Synopsis:

Cat-napped from her home by a feline god-thing, Becca takes a walk on the wild side, meets her adversary for the first time, and discovers a whole new definition for the word "foxy." Is she EVER going to get to go shopping with Amy?

No Obligation

By Randalynn

"Foxy Lady, or 'I've Got You Under My Skin'"

"No matter how much the cats fight, there always
seem be plenty of kittens." -- Abraham Lincoln

"Those who will play with cats must expect to be scratched." -- Cervantes

###

Part 14

"Now come out, little witch, and let me have a look at you. I like to meet trespassers face to face."

"And if I refuse?"

The voice held a happy, almost triumphant tone. "Then I come in and get you."

'Terrific,' I thought with a sigh. 'So nice to have a choice.'

'Although to be perfectly honest, I'd rather be shopping with Amy.'

I suppose I knew I'd eventually get to see how the other half lives. I just didn't expect it to be so soon.

I had to think fast. Actually, given the past couple of days, I'd become quite good at it. Practice makes perfect, after all, and I'd had plenty of that since the universe started throwing curve balls at me every fifteen minutes.

Unfortunately, I didn't know enough to make thinking quickly anything more than a parlor trick. I knew next to nothing about this Cat Woman. I didn't know what she wanted me for, or how she had the power to shift me from the hall in my home to here -- wherever here was.

'Where is here?' I wondered. 'Underground, that's for sure. But how far?' On a hunch, I looked at the rough ceiling and threw my perception upward. My sight moved through rock at the speed of thought ... five seconds, ten seconds. Hundreds, then thousands of miles of nothing but solid rock.

'As if the world outside the cave doesn't exist.' I let my sight continue upward as I let my thoughts churn. 'Maybe it doesn't. Maybe this is some kind of pocket Universe she's popped me into. From my home to hers. Maybe there's no way out.'

I shook my head and my vision returned. 'Not a good idea to think that way,' I said to myself. 'Always assume you can succeed. Otherwise, you're defeated before you begin.'

I snorted. 'Terrific. If this Advocate job falls through, I can always make a living as a motivational speaker.'

"I'm waiting, little girl," she purred, her honeyed growl echoing in the cavern below. "And I've never been very good at waiting."

She thinks I'm human,' I mused. 'A magic user of some sort, perhaps even a witch. Well, I am human, but certainly more powerful than she might expect. In fact, maybe a different class of supernatural altogether.'

"You don't have to fear me, girl." The voice oozed charm, and if I didn't have myself as heavily shielded as a nuclear reactor, she might have lulled me into revealing myself prematurely. "Come! Let me see you, and we can talk, face to face."

'This has possibilities.' I considered my options carefully. 'I've already done a "sting" on Friday, with Heather's Dad. Maybe I should do some undercover work, just to round out the weekend.'

'What the hell,' I thought. 'In for a penny, in for a pound ...'

"If it is face-to-face you desire," I said loudly, my intonations still cast in a Japanese rhythm, "allow me to throw off my human guise and meet you as I truly am."

"Not human?" The Cat Woman seemed pleasantly surprised. "Now I am curious."

"As befits the cats you call kin, highness," I purred back at her. After all, a little flattery never hurt.

I reached into my mind and drew out all of the information I had on Japanese demonology, choosing the one figure I knew well from my own studies and adding the more detailed information given to me by the Arbiters. She was quirky and enigmatic, certainly, but not necessarily good or evil. Her affinity with humans and shape-shifting ability could explain her hanging around in human shape. And her own unique sense of justice could help me find out just who I was dealing with.

I threw all of my magical power into bringing her to life, using all of the data I had. I could feel her form come together -- her powers, her mental state, her attitude. I focused all of my energies on this single being, and felt everything resolve into the form I sought. There was an unexpected flash of raw energy that seemed to radiate outwards, and I felt ... empowered.

I was ready to be ... something else.

I focused on my body, and reluctantly made all of my clothes vanish into a pocket dimension of my own. I really didn't want to lose those jeans. If this was just a construct, like Mrs. Graymalkin's sitting room, I'd go back home and find myself still wearing them. But if I had really been transported somewhere, I wanted my clothes back if I figured out how to leave.

'When,' I corrected myself quickly. 'I meant to say when.'

Totally naked, I stood there and imagined myself taller, and my figure rounder. Bright white fur grew to cover my entire frame, although I intentionally made it thicker over the tips of my breasts and between my legs to hide the parts of me my human self would rather not reveal.

