Soul's Decay : Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

989

“I’m leaving.” Abel told Dominic, who lifted a questioning eyebrow.

“You’re leaving.” He restated. Abel nodded wordlessly.

They had left the campsite of the Hunters in a hurry after suffering the crushing defeat. Only after they had a couple miles between them and the campsite, they had stopped, and assessed the damage that their bodies had suffered. The result was not so grave as they had expected: Dominic had only a few gashes and bruises that would heal quickly over time, two hands that had been impaled by Li’s daggers, and deep bites. Abel, on the other hand, didn't have so many gashes or bites, yet he harbored purple bruises, scratches and a broken forearm and some cracked ribs. They would all heal over time - But, Dominic had to wonder, would we have the time? The fight isn’t over, after all.

Now that Abel abruptly wished to leave him and be alone again, Dominic had little time to skim over his thoughts about the matter, and he used it well. There were a load of troubles to consider; what if, like Li, Abel joined the Hunters, or what if Abel started to kill the foxes or random mortals because of his bloodlust? What if the matter between Mason, Lewis, their dead parents, Abel and Dominic himself became even more serious? It could easily intensify into a fight for vengeance and death.

Dominic could imagine it without difficulty; Lewis aiming some sort of a Hunter weapon at Abel, Mason probably backing him up as a silver fox, eyes fully gold and wild, and Abel unable to kill them, because somehow, Dominic knew that he wouldn’t be able to slaughter an entire family, much less Mason. Abel was insane, but he was not that far gone. If the three met, they would cause havoc, and end up killing one another. Or Abel alone. Then Mason might attack Lewis and kill him too… Okay, shut up. Dominic told himself.

Abel was still looking at him, waiting for his response.

“This is family business.” Lewis had said with a dagger held at Mason’s throat. I don’t know, Dominic thought with a mental, heavy sigh, if that is family business, then every homicide can be explained as family business. Dominic leveled his gaze to Abel’s with difficulty. He already had his conclusion.

“You’re not going.” Dominic declared. Abel’s gaze shifted into a glare immediately.

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

The tree that they were sitting under suddenly shifted from the winds, and the leaves parted to let in a harsh glare of sunlight. Abel squinted but didn’t break off the glare. Dominic hoped that he was matching it.

“I’m not telling you what to do. It’s a request. Going off by yourself is too risky. Li, Lewis, the Hunters… It’s just not a good time.”

Abel’s face contorted, and he looked down, clenching his fist. “Or you just want to see me die. Killed by a halfbreed and a fox, whose parents I murdered.” Well, that too. Dominic shifted uncomfortably. It was time to improvise.

“No, it’s not that. What if the Hunters get to you like they did Li?”

Lifting his head sharply, Abel regained the chilling glare. “You believe that, don’t you? But not that possibly, Li betrayed me, or not, maybe Li had never been my friend after all.” A small fire flared in Dominic’s mind, a fire that wanted to protect what he had, what he wanted to believe.

“Li was my friend, he is my friend. On the other hand, you were my friend, but you are not my friend anymore.”

Snorting emotionlessly, Abel slumped against the tree. Only his eyes spoke of the pain he was going through. “Playing dirty, aren’t we?” Dominic sighed to himself again. He wasn’t making the situation any better, and Abel looked ready to take off at any moment, leaving him behind.

“Look…” Dominic started.

Abel cut him off. “No, don’t start, don’t tell me anything, don’t even try. Nothing you say will change the fact that I’m leaving. Leaving, do you hear me? Leaving.” Abel stood up with a grunt, and Dominic reached up to grab his arm, forgetting the fact that both of his hands had been skewered by a dagger. He hissed in pain, recoiled, and Abel gasped softly; for a second, Dominic thought that he had seen Abel move as if he was about to examine his wounds.

Dominic sat back down on the ground, cursing the painful disabilities his body harbored, and Abel hesitated before retaking his place next to him. He sighed, somehow more deeper than how Dominic always sighed. “I want to leave. Nobody wants me near them, not even you… And don’t lie, I know you don’t… I have to leave.” Abel murmured, running a hand over his face, looking distraught.

