Pax, Journey Home

Pax and Bristle take their kits to the reservoir to learn how to drink. While the two boy kits get into mischief several times along the way, “the little vixen [gives] them no trouble” (44). Since the incident with the owl, she is more fearful than curious, preferring to walk under her father for much of the journey. Pax worries that she is becoming too cautious and tries to encourage her to see the beauty of the nature they encounter along the way to the reservoir.

When they reach the water, Pax is astounded by the reservoir’s massive size. Even more “confusing, it smell[s] of nothing. In his year of freedom, Pax had learned that water smell[s] of the life it travel[s] past” (45). They can hear human voices, and Bristle grows worried. Pax ventures out to investigate. He isn’t afraid since he grew up alongside Peter and is familiar with the human ways. He sees that the humans wear the same clothes he remembered from the war last year, and a large tank pulls into where the humans are gathered. This can only mean one thing: Pax and his family must leave their home. It is no longer safe for them here. Bristle can’t leave because she must feed the kits, so Pax will have to search for their new home on his own.

He returns to his family and gives Bristle the news. She understands, and they shift their attention back to their original mission: teaching the kits how to drink. After some roughhousing and splashing in the water, the kits get the hang of lapping up the water into their mouths. They take their fill, drinking in the water of the reservoir.

The night before Peter sets out to join the Junior Water Warriors, Vola cooks an extravagant meal for Grandfather. Peter is convinced that he won’t come, but Vola has faith that he will want to see Peter before he leaves. Eventually, Grandfather pulls into the driveway in his old Chevy, proving Vola right.

As they sit down to eat, Grandfather expresses his hesitation toward the Junior Water Warriors. He argues that they shouldn’t use military terms to describe the work they do, saying that “Warriors are…it’s about power. Not a bunch of do-gooders” (55). A veteran herself, Vola disagrees with Grandfather. She says that she respects rebuilding something far more than tearing it down.

One thing that cracks through Grandfather’s tough exterior is Peter asking him, a family member, to sign his permission slip to go with the Junior Water Warriors. Grandfather signs it, not quite able to hide his pride in being asked to do so. Afterward, he and Peter talk on the porch, and Grandfather gives him survival advice that he learned in the military.

When Grandfather leaves, Vola hints that one day he might need someone to care for him and that perhaps Peter will take him in at his new cabin. At that moment, Peter decides that the only way to avoid getting attached to Vola and Grandfather is to never return.

Pax sets off to find a new home. As he bids goodbye to his family, promising to return soon, the little vixen tries to follow him. He carries her back to Bristle, who holds her tight as Pax leaves without looking back.

The path is familiar to him, as he and Bristle traveled it only a year ago when they left Broad Valley. Broad Valley is where he had waited for Peter to come back to him and ultimately the place where he realized he’d been abandoned. The fear of the unknown had not lasted long, however. Over time, Pax began to grow more confident in the wild.

The trail holds terrible memories, too. South of Broad Valley is where Gray, an older fox, had died. The land was a war zone, where Runt had lost his leg and Bristle’s tail had been burned. After Bristle and Runt recovered from their injuries, they all continued on their journey. They reached Gray’s mate, who had just given birth to a litter of kits. After they tended to her, the group of foxes kept going until they reached their current home. Now, they’d have to move all over again.

This was also where Peter had returned. The two were briefly excited by their reunion when Peter started throwing one of Pax’s toys, but soon Pax sensed that Peter didn’t want him to return. Instead of bringing the toy back after racing into the thicket, Pax hid and then followed Peter until he saw that he was safe again with his father.

Pax, needing rest from his journey, tries to find a spot to lie down. It is then that he smells a threatening scent: fire.

Peter feels a thrill as he sets up camp with the Water Warriors. He knows that “[f]rom now on, he [is] on his own. Tonight, this moment, his new life [is] beginning’” (65). He almost changed his mind when he had to say goodbye to Vola, but he gathered his courage and followed through. He decides to tell Vola that he won’t be returning by letter.

After receiving a guide about the group, his first task is to get to know everyone else at the camp. Careful not to choose anyone who could be a potential friend and therefore potential heartbreak later on, he chooses to sit beside a couple, thinking they will just ignore him. He roasts marshmallows with them, a gift from a local, to thank them for cleaning up the water.

The couple are about 19 or 20 years old. The girl’s name is Jade, and she is warm and welcoming to Peter. Samuel, her partner, is more reserved but also kind. Jade tells a story about the reservoir they cleaned up and how she saw a family of foxes learning how to drink there. Peter tries to remain calm, but as Jade describes the vixen as having a “weird tail. Not fluffy. Like a whip” (70), he is all but certain that the vixen is the fox he saw Pax with a year earlier. If so, Pax is a father now.

