A Fox's Story (Sophophobia!)

[Anonymous]

Tokala (who was now in control of Sora's body) nodded and the two of them began walking through the forest, leaving the dead men behind.

"It was a most unfortunate event," Tokala said. At the time, I was a powerful, wise, nine-tailed kitsune who wanted to do nothing more than wander the world and help people through times of trouble. Yet I ran into an evil nine-tailed kitsune, and we fought. I was gravely injured...and then young Sora, who was human then. came and treated my wounds.

"Fearing for her safety, I left her to fight the evil kitsune, but she still came. I eventually killed the kitsune...but he used his dying breath to curse me. My body disintegrated, and my spirit fused with hers, causing her to transform into what you see before you now. The only way to remove this curse would be to have the caster remove it. But he is dead now.

"This occurred only two weeks ago, so she is still adapting."

Thus Tokala finished, awaiting a response.

[Anonymous]

"I see," Drea said solemnly. She felt sorry for both of them, because loosing your body must be hard enough without having to enter someone else's. And Sora, the poor thing, was now stuck with a voice in her head.

It seemed that though the possesion wasn't willing, they were gettting along alright. Still, fused souls? Drea felt sorry for Tokala. He would likely die with Sora. Would Sora die? Well, Drea would certainly be alive long enough to find out.

The trail through the forest was long and winding, covered at times from the sun completly, and others dappled with light. The Acolyte moved down the path sxiftly and surely as she spoke.

"I am sorry for how things worked out. Do you have a safe house that you might go to while she adjusts?"

[Anonymous]

Sora's face filled with sorrow and regret...or more that Tokala caused Sora's face to do that. Tokala was about to answer that question when the aura around Sora's body began to falter. Tokala was losing control, so he should give Sora back her body.

"My apologies, but I can only control her body for so long. It's rare that she even grants me the opportunity to do so," Tokala said, his voice becoming slightly distant. "I'll have Sora answer that question." His spirit then retreated back into Sora's subconscious mind.

Sora had heard everything that was being said, so she knew how to answer that last question. Once she regained control of her body, the aura around her dissipated and her eyes were golden once more. It was a rather weird experience, having to switch souls for a short time.

"No...I have no place to go," she said, sorrow thick in her voice. "I was chased away from my home...people...especially humans...fear me because of what I've become. I know I'm still human at heart and mind...but even though I have Tokala, who is a very kind spirit...I'm always alone...I have no place in this world to call my own."

[Anonymous]

She fought to keep the sympathy from choking her voice. Drea, as the first Acolyte, worked hard to distance herself from people. They died too easily, and she had to continue. She was vaguely friendly to Tove, but they were different--Tove was younger, looser, as it were. Not that she was a slut--That's not what she was trying to say. Anzdrea held herself to very strict rules and morals. Tove... did not.

It was hard to say why, but it was true. And so it made it hard for them to connect.But Sora needed help, and so maybe--she would connect with Sora. Just a little, for just a while. Because she sounded like she needed it more than Drea, even, and it sounded like it was causing her to suffer, being alone. Considering that Sora was her assignment, and that though she was no long in danger she still sounded so... desolate... Drea knew that it was the Goddess' will that Sora should stay with her.

"You may stay here," Drea offered, "Until you feel better." She did not dare to look back, so hard was it to keep from comforting her. It wasn't that comforting people was wrong; Drea was just very, very bad at it, and it made her feel awkward. She hated feeling awkward.

[Anonymous]

For the first time in the two weeks since her metamorphosis, Sora's hopes and heart were lifted again. She always knew that, somewhere in this cruel world, there would always be people who would accept her and take her in for company when others wouldn't. Even if it would only be for a short time.

"R-really?" she said. "Thank you so much. I'll...try not to be too much of a burden for you."

[Anonymous]

"Do not worry," Drea said, and if you had asked her she would not have denied a good feeling in her chest at the emotion in Sora's voice. That was what she loved most about her existence. Knowing that she was helping, even if just a little bit. And no doubt that this fox-girl needed help.