Suddenly, there was a second rush of power that seemed to fill me and overflow into a white aura that made the cave around me glow. My ears rang as my hair color shifted to match the fur, and grew all the way down to the nine long bushy tails that sprouted above the curve of my bottom. My face extended slightly, forming a pointy muzzle, and my eyes became a bright green, slightly slanted. My own ears receded into my head behind my fur, and a pair of velvety soft fox ears grew out above them and swiveled, hearing things my human ears had missed.

There was conversation in the pit. Human voices ... and others.

The rush of power seemed to fade to a slight hum that made my skin feel hot under my newfound fur. I ran my tongue over my canine teeth, which had become sharp and extended, and I smiled.

I was ... her. I felt strong and quick and agile -- sexy as hell, but also centered and calm, as if everything was as it was supposed to be. It scared a part of me, just for an instant, before the rest of me shrugged it off with a toss of the head that brushed all of my hair against the small of my back. It made me purr, the sound a contented fox makes, and I just couldn't help myself.

I laughed. It just felt ... right.

I stood up straight, without a care in the world, and glided out to the edge of the precipice. My hips and tails swayed provocatively, and my full, unfettered breasts shifted in counterpoint. When I reached the very edge, I did a perfect spin on a toe, arms stretched to either side, and then collapsed gracefully into a seated position that looked more fox than human -- bottom down, knees bent, feet pulled in so ankles pressed the backs of my thighs. My paws rested between my legs, in front of my sex. My tails twitched happily behind me, arching up behind my head and tickling the backs of my newly-grown ears.

"See me now, as I am," I said, baring my teeth in a wild grin that meant challenge as much as joy. "I am byako, kiko, myobu, nogitsune's bane. I am Akomachi, kitsune, guardian of the lower temple of Inari!" The words seemed to tumble from inside me, and filled me with a fierce pride I couldn't quite explain. "Some have called my kind tricksters. Others have called us friends. But I care not for anyone's labels. I am she who does what she wills, goes where she wishes ... and NEVER asks permission, or forgiveness." I licked a paw and rubbed an itchy spot behind my ear. 'Play it for everything it's worth, Becca,' I said to myself. 'You diva!' I sensed some kind of approval of my choice of attitude, somewhere deep inside, but shook it off and focused on the task at hand.

"Welcome to my home, Akomachi." The voice held a bit of a smile, and it called my eyes downward from my perch. I peered over the edge and deep into the abyss. There, hundreds of feet below, was an oversized human figure. She (and it was clearly a she) lay on her side, one knee drawn up, on an oval pillow that was roughly the size of a semi trailer. She was part human, part cat ... and all female. Her body was mostly human, with short dark fur covering every exposed inch. Her face was a mix of human and cat, protruding as a cat's muzzle would, her mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. Her eyes were cat's eyes, but rimmed with impossibly long human eyelashes. And her hair was long and straight and black, shining in the cavern's dim light. In the darkness behind her, I caught the twitching of a tail.

Tremendous fur-covered breasts rested on her chest, one lying on the other, both seemingly swollen with milk. Down her stomach two other sets of smaller breasts also protruded, also swollen, but that was not the most disturbing part of the scene.

On the pillow with her were five humans -- girls, all naked and snuggled up to her enormous form. Each had a nipple in her mouth, drinking freely from the cat goddess and making sounds of nearly orgasmic happiness. Their mouths appeared to stretch large enough to take in the oversized teats, and as I watched I could see their throats convulsing as they swallowed. One nipple remained untouched, sweating and dripping with milk.

As I watched, I recognized Gwen, Michael's sister, from when I met her in the hospital. 'The others must be the rest of her group,' I thought.

Suddenly, I realized that I was in the presence of the very thing I had been hunting since Heather's transformation.

I went numb all over. This wasn't some unrelated supernatural hijacking. The thing below must have sensed the few times I had used magic since my arrival as the Advocate, and had pulled me in to see who the new girl was, and whether I could interfere with whatever her plans happened to be.

Frankly, I was wondering the same thing myself. I knew I was in way over my head. This thing had changed reality at the drop of a hat, and I was sitting on its doorstep as a reluctant guest, or worse yet, disguised as a Japanese fox spirit. If she should see through the illusion -- I shivered at the thought, but deep within, there was a core of calm that seemed to bring me back to myself.

There was movement in the shadows, and I threw my sight forward and raised its sensitivity. Scattered around her resting place in the darkness was a small army of demons, watching me with eyes that never blinked. They held themselves in various aggressive forms -- a forest of fangs, claws, and sharp-edged wings, all ready to spring to the defense of the goddess.

