Isla

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## Isla

### Aliases

* Fox-ka
* The Black Fox

### Relatives

Ma (un-named)
Fa (un-named)
Greatma (un-named)
Pirie (brother)

## Physical description

### Eye Color

Amber

**Isla** is a female red fox, and the main protagonist of the series.

Isla’s mission is to find her brother, Pirie, who she believes is alive after Karka's skulk killed the rest of her family.

Isla is noted to have very powerful Maa, and is highly skilled at Foxcraft. She succeeds in locating and rescuing her brother in *The Mage* and succeeds Metis as the Black Fox.

## Appearance

Isla's appearance is first described when Siffrin was her double to slow her down. She is pretty, with soft, fuzzy ginger fur. Isla has a short snout and a slim fluffy tail. She appears to have amber eyes, and also describes her paws as being black. She is small, or at least compared to other characters.

After the events of The Mage Isla's fur turns raven with a white tail-tip when she becomes the new Black Fox.

## Personality

Isla is shown to be quite naive at first; trusting the furless and Siffrin easily and seems to have a problem following orders, disobeying her parents to go get berries when it starts to rain and they order her inside the den. Isla is also incredibly loyal, refusing to believe that her brother is dead and has an amazing amount of self preservation. She is the most strongest, and confident fox in the whole map.

In book two, she is a lot more cautious, wondering if Haiki drowning was a trick, and deciding not to trust foxes. Despite this, she still saves his life. And later, when they are fighting the Taken, she is shown trying to reason with them. This shows that Isla has a big heart and is willing to find and try another alternative to fighting.

Isla is also incredibly curious; in the first book, she never stops asking questions, even when Siffrin makes fun of her for it, and in the second, she asks the elders and Siffrin to show her wa'akkir. She is also very kindhearted and brave, risking her life to save Farraclaw, and later Haiki.

As is also seen in the second book, Isla has a sense of humor, as, when she hears Simmi and Tao talk about her behind her back, she grows annoyed, however, she quickly forgives them, but decides to mess with them, by Slimmering and Karakking, and then later showing them how to do it themselves. She finds it very easy to forgive others - first forgiving Siffrin for standing back and watching her skulk die, then Haiki for betraying her, and finally Pirie, for accidentally leading Karka to their den.

However, she doesn't seem to like being talked down to, or bossed around, as she argued with Siffrin a lot over that.

## Life situation

Isla is intuitively skilled in karakking, the art of throwing your voice and imitating other sounds. At the start of *The Taken*, all she could do was toss a bird call, but by the end of it, she could mimic all the animals in the zoo with ease, scaring off The Taken.

In *The Elders,* Isla is able to karak her own voice to scare Simmi and Tao, as well as some bird calls, and in *The Mage*, she imitates a bison well enough to distract a group of wolves.

After Siffrin helps her and teaches her the chant, she can also slimmer, though not as easily as her brother Pirie. In book 2, she has improved to the point where she might actually be better than him, slimmering and karakking at the same time, and was able to hold it for an undetermined amount of time. In the third book, she learns how to cloak others, and how to walk further distances, meaning she has now surpassed Pirie in that field.

Isla can use gerra-sharm with her brother Pirie due to their strong bond as siblings. They use it specifically in the second book when Isla tries to communicate with him. However, these thoughts can be intercepted and hunted down.

At the end of book 2, Isla learns how to wa'akkir, turning into a dog and later a bird, though neither of them last long. In The Mage, when she's cornered by The Taken, she shifted into Farraclaw to defend herself and manages to stay that way for a while.

Isla is instinctively good at maa-sharm, after seeing Siffrin do it once, she is instantly able to copy it. She uses it to heal him after a fight with coyotes and to help save Pirie.

In the third book, Isla can use pashanda, to tell where the wolves are coming from. It's so strong she can even smell the rivers, mountains and lakes miles away from her.

Isla figures out how to undo pleaching in book 3. In that same book, she had the Elders pleach their maa together in order to fight The Mage.

Isla is the black fox, and she has control in all fields of Foxcraft.

## Life History

### The Taken

Isla is first seen playing with her brother, Pirie. She's nearly escaped him again when their parents and Greatma come and tell them to come back to the den. Isla stalls and is left behind. When she gets back her den, it is in flames and swarming with strange foxes.

After she thinks they've left, she wanders in and is seen by Karka. She runs, wildly sprinting into the Great Snarl. She loses them but is lost. She wanders alone for a while before she finds the Beast Dens, where she unintentionally tries to take food belonging to Farraclaw. She argues with him, until she decides reasoning with him is pointless and she leaves.

