A twig snapped and broke the autumn air.
Fox brought her head from where it had been resting on her arms and scanned the treeline, eyes wide. She'd been nesting in the underbrush, warding the chilly air off her naked skin. The short gray fur which grew lightly over her body did little to ward off the wind. After detecting nothing from her search of the forest gates she laid her head back on her pillow of underbrush.
The forest had been empty of fae for some time. The human settlers from the south were to blame, of course; the bounds of the forest were pushed further back every year. All the others had moved north with their clans and packs. It was dangerous to be alone in the fae world. Families looked out for one another; if you didn't have one... Well, Fox preferred to be alone anyway. She couldn't quite remember what had happened to her den. She had been alone for a long time, and only held a few quiet memories of soft gray fur.
Fox sighed and shifted in her nest. The warm kiss of the sun and the cool summer breeze were too light for such heavy matters. For now, she was content to sleep. She closed her eyes and pushed her face into her arms.
Another twig snapped.
Fox's head whipped up and she moved swiftly into a crouch. Her eyes darted through the grass.
A shuffle behind her.
A net flung out from the tall golden grass and Fox howled furiously as it snared her legs. She had been caught. She released a strange and seething scream, but it was cut short as she fell heavily onto the cold dirt. Her chest heaved with fear and her eyes bulged desperately as a heavy laugh filled the clearing.
"Caught it son!" A brutish man draped in fur stepped forward, "get the rope ready!"
A young man with wide eyes stepped forward, and Fox thought she could see his hands shaking as he held out a bundle of coarse rope to his father.
Fox had finally gotten her hands beneath her when the man brought a quick leather boot down on Fox's head. Her vision darkened and a dull ringing filled her skull.
Ghosts of rock and dirt scraped under her, and she distantly realized she was being dragged along the ground. She lost all sense of space for a moment as she was lifted and thrown indelicately onto an unforgiving surface. The numbness holding her mind was almost a relief. She traced her fingers gingerly across the surface of whatever she lay on and thought that it felt like wood. That was the last thing that occurred to her before sleep took her mind.
The wind was cold against fox's chest, and it was that which finally woke her. The smell of cow and leather filled her nose and she coughed, fighting in vain to be rid of the stench. She was in a barn, an animal stall, with her arms tied roughly to a post above her head and seated on a bed of straw and mud. In her mouth was a tight cloth, which was already soaked with her saliva. It dripped down onto her leg and she shivered.
Despite her raging at it, the rope which restrained her would not release its grip, and she was left with no other option than to contemplate her plight. She was alone for a time, and simply trembled in the waning light.
It was with nightfall that the men appeared, flasks and pipes in hand. They leered at her from over the stall gate and the one who caught her smirked.
"I told you I caught the faerie girl Henry." He said smugly.
Henry shook his head in wonder. "And a fine catch indeed! She uh... come like that Jeremiah?" He asked sneakily, referring to her naked skin.
Fox felt her face heat. She had often spied on the humans in their towns, but in her own world she never wore dead furs and fabrics. She had arrived into the world alone and without covering and it had never occurred to her to be ashamed.
Jeremiah laughed gleefully.