And they all tasted very familiar, even from a distance.

Pain eaters.

I felt my stomach give a minor flip, but my shields remained in place. Just one of these things had the power to completely destroy my life not too long ago, and now there were at least ten of them, protecting the thing I had vowed to stop.

The Becca in me felt more than slightly overwhelmed by the odds. But strangely enough, the kitsune I had become seemed bored by them. 'Lesser demons,' I seemed to hear her say from the back of my mind. 'Pay them no mind, Advocate. They are beneath us.' I felt her eyes sparkle. 'In both senses of the word.'

I smiled, but it was true. 'They can't use their magic directly without striking a bargain. While we can use ours however and whenever we please,' I thought, relaxing just a little. 'We do have an edge.'

'Even without that petty restriction, they are no challenge, to either of us.' The fox spirit sniffed and yawned inside my head. 'Now show the Cat we are more than human and worthy of her respect.'

I launched myself forward, out into the air above the goddess, and threw my fox form into a roll. Hands in the air, hair and tails flying up behind me, I plummeted almost all the way to the floor below before using magic to slow my descent. I floated down and folded myself gracefully into a seated position directly in front of her, a few feet above the cavern floor.

"Apologies if I am interrupting ... lunch? Dinner?" I inclined my head towards the girls. "But you did bring me here, so the time was of your choosing, not mine."

"You are welcome to join them, vixen, if you wish." The Cat's eyes sparkled briefly, and she grinned. "I do have one teat free, and I am told I taste quite ... sweet."

I looked at her, and bared my teeth in another predator's grin. "I must decline your gracious offer. It has been a long time since I suckled, and my teeth might ... cause you some discomfort, most powerful of cats." 'Besides,' I said to myself, 'I don't know what the heck it's doing to them, but I'd rather not risk it, no matter how 'sweet' you may be.'

"As you wish," the Cat replied, reaching down with a clawed finger to stroke Gwen's back from shoulder to hip. I watched Gwen shudder with pleasure and heard her moan past the nipple in her mouth. "More for my children."

"Your kits do not seem much like you, majesty." My voice held nothing but polite inquiry. "They are human, are they not?"

"They are. Soon my milk will change them, and they will become as I am. The first of my new family." Her voice held a touch of sadness. "I have no mate, and cannot breed as I would truly wish to. So these girls will become my young, and perhaps one day find mates of their own."

I inclined my head, and felt a pang of longing well up inside me. The words poured out in their respectful cadence, but full of emotion no politeness can mask. "I am sorry you have no mate, goddess, but I do feel your need, perhaps better than you know." Her head turned and she regarded me thoughtfully. I shrugged. "Long have I sought my own mate, Osusuki, the black fox, spirit guardian of the Upper Temple. I have longed for pups of my own, to feed and teach and raise." I looked down, my voice low. "Each year I have felt myself swell with longing. I have burned for him, for a thousand years and more. But I burn in vain, I fear, for he has vanished. I cannot find him. And without him, I can have no pups. I envy you the children you can bring forth this way, majesty."

The kitsune within me was truly sad, and I felt her loneliness deeply. I truly wanted a mate, and pups of my own. But it has been so long. Someday ...

The thought made me stop, and a chill swept through me. This wasn't an act. This kitsune inside me wasn't just a construct, or another part of myself. Somehow, I had managed to do more than make myself into a copy. I had called forth the real thing.

There truly was a Japanese fox spirit within me.

'Ssssssssh,' she whispered. 'I am not your enemy, Advocate. You called to me, and I am here. There will be time for questions later. Now focus on the Cat, and let us work together.'

The Cat looked almost kindly upon me, as if she felt a deep connection between us. I felt a finger of magic reach out to touch my face, caress it gently, and withdraw. For a fleeting second, I felt regret at deceiving her in this way. But the torment of Mike and his friends rose up to wash my regret away. Whatever her tragedy, what her 'children' had done was wrong, and justice demanded I set things right.

'Right and wrong later,' the vixen hissed. 'Survival now. Question why she summoned you. It is rude for one such as her to force one like myself to attend this way.'

"Why did you bring me here?" I rose higher and floated before her, feeling the vixen's irritation as if it were my own. I crossed my arms under my breasts, brought my legs together, and pointed my toes.

"Your magic brought you to my attention, Akomachi, and I wish to see who was hunting on my lands."

