The Kitsune's Conundrum

I live in the woods with my older brother Shade, we live in a cave made of stone. Most of the time we just go outside in the woods hunting or playing around. Shade and I just came back from hunting and we, surprisingly in Winter, found a lot of food. The food’s berries, tree bark from a freshly fallen tree, and rabbits.
We put the food in our den and then go back outside, Shade says, ”Holly, you need to practice now.” ”Do I have to,” I say in an agitated voice. “Yes, it is the best way to camouflage protecting yourself from harm,” Shade says calmly. “But it’s so exhausting, ” “Well you still need to practice,” Shade says this time more sternly and firmly.
So I practice shapeshifting, nine tailed foxes can also make an illusion that we shapeshifted when we did not. That is way easier because it takes a lot less energy. If someone touched us though they would feel our nine tails, realize it’s an illusion, and know what we truly are. We still can’t speak the other creatures language but we can just talk like we normally do and it will automatically be in their language, we can only understand what they're saying in their species form unless we take the commitment to learn their language.
All Nine Tailed Fox’s can do it but there are only about ten left, mainly due to illegal hunting. I saw a bunny paw and tail, but I didn’t feel the whole tingly sensation you feel when your hand falls asleep and then the pinching feeling in my tails. It didn’t fully work though, until one whole hour! I am a whitish red brown bunny since I am normally an orangish brown with my ears, tails, and paws tipped white.
I hop around in the cold pretty snow. The white blanket covering the Earth is not terribly cold with my soft warm fuzzy fur. I wish I could turn into something else, a bunny’s fine, but they eat their own poop! A bunny is the easiest animal to shapeshift into, in fact Shade can change into one in only five seconds, but not me.
I come hoping, still in my bunny form, into the cave, Shade says, ”You finally got it, last time it took you an hour and a half, you know, you're getting better.” “Yeah right, you can do it way faster than me, you can even shapeshift into a human, the HARDEST species.” “Holly, I’m older than you, plus I do it more,” Shade says to me. He now transforms into a bunny with me, black with patches of white as he is normally black with patches of white and his ears, tails, and paws tips white.
All Nine tailed fox’s, also known as Kitsune’s, have a second color that tips their ears, tails, and sometimes paws. We went for a short little walk, or should I say hop, around the woods, and after ate a small dinner.
Not much though, even with finding lots of food. Most of the time it is hard finding food in Winter so we try to save it for a long time, only eating a little, even when there is plenty of food.
We go to sleep in a small grassy corner of our petite cozy cave, all huddled together in the small patch. We are out of our bunny forms at this point, because, although we would have more space in our bed, we only sleep in a different form when it is absolutely necessary for our safety since it uses up a lot of energy. I awaken the next day, which is today and go for a morning stroll, as I get back to my cave I find out that Shade is now awake. He is moving our food to a cooler part of the cave as we had not put our food away properly yesterday. I go behind our cave to lay down on a big rock, which I do every morning.
It is a bit chilly with the cold Winter breeze, but the rock I am on is nice and warm. On the tree that a Dove’s nest lay I hear little baby birds tweeting as their mother shields their small unfeathered bodies from the frigid Winter air with her wing. There are icicles on nearby trees. I lay here taking in the beauty in nature.
The white frosty trees and the frozen over river, Winter is my favorite season, despite the lack of food. Shade hates it because he says it is his job to keep me alive which is hard to do without much food. I would lay here for an hour or two more, but I just heard something. A human, I have never seen one until now, Shade is always telling me how they hunt, as they call us, Kitsune’s.
Here I am, right out in the open for him, I try to run, but I am frozen in fear, I do however, manage to let out a scream. Well more like a squeal, but still, the hunter has a nametag that says Haiti. Shade comes running out of the cave, but, like me, freezes. We all stay like this for about an hour, no one moving or talking.
Suddenly, probably what Shade had been doing all this time, he turns into a human. This takes me by surprise, the last time he did this was when I was five, he has always been a very skilled shapeshifter, although I hardly remember it, he had just imagined something that he thought was imaginary, all day and all night long. Of course, he actually imagined a human. Shade is an olive skinned human with dark black hair. My dad and mom looked very different looking from each other, and were apparently different races, because I know that is not what I would look like if I ever shapeshifted into a human.
Though I highly doubt I will ever shapeshift into a human. If I somehow end up doing it, it will probably be when I am really old, that is if I don’t die soon from Haiti. I don’t know what Haiti is saying, but this is what he says, “You can shapeshift, I think I’ll take you instead,” I think he said this in Chinese because I live in China, that is what Shade has told me. Haiti releases me, I plummet to the ground, and scurry off in fright.
I got a little bruised when Haiti dropped me, but am fine. Shade, however, now back in his Kitsune form is captured in a cold, small cramped cage! I am SO scared for Shade’s safety right now, he is imprisoned and it is my fault! I try to follow the hunter Haiti, but quickly realize I cannot hide that well, because eventually it will lead out of the trees.
So I stay behind him, pondering how to save Shade; my brother, friend, and caretaker, I start pacing around. I realize once his smell becomes stable and stops moving that I can follow his scent. I still do not know how I will save him though. I go to where Shade and Haiti are, staking out for a little while but now I realize that he is only staying here for the night.
