Of Foxes and Men
One of the fox characters is an wise older figure who helps to instruct Pax in the ways of knowledge of the world. He is a kind of like an Obi-Wan/Yoda sort of sage. And one of the subjects on which he enlightens the innocent and inexperienced younger fox is describing the war which is the backdrop of the narrative with metaphor:
“There is a disease that strikes foxes sometimes. It causes them to abandon their ways, to attack strangers. War is a human sickness like this.”
Something Gravity Can’t Touch
Pax is not a wild fox. He was adopted as a mere babe by Peter and raised among humans. Thus, when the two are separated is when he finally learns how to behave naturally. Such as learning the joy of running:
“The new joy of speed, the urgency of coming night, the hope of reunion with his boy—these things transformed him into something that shot like liquid fire between the trees.”
Connectivity
Peter and Pax are pals, but much more than that. They are truly friends, reaching across the divide of species to create the kind of connection that true-blue BFFs feel when they start as well as complete each other’s sentences:
“Peter had seen the bird through Pax’s eyes—the miraculous lightning flight, the impossible freedom and speed. He’d felt his own skin thrill in full-body shivers, and his own shoulders burn as though yearning for wings.”
Duty, Apples, and War
A war—another war—has come and wreaked its havoc on the world inhabited by Peter and Pax. It is not the first and it won’t be the last and what it’s all about remains a mystery because in the end, all rationales for wars are just excuses made by men making claims to duty. It never fails:
“You know, war came and I went and served, like my father. Like your father now. Duty calls, and we answer in this family. No, sir, our apples don’t fall far from the tree.”
The Artisan
On his hero’s journey to save Pax from the certain death of having to become a wild fox without having the experience to know how to be that, Peter is injured and falls under the protective guardianship of his own Obi-Wan/Yoda wise teacher. Her name is Vola and after her experience in the previous war, she has spent twenty years literally in the wilderness isolating herself and learning what she needed to learn. She is now passing along that knowledge to Peter:
“From this moment on, the wood is the master. The carver is servant to the wood. All craftsmen are servants to the craft. Once you decide what you want to make, the project is the boss."