I sniffed and tossed my head. "I saw no signs that said the land where I chose to hunt belonged to you. And even if I did, I would not heed them, for no one keeps me from doing what I will."

"I am sure of it," the Cat soothed, her tone diplomatic. "I meant no offense. Originally, I thought you were only human, but powerful. Were you a human girl, I would have coaxed you to my breast and made you drink deep, to become another of my children."

A rough voice came from the demons assembled in the darkness. "She is human, goddess. She hides from you behind a vixen's mask, but she is no less human than those who drink from you."

A large red demon stepped forward into the flickering light. He was huge and obscenely male, with muscles bulging upon muscles, and eyes that flashed fire.

"Let me show you her true nature, that you might take her to your breast and add another kit to your pride. Let me force her to submit, and take her as the bitch she is ... over and over again." He licked his lips and smiled at me. "Let me teach her what it means to dare to deceive her betters."

'Attend, Advocate,' the fox spirit whispered. 'Treat him as the vermin he is, and I will show you why these pitiful "Others" offer no challenge to either of us.'

There was a long silence. I regarded the demon with disgust, and spoke to the goddess without turning my head. "Does this one matter to you, majesty? Or may I punish him for his impudence as I see fit?"

The Cat ran her eyes over the demon's form, and threw me a smile. "He is yours, vixen. If you are merely human, you cannot punish him, for you would lack the power to do so. But if you are who you say you are, then you may do with him as you wish, since he has insulted you by calling you human when you are not."

The demon snorted and smiled. "This will not take long," he growled. "I will prove myself to you, goddess."

In a blur of motion, he launched himself across the cavern at me with a roar that echoed from the far walls. I waited for him to reach me, motionless but without fear. When his body was within inches of mine, I reached out with my magic and held him frozen in mid-air, completely helpless. His arrogance changed quickly to fear, as he realized how quickly he had lost against me ... without my having to lift a finger.

Curiously, as a kitsune, my access to my magic seemed more instinctual. Perhaps it was her presence overcoming my own view of my inexperience, but I felt strangely powerful. And as a result, I was.

Now he was mine. Ours. He knew it.

And it scared the hell out of him.

"You seem particularly scornful of humans," I said thoughtfully. "Not surprising, since your kind feed on their pain, and I have yet to meet a predator who respects her prey. So, I have decided that you shall become that which you despise." I tossed my head, and lightning flashed from my nine tails and struck the demon. When the light faded, a well-muscled human male floated before me, his eyes wide, his breath coming in short bursts.

The Cat smiled. I smiled back and continued. "You also seemed to feel yourself superior to females -- indefensible in the presence of a goddess and a spirit vixen, both far more powerful than you could ever be." My eyes narrowed. "You wished to make me be ... your bitch. Instead, you will become mine." I raised a paw and described a curve in the air before him. His body seemed to blur in the firelight, resolving itself into soft curves and pale skin where muscle and sinew had been. The demon dwindled in size until she seemed barely a teen, naked and cowering in mid-air. Her long black hair swirled around her, and her huge green eyes held all of her terror mixed with shame and disgust at her fate.

"Now, majesty," I said, bowing my head, "you gave him to me as a gift, to punish as I saw fit. I return her to you ... as your newest daughter, to drink from you and become a member of your pride. Do you accept my gift in return?

She nodded, purring loudly, and a merry laugh bubbled up from inside. She took the frightened girl into a hug and brought her to her breast. The Cat pressed the former demon's lips to the last empty teat. The girl took one taste and began suckling happily, her former life slipping away in the ecstasy of her new mother's milk.

The Cat looked at me with gratitude. "Thank you, Akomachi. I could never have performed such a transformation on one of my acolytes."

"If it were just a matter of power, you would have been able to do so easily, majesty" I curled up into a ball as I floated there, knees pressing into my breasts, tails spread out behind me. "If she had transgressed against you as she did with me, you could have had her as she is now with only a thought."

"True," she nodded, her eyes never leaving me. "But none of them would dare challenge me. We have an understanding, they and I."

I nodded. "We are as much bound by our loyalties as those who serve us, after all. Not that I wish to be served, as you do, goddess. I find myself reluctant to become ... entangled. It has never been my way."

The Cat reached down and gently began to disengage the five human girls from her teats, one at a time, leaving the sixth new girl to suckle alone. Each of the five struggled as they were removed, their heads turning fitfully as they searched for the nipple they had left. But the goddess held each girl in turn, and crooned sweetly as she cuddled them, until they had all drifted into sleep. When they all lay before her on the pillow, she flicked her tail over the bunch. They blurred briefly, then vanished.

