Chapter 95 The Kitsune

After a few seconds, Evernya recovered from her shock, averting her eyes from the naked Kitsune before her. “Sorry for staring. I have some clothes for you. Can you-” Before she could finish, she soft and fluffy white engulfed her world.

What just happened? Did I die? No, somehow, I doubt the afterlife is this soft and warm that only leaves one option. Despite her inability to look down because of one of the fluffy appendages wrapped around her head, she could feel a small body latched tightly against her chest inside the cocoon of Kitsune tails.

Evernya tried not to think about the naked, cute Kitsune pressing herself tightly against her body as she comforted the terrified girl. “It’s okay you’re safe now, I will protect you,” unfortunately Evernya’s tail muffled statement only caused the girl to cling tighter.

The girl clung on so tight Evernya had to use mana to reinforce her body to resist the crushing forces unleashed by the tiny Kitsune. She was about to pry the girl off when she heard muffled sobs, causing her to stop. With her arms pinned against her body by the clinging Kitsune, she instead used her tail to hug the girl back by wrapping it around the girl’s waist, causing the girl to sob harder.

A half-hour and one soaked shirt later, the Kitsune finally calmed down enough to disengage herself from Evernya. However, her calm only lasted for a second until she realized what she did. The girl swiftly but somehow gracefully dropped to her knees on the hard concrete floor at Evernya’s feet.

“I sorry mistress.” The Kitsune apologized, shaking on her knees with her head bowed.

Evernya immediately pulled the girl to her feet, ignoring the fact she was still naked. When the girl averted her eyes, Evernya gently lifted the girl’s chin, forcing their eyes to meet.

Now with the Kitsune’s full attention, Evernya attempted to drill into the little Kitsune’s head, “Do not apologize for hugging me and crying! You can use me as a hug and cry pillow anytime you want! I will never get mad at you for seeking comfort with me or letting your emotions out. Most of all, do not call me mistress ever again because we are equals! Please call me Evernya or any variation you want. Also, if you are uncomfortable speaking this language, feel free to speak the language you are most comfortable with. I will understand you no matter what language you speak.” Evernya instilled into the young Kitsune, who was trying but failing to break eye contact.

With her message sent, Evernya let go before handing the shocked stiff Kitsune some clothes. “Please put this on. If you need help, please ask.”

To give the girl some privacy, Evernya turned her back, but after several minutes, she heard nothing. Confused, Evernya peeked over her shoulder to find the Kitsune smiling brightly, staring off into space with the stack of clothes clutched to her chest. What’s with this girl? She looks like the happiest girl in the world.

Afraid to get too close in case of another full tailed hug, Evernya telekinetic poked the girl a few times, knocking her out of her trance. After a few more seconds of silence, rustling started as the Kitsune dressed herself, with Evernya’s back turned. With surprising ease, the Kitsune threaded her tails one by one through the hole in her underwear and shorts.

After Evernya, the rustling of clothing stopped, Evernya turned back to find an identically dressed kitsune. Her eyes involuntarily landed on the array of tails spread out behind the girl, asking, “Didn’t you have five tails before? When did you grow a sixth?”

Her question prompted a proud expression from the girl for noticing her newly gained tail. “Nya gifted sixth tail.” The young Kitsune said, while stroking one of her tails lovingly.

“Is that okay? I vaguely remember the soul wizard saying it is bad for Kitsune to grow too many tails quickly.” Evernya asked, worried she hurt her mate.

The Kitsune shook her head while hugging her collection of tails. “Only tails grown from pain are bad. Nya’s gifted tail is different. All damage from the previous tail-ups healed.”

Evernya smiled as she complimented, “Tail-up? That’s a cute way of putting it.”

The Kitsune’s face lit up in a smile before suddenly disappearing, replaced with a pained expression. Concerned, Evernya asked, “What wrong?”

With a strained smile, the kitsune replied, “Nothing, Nya is family now, not them.”

“So, I am Nya now?” Evernya asked to change the subject, which seemed to work because she received an enthusiastic nod from the Kitsune.

“So, if I’m Nya, what do I call you?” Evernya inquired.

The Kitsune paused for a few seconds to think before responding. “Aya is what Aya wants to be called.”

“A pretty choice. I am guessing that isn’t your original name?” Evernya guessed.

“No, but this is Aya’s new life, so Aya is Aya now.” Aya decided with a resolute nod of her head.

“Nice to meet you Aya,” Evernya greeted, causing a beautiful smile to blossom.

“You look beautiful when you smile.” Evernya complimented.

“So Aya looks ugly when Aya isn’t smiling?” Aya teased back with unexpected sass.

“I don’t think you could look ugly if you tried,” Evernya replied with certainty.

