The Fox Guarding the Henhouse: Chapter 3 (Patreon)

The sun was setting once again over Brown Farms; time for Frederick the fox to get to work.

The first evening went by without any issues… well, aside from the trouble Darlene the hen tried to stir up. But Frederick hadn’t seen hide nor feather of the rotund macro around part of the henhouse. And frankly that suited him just fine; he’d rather not deal with her for as long as he didn’t have to.

The fox put on his new guard uniform and prepared his trusty baton and flashlight. He adjusted his tie and marched out to get into position. The fox faced the prairie, took a defensive stance… and marched. It was his second night as the fox guarding the henhouse… the second of many, he hoped.

Time ticked by slowly, just as it did the previous night. It was dark, of course, and the air was filled with the sounds of crickets doing their usual routine.

As Frederick marched back and forth, his mind began to wonder something he hadn’t had the time last night. Exactly who or what would want to break into a henhouse filled with macro hens? Hens big enough to swallowed an average anthro whole? Frederick scratched his chin to think…

Anthros came in many sizes. There had to be some who were considered macros even to the local macros. Something big enough to swallow Darlene, or even several other hens? It would have to be MASSIVE. An anthro of that size would have to be NOTORIOUS around the countryside; making the earth shake beneath their feet, stirring everyone up into a panicked frenzy from miles away.

And yet, for all of Frederick’s travels through these parts, he never heard any stories of rampaging macros. Perhaps all the locals were tame or domesticated, or all the biggest threats were already neutralized by the government…

So that returned Frederick to his original line of wonder; what was around to try and go after these macro hens?

Frederick turned around once again to resume his rounds… when he heard a strange squeak beneath his foot. Puzzled, the fox looked down. At first he saw nothing… until he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Something had just barely passed out of the edge of the reach of his flashlight and into the darkness. The fox raised an eyebrow, and adjusted his flashlight to cover a wider reach…

Once again he saw something scurrying to get out of the light; a tiny little tail. At first Frederick thought he’d just spooked some wild feral animal… but then he hear a peculiar jingling noise. And the light of his flashlight caused something to shimmer beside its body…

And then the creature tripped and yelled out instinctively. “Ouch!”

The fox’s eyes widened; it was a micro! He didn’t know what the micro was doing out there, or what it was holding… so why not find out?

“Freeze!” Frederick yelled as he dashed forward, focusing his flashlight on the micro. The furball yelped and got back up to run away, gasping and groaning as it tried to carry whatever it was holding.

The micro was fast, but the fox was faster; pretty soon Frederick was able to stomp his foot down to the side of the furball. They were knocked off their own feet and sent crashing down, slamming into their object in the process. They stopped running and groaned as they shifted around. That was Frederick’s moment to reach down and grab the micro on the waist. He lifted them up as their limbs flailed wildly; he pointed the flashlight at them to get a good look.

It was a mouse, wearing loose clothing and some kind of mask; Frederick could tell right away they were a mouse by their distinct ears and tail, of course. Said mouse tried not to panic as he attempted to scratch and claw at the fox’s hand to get loose.

“Heh…” Frederick panted. “I caught you…”

“Put me down, you jerk!” The mouse yelled in an unnatural deep voice.

“Not until I find out what you were doing out here…” Frederick turned his head down and reached for the object. “Now, let’s see what you were carrying around…”

He shined his flashlight right on the object… which turned out to be a large, golden key. Curious, Frederick held his flashlight in his jaws as he reached down to grasp it. He quickly put the key in a pocket, before taking his flashlight out of his maw and panting.

“Running around with a key, eh?” The fox asked confidently as he raised an eyebrow. “Whatever you were up to, you’re busted.”

“Good job.”

“Thanks. I…”

Frederick blinked; that voice came from BEHIND. The mouse had frozen in shock, and was shivering as he looked at something behind the fox. Frederick gulped and very slowly turned around to see what it was…

It was a pair of big, yellow eyes. They loomed off in the distance above Frederick’s head and were focused directly on him. With a shaking paw, the fox reached for his flashlight and pointed it at the eyes to get a better look. Just as he feared… they belonged to a black cat. The biggest cat that he’d ever seen.

The cat was lounging on the grass, wearing burlap cloth to cover his body. His tail lightly brushed up and down, and he rested his head on a paw as he appraised the fox and mouse.

Frederick’s mind was in a panic. He’d never considered that a black cat would be perfect at sneaking around at night. They were always so quiet, even at macro sizes. This guy could have been watching Frederick the whole time last night, waiting for the right moment to try something.

“What’s the matter, foxy?” The cat asked with a playful voice. “I haven’t yoinked your tongue away, have I?”

The fox very carefully put his flashlight down, and tried to resist dropping the mouse as he flailed even more wildly.

“Let me go let me go let me go!!!” The mouse pleaded. Frederick held a tighter grip on the mouse, as he very slowly and cautiously reached for a walkie-talkie on his belt. The cat simply raised an eyebrow as he watched the fox flick on the device to speak into it.

“F-Farmer Brown?” Frederick called into it as he backed up slowly. “C-Come in, Sir.”

“Hmm? Frederick?” The farmer’s voice asked on the other end. “What’s the matter?”

“Sir, there’s a…” The fox gulped. “A macro cat, just sitting around a short distance from the farm.”

