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Dear Jon,
I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit in awhile. I've just been...preoccupied of late. You see, after your last visit, I came home to find my cousin Markl cowering in the corner of my den all bloodied up. Calmly, I began bandaging his wounds, scolding him for not taking care of himself. Then I demanded to know what happen.
Jon, the thing you need to know about me is that I come from a very civilized family of foxes who are very proud of their civilized ways. Needless to say, they weren't all too thrilled about my choice to live in the wilds. As a result, I hadn't spoken to them since I left, and finding my cousin here out of the blue was quite unexpected. Finding him half dead was quite another. Civilized foxes do NOT get in fights.
He told me that he wasn't sure what had happened. He had been back home going about his business as usual when the village was suddenly attacked. He couldn't even tell me what had attacked. He claimed he didn't see who the attackers were. I mockingly asked him how he could have acquired so many injuries without seeing who attacked him. He didn't respond. Typical Markl, running away at the first sign of trouble. Completely useless. He probably didn't even come here on purpose. Ha! It wouldn't surprise me if he came into my house completely unaware it was my house. I wondered if he realized he wasn't in Acarta any more. The wounds he had were just a symbol of his cowardice as he blindly raced through every thorny bush in the forest.
But I was still worried. Even if my family had all but disowned me, I still cared about them. And they were a family of civilized foxes. If they were attacked, would they really put their claws to good use? Did they even know how? Well, one thing was for certain. I couldn't just sit around doing nothing. So I left my useless cousin to wallow in self pity and raced to the lone tree stump on my island. At its base was a small hole, hardly big enough to fit a fox. Only it wasn't a hole. It was my secret entrance to Acarta. As quick as I dared, I belly crawled my way through the hole and found myself in the familiar forests of my homeland. From there, I ran as fast I could to the village.
Only there was no village left. Only burning skeletons of buildings remained now. A soft breeze swirled clouds of ash around me. It was very depressing to see the place I grew up in in such as sad state. I was a little relieved to not see bodies littering the streets, but it didn't relieve much of my worry for I had no idea where my family was. I slowly padded down the street, hoping to see something, smell something, hear something. And then I did. It was a faint cry in the wind. A kit's cry for help. And it was a cry I recognized. As quick as my paws could take me, I raced towards the sound.
What I discovered was a giant scorpion attacking my niece. Anger welled up inside of me. How could that beast attack such an innocent kit. She couldn't even defend herself. Without thinking I charged the thing, body slamming it hard in the side. It went flying across the street, slamming into the remains of one of the buildings. However, it emerged seemingly uninjured and very annoyed. Then, it was its turn to charge me. It swung at me with its claws but I easily dodged those. Then came its tail. It may have been fast, but I was faster. I leaped to the side and used its now unbalanced state to jump on to its back. My sharp claws made quick work of its shell and, after only a few swipes, I pierced through. But, instead of my claws meeting its meaty insides, they met with nothing but air. The scorpion gave out a very chilling cry and tried to shake me off, but I dug my claws deep into its shell. Suddenly, it collapsed, convulsing a few times before it went still. Sure that it was dead, I slowly relaxed my claws and found myself on the ground. I watched as the last traces of the hollow scorpion disappeared into a puff of smoke. Thinking back, I did find it weird that my body slam had sent it so far. It's hollow state seemed to be the only explanation.
With the scorpion gone, I turned my attention to my poor traumatized niece. I slowly nuzzled the top of her head as I told her in a soft voice it was going to be ok, it was going to be alright. The scary monster was gone now. Eventually her crying died down to a small whimper. Between sniffles, she asked me where her mama was. I told her I didn't know where her mama was. "How about we go find her hmmm?" Sniffle, sniffle. "Ok," she responding in a small voice. I had no idea which direction to head in, but I didn't want to stay in the village any longer. I had no idea if there were any more of those strange scorpions lurking about. So I pick my niece up by the scruff of her neck and headed to the northern exit of the village.