The Fox - Part VI

He had forgotten that it was about time for his change to take place. Midnight, as always. The transformation completed, as it always did, with the final parting tingle of power sparking on his skin, so much like static from the carpets he loved when he was in his human form because it reminded him of the power that was just beyond his reach in that fragile state. He gave himself a shake, the russet fur settling down his back as he regarded her with dark garnet eyes, so dark a red as to be almost black. 

She did not flinch. He squinted his eyes against the light and regarded her; she reached out a tentative hand and patted him. 

Patted him?! 

He suppressed an urge to snap at her hand, his smaller body trembling with the indignity of it. “Will you relax?” she laughed as she smoothed a hand down his back, making him shiver with pleasure despite himself. He huffed and settled on his haunches, never taking his eyes off her and the pendant. 

He hadn’t really taken much time to know her or even how she looked like. The details of her face escaped him. But her scent…ah, that was a different matter. She smelled nothing like his homeland. In fact, she smelled nothing like the fake scents of the girls that passed him by with toxic chemical smells in their hair and on their clothes. She did not carry the smell of the city streets, clogged and polluted with smoke and exhaust smog that clung to his head, dulling his thoughts. She smelled of earth. Of flowers that he had no name for yet even with his many years of knowledge. She smelled of purity, and something he could not quite place. 

A tap on his nose made him sneeze. He glared at her as best as he could only to see her regarding him with curiosity in her eyes. To suffer the indignity of such treatment from a human. His tail twitched in agitation at his wounded pride. But still, he would have to bear it for the sake of retrieving that pendant. It was a good thing his consort was not here to see it. 

His thoughts trailed off as he remembered her. All sunlight and earth, wildflowers and musk, warm fur and softness, yielding and sharp teeth in gentle nips. Then the smell of death in her final moments. A wave of coldness washed over him as he remembered everything about that night. 

~Rei Shiori