Warmer

The fox and the woman shared much warmth. Without words uttered, they nurtured their short kinship. Alas, the woman was old and grey, and reached the end of her allotted days. When death came to do them part, the fox wept and watched the seasons consumed the woman’s lifeless remains. Within one moon — the fox’s twenty-first — there was nothing left of the human except her pristine bones. Sensing in those bones the memory of her only friend, the fox resolved to stand guard over them for the rest of her days.