Foxfire: Veil of the Nine Phantoms

2: The Nine-Tailed Fox II - Vixen

September 9 - Melanie

Using the enchanted oil-paper umbrella to slow my fall, I landed softly on the pavement below. I couldn't believe that I had jumped from a high-rise building and survived the fall. Whether I hated the jump or loved it, I couldn't tell, but I felt like I had the energy to stay awake for the whole night.

The magical Japanese parasol vanished into thin air, and in its place I conjured a kiseru, a Japanese smoking pipe. Before the vixen tried to use the pipe, I spoke up.

Is that a smoking pipe? Why do you have that? Smoking gives you lung cancer.

The smoking pipe disappeared like magic and I sighed, or the vixen sighed. She controlled my body, not me.

Want to go somewhere instead? Maybe sneak into a gastropub in the Danforth and liven things up with some drinks.

Alcohol? I can't have that. Drinking age in Ontario is nineteen and I just turned eighteen minutes ago.

You're a rather boring girl.

Why do I have to be stuck with a troublemaker like you? I don't want to drink anything. My mother would get mad at me.

My, my, boring and obedient.

I am not boring.

Why do I have to help you when you're such a killjoy? I am your personified wish fulfillment, yet you reject me. Face it Melanie, deep down inside you wish you were more like me.

I didn't answer. Maybe she was right.

Can I have control over my body again?

The vixen laughed at me inside my mind.

No.

Can we go home?

Fine then. Suit yourself.

I ran to Eastmount Avenue and jumped on top of a house, then leaped across backyards until I landed on the houses next to Thorncliffe Avenue. Then I easily hopped from house to house until I reached Chester Hill Lookout. When I returned to the astrology circle at the end of Chester Hill Road, my bicycle was gone. Having cursed myself for losing my transportation, I looked around to see where it went, but it was as gone as the umbrella and kiseru the vixen had conjured.

Shit. Someone stole it.

I can handle that.

I dropped down to the astrology circle and sniffed the air for clues. The smell was still strong; the thief who stole it couldn't be far away. I followed the scent down Chester Hill Road until I reached Broadview Avenue, where the trail turned south. We were exiting a quiet tree-lined street and moving to a busier four-lane road.

You do realize that people are going to see us?

Don't worry about it.

My nine tails disappeared. The ninja costume I wore magically changed to a casual outfit.

The scent trail led me close to the intersection between Broadview Avenue and Pretoria Avenue, where my grandfather's kickboxing gym was located. Across the street I saw a young man walking with my bicycle next to a corner store. On the left side of the store was a bicycle sharing station and a large wall of colourful graffiti art, while the front of the store had a variety of potted plants arranged on the sidewalk. Above the entrance to the shop was a small balcony where an old man quietly smoked a cigarette. The thief stopped momentarily to look at his phone.

He's about to get freed from his mortal coil.

In my right hand, hidden from sight, I ignited a tiny fireball no bigger than a candle's flame over my index finger. The vixen wanted to incinerate the thief.