“Will you two love birds quit flirting?” Meira teased out of nowhere, causing both girls to jump. Aya immediately hid behind Evernya while cutely peeking around Evernya’s shoulder. Unfortunately for her, Evernya was hardly wide enough to conceal her gigantic collection of fluffy tails

“W-when did you get here!?” Evernya stuttered.

While casually resting her back against the wall to the right of the door, Meira replied, “A few minutes ago, I must still have it if I can sneak up to two pairs of highly sensitive ears, though you girls did seem distracted.”

“How did you know we would be down here?” Evernya questioned.

Meira’s previous casual demeanor vanished, revealing the fury buried beneath as she ranted. “I’ve been camping out nearby since the night they took you both away. They finally notified me of your conditions and their ruling on the bogus charges after they finished torturing you.”

“It was ridiculous they chained me to a chair to interrogate me, shocking me if I didn’t listen. Luckily, I woke up first. They were planning on doing the same to Aya.” Evernya fumed back.

Like a caged tiger, Meira paced back and forth while ranting, “Ridiculous! The council went too far this time! All because they had a little memory loss, which was entirely their fault, by the way. If they hadn’t barged in, none of that would have happened. It’s probably a good thing they don’t remember because their egos wouldn’t survive the total defeat well.”

“I’m guessing the story wasn’t what really happened?” Evernya inquired with a curious expression.

Meira abruptly stopped and scanned the room before launching multiple precise air blades at seemingly random points. “Sneaky bastards. I should have realized sooner they were listening in.” Meira commented.

“They bugged the room!?” Evernya questioned with a rapidly reddening face, remembering what she said to Aya.

“Yup, but as far as I can tell, only for audio. As for that night, let’s just say your mother happened.” Meira replied.

Evernya shook off her embarrassment, questioning in confusion, “Mother? She didn’t have magic.”

“Biological mother.” Meira corrected, causing Evernya’s eyes to widen.

Meira continued, seeing her kitten lost for words. “Your mother is an Old One and a powerful one at that. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t tell us much beyond you were her daughter. While stuck in Minea, I did some research, but I couldn’t find any reference to a feline Old One with psionic magic.”

Hearing an unfamiliar term, Evernya asked, “What is an Old One?”

Meira channeled her inner Mythic era fanatic Thomas as she explained. “An Old One is what we call those of power who lived during the mythic era. Sometime about fifty thousand years ago, around the same time as the barrier sprang to life, they all but a few vanished. However, over the last couple of thousand years, there have been occurrences of Old Ones appearing for short periods before disappearing again without a trace. Many of these appearances bring devastation or great miracles. So many people worship them as gods or demons. Personally, I think they are just powerful beings beyond our current power scales but otherwise normal people.”

Meira’s explanation caused a confused expression on the hiding kitsune, unnoticed by the others.

Contrary to most people, Evernya grumbled, annoyed, “Great, I have a godlike mother, just add it to the long list of oddities I’ve accumulated.”

To shift the suddenly negative mood, Meira teased, revealing, “Well, at least she approves your mate. She even said she gave you guys some gifts before leaving.”

Evernya’s face turned scarlet as she rapidly denied, “Aya and I aren’t a couple! She just woke up. We need to get to know each other better first.”

A brief flash of hurt appeared on Aya’s face, which Meira caught, giving the girl a comforting smile. “Since you are soul bonded, you have plenty of time to get to know each other. Soul bond severing usually possible but not without some serious magic since it's essentially linking two souls together, but whatever your mother was a step above that. Hmm?” Meira abruptly stopped when she noticed something in Evernya’s black band. “Can I touch your band for a second?” Meira requested, receiving a nod.

Upon getting approval, she touched the band around Evernya’s neck, closing her eyes while concentrating. The sudden closeness of a new person caused Aya to grip the back of Evernya’s shirt tightly while hiding her face behind her back. Feeling Aya’s discomfort, Evernya hugged her with her tail, causing Aya’s grip to loosen slightly.

A few minutes later, Meira opened her eyes and stared at the band with awe. “What a masterful weave on enchantments! She weaved the bonding anchor in with multiple other enchantments, including what I think is a shared dimensional storage enchantment accessible by both of you. Usually, enchantments of this magnitude give off a distinct signature, but she concealed the signature to the point it’s barely noticeable! And here I thought we were slowly catching up. But even this relatively simple string of enchantments makes even my best enchantment look crude! Meira nerded out, mostly being ignored by the two girls until she mentioned storage enchantment.”

Vibrating with excitement, Evernya inquired, “we have a storage device!?”

With a pout, Meira replied, “I think so. It has a similar feeling to a dimensional storage enchantment, but I can’t read what it exactly says. Push mana into the band and picture a storage area. It doesn’t have to be specific as long as you connect it to a storage device.”

