"Well, that might not be true, but we'll see."
You might ask, at this point, why Michelo was telling this to a cat who talked. And really, the reason was simple: It's a long walk. What else are you going to do? So, he began.
"So, it all started a long time ago when a fae by the name of Duke Blackthorn decided that, in return for a yearly tribute, he would give the town of Hylop a great and bountiful harvest. It was a ritual known as the Midnight Harvest. Every year, he'd transform willing kids - not too young and not much older than me - into...well...monsters. All kinds, really. They'd be part-kid and part say, dragon or phoenix or werewolf. You'd have goblins, hydras, demons, satyrs, and so on. All kinds, just anything under the moon."
Puck would, of course, recognize the name. Duke Blackthorn's harvest might have different connotations from the fae point-of-view, but it would line up with his activities. He did, indeed, venture to a Serenian town and do what Michelo described.
"But one year, a strange thing happens. A boy who'd gone to several of these...didn't become a dragon or a demon or a goblin. He became a fox, a kitsune. Only...he didn't do that either. After some stuff involving a goblin who was a real goblin, robbing the town, he comes back to the Duke...and he learns that he was never a normal boy. He's been a fox all along, quietly hidden away under everyone's noses."
Michelo's voice had changed as the story progressed. It'd started from a storyteller voice, and then transitioned into kind of a saddened voice.
"Everyone who participates in the ritual and brings the Duke proper tribute always changes back, guaranteed, but the young man who'd been a fox could never go back. Whatever spell that'd been in place to make him look human had weakened and broke with repeated exposure to the Duke's magic. There was nothing that could be done. And because of the way people were looking at him after that, he couldn't stay anymore. He wasn't simply cursed. He was always that way, living a lie."
He managed to get a grip on his emotions, but he had to stop for a moment to do so, otherwise there might be static bolts like crazy, and Puck would know it first.
"They weren't my real parents, but they took care of me anyway. They raised me as their son, taught me a trade, and even gave me one of the good swords when I had to go. I don't have much to go on about my real parents. They...must be foxes."