Kitsune in the Shadows

Ava placed a plate piled high with meat in front of me.

“It was a big day for you,” She said as she sat down just across the table from me, “So I thought we could celebrate a little bit.”

…

Thank you… For helping me…

I quickly nodded before stuffing my face.

How is it always this good?

…

Ovia would probably like this too…

Maybe I should ask Ava to teach me…

I stopped eating for a second and looked up at Ava but almost immediately went back to eating.

No, I can’t do that.

…

Not yet, anyway…

I kept my head down for the rest of the meal, enjoying every bite of the succulent meat that I was given.

It was only after I had finished eating that I noticed something was a bit different to usual. Raynelle wasn’t sitting at the table eating with us.

I looked around a bit, just in case she had sat somewhere else, but she didn’t seem to even be in the room.

“Are you looking for Mom?” Ava asked as she finished eating her meal.

“…”

“You probably won’t see her tonight,” Ava stood up, “She has some… homework to do.”

That’s… a problem for me…

I still need to do what Ovia wanted me to do…

I wanted to tell them my name as soon as I saw them back in the temple, but the words just wouldn’t come out of my mouth for some reason.

…

Why am I so useless?…

Both my ears and my tail drooped down.

…

All I had to do was tell them my name…

I… couldn’t even do that…

“I don’t know what Mom was worried about,” Ava let out a chuckle as she picked up my empty plate.

Should I just tell Ava now?

She…

She would be the easiest person to tell…

…

No.

Not yet… I… I need to prepare more.

…

I should wait for the two of them to be together.

That way

… I’ll only have to tell them once.

…

“It’s gotten pretty late, so I should probably leave you to get some sleep,” She opened the door but turned back to tell me something before leaving, “If you need anything, I’ll probably be kept awake for a while. You just need to come and knock on our door, alright?”

I nodded, which caused her to smile at me before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

“…Why is it so hard?” I started mumbling to myself, “Just… open your mouth… you did it with Ovia… why… why can’t you do it now?…”

…

Just then, a slight rattle came from the door.

Immediately my ears perked up, but all they heard was complete silence.

Was someone watching me?

Why would someone spy on me like that?

…

Was it Ava?

But I heard her footsteps as she left.

…

I think…

Against my better judgement, I got up from my chair and opened the door, poking my head into the hallway while fearing the worst.

There was no one there, just a dark, empty hallway.

…

It’s been a long day.

M-Maybe I’m just hearing things…

I closed the door and climbed onto my bed. Just as I did, the moonlight started filtering into the room through the window.

“I need to go through this seven times before I can see her again…”

…

What am I supposed to do while I wait?…

…

Should I get Ovia a gift?

What would a Goddess even want from me?

…

While I was lost in thought, something small and fuzzy came and nuzzled up against my face. Immediately, I sat up but quickly calmed down when I saw that it was just Umbra. Almost instinctively, I reached out my hand and started petting them, the slight chill from their fur comforting me even further.

“I’m glad that you’re here… just… to prove that what happened today was real.”

It didn’t matter that it was my second time meeting her; there was always this thought in the back of my mind that none of it was real, that I was just making things up so I could hold on a bit longer. But seeing Umbra sitting in front of me proves that everything actually happened; there is just no other way I could explain them being here.

They then climbed into my lap before curling up while looking up at me with expectant eyes. In response, I continued petting them, which seemed to be the right answer.

…

Is this what it was like for Ovia?

…

I think I understand why she wanted to do this.

…

But… my legs are already feeling a bit tired…

…

I lifted Umbra up and lay them down on the bed, which they didn’t seem to be pleased about, but they didn’t fight back at all. Instead, they curled back up and wrapped some shadows around their body.

Watching Umbra wrap their body in shadows, just as I had done many times before, gave me an idea.

If you can do that… Can I do what you can?

Umbra was able to hide themselves completely in my shadow, so does that mean that I can hide other things in there myself?

I grabbed the notebook which Raynelle had given me out from under my pillow, along with a few of the pencils.

“Now… how would I start,” I looked over at Umbra, almost hoping they would answer me.

But they didn’t.

I lifted one of the pencils up into the air and dropped it onto my shadow, but as expected, it just landed on the bed with almost no sound.

Is there some kind of trick to it?

Thinking back to when Umbra first jumped into my shadow, I could remember this strange feeling that spread across my shadow the moment that they disappeared.

Is that the trick that I’m missing?

I tried to replicate that feeling, which caused the shadow to start rippling slightly. Without wasting a moment, I lifted another pencil up into the air and dropped it onto the rippling shadow and…

It fell onto the bed, with my shadow just dancing around on top of it.

…

“Why did I even try?…”

I reached out to pick the pencil back up, but Umbra ran over and grabbed it before I could.

“Wait, give that back!” I shouted as I reached out to try and take the pencil from Umbra’s mouth.

Umbra didn’t listen to me and instead dived into my shadow with the pencil still in their mouth before coming back out almost immediately only with the pencil now missing.

…

“So… you can do it… but I can’t…”

…

It’s better than nothing, at least…

…

I looked over the notebook that was lying on the bed just next to me.

“Can you put this in there too?” I carefully pushed the notebook across the bed until it was in front of Umbra.

This should keep it safe.

Umbra looked over the notebook for a few seconds before grabbing it and dropping it into my shadow.

…

“I guess… I should probably get some sleep…”

Maybe… she’ll show up in my dreams this time…

As soon as Umbra heard me, they immediately went and curled up on top of my pillow as if they were expecting me to lay my head on top of them.

“No… I can’t do that,” I lifted them off of the pillow, “I know how hard it is to be a pillow.”

However, as soon as I put Umbra down, they ran straight back onto the pillow, curling up just as they did before.

What am I supposed to do in this situation?

…

How about…

Just by thinking about what I wanted to do, I quickly changed into my fox form, which was surprisingly pretty much the same size as Umbra, only with myself having a much larger tail.

This should work better.

I clambered up onto the pillow and curled up next to Umbra, which prompted them to readjust so that we both fit comfortably on the pillow.

Tomorrow…

I’ll… do what she asked me to.

I have to.

…

It’s… the task Ovia gave to me.