The Piano
                                                     ~Part 13


      "What?!" Tom exclaimed incredulously. "Why? How?"
      "Apparently, his position of second-in-command isn't enough for Jarow. Nothing less than first will be good enough for him. He appears to have been raising a small force of foxes from within the valley. No one knows when or exactly how he'll do it but we think he'll make his move sometime while Aldero is gone," Delo replied nervously. "He was informing a minion when the fox heard them."
      "So... what are you going to do to stop him?" Tom asked them. Slerge and Delo hesitated. Tom looked from one to another. "You do have a plan, right?" The two foxes hesitated a few seconds more then Slerge quietly shook his head. "But he has to be stopped! He shouldn't be able to do this!" The foxes had no answer to that. Tom groaned. Up until then, Basax, the young fox, had just watched wide-eyed but now he jumped forward.
      "Why do you care? You're not a fox!" he challenged Tom.
      It was Tom's turn to hesitate and think. He scratched his head. Basax prodded him with his nose.
      "Why?"
     "Well... I guess, because he's doing wrong. And wrong is wrong no matter whether a fox or a human does it." Tom shrugged. Satisfied, Basax settled into a sitting position.
      "Good answer. Now, do you have a plan?" Basax answered, confident that he would get an answer. Tom shrugged.
      "Well-" Tom was cut off by another black fox charging into the room.
      "Trouble!!" the fox exclaimed fearfully.