Dominic dismissed it as a fact that he could have been mistaken, for the emotionless facade soon slipped back into place once more. Look, I’m worrying about you, just like how I worried a thousand years before, just like…

Abel cast him a pained look. “Dominic, let me leave.”

With a start, Dominic realized that it was the first time since they had met again, that Abel called him by his name. It was the only name that he favored enough to always use among the foxes. It sounded so familiar, Abel’s tongue being somehow so used to saying the name, although it had never occurred for at least a millennium. By the way Abel’s eyes widened along with his, Dominic took a wild guess that the gold fox had realized the same thing.

Dominic had always known that Abel tended to do wild, sometimes unexplainable, mostly stupid things, like what some of his ancestors tended to do when they were driven to the corner, being backed up against the wall. He instantly knew that it was one of those times when Abel punched him on the nose, hard.

Blood instantly spilled through his fingers as Dominic cradled his broken face, and he didn’t need to look up to know that Abel was running from him, soon to be out of sight and hearing. He also knew that he probably would never see the gold fox again if he let him run off now.

“Abel!” Dominic hollered, chasing after him, and as he did, he felt the same way again; the way he felt when Abel had said his name. He grimaced at the knowledge of the name sounding too foreign for his liking.

He left what little shade the couple of trees provided and entered the sun. Hot autumn winds rolled over him like waves and rippled the grass. They had left the Hunters not so long ago, yet the grass still smelt the same, like the grass that was around the campsite. Dominic could see Abel running, and he was fast, as always. He clearly did not intend to play catch; he didn’t want to play anything except for escape.

The blood from his nose was nearly suffocating him, and Dominic gritted his teeth as he twisted the broken nose back into place with an excruciating crack. Despite it, he didn’t stop. He had a new prey to hunt down. He never gave up on a prey, just like how he hadn’t given up on Lewis just yet. Abel was still in his eyesight.

He was not getting away.

Abel’s hand hurt, from knuckles to fingers, to skin to bone, from muscles to soul. He had punched Dominic. Punched him, straight to the face, full force, when Dominic was trying to make him stay. Punched the obvious chance away. It wasn’t like the physical harm bothered Abel; he had even genuinely tried to rip Dominic’s arm off once, permanently. A broken nose didn’t bother either of them. Although, a broken possibility, a broken fate, a broken soul…

Don’t try to catch me, Abel told Dominic, not trusting himself with his physical voice. A piece of his speech, he kept to himself securely; I don’t think I can handle it, I’m so sorry. There was no answer. He didn’t expect one after a punch in the face. Dominic, he thought, must be angry. No guarantee what will happen if he does catch me. He’ll drag me back with a missing limb.

Maybe he’ll understand, you dimwit, he knows that’s what you do when you’re cornered, you know, a voice hissed. Abel didn’t even try to ignore it this time. He just accepted it as an option.

Abel knew that he was insane when he started to remember a song. A wordless song, one he and Dominic had listened to, side by side, hundreds of years ago. It was back when they could stand one another without getting into a violent quarrel; back when they called each other by names and laughed; back when they hunted and shared the catch with each other; back when they didn’t know.

A hole seemed to be punched straight through his chest, frigid wind blowing into it, into his back and out through his chest like a gigantic spear. Someday, Abel thought that it just might come true; it might be Dominic’s hand through his heart, or an arrow, or a spear, just like how he felt. No, the song… He couldn’t remember the song anymore.

His breath hitched nervously and stayed hitched.

There was a distance between him and Dominic that shortened and lengthened occasionally, but it was mostly kept the same. Neither of the foxes was catching up nor falling back. Abel thought that he had heard Dominic shout once, but he hadn’t been listening and Dominic obviously wasn’t willing to replay it for him. It had been lost in the wind. The song… Right, he had forgotten the song.

He couldn’t keep running forever. He knew it. No, he had to lose Dominic. Even as he ran as fast as he could, his eyes darted from side to side, looking for a possible place to hide. A rock, a ditch, a forest, a lake, anything. Dominic yowled a hunting yowl behind him. Abel pumped his legs faster, and fought to not look back.