"It is my job, to help those to whom other doors are closed of hidden. I am not sure what we have by way of food, but I am sure that something could be found in the forest. That's really what it's here for, after all. I regret, however, that there is no place for you to sleep, except beneath the stars or in the trees." Acolytes, when they slept, did not need a bed of anything. Just space to occupy.

[Anonymous]

Sora nodded, having experience with sleeping outdoors before. "That's quite alright. Any accommodation...even what nature provides us...is better than none."

They continued walking through the forest for awhile. Sora's method of walking was quite unusual; whenever she walked, ran, or even stood, she always did so on her foxlike toes rather than her entire feet, always keeping her heels and ankles elevated from the ground. She never really figured out why she did it and assumed it was part of her new body's physical behaviors. It never felt weird to her; it felt natural, as if she had been walking this way her entire life.

Which then raised another question. "How much farther should we keep walking?"

[Anonymous]

"The shrine is at the end of this path," She said, "Right ahead." She did not often take this trail--she came to the shrine from all sorts of directions, straight through the forest. It was home; she didn't need a path to find it.

As the shrine cam into view, sitting in a clearing and made from rocks from the area and covered in soft mosses, no more than ten feet high, and more of a backdrop for the one ornament, a large, stone basin that was at least three feet across and filled with what looked like very, very clear water, Drea requested, "Tell me about your life before the change."

[Anonymous]

Sora saw where the path ended...at a shrine that seemed undisturbed and formed by nature. Did this place have a sacred connection somehow? She could feel the tranquility of this place run through her fur.

In response to Drea's question, Sora replied, "My life? Well...I grew up on a farmland estate in Serendipity. My father died when I was three, so it was just my mother, her workers, and I trying to make a living for ourselves. It was hard work, yet very rewarding. I sometimes liked working on the farmland, and sometimes I didn't. It was a pretty simple, nondescript life, though there were some times when I felt too stressed with the work and my mother's nagging, so I'd run away from home and camp out in the woods that bordered the farm."

[Anonymous]

"Do you miss the farm? Your mother?" Drea had never had a mother. She often wondered what it was like. perhaps the Goddess could be considered her mother, for Drea did look to her for guidance and support, but there was too much reverence and worship in it. her fellow Acolyte were like her cousins, too; distant and not seen often, but known and liked well enough.

She took a seat next to the basin, and warned Sora, "Don't touch the water. It will burn you." On closer examination, the water glowed and flickered a little, much as Drea's aura did, and when a shadow fell over it you could see stars.

[Anonymous]

Sora sighed in sadness. "Yes...I do miss the farm...and my mother...even though she ran away because of what I've become. I miss her so much."

Yes...life there was simpler...more peaceful. Days were filled with work, nights were filled with rest and stories of old, and everyone was content with her. Perhaps if she were still human, it wouldn't have been any different if she had left the farm.

When she sat down next to the basin and Drea warned her about the water, Sora asked, "Why? Is it...sacred water?"

[Anonymous]

Normally, Drea would comfort Sora about missing her mother, but she really didn't like bullshitting. So instead, the Acolyte began to explain about the water, trailing a finger through it. It didn't burn her. She was made from it, after all, and so it was like regular water to her.

"It is called Star Water," Drea said, Smiling as light dancing through the ripples she created, "We, the Acolytes, use it when calling the Goddess down to give us audience. It is unbearably hot to anyone not made from it. It would burn your skin and muscle and bones away, were you to fall in. So do not touch it, please. I would hate for that to happen to you."

[Anonymous]

The instant that Drea finished her statement, Sora was vastly intrigued, as was Tokala who overheard the description. So anyone not made from the water would burn alive.

Wait, what?

"So, wait...are you saying that...you're made of this water?" Sora asked, golden eyes wide in astonishment.

