Dmitry in the Country - Introduciton

When he was older, Dmitry couldn’t remember much of his childhood, except a lingering memory of a very important smell which always told him when something called a McDonald’s was nearby. He lived in the city, you see, and even through there were many other foxes who lived there – many many more than in the country where he lives now – he never had the chance to get to know any of them. As you know, things in the city move around very fast, and animals find it hard to stay in the same place for a long time, before a human finds it or a machine fills it. They can’t keep up with the Geometric World, and this often results in some of them getting lost and wandering around aimlessly until they get run over.1

On behalf of Dmitry, who I was very fond of, I don’t ask for sympathy; I was merely explaining things so that I won’t have to bother explaining It later. It happens to be Dmitry, or more specifically, what Dmitry Does.2

The thing is, Dmitry was a little strange. He has a rather large gap in his education as far as History and Art goes, but he knows nothing whatsoever about the Study of Food-chains, or Applications of Hunting. In the city, especially the desolate corner where Dmitry used to live, there were no wild animals to hunt, and no predators to hunt him; unless you count the unpleasant, smelly vehicles that rumbled around, or the unpleasant, smelly people who drove them. In fact, Dmitry could not remember ever killing a single animal. He never needed to, because there were enough dumpsters and McDonalds (one and the same to him, really) to feed all the city’s scavengers forever.3

As a result, Dmitry was very good at sneaking around without anyone seeing him, and slipping through narrow gaps, but when it came to other animals, he was, as a rule, unerringly polite to anyone he met, and the thought of killing anything that stopped long enough to say hello to, just made him shudder.4

I suppose you’re wondering, So why did Dmitry leave the city in the first place? And I would usually answer, Well, the story has to go somewhere, doesn’t it? unless there wasn’t already a much better reason.5

Which there is.6

It starts with the day Dmitry met Terraform. They met in an alley in the spring when Dmitry was just one-and-a-half months old. This doesn’t seem like much, but time passes by at a startling pace for a fox – they are out of childhood after just three months. Terraform was a crow, and was already well-and-truly grown up. She was sitting on the rim of a tall, steel rubbish bin, looking for something edible. Then Dmitry came up to her, with the same idea in mind. He was further away from his parents’ earth than he was supposed to be; it was the first night he was allowed to go and forage by himself, and he felt like exploring. If he had been bigger, he would have enjoyed chasing the big, black bird away, but right now he would have been exactly the same height as Terraform, and he was much too small to seem particularly frightening. In fact, he was much too small to even reach the contents of the bin Terraform was searching through.7

She caught the little fox staring at her in the corner of her leering eye, and she ignored him, hoping he was eventually just skulk back to his parents. However, she was not prepared for—8

“Good evening, ma’am,” Dmitry said pleasantly. “I don’t suppose you could toss down a something-or-other for a hungry fox?”9

The crow stared at him from the rim of the bin, with her beak open. It must be a trick, she thought. She herself could trick someone when the situation arose, but she had never had to untrick something before. The only thing she ever had to do with foxes was when they chased her away from food – not when they asked her to share it!10

Though, he was rather charming, she thought. Quickly, she decided to try and trick the boy herself, and said, in her most Humble and Polite voice:11

“Oh, of course I will, dear.”12

The fox smiled at her and sat down expectantly. Well, she thought. Now I’ve done it. So she had no choice but to oblige and throw three-quarters of a hotdog in front of him. Then she turned away, hoping he would simply run off with it, because foxes don’t like to eat in front of others. Even the annoyingly polite ones. But when she tried turning back, he was still there, still grinning at her.13

“What do you want now?” she said gruffly.14

“I’m called Dmitry,” the fox said immediately. “What are you called?”15

“Terraform.”16

“Thank you very much, Terraform,” Dmitry replied simply, and he picked up the hotdog in his mouth and ran off. Terraform stared after him for a while before returning to her scavenging, trying and failing to forget him.17

