Fox Of Greed (Greedy Fox Book 1)

~~ ONE ~~

I woke under the blazing sun, my eyes smarting with tears. I raised my paw to cover my face. Only, it was not a paw that blocked the sunlight. I wriggled the long, blunt claws - humans called them fingers - now attached to the end of my leg, no, arm. A human arm. 

What's going on? Where am I?

Grass pricked my skin uncomfortable and I sat up, looking over long arms and legs with blurred eyesight. Pinching pale skin with numb fingers, I wondered where my burnt orange fur had disappeared to.

Where am I? And better yet, how had I become a human? 

Peering around was fruitless. There were just tall trees, green grass and a deep blue sky. The wind picked up, throwing strands of bright orange hair into my face; I spat it out of my mouth, before touching my teeth. Human teeth, flat with barely any points. My fingers roamed over my face, past my small nose and small, rounded ears. I ran my hand through the hair, unable to find my twitching ears, before letting it drop onto my back again.

Turning round, I searched for my tail but to no avail. Confusion filled me and a whimper escaped my lips. Only mere moments before, I had been an orange fox. Now I was in a strange place in an even stranger body. 

I looked around again and my eyes landed on something darker than the shadow within the trees. A cave opening. It beckoned to me and that was when fuzzy, broken images began to form in my head. 

A ritual.

Humans with dark brown cloaks and the symbol '狐' painted on their foreheads - the symbol for Fox.

An altar with red inscription, splattered with shadows from flames.

Chanting and magic rising from outstretched fingers.

A tingling in my body before bone-breaking pain seared through me.

I flinched as that same pain split across the front of my skull, the images blossoming into full memories. I realised now why I was human. Those cult members had actually managed to transform me into one of those lesser beings, but for what purpose, I did not know. All I knew was that something obviously went wrong, because I was outside and not inside and it was now late morning inside of midnight.

Deciding that I needed to start with the cave, I crawled forward on what humans called knees and hands. I had studied humans since I had been a fox, picking up on their language and signs, especially when they pointed to different parts of the body when accidents happened.

My hands and knees were stinging with pain by the time I reached the entrance and I looked down at the blood on my palms and knees with a scowl. Human skin was fragile. Peering into the darkness, I realised I still have my enhanced eyesight from my time as a fox, which allowed me to see what lurked in the dark.

My stomach curled into knots when I noticed the black and brittle bones and skulls littering the floor, strips of fabric turning to threads hanging on the walls or still attached to the bones. I delved further in, but the pain in my hands and knees was becoming too much, especially on stone.

Recalling how humans walked on two legs, I placed my bleeding hands against the wall and used it for support as I pushed myself to my feet. It was an effort, considering I had never stood before on two legs; they shook uncontrollably and it was hard to balance.

Holding the wall for support, I stood still for a couple of minutes, just until my legs went from shaking to slight quivers. Steeling my nerve, I pushed myself forward, lifting each leg slowly and using the wall.

The deeper I went into the cave, the stronger the smell of decay and death got. Little stones I kicked bounced forward, echoing over and over. It seemed to go on forever, before I rounded a sharp corner and my enhanced eyesight allowed me to see what was in the dark again.