Fern the Fox

Your hopes were high today. Because whenever you go mining, you always think to yourself, "Will I find diamonds today?" And upon thinking that, you begin to hope that you do. But all you have so far is stone, coal, and iron. No diamonds yet. You continue your mining, still hoping to yourself that you'll find something valuable you can use.

As you mine, you notice something, so you stop. From the lighting in the cave, a blue glint shines from the stone you have just broken. You begin to get excited, and try to get a little of it out to get a better look at it. You pull out a small chunk, but are disappointed. It's not diamonds. It's lapis. It's easy to mistake lapis for diamonds.

Much time later, you find what you were hoping for. Diamonds. You take a step back, trying to process what you have found. You're both happy but also surprised at the same time, not expecting your hopes to actually occur to you. You walk back to the diamonds, and begin to carefully chisel the edges of the diamonds, so you can get them out without risk of breaking them.

A while later, you finally finish chiseling the stone off the diamonds, carefully putting them in your bag and walking up the stairway you created so you can find your way back and exit the cave. But obviously, you're tired from the mining and constant standing. So, once you leave the entrance of the cave, you find the nearest tree and sit down against it.

The breeze is cool against your skin, as the leaves and branches of both the tree you're sitting against and the surrounding trees sway from the slight blow of wind. The birds fly around, singing their songs, as other animals, such as cows, pigs, and chickens wander around in the distance from you. Your limbs feel a bit weak, from the exhaustion you endured while mining. You decide to look through your findings from today's mining expedition.

You pull out your bag and carefully empty everything out of it so you can sort through it all and get an accurate count of everything you have collected. After a minute, you finish sorting, and now there are four small piles. You have 2 chunks of lapis lazuli, 18 chunks of coal, 12 chunks of iron, and 8 chunks of diamonds. Seems like a good haul today. You put back all the things you mined back into your bag, before setting it aside and resting your head back against the tree.

You do feel a bit drowsy and tired, so you consider sleeping for a little while. You won't have to worry about nightfall, as it's pretty early in the day, around 11 AM. You adjust your position to be laying down on your right side, your head against the soft, plush grass that is below you. After a little while, you fall asleep. Much time later, you begin to wake, but feel something else. It feels... soft. It's not the grass, because grass doesn't have that texture. You open your eyes and look around, when you hear a soft voice from beside you, to your left.

"Good afternoon, sleepyhead..."

You look to your left, and lying down right next to you is an anthropomorphic red fox. She has a smile on her face, her soft, plush tail wrapped around your legs with her arms around your waist, holding you against her, your back pressed against her front. She nuzzles you gently.

"How are you feeling?"