Kitsune in the Shadows

Ava and I continued walking down the street, although unlike before, she had stopped pointing at each of the stores we walked past as she was too busy struggling with the package she had gotten from the art store.

“Why did he make this so- Ah, got it!” Ava exclaimed as she managed to untie the string holding the package closed.

She quickly sorted through whatever was in the package before pulling out a long black ribbon that shimmered just slightly as it caught the sunlight. My eyes were drawn to it as it gently swayed in the wind, almost as if it had hypnotised me.

“Do you like it?” She asked, waving it back and forth in front of me.

Why would you ask me that?

“Hmm… I just noticed you liked things that were black. You have your black scarf and your black dress, and just now, you chose a black box for the gift you’re putting together. So I thought you’d also like this.”

I do…

But why does that matter?

I nodded.

“Great! I wanted to have you try some different hairstyles later… but why should we wait? We can just-” She stopped herself just as she reached toward my hood, “Oh… that’s right… we can only do it after we get back…”

I didn’t even agree to it yet!

We stood there, staring at each other in silence for a moment, with Ava still holding the ribbon out even though she knew I couldn’t remove my hood while we were outside.

“Oh, I have an idea!” She suddenly lit up again, “Give me your wrist.”

What?

Why?

…

Even though I didn’t know what she wanted, I still held my hand out towards her anyway. Seeing this, Ava immediately grabbed my outstretched wrist before wrapping it with the ribbon and tying it into a large bow.

“There you go,” She handed the package over to me, “Now do mine!”

The package just contained a large number of ribbons. There were plenty of different colours to pick from, and some of them even had elaborate patterns spanning their entire length. In fact, there were so many different ribbons in there that it seemed strange that they could even fit into the small package in my hands.

…

I sifted through the ribbons until I found one that was a bright purple with some faint floral patterns running through it. The colour jumped out at me because it somehow matched Ava’s eyes almost exactly.

As soon as I pulled the ribbon out, Ava’s arm abruptly shot in front of me. It startled me for a second, but I quickly calmed back down. I carefully wrapped it around her wrist and tried to tie it into a bow just like she had done for me, but I just couldn’t keep the two sides of the bow even, and it ended up looking a bit strange. I reached out to untie it and try again, but before I could, she pulled her wrist back.

“Looks great,” She said, holding her hand up in front of her and inspecting my handiwork, “I bet Mom would be jealous if she saw this.”

Why?

…

“… mhm…” I wasn’t sure what she wanted me to say, so I just hummed and hoped she would decide what it meant herself.

“Oh, come on, you can give a bit more of a reaction than that; what happened to the girl who was bold enough to suddenly try to pat my head in the middle of a store?”

My face almost immediately started to heat up.

“That’s better,” She smiled while dancing around a little, letting the ribbon tied around her wrist flutter about, “By the way, there was something else I was really wanting to get while we were out, maybe we can just quickly-”

*Thud*

Ava fell to the floor.

“Come on, you need to look where you’re going; you just walked into some kid.”

“I didn’t walk into anyone! She just jumped into me out of nowhere!”

“Hello there, and sorry about that. This guy over here is awful when it comes to paying attention to what's going on around him. Honestly, I don’t know how he managed to get this job.”

…

No…

No… No…

My heart started beating quickly and quicker as I stood there, frozen in place, just watching the scene playing out in front of me.

Ava was lying on the ground, with two knights standing just over her. While she was dancing about, she accidentally bumped into one of them. The one who spoke last, the smaller of the two knights, held his hand out towards her.

No… please…

…

Run. You need to run.

“First, we’re called out here ‘cause some conman got what was coming to him, and now you’ve gone and done this,” The smaller knight, while still holding his hand out, had turned his head and started complaining.

“I told you it wasn’t my fault! I didn’t do anything!” The other knight argued, “Plus, you were just complaining about how you were sick and tired of patrolling the streets searching for some street rat. Your eyes lit up when you found out about that conman.”

“Sure, but by the time we actually got there, they had both already run away. I feel like I’ve done nothing but patrol these streets for years at this point!”

Why won’t you move?!

Get away from here!

“He’ll give up eventually. There haven’t even been any sightings for the last few weeks; they probably kicked the bucket off in an alley somewhere.”

“Look, you know as well as I do that he won’t stop until he sees the body,”

“That kid doesn’t even know what they look like; only the late Baron actually saw them.”

“So what? We’re stuck doing this ‘cause some kid has probably gone and died in a ditch somewhere.”

The knights fell silent for just a moment before the knight holding his hand out towards Ava spoke up again.

“Um, are you going to take my hand or not?” He shook his arm a little, “I’m afraid it might fall off if I keep holding it up like this.”

Please…

I managed to force myself to take just a single step backwards. But that may have been the wrong thing to do as the knight turned his attention to me.

“Hey, is this your sister? Uh… friend? Ah, whoever they are to you, you seem to know them. Can you help us out a bit here?”

