Today’s story is “Spring Rain” by SakaraFox, who really should send Khaki a full story one of these days, and has recently contributed work to the Fireside Cooperative’s Vacation Days Pin-Up Calendar, and you can find more of his stories on FurAffinity.

Read for you by Khaki, your faithful fireside companion.

You’re listening to The Voice of Dog. I’m Khaki, your faithful fireside companion,

and Today’s story is “Spring Rain”

by SakaraFox, who really should send Khaki a full story one of these days,

and has recently contributed work to the Fireside Cooperative’s

Vacation Days Pin-Up Calendar,

and you can find more of his stories

on FurAffinity.

As 2020 comes to a close, it's time to start looking ahead for the adventures of 2021. And where better to start than where all adventures start? 09:40 The squeal of brakes betrays the train’s approach. You put your book in your suitcase and rise from the bench, taking a deep breath of the warm air. It’s summertime again and your train will be taking you on your first much needed adventure in a long time. — Fireside Cooperative’s Vacation Days Pin-Up Calendar Please enjoy “Spring Rain” by SakaraFox The thrum of thunder echoed through trees far away

and caused the dapple-gray mare to buck her head

and paw the earth with a reluctant hoof.

Sakara slipped an arm out from underneath his hooded deerskin cloak,

and ruffled her damp,

sparkling mane. The worst of the storm’s wrath

had passed that morning, and now there was only the gentle patter of light rain on the young spring leaves

of towering birch

and brackon that brushed against their boots. As

his big brother bargained with their hesitant horse,

Kuveli pulled his own hood tighter around his head, though it proved to be of little use.

The deerskin had been waterproofed,

but the seams had begun to tear towards the end of the winter.

Rain easily found its way in,

sending a shiver up the little fox’s spine

as it dripped down his back. The

little fox fidgeted

and rubbed his sore backside.

His brother had reckoned the journey would be shorter,

but again the storm had worked against their efforts.

It had washed away the last of winter’s snow scattered through the forest,

and caused the roiling rivers to swallow their banks

and wash away the well-known game trails.

And so a ride that should have taken until midday,

had stretched until the sun was beginning to set. “How

much further is this meet?”

Asked the little fox in a wheezing kind of way,

the long, wet journey had sapped much of that morning’s excitement. “Not

far now.” his brother stated confidently,

and lifted his leg over the fur blanket that acted as their saddle

and slipped off their horse.

His beaverskin boots

landed with a dull squish,

and splashed mud up his horsehide leggings

and hareskin loincloth.

“Just as long as Pekka stops being stubborn.”

Sakara added, then turned on the spot and looked up at his little brother,

a bright smile beamed within the shade of the deerskin hood.

Kuveli couldn’t help but chuckle and smile back,

the kindness of his brother’s smile

filled the little fox with warmth.

He watched the bigger fox, ten winters his senior,

begin to rummage through their things.

The arrows rattled in their quivers as Sakara brushed them aside,

their hazelwood bows clacked

against each other.

The travel packs were heavy this spring,

such a mild winter

left them with plenty of spares.

From sturdy reindeer skins and dried fish

to dozens of flint arrowheads

they’d made while telling stories by the fire, to keep the boredom at bay.

Kuveli sighed, his ears went flat as he stared at his feet.

If only he’d kept a spare chunk of flint,

the work would help the time pass.

The rough ride would make it hard, but on stormy days like this,

waiting for Pekka,

it would have been ideal.

There was nothing else to occupy the little fox’s senses,

the storm seemed to drown everything.

It washed away all the scents,

as though there had never been a single deer or hare in the forest.

It drummed over all the sounds too,

a constant, ear-splitting drone.

Not even the howl of a lonely wolf could pierce it.

“Okay, Pekka...” Sakara hummed to himself as he reached a paw down to his belt

and returned with a heavy,

rattling pouch. “I think she’d appreciate it more if you fed her, little bud.”

He added as he smiled up at the little fox again,

and reached out to gently tug on Kuveli’s leg.

