8 Chapter 8

Casma POV:

Groggily I tried to open my eyes and looked around but everything came in blurry and shaky. After opening and closing them a few times everything started to come into focus. I was now lying in a bedroll. I was set a little ways off from the fire where Alice and Ellie had been making supper. They had moved off to the side where a table made out of earth was. I suspect Art made that when he got back. I tried sitting up when my head began pounding.

"Ugh, my head." I held my head in my hands. I felt movement coming from within my bedroll. Trying to ignore the pain I moved my hands to open the bedroll. Once open a streak of pure white shot out and hit my chest.

"Awo!"  I looked down at what had hit my chest and was somewhat surprised to see the white fox in my lap. It sits with its front legs up on me and looks up at me. Its head cocked to the side as if wondering why I haven't responded.

"Was that you little fella?" I said as I now felt a hand on my shoulder.

"It hasn't left your side since we found you passed out in the field," Alice said kneeling down beside me, "How do you feel, nothing hurts right?"

"Uh, no I have a slight headache but besides that, I feel fine," I said gazing into the white fox's eyes. For the first time, I noticed its eye color was brown; almost the same as Ellie's. I patted the head of the fox causing it to sit back and nuzzle its small head into my hand.

"Okay, that's good. Now care to explain why you were off in the woods by yourself, young man." I shrunk at this and it seemed the fox did the same.

"Oh no, Grandma is mad." Once again another voice came out but since Alice didn't react I knew it came from inside my head which meant only one thing... wait did it just call her Grandma?

A/N: Not only is he running on 2 brain cells, but he's also a little slow.

"Did you just speak in my head, and fluently at that?" I asked seeing if I could get this mental communication thing to work.

"Yes, Mother sped up my mentality, so I can speak and act better than most newborns. Especially the lizard over there. She seems a bit slow right now." It said. I was taken aback by its attitude, but remembering its mom I realized I probably should've expected this.

Alice coughing as she waited for a response snapped me back to the present, "Um, I'm used to the woods so I was thinking I could somehow improve if I found a place that was more comfortable than the carriage or around the camp." I told her as I scratched at an imaginary itch on my neck.

"Please, don't wander off from us again," She sighed, "If we lost you or you got hurt," Her face paled at the thought. "I honestly don't even want to think about it. On to my next question, Where did you find this cute little fox."

I looked back at it, "Hey, I know this is kind of rude to ask but did your mom give you a name and also are you a boy or girl?" I asked hoping not to get an irritated attitude.

  "First off, I'm a girl. Can you not tell?" Yup, she's irritated, "And no... She wasn't able to give me a name." I could feel the sadness radiating off of her small body, as her head drooped toward the ground. I didn't need the emotional connection to tell that. I put my hands under her front legs and picking her up, I gave her a gentle hug.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up. I'll give you a worthy name that would make your mother proud." At that, I could feel a tinge of happiness coming from her. I laughed mentally as I started thinking of a good name for her. I was never good at naming things but I thought I might be able to pick one that she would be happy to have. "Yukina." She didn't say another word but licked the side of my face, I guess she likes the name.

"I found her after I heard growling coming from the trees that surrounded the field I was in. When I went over to see what was over there I found a larger fox protecting this one. She was injured and by the time she nudged her out to me then she was gone. Next thing I knew I felt a prick on my arm and had passed out." I looked down at my forearm and found a small tattoo of a crescent moon with a fox sleeping under it. Well, now there's no doubt she's bonded to me.

"Does she have a name yet?" Alice was petting her head. Instead of nuzzling into her hand though, Yukina buried her head farther into the crook of my shoulder. Seems she's not too much of a people person.

"Yes, her name's Yukina. I thought she looked like snow and it felt like a dream when I found them." I stood up cradling her in my arms, "Is the food done? I think we both are starving." As she heard food, Yukina's head snapped up into the air sniffing around, until her eyes landed on the table.

"Papa, I can smell some really good meat coming from the table over there." I laughed as I remembered the way that Sylv would act around meat. At times Art wouldn't get any meat because Sylv would take all of it out from under his nose. I froze mid-laugh, once again what she was saying slowly caught up to me.

"D-Did you just call me, Papa?"

"Well I'm still a child and... Mom is... gone. That only leaves you as a parent," She glanced at me and then quickly returned to looking at the table, "And I would like to think of you as my Papa."

No words came out or even through my head. I didn't quite know how to feel about this. On one hand, this touched me on the level that I had always wanted to be a father and now I had a chance to do that and on the other hand, it hurt to know that the only reason she would honestly call me, Papa, was simply because I ended up being the one that Yuki had ran into in her last moments.

