Kitsune in the Shadows

Chapter 77 – Two Kitsune Walk Into a Store…

Why is this happening?

I… I don’t know what to do?!

My eyes darted back over to where Ava was just a moment ago, but she wasn’t there.

Where-?!

Thankfully, it only took a second of frantically looking around for me to find her again. She had moved over to what looked to be a stack of crates containing peppers while still talking to the same employee.

“Hmm?… Even though I’m right in front of you, you really don’t give off much of a presence, do you?” The red-haired kitsune continued talking to me, “Honestly, I’m surprised I even noticed that there was another kitsune around at all… maybe I’ve just gotten sharper over the years.”

What?!

‘How does she know?!’

‘When did she see?! Was it my ears?! Or maybe it was my tail?!’

While panicking a little, I both clutched onto my hood to make sure that it was still in place while also tucking my tail between my legs to make sure it wasn’t poking out.

‘Kierra, calm down,’ Ovia’s voice took me by surprise, ‘S-She… um… I don’t know how to explain it…’

‘Explain? Explain what?’ I accidentally asked before even giving her a chance to explain.

‘Um… She didn’t see under your hood…’

‘How do you know?’ I asked immediately, my panic still not subsiding.

‘I was watching because you were worried before… What she did was different; it’s just… i-it’s like an instinct! Y-you’ve probably felt it before as well, but just not noticed…’ Her voice suddenly got a lot quieter as she continued, ‘Because… the only other kitsune you’ve met are Ellaria and me… so, of course, you wouldn’t know…’

…

Ovia’s vague explanation actually made a strange amount of sense… or at least based on what was in front of me; I couldn’t deny it at the very least.

I looked back over at the red-haired kitsune. It was true that I could feel… something… It was the same feeling I had when I first started walking down the street. That feeling of being watched, or maybe being noticed would be a better description.

Wait… if I really did feel her watching me…

…

Where is this other feeling coming from?

That feeling that came over me when my hood blew off still hadn’t disappeared; if anything, it was even stronger now that I knew it might be more than just me imagining things. What made things worse was the fact that now I knew where that sense of familiarity came from; I knew that whatever else had noticed me was someone, or maybe even something, that I didn’t know anything about.

“Not one for talking?” The red-haired kitsune looked around the room for a moment before focusing back in on me, “Hmm… wait… can you talk? I really hope I’m not being rude to someone I just met.”

Why are you still talking to me?

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Once again, I looked towards Ava, hoping that somehow she would feel my eyes on her back and would turn to see what was happening. Yet, no such thing happened.

“I think you’re just being a little too forward to someone you’re meeting for the first time,” The rabbit beastkin from before pulled the red-haired kitsune back a little.

“I am?” She asked, sounding genuinely confused, “Then what do you think I should do? I can’t think of any other ways to go about this.”

The rabbit beastkin let out a sigh, “Why don’t you start by giving them your name?”

“What? But I haven’t had to tell anyone my name in years.”

The rabbit beastkin didn’t say anything in response.

“Well… nothing to lose I guess,” She turned back towards me,  “I’m Elenia. What’s your name?”

Why won’t you just leave me alone?

…

“Still not good enough?” She asked as she brought a hand up to her chin, “And I was so happy to see someone else from the village… although… now that I’m looking at you, I’m surprised you were allowed out of the village… have they become more relaxed since I last visited? I thought you had to be quite a bit older before being allowed out into the wider world.”

Village?

‘What village?’

‘…’

I tried to ask Ovia, but strangely, she didn’t respond.

‘Ovia?’

…

“You’re not by yourself, are you?” She held her hand out towards me, “If you are, you can come stay with me for a bit, even if you don’t want to talk. I just want to make sure nothing happens to you, especially in this part of the world.”

No!

As her hand got closer to me, I moved away, being careful not to bump into the wall this time. But as I quickly realised that I was running out of space to retreat, I instinctively looked over at Ava again.

“Is there something over there? You’ve been getting distracted quite often…” In only a brief moment, she was able to trace my line of sight and find Ava, “Oh? Is that person with you?”

…

I nodded.

“So you weren’t alone. That makes me feel a little better… but… maybe I can still do something,” She quickly pointed at Ava and then at the front desk, the whole while the clattering of jewellery could be heard coming from beneath her cloak.

As soon as she put her arm down, two of the rabbit beastkin that were with her made their way over.

“Now, let’s get you two reunited, shall we?”

I watched the rabbit beastkin who had approached Ava. As soon as they reached out, the employee visibly jumped before putting on what could only be described as a forced smile. The conversation from there only lasted a few moments before the employee ran towards the front desk and bumped into the other rabbit beastkin.

As the employee left, the rabbit beastkin appeared to say a few words to Ava before gesturing back over to Elenia and me. I watched Ava’s eyes go wide as they turned towards me.

Elenia waved at Ava, once again accompanied by the sound of her jewellery clattering against itself.

Ava quickly ran towards me, wrapping me in a hug the moment she was close enough.

“What’s going on?! I just stepped away for a moment and-”

“Oh, I was just saying hello to a fellow kitsune,” Elenia interrupted, “She seemed to be a little worried about you, so I just offered some assistance.”

