Kitsune in the Shadows

Chapter 4 – The Shadow’s Embrace

It’s cold…

But I don’t hate it…

I opened my eyes to find… an empty black void…

But it didn’t scare me.

If anything, it felt relaxing, homey even.

There was nothing; it was just me… Or at least that’s what I thought.

Without warning, something brushed against my tail, sending a shiver all the way up my spine to the tips of my ears.

I instantly turned around, pulling my tail into my chest to keep it safe from whatever was out there.

I won’t give you my one comfort in this world.

The creature recoiled in response, almost as if it was just as startled as I was. It was a strange sensation; I couldn’t see it, but somehow, I was fully aware of where it was.

I just stood there, facing the creature, waiting for it to move again, but it didn’t. It just stood there, facing me.

Cautiously, I took a step back, but as I did, the creature took a step forward, maintaining the same distance between us.

What am I supposed to do here?

My mind was racing, trying to figure out what was going on. But the creature just stayed in place, completely motionless. Seeing this, my mind eventually settled on a single hopeful thought.

It isn’t going to hurt me… I think?

Deciding to take the risk, I took a step forward while reaching my hand out in front of me.

…

The creature didn’t try to keep the distance between us like before. Instead, it just stood there as my hand slowly sunk into its fur.

It’s soft.

My fingers slowly started to caress the fluffy creature by themselves, savouring the feeling as they glided through the silky fur. The creature didn’t seem to mind this; if anything, they seemed to be enjoying it just as much as I was.

This continued on for a little while, at least until the creature decided to move again, this time leaning in towards me.

Looking up, it was just about possible to make out a face. It looked like a fox, albeit a very large fox, with deep black fur and matching eyes.

It was difficult not to stare into the abyss of those eyes; even being surrounded by darkness, something about those pitch-black eyes stuck out.

“Hello…”

A woman’s voice?

I started looking around to try to find where the voice was coming from, but whenever I tried to look around, the fox made sure to get in front of me.

“Look… Me…”

Is it… the fox?

“Little… Kit…”

Is that me?

I pointed towards myself, but before any words came out of my mouth, the fox nodded as if guessing what I was about to ask.

“I… Dark… Blessing… Hide… Tears…”

What? Is this some sort of riddle that I’m supposed to figure out?

Once again, I tried to open my mouth and ask a question but was interrupted by the fox before getting a sound out.

“Tired… Sleep…”

The fox suddenly pulled away from me and walked off into the distance. I tried to follow it but started feeling lightheaded and ended up tripping over my feet. I closed my eyes and braced for what I knew was about to happen.

All that registered in my mind was a single thought.

Again?

…

..

.

Isn’t this the part where it hurts?

Opening my eyes, my vision was filled with an endless field of white.

My arms moved to lift my body up off of the floor, which gave me a better view of what I was looking at; a tail, one with a head-sized indent in it.

“A dream?…”

While fluffing up my tail to get rid of the indent, I tried to figure out what all of that was supposed to mean, although nothing was coming to mind.

No point wasting time on this right now.

I sat myself up against a wall before reaching into my stash from the day before and pulling out something that looked like a plum. It was bruised and a little softer than expected, but it didn’t bother me; it was food all the same.

While eating, I couldn’t help but think about a problem with people’s choice of food to throw at me.

“I wish people would throw more bread; fruit just doesn’t last long enough.”

…

“It even would be cheaper for them… and hurt less too…”

The plum was quickly finished in the time that I spent lamenting people’s choice of projectile.

Looking down at the plum stone that was left behind in my hand, I noticed that something was strange. The small shadow that it cast on my palm looked… unusual?

It was writhing and squirming about in my hand while also rhythmically pulsing every so often. It was almost as if it was alive.

Gently rolling the stone back and forth, it looked like this living shadow was reluctantly being dragged along by the stone.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that my own shadow was doing the same thing, just on a much larger scale.

While trying to figure out what this was, a tendril from my own shadow started to crawl up my leg. I immediately jumped to my feet, but that didn’t stop it. The shadow continued to climb up my body until it reached the palm of my hand, where it joined up with the shadow being cast by the stone.

I could feel the shadow as it moved across my body, as wherever it touched rapidly cooled down, although I didn’t find it uncomfortable. It actually felt… comforting?

This seems… familiar.

And that’s when the pieces started to fall into place in my mind.

“The dream…”

As soon as those words left my lips, I felt the shadow start to squirm again. Looking down at my hand it seemed to be trying to point somewhere. My eyes followed where it was pointing and ended up arriving at one of the stone pillars just in front of me.

Engraved into the black stone pillar was a mural of a sleeping nine-tailed fox. I walked up to the pillar and gently brushed my hand against the mural, recalling the feeling of the fox’s fur from my dream.

Did I meet a Goddess?

…

They did mention a Blessing…

“But why?”

As if responding to my question, the shadow started to move again, rapidly making its way to both my hair and tail before eventually calming down again.

At first, it seemed like nothing had happened, aside from a new brisk chill in my tail. But then my tail waved into my peripheral vision…

My heart skipped a beat…

The once pure white tail was now a deep black, just like the fox’s fur from my dream. My mind immediately realised what this could mean.

What if?…

I sprinted from the temple, looking for the nearest puddle.

I need to know.

Once I found one, I immediately fell down to my hands and knees, splattering mud all over myself.

…

It was hard to make out much in the puddle due to the ripples coming from the tears that were already streaming down my face. But I could see enough.

Someone heard me…

Just like my tail, my hair had been stained a deep black.

…

“Thank… you…”

…

“Thank you… So much…”

…