Sinister: a black fox fable

[julesmarkham]

wow! my first commission!
someone asked me to write about a jewellery project of theirs. I hope its
okay, cause I'm not sure about this one...
PS. In case you don't know, in England we call a 'broiler' a 'grill'

 The black fox jumped lightly onto the table and watched jubilee with
interest. She had a large rock resting on the table, and she was poking it
carefully with her fingers.
~What are you doing, Juby? the fox finally asked.
Jubilee frowned at the stone and patted it  thoughtfully.
-I found this in the park. I think it's the wrong shape.
she picked up the rock and turned it over in her hands. It was porous and
grey, flecked with silver.
-But I don't know how to shape it. It's rock. It's solid.
She put the stone down and sighed. The fox sniffed it carefully.
~Where did you find it?
-Just uphill from the river. Where all the hazel tree's are.
The fox touched the rock with her pointed snout.
~It doesn't smell like a Gollem.
-A what?
~Gollem. Little mud guy, kind of like a mass-produced Eric Cantona...In mud.
with little beady eyes. Wizards get them to do their heavy work. Except the
laundry, cause then they just gloop down the sinkhole and...
-Fox, what's your point, Jubilee interrupted the fox quickly, sensing a long
and meaningless story about a lump of clay called eric or something.
~My point? Uhm, I can't think of anything else it can be then.
She rolled the stone around thoughtfully.
~I think that it's not the stone that wants to change. I think there's
something inside it that wants to get out. maybe that's why it was near the
river, it was going to wash itself out.
~But stones are inanimate, Jubilee said doubtfully.
~Yes, but what's inside them isn't.
Jubilee tapped the stone.
-It's hollow, how can anything be inside it?
~It's porous, so maybe something got stuck...
Jubilee picked up the stone and put it in the sink. She turned the tap on
and waited. The water poured over the stone, it's surface darkening with the
moisture.
-Nothings happening, fox, Jubilee said finally.
The fox looked around the kitchen.
~Try the grill.
-What?
~The grill, melt it out.
Jubilee gave the fox an incredulous glance and put the rock under the grill.
she set it on full and waited patiently. After a few minutes, the silvery
flecks in the rock started to liquefy, they dripped out of the rock and
collected in the grill tray. Jubilee stared in silence as the silver flowed
back and forth like mercury, making curved, organic shapes as they moved.
When the rock stopped dripping, she turned off the heat, and took the tray
out from under the grill. She rolled the stone onto the table, where it
began to melt the Formica, and took the pan to the sink. She poured the
liquid into the sink bowl, where it writhed and twirled like a serpent. When
it was cool enough, she picked it up. It curled around her fingers,
splitting at one end to form a two-pronged fork, which probed at her skin.
-Fox, what is it?
The fox sniffed the metallic shape, which briefly assumed a vulpine face,
before shifting into a shape like a sprig of mistletoe.
~A beautiful mutant, the fox said finally.
-What do we do with it?
The mutant leaped onto Jubilee's woollen jumper, stretching out soft little
spikes that hooked into the fabric. It stilled, hanging from there in a
shape that, from a certain angle, could be the face of a fox.
~I don't think you should worry about that, the fox replied.
Jubilee stroked the silver surface of the mutant, cool and bright.

jules



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