All this time, Abel had believed that he still had a chance. He had believed that Dominic would still have a tingling sense of friendship directed toward him. He had been wrong. Everything was wrong. Only if the time was something that could be tempered with, able to be turned back…

There was a brown, hard, dry surface ahead. The ground was dropping down onto a river below, easily a fifty-feet drop. It was a small cliff. A pack of coyotes was beside the riverbed, preying on a huge bird of some sort. Another green and brown plain, with no trees but grass, started up ahead, the river serving as a borderline between trees and grass. Abel jumped.

The impact was not painful or jarring. He crouched like a feline when he hit the ground, lessening what tiny, numbed ring he could feel, then began to run again.

It was a while before Abel finally looked back. By the time, he had covered at least half the grassy plain, crossed another river and passed a flock of traveling birds. When he panted, placed his hands on his knees, and then slowly turned himself around hesitantly, there was the endless grass, the flock of birds, the two rivers -one of them distant on the horizon line- and the now-ant-sized cliff.

No Dominic. Abel had lost him. Just as he wanted.

All of a sudden, Abel felt empty. He felt lonely, alone, and crumbling apart, right in the middle of the plain, the nature, the animals and beneath the bright blue sky. He was on his own again.

He turned back around and started to walk slowly, not run; he didn’t find any need to waste his energy farther. Unconsciously, he sniffed. His eyes burned.

There was a small ditch in front of him, dotted with sharp rocks. Abel tripped in it, fell face-down onto the ground, and then numbly stood up as if he was programmed to do it and then walked. His shoulders were heavy. He walked.

A sharp call of his name, called with such a familiar voice, notified him of what was coming. Abel flinched, dropped onto the ground, and shielded his face with his arms.

Nothing came.

Shivering, he parted the limbs that limited his vision and took in a beautiful woman, his mother, staring at him with those silver eyes. They were a slightly darker version of his own eyes. She looked at him; he looked at her; then suddenly an arrow emerged through his mother’s forehead, then stayed stuck, quivering from the force. An iron blade fell from the sky, splitting the woman in half, from head to toe. Yet another also came from the side, and cut the already split head from her body cleanly.

Abel’s mother screamed with those cut lips. Abel screamed along with her, burrowing his head between his legs, pressing down on it with his arms, then screamed again; a scream that was full of tears, the kind that told of tearing throat and rising hysteria, the kind that indicated madness and death, the kind that reflected pain so well that it brought moisture to one’s eyes and made them scream as well.

Still screaming, half sobbing, Abel raised his head, forcing himself to be ready to face his nightmare. Nothing was in front of him. The next sob was stuck in his throat as he reached out with a shaking hand, then drew it back, breathing sharply. Staring at his empty hand, Abel clenched it. He started to scream again, blood rushing into his lungs from the tears in his throat. His hands tore at his hair, tore at his chest, at his clothes, at the ground, screaming, screaming.

He didn’t even know if it was blood or the tears suffocating him, but he knew that it was attacking him, trying to harm him, trying to cast him away. Two hands were shoved in-between his lips, all ten fingers his own, and they clawed at his throat and at the roof of his mouth. His teeth scraped his skin. Everything drew blood.

Abel gagged, but didn’t stop. He had to get the thing out. Dry heaves came forth, and saliva and acidic liquids dripped down onto the ground.

“Get it out,” he hiccuped, although a part of him knew that there was no one who would listen to the desperate plea. “Get it out, get it-out-,” Another heave arched his back and brought tears to his eyes. “No, no,” Abel whimpered, slowly dragging the fingers out of his mouth. A long trail of saliva and blood followed them.

“Help me,” he croaked, still sobbing. “Take her away, mother, take mother away, she can’t die, she died, she can’t… Take her away! Please! Take her away! She needs help, she… Needs help…” He didn’t even know who he was talking to, but it was not that he had known before.

Footfalls approached, soft on the moving grass. Abel buried his head into his arms more, until the point where he couldn’t see anything and every sound was muffled.

A hand gently tapped his shoulder, and Abel shook his head as he reluctantly looked up.

“Mother. You’re back.” He whispered in unsuppressed awe and gave the wide-eyed man in front of him the shakiest grin the world had ever seen.

