As they continued on their journey, they came across some fallen trees which looked like they had rotted out and collapsed. The trees were completely obscuring their path, preventing them from walking straight through. This meant they needed to climb over and crouch under the trees to get past them. There was a deep valley off to one side of them and a very steep hill to the other, so there was no possible way they were going around them either. Baekhyun quickly realized that holding a baby fox and doing this was a very difficult task, especially when it came to getting over the trees. He had managed to crouch under the first couple of trees, but he needed both hands in order to jump over the next one.

“Chanyeol! Wait up!” Baekhyun called and he looked over one of the fallen trees. “Can you come take him?” he asked, holding the fox up for Chanyeol to see.

The small fox dangled limply from Baekhyun’s hands, only kicking its legs slightly as it looked for something to try and stand on. A small sound came from the fox as if asking for help with its ears perked up.

“You’re the one who wanted to take him with us. I should make you take full responsibility for him,” Chanyeol commented back. Crossing his arms over his chest he shook his head. “Once you take something on it becomes your responsibility.”

“Please, Chanyeol?” Baekhyun asked again, holding the fox above his head now while pouting his lips. “You’re the one who took me on…” he added in a more hushed voice, but loud enough to ensure the wizard would hear him. “So you need to take responsibility for me.”

The way the baby fox looked at him and wagged his tail slightly, and how Baekhyun was peering over the tree giving him almost the exact same look, caused Chanyeol to cave in. He was human, after all. Who could say no to a cute baby animal when it looked at you like that? Chanyeol chose to ignore the fact that when Baekhyun gave him that same look that he felt his heartbeat a little faster.

‘The fox...I am just having a normal reaction to a baby animal...not Baekhyun,’ the wizard said to himself. “Alright, alright,” Chanyeol finally said with a bit of a grouse in his voice, purely to make it sound like he was not completely happy with this situation or helping. 

Chanyeol backtracked to Baekhyun and reached over the tree. He took the little fox in his hands who gave a small confused sound as he was passed off. The small creature looked and him and drew his tail between his legs, lowering his ears against his head as well. As soon as Chanyeol drew the fox in towards his chest, Baekhyun placed his hands on the tree and managed to maneuver over it. Even though it took him a while he managed and was glad when his feet met with the ground again.

“Now I wish my parents would have allowed me to climb trees when I was younger...that was difficult…” Baekhyun complained as he caught his breath and placed his hands on his hips, puffing out his cheeks.

When he looked up, ready to take the fox back from Chanyeol, he could not help but smile when he saw the wizard playing with the fox. He was using his pointer finger and making tiny circles with it above the fox’s head, as the small creature swatted at it with his little paws and opened its mouth slightly in a playful manner.

“Someone’s taken a liking to our traveling partner,” Baekhyun said, standing there with his hands still on his hips.

“Pft!” Chanyeol scoffed as he lowered his hand. “I was just trying to keep him entertained while you got over the tree.”

“Suuuure,” Baekhyun replied in a tone that told Chanyeol he did not believe him for a single second.

Chanyeol passed the fox back to Baekhyun and the fox almost seemed to nuzzle back against him for comfort.

“So...um...what are you going to call him?” Chanyeol asked once the fox had settled down in Baekhyun’s arms and they were able to continue on. 

“Hmmm...I’m not too sure,” Baekhyun said while humming a couple of times in thought. “I’m surprised you’re asking that though. Is that implying you’re thinking we should keep him?”

“Well...I mean it wouldn’t hurt. Especially if his mother is not coming back for him…” Chanyeol explained, scratching the back of his head. “We wouldn’t want to leave a small animal like that to fend for itself,” he added, clearing his throat slightly.

“Then let’s come up with a name for this little guy!” Baekhyun excitedly yelled.

“What about Mol Zeh?” Chanyeol offered.

“Mol Zeh?” Baekhyun asked with his eyebrows knitted together, partially in confusion but also wondering how Chanyeol had been able to blurt out a name like that off the top of his head. “What does that mean?”

“It roughly translates to little guy,” Chanyeol explained as he watched the fox perk up.

“Then what about Molzey? It sounds like a cute name...right?” the prince asked while looking from Chanyeol down to the fox.

“Molzey...Molzey…” Chanyeol repeated a few times, seeing how it rolled off his tongue. “I like it!” 

“Do you like that name, Molzey?” Baekhyun asked the little fox in his arms. To his excitement, the fox let out a small sound which he swore sounded like an approving sound.

“Then it’s official. His name is now Molzey,” Chanyeol proclaimed with a nod of his head.

Baekhyun smiled happily down at Molzey and then gave Chanyeol an even bigger smile when he looked back up at him. “This day just got a whole lot better!” Baekhyun stated as he bounced on the balls of his feet slightly. “We have a little traveling companion! Molzey~!” he sang happily.

Chanyeol placed a hand on top of Baekhyun’s head in order to get him to stop bouncing. Once he was settled down and they were making progress on their trip, they realized something else.

“What do foxes eat?” Baekhyun questioned. “Would he eat berries that are around?”

“If any are around with the weather we’ve been experiencing,” Chanyeol mentioned with a frown on his face. “With the weather getting colder, a lot of vegetation is going to be dying for the winter.”

“Would he eat fish?” Baekhyun then asked as he lightly scratched Molzey’s stomach.

“The only water we’ve seen after that village has been that stagnant pond,” Chanyeol reminded him, pointing back in the direction from which they had come.

“I guess...I will share my food with him then,” the prince said in confidence. “It’s meat and some bread...I couldn’t imagine either of those would be bad for him. Right? As long as the buns I eat are the plain ones with maybe some butter he should be fine.”

“I guess it will be an experiment to see what happens then because I have never studied foxes and their habits,” Chanyeol replied, just as clueless as Baekhyun. “Though I guess they are similar enough to dogs...so I think we should be fine feeding him some of our food,” he added as an afterthought. 

Finding shelter that night was a lot easier than the previous. Thankfully the