But it didn’t stop there. The next afternoon, Terraform had decided to go to a different part of the city, but still he found her (in fact, he was deliberately looking for her) poking around a take-away restaurant in case somebody dropped something. This wasn’t a very good idea, because none of the customers actually stopped to eat at the restaurant, hence take-away, she supposed. Terraform felt like a common seagull.18

It was Trash Day, so all the dumpsters and alleys were temporarily vacant. She was about leave, when suddenly Dmitry came strutting up to her with that silly grin on again. He then presented her will a torn plastic bag that looked as if it contained a variety of scraps and others, some of which hadn’t even been touched.19

“Good evening, ma’am,” he said.20

“Hello!” she replied bemusedly. “Where did you get that?” she demanded.21

Dmitry nodded toward the restaurant. “I nicked it,” he said casually. “They have a big kitchen where lot of people make the food, and they put all the stuff they don’t want in a big bin next to the door. This bag had fallen off the top, so I just waited until they weren’t looking. Please, help yourself,” he added proudly. Despite herself, Terraform was impressed. She fumbled a modest thank-you, poked her black beak through the hole and brought back a piece of tomato. She was a lot kinder to him from then on.22

She didn’t see the strange fox for a week, and she almost caught herself wondering where he was. But he turned up again anyway – as she was passing by the same restaurant. He asked her (with all the appropriate Please, ma’ams and If you woulds) if she wanted to go foraging with him. She agreed, trying her best to look apathetic about the whole thing. So over the next month or so, Dmitry and Terraform met outside that restaurant each week to help each other steal from various places in that part of the city. Terraform could never take much at a time in her beak, so she contented herself with distracting the People, usually by repeatedly tapping her beak on the window until everyone was staring at her, and then Dmitry would slip underneath them and take the pre-targeted reward.23

At other times, Dmitry would forage with his mother who, like him, had never seen the country. Terraform didn’t know much about his father, except that he was “rather grumpy, mostly”. Dmitry grew at an alarming rate in this time, and he was soon almost twice Terraform’s height. The days got longer, and the sky became a blank, blue dome; is first summer was upon him.24

Then there was the fire.25

Dmitry lived in his parents’ earth, which was under a bank on the outskirts of a park, in between the park boundary and the high, stone wall that enclosed it. Terraform occasionally flew over it on her way from one place or another, but she almost never landed there. One evening, she had been waiting on the roof of the restaurant, waiting to go foraging with Dmitry. But he didn’t show up. She wasn’t in any hurry, and she would have stayed there for hours, waiting, if she hadn’t seen the smoke rising above the rooftops. She took off in its direction, without even pausing to think where it was coming from. When she came to the park, she was dismayed.26

The fire had covered this entire side of the park. In the dark, all she could see from a distance was the flames, She had to stay near (or on) the ground, to get out of the way from the smoke. From here, of course, she couldn’t see anything except an orange glow coming from behind the park’s wall.27

The ground was too hot to land on. Terraform did not know where Dmitry’s earth could be, except that it was near the wall. The park was huge. She began flying higher, despite the smoke that started to gather around her, and gave a couple of loud cries. But she saw nothing, and nothing replied. She realised that she was flying too fast to see the den even if she did fly past it, and slowed down. She swooped around most of the perimeter, calling his name.28

Then she saw it: a hole in the ground, almost hidden under the bank. The ground was cooler here, but when she landed and trotted inside, the heat built up intensely. She called his name again.29

“Terraform?” a small voice said from the back of the cave.30

“Dmitry!” she snapped. “What are you doing? You have to get out!”31

“I can’t,” he said. “My parents haven’t come back yet. They went foraging, and I don’t know where they are.”32

“Of course they haven’t come back!” she replied. Smoke had begun to creep into the earth. “Follow me, I’ll find a way out.”33