“What are you thinking?”

Kuveli cocked his head to the side

as he shifted his weight over and carefully dropped down.

There was a similar squelch

and spatter of mud

that caked the bottom of the little fox’s leggings and stopped just short of his patchwork hide skirt.

“I think she’ll be more agreeable after some honeyed hazelnuts.”

Sakara patted the horse’s neck,

then offered the pouch of hazelnuts to Kuveli.

The little fox went stiff,

he thought they’d run out of honeyed hazelnuts.

Had his brother kept them to himself?

Kuveli stared up at his brother with wide,

pleading eyes, arms at his side and shoulders slack,

his tail swang gently behind him as the rain ran down his hood.

Sakara stared back,

eyes narrowed and an eyebrow raised.

“Yes,” he began, exaggerating a sigh as he lingered on each word,

“you may have some too.”

As the last letter left his lips,

he let go of the pouch and let it drop to the floor.

Kuveli jumped into action,

he slipped in the slush as he lunged to rescue the hazelnuts from being swallowed by the sucking mud.

He went down on one knee, and cupped his paws in front of him to catch the hazelnuts, which he clutched

tightly to his chest.

“Rude!” The little fox barked

as he clumsily lifted himself out of the mud.

His right legging was filthy,

a thick layer of mud

now clung to the e buckskin.

Sakara stood and laughed with an arm wrapped around his stomach.

“I’m your big n’ scary brother,

being rude to you is my birthright.”

He said as he put a paw on his heart

and turned up his nose, a sly smirk stretched across his muzzle.

Kuveli folded his arms,

his ears going flat against his skull

as he stood in the rain, sulking.

He could feel mud inside his legging,

which caused his fur to stick painfully, and the skin beneath to feel increasingly uncomfortable.

Worse, it had begun to seep into his boots.

His big brother had to know this would happen,

and he laughed all the same.

Eventually, Sakara broke the smug charade,

he shuffled over to his little brother and crouched down at his side.

He embraced Kuveli in a warm hug,

apologies mumbled into the little fox’s ear.

That was, until Sakara heard a soft splat and felt a cold,

wet sensation trickle down his chest.

“It’s our birthright.” Kuveli growled,

pulling free of the hug to reveal a toothy grin

and a paw caked in mud.

Sakara looked down to see that the little fox had dropped a fistful of mud down his cloak,

his unwashed white fur stained a grubby brown.

“Oh, you have started a feud you cannot win, little brother.”

Sakara raised a bony finger and cocked his head to the side,

flashing a mischievous smirk.

“What do you mean I started it?” Kuveli whinged, his fist clenched at his side as he poked his tongue at his brother,

before playfully headbutting his arm.

“It doesn’t matter who started it anymore,

when we get to the summer camp…”

Sakara pushed himself to his footpaws with a grunt

then leaned on their horse.

“There will be mud!”

He growled playfully at his little brother,

extending a helpful paw.

Kuveli took it and hauled himself out of the mud,

wiping his nose with a snort before he brushed down his skirt.

The rain had begun to pierce his soaked clothes. A nasty cough was sure to follow if they didn’t get going soon.

He clutched the pouch of hazelnuts and rounded the horse,

following his brother.

Pekka, their dapple-gray mare,

had seemed not to pay any mind to their feud,

instead ripping brown tufts of grass out of the earth and making a mess.

Kuveli had always found this strange about horses,

they were smarter than any other creature he knew besides dogs,

but it wasn’t like a dog’s intelligence.

Horses were more like wise elders,

perhaps a bit senile, but always watching and waiting with a look that betrayed a vast

wealth of knowledge.

Until they threw a tantrum, that was. Pekka’s ears perked

and she raised her head to greet the two foxes as they approached,

a tuft of grass still clutched between her teeth.

“Silly girl, what’ve you found now?” Sakara chuckled quietly,

rubbing Pekka’s nose firmly before he snatched the clump of dirt and inspected it.