☪

A gigantic fox moved into a former forest, now a black graveyard of green life. The fox’s fur shone under the sunlight, and its nine tails seemed brighter than the rest of its body. Each strands were reflective, clear and sparkling like a thousand diamonds - if diamonds were able to be woven onto an animal. Two eyes, swirling with the colors of the brightest night and the moon, glinted with age, deeply buried wisdom and emotionlessness.

Each step he took through the piles of blackened trees and burnt grass was cautious yet smooth and flawless. The fox lifted his head, sniffed deeply, and lowered it. After a moment, he turned and started to sprint. With no regrets, he left the burnt woods.

When he reached the grassy field that surrounded the forest, he stopped, sniffed again, and without hesitation, strode forward until he was standing on a certain spot that he had obviously intended to find. He took another deep breath. His blood… he’d been here.

It was only a little amount, just as the fox had expected to find. Another sniff was all he needed to find out more information about who had been around where he was standing. The halfbreed, that friend of his, the boy, and… He didn’t need anything except for a quick sweep of his eyes to figure out the last part. The Hunters.

Another presence approached from behind. The fox turned lazily, and examined the crimson, nine-tailed fox who studied him with guarded, wary eyes. I remember you. The pale-eyed fox told himself.

On the red fox, he could smell two more nine-tailed foxes, one of which was terribly familiar. Perchance you can lead me to him. He thought again. The red fox padded forward, but the other didn’t budge, only staring at him with the pale, moon eyes.

In front of him, the red fox stopped. The pale-eyed fox towered over him, bigger by at least a good dozen inches, much bigger than a normal fox, or a wolf; nearly the size of a full-grown horse.

Bao-Zhi Lee. The red fox spoke, warily, into the pale-eyed fox’s mind, I never thought that I’ll see you again, sire.

Bao-Zhi still didn’t move, but instead, replied; Where is my son?

The red fox sighed fearfully. I gave him chase, sire, but he soon escaped. I apologize deeply. If I knew that you were coming, I would have… He shook his head tiredly. Sire, do you have any other requests for me, if I may ask?

Bao-Zhi flicked an ear. The halfbreed and his half-brother.

Shifting uncomfortably, the red fox shrunk under Bao-Zhi’s unreadable gaze. Sire… The halfbreed joined the Hunters, and the half-brother has left with the others. Somehow, the red fox managed to lower himself onto the ground further. A soft whine escaped from between his clenched teeth.

And your brown friend? Bao-Zhi inquired, not leveling his gaze with the red fox’s, but seemingly staring out into the air, unmoving.

Li… he joined the Hunters, sire.

For a second, Bao-Zhi’s eyes flashed with white rage, and the red fox squeezed his eyes shut in utmost fear; a fear that didn’t have reason; one that was primordial; one that he just knew he had to have.

He shall die. The pale-eyed fox declared. Along with the halfbreed.

The red fox obviously wished to protest. His paws twitched in distress, and his ears went flat against his head.

They shall die. Bao-Zhi told him again, his eyes yet unmoving: he stood like a great statue.

Li, I’m sorry, the red fox thought, then said; Whatever you wish shall not be interfered upon, sire.

At last, Bao-Zhi lowered his gaze to match the red fox’s, and nodded in mild satisfaction.

☪

This time, Mason watched Dominic return.

The red fox looked rather haggard; he didn’t match eyes with anyone, not even Jia; didn’t say a word to anyone; he just stared straight ahead and padded into the small clearing, stiffly.

What was left of the foxes had made an agreement. They would split off into small groups, although not alone; Jia had insisted to stay with Mason, Lin had left with a seven-tailed fox, and the rest had went away in groups of two or three. Staying together would do no good, the foxes had decided; and if they needed to come together again, so be it, but they were not clumping again.

Mason agreed. If they hadn’t stayed all together in the forest, they might have had a chance. If they hadn’t been right there, all of them, for the Hunters to assault, maybe only a few might have been killed; maybe the ones assaulted might have been able to escape.

But now… Mason sighed deeply and raised a limp hand in greeting for Dominic. The other hand, messily bit off, was starting to heal. It wasn’t very big; the effect. When he disguised himself as another human, he wouldn’t have the handicap. But in his original form, he would always have the missing limb.