She travels for a while, crossing roads, exploring wildways, and hunting moths. After failing to sleep, she sees an elderly female fox. Thinking she might help her, Isla runs to her. The fox is angry and sick-looking, and snaps at Isla. Isla tells her name and says she's looking for her brother Pirie. The old vixen reacts strangely, as if Isla has already asked the question. Isla loses her temper, but soon leaves and sleeps.

Then Isla meets Siffrin, a young adult male fox with deep red fur. He claims to know about Foxcraft, an ancient art of their kind. Siffrin also claims to be searching for Isla's brother, Pirie. He tells Isla about the Elders, wise and mysterious old foxes who are the keepers of foxlore. Isla and Siffrin team up to find Pirie and the Elders, meanwhile being chased by the Mage. In her sleep, Isla does gerra-sharm and sees an angel furless so they go there.

### The Elders

Now Isla went to te Wildlands to find her brother. On her way, she sees a grey fox about to drown in a river. Despite her better judgement, she rescues Haiki from the river. The two decide to travel together, where they meet a skulk of foxes and they steal their cache. When they are found out, Isla, who genuinely didn't know, apologizes, and offers to make it up for them.

They take her back to their den, where they shock her with their low opinion of The Elders. She wonders if they could be right. She hears her brothers voice, and rushes outside, only to see that it was Siffrin, karakking. Isla, is less than pleased to see him, but before she can say or do anything, coyotes come to the cache. Isla watches in horror as Siffrin fights them off, before passing out.

She heals him, then passes out from exhaustion. Upon waking up, Siffrin tells her that he's here to take her to The Elders, which Isla initially refuses, challenging the other foxes by pointing out what they said yesterday. However, when Haiki tries to talk her into it, she finally relents, but not before deciding to try and teach Simmi and Tao foxcraft. They take her and Haiki on a tour around their area, showing off their favorite spots. She also offers to teach Mox, but the offer is vehemently refused.

Isla, feeling betrayed when Siffrin doesn't return, decides to teach Tao and Simmi foxcraft anyways. As she's wondering how to teach them how to karrak and slimmer, she overhears them talking about her, much to her annoyance, though she does feel gratified by Haiki standing up for her.

She contemplates leaving them, before deciding against, instead choosing to just mess with them by showing off her foxcraft talents. The three foxes beg her to teach them, and Isla agrees, but not before they catch her as well.

Isla is later seen noting that while Simmi and Tao can do basic foxcraft, Haiki's gift is in unmasking the arts. The four stumble across the now empty den, with the dead Mox. Isla silently grieves over the young creature, but stops Simmi and Tao from chasing down The Taken.

### The Mage

Isla meets Farraclaw's Bishar and frees Metis, The Black Fox, from his own pleach. She helps Metis get to the Elder Rock. The Elders pleach themselves to Isla and she goes to the Darklands together with Siffrin, Simmi and Tao, and gets help from Haiki, who is later killed by Koch. The wolves come and kill all the Narral while they were trapping the foxes that the group freed from the pleach. Isla goes to the Mage's lair with Siffrin and frees Pirie and some other foxes that are full of maa. Metis dies when Isla kills Keeveny, the Mage. She heads to the ocean along with Pirie, Siffrin, Shri and Zilla, two of the foxes the Mage sucked maa from. It is also known that Isla and Siffrin reveal their special bond to each other. It’s hinted they became mates. At the end of the book, Isla becomes the new black fox.

## Love Interests

#### **Siffrin**

Isla's relationship with Siffrin was rocky in the beginning, with Isla being naïve and Siffrin being arrogant and annoyed. However, she soon began to respect him and care about him, though she never outwardly admits it. Siffrin becomes a great deal of help to her, teaching her how to slimmer and hunt, as well as teaching her Foxlore and defending her from the Taken. When Siffrin spoke of leaving the Graylands, Isla felt a strange tugging in her chest at the thought of it. She was outraged when she found out he never told her the truth about her family, and upon finding out he bore the mark of the Taken, she ran from him and subsequently got caught by the snatchers. He could be seen chasing the car, desperately shouting her name.