The horse resisted,

her dopey teeth clenched against the fox as she huffed,

her nostrils flaring.

Kuveli watched from a safe distance,

Pekka was family sure,

but that body possessed the power of ten hunters, if not more.

Those hooves could crush skulls,

and those teeth could probably crack fingers.

After a moment, Sakara relented,

satisfied the dapple-gray mare hadn’t dug-up anything that would hurt her.

He turned to Kuveli and nodded,

stepping out of the way.

The little fox smiled weakly and upturned the pouch,

he poured a dozen honeyed hazelnuts into his paw,

which he then extended towards Pekka.

Pekka had to slowly lower her head to reach the little fox’s outstretched paw.

Kuveli remained very still as she sniffed at him,

shook her mane, and then began to snuffle-up the hazelnuts one-by-one.

“I still can’t believe it,

eight winters old now.” Sakara sighed and ran his paw through Pekka’s long,

carefully groomed mane.

“Two more winters and you’ll be tracking deer through the forest with me.”

He added, patting Kuveli on the head.

“I know, we’ve been practicing for ages.”

The little fox chirped.

He still found the thought exciting,

to hunt big game with big brother,

to spend nights chatting with the other hunters and boast of his skills.

It seemed so fun. He longed to be with the Lentavohi again

and give back for all those years of kindness.

“You know I’m proud of you,

how far you’ve come.”

Sakara said quietly,

a soft humming to his tone.

Kuveli looked up,

an eyebrow raised,

to see a broad smile on his brother’s face.

As Kuveli searched for the words to thank his brother, he was interrupted by an impatient muzzle. Pekka pushed her nose into the little fox’s chest,

almost pushing him into the mud

demanding more hazelnuts.

Sakara snapped into action.

“That’s enough, Pekka! Leave Kuveli alone.”

He ordered as he crouched down and wrapped his arm around the horse’s muzzle.

He pushed her back, away from the hazelnuts and the little fox only half her size.

“At least you’ve got some energy back in you.”

Sakara patted the horse on the side,

then turned to Kuveli. “C’mon, the meet will have finished for the day if we don’t hurry.”

The little fox nodded, half-jogging back around to Pekka’s side.

He put the hazelnuts back safely into storage,

and gave the horse’s soft hide a few strokes.

He could feel the power hidden beneath,

the heaving lungs

and the booming heart. It sent a chill up his spine.

The two foxes climbed back onto their mount,

Sakara used subtle squeezes of his legs to order Pekka onward down the trail.

They started at a trot

and let Pekka work her way up to a brisk gallop,

risking speed over the churned earth.

Sakara was not worried, for she was a surefooted beast

who revelled in the snow,

playfully prancing around and kicking-up clouds of the fresh

powder. They followed the heaving,

brown waters of the river,

shocked as whole trees and even a dead elk

were whisked towards the sea

with frightening speed.

Kuveli dreaded to think of how the elk had met its end.

Drowned or crushed,

both seemed like an awful fate.

His brother paid no mind to the sight as they galloped onwards

with the wind in their faces,

the rain lashing at their hoods

as low-hanging pine limbs snagged at their boots.

After another stretch of rough riding,

Kuveli’s nose began to twitch.

He could faintly catch the acrid stench of woodsmoke wafted over on the wind.

It was the faintest scent,

the rain doing its worst to drown any trace of it.

And then, as if to admit defeat,

the storm began to ease.

The drum of driving rain faded quickly,

replaced by the roar of the swollen river

and the chipper chortel of grouse high in the trees.

And there was that strange,

damp odor that always came after a thorough storm.

The rain ceased all at once,

the clouds parting in an instant,

and warm sunlight streamed through the leaves

in brilliant shafts of glowing green light.

The time could not have been more perfect,

as the canopy of trees began to thin

and the stench of woodsmoke grew to burn Kuveli’s nostrils.

Kuveli covered his ears as his big brother let out a piercing whistle,

their horse dug her hooves in

and skidded to a halt as the forest parted around them.