He had so much matters that he needed to solve within himself, but he didn’t want to even think about them. He didn’t want to entangle himself in anything, not anymore. So what? he had managed to finish off the train of thoughts with this; My home burned down, my brother betrayed me, and the Hunters are back, too. That’s all.

There was so much more to it than that, he knew. Denial, he thought numbly, admitting the fact; I’m in denial.

Jia jogged over to Dominic as a blue fox and calmly, gave him a nuzzle. Dominic didn’t return it, but instead, simply closed his eyes and let out a long breath. What happened? Jia asked, letting Mason into the conversation. Dominic gave her a pained look and sighed again. Jia, I… I can’t talk about it. Just know that Li is now with the Hunters.

To her credit, Jia didn’t react in any way except for closing her eyes, looking pained. Mason guessed that Li was another nine-tailed fox that he didn’t know about. What can’t you talk about? She finally asked. Dominic shook his head frantically, flattening his ears to his head. I can’t talk about it. I can’t tell anyone. It’s an order.

Jia left the subject at that, looking surprised, but Mason’s curiosity immediately bloomed; who could give a nine-tailed fox an order and walk away with it? Who could possibly do that? Who could make Dominic, out of all foxes, react in the way he was reacting?

Nevertheless, Mason kept silent.

Half brother. Half brother… He thought, tapping his hand against the ground in a steady rhythm. Half brother, Lewis had said. Half brother… I don’t get it. What half? Half… half. Mason let out a frustrated breath in a big whooshing breath. We look nearly the same, for gods’ sake, what is… ugh.

Dominic shifted into a red-haired man, the hair the exact same shade as his fur, and waved Mason over. Mason hesitated for a second, afraid of what he might hear, but then sighed and walked to Dominic. They both sent each other uncertain looks, Mason’s containing a little amount of distrust in it. Their last encounter hand’t exactly been pleasant, after all.

“Why?” Mason asked, shifting. Dominic exhaled with his nose.

“I have things to tell you.”

Surprise overcame Mason’s anger. Dominic had said that he would tell him when it was right to, but right now… I need the explanation, Mason steeled himself.

Dominic sighed again. Jia walked over to him, asking a silent question with her eyes. He shook his head lightly, and she walked away after nodding. “Let’s sit down.” Dominic told Mason. “This is going to take a long time.”

Mason sat.

The sun was getting in his eyes, and Dominic squinted, so it looked like he was distressed and was frowning; which Mason guessed was partially true. “A thousand years before, me, Abel and Alex…” Dominic’s head had been lowered, but he glanced up at Mason. “Do you know Alex?”

“Yeah, we know each other.” Mason replied.

Dominic nodded. “So, where do I start this… Me and Abel were…friends.” A disbelieving eyebrow was raised on Mason’s face, but he kept his mouth closed. “We were kind of close. Alex also knew us two, and we three became fast friends. We weren’t nine-tailed foxes at the time. Abel had four tails, I also had four tails, and Alex three. We also knew your mother, and father. To get to the point… After some years, the Last Bloodshed arrived.

“It was brutal. The Hunters were stronger in the past. They could use some sort of magic, not magic but… you get what I mean.” Mason didn’t, but he kept listening. “Your mother was pregnant. Not with you, but with Lewis. She was weak. She couldn’t fight off the Hunters.”

Dominic shrugged to himself. “So, me, Abel and Alex decided to protect her. Her husband agreed. Two four-tailed foxes and a three-tailed fox were sufficient. We could keep the little amount of Hunters away. And then… Abel’s mother died. His father left. Abel was distraught. He was not himself… Well, not his old self. Then some news floated around… The news that Lewis was a halfbreed.”

Mason shot out a hand to keep himself from swaying on the spot. Dominic looked straight into his eyes determinedly. “Yes, Mason. He is a halfbreed. He was born between a human and your mother. Abel was furious. Because his mother had died because of a Hunter, a human, he wanted to tear the baby apart. He wanted to get rid of something that contained a human and a fox’s blood at the same time.

