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She was set to be married in the morning. She really shouldn't be out in the forest, but then, she really didn't want to get married.
Her dress tore on the bushes, her feet started to bleed. She couldn't go back. The further she went, the more she dreaded explaining herself to her parents.
He's such a nice man, they would say. I don't understand why you're being so difficult about this.
They weren't the ones signing their life away to a man who never smiled.
She started walking faster. She started to jog, then started to run. She knew what had to happen.
She could live a life without joy, or she could live a life full of laughter.
Her feet led her to a clearing, bleeding made worse by her frantic pace. There, under the moonlight, she saw them.
The fox brides.
Tricky little changeling creatures, not human anymore but not quite the same as a normal fox. They were waiting for her, waiting for her to choose.
As if it was a choice. She'd take being hunted by those who claimed to love her any day, if it meant she could keep laughing.
She wasn't a poor lost soul, and she wasn't a helpless victim. She shed her wedding dress of cotton for a wedding dress of fur, and she did so fully knowing the cost.
Her family would try to hunt her down, but they'd have to catch her first.
And everyone knows foxes always get the last laugh.