“Another kitsune…” Ava whispered before hugging me a little closer and asking, “And who might you be?”

There was a brief silence as Elenia just stared at us, her eyes moving from me to Ava and back again.

“Really? I thought everyone here knew my name?” She turned towards the one rabbit beastkin who was still standing behind her, “Has everyone forgotten about me? I know it’s been a while since I came here myself, but it shouldn’t be this bad.”

“They are probably just not from around here,” The rabbit beastkin said through another sigh.

“Even so, everywhere we go, everyone knows the name Elenia. It’s the whole reason I bother with this cloak, even though it ruins my hair.”

The rabbit beastkin simply shook their head without saying anything more.

“Well, anyway, there you go. I’m Elenia, as you probably heard just now.”

“Nice to meet you, Elenia. I’m Ava, and this here is…” Ava looked at me, asking if it was okay for her to tell Elenia my name with her expression alone.

…

I shook my head.

“… my sister,” Ava finished what she was saying.

“Oh? Sister?” Elenia leaned in a little closer, “That’s-”

Before she could finish what she was saying, another rabbit beastkin abruptly entered the store and quickly made his way over to us. The rabbit beastkin standing behind Elenia stopped them before having a note hastily given to him.

“It seems the inventory count has come in,” He said as he read the note, “Some of the cargo is missing… again…”

“Again?!” Elenia practically shouted.

“Yes… again.”

“I was on that ship. How could stuff just go missing without me noticing?” She then turned back to face us, “Sorry about this. We’ve just been having a few issues lately, ships crashing, cargo going missing, somehow even more things along those lines… and to be perfectly honest with you, it’s just led to me getting my tail all in a twist.”

“I think it would be wise to go check the list yourself,” The rabbit beastkin suggested.

“This just won’t do,” Elenia seemed to completely ignore the advice she was just given, “It was hard enough to find you the first time…”

Why won’t you leave?

I don’t know what you want from me.

I squeezed Ava a little tighter.

“That’s quite alright,” Ava interjected, “Thank you for your help, truly, but it seems like you have something else much more important than the two of us that requires your attention.”

Help? What help?

“But I really don’t want to end this conversation here. I wonder if you could- No, wait, I have just the thing for this.”

She carefully removed one of the rings from her little finger. It was a gold ring, but it bore the same red fox emblem that I had seen on the sail of the ship from earlier. She closed the ring in her hand before a faint orange glow encompassed it.

“Just keep this on you,” She said, holding her hand out towards me, “If you show this to the people at the front door, they’ll take you straight to me. Oh, and if you show it to any of the merchants around here, it should make things a lot easier.”

I looked at the ring, almost mesmerised by the soft orange glow stuff surrounding it.

Is it a good idea to accept it?

…

I cautiously looked up at her face, and she immediately looked me right back in the eyes.

She’s… not going to leave until I take it… is she?

…

…

Reluctantly, I reached out to take the ring, but just before I could grab it, Elenia slipped it onto my index finger with surprising precision. As soon as it made contact with my skin, a heat started to spread through me, although it was only brief, and as it subsided, so too did the glow that came from it.

“Now that’s yours and only yours. I don’t want to be seeing it on the market somewhere,” She said, “And trust me, if it’s on the market, I’ll be able to find it.”

“Guild master, it’s starting to get dark,” The rabbit beastkin interjected.

Wait, a guild master? Elenia?

She’s a-?

“You know we’ll end up working through the night anyway,” She patted the rabbit beastkin’s shoulder, “But I guess you’re right. Might be able to squeeze in an hour-long nap if we’re quick.”

“I would very much appreciate it,” He responded.

“Well, you heard him. I have to go for now, but you know where to find me,” She said as she quickly started to leave the store, “Oh, and please do make sure to visit; I don’t know if I’ll have the time to come find you like this again.”

What do you mean I know where to find you?

You didn’t tell me that…

As I looked back up, she, along with the rabbit beastkin, was already gone.

“They seemed… nice?” Ava said.

Did they?

…

“Hey, I thought you’d be more excited to see another kitsune. It’s the first time I’ve met one that wasn’t you… well, wasn’t you or your friends. And she was even nice enough to pay for our order.”

What?!

She paid for us?

What if she wants that money back?

She wouldn’t do that for no reason…

…

“Don’t worry so much,” Ava wrapped an arm around my shoulder, “She might have invited you to talk to her again, but that doesn’t mean you have to go. But if they try force you, well… let’s just say they’ll find out exactly what this crow is capable of.”

I wasn’t able to hold back a chuckle after hearing Ava’s bold declaration, but at the same time, I couldn’t deny that it did make me feel a bit better.

“That’s a better look for you, isn’t it?”

“Mhm.”

Ava chuckled a little herself before continuing, “Alright, now, they’ll take a while to put our order together, so we’ll have to come back to pick everything up. So, for now, I think we should head back to the inn and get some sleep; quite a lot happened today after all.”

How much did you buy that it’ll take that long to put it all together?

…

“Okay,” I decided not to ask the question that was on my mind so as not to ruin the moment.

“That’s the spirit,” She started to push me out of the store, “The sooner we get there, the sooner we’ll be able to dig into that braised lamb shoulder Daleia was bragging about… even if we’re still a bit full from lunch.”