Exposed

Nine Tails

Ki knocked on the door softly, "Lumen? Can I come in?"

The door opened to reveal the smiling old woman. She grabbed Ki's hand and pulled her into the room. Lumen gestured for Ki to sit at the table, so she did.  Walking over to a tray, Lumen brought a tea set towards Ki. 

"I was just making tea. It's macha," Lumen spoke cheerfully.

"I love macha tea!"Ki glowed, she hadn't had macha tea in a while. The taste relaxed her and given everything that's been happening, she needed some relaxing. Lumen poured a cup of tea for Ki and for herself. The old woman sat back in her chair, taking in the scent of the tea. Ki did the same, closing her eyes and breathing in the scent.

'No, Kiwa! I get to go before you because I'm the fifth kit!'

'So? That doesn't mean anything! I'm the ninth kit! The number nine is higher than the number five! So I should go first!' Ki yelled at Jade.

'That would be counting backwards, dummy!' Jade shoved her way passed her sister.

The mother came into the cave from the forest, laughing at her foolish kits. She nuzzled each one of them. Then, she began picking us up by the neck and placed us in a line. The first nine girls, and then the 4 boys.

'This is the order you're going in. Like always,' Ki's mother spoke with amusement, 'Now come, Akane. It's your turn.'

Akane left with mother for lessons, leaving the rest of her kits even more eager to follow.

'Akane is so lucky that she's first,' Jade whispered, curling up.

'Don't worry, Jade. It's your turn soon. Promise me that you'll teach me what you learned, okay!" Ki begged excitedly, snuggling up to her sister.

"Okay," Jade said, drifting to sleep with a smile on her face.

"Jade..." Ki mumbled.

"I don't have any Jade tea, sorry dear."

"What? Oh, no! The macha is more than perfect," Ki smiled, snapping out of her trance.

"What brings you to see me? You should be socializing with the pack," Lumen said, sipping her tea.

Putting her cup down, Ki rested the journal previously given to her onto the table.

"I was hoping we could read through this together. I don't really know what to do with myself."

"Ki, don't fret too much. You'll know what to do when you're faced with a problem. Just take it day by day, like you did before you found yourself here."

"I've been having these visions...Of when I was a kit," Ki began, "I had so many siblings. I had a mother! But as far as I can remember I've always been on my own. I met my best friends when I was 18, only two years ago. Before them, I can't remember anything."

"A kit? Were you raised in fox form?" Lumen inquired, curious.

"Yes, my siblings and I, we lived in the forest near the river."

"How peculiar," Lumen pondered, sipping her tea, "I had assumed kitsune were like werewolves. Our pups can't shift when they're so young."

"The smell of the tea, it provoked the vision," Ki informed Lumen, taking the cup into her hands.

"Well, kitsune is a Japanese term. Macha tea is a Japanese tea. It probably triggered your memory. Why don't you try again? Drink some of the tea and focus on your memories."

Ki nodded, bringing the cup to her lips. Opening her mouth slightly, she tipped the cup back. The warm liquid flowed into her mouth, gliding over every taste bud.

'Okay everyone, we'll be having a group lesson today!'

All the kits sprang to life, climbing over each other and piling up in front of their mother.

'Okay, so, who knows what we are?' she asked, looking over her kits.

'We're foxes!' the group shouted out.

'Right, but what else are we?'

When the mother fox got no response she spoke, 'We are kitsune. We are fox spirits. We can interact with the living and the dead.'

Almost in unison, the baby foxes oooh'ed and aaaah'ed at the information.

'We're so awesome!' Jade exclaimed.

'Yes, we are," Ki's mother nuzzled Jade, " Kitsune can live for hundreds of years, unlike foxes. Does anyone know how old I am?'

'100!'

'No, 300!'

'Our mommy is too pretty to be 300! She's probably only, like, 60!'

Laughing, Ki's mother spoke again, 'I'm 1,100 years old. That's why I have so many tails.'

The kits looked in aw of their mother. All of their eyes focused on the many tails spread out behind her. 

'The older you become, the more tails you'll grow. Most kitsune can only grow nine tails, but that means they had to be alive for at least 900 years. Did you know you can hide your tails?'

Ki lifted her leg and tucked her tail underneath her until you could no longer see it. She smiled up at her mother, which made her laugh.

'Good job, Ki. But you can hide your tails with magic. This will be very important to learn, when you get older.'

'Why can't we learn it now? I want to use magic!' Akane begged with everyone else cheering her on.

'You all only have one tail! There's no need to hide it yet. Remember: Never forget to hide your tail. When a kitsune reaches 100 years old, we can transform into a human shape, but we keep our tails. If we don't hide them, the humans will find out and we'll be in danger.'

"Oh my!" Lumen jumped, waking Ki from her vision.

"What?"

"You have a tail!"

Ki looked down to see a large, bushy tail wrapping around her. She stood and looked behind her. She lifted the back of her shift and saw the tail protruding from her lower back. It was a deep orange colour, changing to white as it reached the tip. She ran her fingers over her tail, feeling the softness of her fur. She couldn't help but smile at the feeling.

"It's beautiful, but I didn't know kitsune could transform specific parts of their body before!" Lumen spoke in awe.

"We can't. Our tails are always there. We have to hide them to keep safe, when we're shifted into humans."

Ki walked away from the table, Lumen's eyes following her, and  stood in front of the mirror. She took a deep breath and the exhaled. She watched as her massive tail separated into multiple tails. They spread out around her, imitating almost a peacock's feathers. 

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.

Nine tails. 900 years.

『Author's Note:』

I figured I'd provide how to pronounce some of the names/terms in the story, since not everyone is familiar with the Japanese language.

Kitsune (key-tsoon-eh) - both a singular and plural term

Kiwa (key-wah)

Akane (ah-kah-ne)

I'll add the pronunciation of any other Japanese terms/names I might use in the future. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter (: