I couldn't help smiling at the sight of our village. The trip home had been much slower than I had expected. Those slow humans had tested my patience more than I thought they would.

  After passing a few tents, we arrived at the longhouse and met a group of villagers in the process of freezing down the human corpses they brought home. Every fox halted their work and stared hungrily at our living humans. Naleighya got up from her task and came to meet us.

  She looked our humans up and down and said. “ I'm impressed. You weren't quick, but having two hunters transport seven humans in one trip makes up for that.”

  I beamed from getting praise from someone other than Mother, and with a face-splitting grin, I replied. “ Sometimes it pays off to not immediately kill our prey. These humans did a great job as a labor force.

  “ Can't deny the results. The next time you have a weird idea, I might be more inclined to give you the chance.” Naleighya said before her eyes fixated on the humans.

  Before I managed to respond, Naleighya rushed past me, and a sudden, terrified scream erupted behind me. Startled, I turned towards the noise and saw Naleighya tearing chunks of flesh out from the neck of one of the humans.

  “ Wait, wait. Don't kill him.” I shouted at Naleighya while rushing toward them, I grabbed her shoulder in the hope of stopping her before the man perished.

  Naleighya turned and snarled ferociously at me, her hunger glowing in her eyes. I reflexively jumped back and had to restrain myself from snarling back. Naleighya quickly resumed her meal, and the only sounds remaining were the sickly noises of flesh tearing.

  The poor human bound to Naleighya's victim tried to keep his distance from the feeding woman. His eyes were wide, and he held his hands over his mouth, like he tried to avoid throwing up at the sight.

  I let out a sigh, disappointed by losing one of the humans I had tried so hard to keep alive. Wanting to spare my humans this brutal scene, I moved close enough to slash the rope binding them to their now dead friend.

  The human flinched at my movement, and I pulled forcefully on the rope, stopping the human from running off in panic. I managed to pull them a few feet away from the spectacle before checking to see if they were both still fine. Both humans had the thousand-yard stare engraved in their eyes, and I regretted that I didn't have the foresight to avoid this situation.

  The scent of fresh blood filled the air, awaking the deep hunger I had been suppressing all day. I tore my eyes off the exposed flesh of Naleighya’s meal while trying to calm my growing hunger. As I tried to calm myself, I noticed the loud sound of the humans' hearts beating in full panic. The thump thump of each heartbeat ringing through my head like a song, egging me on.

  I felt my hunger trying to seize control of my body, and my eyes locked on my humans. The movement of their chests, moving in rhythm with their beating hearts, suddenly felt like pieces of mesmerizing art, and I had to fight to control my murderous instincts.

  The terrifying eyes of the humans woke me from my hunger trance, and I shook my head, trying to dispel my thoughts of tearing through the flesh of my human. I wiped my mouth of drool and tugged on the rope harder than I had intended.

  The robed man nearly stumbled from my tug, and I started walking towards my little house, wanting to get away from this temptation.

  “ Remember your promise, don't try to eat my human now,” Arissa said loudly behind me.

  “ I turned, and forced a fake smile on my face before saying.” Don't worry, I keep my word as always.” And with that, I rushed towards my house, feeling several hungry eyes glaring at my back.

  I urged the humans into my house, and as soon as they entered my light-deprived home, they started stumbling around. I facepalmed myself, forgetting that humans couldn't see well in the dark. I slowly guided the humans by their leash into the main room of my house and tied them to my dresser, the only furniture I had.

  I made my way outside again and used my claws to cut off branches of the surrounding trees. After gathering enough firewood, I tore off some bark for good measure before I returned to my house.

  I overheard the humans whispering to each other before I had even entered, and I lingered outside for a few minutes, trying my best to get a feel for their language.

  Annoyed to not be able to understand a single word they said, I entered. They immediately ceased their whisperings, and I had to hold back my laughter. If they thought I wouldn't hear them if they didn't speak, they didn't know anything about celestial snow foxes. I could clearly hear them breathe, and the sounds of their rapidly beating hearts were unmistakable.

