She woke up chilled with her body still damp, teeth beginning to chatter. Samantha wondered, for the nth time since her arrival in the forest, how she came to her current position when she last recalled being in one that was drastically different. She was almost getting used to it, and it added to her inability to determine what exactly had happened to her that last night in her home. Her body was entirely the same, her mind as well; this was becoming slightly irritating, but at the same time, it was equally if not more reassuring to not worry about the past, present, or future. That alone was the difference between this world and the last. She could only assume that she had died, but that was a natural extension and conclusion of the constant ache and illness that had become her life. But now she was cold, Ao-ao was nearby looking like an ostrich, and apparently there were no towels waiting for her after bathing. What exactly was she supposed to do?

As if on cue, Ao-ao lifted its head, signaling relief with its eyes. Samantha raised an eyebrow in return, but the effect was diminished by the chattering of her teeth. She raised her hand to flick water droplets off the opposing arm, trying to indicate to Ao-ao that she was still wet and did not like it. Tilting its head, Ao-ao stood up, faced her, and pantomimed shaking off on all fours like a dog. At least Samantha's teeth stopped chattering, because she was cackling so hard she almost fell over into the dirt, tears coming to her eyes. Ao-ao approached her slowly, not wanting to scare the female whose eyes remained tightly closed as she laughed. Gently nudging her hand to let her know it was by her side, the fox licked her hand softly with a sandpapery tongue. Samantha's guffaws turned to giggles and snorts while she turned her attention to Ao-ao, saying, "Ah! No, no, that's not going to work. Firstly it would take forever, and secondly... well, no offense, but your tongue is a little scratchy. That's not a bad thing, but I don't have any fur like yours. It would be a little painful for me." Ao-ao looked absolutely dejected despite Samantha's intention to politely decline the tongue bath offer, so she tried to suggest an idea. "Here, let me just," she started, reaching behind Ao-ao, "borrow this?" she finished, grabbing a loose hold of that enormous, irresistibly fluffy fox tail.

Ao-ao froze every muscle in its body as soon as Samantha's hand made contact with its tail. Trying not to laugh again, Samantha thought it looked a little bit like the fox version of a brain freeze. While she was suppressing her grin, Ao-ao tackled her with its whole body, cushioning her by turning to one side as they both fell to the ground. Samantha was almost immediately overwhelmed by the dry warmth of Ao-ao and decided that this was a perfect compromise. Hoping that she didn't get too much moisture into Ao-ao's coat, she wiggled and buried her way into the dreamlike softness that seemed to welcome her inside. Turning over a few times to dry off a bit more, she mumbled a soft apology to her new friend who was almost too good to be real. She instinctively leaned her head against Ao-ao's chest, and the fox seemed to take this as an initiave to brush her hair with the tongue she had previously turned down for bare-skin use. 'I guess that's one way to do this,' Samantha thought absentmindedly, sparing a thought that she hoped the fox wouldn't get a hairball or choke, that it knew what it was taking on up there.

With the rest of her body so warm, Samantha could no longer ignore the biting chill in her feet, ankles, and calves. But Ao-ao's legs remained firmly shut no matter how many times she brushed up against them. Throwing caution to the wind, Samantha slid one leg over Ao-ao's side so she could get rid of that last pesky cold spot. Almost as soon as she did so, Ao-ao froze once again. A fox tongue stopped mid-lick with a thick strand of hair held up and away from Samantha's scalp. She felt the rise and fall of its chest against her head as Ao-ao's nose sniffed rapidly and its head pulled back. 'Oh, great,' she thought, 'it's the magic crotch at work again.' It had always been a cross between amusement and embarrassment for her in the world before - dogs could never keep their noses out of her crotch. Not even her own dogs. Remembering too late that foxes were more closely related to dogs than they were to the cats with whom she was infinitely more familiar, she groaned inwardly and wondered what in the hell she was going to do now.

She let Ao-ao roll her onto her back with its paw, releasing a much drier Samantha from the fuzzy embrace she had relished so deeply. But instead of diving toward her crotch as Samantha had half-expected, Ao-ao looked her straight in the face with an expression of pure terror. Taken completely by surprise, Samantha's face slowly changed to mirror Ao-ao's as she reached a hand toward the crotch that had caused such offense. Ao-ao looked about as much like it was going to swoon as any fox could as she swished and inspected an unexpectedly bloody middle finger. "Oh, FUCK," Samantha groaned with all the exasperation and annoyance that came with an unwelcome period while stranded without a single sanitary product within the realm of possibility. Aunt Flo had come out in full force, guns heavy and with no warning. Samantha was too used to long, unexpected, life-force-draining menstrual cycles, but here there was no toilet paper, no fresh underwear to awkwardly hobble toward, and no choice but to free-bleed unless she could come up with a solution, and quickly.

"A leaf," croaked Samantha, cupping her crotch and rolling sideways away from Ao-ao. "I need a leaf. A BIG leaf. The biggest leaf," she continued, her voice growing hoarser as she spoke. Beginning the embarrassing hobble of shame that the similarly-named walk could never hold a candle to, she headed back toward the trees in search of said leaf. Just as she was beginning to wonder if Ao-ao had really passed out, she saw a dark red blur pass her by and head into the woods. She couldn't be sure if she had scared Ao-ao off for good, but figuring that Ao-ao had a 50% chance of being female, she wracked her brain for the animal version of menstruation. Finally stumbling upon the key word, she screamed into the forest, "ESTRUS! IT'S CALLED ESTRUS! MINE IS JUST A LITTLE DIFFERENT FROM YOURS! I'M HAVING MY ESTRUS! COME BACK, IT'S OKAY! IT'S GOING TO BE OKAY! ESSSSSTRRRRUSSSSSSSSS!"

Samantha wasn't done calling for Ao-ao, but she had no time to react when the monster-size fox, an entire tree branch in its mouth, charged her directly, flipping her into the air. Simultaneously winding, shocking, and stunning her in a matter of milliseconds, Ao-ao caught her on its back and ran toward, she hoped, their foxhole home.