Little Fox in Big Trouble

Eighteen

We spent about another hour discussing what we knew about the missing girls and what I had seen during my dream walks. It turned out that Katrina had been following the case for that past couple of weeks, as well. She had even gone out to the bars and on late night walks in an effort to get the kidnapper’s attention. Apparently, kaibyo have all sorts of unique abilities that she was hoping to use to “take care of” the bad guy and rescue the girls that had been taken. We were going to talk more about those abilities after I learned more about my own. As much as I hated to admit it, having her on our team might turn out to be beneficial. Between the two of us, we might actually be able to pull this off. I was starting to feel pretty hopeful by the time we wrapped up and said our goodbyes. We agreed to meet up the next afternoon to plan out the search and rescue mission in more detail and I plastered on a fake smile when Troy offered to give her a ride home on his way to the university. With all that had been going on, I had all but forgotten about school, but it seemed Troy was still managing to attend classes every now and then.

“I’ll call you after class,” Troy said as I walked them to the door.

“Okay,” I replied.

He gave me a quick hug with a tight squeeze and held the door open for Katrina to go through.

“Oh, wait.” She said, turning back to face me. “What’s your phone number, Briseis? If we’re going to do this, we should probably be able to get ahold of each other.”

She wasn’t wrong. “Oh, yeah. I guess that makes sense,” I said. Unable to find a reason not to, I told her my phone number as she tapped the digits into her cell. A second later my own phone chimed to let me know I received a text message and I pulled it out of my back pocket.

Kat’s number.

I saved her number to my contacts, heroically using her name instead of a more colorful descriptor.

“Later,” she trilled with a wiggle of her fingers as she sashayed her way past Troy and out the door.

Troy gave me a sheepish smile and followed her out, closing the door behind him.

“I really don’t like her.” I told my mom as I returned to the living room and dropped myself back onto the couch.

“She’s a cat, honey. That’s just how they are. If you give her a chance, you might be surprised.” My mom replied.

“I doubt it.” I said.

“You have nothing to worry about, Kit. Troy isn’t interested in her or her flirting,” she assured me.

“I’m not worried,” I lied.

My mom smiled at me and graciously changed the subject. “We have a lot of work to do before we enter the forest. What do you say we get started?”

“Yeah, let’s do that.” I said. I could use something constructive to redirect my thoughts. Plus, I actually was excited to learn more about what I could do. Now that I was getting used to the idea of not being human, I was starting to realize that being a kitsune was actually kind of awesome. I mean who doesn’t love foxes? “What all can kitsune do, anyway?”

“Oh, honey. We can do all kinds of things, but let’s start at the beginning.” She said.

“Okay. What’s the beginning?” I asked.

“The first thing that you need to understand is that there are thirteen different types of kitsune. While there are several abilities that we all share, and a few that we can all do but we do them differently, there are also gifts that are specific to type.” She began.

“Okay. What are the types?” I prompted.

She began her lesson. “Celestial, void, wind, spirit, fire, earth, river, ocean, mountain, thunder, time, sound, and forest. As I said, some gifts are available to all of us, such as heightened senses, somewhat accelerated healing, agility and speed, illusion, astral projection and dream walking, our star balls, and kitsune bi.”

“What is kitsune bi?” I interrupted.

“Fox fire.”

“Fox fire? Like, literal fire? Why didn’t we start with that? Teach me that!” I asked, thinking about how cool that would be.

“Yes, Kit. Literal fire. I will teach you how to summon your fire. Don’t worry.” She smiled. “However, there is more.”

“Right, sorry.” I said with a small wave to indicate that she should continue.

“We are forest kitsune.” She paused to make sure I wasn’t going to interrupt again.

“That means we also have an added boost to our own healing as well as the ability to accelerate healing in others. We have a talent for potions, salves, and natural medicines. We can also communicate with forest animals and plants. Finally, we have an affinity for nature magic.” She explained.

“I have so many questions,” I warned.

“Ask away,” she urged.

“First, what do you mean by communicate with forest animals and plants?” I asked.

“Exactly what I said, Kit. We can talk to animals. It’s not a straight forward conversation like this, but we can understand each other. They can help you when you need it and sometimes they might ask for our help, as well. As for the plants, it’s a little different. We can get impressions from them about things. We can tell when they are healthy or when they are being poisoned by dark magic or chemicals. We can also get warnings from them if something dangerous is coming and they can feel it. It will be easier to show you than it is to explain it all.” She told me.

“Okay,” I said. I wasn’t sure I understood, but maybe I would get it when she showed me. However she was planning on doing that. “What about the nature magic? What exactly is nature magic?”

“Nature magic is a lot of things. It is pure and beautiful and powerful,” she smiled, wistfully. “Some of what I already explained is nature magic. But, there is more. With nature magic we can make plants grow and, in some cases, do our bidding. We have the gift of divination, a talent for tracking, the benefit of never getting lost when we are in nature. We can gain strength from nature, as well, like you saw with the leaves.”