Le Renard

Fox 9

"Tae?"A worried voice echoed through the fog of my subconscious. My eyes slowly opened at the sound of movement around me. I didn't even remember going to sleep in the first place. The last thing I remembered was the large creature in the dark forest. Wait....

"Alistair! Levi!" I bolted up looking around only to notice that I was now lying in a bed in a large room that wasn't ours.

"Tae? You're awake!" Levi cheered as he jumped up from his seat besides the bed. He wasn't wearing a shirt and had several bandages wrapped around his waist and a small red spot on his left side where he was hit. He winced slightly when he moved to quick and Alistair told him to calm down before he injured himself further. Alistair scooted to the edge of his chair which was right besides the bed and reached out for my hand.

My fingers intertwined with his just as Levi sat beside me on the bed his warmth sending waves of comfort through me. My eyes focused on the bandaged wound on his side and flashes of what happened last night had me thanking whatever it was that had been looking out for us.

"You guys are alright..." I sighed as I sat back in the bed.

"You're worried about us? You're the one who took on that beast and then passed out." Levi cried, his arms flailing in the air.

"Wait, what?" I questioned.

"You were completely engulfed in the purple flames and then the creature slowly came closer and closer and we thought you were a goner but it stopped short, stared at you, licked your muzzle and left. What the hell Tae?" Alistair exclaimed.

"Licked my muzzle?" I replied in confusion. I didn't understand what was happening. I remember the big inky black creature that had attacked us and I even remembered the purple flames but I don't remember anything else after that.

"Yes, it was as if it knew you." Levi replied as he stared at me suspiciously.

"Well I'm glad you're awake now." Jason spoke as he and Mr. Corin entered the room.

It was clear that they were not happy with what us and  with what was happening but I couldn't figure out how much they actually knew about what had happened. Everything seemed to be a huge mystery to me right now and all I really wanted was some answers.

"Yeah..." I replied halfheartedly.

"Care to tell us what happened?" Mr. Corin questioned with his arms crossed sternly across his chest.

"You don't know?" I asked.

"No, we waited until you were awake to ask any questions because we were more concerned about your well-being." Jason answered softly.

"So can you please explain to us why we had to drag you three out the woods way after curfew?" Mr. Corin asked.

"I'm not actually sure." I replied truthfully before explaining what happened all the way up to when I blacked out. "And that's all I remember."

"I can fill in a few blanks." Alistair offered. "After the purple flames appeared the creature became more docile. It approached Tae slowly, licked his muzzle and then ran off. Once we were sure it was gone Levi shifted back, Tae passed out in his kitsune form, and we carried him back here."

"Alert the headmaster and call back Thomas." Mr. Corin instructed Jason who shifted instantly and ran off to do as he was told.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem and who's Thomas?" Levi questioned seeing the concern in Mr. Corin's eyes. He knew something that he sure wasn't going to tell us.

"Thomas is my other familiar, in total I have three. To answer your other questions; we don't generally have creatures like that in the forest because of how dangerous they are. This means that this one snuck onto our grounds. We can't be sure if the creature is off the campus grounds yet so we'll have to shut down the forest hiking path." He explained calmly.