Both girls followed the instruction in their own way. “Holy Shit, this place is enormous!” Evernya exclaimed mentally.

“Much bigger than Aya’s old storage ring,” Aya responds mentally, causing Evernya to stiffen.

“How are you in my head!?” Evernya

With a panicked expression, Aya frantically explained, “Aya is sorry, Aya startled Nya. Aya thought Nya transmitted her thoughts to Aya on purpose. Aya thought Nya knew about this. Bonded pairs can communicate with each other telepathically, especially bonded Kitsune. From the stories Aya read, bonded pair communication isn’t usually this clear. Maybe Nya’s mother had something to do with our powerful connection. She was nice. She freed Aya.”

To calm her mate, Evernya hugged her with her tail as she asked, “So you can hear my thoughts?”

While leaning into Evernya, embracing the tail hug, Aya responded, “No, only when Nya directed Nya’s thoughts to Aya. Nya probably connected to Aya this time by accident because we were accessing our dimensional storage at the same time.”

“This will come in handy. How long of range do you think we have?” Evernya inquired.

“Aya doesn’t know, but Aya does not want to be far from Evernya ever!” Aya proclaimed with strong conviction, clamping onto Evernya’s left arm tightly.

“Don’t worry, I won’t abandon you, but we may separate for short periods,” Evernya assured.

“No! Aya will not allow that!” Aya proclaimed, holding firm on her stance.

Oh no, it looks like I gained a clingy mate. Though I can understand her need to remain close. Still, in the future when she becomes more comfortable, so I’ll need to nip this in the bud.

Evernya changed the subject, deciding to revisit later, “So how big do you think this place is?”

Subject change was super effective as Aya exclaimed enthusiastically, “No idea, but it is huge!”

While mentally exploring the empty gray warehouse-like space with half the area open and the other half filled with rows of shelves, “How do we put items in here?”

I’m pretty sure the space will work like Meira’s ring, but who knows what changes my so-called mother implemented. Plus Aya looks so cute trying to figure out how it works.

With a cute thinking face, Aya replied, “If it works like Aya’s old ring, touch the item Nya wants to store with Nya’s mana, then picture it entering our storage device.”

Excited, Evernya immediately tried to store the box containing their belongings, causing them to disappear instantly. Upon refocusing on their storage, she found the box sitting on a shelf.

“How do we take it out?” Evernya asked.

Eager to help her mate, Aya enthusiastically explained, “Focus on the item Nya wants, then send mana to the location Nya wants it to appear, usually limited to within arm’s reach.”

“Cool, why don’t you try then?” Evernya suggested, prompting Aya to make the box reappear on the table as if it never moved.

While sitting on the table, Meira commented, “Either Evernya suddenly gained insight on her telepathy or you two discovered the mind link.”

Evernya looked up at the elf guiltily, apologizing, “Sorry, we kinda stumbled upon it while looking in our dimensional storage.”

“Yeah, I figured, you two have been standing still staring off at nothing for over five minutes,” Meira said.

“Sorry.” Evernya apologized again.

Meira smiled down at the cute little pair, stating, “No need to apologize. I will never impede mate bonding. If anything, I’m glad you two get along so well. I didn’t expect her to wake up for another week or more, nor be this responsive.” As the attention shifted to her, Aya again hid behind Evernya.

An involuntary smile bloomed from her mate’s reaction as Evernya assured her via mind link. “Don’t be shy. I consider Meira, my big sister. You can trust her. If it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t have met. In fact, I would probably be dead if it wasn’t for her taking me in.”

“If Nya trusts her, I suppose Aya can too. As long as she doesn’t take Nya away from Aya, then she becomes Aya’s enemy.” Aya asserted with a hint of a growl in her telepathic voice.

“A bit territorial, are we?” Evernya teased, causing Aya to blush and clench onto Evernya’s shirt tighter.

After a brief pause, Aya reasserted, “Nya is Aya’s bonded mate. Aya won’t allow anyone to take Nya away from her.”

“Don’t worry. She won’t take me away from you. She is even smiling at your antics right now,” Evernya assured.

Aya peeked around Evernya’s shoulder to confirm her mate’s comment. Upon making eye contact with Meira, she immediately hid again. Before Aya could latch onto her shirt again, Evernya sidestepped, exposing the shy Kitsune.

“Say hi, she is nice.” Evernya directed as she dodged out of tail range.

Meira took the initiative, introducing herself with a warm smile. “Hello, I don’t know if Evernya told you, but my name is Meira. What is your name?”

“Aya,” Aya whispered, shaking with nerves while looking at her feet

“A pretty name for a beautiful young lady.” Meira complimented, causing Aya to blush while hiding her face in her long white hair.