Vixen's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

Vixen woke before dawn and understood her mistake. Her burrow had one door and no back way out. She had spent the night guarding a hole that trapped her inside it. The poacher would return blind but armed. When he came with rope, she would have nowhere to run. She stood in the mouth of her den and studied the dirt walls. The earthen dome curved snug above her, warm and safe, but safe was the problem. One entrance meant one exit. If a hand blocked it, she was caught. Digging a second tunnel would take days. She had hours. So Vixen tried a different plan. She would not hide inside the burrow. She would make the poacher afraid to reach into it. She climbed the tree strung with glowing glass rectangles. She pressed her nose to one until it woke. She searched: how far does a smell travel underground? The answer told her that scent pooled and thickened in small closed spaces. A stink trapped in a burrow grew stronger, not weaker. Vixen dropped down and dug through her den. She pulled out the striped socks, stiff and reeking, their cuffs sagging and their fabric crusted with two weeks of grime. She had one pair left. She had to spend it well. She did not stuff them in bait this time. She jammed one sock deep into the burrow's throat, wedged against the wall where a reaching hand would land. She wrapped the second around a root just inside the door, at nose height for a kneeling man. Then she packed loose dirt over both, sealing the smell inside the tight space until it built. She backed out and hid in the brush across the trail. Her belly ached. She bit her paw and waited. The poacher came at first light. His eyes were red and streaming. He carried coiled rope and a steel bar. He walked slow, hunting by hand now, feeling the ground. He reached her door and knelt. He shoved his arm into the dark opening, groping for fur. His hand hit the buried sock. The trapped stink burst up into his face at close range, thick and wet and foul. He jerked back and cracked his head on the door frame. He gagged, then heaved, and vomited into the dirt. The rope slid off his shoulder. Vixen took the chance to bind him and force the socks over his nose.