We bind the reeds and lash the tails. We fix our mind and bend our ears.
The request be given, if it be true. Prepare to receive, if you are, too.
Uruh ee Uruh oo
Sage had sung this song to Paisley before she’d been born. It also was repeated in several of Paisley’s handmade baby books that they still read every night. Out here in the open air, with the trees and the walls and her family and clan all around, the words took on a mystical quality that soothed Sage’s heart for the first time since she’d learned her daughter had been taken.
Uruh ee Uruh oo
Uruh oo uruh ee
Chant over, the females broke apart, most of them walking to the far wall, where supply chests had been stacked.
“Be right back,” Rissa murmured, and she followed the others, leaving Frannie, Sage, and Paisley, along with three othercousins, standing with their robes tied on, looking vaguely like the squirrel suits used for base jumping.
Paisley dropped to all fours and ran around the enclosed area eerily like a fox. “Mama, mama, look at me,” she said.
Frannie hurried over to her, handing her gloves and saying, “Paisley, you’ll ruin your hands. Put these on.”
Sage only watched, her heart full and needing at the same time.
The others returned, all of them carrying baskets laden with ornamental grasses, flowers, dried foliage, branches, and stems. Rissa was barely visible behind her basket full of little bluestem and switchgrass, plus goldenrod, Black-eyed Susan, marigolds, smooth and white aster, chrysanthemums, Sweet Autumn clematis, dahlia stems, ironweed stems, and hydrangea branches.
Rissa came to Sage and began to weave bundles of meadow grasses into the robe, using craft hooks and clamps. After several moments, more women came and helped Rissa, and soon Sage’s hood was up, and her robe was heavy and fragrant. She couldn’t see Paisley, but she could hear her laughing and singing, ‘vyanya-time,vyanya-time’.
The women around her broke apart again, all of their eyes on her. Paisley, in the cutest little fox suit Sage had ever seen, said, “Mama, you are a beautiful fox.”
Sage smiled and wiped away a tear. She walked to a mirror on the wall and stared, as Paisley came up next to her and held her hand. Standing, they looked like two people wearing finely textured, natural and elaborate, hooded fox costumes that draped down their backs and the backs of their arms, with grasses for fur undercoat, goldenrod for texture, and Black-eyed Susans for golden-orange highlights. The ‘face’ was accented with zinnias, and dark coneflower centers served as ‘eyes’. Stiff grass formed sharp, upright ears.
They turned to see their beautiful flowing tails, made from fountain grass plumes layered with amaranth flowers, and a bit of white Dusty Miller at the tip.
Sage smiled at her daughter, and Paisley smiled back, then ran off to check out Frannie’s suit, leaving Sage watching her go, looking like a fox made from flowers.
Paisley dropped to all fours, then trotted around in a circle around Frannie, then Frannie dropped down too and they chased each other. When they moved, their flexible suits relaxed in a way that made them look like actual foxes—beautiful, whimsical foxes made out of the very flora and fauna of the area.
The women laughed beautifully and encouraged the antics of the girls. More youngsters dropped to their hands and ran through the area yipping and whistling, bringing more laughter and calls.
When the laughter settled, Sage could hear male laughter and similar yipping coming from the men’s nearby Forecourt.
Bristol brought an oversized bouquet of seasonal grasses and flowers and put it in Sage’s hands—her offering to Rhen. At 5’8’’, Aunt Bristol was taller than most of the women in their clan. She had chin-length brown hair, an angular face, and regal bearing. Bristol kissed Sage on each cheek and said, “This will be brought to the Throne for you, but it must be handled by you and spoken over by us all first.”
Sage looked at the bouquet, full of Illinois fall flowers, and brought it to her face. She smelled each flower and spoke over it saying, “Lovely, thank you, lovely, thank you, I offer the best and most beautiful to Rhen.”
Bristol smiled. “All are from your garden at the Inn.”
Sage didn’t know how to respond. She hadn’t tended her garden plot at the Inn in years.Was it overgrown? Or tended to by others?
From somewhere nearby, an ear-splitting whistle reached them.
“It’s time,” Bristol said, and she squeezed Sage’s hands, then stepped back and stripped naked. She folded her clothes neatly, then shifted into a slim red fox with curious eyes and a luxurious tail. The others around them also shifted, until only a handful of them, all in fox suits, were left standing.
Someone yipped, and then they were all yipping and whistling and laughing, with some barking and shrieking, some whines, howls and yelps. From nearby, the males answered, and the yips and shrieks became intense. Sage had her eyes on Paisley, pleased to see that Paisley never lost her delight, even when some of the cries sounded scary.
On all fours, Paisley yip-yip-yipped along with the females, straining toward the open doorway, as they all left in a unit, 30 or so foxes, and 12 non-shiftingfoxenfemales in fox-suits.
Outside, the males streamed out of the male enclosure in a similar way to the females, but only with—Sage counted—14 foxes and 23 non-shifting males in fox suits. The night was dark and cold and their breath steamed above the groups, lit up by moonlight.
The way was lit by strings of lights and they all streamed into the forest, merging and mingling. Once in the forest, they followed the trail. Sage lost sight of Paisley, and she was okay with it… for a little while. They ran on, Sage sometimes on all fours, but mostly jogging on her feet. Her suit was heavy, but comfortable, and if she got too hot, she lowered the hood and opened her arms wide, allowing the breeze to cool her from the suit’s ‘belly.’