This is harder than I ever thought it would be, I unpack some food that I brought, and eat some rabbit which is kind of ironic since I was a rabbit just yesterday. I didn’t eat too much though because I don’t know how long I will need it to last, and Shade might be really hungry, perhaps even weak. I will not hunt leaving him, in case Haiti or some other hunter finds him. Plus there is really not that much food anyway to find in the Winter.
If I got lost and couldn’t smell him from an overwhelming smell of food I do not know what I would do. No, I needed to eat, but I could not eat much anyway, watching Haiti eat greedily in front of hungry Shade, and seeing him squirm trying not to look at the food for this would only make him more hungry, and get into a comfy position in the small cage. I am about to fall asleep but I feel a really strong gust of icy wind. I am convinced I see melting Icicles start to freeze again.
My first thought is Shade, but there is no way I can free him or drag that cage, so I decide that the younger sibling should not be so worried for the older one, so I go to seek shelter. As I near shelter I see tons of snow and feel a chill come over me, all the way from the tips of my ears, to the tips of my toes. I start chattering like crazy in desperate need of shelter so the wind will not blow at me so much. I stumble upon a cave, this is the furthest I’ve ever been from my cozy petite cave many miles away, it sounds so welcoming right now.
Surely Haiti is searching for shelter right now carrying Shade beside him. I step inside and instantly feel so much warmer but I realize this cave belongs to another Kitsune. I have never seen one before besides Shade and my parents, but my parents… are gone, a hunter got them when I was little so I barely remember them, but Shade says that my mom looked like me, and he looks like dad. “He…ll…o,” I barely manage to say between my still chattering, but slowing down teeth.
“I am Asnimaie, and this is my cave,” I hear a voice say from behind a corner. I see her shadow thinking: wow she must be an adult, but then I see her and realize she is not an adult. She looks about sixteen, so still older than me by four years, but she’s about the same age as Shade. Asnimaie, (As nuh may) has light gray fur, white tipped ears and tails, with darker bands of gray right beside the white tips.
“I’m so sorry, it’s just…” I break down crying, Asnimaie says, ”I am so sorry, I thought you were this hunter that’s been lurking around all evening, don’t cry.” “My older brother…Shade, he… got… captured by the hunter, and I have no shelter,” I say in between violent sobs. “You can stay here for the night if you want,” Asnimaie says sympathetically. I sleep beside Asnimaie in the cave tonight. In the morning she even gives me breakfast, then she suddenly says, ”Hide, no questions,” in a frantic whisper, so I do, as Haiti takes Asnimaie.
I continue my journey at noon eventually seeing where the trees stop. I have no plan, if only I could shapeshift into a human. That’s it, I just realized something, may… be I can, the more time you spend around any species the easier it is for you to shapeshift into it. So I try and try and try, for the whole night and the whole of the next day. I picture Asnimaie and Shade trapped, maybe even in the same cage, I am so tired and so angry, and just when I think it will never work, it does.
I feel my whole body tingle and then my tail’s feel all tight, pinched and I turn into a human. I go into the town and see my reflection in a piece of ice, I’ve seen a reflection before in the river. I ask a man why there is a big piece of ice and he says, “That is not ice, that is a window made of glass, do you live under a rock?”
“No, I live in a cave,” he is looking at me in bewilderment, what did I say wrong? So I follow Shade’s scent and Asnimaie’s new, but in the Winter it should be easy to identify smell since she smells like flowers, but there is stuff people are selling that smell like flowers, soap and perfume. Shade smells like moss so he is surprisingly way easier to smell in this queer little town. I am as a human a white girl, with light orange hair, and freckles.
I see a couple guards at the building Shade and Asnimaie are in. One of the guards asks, ”Who are you,” “Who me, I am Holly, and I am here to clean the Kitsune’s cage’s,” Which is only half true. He says, “You may enter,” uh I would even if you didn’t let me, I am not going to say that out loud though. So I go weaving my way through the hallways with my nose and find them.
“Is that you Holly,” Shade asks in bewilderment, “Yes,” “Oh, me and Asnimaie were kind of worried about you,” Shade says, when he says Asniamie his voice goes all soft and lovely. “Wait do you like….” “Who, you, yes,” Shade says butting in. “Asnimaie do you…” I see them blush, “Fine, yes, ok, we are in love,” Asnimaie says embarrassed. So I open their cages with the key the guard gave me for cleaning the cages.
Shade turns into a human while Asnimaie turns into a little gray kitten with white ears and a white tipped tail. Asnimaie said her parents died when she was young from a hunter and had no siblings, so she only learned to transform into a mouse, rabbit, gerbil, and kitten. Shade carried her in his arms romantically. We stopped to rest for a whole twenty-four hours and slept in the snow, once we got far enough from the town since we, especially me, are exhausted from shapeshifting. We went back to Shade and my cave.
Asnimaie moved in so she wouldn’t be so lonely. Twelve years later I live in my cave and Asnimaie shares a cave nearby with Shade because now they have two children, a girl and a boy, the boy is named James and is black, with gray patches, white tipped paws, ears, and tails. The girl is named Luna and she is gray with black tipped ears and tails. James is six years old, and Luna is four years old, I am a proud Aunt at age twenty-four.