn’t think you’re crazy for talking with a fox?” he suggested kindly. “Don’t worry,
I know.”