Pax

Pax and Bristle take turns guarding Runt in what Pax calls a “Pact of Protection” (228). Pax knows he shouldn’t go back to the war camp, but his thoughts are on his encounter with Peter’s father and the boy himself: “The man’s motion—that sweeping kick of his boot through the doorway with its conflicting messages of goodwill and threat—had reminded him that he needed to protect his boy” (229).

Musings aside, Pax is very hungry, and Bristle helps him learn to catch his first prey—a mouse. She shows him how to stay very still so that an incoming mouse believes she’s sleeping. Pax manages to catch the mouse: “The mouse’s life energy now merged with his own. His muscles brimmed with energy” (233). Pax is becoming wilder. 

Pax then unearths the jar of peanut butter he buried the night before and drops it in front of Bristle and Runt, who marvel at the strange smell. Bristle’s snout gets stuck in the jar, and Bristle thrashes from side to side trying to free herself. There’s a deepening of Bristle’s character here and a budding intimacy with Pax. Bristle sits uncharacteristically close to Pax, and the foxes groom each other until Pax smells a new smell that causes him great alarm.