Peter is worried about running into Pax and feeling the pain of that experience all over again. When he learns that the Junior Water Warriors will stay at the reservoir for a couple of weeks while the older ones move on, Peter announces that he will go with them. Initially, the couple resists, saying that the journey will be too much for a Junior Water Warrior. Once he reveals the treacherous trek he made in the same area last year, on crutches, Jade agrees. She tells him to get to bed; they will leave early in the morning.

Pax realizes that there are humans near the fire and feels more at ease. After living with Peter, he knows that “fire serve[s] humans and humans [can] stop it at will” (76). He scans the area for the best route home and leaves to find a spot to rest until the fire dies down.

When he decides to move on, he has to creep low to the ground to avoid the smoke. The ground near the center of the basin is warmer, and he burns one of his paws. He decides to wait longer before going home, so he runs up the hill again to nurse his paw. There, he is met with an unwelcome surprise: His daughter has followed him there.

Pax scolds the vixen, telling her that she should have stayed at home, and then comforts her to show that she is forgiven. He curls his tail around her as they wait together for the fire to weaken.

The first day after leaving base camp, Peter, Jade, and Samuel hike six miles. Peter is quiet and careful, Samuel is focused and straightforward, and Jade is curious and adventurous. Peter notices how Jade’s openness allows her to see the beauty of the woods and learns to follow her gaze as they hike. However, he still proceeds with caution, remembering the hidden dangers he’s encountered before.

After they’ve been hiking for a while, Peter smells smoke. Jade tells him not to worry: It’s the Water Warriors burning the invasive weeds and reseeding with grasses that grow naturally in those environments. Peter is proud to hear this and be a part of the group. They then begin working at their own site.

After they collect the samples, the group comes to a halt when they see a river that they won’t be able to cross. Peter shows Jade and Samuel how to bend a birch tree to get across without getting the equipment wet. The couple is astonished at his skill. They follow his example, and from then on, they treat him as their equal.

That night, when the three of them settle in for the night, Samuel compliments Peter on his resourcefulness with the birch bending. Peter enjoys the compliment, “wish[ing] his grandfather could have heard it. His father” (84). Peter stops himself, remembering that he can’t get attached to Jade and Samuel or anyone ever again. He goes to sleep that night willing his heart to harden against his new friends.

Pax awakens to the sound of human voices. He carefully leaves the sleeping vixen behind to investigate. He sees that the same people have returned; they are removing cans from the water and lighting small fires at the side of the creek, cutting off the path that Pax was planning to take back home.

The kit awakens, and Pax teaches her to know the smell of fire. When she looks down to see the humans, she cowers, thinking they’re dangerous. Pax realizes that the kit has learned from Bristle, who is terrified of humans after her parents and sisters, her brother’s leg, and her own bushy tail were all lost at their hands. He reinforces this, telling the vixen to be wary of humans.

The father and daughter travel a new route home. The vixen is stubborn, resisting Pax every time he tries to carry her over difficult terrain. Eventually, they settle in for the night. Pax notices that she is showing signs of thirst and decides to take her to the still pond to drink in the morning.

At dinner that night, Peter asks Jade if she can tell anything about the water from the samples they’ve collected so far. They will have to wait for lab equipment to be sure, but Jade says that the Water Warriors’ work is definitely improving the water quality. She says that the next cleanup site, a military camp at an old mill, will be worse. Peter grows quiet, remembering that his father had worked at the old mill. He never asked his father what his job was there, but now he can’t help but wonder if he contributed to the water’s contamination.

Jade describes the worst place they’ve seen, Opal Pond. It was full of life, but after the war, everything, even the trees, died. She explains that animals can’t live there because the young that drink from the pond die. Samuel recalls two raccoon cubs that Jade tried to rescue by giving them a concoction of “[m]ilk, activated charcoal […] to flush the toxins out of them” (95). The Water Warriors didn’t stay long enough to see if the babies got better because their focus is on the reservoir and the river.

Peter then asks the couple why they joined the Water Warriors and if they knew they’d encounter hard situations like the raccoon cubs. Jade joined because she loves water and all the life that comes from it. Samuel, who rarely speaks, tells Peter that he felt lost after the war. His older brother died, and he isolated himself from his friends and family. He joined the Water Warriors to feel the sense of community and duty he felt in the military.

Peter is astonished that Samuel met Jade after he experienced so much pain and loss. Samuel tells Peter that he needs other people to get through life. Peter pretends to agree, but inside, he is certain that it’s better to be alone and avoid the risk of more loss.

When the kit awakens the next day, Pax “lick[s] her all over gently, as he had seen Bristle do” (99). The walk yesterday left several shards in her paws, and when Pax removes them, they start to bleed. He carries his daughter to the pond to wash them off but is surprised to see no fish or frogs in the water. He tells her to clean her paws and quench her thirst. Later, he decides, he will show her how to swim here.