The little fox clung to his brother’s fur,

peering around him to see why they had stopped again.

His jaw dropped at the sight the vast clearing.

It was packed with shelters of all kinds:

tall, tapering lavvu made from reindeer skins,

stout little round shelters covered in dry grass,

and even shelters that looked like a big lean-to made from skins instead of piled spruce twigs.

And that was just the most prominent ones.

Sakara made a click sound and Pekka snorted in reply,

she began to trot towards the bustling trade meet.

Kuveli sat up, ears perked

and taking in every little detail.

He was from a big tribe,

but he’d never seen so many people together before.

There had to be hundreds.

He saw fellow Lentavohi with their horses, stood by their lavvu as they bartered over skinboats with the strangest white-furred canines

in the comfiest looking seal skin parkas.

There were spotty lynxes

and striped badgers,

hulking bears and lithe martens, just to name a few.

The stench was overwhelming,

and the little fox covered his mouth to suppress a gag.

It was a miasma that choked the air,

gathering in a thin mist around the trade meet.

The odor of hundreds of unwashed bodies mingled with the acrid stench of smoke

and death from the freshly butchered game that hung freely to be bartered for.

Even the river had a vile stench,

which the little fox assumed was the result of a hundred hunters all needing to relieve themselves in one place.

The smell only grew more pervasive as they entered the winding maze of shelters.

Their ears rang with a dozen sounds,

so relentless that it made the little fox feel dizzy.

One gray fox held a pair of geese over his head,

shouting about how good a deal he was willing to offer.

Every other shelter seemed to have

a pawful of hunters chipping away at flint,

slate, or even obsidian.

They worked the rough stones into all kinds of tools,

from delicate knives and spearheads,

to great axes as big as the little fox’s head.

Sakara pulled their horse to the side of the way.

He watched as a shaman with an antler crown,

covered in flowers,

sang his heart out.

He couldn’t understand many words beside a few familiar names of various forest spirits.

Kuveli had watched too,

peering down at the shaman

as he walked past and feverishly shook a rattle made from hooves in one paw,

and used the other to throw fistfuls of lavender wherever he went.

It was a strange ritual,

but not unlike the mid-spring festival,

when the Lentavohi rubbed lavender into their fur to trick the river spirits.

“So, what do you think?”

Sakara asked, a hum of curiosity in his voice as he lifted his leg over Pekka and dismounted.

The mud was somehow even thicker here,

and instead of a splash Sakara landed with a soft, wet thuck.

“It stinks of pee!” Kuveli yapped, kicking his legs out as he fidgeted on the leather mat.

The little fox squeezed his eyes shut and pinched his nose,

wafting the smell with his other paw.

“Well, now you know what it’s like sleeping next to you.”

The older fox retorted,

using his arm to rub runny mucus from his nose with a tremendous sniffle.

“C’mon, it’s too busy to ride through and we’re already late.”

Sakara flicked his head in a certain direction before stepping forward

offering to help Kuveli get down.

“Late for what, exactly?”

The little fox asked in an uneasy manner,

and glanced in the direction his brother had gestured.

He followed the winding,

serpent-like trail as it rose through the shelters,

reaching the summit of a small hill

upon which sat a gnarled,

but unseasonably luscious old oak.

“It’s no fun if I tell you, little bud.”

Sakara chortled,

taking his little brother’s weight as the smaller fox clambered down off their horse.

“Have you gotten into trouble, again?” Kuveli asked dubiously,

his head slanting gently to one side as he dropped gracefully into the mud with his brother’s help.

“No- well…” Sakara’s face wrinkled-up,

the fur on his muzzle being pulled taut

as he scratched behind a flattened ear.

“Maybe, but this person was very kind, and I wanted to see him again.”

The taller fox hunched over and offered his little brother an awkward, toothy smile.

Kuveli huffed, then nodded at his brother’s answer.

He stepped forward

and pressed his forehead against Sakara’s stomach,

his older brother squeezing him tightly.

