The actual proper beginning to our fic, I'm sure most of you know it's good to make friends with the locals if you've moved somwhere new, of course if it puts you in the middle of a family fued...well yeah that's another story. This one in fact. Enjoy!

Chapter 1-A Warm Welcome

Moonlight flowed across the snow covered landscape of White Deer
Park. It had been several weeks since Dare and Slash had entered the
park and since then they had been keeping to themselves, hunting
under the cover of darkness and avoiding contact with anything but
their prey.

They both knew they couldn't keep on hiding
forever, but they had decided to wait until the snow had thawed before
running into anyone. During winter it would be easy to be considered a
rival when it came to food.

“Every night it seems to get worse and worse.” Slash muttered as he
finished another attempt at scent tracking with no success.

Dare was doing just as badly.

“You’re right about that.” He replied. “There’s just nothing else to hunt.
We’re lucky that we managed to get anything this far into the winter.”

Slash muttered his agreement.

“Do you think that we should try our luck in a different area?” asked
Slash after a few moments of silence.

Dare shook his head.

“There’s no point really.” He replied. “We know this area fairly well now
and we’ve managed to survive here so far, so there’s no point moving
to a new area. We would just have to get to know it again and there’s
no guarantee that it would be any more plentiful than here.”

Slash thought about what Dare had said. It didn’t take him long to
realise that Dare was right.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He said with a sigh. “Let’s keep trying then.”

Dare looked at Slash before lowering his nose back to the ground. As he
did so, he froze.

“What is it?” asked Slash, seeing Dare freeze on the spot. “Have you
found something?”

Dare raised his head and looked into the darkness. Slash looked in the
same direction and saw nothing.

"Two other foxes, they're coming our way" He whispered, turning his
head to look at Slash.

Slash glanced up with a surprised look on his face. Neither of them had
expected to encounter another fox this far into the winter. Now that
Dare mentioned it, he could smell the scent of two foxes getting closer
to their position.

Recovering from his surprise quickly, Slash looked in the direction that
Dare had indicated before giving Dare a look that plainly said 'Act
natural', and both of them resumed their hunting immediately.

“Two males together is very unusual.” Slash soon heard a vixen’s voice
say.

He looked up to see the two foxes that Dare had sensed standing
nearby, both with bemused looks on their faces. Slash could tell that
they were mates and he noticed that the vixen was pregnant

“What can I say, we're an unusual pair.” Slash replied with a grin. “We
arrived here together and we're friends now. Oh yes, I'm Slash and this
is Dare.”

Dare looked up and gave a friendly nod towards the two foxes. Like
Slash he too could tell that they were both mates.

“You can simply call us Fox and Vixen, everyone else in this park does.”
the vixen replied.

“What is this place called?” asked Dare.

“White Deer Park.” replied Fox. “We too came here together, along with
a large group of animals from another place far from here.”

Dare and Slash both looked at Fox with the same level of curiosity. They
had both heard rumours of a fox leading a large group of animals to
safety from a place known as farthing wood, and suddenly they both
had a feeling who that fox was.

“What was the place you left from called?” asked Dare, hoping that their
suspicions would be confirmed.

Fox looked at them curiously before shrugging.

“The place we left was called Farthing Wood.” He said. “And yes, in
case you’re wondering, I am the famous Farthing Fox.”

Dare and Slash nodded, their suspicions confirmed.

“So, where did you two come from?” asked Vixen, trying to steer the
conversation from their famous journey from Farthing Wood.

Dare looked at Vixen and Fox.

“We both have come from separate places.” He replied. “I came here
hopefully find a mate and to escape from the humans; I’ve just had way
too many close encounters with them. And after travelling for about a
month I arrived here. It seemed like a safe place free of humans, so I
chose to stay here.”

Fox and Vixen both nodded and looked at Slash for his story. He
shrugged.

