For The Other Fox

Once upon a time, I suppose...

There was a fox that was friends with a wolf. They were the best of friens, although people didn't understand their friendship. The fox knew, after many years, how to handle the wolf's ups and downs.
One day the wolf came to his fox friend and said he'd had his eye on another fox. His fox friend said that was okay, just to be careful. Not all the foxes understood him. The wolf nodded and went off to charm the other new fox.
After a while the other fox and the wolf became very good companions. They seemed good together, great even. But the fox friend always thought to herself, "It'll be the new fox that gets hurt if this goes bad. Not the wolf." And all the other foxes agreed.
Time passed, and the old and new fox friends became best friends. They had a lot in common, being foxes of the same kind and all. They quickly bonded, and all three became friends together. But the wolf had been wandering again.
Don't get it wrong, the old fox loved her wolf friend. But he had a habit of wandering, and as she feared, he found another wolf.
Now the new wolf and him didn't even have much in common really. He just thought it'd be nice to be with another wolf for a bit. But little did he know what it'd turn out.
One day the new fox caught it's wolf friend with the other wolf. Hurt and angry, he ran away, not knowing what to think. The wolf tried to apologize, but the fox wouldn't hear it. They were companions no longer.
The old and new fox friends stayed friends though, and spent many long nights together sharing their stories and watching out for eachother.
"I really do miss him..." The new fox friend said one night. The old fox friend looked down sadly. She wished she could do something to help. She could see her friends heart breaking. Her friend had been through so much. So she came up with a plan to help.
The next day the old fox showed up to where the new fox lived just after dark.
"I have something for you," she said, smiling.
The new fox looked up, sadly and skeptically. What could she really have that could cheer him up?
The new fox took the box his friend offered and opened it up. The moment he did, he gasped. It was a heart, beating and bright, new and unscarred.
The new fox looked up in wonder and saw a tiny scar across his friends chest and gasped.
"This....this is your heart though!" He exclaimed, slightly shocked.
The old fox sat down next to her friend.
"I know," she said calmly. "But yours was broken. I thought you needed it a lot more than I did."
A tear ran down both the foxes faces, as they exchanged meaningful glances.
This, they both knew, was real friendship.
"I'll always be here for you." The old fox said.
And her friend knew she meant every word of it.