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Nestled in beside my boyfriend with my old teddy bear in between my front legs, I sighed happily, my eyes closed, and my fox-tail waving happily. Yes, this was the life...
"I love you, Ari," Luis said, kissing me atop my head and smoothed out my orangey-red hair.
"I love you, too," I replied, still smiling.
Yes, I was a fox-child: The only part-fox, part-human girl in existence. And yet, Luis still loved me.
I wasn't all ways like this, though.
There was a time, long ago, when I was a full, normal, human child...
My troubles started the day my mother died, eleven-years ago...

"Hello, Mommy," I said as the nurse led me into the room. My father, one of the smartest scientists in all of Jump City, was working at his DNA lab that day.
"Hello, Ari," she said, smiling weakly. I could tell something was wrong, even though my two-year-old brain was too small to figure it out, and I was pretty smart for being two.
"I brought you some flowers I picked yesterday, and a picture I drew," I handed her the bouquet of daisies and tulips and a piece of paper. "See? It's a fox, your favorite aminal."
"I love it, honey," She looked at the picture, smiling. It was a messy drawing of a fox sitting in the grass with a couple flowers and a pile of rocks behind it. She smiled, her fiery red hair strewn across the pillow.
I didn't get to talk to her much that day, but before I left, she handed me a teddy bear, saying that when she would leave me for a very long time, at least I'd have something to remember her by when she left.
She died from leukemia two days after I visited her.
Daddy said that she went to a great big place in the sky that was filled with daisies, tulips, and foxes.

The years passed, and I had started changing. Before my mother's death, I'd do nothing but sit at the table and color all day. After she received her wings in heaven, however, I started growing restless and began doing things that my mother would never had permitted me to do, such as climbing tall trees, hopping fences, and taking visiting the park more often on my own. My dad had hired a babysitter to watch me while he was at work, but she was an old lady and fell asleep as soon as my dad left, leaving me to do as I pleased until five o'clock. It was on one of my walks around the park that something happened that would change my view of the world forever...

I was sitting underneath a big oak tree, hugging my knees to my chest, orangey-red hair falling into my eyes, big fat tears streaming out of them. 'God? Can you hear me?' I thought, staring at a bug as it skittered along in the grass. 'If so, can you please tell my mommy that I miss her a lot? And can you give me a sign to let me know that she's happy up there with you? Anything would do.'
I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And by the time I was ready to give up hope and go home, I heard it.
A tiny rustle of leaves, and a fox---a vixen I guessed---stuck its head out from a bush, its ears twitching slightly. I sat as still as I possibly could as its eyes landed on me. I looked deep into them, hardly breathing.
I think it was trying to tell me something. I didn't understand at first, something about a red-haired angel with eyes as purple as violets sending the fox, and then it hit me. I nodded my head slowly to tell the fox that I understood. It darted off, having completed its mission, and disappeared into the next bush.
My mother was happy up there in the sky with the foxes and the flowers.
I was four-years-old that day, and my mother had died two years ago.
When I was walking home from the park, I realized that I could do something that the other kids at preschool couldn't.
I could talk to foxes.
Well, not really /talk/, but I understood what they were trying to tell me, at least.

A year later, on the same day that my mother died three years ago, I woke up to the chirping of birds.
"Good morning, birdies!" I said, walking over to my windowsill in my pajamas, grinning. The birds flew away as soon as I approached, but I knew that they were wishing me a happy day. I stayed by the window, watching the cars whiz by our house and watched as the birds flew across the sky.
"Ari! Get dressed!" My dad called from the kitchen of our apartment.
"Okay, Daddy!" I called back, all ready throwing clothes out of my closet. I had picked a simple white dress with pink and purple flowers along the bottom hem of the skirt.
"Come on, Theodore!" I said, grabbing the stuffed teddy bear off my bed and running out to the kitchen.
"Hey, Ari? Can you come here for a second?" Daddy asked, sipping a cup of coffee at his desk in the den.
"Yes, Daddy?" I asked, dragging Theodore along. "What is it?"
"I want you to tell me your favorite animal, okay? The guys at work want to know a little more about you," he said, handing me a piece of paper with a bunch of animals on it. I studied the paper for a minute, looking at all the pictures.
"That one!" I said, pointing to a fox. "That's my favorite."
"Okay," Dad said, taking back the paper and scribbling something down. "Wanna go to work with me today?"
"Yeah!" I said, practically yelling it.
"Then let's go! We can eat a doughnut on the way there, okay?" He said, pulling on his jacket.
"Okay!" I replied rushing over to the door to slip into my sandals. "Hear that, Teddy? We get to go to Daddy's work!" I said, hugging the bear tightly.
Little did I know that from that day on, my life would never be the same...

