I narrowed my eyes and took a step back. The scent of fox was almost suffocating, I wrinkled my nose. I lashed my tail in frustration.

"Can't catch a break, can we?" I whispered.

Flick stepped forward so that he was in front of me.

"Go wake Bella so we can leave." The sandy tom said quietly.

I shook my head. "There is no way I'm leaving you to fight those foxes on your own." I said.

Flick looked at me. "Lavenderpaw, just go. We might not even have to fight, just hurry."

I hesitated, but nodded and darted back into the den. It took a heartbeat or two for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. When I located Bella, I nudged the cream and white cat.

"Bella, we have to go, quickly!" I hissed.

Bella moaned and raised her head slowly. "I was just starting to drift off . . ." She ended with a yawn.

"We don't have time for this, foxes are near!" I made sure to keep my voice low.

Bella's eyes widened in horror. "Foxes?" She raised her voice in alarm.

At the former kittypet's call, I heard growling and hissing from outside. The smell of blood wafted into the den; the fox, or foxes, must have attacked Flick!

"Yes, and we have to go, come on!" I said, no longer even bothering with trying to be quiet. I nudged Bella to her paws hurriedly.

Bella nodded and stood up, rushing towards the mouth of the den. I followed her, but we both stopped when the light from the entrance vanished. My eyes narrowed when I saw a long narrow muzzle curled up, long, sharp teeth being shown. Bella was frozen in the fox's path in horror.

"Bella, get back!" I called to her, but the cream and white she-cat didn't move.

The fox swung a paw with unsheathed claws at Bella and the former kittypet was knocked into the wall of the den. I could see Bella trembling as she struggled to get to her paws.

"Hey, fox-breath!" I called and the fox swung around to look at me.

I rushed at the russet creature, my claws digging into the ground as I ran. I no time at all, I had leaped into the air and slashed my claws across the fox's face.

The fox growled and retaliated surprisingly quickly. It put a paw on me before I could dodge in time and unsheathed its claws. I yelped as I ran to the other side of the den, the fox's claws scraping across my back. I turned and hissed at the creature.

The fox prowled towards me, Bella completely forgotten. My fur stood on end as I backed away. Surprisingly, I backed into a wall. Didn't fox dens usually have back entrances?

I thought I saw a hint of triumph or smugness in the fox's expression when it saw I was trapped. It raised its forepaw, ready to strike.

I immediately rushed forward underneath the fox as soon as it raised its paw. I wasted no time darting over to Bella to help her to her paws. As soon as she was standing, I lead her toward the entrance of the den.

"No . . . I should be, helping you . . ." Bella said, shaking her head.

I rolled my eyes. "Bella, we just need to run. You haven't had any battle training, have you? I have at least had some. Let's just get out of here before-"

I broke off with a help when I felt the fox's teeth clamp hard around my tail. Bella stopped in the mouth of the den, staring at me in terror.

"Go! Get out of here!" I exclaimed before I was dragged back and knocked into the wall of the den.

I hissed in pain and slowly pushed myself to my paws. I glared at the russet creature through narrowed eyes; I hardly noticed the warm liquid oozing from my tail or that the room had started to spin. All I could focus on was the fox and getting out of here alive.

The fox prowled towards me again but this time I ran towards the den entrance. Unsurprisingly, the fox followed quickly after me. At least Bella was out of the den, now.

I leaped out of the den and darted to the side. The fox raced out behind me but had to skid to a stop after I dodged out of its way.

I watched as Flick battled a second fox, this one a vixen. I growled when I saw Flick was pinned down, the vixen holding him down hard enough to where he couldn't get up. Forgetting about Bella and the other fox, I raced at the fox and barged into her, knocking her off of Flick.

Flick wasted no time scrambling to his paws. I looked around to see Bella limping downhill, towards the twolegplace. I was caught off guard with relief and didn't notice the fox that had attacked me and Bella earlier was running towards me. Flick was just able to call out a warning when I saw the shadow. I leaped out of the way, but not before the fox slashed my ear with its claws.

