Martin stared across the room from one green clad man to the other. Both were unreachable by him. They were tied hanging several feet up sway from him, each silently pleading with him.

Martin was utterly confused, but didn't have much time left. One couldn't of been real. His true brother was in trouble, but he couldn't tell which was which.

"I-I...It's..."

It started out an average creature adventure for the team. That morning, they had been traveling through the taiga of North America. Chris and Martin were out having a contest to see who could find the most animals in the sub-arctic rugged land, each keeping a picture log on the animals they spotted.

"I'm telling you Martin! There are way more animals in the forest than in those mountains." Chris said to his brother.

They were currently talking via creature pods. Chris had chose the forest to be his searching area while Martin had picked the higher altitudes.

"You'll see, bro. There are some many animals up in the mountains that we might need another log to put them all in." Martin said ginning as if he'd already won.

Chris rolled his eyes playfully. "Sure. We'll see who's right at the end of the day!"

Suddenly a reddish-orange colored streak ran past directly in front of Chris making him fall back in surprise. But it soon changed to astonishment as he marveled at the animal as it quickly disappeared into a few bushes to his left.

"Whoa, what was that? Gotta go, Martin! Think I found an animal. Chris out."

Not thinking to let his brother have time to respond and in a rush to track the down before he lost it, he turned off his pod and got up to find out where it had gone.

*XX*

A crisp, early autumn breeze blew around Chris making him shiver. He zipped his jacket up further.

'Should've worn my thicker jacket...'

He'd been trying to track the animal for the past hour. He'd seen many other animals: squirrels, two grizzly bears, a moose, and several beavers working on their lodge. None had the exact red tint he'd seen before. Chris wasn't sure where he was since he left the trail a while back.

Every so often when he would think that he'd lost it for good, Chris caught another glimpse of it. He had to move quickly to keep up with the creature.

He ran the way he saw it dash and was kind of astonished to see it sitting there looking at him.

"Wow...a red fox! Got to get a picture, they're so rare around here."

Just as he was about to snap a picture with his creature pod's camera, it dashed off again. Chris sighed. "Not again..."

This was turning out to be a long, cold day.

*XX*

Chris chased it again, really wanting the picture after having chased it all morning. It kept at it for awhile, every so often it would stop and wait for Chris to catch up before running further.

It was a good thing Chris was a good runner. It was almost if it was leading him somewhere...He saw it dive into a few bushes and he stopped.

Chris walked up and parted the bushes carefully. Completely hidden by the thick bushes was very a large willow tree. The thick roots of the tree had made a small hollow place under it. Chris hadn't noticed it was one tree because that's just how big it was. It was so spread out that he hadn't realized it was all one deciduous tree he'd been walking under.

Chris looked around in awe until his his gaze fell on the cavity in the tree. He walked up to it and looked inside using what little light came through on the inside to see around.

"Woah...she has kits" Chris said smiling.

Two little fox came cautiously out of the opening of their den. From the looks of it, they were at least five weeks old and already active, running, and playing. They also seemed to be almost identical to each other.

Chris sat cross legged and took out his creature pod, watching them with interest as the mother fox rested on the other side of the mini clearing under the tree. She seemed fine with his presence so near her babies. They ran around him and and wrestled with each other in the grass.

One kit came up near Chris cautiously and laid with his head on his paws looking up at him curiously. Chris watched as it gradually got closer to him until it was laying right by him. Slowly the Kratt reached out and pet the fox, carful not to scare him off.

"Huh. Wonder if I could try out naming? Martin always has the good names, but lets see. You're a pretty fast runner. Just like your mom." Chris laughed lightly. "Like a...Streak." Chris said talking to the little fox. He smiled at the name "Yeah, I like that"

The other, a girl, also bounded up to him playfully seeing that her brother was okay with it.

She circled around him once before jumping into his lap and curling up. Chris put his creature pod down next to him and used his other hand to pat her. She looked to be enjoying the attention.

Chris chuckled. "Your just a little ball of energy. Hmm...your name should be Zippy" Chris thought a moment before something better came to mind. "Or Brisk. You seem like a Brisk to me. And your mom is Fade. Almost lost her back in the forest several times"

Chris laid back and sighed, content. The tree's limbs blocked out the cold wind like a soft curtain that still let a soft breeze through making it a lot more welcoming than outside where he had been very cold. It was nice.

He stayed like that for awhile, not really knowing for how long, enjoying the quiet (aside from the normal sounds of the forest) and peace he didn't really get to often. It was a good, comfortable silence with no worries.

That was until the mother fox stood up on alert, seeming to be listening to something. Chris propped himself up on his elbows to listened as well, but couldn't hear whatever she was hearing.

She made a yip sound and Streak and Brisk both got up before they ran back into their home. After making sure her kits were well hidden in the tree, Fade looked at Chris and ran out. Chris got up and grabbed his creature pod off the ground, "Not forgetting this again" he said to himself.

Wanting to see what was wrong, he went after her. He didn't have to go far before he could hear the sound of metal slicing through wood and the sound of heavy machinery at work.

At the edge of the woods he'd just came out of, Fade was standing and watching something down below from a ledge.

Chris, low on his stomach so he wouldn't be seen as easily(it helped that he was wearing dark green as well), peered out as well.

The sound was way louder now, and a few yards away on the ground below him, there were a lot of men at work cutting away at the forest. From the looks of it, they'd already cleared a great deal of the area- at least 20 acres as far as Chris could see. Chris frowned, taking in the wholescene in minor shock.

"They're cutting away at your home, Fade..."