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CrazyFox |
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CrazyFox |
CrazyFox watched as the spell--meant for her, meant to once again bind her into the service of this foul man--was intercepted by Hantakitsu. Faster than she thought humans could move, he threw himself into the spell. A blinding flash of light filled the entire room.
His lifeless body hit the ground at her feet.
She looked up at the Master, tears streaming down her face, as she knelt to him. She placed her paw on his chest, knelt over his face and whispered in his ear, "We are meant to be. Together in eternity. I will find you, I will repay my debt to you by freeing you. I will. I love you."
She vanished, taking his body with her.
CrazyFox escaped the Master by using the Nexus he had perverted for his own use. She wasn't sure where it would take her, nor if she would survive the journey. But one thing was sure, he had taken the only joy from her centuries-long torment, and he would pay.
A moment and a lifetime passes with the same speed in the Eternal Chaos that CrazyFox floated in. In a place without definition, time is meaningless. It could have been a minute, hour, day or lifetime before she came.
At first CrazyFox thought she was just a figment of her imagination. Brought on by her fevered wish to escape this place and begin her search for the man she loved.
"You are lost little fox," Her voice was soft and caring, "do you wish my help?"
CrazyFox looked at this human woman who appeared before her. She was beautiful, with hair the color of the setting sun on the ocean, and eyes the color of the deepest lake. She was dressed in a simple blue dress that seemed to be made of delicate fish scales. Each one shimmered and reflected the light from a thousand different suns. In this land of starless night, it was quite breathtaking.
As she came into being, a landscape formed around her. It seemed that the two of them were standing on the sea floor. Small fish swam in lazy circles high over head, yet CrazyFox did not get wet. The woman's hair floated around her head with the weightlessness of the deep sea, but the water was not there.
CrazyFox shied away from the woman, "I just wish to be left alone..."
"I can understand why little fox, but you cannot stay here. It is not safe for anything to remain in the Untamed Ocean for very long in normal situations. And the Great Drying is coming quickly. If you remain here, you will die." The woman seemed very concerned.
"Good, then I will remain here for the end of time, that I may rejoin my beloved. If we cannot be together in life, then in Eternity's cold grasp we will find each other." She sat on the sea floor and awaited the end of all things.
The woman shook her head, "As much as it pains me to say this, if the Great Drying is not stopped, there will be no Eternity. All of existence will simply vanish. As if it never was."
The vastness of this "Great Drying" began to sink in, "You mean, that everything will be gone? That the Afterlife won't be there? That Hanta won't be waiting for me on the other side of the Veil of Souls?"
"No, sadly. I too struggle against the inevitable doom we face. For I, like you, have lost a lover to the pull of Evil."
"But... how can I hope to turn the tide of Darkness? If what you say is true, that a great spirit like you cannot stop this, then how can I? I'm not even a two-tail, little more than a mortal myself."
The woman smiled a knowing smile, "You have much greatness in you little fox. If you will recall, your man said much the same thing. And he was told that there is a Hero in all of us, you just need to know where to look. That applies to kitsune as well as humans."
CrazyFox looked thoughtful. "I still don't see how I can help... Hanta's spirit was captured when he was supposed to destroy the Master of Darkness. The prophesy was not fulfilled, it was perverted. Nothing is going as it is supposed to. None of the events are occurring that will save my world. If I cannot save one little world, how can I save the vastness of Existence?"
"You have a part to play, you and your Hunter Fox. The prophesy did not fail, it is not yet time. You have a great part to play in the saving of the worlds, you will be the Mentor to the Savior. Hanta the Protecter."
CrazyFox looked up at the woman, tears streaking through her fur, "Then why? Why was he taken from me? If we are to be such great heros, then why did he die?"
The woman almost cried, "Honestly, I do not know. I was told that it is a test. To see your spirit can truly preserver. It seems cold and heartless to me, and if it were in my power, I would gladly reunite the Hunter and the Fox, but I am powerless."
CrazyFox slumped to the ground, "I give up then, if all I have is not enough, if all the pain and torment I have been through is not enough. If taking from me the only joy I have felt in almost two hundred years is not enough, then I give up. My life is worthless. My spirit defeated. Do what you will, but I ask you leave me in peace to await the Twilight of the Universe. Perhaps in Oblivion I can find peace."