"Why did you send your kits away, majesty?" I asked, concern leaking into my measured tones. "Is it not dangerous for them to be away from you? Especially so young?"

The Cat sighed. "I wish I didn't have to let them leave. But they are still learning, back in the world from which they came. They are slowly abandoning the ways of their former kind, and learning the responsibility that comes with the power of a goddess."

"Responsibility?"

"As you say, being served requires ... entanglement. What humans call noblesse oblige." The Cat wiggled on the pillow to become more comfortable, and cradled the one girl still feeding. She continued to suckle, moaning with contentment. "These demons who surround and protect me require sustenance in the form of human suffering. In exchange for their loyalty, I provide them with a way to feed through the actions of my children. And through those actions, I teach my children what it means to be a goddess."

"Human suffering." My tone was flat. The Cat eyed me curiously. "This bothers you, vixen?"

I shrugged. "I have always had a fondness for humans, and I do not hide it. Your kits are human still. But I do not understand. As a race, humans suffer quite enough to feed your guard, without having your children go out where it is unsafe and create more woe. Why send them?"

"Because strife created is sweeter by far to them, kitsune. These pain eaters can live on the background suffering of billions, but they thrive on suffering deliberately caused by magic."

'That makes these Others the opposite of the joy eaters,' I mused. 'Magic tainted their meals. They could only live on naturally occurring happiness.' Belatedly, I also realized that the pain eaters were not as tied up as I had originally thought. They had made a bargain -- with the goddess. They could use their powers whenever and however they wished in her service.

'Please be silent,' the fox spirit whispered. 'I am attempting to get the information you seek, without endangering your existence ... or mine.'

"So they create suffering with the power you are giving them, to feed your ... followers?" I spun slowly in mid-air, wrapping myself in my nine tails. "I am curious. How is causing pain to humans a good way to train a goddess?"

"They must learn to put their needs above all others." The Cat rolled over and stretched, her tail flicking insolently over her all-too-human hips. "Human concepts like loyalty, compassion, and empathy weaken a goddess. They are useful, in their way, when it is convenient to be merciful. Or when one is obligated to one's followers, or one's equals. But to let them rule you, as my human children used to ..." She shook her head. "It is unacceptable. I must wean them from their humanity, and teach them that their loyalty lies with me, and with others of their kind."

I regarded her as I floated above her, my revulsion tempered by the vixen's unnerving calm. "It must be difficult," I mused aloud, "to make them reject emotions so fundamental to the core of every human. Especially in ones so young."

"The self-centeredness of youth easily overcomes the need to love and care for others, vixen. Children always feel that the world revolves around them, as you know." She spoke casually, but it cut deep. I felt a sharp pain tear across my heart, and hugged myself tightly.

"I do not know, and may never know, goddess." The words seemed to rip free from the depths of my soul, and I knew Akomachi's despair as if it was my own. "As you are already aware, my mate is gone a thousand years past, and the ghosts of ten thousand pups haunt me still. The pups I never birthed, and will never know." My knees came up and I folded into a ball. My whole body shook.

There was a long silence that seemed to roar in my ears, and then I felt the Cat's tail snake across the distance between us and wrap itself around me. "I am so sorry, Akomachi. It was thoughtless of me not to remember." She poured honest regret through her touch into me, and it washed over the hurt I felt and lessened the pain. I reached out to her and bathed in her concern, and I stayed huddled in her embrace until I could come back to myself.

Finally, I stroked the fur on her tail, and she released me. I flew up above her, and hovered there.

"I thank you for your consideration in my time of grief," I said formally. The Cat bowed her head, closing her eyes. "As ... friendly as our meeting has been, I wish to return to my own home and meditate a while. I will not forget you, highness."

"Nor I you," she replied. "Had I known your true nature, I would have asked you to join me earlier, for company and conversation."

"I will return soon, if you would like?" The goddess nodded, and I smiled back. "Until we meet again, majesty."

The cave and the Cat disappeared from sight.

###

Suddenly, I was face-to-face with a pair of bright green eyes, surrounded by white fur. Startled, I fell backwards, landing on my naked bottom and scrambling backwards on green grass. There was something odd about the feeling of my skin against the ground, and the way my breasts bounced as I moved, but I scarcely noticed. I was too busy looking up. And around.

The fox spirit floated a few feet above me, framed against a sky of the brightest blue. Her mouth was open in a canine grin that could be either friendly or ferocious, but was obviously directed at me. I was pretty sure she held no malice towards me, but being naked and defenseless is not the best way to meet something as powerful as the spirit before me.

