The Too-Clever Fox

Koja is a small, sickly fox kit born in the snowy woods of Ravka. He escapes his first trap on the day he is born and, through cunning alone, survives snares, hunting dogs and a great bear. Then a feared hunter and his withdrawn half-sister arrive in the forest, and Koja meets a danger his cleverness may not be enough for.

A trickster fable in the manner of the folk tales Ravkans tell their children, it was written as a companion to Leigh Bardugo's Siege and Storm, the second book of the Grisha Trilogy, and reads fine without it. It first appeared free on Tor.com in June 2013, and is collected in The Language of Thorns.