I looked down at Ava, who was staring directly at me, her usual smile nowhere to be seen.

No… I can’t…

I…

“Can’t you see you’re just scaring the kid? This is how you’re supposed to do it,” The larger knight said before taking a step towards me.

My body started to shake uncontrollably as I tried to force it to move, to run, to get away, anything! But my feet refused to move; it was as if they had been nailed to the ground.

Not again!

Please move!

Please!

Right at that moment, Ava scrambled to her feet, completely ignoring the knight’s outstretched hand. She ran over to me and hugged me tightly, pulling my head in close to her chest, where I could hear her heart pounding.

“I-I’m sorry,” Ava stumbled over her words, “My s-sister is a little shy.”

“Don’t worry, that big guy is used to it. It's not just children, but even cats and dogs seem to be afraid of him,” He slapped the larger knight on the back, “But you don’t care about that. More importantly, are you alright? That was quite the fall you took.”

“I’m okay,” Ava said.

“That’s good, that’s good, although I do still have something else I just need to do quickly… I guess you could call it common procedure these days,” He pointed at me, “Can we just have your sister remove her hood.”

No!

By some miracle, I managed to move my other foot, but all it did was make Ava hold me tighter.

“Do we really have to?” The larger knight asked, “How can it be her if they’re sisters? There was never any mention of family anywhere. I thought we were looking for a street rat.”

“Just pull out the description. It’ll only take a few seconds to do anyway,” He turned back to me, “Now, please remove your hood so we can be on our way.”

Let me go!

I can’t let them see!

“A-alright,” Ava grabbed my hood, her hand clearly trembling.

No!

What are you doing?!

“It will be f-fine, okay? Just… d-don’t say anything,” She whispered to me before slowly lifting my hood and revealing my ears.

Almost immediately, the two knights looked at each other in confusion.

“A beastkin?” They asked in unison.

No! Why would this work?!

Please!

Don’t do this to me!

“Is it normal for only one sibling to be a beastkin?” The larger knight asked.

“How am I supposed to know?” The smaller knight responded, “Do you see any ears on top of my head? Why would I know how beastkin children work?”

“But-”

“Don’t worry about it, just check if they match the description. We don’t need to worry about that if it’s the wrong kid anyway.”

The larger knight did as he was asked and pulled out a notebook before staring directly at me, causing my heart to stop for just a second.

“Uh…”

“Come on, what’s it now?!”

“Well, I think… she might match it?”

I tried to slip under Ava’s arms, but she changed her grip so that I couldn’t.

“What do you mean she might match it? Either she does or she doesn’t.” The smaller knight was clearly annoyed.

“Um… well, the only description we have is a small kid wearing dirty rags with fox ears and either black or white hair… Her hair is somewhere between black and white… maybe… as for the ears… um…”

“T-they’re wolf ears,” Ava spoke up, “S-she’s a wolf beastkin.”

The knights turned to face each other.

“Do you even want to risk it?” The larger knight asked.

“No… not really. The last guy who got it wrong just disappeared one night. I might hate the job, but I’d rather keep my head on my shoulders.”

“Then let’s just move on. If we’re quick, we can probably get a few drinks without the other guys getting suspicious.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” The smaller knight turned towards us, “Well, I guess we’ll be on our way then. Sorry for all this.”

They didn’t even wait for us to respond before they left.

Ava kept holding onto me tightly while mumbling something to herself that I wasn’t able to make out.

As soon as the knights couldn’t be seen anymore, she let go of me, and I immediately fell to the floor. At some point, my legs must have given out as I couldn’t move them at all.

“I’m so sorry,” Ava picked me back up, her hands now glowing ever so slightly, “I-I… this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“…”

Why couldn’t I run away?

What if this happens again?

…

I… I can’t…

“Look, let’s just… go back to the inn, would that be okay?” She hugged me even tighter, “You don’t need to say anything… I-I’ll carry you back, alright?”

She let go of me so she could awkwardly try to lift me up onto her back. It was a little uncomfortable feeling her wings twitch underneath her cloak as they tried to find a comfortable position.

I didn’t resist at all and just let her do what she wanted.

I don’t know…

…

I just… don’t know…

…

I wasn’t sure how long it took, but by the time we got back to the inn, the sun had already started to set.

Ava stopped in front of the door, “This is a bit awkward, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to-”

The door suddenly flew open, with Raynelle standing there while clearly in a panic. As soon as her eyes locked on to me, tears started streaming down her face, “What happ-”

“Just…” Ava cut her off, “I forgot to bring back the food we bought, the shopkeeper should have it all ready… can you go get it quickly?”

“But-”

“Please,” Ava interrupted again, “I… She… probably needs some time…”

“… Alright.”

“Thanks… Guess that means I can make dinner tonight, hey?” She bounced me slightly.

I didn’t respond. I couldn’t respond. I just didn’t know what to do.

“I’ll go put her in her room… it… was a long day.” Ava walked into the inn with me still clinging to her back.

…

I made a mistake… again…