I hissed and backed away. "Let's get out of here, we're no match for them!" I said to Flick and the two of us started quickly downhill to catch up with Bella. It was only when I reached the cream and white she-cat I realized Flick wasn't with me anymore. I spun around to see the sandy tom battling now both foxes and I narrowed my eyes. Why couldn't these foxes just let them leave?

I ran as fast as I could up to the battle. As soon as I did, I batted at one of them with unsheathed claws. It growled and turned to me.

"Lavenderpaw, get out of here! I can hold them off!" Flick said to me.

I shook my head. "No Flick, I'm not leaving you! I won't allow you to give up your life for me!"

The fox reared up on its hindlegs but was unbalanced from doing so on a hill. I moved out of the way in time for the fox to stumble down the hill. I smiled when I realized Bella wasn't there, she must be hiding.

At a hiss from Flick, I turned back to him and the other fox. I bared my teeth and ran around the back of the fox to sink my teeth into it's bushy tail. The fox yelped and whirled around to bat me out of the way.

Flick slashed his claws across the fox's side and the fox turned back to him. I nodded to the sandy tom and he did the same. Together, we drove the fox back up the hill, into it's den. Once it was there, we turned around to run back and find Bella.

We were about to descend down the hill when we saw the fox that had stumbled down the hill racing towards us. Flick and I swerved out of its way and rushed down the hill, veering off to the side to hide in some bushes.

I watched as the two foxes looked around from the top of the hill, confusion on their face. After a few heartbeats, they turned around to disappear most likely into their den.

I let out a sigh of relief when the russet creatures were gone. I turned to Flick and looked over his wounds. He was bleeding from just under his left eye, and just about half of his ear was missing. He had scratches  covering his flank and his tail was coated in blood.

"Why did you come back for me?" Flick asked me.

I shook my head. "I wasn't going to let you die. You saved my life once, remember? I couldn't just run to safety when you were going to die at the paws of foxes."

Flick smiled at me. "Well, thank you." He answered.

I nodded and smiled back. I still didn't know much about this tom, but somehow I felt I knew him better than before the battle.

Then I remembered something.

"We should probably go find Bella." I said.

Flick nodded and we emerged from the bushes. We didn't call out, because we knew the foxes were most likely still awake. Instead, we followed her scent. It lead straight into the twolegplace.

I looked at Flick. "Why didn't she just hide in the woods or behind some bushes or climb a tree or something like that?" I asked him.

Flick shrugged. "She's a kittypet, she feels safest in twolegplaces." He responded.

I looked into the twolegplace. "Yes, but did she have to hide in a twolegplace? I would rather not deal with twolegs right now."

"Don't worry, I know this twolegplace. My brother lives here and my sister used to live here before I left." Flick said. "So I can help navigate us."

I wanted to ask why he had left, but we had to focus on finding Bella right now. So I just nodded and let the sandy tom lead me into the dark twolegplace.

I had already forgotten the way we had come after the third turn. We passed too many twoleg dens that looked the same, I thought it would never end. Some of the dens looked a bit different, but they were mostly similar.

I was beginning to think we would never find Bella, when I smelled her trail getting fresher. I smiled and hurried my pace. We had entered what I think Bella called an alley. Before I had gotten far, Flick blocked my path.

I looked up at him in confusion. "What's wrong, Flick? We've almost caught up to Bella!"

"We should leave, we shouldn't be here." I thought I heard a hint of wariness in Flick's warning tone.

"What do you mean? Do you know this area well? Is Bella in danger?" I asked him.

"Let's just go, we can't save Bella now." The sandy tom nudged me to turn around but I shook my head.

"Flick, just tell me what's going on!" I pleaded with him.

"Lavenderpaw-" Flick was cut off by an unfamiliar voice.

"Well, look who we have here."

//Word count: 1716//