Unknown to CrazyFox, the woman smiled. "I cannot do that. You still have a destiny, Eki."
The newly Named Eki, the CrazyFox, passed out. Laying on the sea floor in the Space Between Worlds.
She awoke to the sound of traffic, people bustling about on there various tasks. Eki had habitually reverted to the form she was named for, that of a red fox. The various people going about there lives paid little heed to the solemn fox laying by the side of the street.
She lay there for quite awhile, enjoying the relative peace of a simple animal life. It wasn't until one of the town dogs came over and began enthusiastically sniffing her that she returned to reality.
What are you doing? She asked the dog.
The canine seemed slightly taken aback by the question, as if he had not thought of it himself, Sniffing.
Why?
Dunno, just seemed like it would be a good thing to do. The dog sat back on his haunches and looked at Eki, still laying in the gutter with her eyes closed.
Well, go away. I don't feel like being sniffed. She tried to escape back to her pervious state of mindlessness, but the pesky canine would not leave.
You need a friend, you want to play? He jumped up and bowed down, head between his forepaws and looked at her eagerly. We could play, play always makes me feel better! He danced about for a bit before returning to the stance.
Eki cracked open one eye, I do not want to play, I just want to lay here and die. Now go away and leave me to my misery. She closed her eye and resumed ignoring the dog.
Several minutes later, she felt her face being sniffed. The dog was back. And he was sniffing her eye. In a mad rage, she leapt from the street side and bared her teeth at the pesky canine, he danced about with idiot glee and barked several times at her before bowing down again. His tail was waving like a propeller, making him look like a misshapen helicopter trying to take off.
Her anger faded as her mirth grew, it wasn't long before she was laughing so hard she fell over. The silly canine bounded over to tackle her as she lay helpless on the ground. The two promptly got into a wrestling match and rolled out into the main street where the match was broken up by a horse carriage and the angry shout of the driver. "Get out of the way ya damn mutts! Bloody dogs... always jumping under the horses and scaring them half to death..." He rode off grumbling to himself.
Eki and the dog trotted off, both chuckling over the human's response to their play. I had forgotten how much fun that was, thank you. Tell me, do you have a name?
He turned his head back to look at her, Name? Why would I want that? I am who I am and nothing more. He turned and ran down a side street, his tail was like a banner spinning in the air.
Eki chuckled to herself and chased after the dog.
Days they played. Running about in the streets of this strange foreign city, fox and dog together. Living on the streets, Eki learned a new way of life, taking what one needs. Going where one wishes and doing what one wants. The simple animal life.
Until humans interfered.
If there is a good thing going in the world, humans will inevitably find a way to destroy it. Sometimes unintentionally, but not often.
Suddenly, a rope was placed around Eki's neck. At the same time a similar rope was placed on the dog. He began to thrash about madly while the dog catcher chuckled, "Gotcha you pesky mutt. You've spooked your last team of horses."
Eki just flopped to the ground while the man who had ahold of her spoke, "I've never seen a red dog before, where do you think this one came from?"
"Huh, me neither. She must've wandered in from the country. No matter, get the muzzle and collar on them and get the two of them in the wagon." A ruff leather collar that smelled strongly of fear and dog was placed around Eki's neck. A muzzle was placed around her head. The dog was outfitted much the same and they were loaded into cages in the back of a wagon.
The dog was panicking, What is this? What's going on? Where are they taking us? He was scratching at the door and rattling back and forth.
Eki sighed and lay down, The humans are taking us away.
Why?
Becuse that's what they do, humans think they need to control the world around them. They can't have us "animals" running around uncontrolled.
He stopped trying to get out and looked at Eki, "Animals?" What's that mean?
That's what humans call us.
Why do they call us that?
Her response was interrupted by the dog catcher. The wagon stopped and the two men in front got out. All the various strays in the back fell quiet as they came around the side and moved the curtain. As the light fell upon the poor dogs, they started barking and making a ruckus. They wanted out. Eki stayed where she was, laying in the cage.
They moved the dogs one by one into a building and individual cages within. It wasn't until they were starting to clean the cages that they noticed the red fox laying in the cage. "Oh, jeeze, you gave me a start there little one. My, you sure are a quiet one. All the others can't stop barking to save there lives, but I haven't heard a sound from you this whole time. Tell me, are you someone's pet?" He knelt down in front of the cage door, for a moment Eki had a sense of deja vu. In another life, a man had freed her from her captivity. She got up and moved to the door.
