Foxfire || A Nine-tailed Fox Fantasy

🎐[17] Face them

There, before you, bounced an excited white fox, tittering like a dolphin. It hopped twice on the spot like a drop of water on a hot pan and weaves left and right. It takes you sometime to recognise it as the fox from the garbage can and the park by the black tips of its ears.

That is, until it opens its mouth.

"Hello human, do you remember me?" asks the vixen as she creeps closer to you to sniff your shoes. You yank them away, contorting your face into one of pure amazement, with scrunched brows and a wide open jaw. The vixen backs away, dropping its head.

"No uh," you manage.

"We've met in this very same forest a few days ago, remember? You were in an accident involving a tree branch, we had met and talked at a spring in the etherworld. I think Elder Leaf met you and Rui...he doesn't interact with humans that much. Do you remember, human?"

"No," you say, rubbing the burning back of your palm as you sit upright. The vixen has calmed down to sit on her haunches, watching your movements carefully. You head is spinning, your breathing is shallow and rapid, and you're definitely not hallucinating the talking fox. You rub your eyes with the base of your palms and say,

"I do remember seeing a white fox at the park, which I think is you, but nothing else. And I know what a Mihgi is; it's a murderous-red-fox-demon thing from what I've heard. Are you a red-murder-fox by the way?"

"No, I'm not a Mihgi, I'm a Tseni. I help people," says the vixen as she licks her paw.

"It's far too early for amnesia to set in from meeting us Tseni. I suppose Elder Leaf didn't want you to get involved with us as usual."

Your eyes widen in both disbelief and wonder. They then contract with disappointment in finding the Tseni to be a normal talking fox. You had expected them to be nine-tailed white foxes the size of Harley Davidson bikes. Something hazy covers your memories about where you got that idea from, and you look at your shoes to root yourself into reality. You shake your head and look at the fox.

Another thought flits across your mind as you briefly wonder whether this was Kytix tricking you into wasting your time.

"Hmm," goes the vixen, out of the blue, "that's a nice tattoo, human, where did you get it from?"

You decide against continuing the conversation and stand up. The fox follows suit by walking closer to you. She lifts herself onto her two hind legs and places her paws on your burning hand. You flinch at her thin, sharp claws leaving white scratches on your dry skin. She looks over her muzzle and licks the black edges of her mouth.

"Oh, so that's why. A whole lot of things make more sense now. At first glance, I thought this was one of your 'tattoo' things. The humans who had been here yesterday had their arms covered with tattoos, like tree trunks covered with moss. I thought 'How peculiar, maybe the humans are practicing tree courtship rituals these days.' So I decided to ask them about it, and walked out of the bushes as a human female covered in tattoos, like the most attractive tree in the forest. They called me a 'ghoul' and ran away screaming like bats do when they hear about a locust swarm."

"This one," she explains, returning to your hand and rubbing it with her paw pads, "is a death mark, human. Kytix has marked your soul as payment for your debts, she should take your soul in, er, two days time, give or take. That must've been a whole lot of gold for her to send a hellcat. What happened?"

"I wait tables, I dance as a mascot, there's no way I could've . . .argh! Useless, that's all useless now. Did I summon you? You said I summoned you right? With what, the piece of paper I burnt?"

"Yep," she said, falling onto her four feet and backing away from you. Your cheeks grow red as tomatoes as hope stirs within your chest.

"You summoned me by burning that sheet of rice-paper. I think I gave you that one; did it have a note behind-"

"So if I summoned you, I can ask you for a boon, right? It's how all those stories go, I summon a-a magical animal, I can generally ask it for a boon, right? Right?"

"Yep and nope. You're marked for death by Kytix, human, and she's a prime Verdish goddess. I can't help you with boons anymore. I'm just a fox spirit; I cannot stand against the wrath of a powerful deity."

"The Rui person you just talked about is Ruilin right? The messenger fox spirit of the Junhic water goddess? You can help me, right? Can you, can you take me to them, can they help me?"

"Human-"

"Please, can you please get me out of this forest? I'm sorry, I'm so sorry . . . look, I-I don't want to d-die, I just, please?"

"Human, but no one wants to die. I'm sorry, but I have to-"

Your knees buckle against your will and you're kneeling on the forest floor. Tears rush out of your burning closed eyes, unprecedented, unwanted. From the forest behind you radiates the anger of the hell-beast hunting you down.

It's not your fault that you're in this mess. You know it, you are ready to vouch for yourself anywhere. The anguish has started to hurt you physically.

You think about how your parents would be once they discover your dead body, and immediately feel your chest constricting into paralysis. Your breathing becomes rapid, shallow and erratic and no amount of open mouthed panting seems to stop it. You bury your face in your hands and just let go of yourself. You break down weeping.

A voice breaks through your sorrow.

"Alright, I'll relent just this once. If you call on me or any of my tribe mates after this, I will not hesitate to find you and kill you, understand? Now please stop crying and stand up, human. Human? Oh no, oh no, can you hear me, human? Human, please . . ."

Stress has finally caught up with you, shattering your concentration and sending you into autopilot mode. You're too tired to move, your tear glands have run dry and the damage dealt to you from the crash has begun catching up with you.

"Human . . ."

Your body decides to shut itself down by fainting.

｡:ﾟ.*･

Sleep has seized you.

Turn to chapter 18 to dream through the DREAMS THAT HEAL.

｡:ﾟ.*･