Dmitry started coughing. “Then how will I find my parents?” he said shakily.34

“We’ll work that out later,” said Terraform, and she fluttered (as well as a crow can flutter) onto the boy’s back. “Come on! Move!” She flapped, vainly trying to lift him out herself. Eventually, Dmitry stepped cautiously forward, until they were outside. He was shaking.35

“Oh! The ground’s hot!” he said suddenly, jumping back.36

Terraform regained her balance. She could see the fire ap-proaching from above the bank. “Of course it is!” she cried. “Haven’t you ever seen a fire before?”37

There was no answer. The park gate was open, and two big, red vehicles had parked just outside. She guided Dmitry to it, and he ran, straight out the gate, and didn’t stop until they were across the road beyond. No one had noticed them.38

“Where are my parents?” he murmured.39

“Probably hiding and hoping you’d had the brains to escape when you had the chance,” Terraform said crossly. “And now that we have escaped, we may as well find somewhere to get some sleep. Have you inhaled much smoke?”40

Dmitry coughed again, and then said, “What if they went back to find me after we left?”41

Terraform tried to roll her eyes, but it’s not as effective when you’re a crow. Then it wasn’t a very intelligent thing to do, was it? she wanted to say. She was saved from saying anything, however, because Dmitry saw something.42

“Oh, it’s them! I just saw my parents!” he cried.43

“Where?” said Terraform. Dmitry was looking at a white pickup van, where a man had just put a large box-shaped something into the back of it.44

“They’re in that van!” he said excitedly.45

“Why on earth would they be in there?” she asked, silently blaming the smoke. She was still standing on his back when he suddenly took off at top speed toward the van. Without hesitation he jumped straight through the open doors. Then he stopped. Terraform flew in after him, having been dislodged.46

“They’re not here, Dmitry,” she warned. She could see something else with them at the back of the van, and she knew Dmitry could smell it as well. The big box that the man had put into the van was a cage. Inside the cage, looking at them in sur-prise, were two dogs. Terraform wondered whether Dmitry knew that they were bloodhounds. She made little I-Don’t-Think-We-Should noises just in case he didn’t, but Dmitry was in a strange mood. He stepped forward.47

“Good evening, sirs,” he said quietly.48

“Good evening?” one of the dogs answered, with an odd accent. “Look at this: he’s saying good evening.”49

“He said good evening, he did,” said the other one. “He’s lucky we’re locked up, isn’t he?”50

“Yes, he’s lucky,” said the first. “Although, if the Master sees him, he’ll shoot him.”51

“Yes, the Master’ll shoot him, he will,” the second said sol-emnly. “He’d better leave before he gets found.”52

“Yes, he’d better leave,” said the first.53

“Yes! We’d better leave!” said Terraform loudly. The dogs noticed her for the first time, perched atop Dmitry’s back. “Come on, boy” she said urgently. “You’re parents aren’t here. Let’s go before—”54

A deafening bang sounded behind them, and the dim artificial light that illuminated the van was suddenly cut out. Dmitry jumped around in surprise. The van was shut. All four occupants were silent for a moment, while they heard someone open the cab door, then climb in and shut it again.55

“Well, now look what you’ve done,” Terraform whispered furiously. “You’re parents will be searching for you now.”56

“Sorry, ma’am,” Dmitry replied. An engine started up and a humming grew around them. “What’s happening?” he said anxiously.57

“We’re going home,” said one of the dogs. “The Master came here to deliver some goods, and now we’ve got the long trip home.”58

“Yes, the long trip home,” said the other. “He lives on a farm.”59

“Yes, he lives on a—”60

“Oh, shut up!” said Terraform loudly. The engine got louder, and with a jolt that threw a bewildered Dmitry and the poor crow sitting on top on him into the wall, the van began moving.61

So now you know. And now I have explained everything, we can join Dmitry and Terraform far away from the city, in a place neither of them had ever seen before.62

Two hours later, the van stopped in front of a farm.