It was one hot, clear day. The sun was standing powerfully in the sky, enveloping everything under it like the king it looked to be. I was...exhausted to say the least. All my limbs ached and it felt like i’d walked for hours, made even worse than the bag with leftovers I was carrying along with me. Being a beastman, heat got to me a little too easily and it began to blur my vision as I walked through a village in the middle of a broad and expanding desert. Until then, I’d hidden myself inside a small cave near the village itself. Being resourceful was a little useful in that case.

For reasons I couldn’t understand back then, people stared at me with utter shock the moment they saw me in spite of them having other beastmen around them. Wes it fox folklore? I had no idea, but ignored it and continued walking, but it became too much in due time and I began to falter in my step, beginning to fall over as I walked. It felt like the world was spinning, but I knew it was just the weak old me, and nothing else. Inevitably, I fell over head first into the hard ground, feeling thirsty and unable to to reach the bag with the leftover orange or lemon peels I could squeeze for some, albeit unpleasant and annoying to taste, juice due to tiredness. The sound of people’s steps increased and got louder with every second; they were walking towards me, gossiping to one another.

Although I couldn’t really make out their words, I could feel the disgust and vulgarity in their tone, until...I heard a loud stomp, coming from a staircase leading to a temple a few meters in front of where I had fallen over. There were at least two or three of them and they ran over quickly, as if sprinting towards me, getting through the crowd that had gathered around me. It was quick, but I grasped it for a second. ‘’Are you alright? Can you hear me?’’ That’s the few words I could hear, and be as it may, I scoffed at it, getting a relieved boyish chuckle as they picked me up, beginning to carry me away. They didn’t seem to have an issue with my weight or anything, seeing as they were worryingly talking to me without even a feeling of exhaustion. It almost felt like I was their king or some fairy tale shit…

By that point, I chose to close my eyes and leave it to them as stupid as that sounds and is; I couldn’t be bothered after the third day in that damn desert. My throat was a dry mess, my lungs were in severe pain and my muscles were outta shape. Kinda felt like I was diminishing due to malnutrition, too. I was done with it. Before realizing it, I was fast asleep, finding myself on a quiet beach, surrounded by beautiful palms and an even more beautiful and sparkly ocean. It took me a second to realise I was actually dreaming, but It looked too amazing to be actually real; the waves splashing and hitting the shore I was on felt too pleasurable to my ears, the wind felt like it was some blessing from above I didn’t even deserve, taking into account the fact it had been days. Even with all of those factors into consideration, it was a dream. Not too long from then, and I would return to an annoying, pathetic reality. Nothing would feel good then; because good things rarely happen outside of dreams, or so the people who reluctantly talked to me told me back at a bar months ago. I guess there’s a point to being shorter than humans all the time... they don’t know if you’re allowed to drink. With all of it going through my head, I realised it was time to wake up. Reality won’t be nicer, it’ll be depressing and it’ll most probably hurt, but it’s reality. It’s better to get back there sooner rather than have to be stuck in this paradise and be pulled out without a warning. ‘’I want to...stay next to the beach longer, though…’’ is what I thought as it began disappearing before my eyes, prompting me to awaken, watching as it disappeared, vanishing as fast as you could say the word ‘’beach’’ itself, leaving me to raise my eyelids, blinking to an annoying light.

I squirmed, waving my hands in the air, feeling a warm touch as a gentle hand grabbed my hand, holding it with care as my vision improved, allowing me to see a book hovering above my body, emitting light into a dark room; the was so bright it could probably light up a ballroom or even more. I tilted my head, finding a decrepit old man holding my hand. A look of disappointment filled my eyes in an instant, but shouting wasn’t really in my field of possibilities; I’m the one being treated here, therefore I had to force a calm face. ‘’Thank goodness you’re away, beastman…’’ The grandad said to me in a nice and caring tone, not looking disgusted or disturbed with the fur on my hand or body. ‘’You have been through an incredible struggle, haven’t you, my friend…? Here, stand up carefully,’’ he smiled gently as he watched over me, but...something was different about his look. He wasn’t looking down on me at all, but rather looking down with care. It was a weird experience, to say the least. I stood up with his help, although I was able to feel his hand shaking as he helped me up. Without wasting his breath anymore, he lifted a glass of water from the wooden plate he had next to him, extending his arm slowly towards me. Even if I didn’t wanna accept the old guy’s help…I couldn’t resist that crystal clear water he had probably gotten from a city far away, so I grabbed the glass, drinking it in one long breath, coughing as I slammed it into the ground.

‘’You seem quite energetic for someone whose stomach has be growling louder than a bear, little frog. I suppose you’re beginning to feel a little better already?’’ He asked me directly. The part that creeped me out the most about him was his eyes; he appeared to be blind, but remained on eye level with me. ‘’Frog…? I’m a fox, old bastard…!’’ ‘’Oh-ho, that is evident to me, believe me. It’s what we call people who drink large amounts of water at once at our shrine, so please, don’t get offended by my words, my guest,’’ he lowered his head, bowing down in an apology. At this point I was wondering if this was the actual dream, not the beach I just saw. I’m the intruder here, so why’s he being so overly polite to me? A switch clicked inside my head. I stood up quickly, stepping on the bed sheet he had placed under me. ‘’Are you afraid that i’ll hurt you? Is that why you’re pretending to be so nice and caring? ‘Cause I could and I would either way.’’ Though I was being honest with him, telling him what I truly thought, the words felt hard to pronounce for some reason.