“I came here from a place far away from here.” He said, breaking his
silence. “When my two sisters were killed by humans however, I knew
that I needed to find somewhere safe. So after months of travelling, I
ended up running into him.” Slash nodded at Dare. “And as he said, this
place seemed free of humans, so I too chose to stay here.”

As Slash spoke, Dare again noted that there seemed to be a small
amount of sadness in Slash’s voice.

“Well, you both made a good choice in coming here, compared to the
outside world this place is a haven.” remarked Vixen. “And you’re right, there
are no humans here.”

“Well, except for the Warden.” added Fox. “He’s the only human
around for miles.”

Dare did a double take when he heard this, and Slash stiffened in shock.
Luckily for them though, Vixen and Fox did not notice their reactions.

“He helps us so much.” continued Fox. “If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t
be as safe as we are now.”

Snapping out of their shock, Dare and Slash quickly glanced at each other
before nodding.

“You should come at meet the rest of the Farthing Wood animals
sometime.” said Vixen. “And hopefully both of you will choose to take up
the Oath of Mutual Protection in the future as well, which definitely
would help you as newcomers.”

“The Oath of Mutual Protection?” asked Slash, raising an eyebrow.

Fox looked at him surprised before he remembered that Dare and Slash
did not know what the oath was.

“It’s a vow all of us took before leaving Farthing Wood.” He
explained. “Before the journey, we swore that we would not frighten,
eat or terrorise each other during the journey. Now it’s seemed to have
stuck.”

“Why do we have to take it up?” asked Dare. “It’s not like we were part
of the group that came from Farthing Wood.”

This time is was Vixen who answered.

“Because the others will fear you if you don’t take it up.” She
said. “They will also not trust you fully if you don’t, as they'll feel that
you're a threat to their safety.”

“We’re not saying that you have to.” added Fox. “But it’s just a
recommendation if you want to be fully accepted here.”

Dare and Slash nodded, content with the explanations they had been
given.

As the four of them continued talking no-one noticed a blue fox
observing them from the cover of some bushes, his blue fur helping to
camouflage him in the darkness.

“Scarface is definitely going to want to hear about this.” He thought as
the wind blew slightly through his fur.. “And he’s not going to be happy
when he does. It’s unfortunate that I’m the one that gets to tell
him.”

The blue fox stiffened slightly as Slash turned his head in his direction. A
few seconds later Slash turned back to the conversation and the blue
breathed a small sigh of relief as his moment of panic passed.

After a few more minutes of observation, the blue silently turned to
move away and he soon disappeared into the darkness.

“Well, we should let you get on, hardly enough food as it is.” Dare
finished. “We’ll be seeing you around hopefully.”

Fox and Vixen nodded before heading on their way. Slash watched the
go before turning to Dare again.

“Nice couple aren't they?” he remarked. “They definitely made us feel
welcome.”

Dare thought about it.

“Yes they are a nice couple.” replied Dare slowly. “I’m not too sure if I
should trust them, though.”

Slash looked at Dare seriously.

“It’s the human thing isn’t it?” he asked softly.

Dare nodded. He didn’t like the idea of having a human in the area. Too
many times he had encountered humans, and most of the times he had
barely escaped with his life. This resulted in him not trusting any
humans, no matter who they were or what anyone else said about
them: They were humans, and humans always meant trouble.

“Well, that aside, we were being watched by another fox.” said Slash,
interrupting Dare’s thoughts.

“Are you serious.” asked Dare in surprise. “How did you know?”

“I smelt when the wind blew and carried his scent over here.” replied
Slash. “I think we better be careful now, because I don’t think that he
was watching us for his own pleasure.”

Dare considered Slash’s words before lowering his nose for another
attempt at tracking a potential meal, with Slash joining him in his
attempts.

Slash (C)  Slash-Fox
Dare (C) Me
All other characters, settings and universe in general (C) Colin Dann
(Yes I am going to put this at the end of each chapter)