We were walking along tiled hallways, bright lights shining down on us. I had to run to keep up with my father's long strides, but we soon reached our destination: A playroom for me to play in while dad was doing boring scientific work.
"Here we are, Ari," he said pushing the door open.
I squealed at the site inside.
Pillows and cushions were EVERYWHERE, calling out to me, wanting me to stack them up and make a fort for me and Teddy to hide in and be the princess and knight of a royal land. I ran inside and jumped in a pile of cushions with Teddy, hugging him tight.
And then, everything went black...

When I awoke, I immediately knew something was wrong. For one thing, an emerald liquid surrounded me, and I wasn't in the squishy room anymore...Men and women in white lab coats scurried around me, pressing buttons and turning dials and scribbling things in their clipboards.
That wasn't the only thing that was bothering me.
There was a slow, throbbing pain on the top of my head and near my tailbone. I quickly brought my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, closing my eyes tightly. I couldn't hear any thing until...
"She's awake!"
Some woman's voice called from somewhere in front of me. A blast of murmurs and whisperings flooded into my ears, and I could hear the soft whirr of machinery. 'What's going on?' I asked myself, keeping my eyes closed tightly. After what seemed like forever, listening to the whirrs and mutterings (which slowly got louder as I adapted to hearing through the liquid), and I couldn't take it anymore. I let out all my frustration into one long, loud, high-pitched scream, shattering the glass that kept the liquid in place. I fell to the bottom of the containment thingy, and lay there in a heap as the liquid splashed onto the floor. Tears streamed down out of my eyes, and at first, none of the scientists moved. Then one, I couldn't tell who because all I saw were their feet, slowly approached me and touched me on the head. Suddenly, I jumped to my feet, growled at everyone (which surprised me because I never growled like that before in my life), and ran, dodging the scientists and making my way to the door. As I ran, I noticed that I couldn't keep my balance on two feet, so I collapsed onto all fours and ran out onto the hallways. Slipping and sliding, I somehow found my way to the exit, although I didn't know how. Once outside, I bounded into a bush, trying to calm myself down and figure out what happened. 'Okay,' I thought. 'Why am I like this?' I turned around and that's when I saw it...
A nice thin little fox tail laid on the ground behind me, dark red in color. Scared, I reached up and felt around the top of my head and I felt two fox-like ears.
I gasped.
Was I a fox?
Or was I human?
'What on Earth's happening to me?'

I didn't have much time to ponder that thought, because the next second, two feet appeared in front of the bush. Not wanting to take any chances, I dashed out from beneath the bush from behind and ran to the forest behind the lab.
'They'd never find me back here,' I thought, dashing through more bushes. With every step I took, I could hear more and more things. Like birds chirping, twigs snapping, and leaves rustling. Finally, I stopped. I must've been in the middle of the woods from the density of the trees and the darkness of the shadows. 'They can't find me now...' I thought, sitting down and panting. A chill ran over my still wet body, my dress stained green and clinging to my skin.
Mentally, I started a 'To Do' list, starting with:
'Find more clothes.'
I stood up on all-fours again and began to search for something suitable enough for some makeshift clothes until I could go back home and change.
'No,' I thought. 'I can't go back home. Not now, anyways.'
I continued my search for what seemed like forever until I cam upon a giant-leafed fern. "That's it!" I shouted, sending a flock of crows into the air. I didn't care. I just ran to the fern, ripped off some of its leaves, and tried to make clothes out of them. Shedding my dress, I wrapped one around my torso, pushing a stick through the ends as a fastener, using two more leaves as a skirt. It wasn't very comfy, but it'd have to do.
"Now...Where'd Theodore go?" I whispered, sitting down and thinking. After a couple minutes, my eyes grew wide with fear.
I had left Teddy back at the lab...

"Oh, no," I whispered, my eyes still wide with fear. How was I gonna get Teddy back? He basically meant everything to me.
That was it.
I'd have to go back to my house to get both Teddy and some clothes.
There was no changing it.
I'd have to wait for nightfall, though, and I'd have to plan my rescue mission carefully. Dad would know that I'd want to get him back.
I sat there, waiting for sunset, plotting the return of my beloved teddy bear.
As soon as the sky above me began to darken, I stood up and trotted out of the forest, somehow making my way to my house in the dark. I don't really know how I did it, because all I thought about was getting Theodore back, and then hiding some place where my dad wouldn't find me.

Once at our apartment, I dashed into the alleyway, running up the fire-escape ramp and stopped at the second floor from the top. I pushed my window open, thankful that it was the only window on our floor that didn't lock. I jumped into my bedroom, hoping that Dad either put Teddy on my bed or on the table in the kitchen. I looked around, my eyes getting used to the dark, and spotted a lump on my bed. 'Teddy!' I thought, bounding over and grabbing him with my mouth. The next thing I did was opened my closet, pulled down a skirt and a t-shirt, and jumped back out of my room, not closing the window or anything.