“A macro…?” The bull began, only to chuckle a little. “Is he a black cat with a tail that’s tipped white?”

“Huh?” Frederick blinked. He shuffled his belongings around to grasp the flashlight again, all the while not dropping the protesting mouse. After a quick inspection, he saw the white fur on the macro’s tail-tip.

“Uh… yeah, I see it.” Frederick said into the talkie-talkie.

“Ah. Well… then there’s nothing to worry about.” Brown replied. “As you were, Frederick.”

“Wait, what?” The fox asked in confusion. He looked up at the cat incredulously.

“I guess we haven’t been formally introduced…” The cat stretched out his back and shook his tail around. “Welcome to Brown Farm. I’m McAvity. I keep a watch over the farmer’s grains.”

“You… work for Farmer Brown?” The fox asked in bewilderment.

“That I do.” The cat grinned. “There are quite a number of macro mice out there, always trying to steal people’s entire grain silos. Normally the micro mice are too freaked out to get anywhere near…” McAvity looked right at the fox’s captive and smirked. “But I guess this little one is too foolish for his own good.”

The fox looked over the captive once again; he’d almost forgotten about the key. Once again, he flipped on the walkie-talkie, and hoped he hadn’t annoying his boss already.

“What is it, Frederick?” Brown asked.

“I’m sorry, Sir, but McAvity distracted me from something else…” The fox tried to sound more confident. “But do you happen to have any golden keys missing?”

“What?”

“See, I happened to catch a mouse running around, carrying some kind of key.” The fox continued.

“What?!” Brown sounded genuinely surprised this time.

“Is he… Another employee I don’t know about?” The fox dared to ask.

“Most certainly NOT.” The farmer boomed. “Bring him and the key to the front door immediately.”

“I’m on my way, Sir.” The fox nodded, before shutting off the walkie-talkie. The mouse squeaked in fright and flailed even more wildly.

“No no no no NO!” The mouse tried to scratch at the fox’s hand. “Put me down, you big jerk!”

Frederick simply held the mouse tighter, and marched around the side of the henhouse. He paused to look up at McAvity, who smirked and leaned against the grass again.

“He’s in big trouble now, eh?” The cat laughed. “Good job on catching your first perp, and only on your second night.”

“Thanks…” Frederick said. The fox took a step… but then something dawned on him. He turned to glance back up at the macro. “You were out here light night, right?”

“Right.” McAvity nodded.

“And you saw me on patrol?”

“Yes.” The cat said.

“So… why didn’t you do or say anything when Darlene swallowed me?”

McAvity grinned wider. “Because it was funny.”

Frederick balked. He would have yelled angrily, but the clawing and biting mouse reminded him of a job to dl. So he turned on his heels and marched straight to the farmer’s house. The cat said nothing, and simply snickered as he watched him go.

~~…~~

When Frederick got to the door of the farmer’s house, he saw Buck and Evangeline standing with the kitchen light turned on. The fox walked up, held up the mouse, and reached in for the key.

“This is the mouse I caught.” Frederick said as he held out the key. “And here’s what he had on him.”

The mouse had stopped clawing at this point, and was now frozen in fear under the angry glare of the farmer. Buck calmly took the key from Frederick and held it up to inspect it.

“This is the key to the grain silo…” Buck growled. He cast a furious glare down at the mouse. “I should have known it would be YOU.”

“You rotten little double-crosser.” Evangeline scowled. “You… You traitor!”

The mouse stammered and stuttered. Frederick was spooked as well, even though he’d only been doing his job; he’d never seen either of them so angry before.

“I… I’m guessing you know him?” Frederick asked.

“Oh, I know him alright…” Evangeline glowered. “He USED to work as a farmhand here!”

Buck put the key away in his pocket, before he leaned down to scowl right into the mouse’s eyes.

“You have a lot of NERVE, Pate!”

The mouse squeaked, unable to look away.

“Err… What should I do with him?” Frederick asked nervously. “Should we call the local sheriff?”

“No…” Buck shook his head. “Give him to Evangeline. She’ll handle it from here.”

“If you say so…” The fox turned to hand Pate over to Evangeline, who snatched him away quickly. She held him by his haunches in the air and snorted, while the mouse clasped his hands together.

“I-I can explain!” Pate pleaded. “Really! I-It’s not what you think!”

“Oh, really?” The cow angrily raised her eyebrow as she turned around. “Well, we’ll just see about THAT, won’t we?”

Evangeline walked through the home and up a flight of stairs. Buck grabbed a coat from the rack and put it on with a glower.

“I reckon I should go inspect the grain silo and be sure that nothing’s been tampered with…” He walked past Frederick and glanced at him. “Good job, Frederick.”

“Uh… Th-Thank you, Sir.” The fox awkwardly saluted. “I’ll, uh… return to my post now.”

“Right. You do that…” The bull said gruffly as he stepped outside.

Frederick had a feeling the farmer was trying not to let his anger explode out on the fox. Still, he didn’t want to risk accidentally gaining his boss’s ire, so he returned to the henhouse to resume his guard duty.

This wasn’t quite what he expected would happen tonight… then again, it was his job to handle disturbances, no matter the size. Frederick took a deep breath, double-checked his equipment, and casually strode forward. He just hoped that he hadn’t missed anything important or dangerous while he was reporting in that weird mouse.