The fox led the hunters to a deep pit in the middle of a vast, empty field: what the guards saw when they looked inside left them in shock 

Two experienced hunters were walking slowly through the winter forest, stepping carefully so the snow wouldn’t crunch under their boots.

The day had been unsuccessful — almost no tracks, no prey. Tired and frustrated, they were about to return to their car when a red shadow suddenly darted in front of them.

— A fox! — one of them shouted, raising his rifle.
The shot echoed through the forest but missed. The fox darted to the side, and the hunters, forgetting everything else, ran after her.

After a few minutes of following her tracks, they realized the forest had ended. Before them stretched a vast white field.
And right in the middle of it yawned a deep pit, like a black mouth.

The fox stopped at the edge and turned around. It seemed like she was waiting.

— What the hell is this? — muttered the second.
They approached, and one of the hunters carefully stepped onto the snow and leaned over to look inside.
— My God… — he whispered. — Down there…  Continued in the first comment 

— There are people!

At the bottom of the pit lay an overturned snowmobile and three people — two men and a woman. They were waving their hands and shouting for help.

Apparently, the tourists had fallen into this karst sinkhole earlier that morning and couldn’t get out.

— They’re alive… they’re alive! — the hunter shouted, grabbing his radio.

The fox was still standing at the edge, twitching her ears nervously, as if she understood what was happening.

Half an hour later, rescuers arrived. Using ropes, they descended and pulled the injured people up one by one.
The tourists were severely hypothermic but had miraculously survived.

When the last person was lifted out, the hunters turned around — the fox was gone. Only her paw prints led back toward the forest.

— She saved them, — one of the hunters said quietly.

The other nodded:

— And we were hunting her.