Meeting Toby

Maisie was supposed to be watching Archie. That was what Papa Whit had said before the two kits wandered off toward the meadow — stay close to your brother — and Maisie had nodded, and meant it, right up until Archie found a grasshopper.

The grasshopper jumped. Archie jumped after it. It jumped again, and so did he, and by the time Maisie caught up with him he was halfway across the meadow with his whole nose buried in the grass.

"Archie!"

He looked back, unbothered. "What?"

"You're supposed to stay by me."

"I was."

"You were all the way over here."

He pointed at the grass as if this settled the matter entirely. "He moved." The grasshopper jumped again, right on cue, and Archie turned to follow it before Maisie caught his shoulder.

"Don't."

"Fine."

She started toward the creek instead, and he trailed after her, kicking half-heartedly at tufts of grass, until something rustled near the edge of the meadow and Maisie stopped so fast Archie ran straight into her back.

"Ow."

"Shh."

The grass moved again. Archie leaned around her to look. "What is it?"

"I don't know."

"Is it big?"

"I don't know."

"Does it eat foxes?"

She shot him a look. "I don't know."

"You don't know very much today," he said, which was exactly when something black and white came crashing out of the grass.

"HI!"

Maisie screamed. Archie screamed because Maisie screamed. A puppy came bouncing straight at them, ears flopping with every stride, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth, his whole back half wagging along with his tail.

"Wanna play?"

Maisie didn't answer that question. She ran. Archie ran after her. The puppy, delighted, ran after both of them.

"Wait!"

She looked back and saw him gaining ground with alarming ease.

"Faster!"

"I am fast!"

"No, you're not!"

"Yes, I am!"

Behind them the puppy barked, thoroughly enjoying himself. "This is fun!" Maisie could not have disagreed more, and when she spotted an old hollow log tucked beneath a tree at the edge of the woods, she dove for it without slowing down. Archie squeezed in right behind her — except his back paws didn't quite make it inside.

"Move!"

"I am moving!"

"Your feet are outside!"

"I know!"

She grabbed him and hauled, and his paws vanished into the log the same instant the puppy skidded to a stop right outside.

"Hello?" Neither fox so much as breathed. "Where'd you go?"

That was when Archie's nose started to twitch, and Maisie saw it happening a full second before it did.

"No—"

He sneezed anyway. The puppy's head turned straight toward the log. "I heard that."

"Maybe he didn't," Archie whispered.

"I did."

Maisie slowly poked her head out. The puppy was sitting a few feet away now, tongue hanging out, tail thumping the ground — considerably less frightening sitting still than he'd been at a dead sprint.

"Why were you chasing us?" she asked.

He tilted his head, genuinely puzzled. "Because you ran."

"We were running away from you."

"Oh." He thought about that for a moment, visibly working through it. "But you were running really fast."

"That's because you were chasing us!"

"Oh." His tail slowed to a stop, and Archie chose that exact moment to poke his own head out from underneath Maisie's.

"You have funny ears."

"Archie."

"What?"

The puppy perked right back up. "They're floppy."

"I know," Archie said, delighted. "Can you move them?"

The puppy shook his head as hard as he possibly could — flap-flap-flap-flap — and Archie burst out laughing so hard he nearly fell back into the log.

"Do it again!"

"Archie—"

"What?" He did it again anyway, and this time Maisie almost laughed too. Almost. She crawled the rest of the way out and brushed a leaf off her fur while the puppy stayed put, watching her with real interest.

"What's your name?"

"Maisie." From inside the log came Archie's muffled voice — "I'm Archie" — and the puppy leaned sideways trying to see him.

"I'm Toby."

A single paw appeared from the log opening and waved. Toby waved back with his whole leg. A moment later Archie finally crawled out and walked a slow, deliberate circle around him, studying him from every angle while Toby turned his head to track him the entire way around.

"Can you fetch?"

Toby's ears shot straight up. "Can I fetch?"

Archie grabbed a stick off the ground and held it up. "This?"

"Yes!"

"How far?"

"As far as you can throw it!"

Archie wound up and threw with everything he had. The stick landed four steps away. Nobody said anything for a second. He cleared his throat.

"I meant to do that."

Maisie clapped a paw over her mouth, but Toby didn't care in the slightest — he tore off after the stick, snatched it up, and came bounding straight back. "Again!" Archie threw it again, this one landing even closer, and Maisie finally lost it laughing while Archie shoved the stick at her. "You do it."

She took it and hurled it clean across the meadow. Toby's eyes went enormous.

"WHOA!"

