Hidden Quest: Pet the Dog

'Oh my god…'

My mind was a mess. I could hardly gather two thoughts together, sinking away in the soft pleasure spreading from my right palm.

'She's so freaking adorable!'

My heart beat rapidly in its unceasing effort to provide my overly excited brain with enough oxygen to process my amusement.

It took only a few moments from when I first successfully patted the white fox for it to come closer and end up climbing up my lap.

At first, stunned by the development, I quickly changed my position and sat with my legs crossed, giving the smart beast more space to lie down. And then…

And then I realized that all the scenes I've dreamed of while watching people play with their domesticated foxes… Turned out to be a mere shadow, a disgusting illusion of how relaxing it was in reality!

A mere video could never convey the comfiness of the white fox's warmth spreading all over my lap while I continued my unceasing efforts at rustling every inch of its perfectly fluffy fur!

"Haaa…"

Looking down… I saw the fox get comfortable and close its eyes. Somewhere along the line, from a lack of anything poking me, I guessed the gender. But when it suddenly closed its eyes and started napping…

'GOSH!'

My entire body tensed up, as a sense of extreme blessing, the dignity of being chosen by the wild animal to happily nap on.

It was the kind of purest, unadulterated form of joy, that I simply failed to think of anything. For the peaceful moment, I simply stroked the fox's soft fur, while staring deeper into the forest.

I would be more than happy to just laze around for the next day and a half, feeding and playing around with this fox. But nothing that great could last for long. And before I realized it, the fox suddenly woke up.

At first, it tensed up, startled by the unexpected bedding. Yet, after the initial period of exploding hostility, she either noticed a lack of danger or recalled what happened.

Either way, the fox's fangs didn't reach for my throat, saving me from quite the scare. Regardless of the attack that didn't come, the fox rose up and gracefully jumped from my lap.

She then stood where she landed, looking around and observing the spoils of the feast she had before. Her eyes lingered on the empty cans, and her nose twitched when she caught the smell of the leftovers that I failed to scoop out.

Then, her adorable snout turned towards me as she gave me a pretty long stare.

'I wonder what's going to happen now?' I thought, genuinely puzzled.

In theory, after letting her sleep on my lap and stroking her soft fur while she purred in her sleep… The memory of this should save me from her hunting instincts. But could I really be so sure of it?

This wasn't Earth. And this likely wasn't a fox at all, just a being of physical features that closely resembled what I knew as a fox.

The fox turned back towards me and approached me… No, it moved towards my backpack this time. And after taking a moment to inspect it, she turned her head to give me a long stare.

Gulp.

Somehow, my earlier guess regarding this beast's smarts… At this precise moment, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was more than just right.

"Do you want to see?" I asked in a voice slightly greater than a whisper.

The fox simply stepped back to give me some space.

'Well, there's no harm in it,' I thought, moving up and reaching out for the backpack. Yet, after the initial thought of just pulling everything piecemeal, I stopped. My doubt lasted for but a second before I changed my aim and grabbed the entire bag before pulling the zippers all the way down and simply pouring all the content down on the ground.

As cans, pockets, sets of various sundries, and all the other things I took started to fall down on the ground, it took me only a second to locate the one self-defense item I brought with me.

A huge kitchen knife, designed to partition huge chunks of meat and stiff dough.

Letting it fall like that was far better than grabbing it inside the backpack and then suddenly pulling it out on the fox.

No matter how friendly we could be at the moment, stunts like that could instantly upset the delicate balance between the two of us that we created.

"This one you might like even more, even though it's cheaper," I spoke softly, opting not to ponder whether this fox could understand my words or not. "It's beef, you know?"

I reached out to the other side of the pile of stuff, picking my suggestion by how far away it was from the knife. I repeated the few steps before pouring the slightly spiced beef into a fresh leaf bowl.

This time, the fox reacted a lot stronger than when I offered tuna. In fact, it reacted far stronger than I expected. At first, it stared at the meat, as if locked in a cage of terror. Then, it sharply turned its cute head towards me, staring at my face with her widened eyes. Yet, seeing my confusion, she then looked back at the beef, took a short, careful whiff of it…

This time, the fox didn't eat the snack.

Instead, it moved back to where I dropped my bag and bit lightly at one of the cans… before putting it back inside! Before I could react, she somehow managed to move nearly a fourth of all my stuff, stopping only to give me a long, expecting glance.

Puzzled, I moved up and quickly packed all of my things, the knife, food, sundries, and basic traveling supplies included. By the time I was about to finish up, the fox left, quickly moving to the bowl before…

And here, another thing changed.

Rather than devouring the food like she did before, she ate it all in a peaceful, dignified manner.

'It's as if she had some sort of respect for the beef?' I thought, baffled by the scene.

When the fox looked at me again, something flashed in her eyes. Right as I hung my backpack on my shoulder, she came up to my other side, leaped lightly to bite at the sleeve of my free hand, and then dragged me forth a few steps.

Walking on just her hind legs had to be uncomfortable for the fox, though, given how she quickly let go of the edge of my sleeve and pushed forth, as if to lead me deeper into the forest.

Right in that direction I caught her looking intensely before.

"*ome"

A strange, sense of urgency filled my soul, pushing me to follow the weird, friendly fox. For a moment, I became like a fish on a leash, unable to pull myself off the hook no matter how hard I would fight.

This feeling lasted only for a short moment, just long enough to push my body into making a first step. Then, it all vanished, giving me back the reins over my own flesh and bones.

'Strange…' I instantly thought.

Normally, I should get on my guard, assume the worst-case scenario and then act accordingly. But for some reason, the fox's call resonated with something deep in my soul. A sense of adventure, perhaps?

"Well, whatever," I muttered, picking up the pace and swiping my now free right hand twice.

'Forty hours left…' I thought, suddenly baffled by a small detail. 'I had no idea I spent so long just petting a random fox…' A small smirk appeared on my lips in response to my thoughts. And then, a notification window covered half of my vision just to convey a simple message.

[Hidden quest: "Pet the dog" completed]

[Rewards:

- 1 attribute point

- Unlocking side-attribute: Beast Affinity

- Granting: Beast Affinity: 1]

[Level up!]