The Catch

Once upon a time there lived a little boy called Sora. He had to catch fish for his village. One day he was sitting at the edge of the pond, very bored, waiting for a tug at his fishing rod. As he felt a tremendous pull his eyes lit up with hope, then drooped with disappointment as he realised that the fish was hardly enough for one, let alone a whole village.

Sora heard a noise and grabbed his knife, he pushed the shiny leaves apart and saw a red fox with big ears and a white tummy and face. The fox was trapped and had a rope around it`s leg. The surprised boy advanced on the struggling fox with a fierce look in his eyes. He raised his knife and the fox cowered. Sora brought his knife down and through the rope. The fox growled at Sora, who was quite scared, ran back to where Sora had just been fishing and snatched the tiny fish out of his basket.

The fox took off and Sora followed as fast as he could. He hesitated before squeezing into a gap in a thorn bush after the fox. As they squeezed out again Sora caught his beige pants on a thorn and the fox started to jump up the cliff. He pulled his pants free then determinedly followed the fox up the cliff. A strong gust of wind came and Sora`s hat blew off. As Sora looked down he realised how high he was but bravely carried on.

When they reached the top the mist cleared and Sora squinted at the bright sun. The fox was right in front of him and tossed the little fish in to a humongous lake. Sora looked at the lake and stared in amazement at the size of the fish in it. The fox ran up to Sora with a stick in his mouth and Sora broke all the little bits off, got out his spare hook and string, tied it to the stick and flung his fishing rod into the gleaming water with the fox sitting beside him.

When Sora finished fishing he had a humongous fish under his arm and the fox had a smaller one in it`s mouth. They walked off together, Sora very pleased. After Sora had gone the fox turned into it`s true self, a spirit. Gold dust swirled into the air then faded and turned into the night sky.