Chapter Text
Foxes were naturally alluring. Enticing. Humans saw that as a threat.
“Get in.” A brute man forcefully grabbed Mysta, a mere kit, by the hair and shoved him into a filthy cage. They had only given Mysta a threadbare yukata with no waist cord to cover his dignity and restrained the fox on a humiliating muzzle. His hands were tied too tight. His wrists itched. To the human’s eyes, Mysta was an animal.
Mysta snarled and tried to bite his capturer’s hand instead, but before he could even get close, Mysta was slashed by a long whip. “Down, boy!” The man kicked him by the shin and the fox hit the animal pen’s floor with a resounding thump. The cage was quickly shut and locked.
“Little piece of shit,” the man hissed, spitting on Mysta’s face. The painful strike on Mysta’s stomach made him nauseous. The spoiled half cup of rice he had as “breakfast” earlier threatened to crawl back up to his throat. Mysta swallowed the gurgle that came with tears welling up in his eyes. He muffled the sob with the back of his hand.
Mysta couldn’t quite see what was happening, what with the tears blocking his vision. He had been feeling dizzy the past few days as well, a cup of rice every other day did nothing to sustain a growing fox like him. He couldn’t hear much, too preoccupied with muting his cries, just more clanking chains and sounds of whipping, but he could feel the ground moving.
Blinding lights flashed before him, and a crowd roared.
“Now,” a booming voice reverberated within Mysta. “The most anticipated item of the night! A fox deity, nice and submissive. A bit young, but he’ll do, right?” The jeering laughter after the voice’s statement left a bitter taste on Mysta’s tongue.
“Bidding starts at—”
“Five billion yen,” a deep voice quieted the room.
“...Sold!”
Today, Ike attempted to fish with his bare hands. He had quickly realized after weeks of consuming red berries and relying on the wolf for handing him carcasses of small prey from time to time that this was no way of surviving if Ike wanted to be independent. Winter was fast approaching. He didn’t have much time left unless he planned to starve for months.
It was harder than it looked; he hadn’t expected just how slippery the fish were going to be. He couldn’t even catch a tail at first as no fish were swimming his way. It was only much later did he understand that he had to let the water cool down after dipping his arm into the river.
The yellow-coated wolf was laying on his belly some meters away from Ike, napping peacefully. The wolf would do all the work if Ike had let him do the hunting, so the human refrained him from doing so.
Two carp fish swimming nearby abruptly pulled Ike’s attention from the wolf. He wiggled his index finger to imitate a worm and waited for a carp to take the bait. Soon enough, one of them swam Ike’s way. Slowly, slowly. Rapidly, Ike tried to catch the fish’s gill when it got close.
“NOOOOOO,” exclaimed Ike. He missed.
Ike kicked the ground from frustration. He had forgotten he was at the corner of a river and slipped, suddenly submerged into the shallow waters and landing on his bottom. “Ow,” Ike cried, rubbing his back. The weird thing was that it didn’t seem like only Ike was doing the rubbing. Something else was moving inside his shirt! Ike could only deduce that it was the other carp from earlier; it must have got caught in his yukata when Ike fell down. He instantly pressed down on his clothing and felt for the fish. Eventually, he found the gill and snatched it.
He did it. “Puppy, I did it!” Ike whooped from his success while the fish was still held by his hand. However, Ike got too careless and made the fish fly away when he raised his arms into the air. The carp escaped and had already swum too far away before Ike could even discover his mistake.
“Puppy?” Ike expected an excited bark, but none came. It was then at that moment he realized the fish got away. Just his luck. Ike had more pressing matters to attend to though, such as where the wolf had gone. Ike could have sworn the other was snoozing just minutes before. Had he taken too long while fishing?
Ike traced his steps back to where the wolf was. From there, Ike could see muddy paw prints leading to somewhere. Normally, he wouldn’t worry. The wolf wasn’t with him 24/7, always running off and especially leaving every night. There was a feeling this time around that made Ike curious as to where the wolf had gone, the other had never forgotten to bid Ike farewell but today he did. Ike followed the mud the wolf had caught when he was playing in the river earlier. Ike grew increasingly alarmed when the pair of paw prints turned into two; the new pair slightly smaller.
“—long did you think you could keep this a secret?”
The unfamiliar voice made Ike stop his trek.
“I swear I was going to tell you all!” Another voice, a bit deeper than the first one. “...Eventually.”
Ike hid behind a thick tree trunk so that the two strangers wouldn’t catch him eavesdropping. Looking at them, Ike’s heart pounded louder. Judging by their ears, the two were both hybrids, and tall ones at that. One a fox and the other a wolf, wearing an orange haori with a checkered pattern and intricate striped yukata respectively. It was a surprise Ike wasn’t discovered yet, as hybrids were known for their heightened senses.
Ike’s thoughts skyrocketed when their faces came to view. The wolf had blonde hair. It wasn’t difficult to connect the dots together. That man was his wolf friend.
A sigh resonated from the fox. “Luca, love,” he addressed the wolf, holding the other’s face gently. Ike felt himself flush red from their sheer intimacy but mentally took note of the mentioned name. “I just don’t want to see you hurt. Do you understand me?”
“I do. And I won’t get hurt.” Luca pressed their foreheads together. “This for all of you too. I’m guarding him in case he poses a threat for us, but, seriously, the human doesn’t seem much. Have you seen his gangly limbs?”
The fox nodded, giggling. “He couldn’t even catch a carp.”
Blood rushed to Ike’s face. His cheeks, which were already red, further deepened to a bright crimson. More than their comments, Ike felt ashamed of himself for unknowingly trespassing into someone’s home. They could have simply warned him the moment he crossed a line. Now Ike had to deal with sentimental attachments. No matter. Their pack or family or whatever didn’t have to worry anymore, Ike would voluntarily leave if it spared him the shame of being a burden to someone.
Ike turned around to start the walk back to His Spot (His Former Spot?) but stepped on a twig on accident. Ike winced. He had momentarily forgotten he was supposed to stay hidden.
Ike came face-to-face with the pair of hybrids once he looked up. Not a pair of hybrids, Ike realized late. From the nine tails the fox carried with obvious pride, he had just met a fox deity. Ike felt weak in his knees, and it’s been weeks since his ankle had fully healed.
“He looks cute actually,” the fox deity quipped.