Sleepy Fox Hollow love made the danger in you to look like safety

On the other hand, Tael absolutely loved foxes! He'd spent many hours observing the resident family near the Ridge—watched them rear their children from kits to capable adults while learning much about their behavior and how, really, they're not at all unlike wolves in their unwavering devotion to hearth and home. Their hunting techniques, specifically the pouncing and how to listen for voles underground, was once of special use to the younger male. Because he'd been born right on the cusp of winter, he had to learn how to hunt when the weather was not on his side.

But today he was not looking for food. Instead he was elbow-deep in a hollowed out log, investigating a scent of particular interest. It was musky, but it didn't belong to fox nor wolf. Something in the darkness made an angry chittering noise, but it only piqued his intrigue further. Who lived in here? No animal he was familiar with, that was for sure, and he wanted to see it for himself! He braced his hind paws against the moss, and pushed his front half in as far as it would go.

And that was when something small, furry, and very angry launched itself at his face and sank it's tiny teeth into his nose. Tael shrieked with alarm—"WO-AAA!" and backpedaled swiftly, yanking both him and the creature, out from the log in one fell-swoop. His momentum carried him back onto his hind legs where he teetered for a moment before toppling backwards, flinging the pine marten into a nearby bush where it quickly scurried up a tree and continued to curse at the pale wolf.