Once they had embraced,

Sakara took a rawhide cord from around Pekka

and attempted to herd her and his little brother through the bustling trade meet.

It seemed easy at first,

Pekka paid no mind to all the seemingly free treats all around,

and even Kuveli managed to keep from drooling at every piece of succulent flesh

hacked from yellow bones.

His luck would not last, however,

as little Kuveli couldn’t resist his childish curiosity for long.

It was in his young nature to explore,

and so the little fox began to peer at each and every trader working away in each and every shelter.

Sakara weaved around small crowds,

tugging on Pekka’s leash,

too busy to notice that little Kuveli had begun to linger behind.

The older fox poked his head around each and every shelter

before swiftly moving on.

His friend should have known to meet by the old oak anyway,

it was a hard landmark to miss,

as it stood tall and vibrant

among the grim palette of suffocating mud and smoke.

Kuveli’s jaw hung open as he stopped

to watch a great,

brown bear-lady skillfully scrape shreds of flesh from a freshly skinned reindeer hide.

The gigantic bear worked the flint blade over the skin with great care,

almost daintily as she smiled contently down at her work. A

stranger stepped up to the bear

and asked questions, obscuring Kuveli’s view,

and so the little fox turned and trudged on through the mud.

He kept his arctic-blue gaze raised to the sky,

looking for the next curiosity this place could conjure. The

little fox found the next curiosities in the form of a small

grass-covered shelter,

housing a haggard marten who toiled away at a piece of the prettiest green stone he’d ever seen.

Kuveli began to step towards the shelter,

curious as to what the strange stone was, but something in his gut screamed to run.

Perhaps it was the charms and effigies that shrouded the shelter,

terrifying in appearance,

made from the skulls of deer,

auroch, and raven alike.

Flesh still clung to the bone,

clearly having not been cleaned properly,

just like the skins that were stretched on frames beneath them,

images of tall, six-horned creatures painted upon them.

It could only have been some kind of demon.

Kuveli couldn’t help but stare,

the marten was ancient, sat on bony limbs that looked as though they would snap in a gentle breeze.

Yet, despite jittery paws,

he too worked with great skill,

sewing a number of owl feathers into a jade pendant.

The old marten grit his yellow teeth as he worked,

silvery gray fur shining in the sunlight.

The little fox felt a jolt of fear shoot up his spine

as the elderly marten bolted upright.

His sunken, milky eyes fixated on the young fox.

Kuveli stumbled backwards,

he had to get away from this purveyor of demons

and the chilling ire of his piercing gaze, but it was no good.

Despite his frail body, the marten moved with frightening speed.

His hunched-over and crippled form

seemed to scurry like along the floor,

the ire in his eyes being replaced with an animal-like curiosity

as he reached out and seized Kuveli’s arm.

“You!” He hissed, spitting sticky saliva all over Kuveli as he sunk his blackened claws into the helpless little fox’s arm.

“Stupid boy, all lost and alone.”

“Get away from me

-!” Kuveli yelped as he squirmed and kicked against the marten’s deceptively frail body.

To his horror the marten didn’t even flinch.

Pain crashed through Kuveli’s body

as the claws dug deeper.

“Big brother!” “Are you causing this boy trouble?”

Rumbled a gravelly, yet authoritative voice from behind the pair.

The air itself seemed to tremble at the stranger’s question

and Kuveli felt the elderly marten’s body tense,

his arms wrapped tighter around the little fox,

his paw straying a little too close to the young fox.

The elderly marten

wheeled around to face the stranger,

dragging the relatively tiny fox along by the neck.

Kuveli squirmed and struggled,

trying to dig-in his footpaws, only to slip on the slick mud.

The marten yanked on his head again, forcing him to face the stranger.

They were a tall,

lean hyena, by no means weak.

Kuveli could see the tense outline of strong muscles

just below that coat of coase,

sand-like black-spotted fur.

Their dark brown eyes shone in the sunlight,

fixed solely on the elderly marten,

clutching a flint axe in both paws.