In the Elders, Isla could be heard dismissing Siffrin and the Elders repeatedly. At one point, she compared him with Haiki, saying the latter wasn't as finicky as him. When he appears at the skulk's den in the form of a coyote, Isla recognizes him on sight, saying she knew that voice anywhere. Siffrin ends up nearly killing himself, so Isla harnesses maa-sharm and heals him, though she becomes exhausted in the process. When she awakens, he is in the den along with the rest of the skulk and Haiki. He tells her his new mission is to bring her to the Elder Rock to meet Jana. When Isla protests, he says that the Elders may have ways of finding them and Isla retorts that that was what Haiki said. She notices Siffrin behaving arrogantly towards Haiki and is annoyed. Later they have a conversation where he told her what he had done after she was captured. Isla lashes out at him, saying he's using her and that his mark showed who he truly was loyal to. Siffrin gets angry, yelling at her why she gave him maa sharm if he hated her so much. The two bristle at each other before Siffrin recounts the story of how he got his mark. Isla's anger dies out and she consoles him about his loss, to which he blankly replied that it was a long time ago. He also reveals that two Elders are missing, as well as indirectly revealing the secrets of pleaching. The next day he sets out to go tell Jana about the arrival of Simmi and Tao, but not before Isla confronts him about teaching her wa'akkir. He declines, and the two are about to argue but are interrupted by the dogs. Siffrin wards them off and sets out on his journey, but doesn't come back, leaving Isla and the rest of them to believe he'd betrayed them. This was only because he was intercepted by Koch and couldn't double back. When she sees him again, he is on the Elder Rock, and participated in the battle there. When Haiki revealed himself as a spy, Siffrin gave a yelp of surprise. He was seen multiple times defending Isla in the form of a dog during the battle. When it is over, he eavesdrops on Jana telling Isla, Simmi and Tao about the White Fox. When Jana sends Isla off to the Snowlands, Siffrin volunteers to go with her. Jana tells him no, and while neither of them argue, Isla thinks that she wants him to come. He escorts her to the edge of the Elder wood, but before she goes, he says that she didn't have to go alone and that he would go with her. Isla asks him about Jana and he says she'll understand. Isla agrees and he runs to her excitedly, resting his head on hers. He tells her he never meant to hurt her and that he'd do anything to help her. Isla replies that she knows, and inwardly reveals that she forgave him already. They head off for the river; however, the Narral catch up with them and Siffrin shapeshifts into Isla to lead them away. Isla turns into a bird and gets to the other side, leaving Siffrin stranded on the banks.

In the Mage, Isla, during her time in the snowlands, thinks about Siffrin a lot and how she wishes he could be here. When she returns with Metis, Siffrin finds her on the bank of the river and the two reunite joyously. Isla thinks she's never seen a more beautiful fox. He then gives Metis maa-sharm and leads them to the Rock, where the Elders, Simmi, and Tao are waiting. When they are discussing who is going to be pleached, Jana says that it will be Siffrin. Siffrin says he will do it, but Isla can tell he's nervous. When Metis says Isla should do it instead, Siffrin is scared for her but otherwise has no objections, saying she's the bravest fox he knows. When Isla is about to be pleached, Siffrin was present and smiling encouragingly at her. He lead the way towards the Ghost Valley where their quest would begin. Siffrin is revealed to still be very self conscious about his coat, grooming it fervently when they stop for a rest. Isla sticks next to him a lot, feeling safer with him around.

When the group reunites with Haiki, Siffrin is the only one that isn't openly hostile. He is cold towards Haiki, but defends him from Simmi, saying he would be able to lead them to the Mage's lair. Haiki leads everyone across the swamp. Siffrin is the first to reach the other side, to Isla's great relief. When the Taken get swallowed by the swamp, Siffrin is stricken, and tells Isla that she can't save them, though he seemed to be trying to reassure himself as well. Siffrin is mostly passive aggressive towards Haiki at this point, ominously remarking that the Mage probably wants him dead. He helped free the Taken at the tree, but was hurt in the process, though he refused maa-sharm. He accompanies Isla to fight the Mage, though he is nearly killed. Isla, scared for his life, tells him to lead the captured foxes out, saying she would not lose another loved one to the Mage. Reluctantly he agrees, and lead the captured foxes, save for Pirie, out.

Isla emerges triumphantly from the remnants of the Lair with Pirie. Siffrin is overjoyed.

Siffrin and Isla revel in their newfound bond, and the two start a romantic relationship. Isla helps Siffrin remember his mother. Lop is seen giving Siffrin knowing looks. Siffrin sets off towards the Freelands along with his mate, his brother in law, and Shri and Zilla.