The Kindreds, Volume 1

The Twelfth, Pt. 1

Sada

The fox was jumping as he waved now, all his yellowed teeth bared in that smile.

There is still time yet to retreat from this wrongness, Lady Blue was saying to her, but unfortunately Sada's arm had already raised itself in greeting, and her hand was turning in a ladylike wave. Her mouth was stretching into a ladylike smile, and then the fox was brightly beckoning them over.

Never thee mind. Honor calls us to respond, the filly thought darkly.

Sada groaned inwardly. My apologies, I know not what I am doing—

But then her feet were walking her toward the talking animal dressed in human clothes.

When she reached it, it stuck its arm straight out in front of itself, elbow locked. At first Sada did not realize what it was trying to accomplish with this strange greeting. Then she realized it was trying to take her hand. She placed her own in its tiny paw, awaiting an equally stiff bow and a respectful kiss from its muzzle. It didn't come. The fox just clasped her hand between its two paws and began moving them up and down.

He is trying to shake my hand as well! she thought. What is it about me that causes the men of this world to treat me like I am one of them? The dirt on my dress? At this greeting, Sada let out a noise somewhere between a scoff and an amused laugh.

"What is it? Have I done it wrong?" the fox asked. His smile disappeared and he looked between her and his companions, appearing worried.

Just beside him stood a large rabbit (this one had the typical number of ears) clad in his own suit, though his was a rich blue. He stood up on his back legs like the fox, and seemed to look more at place that way, balanced on his haunches. In one of his paws he held a handkerchief that matched the color of his suit. Behind both of the suit-clad animals huddled a racoon in a pink dress. It had a billowing skirt and was trimmed with lace, in the old style Sada had just brought herself to move away from. Seeing the style of dress which she so loved made her heart do an excited little skip, though the person who wore it was no person at all. The lady racoon looked terribly afraid, and had both her hands clasped on the hat on her head—which was decorated with fruits—as though she feared it would blow away at any given moment.

They all stood in front of a table set with various pastries and china sets.

The sight of the animals wearing human clothes made her uneasy, but at least they weren't naked like the Nymph... she shuddered to remember the sight of those glaring green nipples.

Though the fox looked to the dress-clad racoon for his answer, it was the rabbit gentleman who responded.

"I believe you have offended her, thir. You thee, she isth a lady. The hand is to be kithed, not shaken."

When he first began to speak, Sada didn't know at all what he was saying. Then she realized he had a lisp, and shame bloomed on her cheeks. Thankfully, neither he nor his foxy friend seemed to notice.

The fox's face lit up at the answer. "Ah! Kissed! Yes of course, why didn't I think it? Your hand, lady?"

Sada hesitantly replaced her hand in the fox's grasp. This time he let it balance on the stiff pad of his paw then brought his muzzle to it. His whiskers and breath tickled the back of her hand, but she stifled the urge to pull it away until after he kissed it. Yet he did no such thing. Instead, his pink tongue darted out and he licked it, once.

Sada jerked her hand back with a startled squeak. The fox immediately flinched backward, smiling nervously. To Sada, he looked ready to attack her with those yellowing teeth.