‘’Yes, that is true…’’ I knew it. He’s only afraid of me, just like those other ones. ‘’I am truly afraid of you hurting me, though for reasons not concerning the ones you’re thinking, my guest. You see, I am quite blind and--’’ ‘’Cut it out!’’ I grabbed his head, raising it off the floor as he coughed, trying desperately to not cough in my face. ‘’I am only trying to be quiet for your own good… Please, my students are outside training this very minute. They cannot hear us and me getting hurt would hurt them more than me. I beg of you, let go of me…’’ What the fuck was the deal with this guy?! He isn’t acting the same as the other humans! ‘’You’re not afraid of me stealing from you? You think picking up strangers, especially fox beastmen, is a good idea, huh? I could destroy the whole place where it stands!!’’ I gripped his clothes tighter, watching him sigh. In a quick instant I felt his hand grasp mine, beginning to watch the word flip as I found myself with my legs towards the ceiling, my face covered by my own shirt. ‘’I told you, I have students, therefore I classify as a master and a teacher. Please do not cause us any harm…’’ He coughed and coughed, falling onto one knee in pain.

After that, the geezer introduced himself as Yugashi, a weird name for an equally weird man. Reluctantly, I agreed to leave him and his students alone, both due to his kind treatment, water and food, and the words he said to me: My students are not nearly as strong as me, but a lot stronger than you. I guess he knew I wasn’t gonna be able to touch his little kids. They were all a bunch of kids, ranging from prepubescent to adolescent in terms of age, except for one, who seemed to be around my age; his name was Gagu. Hika, Garao and Klira were on a normal level according to Yugashi, but Gagu was apparently his pride and joy. The weirdo had a weird king for making cups and glasses for his teacher to use in everyday activities and cooking for the children.

Before I could realise, a week passed, two weeks passed, almost approaching three, but I...didn’t leave. The kids kept showing me their techniques and how to centralize my body energy into one point for a more powerful hit on the training dummy, the old man had me do chores most of the time, while feeding me accordingly. It almost felt good, but they were all too young to understand why they shouldn’t enjoy that time with me. Gagu, however...he was always next to me. Whenever we ate, he sat next to me, whenever we trained he took the dummy next to mine and rambled about everything I couldn’t care less about, he wouldn’t answer my questions if they were referring to his cups and glasses. Ever. But, in all that weird time… All that abnormal time, I smiled more than once or twice, smiled more than once or twice, vomited due to stuffing myself more than once or twice and managed to keep up with Gagu in ‘’How quick can you hit the dummy?’’ We were able to get close to even Yugashi’s speed of one point two seconds, but were a bit too far off.

We spilled sweat, blood and tears together, and I was happy at that time, even when people would come to deliver supplies to Yugashi for him to feed us and looked at me weirdly. When that happened, Gagu would pat my back and cry for me, no idea why, but he was a little too compassionate and supportive for my taste. ‘’Let’s play!’’, ‘’Let’s eat!’’, ‘’Let’s fight!’’ Those three were their favorite phrases. They even had a mantra of sorts that Yugashi had taught them. I can’t remember all of it, or even most of it, but it went along the lines of trusting your partner when you couldn’t find the trust inside your heart; the normal things Yugashi would say.

One night, I went out to take a leak in the outside bathroom. I peeked beyond a corner, finding Gagu sitting next to the bathroom, making his precious cups way past bed hours. ‘’What’re you doing over there?’’ I asked him as I rubbed my eyes, feeling them hazy as I had just woken up against my will due to my urge to piss. ‘’C-Clous?! Why aren’t you sleeping…?!’’ He answered my question with his own, stopping his weird process of making cups; he used some book every time to make them, but he would be weary of Yugashi when using it. He didn’t want him to see it, or or at least that’s what I took it as. ‘’I can’t, ‘cause I gotta take a leak… Why are you up this later; you don’t look like you’re shitting or pissin’, so what gives…?’’ I asked him as I walked up to him, sneaking a glance at his the book that was floating beside him. ‘’Master Yugashi asked you not to use that language!! And i’m just working on my pottery. Cups are usually the easiest to make, so I go with them,’’ he explained to me, surprising me since I was used to him dodging the bullet on those types of questions.

‘’Then, what’s that thing? Also, I’ll talk how I like…’’ I asked him, pointing at the book as I scratched my belly, still full of the dinner that night, listening to the wind as Gagu’s eyes narrowed menacingly. ‘’It’s a ‘tome’, a tool used by mages to use magic… Please don’t tell master that I have it; if he found out, he’d probably send me away, saying something like, ’You’ve grown enough, so go to the outside world and live your life!’’’ He pleaded. ‘’Show me how it works and i’ll keep it secret, then!’’ I pointed at him, quite rudely if I recall correctly. Though that’s a story I can’t misremember, no matter how many years pass. ‘’Okay, but you can’t use mine. Every mage must either find their own, receive it or the hardest and most draining way; write one for themselves! I...found mine in master’s basement-- but I intend to give it back, of course!!’’ Gagu rambled, reassuring me, which I didn’t really care for. We continued wasting the night, me listening to his explanations until the sun came up. In the end, I watched him finish one of his cups, and it was the most amazing thing i’d seen at that point...

But, things didn’t remain that way forever...