How fascinating, Tokala said in her head. Even in his over eight thousand years of existence, even when he still had his ability to see all that was going on in the world, he had never heard of such a thing.

[Anonymous]

She nodded an affirmative, "I was forged from the embers of a star, cooled by this water. As were my fellow Acolytes." She plucked a blade of grass from the ground, and dropped it into the water. It was ash before is fully hit the watter and then even the ask was gone. "It takes the heat from our forging, and help to cool us so that we can interact with the world around us. It holds the heat for a very long time, and as such is very hot. Hotter, at times, than the sun." Birds had landed on the lip of the bowl and burst into flames before. It always upset her, and, well, Sora was no bird. But they had that kind of relationship at this point.

Honestly it was odd that Drea was sharing this with Sora. Mostly, Acolytes didn't speak of their making to others. But Drea thought that maybe--in a small way--she was trying to make Sora feel better. She was made oddly, after all, too. Sora wasn't alone.

[Anonymous]

Now both Sora and Tokala saw the importance of this basin and why it would burn up anything that touches it. She learned to be careful around this basin of deadly water that helped create life. It was sort of ironic in Sora's mind, but she accepted it.

Quite remarkable, Tokala thought.

Sora nodded in agreement. "So that's why it's sacred to you...oh, but I must ask...you said that this was holy ground...was I...intruding upon it?"

[Anonymous]

Of course not, was the answer that popped into Drea's head quickest, but also she was curious. Drea had not, she believed, made any hostile motions towards her. The First Acolyte had welcomed Sora and Tokala. Told them that they were safe, and would not be harmed. Why did Sora think that she was intruding? Because it was holy? Perhaps she had come across those temples and churches who viewed her kinds as evil. Perhaps she had only been to sacred grounds as declared by humans.

Too many questions. Drea sighed, "If you were intruding, you would not be welcomed. If you were not welcomed, I would have asked you to leave. I did not ask you to leave." There was a pause, and a few birds chirped in the woods. Drea hopped that they would stay away. Then, she asked, "Why would you think that you are intruding?" It was simpler just to ask.

[Anonymous]

Sora shrugged. "Well...I was being chased after by those awful men. I hadn't given a thought where to go, just to get away from them. I didn't know that this was sacred ground and that I was being pursued through it." She paused and then said. "Forgive my asking, I know it was a silly question."

It wasn't "silly" in any sense of the word, Tokala mentally chuckled. It was a reasonable question that answered your curiosities. I think you did right in asking it.

Whatever, Sora thought back. "Yet Tokala thinks otherwise."

[Anonymous]

"Your Tokala is right," Drea said, smiling at Sora--well, really at Tokala, but--well, you get the idea. "It was not a silly question; there are many who, if they entered the area of the shrine, would be unwelcomed. But your entering the area made it easier for me to help you. It must have been the will of the Goddess, because I do not know of any human settlements so near that humans could chase you this far into the forest and still have energy to work magic."

She retracted her hand, drying it off on her bare leg, and then looked back up at Sora. "Do not be afraid to ask questions of me, Sora."

[Anonymous]

Sora felt reassured that she could ask any question she wanted and not test Drea's patience. She was very curious about her and her race and the Goddess she worships (as was Tokala). "Okay, so I have another question," she said. "Well, two questions, actually. Who is this Goddess you revere and worship? And where are your fellow Acolytes?"

[Anonymous]

"She Who Came With The Stars is my Goddess," Drea informed Sora, and glaced at her robe. it was frayed. She removed it. "Tove went somewhere last night; I don't know where. I uspect she is still somewhere in the forest. I do not know where the others are; I assume that they are doing work for the Goddess or sleeping else where." Some had gone very far away, across the sea. Others far north or south. Some would not return until their reforging, and that could be hundreds of years. Thousands, if they were lucky.

Either way, it could be a millennium until they were all together again. That didn't really bother Drea. They weren't close, as previously mentioned.