"Of course not," Akomachi responded politely to a sentence I never spoke. "But you need not fear me. I have shared your body and seen your thoughts. I know you as no other does, and I have found you to be a noble and worthy soul. I have no quarrel with you ... although you did call to me without permission, and without the proper rituals."

"I apologize for that, guardian of the Lower Temple," I said respectfully. "I did not mean to call to you at all."

"No," she said, her tone slightly curious. "You meant to impersonate me. Why?"

I looked her in the eye and spoke from the heart. "It is said among my kind that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Long before I found myself becoming the Advocate, you and your brothers and sisters fascinated me. So powerful, and yet no strangers to humankind. Sometimes allies, and yet always alien. Very conscious of right and wrong, yet less interested in the human concepts of good and evil. And very, very powerful." I sighed. "So when I found myself in that situation, facing a magical creature of unknown strength, I immediately chose yours as the form I wished to take, to face her on even terms. Or at least make her pause before she tried to kill me."

I bowed my head and closed my eyes. "I apologize for my presumption."

"There is no need." I looked up and found the vixen smiling at me, her head tilted to one side. "As you say, I am ... flattered. It has been a long while since kitsune have been revered or honored. I was elsewhere, and then I heard your call. Your intensity ... your devotion ... your need ... they called to me. So I came."

I looked up, confused. "How could you hear me call, guardian? I thought I was ... well shielded."

Akomachi seemed to sigh without sighing. "You were. Your defenses were impressive. But your call opened up a portal in your shields ... a doorway only I could use. Otherwise, how could someone in danger or under attack ever call for aid from my kind without making themselves defenseless?" She rolled in mid-air and stretched. "The fact that you were shielded was part of what intrigued me about you, Becca-chan. I answered a call for help, and found ... you. A human ... with such power! A mystery! But then I saw what you were trying to do, and the ease with which you were doing it. I was not sure you could successfully pretend to be one of my kind, and you had called to me for help. I knew I had to know more. I knew I could not physically enter her lair without revealing your deception. So instead, I chose to become one ... with you."

Akomachi drifted closer, her bright green eyes suddenly serious. "One of the things we kitsune do is possession, Advocate. But we do not do it often, because it has a price for us. It is much more than your Western concept of taking over the body of another and bending her to our will. Some Japanese legends describe it this way, but they are wrong. Instead, our possession is an ... intense sharing of everything that makes us unique, at the most basic of levels. I now know everything about you that there is to know, and you know things about me no other human can imagine."

I looked up at her, confused. "I don't understand. Why are you so reluctant to merge with someone? It seems you gain and not lose from the experience. What is the price you pay?"

"What I have gained from merging with you, Becca-chan, is also what I have lost." The fox spirit waved her paw at her chest. "Now I know what it means to be you. To be human, and ... mortal. As an immortal, to feel death's grasp is painful. And now, there is a part of me that understands why you made the choices you did, to become the Advocate. All those human concepts of courage and justice, good and evil."

She shuddered, just a little. "Inside me now is a small piece of humanity. A part of you that will never leave me. It has immense value, as all true knowledge does ... but it hurts, as well. And that, sadly, will never stop."

I looked around. We were on top of a hill, covered with the greenest grass I had ever seen. The sky was a rich deep blue that seemed to draw the eye into it, and there were forests spread across the landscape as far as I could see. A bright silver stream wound across the landscape. She saw me take it all in, and felt my wonder.

"Where are we?"

"This is my home, Becca-chan." She smiled at me again. "Your home, too, now, whenever you wish."

"What do you mean?"

The fox spirit tilted her head at me, her eyes squinting slightly as they met mine. "We have become family, you and I," she said, "bound by the sharing of body and soul. A consequence of your power, I believe. We two became one, for a time, then became two again. Now both are part human, and part kitsune. Both of us, kin." The vixen opened her mouth in another grin. "Perhaps mother and daughter, if I may be permitted to have at least part of my dream." She waved her paw at me, and said, "Look down, child."

I did, and froze.

I was a kitsune, just as I had been in the Cat's lair, only my fur was reddish-orange with a white muzzle, neck, chest, and paws. I had only a single tail, reddish-orange tipped with white. The world spun slightly, and I reached up to touch one soft velvet ear with my fingertips.

'Huh,' I thought, half in wonder, half in shock.

'I wonder what Mom's policy is concerning pets?'

since 02/16/07