The blade was as big as the little fox’s head.

Kuveli gulped, the initial wave of hope

had broken upon the sight of that axe.

Now, the tide turned sour as the hyena,

dressed in simple leggings, a loincloth, and a jerkin,

stood ready to behead both the fox and the marten with one masterful motion.

The pine marten’s wild gaze vanished in an instant,

scowling at the hyena with all the venom of a den of adders.

He loosened his grip and extracted his claws from the fox’s arm,

like one might unsheath a hidden blade.

“He is my kin, I’ll have you kno-”

The marten bit his lip,

yanking his arm away from his hostage with an almighty shriek “argh!” Kuveli had sunk his tiny fangs into the elderly marten’s paw,

piercing the sinew-like fur and leathery flesh

until his tongue was tinged with the sweet tang of blood.

He let out a defiant growl as the marten tried to shake the little fox loose,

only causing Kuveli to bite harder.

“Some fierce kin you have,

doesn’t even share your species.” The hyena commented,

and Kuveli could swear he chuckled before rushing

head-first into the frey.

There was a storm of pawsteps as the hyena thrust his weight behind his shoulder

and crashed against the elderly marten.

The three of them were sent sprawling into the mud,

little Kuveli caught between the bony frame of the marten that poked into his spine,

and the bulk of the hyena that crushed the air from his lungs.

“Let the boy go and I won’t need to start removing fingers.”

The hyena snarled,

sitting up with the handle of his axe pressed against the marten’s frail throat.

Kuveli spat out the squirming paw

and rolled free from between the two belligerents.

He landed shoulder-first,

his raincloak becoming caked with mud

the moment he touched down.

Once he was clear, the hyena released the marten,

keeping his axe over his shoulder

and ready to strike if he made any move to recapture the fox.

As Kuveli scrambled to get behind his saviour,

he was relieved to see the marten relent

and begin dragging himself back to the grass-covered shelter.

Before he rolled over, however,

the purveyor of demons pointed a long, scrawny finger at the hyena’s forehead.

He glared, with a feverish look,

at the freshly-daubed red clay that formed the image of an eye

with a spear through the middle.

“That mark will get you killed one day, warrior.”

The marten growled like a feral dog

as he rolled over and scampered back to his shelter

with his tail between his legs.

The inferno that raged in his milky eyes burned itself into Kuveli,

the little fox forcing his face into the hyena’s jerkin.

“Where are your kin, child?”

The hyena exhaled,

rising suddenly to his footpaws and stared down at the little fox.

Kuveli rose from the mud,

only standing as tall as the hyena’s waist.

He craned his neck to return the gaze, and saw that the fierce look in the hyena’s eyes had vanished,

just as quickly as it had appeared.

It reminded Kuveli

of how feline eyes would change in the blink of an eye

to give little warning to their prey.

“My name is Kuveli, and I’m with my brother.”

The fox huffed between long,

panting breaths, taking a step back out of the hyena’s shadow.

“Kuveli…” The hyena’s eyebrow rose,

his tail flicking eagerly.

“Your brother wouldn’t happen to be tall and lanky, like a birch-”

“A birch tree? Yeah, smells bad too.”

Kuveli jumped in,

knowing exactly what the hyena was going to say.

It was how his brother had always introduced himself.

In fact it had become a joke among the Lentavohi.

And then it dawned on the little fox.

He cocked his head at the hyena and asked,

“how did you...?” “I know your brother, Sakara.

He was chased over a cliff by auroch last fall.

I found and tended to him.”

The stranger crouched down to Kuveli’s level,

a subtle smile having crept onto the edge of his muzzle.

His strange, brush-like tail flicked again.

Nothing about the hyena betrayed dishonesty,

was this the friend Sakara had spoken of?

Kuveli opened his mouth to ask,

but the hyena took his unexpectedly gentle grip.

He grimaced at the oozing wound as he reached into a pouch

and produced from it some ragged lengths of leather,

which he wrapped tightly around the wound.

