"Right. But this is a story, so it doesn't matter if my name is Thanati," she said with a smirk and a quick wink, but the usual humor wasn't in her expression. "So, there was this village of foxes. But there was a group of humans--hunters--who tracked them down. They massacred most of the village, pretty much an entire generation." She said it blankly, as though it really was a story. Well, to her, it sort of was--she hadn't been born when it happened.
"Of the survivors, there was this pair of sisters. They were young when the attack happened, not yet considered adults by their elders. So they grew up in what was left, after the village moved further up the mountain to better hide itself. But then, years later, another human hunter stumbled upon them. This guy, though, he didn't actually care about killing foxes for their fur or magic or whatever. He was just lost."
She dropped one leg to scuff her foot against the floor. "The younger sister found him, and yadda yadda yadda, they fell in love. It was a secret, 'cause, y'know...the whole massacre thing. But, of course, it eventually came out, and she was exiled from the village. Her sister fought for her to stay--but only if she killed the hunter she'd fallen in love with."
She huffed and leaned back on her palms, head tipped toward the ceiling. "Long story short, they fought, younger sister gets disowned and exiled, and she and her husband came to live in Serendipity. And things were okay for a while. They settled on a farm, had a handful of kids--all of which seemed to take after their mother for looks."
She gave the tail in her lap a pointed flick, head cocked to one side and her customary half-smile back in place. "I was the youngest," she murmured, dropping the "story" pretense again. "I don't...actually remember them."
