Sami's litter gathered around her. It was the end of a long day, the little foxes' bellies were full of the ground squirrel they had had for dinner, and their father was patiently chipping away at what would be a stone spearhead.
"Tell us a story mommy!"
"What story do you want to hear?"
"First parents! First parents!" the little foxes shouted in chorus. That was their favorite story.
"Alright." Sami began. "When first parents were young, they lived with skymother in heaven. Dan was a boy and Brenda was a girl. The people who live in heaven aren't like us--they don't have fur on their bodies and their faces are flat and they have big thick legs that they stump around on."
"Like this!" said Katy, the clown of the litter. She took a few stiff-legged, straight backed steps and collapsed into a fit of laughter.
"Just like that." said Sami. "But they don't know how funny-looking they are. Anyway, Dan had a sister whose name was Kat." The children's eyes were big. "Kat dug a hole in heaven, and she pushed Dan and Brenda in."
"Why was Kat so mean?" asked Rob, who always liked 'why' questions.
"No one knows, she just was. Anyway, Dan and Brenda fell from the sky for many days, and earthfather saw them falling, and he realized that people were coming to live on him. So as Dan and Brenda were falling, he reached out to turn them into people who could live in this world. He gave them warm fur so they wouldn't freeze in the winter, and he gave them skinny legs so they could move fast, and long, sensitive noses so they could smell the creatures they would eat. Earthfather wanted people to live in his house for a long, long time. He had been so lonely with just animals and plants to live on him! And Earthfather did one other thing."
"What?" The children knew this was the most mysterious part of the story.
"He turned Dan into a girl, and he turned Brenda into a boy. Their new names were Danielle and Brandon."
"First parents!" the children shouted.
"Why did he do that?" asked Rob.
"No one knows." Sami answered. "But I think it's because he saw that Dan would make a really good mother and Brenda would make a really good father. That's why, on first parents day, girls do boy's jobs and act like boys, and boys do girl's jobs and act like girls. That reminds us of first parents and how hard things were for them at first."
"Poor first parents."
"Oh, they did alright. But skymother was very sad when she found out she had lost her children. Once they fell onto earthfather they could never climb back into heaven because its so far away."
"Farther than Rivercrest?" asked Rob. Rivercrest was another village a few miles away.
"Much, much farther. Now, what happens a little after first parents day?"
"The rains!"
"That's right. Because when skymother found out she had lost her children, she cried and cried, and that time of year every year she's reminded of it, and she cries again."
"What happened to Kat?"
"Kat ran away from skymother. Kat is still afraid to go near skymother, and she's still mean. Kat is always trying to make foxes do mean things, because that's what makes her happy. So when Dan stole that rabbit we were all going to share the day before yesterday, who was happy?"
"Kat!" shouted the little foxes, except for Dan who turned his head away.
"And who was sad?"
"First parents!"
"Right. And now its time for you to make first parents happy, and go to sleep without making any fuss."