"Even if you try and hide your thoughts, I can still receive them. If you keep thinking like that and don't take into account my own feelings," She turned her head and gave me a stern look, "Then I will hate you, Papa." I was taken aback and felt a little hurt knowing that she had heard my thoughts, "If you truly feel hurt then good," She nuzzled her soft furry head into my cheek, "It means you will really care about me like I knew Papa would."

I smiled and scratched her head, "Yes, there's food at the table. I'll get you a bowl and a bowl of meat for her. She's giving the same look Sylvie had when she heard the word meat." She giggled as she walked over to the fire to get two bowls of food. I walked over to the table still hugging Yukina.

When I got to the table I took one of the two open spots next to Ellie. Once I sat down Yukina hopped away from me and was sitting patiently waiting for the food to come.

"I see you've come across your own bond." Art said eyeing her. Reynolds just looked like he was wondering why we kids keep finding bonds, but nobody else seems able to find one. I swear I could see hearts in Ellie's eyes as she stared at Yukina.

"It would seem so. I was nervous when I found her since her Mom had been growling before I found them. When I showed up though she seemed to stop and nudged her toward me. As I picked her up her mother seemed to have already passed from her severe wounds." I was hoping he would pick up on how our stories were almost the same so that he would understand she's not a normal bond. When he nodded I was relieved to know that it seemed like he had.

"C-Can I pet her?" Ellie asked not taking her eyes off of her.

"What do you think, are you willing to let her pet you?" I asked her through our connection.

"I'd rather not," She got up and sat down closer to me basically on the corner of the table, "I'm not that big on people touching me, only certain people I am okay with can. Right now, that is only you," I felt a squeeze in my heart at how adorable that was, "Don't push it, Papa."

I sighed but scratched under her head, "Not right now, she seems to not like people touching her other than me for now."

"Wait, can you talk to her mentally?" Reynolds asked as Alice got to the table with the two bowls. Putting one in front of me and one with only meat in front of Yukina.

"Uh, not really it's more of like a feeling," I said scratching my cheek.

"Okay, Okay, enough questions let the boy eat," Alice said taking her seat next to Ellie.

"I was really hoping to pet her," Ellie looked sad, "Even Sylvie runs away from me."

"Where is she by the way? I haven't seen her much since we started the journey." I asked Arthur, he looked around and his eyes landed below the pot that held the food. There sat a black lizard that was shaking its tail about to hop up to the pot.

"Sylvie, don't you even think about it!" Arthur jumped up and ran over to grab her. He caught her mid-air right before she could land inside the pot, everyone was laughing at their antics. Art walked back to the table clutching Sylv in his arms, all the while she was wriggling trying to get free.

Once they got back we all ate in silence. Only the crackling of the fire and the sounds of various insects could be heard. Once everyone was done we went to bed in our separate tents. Alice, Reynolds, and Ellie had one for the three of them. Art and I both had a tent to ourselves. Everyone crawled into their tents ready to sleep and be prepared for the final day of travel. I laid down in my bedroll and Yukina crawled inside of it, lying on my chest, with her head sticking out.

"Do you know what exactly you are?" I asked. If she's able to talk then that means she had to be around the same level as the asuras or close to it.

"I believe I heard her say something about a Spirit Fox, but I can't be entirely sure. As far as I know, there was only my mom and I." She said not moving at all.

"Well that's fine for now," I stroked her head gently, hearing her happily hum in my head, "I'll make sure you live a life that would make your mother proud."

"I'd rather live a life happily than make someone proud."

"In a way that would probably make her proud."

"I know but the thing that I really want is to be with you, so please don't leave me, and make sure to make me happy." She said. I already planned on making her happy, so that wasn't a problem. Though I know even as an Elf I'll live longer than most, but I don't know for sure how long she will live. I can't with a good consciousness promise something I don't know if I can keep. So, I stayed silent not saying anything, and just let sleep overtake me.

I dreamed of the snow falling and a fox running and frolicking through it. In the background, Art leaned slightly against a table and my sister was leaning on him, Sylv was in her human form standing not too far away from them. Alice and Reynolds sat at a table with Mom, Father, and Grampa inside a house. I was smiling at the scene as this was something that I had imagined life would be like when the war ended, but with me in it and now Yukina as well. I was surprised that I didn't see Ellie, but that surprise only lasted till I realized she was leaning her head on my shoulder.

I had no words for what was going on but I just let it be. This is only a dream and not real life. After all, I'm not a deviant like Aunt Rinia, right?

A/N: Sorry for the really late post, my dog was hit so writing this chapter was somewhat hard. Moving on from that though, we have reached 20,000 reads, or views which everyone works for this.

Once again thank you for reading, comment, and have a wonderful day