He shot after it like he'd been fired from something. "He's fast," Archie said, watching him go.

"Too fast."

Toby grabbed the stick, came racing back — and kept going, straight past them both.

"Toby!"

He skidded to a stop several yards beyond them, spun around, and trotted back with the stick still clamped in his mouth. "I forgot to stop," he explained, and that finally did it — Maisie laughed until she had to sit down.

For a while the three of them just played fetch, Toby retrieving every stick they threw and one Archie hadn't actually thrown at all, until Archie picked up a rock and Maisie snatched it straight out of his paw.

"No rocks."

"I knew that."

"You were about to throw it."

"I was looking at it."

"You had your paw behind your head."

He shrugged, entirely unrepentant. "I look at things differently."

Eventually Toby dropped the stick altogether and announced, with real pride, "I'm really good at hiding too."

Maisie eyed him. "You are?"

"The best." He bolted behind a bush, and his entire tail stuck straight out the other side of it.

"Found you," Archie said immediately.

"No, you didn't."

"Your tail is right there."

There was a pause. Toby's head reappeared from behind the bush, looked back at his own tail, and processed this new information. "Oh." He tried a different bush next, and this time his back legs stuck out instead, which sent Archie into a fresh round of laughing before Toby had even finished settling in. "This bush is too small," Toby complained, and moved on to a tree — wide enough to hide his whole body, except that one floppy ear poked out on each side.

Maisie sat down in the grass. "Toby. We can see your ears."

The ears vanished. A nose appeared around the trunk instead. "Now?"

Archie fell over laughing in the grass. Toby stepped out and frowned at the tree like it had personally failed him. "This game is harder than fetch."

"You're terrible at hiding," Maisie told him.

"I am not."

"You might be the worst hider I've ever seen."

Toby considered the meadow, then the two of them, weighing something. "What if I chase instead?"

Maisie's smile faded a little, and for once Toby noticed — he didn't immediately take off running, just watched her carefully. Archie looked at Maisie. Maisie looked at Toby. Then, after a moment, she pointed toward the big oak tree at the far end of the meadow.

"You have to count first."

"Why?"

"So we get a head start."

"How many?"

"Ten."

Toby dropped both front paws over his eyes without another word of protest. "ONE!"

Maisie grabbed Archie by the paw. "Go!"

They tore off through the grass while Toby's count rang out behind them, wildly uneven — "TWO! THREE!" — fast enough that Maisie shouted back over her shoulder that he was counting too fast, which only made him slow down and stretch the next one out into a long, dramatic "FOOOOUR!" that had Archie laughing even mid-sprint. By "FIIIIVE!" they'd reached the oak, and Maisie hauled Archie down behind it just as the count ticked past eight and then nine, and on "TEN!" Toby's paws dropped from his eyes.

"I'm coming!"

Archie peered up at his sister. "Now what?"

"Now we run."

They burst out from behind the tree with Toby already charging after them, ears flying, paws pounding the grass flat. This time Maisie didn't bother looking for the hollow log — she ran straight out across the open meadow instead, Archie pumping his little legs beside her as fast as they'd go.

"He's getting closer!"

"I know!"

"What do we do?"

She glanced back. Toby was gaining fast, tongue out, those absurd ears bouncing with every stride, and something about the sheer joy on his face made her start laughing even as she ran. "Run faster!" They made it about halfway across before Archie finally gave up and collapsed straight into the grass.

"I quit."

Maisie dropped down beside him, and Toby tried to stop too — sliding straight past both of them for the second time that afternoon before circling back around.

"Did I win?"

Archie rolled onto his back, chest heaving. "No."

"Why not?"

He thought about it, seriously, for several seconds. "I don't know."

Toby turned to Maisie instead. "Did you win?"

"No."

"Then who won?"

She flopped down into the grass next to Archie. "Nobody."

Toby stared at the two of them, deeply unimpressed. "That is a terrible game." Archie started laughing at that, and Maisie joined him, and Toby tried very hard to look offended about the whole thing — though his tail, still going, gave him away completely.

That was when a small movement caught Archie's eye. The grasshopper had come back, landing on a blade of grass right beside him. He sat up slowly.

"Archie."

He froze.

The grasshopper jumped. His eyes followed it helplessly.

"Don't."

He looked at Maisie. He looked at Toby. He looked back at the grasshopper. Toby leaned in, curious. "What is it?"

Archie grinned. "Come on."

The grasshopper jumped again, and Archie took off after it with Toby right on his heels, the two of them vanishing together into the tall grass. Maisie watched them go and sighed.

Apparently, she was watching two of them now.