The man chuckled, "Wow, it's almost like you can understand me... But in any case, I have to clean the wagon out now. Come on, let's go inside."
He opened the door and, attaching a leash to the collar still on Eki's neck, lead her into the building.
Several days passed, the dogs becoming more and more restless as the days went by. Eki retreated into herself. Ignoring the world around her, she was barely aware of how the dogs were lead through a door at the back of the room, and never came back out.
It wasn't until the dog she had played with in the streets was lead back into that room. As he was dragged along by the dog catcher he shot pleafull looks back at Eki, What's going on? Where are they taking me? What's going to happen?
She sighed and turned away. As the door closed she glanced into the room, and saw what was being done to the dogs that were caught and taking in. They were killed. And loaded into a wagon.
Rage boiled up inside her, that humans could think so lowly of other creatures to treat them as nothing more than trash to be disposed of. She began working at the collar around her neck, trying to get it off.
It took well into the night to get the collar off, but once it fell from her neck, she assumed a new form. Human. She did not trust them enough to revel her true nature and after seeing the way "animals" were treated she did not want to be in that category.
It only took a moment to open the door to her cage, then opening the others she let the dogs back out into the streets. "Leave the city, it's not safe for you here." She whispered to them as they ran past, into the night.
After that she snuck out herself. Realizing that she would get in even more trouble walking about as a naked human, she helped her self to a few choice articles of clothing. Dressed, she embarked on a journey to discover more about this city. She was obviously not in America anymore, but where she was anyone's guess.
The city was strange, setup in an old style fashion, there weren't any electric street lamps. Just wick ones that had to be lit at each dusk. A few were burning now, but most had been blown out by the night winds. In the alleys people slept, homeless humans who had no skills that were of use in this strange world.
As she walked about the city taking in the strange landscape, something caught her eye. There was a man climbing into a second story window.
She walked over very quietly and stood there watching as the man entered the building and began moving about inside. Curiosity got the better of her and she scaled the building, entering after him. Inside the building, she could hear him moving about. He was in the other room and seemed to be ransacking the place.
Curiosity got the better of her and she swiftly scaled the building and peered in the window. The man she had seen entering had moved on to another room, this room looked to be a little-used bedroom. There was a pile of goods on the floor in front of the window. Carefully climbing in the room, she looked through the pile, finding nothing but old smelly clothes and a few golden coins that she helped herself to. Stealing from a thief... eh, why not? She thought to herself.
Quietly moving into the hall, she could tell where the man was. There was the sound of battle coming from downstairs. Apparently, the owner of this house had discovered his intruder and was attempting to deal with him.
Eki explored the rest of the upstairs. In the back of a closet she found a hidden door. Inside that was a sword that, if she didn't know better, she would have sworn it was Hanta's. She took that and the small bag next to it.
A few hours, and many blocks, later. She looked in the bag. It was filled with small metal stars. Each one was sharp on the edges and looked as if it could hold a liquid in the center, with tracks leading to the points. They were shrunken. Used to deliver poisons unseen.
As she was looking in the bag, a man came up behind her. She spun around and let three of the shrunken fly towards him. He ducked two but was hit by the third. He staggered back holding his shoulder, blood running from between his fingers.
Eki immediately ran over to him, "Oh! I'm sorry! You startled me. I didn't mean to hit you, it was just reflexes."
He grinned slightly. "It's okay, I shouldn't have been sneaking up on you like that." He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small vial and drank the contents. He removed his hand and Eki could see that, though this shirt was torn and stained with blood, there was no wound.
"Magic..." She whispered to herself and took half a step back.
The man chuckled. "Yea, I guess you could call potions magic. They sure do the job well. Anyway, I saw you tonight."
She looked up quickly, the color draining from her face. "Y--You saw me?"
He chuckled again, "Don't worry, I'm not with the guard. I'm with the local Thieves Guild, you seem to be rather new in town and with the skill you showed tonight... Well, let's just say that we would be honored to have you as a member of our guild."
Still slightly suspicious of this human's motives, she agreed and began a life of fun, adventure and, eventualy, love. But that is another story.
