Little Fox in Big Trouble

Nine

    “I’m losing my mind,” I told Troy, my gaze skipping around the crowded airport. “Seriously, do some of these people look…. unusual to you?”

    “Unusual how?”

    “Like, nobody has cat ears or tails or anything?”

    “Uh, nope. No weird ears or tails as far as I can tell.” He said as one eyebrow crawled up toward his hairline. “Do you see people that look like cats?”

    I scanned the terminal around us, “No, there isn’t. I told you I was losing it. It must be all those stories I read in the car. Did you know there are cat yokai, too? How many yokai do you think are real or just stories? I mean, if kitsune are real, do you think that means dragons, inugami, or nekomata are real too?” Realizing I was on the verge of babbling and in public, I snapped my mouth shut.

    “Er, well, I don’t know what inugami or nekomata are, but I think we would know if dragons were around.”  

    I was still scanning the bodies around us for any signs of fur when my mother’s voice reached my ears. I turned around to greet her, but Troy and I were still by ourselves in the little corner of the terminal that we had conquered. “Do you see my mom? I could have sworn I just heard her voice.” I said, standing on my toes as if that would somehow help me spot her.

    “Actually, I think I see her over by the baggage claim,” he said as he reached for my hand.

    I slipped my fingers around his and let him pull me towards my mother. We weaved between other passengers, mumbling excuse me and thank you alternately. Most people continued on their way without registering our presence at all, but a few stopped, openly appraising me and I started to wonder if I had fuzzy ears and a tail.

    Mom turned around to face us before I even had the chance to touch her shoulder or announce our presence. “Briseis,” she exclaimed, pulling me in for a long hug. “Oh kami, look how you’ve grown!”

    “Hi, mom,” I said, giving her a squeeze in return. I honestly, hadn’t realized how much I had missed her until now. Tears sprang to my eyes as I breathed in her scent. She had always smell like fresh cherry blossoms.

    As she drew back from me she turned her attention to Troy, “You must be Troy,” she said, “you can call me Aimi.”

    “It’s a pleasure,” he replied smoothly, as he hefted her suitcase and lead the way to the parking garage.

    Mom slowed her pace, allowing us to fall a few paces behind Troy and whispered, “he’s cute.”

    “He is,” I agreed.

    The rest of the walk to Troy’s car was quiet; most of what we needed to say to each other would need to be said in private. Well, I guess we could have said it in public. Most likely, people would have just thought we were insane.

    When we reached the older model Honda Civic, Troy popped the trunk and loaded mom’s bags. “Allow me,” he said, walking around to open the passenger door for my mother.

    At first, I didn’t realize he was talking about my mom, but when I did, I smiled at the chivalry. I didn’t mind sitting in the back at all, and I knew this would bump him up a couple of notches in her eyes. I climbed into the center of the back seat and buckled in.

    “By the way, dragons are very real. As are inugami, kaibyo, and many other yokai and oni. Not to mention other shifters, spirits, and creatures that were native to areas other than Asia.” My mother said as we exited the garage.

    “You could hear us?” I sputtered. It might not have been the most urgent piece of her comment, but it was shocking, none the less.

     “Of course I could, Bris,” she explained with a wink. “I’m a fox. I have exceptional hearing.”

    Chuckling, Troy said, “I guess that means you might have heard her voice, after all.”

    “Huh.” I said, circling back to the rest of her statement. “So, there are a lot of other yokai and stuff, too?”

    “There are. Think about it, Kit, if we’re real what makes you think the rest of the stories aren’t?”

    “Ah, well, I guess that makes sense. Have you met others? Like, werewolves or vampires, or anything?”    

     “Of course. There were a few nekomata in the airport. Didn’t you notice them?” She asked me.

    Troy chuckled again, as I said, “I think maybe I did. There were a couple of times I saw tails or cat ears. Is that how I would see them?”

    “It is,” she said. “It’s something you should pay attention to, as well. Dragon’s for instance can be very dangerous to us. Wolves are also natural predators of the fox, so werewolves can be tricky as well. They’re pretty rare in Japan, though not so much here.”

    “Oh,” I said. “I hadn’t even considered that others could be a threat to me.”

    “I know, kit. That’s why I mentioned it.” Turning in her seat to face me, she gave a gentle smile, “You’re too kind for your own good, sometimes. But, if you want to help Jess, you will have to learn, not only the full extent of your abilities, but also to see the through any magic around you. You need to be prepared that some of that magic will be in place to hurt you.”

    “I know, mom. That’s why I asked for your help. I have no idea how to do any of this. I don’t even know what I can do. Speaking of, why can I see things now that I couldn’t before?”

    “It’s amazing what your mind can see when you stop telling it what it can see.”

    “Huh?”

    “You used to see through the magic. You got so excited when you spotted a tail or saw through an illusion.” She smiled at the memory before shaking her head. “Your father was not so excited, though. Eventually, you learned to close your mind to magic. Or maybe the medications he gave you did. Either way, you stopped seeing it when you stopped believing it.”

    “We’re here, Ladies,” Troy said as he put the car in park and gestured to my apartment building.

    “Come on, mom. You can catch me up on whatever I’ve been missing,” I said.

    An hour later, mom was a beautiful, red fox thumping her tail in exasperation. She had been trying to coach me through the process since Troy dropped her suitcase in my bedroom. She had resorted to showing me how to shift into my fox form, while I sat, hopelessly human, in the corner. Finally, a light knock sounded on the door and gave me an excuse to take a break.

    “I got it,” said Troy as he pushed off the floor.

    Mom shifted to human again in a swirl of magic and sat herself on the edge of the couch, while I followed Troy into the kitchen area. He took care of the pizza, and put the box on the coffee table before coming back to get drinks.

    “Hey,” he held his arm out to stop me from passing him. “Come here.” He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and kissed my temple.

    Looping my own arms around his back, I smiled up at him. “I don’t know if I’m going to master this in time to save them,” I admitted.

    “You will.” He told me with a squeeze. “I know I haven’t known you long, Briseis, but if anyone can do this, I know it’d be you.”

    I set three plates on the small coffee table that Jess and I had covered in stickers and coated in resin to show off all of our favorite fandoms. Troy followed me from the kitchen, carrying a cola for each of us, while my mother looked over the stickers. He set her can on a colorful coaster that was waiting on the table and handed one to me before dropping to sit on the floor and digging into the pizza.