A Fox's Whisper

8: |几卂尺|

I heard the sounds of swords clashing together before I fully registered what was going on. The next thing I knew, Kazuha had shoved me back into the sand and jumped forward, meeting our assailants head-on. I landed wrong on my arm, and I must say, sand is not exactly the softest thing to land on once you've been forcefully pushed onto it. It scuffed against my skin harshly.

Legion and Kazuha were fending off two pirates each, which left Haru to deal with the fifth. I could easily see the thief boy was in over his head, his staff no match for the cruelly sharp blade he was up against. The pirate's face was obscured by the shadow his straw hat cast over it, but I could imagine the blood lust in his eyes. He towered over Haru and had muscles as thick as my neck.

"Well, well, well, little rat," the pirate sneered at Haru. "Looks like this will be easy."

I disliked Haru with a burning passion, but I didn't feel quite so compelled to let Haru handle things on his own when he so obviously couldn't. I don't know why. It was so very unlike me.

I stood up and rushed forward, feeling as though my body wasn't my own. I wasn't sure if I could get away with kitsune illusions without Haru and Legion seeing, but I had to do something.

I lunged at the pirate attacking Haru, jumping up and wrapping my arms around his sweaty neck. Taken by surprise, the pirate yelled in shock, and his free hand came back in a fist straight into my nose. I felt it pop out of place. I shrieked, and my eyes begin to sting and water, and I had all I could do to not let go, but my grip loosened. The pain was almost unbearable, and I felt blood trickle into my mouth. I tried pulling the pirate backward, but I was much smaller than he, and my efforts were in vain.

Haru brought his staff around to smack the pirate in the face, but the pirate met it with his sword. The sword lodged into the staff and with a twist of the sword handle, Haru's staff went flying from his hands. The pirate reached over, and before I could do anything he'd wrenched me from his back and hurled me as hard as he could into the ground. My vision turned spotty and pain exploded up my spine. I couldn't talk, I couldn't move. Archons above, I could barely breathe.

An illusion. I needed an illusion. I was gasping for air as I rolled to my side, trying to crawl far enough away that I could do something. Before the pirate killed me. Before he killed Haru. Before anything happened to Kazuha or Legion. I was not about to let five bandits become a roadblock on my way to getting my star ball back.

Then I had it. My eyes were ground-level. All I could see was sand flying and feet scrambling and shuffling. The sound of metal on metal grated against my ears, and waves of heat radiated from the sand as the sun beat down overhead, causing sweat to bead across my body.
I pressed my hand to the ground, focusing on the feet of the pirate that stalked towards Haru, snickering menacingly.

Haru whimpered and fell backward. He was weaponless, and now was the time to act. I allowed my fox magic to surge through me, imagining fire erupting on the pirate's feet. He wouldn't know it was illusionary, that fox fire wouldn't actually burn him. But it would be enough to save Haru. In a split second, orange and blue flames sparked to life on the pirate's feet. They weren't completely realistic. They had none of the fluidity that real fire had, but that didn't seem to matter. The pirate looked down and screamed quite like a girl. He began flailing about, as if he'd been possessed by a headless chicken.

"My feet!!! They're burning! They're burning!!" He screamed. "Ah! Ahh!!! Put them out! Put it out!!!"

I felt a sick smile curl across my lips as the success of a kitsune illusion, however crude, washed over me.

The other pirates paused for the briefest of moments upon their comrade's shrieking, and it was just what Kazuha and Legion needed. I raised my head from the ground and everything seemed to move in slow motion. Kazuha squatted down low, twisting his body. Then he sprung high into the air and there was a great rush of wind. I could practically see it in whispery green tendrils, wrapping around Kazuha and his blade. It was so powerful, the pirates were knocked off their feet and dragged forward in the sand.