Scary Stories for Young Foxes

Content Warning: This section of the guide references depictions of torture, murder, sadism, physical and psychological abuse, and ableism, along with indirect hints of cannibalism and the habits of sexual predators and mentions of animal abuse.

In the present:

Scary Stories for Young Foxes begins during late fall in the Antler Wood. Seven fox kits, nestled in their den with their mother, ask her to tell them a scary story. She offers to tell ones they have heard before, but they object, claiming that none of the stories are scary enough. Knowing that their curiosity will be piqued by her foreboding tone, their mother asks them to promise that they will never go to the Bog Cavern. She explains that Bog Cavern is the home of an old storyteller whose tale is so frightening that she herself could not stay to hear the end.

The seven fox kits wait until their mother is asleep and sneak out into the night. The youngest is the most apprehensive, but she accompanies her siblings despite her reluctance. When they reach the Bog Cavern and sneak inside, the old fox they see is so skinny and decrepit that the kits are afraid that the storyteller is dead.