“He went after Lewis, and nobody stopped him. They shared the same thoughts, but they didn’t want to move into action so immediately. Abel did. I went with him, well, not exactly went with him but… I followed him. I had a bad feeling. When I arrived at where your mother and Lewis were, Abel was there. Your mother was giving birth to another child -you- and she was weak again. But she wasn’t so weak. She was fighting with Abel, and Abel… Abel gave her a fatal injury. She fell, and Abel left in hurry.” Mason was now petrified of the history that he hadn’t been aware of, a history that had involved him very, very directly.

During all that time he had spent with Lewis, he hadn’t had the slightest clue about him being a halfbreed. Lewis seemed so much like a full-blooded fox, that Mason, just for a second, managed to believe that Dominic was not telling him the truth.

Yet, the story didn’t add up then.

He had a terrible feeling about what he was going to hear next. No — He knew what he would hear next. He just wanted to deny it. To reject it. His heart started to beat wildly in his chest, and his palms got clammy with cold sweat. To his shock, his left arm began to shake so slightly, that nothing other than a many-tailed fox would notice.

Dominic went on. “The many-tailed foxes are strong, and your mother had enough energy to give birth to you. It was a miracle, Mason. You weren’t even supposed to be born. She was dying. After your mother died, I gave you and Lewis to your father. He saw your mother in your half-brother, so he took you both in and went to the forest. The forest that burnt down.”

There was a sharp pang in Mason’s chest. Now that he had actually heard it, coming from Dominic’s mouth, something seemed to have been ripped right out of his chest. Something important. Then he began to wonder: Why hadn’t anybody told him the truth? Why had Dominic let him know the false fact about his own mother’s death? There had to be an important reason.

Had Dominic not trusted him with Lewis? Him being a halfbreed and all? Perhaps, had Dominic suspected that he would go wild and -just maybe- kill his own brother?

Mason’s arm began to shake harder.

Dominic continued, his voice getting more agitated. “I went to Abel. I confronted him. It was forbidden to kill another fox, and he had done it. He said that it was an accident… But I know that it wasn’t. I told him that we weren’t friends anymore and to never see me again. And he left. The Last Bloodshed soon ended, with so many foxes and Hunters dead. Alex stayed with me a little more before she left, too. She was shaken up and wanted to be alone. About nine years later, I got the news that your father was dead. That a gold fox had killed him. It was Abel. Abel killed your father, and would have killed Lewis, too… If he had been there. By the time, you would have found your brother’s… Remains. He wasn’t dead. He had cut off all his tails but one to fake his death.

“And now, here we are.” Mason let out a shaky breath, feeling his heart pumping madly in his chest. What did I just hear? He asked himself, and a tiny voice replied, You know what. “That is how Abel is associated with your parents, Mason. That is how Lewis is your half-brother. Abel murdered your parents because Lewis is a halfbreed. But you…” Dominic lay a hand on Mason’s shoulder, obviously to comfort him, but it didn’t do anything. “You were just caught in the middle of it, Mason. You didn’t know. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Mason pinched the bridge of his nose. He wished that his arm would stop shaking. He also wished that his stomach wouldn’t start twisting and wrenching more than it was doing now. Vomiting his guts out wasn’t on his Buket List. “Let me get something straight. The fact that both you and Abel seem to… Protect me… That’s because of my parents’ death? Abel’s doing it because, I don’t know, he feels guilty about it, and you’re because… It’s responsibility?”

Dominic’s hand tightened. “I don’t want to lie to you again, so I would have to say yes.”

The shaky laugh Mason gave him felt terrible. Mason grinned under his hand, shivering, curling into himself without realizing it. “Then lie to me.” He whispered, and abruptly stood up, brushing off Dominic’s hand in the process. “And… Just leave me alone for a while. I need time… Space.”

He turned around and walked off shakily, not daring to test out how well his legs would support his weight, until he had a dozen meters between himself and Dominic. When he couldn’t hear anything but himself, his legs gave out from under him and he slumped down onto the ground. That’s why Lewis didn’t tell me where he had been. He didn’t want to tell me that he was a halfbreed… He thought that I wouldn’t want him as my brother if I knew. Another thought wriggled into his mind; Do I?

