Chapter One
An Unexpected Fox
The wind blew lazily through the trees as Evan [not his real name] walked down the sidewalk with his father. Walks build character. That’s what Dad always said. Evan sighed and stared across the open field beside them and wished he could be home solving his Rubik’s Cube. He was so close, but now he had to be outside “communing with nature.” Meanwhile, Dad was catching Pokemon on his phone. “It’s a great tool for motivating people to walk,” he claimed. At least Dad was motivated, communing with his phone while Evan was stuck looking at a boring stretch of nature.
Something moved.
Evan turned, trying to find what he had glimpsed from the corner of his eye. Whatever it was had stopped. Or hidden. After a moment of lagging behind, Evan hurried to catch up before his father noticed his absence. He didn’t want any lectures. Silence was better.
“Ah!” Dad said. “Raid battle. If we hurry, we can just catch it.”
He took off at a brisk pace, forcing Evan to almost run to catch up.
The something followed them.
Evan kept his head forward, but looked as far to the side as he could. A small shadow slipped between bushes, following them. He resisted the urge to turn his head. Whatever it was might disappear. Better to wait and catch it when it wasn’t suspecting.
“Made it!”
Dad stopped at a seemingly random spot of sidewalk, then glanced up at the invisible Pokemon gym, as if he could actually see it standing there. That was as close as he got to appreciating nature during their walk.
“Two minutes,” he proclaimed, then he started reviving Pokemon from previous battles and modifying his selection for the current one.
Two minutes. Just long enough to catch a following mystery.
Evan backed carefully to the edge of the sidewalk, pretending to admiring the looming Pokemon gym somewhere nearby, while really evaluating the potential hiding places at the edges of his vision. Was it a Pokemon following them? Wouldn’t that be ironic.
Except Pokemon weren’t real.
He heard a slight rustle behind him. A glimmer of motion. Something had slipped behind a boulder at the side of the field.
Evan very slowly and carefully turned and leaned over the large rock.
A little fox looked up at Evan. At least, he thought it was a fox. Long slender nose, pointed ears, and a large bushy tail. Exactly what he would expect. Except this fox was yellow and white, with blue paws.
Instead of scurrying off, the fox perked up, gazing up at Evan with such intensity, as if challenging him to pick him up. Evan stepped around the boulder and slowly reached down. The fox practically jumped into his arms.
“Yes! Got it!” Dad exclaimed. “Bet you thought I couldn’t beat a level three on my own, huh? Someday we’ll have to get you your own phone, then we could take on a legendary together.”
They were halfway home before Dad noticed the fox.
“Is that …?” He stopped, holding a pointing finger.
Evan tried to make it sound like a silly question. “It’s Rosie. Our cat.”
Dad’s eyebrows shot up. “I those Rosie was a calico.”
“This is Peaches.”
They didn’t have a cat named Peaches, but Dad’s phone vibrated.
“Ah! A Pikachu. Hurry, I think we can catch it.”
The fox snuggled in Evan’s arms all the way home. Dad didn’t say anything when Evan carried the little creature through the front door. Cats technically weren’t allowed in the house, but sometimes sleeping ones were allowed to stay until they woke up and this fox was definitely asleep.
Evan shut his door and slowly lowered the fox onto his bed. His plan to keep the little guy from waking didn’t work, however. As soon as Evan stepped back, the fox yawned and gave the longest stretch imaginable.
The fox jumped off the bed and started walking in circles. Then he sneezed. With a pop, a startled boy with short black hair appeared and the fox nuzzled up to his legs. The boy glanced around as if he had never seen a bedroom, then he looked down at the fox and a big smile broke out across his face.
“Kogane Senshi!”
Next Chapter: When a Fox is Not a Cat
[My son wrote an edited version of this chapter, with extra silliness.]