  Trying to reassure them a little, I announced myself by name before I put down the newly acquired firewood. I found the old backpack I had gotten from the elves years ago and managed to find the flint and tinder. I filled the fireplace and started hitting the flint and tinder together. After nearly five minutes of struggling, I finally managed to get a spark to ignite the bark, and I grinned to myself at my success.

  The fire spread, and shortly after, my fireplace lit up the entire room. This was only the third or fourth time I had even made a fire in my house, and I hoped I could endure the heat better than the last couple of times.

  I went over to the humans and undid their leashes. Both men flinched at my touch, and I clearly heard their heart rate increase when I got near them. I sighed and thought that this might prove more difficult then I had imagined, Naleighya had really screwed up my plans by eating her human as soon as we had arrived, and they were just as skittish as they were this morning.

  I took out the remaining water, some jerky, and handed it to the men. Both hesitated before accepting it, and both bowed to me in turn. I pointed to the robed man and asked. “ Harvey? “

  The man nodded and repeated his name. I then pointed to the other and shrugged, not remembering who was who.

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  He carefully responded “ Finley” before he stuffed his jerky into his mouth. I repeated his name before I held my paw out to him, hoping handshaking was a thing these humans did. With hesitation, Harvey took my paw and shook it. I repeated my name and held my paw to Finley in the same manner.

  After hesitating a bit more than Harvey, he took my paw and repeated his name. I nodded in confirmation and smiled at them, but instead of reassuring them, I only managed to send shivers through both men. Uncertain what I did wrong, I tried pointing at them, imitated a shiver before tilting my head at them, and shrugged in a questioning gesture.

  Both men just stared at me with fear in their eyes, and it was obvious that they didn't dare to point out whatever I did to scare them this time. Annoyed, I crossed my arms and pouted to show my displeasure.

  Whatever reaction they had expected from me, this wasn't one of them. Harvey’s expression went from one of fear to one of amusement, and he said something off-handed to Finley. I repeated the pointing and shivering motions again before ending it with a shrug.

  This time, Harvey hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth and pointed to his teeth, then pointed to me. Realization hit me, and I used my paw to feel my teeth. I did have fairly long fangs both in my upper and lower jaw, but I was so used to everyone having such teeth that I hadn't realized how the humans could interpret my smile. I then tried to smile without showing my teeth and gave Harvey a thumbs up with my paw. Harvey gave me a nervous laugh and gave me a thumbs-up back.

  I considered what I could try next when I heard a loud voice from outside. “ Lunaria! What foolish idea have you come up with now?” I flinched at hearing Mother’s stern voice. I immediately rushed towards the door and found Mother on the other side, her foul mood written all over her face.

  I scratched the back of my head, and let a nervous chuckle escape my mouth before saying. “ Oh, hey Mother, I take it the others mentioned the results of our recent hunt.”

  “ What I heard is that you kept humans alive and brought them to your little dirt cave,” she said while her eyes were shooting daggers at me.

  “ That might not be completely incorrect. But the humans proved incredibly useful, you know. With their help, me and Arissa I managed to transport seven humans back, even Naleighya was impressed.” I replied, ready to stand up for myself.

  “She did mention something of the sort. But that doesn't explain why you haven't killed the humans yet!. They must be here, it reeks of fire and humans here.” she retorted back.

  “Where else should I put them? If I had taken them anywhere else, someone would have eaten them.” replied.

  “And what is wrong with that? You are not supposed to play around with your food,” she simply stated.

  “But Mother. I want to learn from the humans. They are great at building and making tools. I also want to learn about the wider world. If I simply eat them, I won't learn anything.” I said in a pleading voice.

  She raised her eyebrow and gave me a condescending look before letting her breath out and said. “ Oh Lunaria, you are something else. I have never heard about anyone wanting to learn from humans before. I hope you know how vile those creatures can be, they will backstab you at the first opportunity.”