Once on the ground, I made sure that Teddy and my clothes were secure in my mouth before heading onward.
I ran most of the night, stopping at Jump City Park when pink began to tint the eastern sky. I was so tired. I crawled underneath a bush, put my clothes off to one side, and curled up with Teddy. I let out a sigh, my head starting to hurt from all the events that happened that day, and I slowly drifted off to sleep.

The sunlight dappled my skin as I blinked my eyes open, not remembering what happened to me the other day. "Ack. My head," I muttered, rubbing it with a...wait...was that a PAW?!!! I stared at it, then was hit full-force with memories.
That's right...
I remember now.
I was now part fox...
Crud...
I sighed and wriggled out of the leaf-type clothes I had made the other day and slid into the clothes I had gotten from my room.
"Well, now what?" I mumbled, sitting down. I heard the leaves rustle in front of me, and a vixen appeared. Once again, I looked into its eyes and tried to communicate with it.
'Hello, Ari,' It seemed to be saying.
'H-How do you know my name?' I asked, a little surprised.
'Your mother told me. Remember? I was that fox who talked with you in the park a year ago.'
'Oh. How's she doing?'
'Fine. She wants me to take care of you for a while. Come, I'll show you my den.'
I followed the vixen to the middle of a park and to a pile of rocks with a hole in the front. I crawled in after her and found myself in the middle of a little burrow.
'It'll have to get bigger now since you're here, but it's okay for now. I'm not expecting pups 'til spring.'
'Thank you.' I put Teddy in a corner and lay down next to him, still tired. As my eyelids grew heavier, I found myself drifting into an easy sleep.
/Ari?/
/Yes, mom?/
/Stay safe...And remember, I'm always watching out for you.../

Something nudged my side and I immediately woke up, looking over to see what it was.
‘Ari?’
Oh.
It was Mariah, one of Vixen’s pups last spring.
‘What, Mariah?’
‘You wanna go play? Vixen says I’m too rowdy to play with this year’s pups.’
‘Not now…I’m kinda tired.’
‘Okay. Bye, Ari.’
The little fox turned and padded out from my den to let me sleep in peace.
It had been eight years since Vixen found me underneath that bush.
And I had been staying with her ever since.
Vixen had moved me out of the den I first slept in and into another since I was getting too big to fit in with both her and her pups. Every year, I helped her take care of them. I played with them and even taught them little things, like how to n** on Vixen’s ears without her getting mad, and how to dig tunnels.
Vixen thought I was just a trouble maker.
So I’ve been getting them rabbits for them to either play with or eat.
I stood up, stretched a little, pushed Teddy off to the side, and crawled out of my den and stepped onto the dewy grass.
It was how I started the average day.
But I didn’t know that around noon that my life would change.
Being what I was, I tended to stay hidden in the bushes during the day when people came strolling along, so, basically, I was a secret. Vixen brought me hotdogs or some other half-finished human food for lunch during these days and that was fine with me…
Sorta…
Mariah padded in when I was laying underneath my favorite bush (I had grown accustomed to being under them) that day and laid down next to me.
‘Hey, Ari? How come you never wanna play anymore?’ She asked me, cocking her head.
‘I’m probably tired,’ I replied. I had communicated with foxes enough that I didn’t have to look them in the eyes anymore. Mariah was the closest thing to a little sister I’ve ever had. And she was also one of my favorite pups as well.
‘Oh,’ she said, then remained quiet for a while.
After a long pause, I stood up and stretched. ‘I’m gonna go see if I can’t get something to eat.’
‘Okay. I’m gonna go back and help Mom with her pups.’
She got up too and I waited for her to exit the bush before I stuck my head out. I had to make sure that no one was around before I dashed to the trash can or else I’d had to knock someone out. It seemed clear, until…
“What the hell?!”
Oh, crap…
I froze, then slowly turned my head around and looked up.
Two boys stood behind me, one looking to be around my age and the other looking to be a couple years older. The younger one walked over to me and crouched down. “Hi,” he said. I took a couple steps out. It wasn’t very comfy to stand there with my head twisted behind me.
“Hi,” I said simply, my voice as quiet as a mouse.
He had a grin on his face. “You’re so cute,” he said.
The other boy reached out and tried to pick me up, but I backed away.
“Um…” He blinked.
I had more important things on my mind other than being picked up and petted like a cat.
“Who are you guys?” I asked, keeping my eyes on them, getting ready to run if I had to.
It was the older one who spoke.
“I’m Ben, he’s Luis, and we’re Teen Titans.” He just stared at me, blinking once or twice.
I had heard of the Titans and the good they did.
But that’s not what bothered me.
The younger one just kept staring at me, a smile plastered on his face.
It was then that Mariah bounded up to me, stared at the two boys before saying something to me and bounded off.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go,” I said in a rush and ran off after Mariah without waiting for the boys to answer.
Even when I was hidden inside my den, I knew that the younger boy’s eyes never left me.
I had a feeling that that wasn’t the last time I’d see him…