Now that all truths were out, Mason expected something to clear up in his mind. Something to unravel, something to be understood. Nothing did; they just tangled up more. It felt like the thoughts were screaming inside his head. Maybe I shouldn’t have known…

Abruptly, he had a question. “Where’s Abel, then? Why is he not here?” Mason called, his back turned to Dominic, his voice drawn tight like a bowstring. He heard Dominic wince.

“We had some complications. He’s not near.” Mason dropped his head onto his knees.

“Can you tell me, like, if he comes… I need to talk to him.”

“Sure. Just don’t punch him or anything.”

“Wasn’t planning to.” Mason muttered back. I was. But I won’t. And… Scratch leaving me alone. “How many people know this?” Dominic left a long gap before answering.

“Well… Abel, obviously. Me, Alex, Lewis, Li, Jia, and the Hayaku Kitsune. Might have left someone out, but if I did, they’re not here.”

Mason turned his head to face Dominic, clearly intrigued. “ ‘the Hayaku Kitsune’? The Early Fox, right? What is that?”

Dominic froze. “Um, they are mostly dead.”

“So, what are they?” Mason asked. The reluctance Dominic was showing seemed to only fuel his temptation to grasp the knowledge about the subject. Dominic blanched.

“They’re foxes that are very, very old… Even older than me, Abel, and all the nine-tailed foxes. The rumor is that some of them even existed before time.”

“How do they look like?”

“They’re just like us. But more… Beautiful. Mesmerizing. More powerful than you can ever imagine.”

Mason blinked. “Okay. That’s…”

For a while, he struggled to come up with the right word. “Intriguing.” He finally said. Dominic looked at him, his gaze strong, swirling with depth and age.

“Mason. They’re not stories. They’re real. They were killed in the Last Bloodshed, that’s why you probably never met one. When I was young, they were all around.”

Mason pondered over it for a long time before answering, “I’d love to meet one.” Dominic grinned to himself emotionlessly. “Believe me, you don’t. They don’t really mingle with people. Or foxes. And when they do, they’re automatically the superior, the top of the food chain.”

Something flashed in Mason’s mind. “Was it a Hayaku Kitsune that you met before you came here?”

“I can’t tell you.” Dominic automatically replied. Mason frowned.

“Then, were Abel’s parents Hayaku Kitsune?”

“His parents, my parents, Jia’s parents, Alex’s parents, Li’s parents, your grandparents, the list’s long.” Mason’s frown deepened.

“So, are they…?”

“Mostly dead. Yes.” Dominic told him, his tone signaling the end of the conversation.

Mason stayed where he was, a good distance away from the other, but he didn’t turn away. Dominic was now staring into space himself, obviously deep in thought. Not wanting to disturb him, Mason started to think about the recent events, and what he had just learned.

No, he tried his best to not think about what he had just learned.

Why wouldn’t his arm stop in its little seizure?

The Hayaku Kitsune. I think I heard about that… And also the… What was it? Mason frowned again, trying to remember. A… ball… no, more like a bead… Not a bead but…

An overwhelming headache struck him, and he sighed through his nose, collapsing onto the ground in a messy heap of limbs. He stared up into the sky. The sun was setting. Damn it. That was important. It had been a folk tale of some sort; a story that his deceased father used to tell him and Lewis, sitting around a fire. He had been fascinated by it, Mason could remember. But only the fact that he had reacted to the story in a way. Not the actual story.

Lewis. He had heard the story with Lewis.

It made him feel hollow. He knew that he probably shouldn’t feeling the way he was over a story, a tale, something that many people would easily forget, but now, everything was falling apart. Abel had killed his father and mother. Lewis was a halfbreed. Lewis had a reason for betraying him.

No, Mason felt like he was letting go of his memories, his family, Lewis… Everything a big, fat lie. Am I forgetting?

Mason reached down and pulled up the necklace he always wore. It had a strand of Lewis’s fur in it -the small bottle that served as a pendant-; only one strand. It was all Mason had managed to get before the tails were burnt by his own stony-faced father.

He let it drop down onto the ground, sighing heavily. What’s the truth, and what’s the lie? Maybe the lie is better. The truth hurts. It always hurts. It hurts even now.