"Mama we have to go!" The fennec fox cub yelped as the fire spread out farther, as if chasing him. He saw his mother's yellow fur, but it was gone. Gone into the flames. His heart pounded in his chest. He couldn't feel the heat that much, but he was sure it was real. "Mama where did you go?" 

He yelped again, barked. Nothing helped. Where did she go? He wondered. Sand ran across the desert away from the burning flames. My litter-mates are still in there! He thought. In the fire! They will melt! I can't let them die! Or worse...

But Sand's family was gone. Dead. In the fire. Little did he know, fire killed a couple seconds after in the fire. He was just a little cub. He knew he couldn't go in the fire. Danger was all he knew. But now, he was surrounded by fire! He yelped and ran around in circles in panic, and once the fire hit him, heat hit him.

Sand woke up. He looked around him. No fire. No nothing. Only the heat of the desert. He was alive and not in fire. It was a dream. A dream! Yes! He thought. But there was no mama, and worse, no brother or sister. Or father. He was alone. Alone as ever. MAMA WOULD NEVER DO THIS!

Rage filled his little body, but he shook it out. What had happened? There was no warmth of his mama, no whisper of sister having a good dream, no bark of father's music, no brother's play. And no one to teach him. He was alone in the dry, sandy desert.

He tried to get up but he was stuck to the ground. He realized it was his own fear. His fear sucking him into the earth...No, it was the movement taking him in, as if eating him. Half of his body was already in the earth. And he was about to go under the sand, where he would have his death. And it was taking him fast.