  I rolled my eyes and replied. “ I know there is quite a lot we can learn from them. And every race will act vile towards you if you treat them like crap. From their perspective, we are the vile ones. We hunt and eat them after all. Do you have any idea how terrified they are of us?”

  “The weak always fear the strong, it is only right that they fear us. And I don't see what we can learn from such an inferior species.” She replied in an irritated voice.

  I took a deep breath, readying myself to convince Mother and said. “Even if you can't see the benefits of learning from them, that doesn't mean there isn't anything to gain there. I am sure that I could learn a lot of useful information from them, if I treat them decently and learn their language, I’m sure there will be a treasure trove of information. For example, I could get information on the closest settlements of humans, to either avoid those areas or to plan a bigger hunting expedition. That is only one of the simpler things I could learn.”

  Mother spent a moment to consider my words before she replied. “ That might be useful information in the long run, but what will you do with the humans? They stink and everyone will notice their scent and they will want to eat them, even I have the urge to go inside and start eating.”

  I held my paws towards Mother, hoping she couldn't just bypass me and end my plans for the humans. When she didn't move, I said. “ I do have a plan. Humans can eat plants, so I wouldn't need to share my prey with them, and as soon as I learn their language, I can get them to perform tasks for us, tasks that everyone hates to do. For example, to empty the latrines, or to tan hides for us. I think people would be more inclined to leave them alone if they performed meaningful tasks for us. All I need is the chance to show the others the benefits of having a few slaves. Come on in and see how harmless these humans are.”

  “I'm still not sure about this. Every instinct in me is screaming that this is wrong, but let's see how harmless they look.” She replied in an uncertain tone

  Mother followed me inside, and as soon as we entered the main room, the humans flinched when they saw Mother, and she snarled at them in response.

  I instantly jumped between them and held my paws towards Mother's shoulders as I said in a firm tone,” Don't kill them, please, look at the pitiful creatures. They are cowering on the floor at your little outburst.”

  The humans did indeed cower on the floor. They looked horrified and held their hands In a defensive manner, I also noticed a faint whiff of fresh urine, and I had to restrain myself from face-palming.

  Mother pulled back and got control over her murderous tendencies before she crossed her arms and said,” Pathetic is a better word to describe them. They would serve better as food than anything else. I don't see how you are willing to go so far to keep them alive.”

  I sighed in relief and replied. “ They had a rough day, and they have seen what we do with their dead, so it's only natural that they are afraid. I will correct their behavior, all I need is a bit of time to train them, you can't possibly think these humans pose any threat to me, or any of the other villagers?”

  Mother let out a low snort before she retorted.” Threat? Don't make me laugh.”

  I gave her a gentle smile, which made the humans shiver in fear before I said,” Then, if there isn't any threat, why can't I get the chance to prove my usefulness? Give me 30 days, and if you deem my project as a failure, we can always just eat them. We don't lose anything from letting me attempt to train them.”

  She eyed the humans for a few seconds before letting her breath out and said,” Fine, have it your way. You have 30 days to prove that the humans are worth keeping alive. Don't let them bother any of the other villagers, and will announce under the next communal meal that they are your slaves, and off limits.”

  I had to resist the urge to pump my paw into the air in a fist and scream Yes! Instead, I took a deep breath, smiled, and said,” Yes, Mother, I will do my best not to let you down.”

  Wanting to prove that I could do this, I called the names of the humans and then sat down on my knees and bowed to Mother. I then pointed to them, hoping they would repeat my actions.

  Both humans grasped my meaning right away and started bowing to her while still sitting on the ground. I couldn't help smiling at the sight, and neither could Mother.

  She let out a chuckle and said. Cute. At least they can show some proper respect to their superiors. But I'm only giving you 30 days, use them well.”

  And with that, she turned and walked out of my little house. I turned towards my humans, and imitated wiping my forehead before I gave them a thumbs up and smiled, trying my best to avoid showing teeth.