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

When he came back along his trail, he carried the fox's body as carefully as one might carry a puppy, by the scruff of its neck. It'd taken him some time, as he'd elected to be as careful with the fox as he could so that he damaged the pelt as little as possible. He had plans for it, and was delighted beyond belief that he'd not only found, but had captured a unique, black phase fox. There was a bouncey strut to his trot as he approached Meerkat, holding the creature aloft for a moment, before he carefully placed it on the ground, and gently fixed some of the fur around its nape that had become ruffled from his grip. 

"Lookit that!" He said. The healthy creature was an average size, for a fox, but its pelt was a lovely midnight black, speckled with silver-ticked guard hairs. The very tip of its tail was as white as snow. "I'm gonna take this to Kukutux, an' see if she can make it into like...An herb-carry-er, thing, for F-" He cut himself off. Fennec had told him explicitly not to tell anyone. But was there any harm in telling Meerkat? He didn't want to keep secrets from her, but he also didn't want to give Fennec's secrets away. Surely, though, Meerkat didn't count...He teetered on the edge of telling the truth or covering it up for far too long. "Frack. S'posed to be a secret. But you can't tell anybody, Okay?" He asked, sincerity worming his eyebrows closer together as he pleaded with his little sister.