The Fox - Part III

One thing led to another and she found herself talking to him as if they had known each other for years. How she ended up studying there, why she was always alone and that she loved to visit thrift shops. She even showed him her necklace as they sat at a cafeteria table, his long fingers drumming a steady beat on the stained plastic top. She had been so proud of it since it had been a steal and coincidentally had been the first thing she had bought from a thrift shop in Japan. He sat across from her, his lanky legs sprawled over the edge of the bench, watching her with slanted eyes. She didn't see the hungry look creeping into those same eyes that she thought was exotically beautiful as she turned the necklace with it's silver fox towards the light.

Her name was Emilia but she had shortened it to Emi for the sake of blending in with the other Japanese students. There were other girls named Emi in her class as well, but she stood out anyway, with her ash blonde hair and sea green eyes among the blacks, fake blondes and other unusual colourings. He stretched the kinks out of his back as he strode through the corridors, sighing in pleasure at the cracks his joints made and at the pull he felt as his muscles stretched to the fullest. It felt amazing to be able to move again. He had cunningly avoided introducing himself to her, avoiding the subject or ignoring it when raised. She hadn't even realized that she didn't even know his name when he left with the excuse that he needed to deal with an assignment.

He stayed on the rooftop, the hard tiles digging into his back and keeping him awake. There was a strange feeling in his stomach. A sort of ache that had been building up all day. He wondered what it was. The sky was unusually clear, the stars reflecting in his eyes as he lay on the roof. He didn't know where else to go. After wandering around town and being chased by a large greyhound and later a husky dragging its very embarrassed master, he was exhausted. The world now didn't make sense to him anymore. Nobody carried weapons even if there were large metal beasts that roared up and down the paved roads. Even the clothes he wore were alien to him. A heavy coat made of some material he didn't know covered most of his body and his long human legs were clothed loosely in something that he had overheard someone say was a thing called 'jeans'. He sighed and rolled over onto his side making the tiles dig into his ribs. The cold was starting to set in and he didn't know how or where to get his fur back. The small of his back ached where his tail should have been. Feeling rather lonely and miserable, he curled up as best as he could. He couldn't wait to break the curse. The things he would do and smell and places he could run to. His thoughts were drifting away into the misty night air and his eyes were closing when a shout from below his feet startled him. He scrambled backwards, higher up the roof as a head poked itself out from the window beneath where his feet had been. There was a splintering crack as the tiles gave way, he felt air rushing past him as he twisted to try and land on his feet. Then he knew nothing more.