4 Her New Home

Avril walked into the Kitsune settlement, taking in everything as she went. The perimeter of the clan was set up like a spiral. The further you walked into the spiral the nicer the houses (if you could call them that) were. The houses were built like domes, they were made of some sort of adobe material. The yards were filled with livestock, both stolen and owned. In the middle spiral Avril saw a huge market sprawling out. Vendors hawking their wares on every corner, and sly fox children sneaking to and fro. What surprised Avril even more were the variety of creatures mixing with one and other on the streets. There Were Elves, tall and graceful stalking to and fro. Fairies and pixies fluttering in the wind, looking at what the market had to offer. Centaurs were looking at horse shoes for themselves, and Satyrs bounced back and forth from stall to stall. Griffins could be seen by the stall that looked to be selling flight enhancers, and dragons in their human form were looking at the arsenal of fire weapons on display. As Avril walked through the market she also noticed that although each and every creature was tolerating one and other, they did not talk to one and other. The most communication Avril saw was hateful glances being thrown from one group to another. She also noticed that every 20 minutes or so, a Kitsune patrol would pass by. They looked fierce in their armor made of some sort of black and silver chain mail. Their shoulders were protected by black armor plates that conformed to each muscle. Their legs were wrapped in black and silver plates that looked to be skin tight. The material Avril noticed was odd, It looked hard like metal but was pliable enough to bend and ripple with the muscles flexing beneath it. Beltanes memory rushed in to fill the gaps in Avrils knowledge. It was metal, mined from the black mountain range that was home to the foulest creatures on earth. Ghouls prowled those woods, Basilisks slunk in the shadows. Giant Black Widow Spiders with the heads and bodies of women created webs that spanned miles and miles. Only the creatures of nightmares dared to live on those mountains. But goblins greedy for gold, mined the heart from their mountains. They were willing to sell to the highest bidder. However, due to the materials indestructibility and flexibility it was not cheap. One armor set was usually sold at around 12,000,000. It just attested to the wealth of the kitsune that every soldier had a set of Black Mountain Armor. Avril mulled over this as she walked towards the center of the great spiral shaped city. It was unknown how to mine this armor from the black mountains, much less how to forge it into armor. Avril thought to herself well if I could possibly learn these forging techniques I may be seen as a more worthy heir to the Kitsune Clans throne. Not to mention I would be a more powerful force to be reckoned with. From what Avril had gathered Beltane, while loved by the Kitsune, was a waste when it came to talent. Both in cultivation of her Qi and in Qi Metal forging she refused to try. She would waste hours of the most highly sought after Qi tutors time, and laugh when they stormed off. Beltane had a good reason for refusing, as her meridians had been clogged by black dust. Avril wondered why the black dust plagued Beltanes meridians. The entire Kitsune clan had spent piles of gold trying to fix this problem for Beltane, but to no avail. Every time they became unclogged, the black dust would appear again days later. This led Beltane to give up trying to become talented in Qi and Qi metal forging. However a redeeming quality was Beltanes foxfire. Or so Beltane thought Avril mused to herself. She had great control and stamina when burning her foxfire, the only problem was that foxfire had its limited uses. Foxfire could be used for illusions and to play harmless pranks, such as burning someones hair off their head. But in order to create anything bigger than a dog sized illusion you had to practice for years and years. Avril stored this knowledge away as she reached the front doors to Beltanes home. The front doors were massive, they had huge white jade Horns curving outward for handles. Fox eyes were carved into the mahogany of the double doors. The wood itself was painted black and white, the colors of the royal Kitsune lineage. Avril tried not to gape at the sheer elegance of the doors themselves, let alone the entire dome house. The Adobe brick used was black, with white streaks marbling through it. The dome was almost as tall as a three story building, which was massive compared to most of the other plain brown domes she had seen walking in. Not only was the main dome massive, it connected to three or four more domes from what Avril could see. Each dome was circling the center dome in a spiral shape. Beltanes memory popped up again, informing Avril that the Spiral held significant importance to the Kitsune clan due to its ability to confuse and trick. Specifically the royal line of Kitsune used the spiral as their clan seal. That makes sense why the city is built like a huge spiral then Avril mentally chuckled at herself for not thinking about it before. Avril walked up to the door, grasping a huge white jade horn she tugged sharply throwing the door open to reveal her Father, The Grand Master Kitsune pouring salt into the tea jar. Looking up guiltily, Siobhan (shiv-on) Beltanes father had the look of being caught red handed. When he saw his daughter, he giggled,

"oh Beltane, Its just you." he then went back to pouring salt into the teapot, laughing manically as he did so.

"Father, what are you doing?" Avril asked.

"What does it look like my dear? I'm pulling a prank on that nasty little booger of a brother you have. If his face stays stoic like that for much longer, it'll be stuck like that forever!" Avril grinned recollecting how Beltane and her father had pulled pranks on her elder brother like this before.

"Ah well, if your quite finished would you mind helping this injured fox get a doctor?" Avril asked in a miserable tone, sounding beaten up and forlorn. Siobhan looked over at his daughter, finally taking note of her ripped clothing and scratched up skin.

"Beltane, what happened to you???!!!" Avril limped over to the soft couch, grimacing as she sat down.

"Father, I was set up."