“You seem to know what you’re doing.” Said Kuveli,

flinching as the leather was wrapped tighter and tighter.

The hyena snickered in return.

“I’m a warrior, I split skulls for a living.

Did your brother not tell you?” He asked

and cocked his head back as he finished tending to Kuveli’s wound.

After a moment of awkward staring, the hyena

rose to his footpaws,

continuing to explain.

“Your brother wouldn’t stop talking about you.

I almost cut his tongue out.”

He let out a hearty chuckle this time,

patting the little fox on the shoulder.

Then his eyes seemed to narrow on something behind the little fox.

“Speaking of, keep that wound hidden, unless you want your big brother to go nuts.”

He said, gently tugging on Kuveli’s raincloak

until he turned to face~

“Conor, you came!” Exclaimed the warm,

familiar voice of Sakara,

filling Kuveli with a warm sense of elation.

“Where did you find-?”

“He was being held by some old fool,

I saw fit to rescue the little troublemaker.”

Conor parried the question swiftly,

giving Kuveli a little push towards his brother.

If it wasn’t for holding onto Pekka,

the older fox looked as though he would have leapt upon the little fox

and suffocated him with hugs and affection.

Kuveli felt as though he could have done the same,

and trudged over to his older brother,

latching himself to the older fox’s waist

and burying his face in the scruff.

Sakara hugged the little fox back

and turned his attention to the hyena.

“It’s good to see you again.”

He beamed, offering to let Conor in on the cuddling.

“It’s nice to see you too, fox.”

Conor bowed his head politely,

his smile widening, but declined the offer of a hug.

Instead, the now weary-looking hyena stepped forward and put a paw on Sakara’s shoulder,

asking after his health.

“I found us somewhere to stay tonight, and a few reindeer sausages for dinner.”

Sakara stated proudly,

ruffling his little brother’s headfur.

Kuveli couldn’t help but salivate at the thought of it,

some much needed good news after such an exhausting day.

“You’re welcome to join us, Conor.”

“I’m afraid I have something to attend tonight,

perhaps we can walk and talk?”

Conor folded his arms as an eyebrow rose,

his smile faded slightly.

“Please, at least let us host you as our guest at the summer camp.”

Sakara begged, smirking as he put on an exaggerated display,

his ears pinned back and tail tucked.

He even stuck his nose right into Conor’s muzzle,

like a sorry wolf.

The closeness only elicited a half-hearted growl from Conor.

“Okay… Tomorrow, after I have taken care of work,

I will spend some time with you.” The hyena relented,

firmly pushing Sakara’s nose out of his face

and letting out a sigh.

“Thank you, my friend.”

Sakara exhaled, clearly relieved at the compromise.

He then looked to Kuveli and flicked his head.

“C’mon, I’ll show you where we’ll rest tonight.” Kuveli chuckled and nodded,

rubbing his belly in anticipation for the piping hot reindeer sausage that awaited him,

but he did not follow immediately.

Kuveli watched and waited until his brother was out of earshot.

“He likes you.” Kuveli giggled,

looking back over his shoulder at the hyena.

“Too much, I think.”

Conor huffed, his wide smile faded back into a subtle smirk

as he stared down at his footpaws.

He kicked the mud idly, fiddling with his fingers.

He seemed eager to get away.

“I like you too.” Was all Kuveli could say,

his smile faded at the sight of the glum hyena.

In return, Conor glanced up, and for a brief moment his stern face broke

and he chuckled quietly to himself.

“Go on, before you get in trouble again.” He ordered with suppressed cheer

as he stepped forward and urged Kuveli to follow his older brother.

The little fox smiled back cheekily,

then disappeared back

into the bustling trade meet.

This was “Spring Rain”

by SakaraFox, read for you by Khaki,

your faithful fireside companion.

You can find more stories on the web at thevoice.dog,

or find the show wherever you get your podcasts.

Thank you for listening

to The Voice of Dog.