Pax, Journey Home

Over three days, Pax teaches his daughter how to swim. With each day, she grows significantly weaker, and by the third day, he can barely get her to move. He tells her that it’s time to head toward home. She tries to stand, but her left hind leg gives way, and she falls to the ground. Pax looks her over, confused, seeing no injuries. He nudges her again, and she collapses after only a few steps.

Pax checks the wind and is shocked to smell Peter’s scent, along with that of two other humans. After a year, Peter is in the same area as him. He returns to his daughter and tries to get her to at least walk to the river. When she can’t, Pax settles in again and decides that they will leave at morning’s light.

Peter, Jade, and Samuel are roasting marshmallows the night before they set out for the next location. The marshmallows remind Peter of a time when he was roasting them with his father and one dropped to the ground. Pax leaped at it, burning his snout in the process. After tending to the wounded fox, Peter told his father he felt guilty, but his father reminded him that as soon as Pax was injured, he responsibly cared for the fox. Peter recalls being stunned that the two of them could view the situation from such different perspectives. Six years later, it still surprises him sometimes.

The temperature drops, and when Jade jokingly taps Peter with her cold feet, he remembers that his mother used to do the same thing before she died. He pulls away and tells the couple he’s going to bed early. Jade apologizes, worried that she’s upset him. He shrugs them off, regretting the fact that he’s started to let them get close to him. The hug yesterday did something to him, and he isn’t sure how to feel about it yet.

Pax takes his daughter to the river. They travel slowly since the kit has grown weaker. When they reach it, the kit picks up on the scent of humans and backs away. Pax encourages her to move closer to the river, but the little vixen refuses, instead curling up among some roots and falling asleep. Pax decides to track Peter’s scent and see if he is doing well. He discovers that Peter is traveling with two others, a boy and a girl, and that they roasted marshmallows the previous night.

He decides that it’s time to teach the vixen that not all humans are dangerous. He nudges his daughter awake and tells her about his relationship with Peter. He tells her that his human was always gentle, kind, and trustworthy. His daughter asks how to know if a human can be trusted, and he tells her to observe them: Their behavior will show her.

The longer Peter treks with the couple, the more he learns about Jade’s deep love for rivers. At every bend, she is ecstatic about the running water. She tells Peter that she has claimed this particular river for her own. Her grandparents used to own land near it, and she memorized every feature and every animal. Peter enjoys hearing Jade talk, and a sense of ease falls over the group.

The trio spots a chickadee in the trees, and Jade is determined to call it down to them with a granola bar. As they sit quietly and wait for it to approach, Peter tells them about his special bond with Pax. Soon enough, Peter feels the bird on his finger. Jade smiles at him, and Peter laughs aloud as the bird finishes pecking at the bar and flies away.

Jade suggests that Peter should get another pet when he goes home to Vola’s. Peter nervously tells her that he’s not going back. When she questions how he is going to live on his own at only 13, he quickly covers for himself by saying he’s not going back immediately. He’ll spread his father’s ashes and then return. Jade doesn’t press the matter further, but Peter can see that she isn’t convinced by his story.

Pax and the little vixen listen to the crows overhead for news of the river. Pax teaches his daughter that crows often know the local news. They are upset that there is a group of humans nearby, and while they may be well-meaning, they wear similar clothes to the war-sick humans from last year. Pax knows that even with the humans along the river, it’s still the safer way to travel since the water will cover their tracks from potential predators. Ultimately, he trusts that Peter and his friends won’t harm him and his daughter and decides that taking the longer route, but crossing paths with kinder humans, is the best route home.

Peter, Jade, and Samuel are at the site when the radio sounds an emergency alert. The mill operation has been delayed by recent storms for one to two weeks. All three are ecstatic, but especially the couple, who reveal that they are going to be married. Jade’s grandmother is ill and not expected to live long, so the wedding needs to happen soon. Instead of asking for a few days off, now the couple can take this time to get married and be with Jade’s grandmother.

Jade invites Peter to join them, but he declines, saying that he’ll be busy moving. Jade asks Samuel to give them a moment of privacy. She tells Peter that his plan to live on his own won’t work. When Peter is silent, Jade tells him that shutting everyone out will make him stop living in all the ways that matter. He shrugs her off, and she leaves him alone. Peter is left with his thoughts and plans for beginning a new, isolated life.

As Pax and his daughter travel south, he is relieved to see that the vixen seems to be gaining her strength back. She is learning how to balance to accommodate her weaker left side and is regaining her strength by gorging herself on eggs they find along the way.

Pax fends off bad memories associated with this spot along the river. He is leading them to Broad Valley, right past where Runt lost his leg, Gray died, and Peter left him. Bad memories aside, it is the necessary path to take. At Broad Valley, there will be plenty of food for her to fully regain her strength before they make the journey home.

Peter is facing bad memories of his own. He, Jade, and Samuel are at the service road to the old mill site, where his father made him abandon Pax. He forces himself to follow the couple onto the road. The hike proves easy compared to the last few days, but the emotional trek is almost too much for Peter to bear.

Peter stops in his tracks at the spot where he left Pax. He places his hand on his stomach, glued to the spot from the pain. Jade and Samuel ask him what’s wrong, and eventually, he confesses what happened there. Moreover, he mentions that his father was stationed at the mill site.

Jade realizes the impact of this and asks him if he is sure he wants to go to the mill site. Her question forces Peter to admit that he won’t be going to the mill site and that he never intended to do so. Jade urges Peter to allow himself to feel his grief and give himself the chance to create new memories at the same spot that once held so much pain. Peter thinks that she might be right but can’t yet bring himself to admit it to them or himself.

Pax and his daughter get to a place in the river where the sounds of rushing water fill the air. Pax wades in, and the current pulls his feet out from under him before he realizes it. As he battles the roaring river, he hears a cry and realizes that his daughter followed him into the water. Pax briefly catches her by her shoulder, but she is ripped away from him. Pax is swept up in the river as well, searching frantically for his kit, until a large wall of water knocks the breath out of him.

For the next few hours, the three humans hike without speaking. When they get to the guardhouse, Jade and Samuel bid Peter farewell, leaving him a few nonperishable food items. Peter is grateful, realizing that there will be nothing left at his old house. He thanks them, feeling a pang of sadness at saying goodbye before he remembers that this is what he wants. They part and go their separate ways. Peter walks toward his old home, ready to start building a new life there, alone.