The Kitsune's Love

Sample

Corrina Darksong ran through the forest, tears streaking down her bruised face, so distraught by the events that had occurred not even an hour earlier, that she didn't even notice the drop-off she was approaching until she slipped. Better dead than in the hands of those monsters she thought bitterly, before feeling a sharp pain and the blackness enclosing her.

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When Corrina was 8, her father had died working in the Xonore mines, during a massive cave-in. Luckily for the village, there were only a few men working at the time, as most had already finished for the day. However, Mr. Darksong had been working late to save up for his daughter to go to the witch school, as she had shown promise in magic from the time she could talk. And, it was for that very reason that Corrina's mother blamed her for her father's death.
Within 6 months of her father's passing, her mother was remarried. But this time, to a cold and cruel man, or at least cold and cruel to his stepdaughter. Whereas her father was warm, kind, selfless and loving, her stepfather, Gerald, cared only for himself and his needs. While he did dote on his wife and buy her presents, he first ignored Corrina, and eventually became so tired of seeing her around, that he banished her to the barn.
It became worse after her mother and stepfather had a child together, shortly after she turner eleven. She was treated as a slave, forced to clean the house spotless and care for her stepbrother, as well as tend the garden, gather herbs, and cook meals. Meals of which she would only get the measly cold leftovers, if there were any. She ended up finding a place in the woods near her home, but hidden from view of the house and the paths that her family would treck on to hunt, fish, shop, or work. That is where she would process and store food that she foraged while gathering herbs, or from sneaking away from the cottage while her family was asleep or away to hunt and fish. She had even built herself a little smokehouse and salt rack, so her food wouldn't go bad. She thanked the Night Goddess that she had listened to her father on the many trips he had taken her on, and when she had "helped" him build the smokehouse and set up a salt rack just the year before he died.
In all honesty, she didn't mind sleeping in the barn too much. It was away from her stepfather and mother and their cruel words. Besides, it gave her a place to hide the many trinkets her father had given her or that she had smuggled away from her stepfather's greedy eyes, as he had developed a habit of selling what his wife's late husband had left to support his drinking every week's end.
But, like all good things in her life, nothing ever lasted...

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Just before her 17th birthday, the secret she had kept for nearly six years, the secret that had fed her when the people she called mother and stepfather would have her starve, was uncovered, by Kelion, her stepbrother. The six year old boy had stumbled into her smokehouse while running after his dog in the woods. Excited by his discovery, he sprinted to his father and exclaimed, "Papa! PAPA! You have got to see this!"
Unfortunately, Corrina washed clothes down at the creek during the event, completely oblivious to the revelation of her secret food stock. Nor did she see the anger in her stepfather's eyes as he looked at the handiwork, recognizing the knots as Corrina's, as they were unique to her and her father.