The Fox King

Chapter 1:

 

“Why can’t you be more like Dawn?”

The words stung like a slap on the face.

Maeve crossed her arms and pouted, frowning at Mother.

“But I am like Dawn! I look exactly like her!” Maeve retorted indignantly.

Mother glanced over at where Dawn sat at the table, drawing another picture of a fox. Maeve watched her sister’s pencil sketch the outline of the body in red, fury bubbling up inside of her. Dawn looked up and smiled at them, completely oblivious to the argument.

“Well, maybe it’s time you start behaving like her,” Mother replied firmly. “I don’t think it’s right to be stealing from your Mother, especially at only eight years old.”

“But I didn’t steal the bracelet! I was just borrowing it,” Maeve protested, a tear sliding down her cheek.

Mother sighed, staring down at the bracelet in her hand. It was a very beautiful bracelet, encrusted with ruby stones on a gold chain. Maeve had seen Mother wearing it and had desperately wanted to have it, but she knew Mother would never let her. If only Mother hadn’t caught her, then she would have been able to show it off to the girls at school.

“Go to your room, Maeve, and stay there until supper.” Mother didn’t even look at Maeve as she said this, just glanced at Dawn, who had begun colouring the fox drawing.

Maeve stormed off to her room and slammed the door. “It isn’t fair!” she shouted, kicking a discarded teddy bear to the side. “It just isn’t fair!”

Maeve hurled herself face first onto her bed and sobbed. She didn’t hear Dawn tiptoe in until she felt a hand on her back.

“Please don’t cry, Maeve,” Dawn said softly. “Look, I made a fox drawing for you.”

Maeve lifted her head up to look at the drawing, and her eyes widened. “Wow, it’s really good.”

Dawn smiled modestly. “Thanks. You can have it, if you want.”

Maeve shook her head stubbornly. “I don’t want it.”

“Please, Maeve, just keep it,” Dawn insisted, handing her the drawing. Maeve took it reluctantly and placed it on the bed behind her, planning to rip it up later.

“Now come on. Let’s play.” Dawn grabbed her hand and dragged her off the bed and into the hall, but Maeve came to a halt. “I can’t, remember? I have to stay in my room.”

“Don’t worry. We’re just going to play in the forest. Mother won’t mind,” Dawn assured her.

Feeling adventurous, Maeve nodded and said, “Okay, let’s go.”

Mother was in the kitchen, preparing dinner while humming along to a song on the radio, so the girls snuck out the back door into the afternoon sunshine. Maeve stifled a giggle as they passed the kitchen window on their knees, sticking close to the wall until they reached the secret gate. Dawn opened it slowly so it wouldn’t creak, and they slipped through to the woods on the other side of the garden.

Their laughter bubbled up into the treetops, mingling with the chirps and chortles of birds that fluttered from branch to branch. Maeve chased after Dawn, weaving around the trees and crunching on the fallen leaves that littered the ground. But Dawn was too fast, and Maeve paused by a tree to catch her breath, letting Dawn go ahead.

Maeve started running again, scanning the trees for Dawn, but Dawn was nowhere in sight. Where had she gone?

“Dawn!” Maeve called. “Where are you, Dawn?”

There was a sudden thud behind her, and Maeve turned to find herself face to face with a girl wearing the exact same jeans and purple jumper, the exact same honey-gold locks that tumbled down her back and the exact same hazel-green eyes.

“I was up in the tree,” Dawn grinned, pointing up to the lowest branch, which was at least two metres above their heads.

“How’d you get up there?” Maeve asked.

“Try and catch me and you’ll find out!” Dawn replied, sprinting off again. Maeve groaned and reluctantly followed.

Maeve heard the river before she saw it. It gushed forward in a spray of white over black stones that shone like polished shoes. Dawn hopped onto the first rock and beckoned for Maeve to follow.

Maeve placed one foot on the rock and almost slipped off. “This feels dangerous.”

“Don’t worry, Maeve, we’ll be fine,” Dawn said.

As soon as the words left her mouth, Dawn lost her footing and fell into the river,

swept away by the strong force of the current.

“Dawn!” Maeve screamed, watching her sister disappear down the river, her limp body

being tossed against the rocks.

 Suddenly, the world darkened, and Maeve felt a drop on her cheek. This time it wasn’t

tears, for it had begun to rain.

Maeve carefully leapt back onto the bank and runs along the river, frantically searching

for any sign of Dawn. The rain blurred her vision and soaked her skin, the icy wind

chilling her to the bone. Maeve continued to scream her sister’s name, but all she

received in reply is the constant drumming of the rain on the river, and the sinking

feeling in her heart.

But something caught her eye, and Maeve recognised it as Dawn’s necklace with the

letter D glinting in the overcast light. It dangled from the end of a sharp rock on the edge of the river, the torrential current threatening to carry it away, so Maeve snatched it into her grasp. She touched a finger to her own M necklace, and undid the clasp, dropping it onto the grass. As she fastened Dawn’s necklace around her own neck, Mother’s words echoed in her head.

“Why can’t you be more like Dawn?”