The Heartwood But now it's like the night is taking sides

The fox seemes to sense that it wasn't being chased by a wolf who had just happened to find it- but one who had been planning to capture it for days. He knew where its den was, and no matter how many times it tried to zig-zag its way into that direction, Bronco would correct it until eventually, it gave up and began to frantically find some other way to lose the wolf. Unfortunately for the fox, it was right in Bronco's line of vision- and so it couldn't execute its normal range of tricks to throw him off. 

Desperately, and out of breath, the fox finally made a last minute decision and, in finding the bough of a tree that was low enough, it bounded up, barely managing to cling to the one branch, and began to pull its way up the tree's trunk and far enough out onto one limb so that Bronco could not reach it. Still- a fox in a tree (unusual as it might've been) was a fox cornered. And given how poorly it balanced, hunkering its weight down onto the branch so that it didn't slide off one side or another, it wouldn't be too much of a deal to get it down. 

By the time Meerkat appeared in his peripheral vision, Bronco had tried ramming himself against the tree, only to find that his ribs were still unable to withstand that sort of abuse. He didn't want to headbutt the tree either, and the trunk was too thick for him to simply shove and shake with his paws. So his next trick was a rather awkward one, but ingenius nonetheless. He'd found a long branch on the ground and had picked it up. Now, he did his best to angle the obnoxiously long branch in an attempt to use one end of it to swat at the fox and knock it out of the tree. The fox shifted nervously; the branch swayed closer and closer to where it perched, but he wasn't able to maneuver it well enough on his own. "MURK!" He shouted, dropping the branch momentarily. The fox sighed in relief. -"C'mere a min! I need your help with this stick!"- He called out eagerly, prancing on the spot. He looked from the fox to the branch, and to Meerkat. Yes- if he could get her to stabilize one end of it, he should be able to shove that dang fox right out of the tree- and into the chase again.