Foxcraft: Chapter 5 Analysis Part 1

The Value of Wisdom

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

It seems the small dog doesn’t want Isla killed after all. She eyes both dogs as she prepares for attack, but they turn their aggression on each other, much to her astonishment.

The small dog behaves strangely, yawning and grooming his paw as though deaf to the other dog’s threats. Isla uses this distraction to get away, wondering why the small dog is so odd.

The previous chapter ended with a phrase Isla and her brother would often joke about:

“Mad fox.

Bad fox.

Just another dead fox.” (pg.53)

It hits harder here. Her Greatma told them they shouldn’t use it as a joke and she thinks of this as a dog threatens to rip her to shreds. Thankfully, the second dog provides a much-needed distraction. Isla is still suspicious of him, but she takes full advantage of it and makes her escape.

Isla recognizes that going into that yard was a risk, and she berates herself for chasing a rat there. But what I especially love about this chapter is how we’re still given more hope that Isla is strong enough to survive on her own.

Consider what Isla does when she finds prey she doesn’t want. She’s already found it difficult to hunt, and now she has to rely on beetles when hunger strikes. Not only are they tiny, but she hates the bitter taste, and her situation summons a memory of her Greatma.

Photo by Cristian Castillo on Unsplash

As with the ending phrase at the end of Chapter Four, Greatma’s wisdom really shines here despite her being absent. It confirms exactly why Isla was so happy to see the elder vixen who snarled at her, the young cub assuming her to be wise because of her age.

Greatma once told Isla how the fox has suffered greatly because of humans:

“‘Since the dawn of time, our kind has been hunted: tortured, attacked, and turned into the pelts to warm the necks of the furless. They have shot us for fun and chased us as a game — they do not even eat those they kill… The land of the furless is full of deaths and each one whispers a fox’s name.’”(pg.57)

She used this knowledge to help teach Isla to do what she could to stay alive. At the time, Isla never understood what Greatma meant when she said fox chose to survive. Only when she’s thrown into a scenario where she’s forced to live without her skulk does it come to her.

She chokes down the bitter-tasting insect, downing as many of them as she can. I feel this also applies to her attitude when the wolf insulted her. She sees nothing wrong with scavenging. She has the same instinct that has kept fox alive, a legacy her Greatma tried to teach about.

Not only does Isla have the will to go on, she carries the wisdom of her elders with her. But unfortunately, she’s had to learn the hard way that not all elders are as wise as her family.

Photo by Charles Jackson on Unsplash

Eventually, Isla spots the small dog again, and this is when things really start to take a turn. Isla catches the dog spying on her, but he dashes away as she gives chase, and she demands to know why he’s following her.

Extraordinary things happen as she chases him. They slip around across roads, rush by buildings, and at one moment, she spots the dog’s reflection. But it’s that of a fox, not a dog. The dog doesn’t cast a shadow either and she detects a scent that’s quite unfitting.

The dog looks dirty, yet Isla smells something she detected when they were confronted by the first dog. A sweet odor that doesn’t smell like something that would come from a creature that looks so filthy.

Only when she catches up to him does she get answers. While he snarls at her to stay away, he still seems as calm as before when he speaks, telling her he’s in disguise, a form of foxcraft he calls wa’akkir. This fox’s name is Sifrin, and he claims to be a messenger.

As the fox reveals details about himself, things start to slip into place for Isla: the claws she’d heard the night she chased the mouse, the creature of thick grey fur she previously saw staring at her, the scent of young fox she smelled when she’d met the old vixen.

Sifrin has been following her around the entire time, from the moment Karka and her skulk had shown up to Isla’s den. Like Isla’s father, he came from the Wildlands. But it’s not her father he’s looking for. It’s her brother.

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