Why did he have to listen to his little sister's nagging voice? He should know better by now. Listening to her always got him into trouble. Ever since they were kids, she would talk him into saving animals and helping strangers. Many times, people would take advantage of her and through her himself as well. Sighing Patrick tried to think of an away out of this. Maybe if he thought through everything that happened, he could figure a way out.

It all started with his catching the golden fox. He was out hunting and checking on his traps, when he found the injured golden fox unconscious and caught in his snare trap. This wouldn't have been a problem except he had agreed to take his sister with him today and she immediately ran over to the fox and started to undo the snare. He just stared at her back with a sinking feeling in his chest. A fox with such a beautiful pelt would get a gold or more in town and they could really use the money. Their mother died when he was just eight years old and Jules was only four. Their father never really recovered and died two years ago fighting off an undead bear at the logging camp he worked at. Luckily Patrick was already sixteen and could earn enough to keep himself and his sister feed.

The way his sister was fussing over the fox he knew she wouldn't let him kill it. Rather than argue with her he knelt beside her as she turned to look at him with sad eyes. He avoided making eye contact and scooped the fox up. He then stood and started walking back to the house. He could see his sister practically skipping along beside him. When they make it back to the house, he took the fox to a spare room that was setup to care for injured animals. He set the animal on the raised table. When he looked it over and he saw the broken shaft of an arrow stick out between its right ribs. He was surprised the fox was alive as the arrow was very close to its heart.

Jules picked up some bandages and an herbal mix to stop bleeding and placed them besides him on the table. Patrick began to take deep even breaths before activating his skill. His hand slide into the fox’s chest with no more resistance than water. His fingertips traced the shaft of the arrow to the arrow head, which was a flat head. Carefully focusing on the arrow, he pulled on the nub of the shaft, while guiding the arrow head with his hand that remained deep in the fox. Sweat pored off his forehead when the tip of the arrow came free and he could remove his hand, which felt numb and tingled. He quickly placed the arrow in a basin only pausing a moment when he noticed the arrow head was pure silver. He picked up a pad to stop the bleeding and then placed his other hand in the fox to feel for any bone chips from its ribs or flakes of wood from the shaft. Finding none he covered the wound with healing herbs and wrapped a bandage around it.

He caught his sister looking at him with an expectant expression on her face and just shrugged. After cleaning up himself and the arrow he the arrow head in his inventory. Then he headed back out to hunt. They still needed food and daylight was wasting. His sister sat down in a chair next to the fox. As he left the house, he heard a soft melody in his mind. It must be his sister singing to the fox. She did that with the animals they rescued. His sister never talked since she was born, but she could send thoughts, images, and feelings into your mind. Unlike his skill Shadow Touch her skill appeared to be a passive skill that was on all the time. She still didn’t say much, but since she could project what she was feeling you really didn’t need words a whole lot.

After making the rounds through all his traps and resetting them all including the one that caught the fox, he crushed some stink weed along the back trail of the fox to a stream. There he wet the drying blood on the arrow and left a trail of drops heading south along the stream. The arrow was special and was inscribed with runes as well as being silver. He was tempted to melt it down, but instead put the clean arrow back in his inventory. All together he caught two rabbits and three fish in the traps, which should last them until tomorrow even with a new mouth to feed. While making his way back home he ran into two men checking out the game trail. My hand falls reflexively to my knife and one of the men smiles saying. “There is no need to draw your weapon we mean you no harm. As a hunter you maybe able to help us.” He flips me a coin, which flashes silver in light as I catch it.

“Maybe. What are you looking for?”

“There is an injured animal we are hunting for. A golden furred fox.”

“Hmmm, well I did see a spotty trail of blood along the stream that runs about 500 paces south west of here. The trail is faint and flows the stream south.”

“Great, thanks. If you happened to find it our Lord Sunridge is staying at the tavern in town and would offer a reward for its whereabouts.”

“Thanks, I could always use some more money.” Giving them a wave when they headed south. Good thing he spent the time laying a false trail south. He was worried about the men he encountered. For a lord to stay at the run-down tavern in the village shows he is very interested in acquiring the fox. He took extra caution to make sure he was not followed, which made him late getting back home. He reached his hand through the door using Shadow Hand to open the latch. Entering the house quietly, he knew his sister would be able to sense his presence and why he was being cautious. She sent him a feeling of calm and peace letting him know everything was ok.

Making his way to the kitchen he peaked into the spare room to check on his sister. She looked up briefly before turn back to watching the fox while singing it a song with her mental voice. Laying the rabbits on the cutting table he noticed his sister was busy while he was away. There were three full bowls of vegetables and fruits on the counter from the garden behind the house. A low fire was boiling a pot of water for the soup tonight. He spent some time cleaning and skinning the meat. He just added onion, carrots, potato, and some herbs to the boiling water. After the vegetables started to soften small cubes of rabbit were added with a hand size piece kept for our guest.

His sister set the table and they sat down for their meal. He told her about what he had seen in the forest. How he set a false trail for the fox and his encounter with the men. She had a worried frown on her face, but didn’t say anything. There wasn’t really anything different they could do. If the men came to the house, they would deal with it based on how they acted. They both worked on cleaning up after dinner, getting ready for bed before the sun went down. Magic lights were an expense they could not afford and the lamp, which burned oil was for emergencies.

His sister settled down in the room with the fox. He frowned at her, but she just grinned back at him, so he didn’t bother wasting his breath trying to get her to sleep in her own bed.