Maya Argenda

The door opened loudly and within the frame, a young fox girl could be seen. She had beautiful shiny red eyes and cute pink rosy lips. Her face was pale and her hair was tied into a ponytail.

Behind her right ear rested a pink and white flower very similar in appearance to her hair. She was wearing a cute pink and white dress with some floral patterns on it.

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself before fixing her slightly messy hair and smiling brightly.

"Hello, I apologize for rushing into here like that. I was just told that you had woken up and I wanted to be here when you woke up in order to properly thank you." She said as she bowed her head slightly.

"Thank me? Thank me for what?" The man replied, slightly confused. All he did was block the feathers from cutting her up. She most likely would have been fine regardless. He understood being thanked however to sprint to him the moment he woke up just to thank him for that seemed a bit too much.

"I wanted to thank you for saving my life from the frost owlbear. Had you not shown up I would have most likely died…" She said grasping at her chest as her smile vanished.

The man wanted to get a word in but before he could she continued. "I don't think I'll ever be able to forget the way you heroically appeared flying from the sky and knocking the owlbear down as it was about to kill me"

"I was so shocked that I couldn't move causing you to have to injure yourself to protect me once again. So once again, thank you for saving me," she said with a slightly bitter smile appearing on her face.

This didn't escape the man's gaze however he decided to gloss over it for now as he had more pressing matters.

"I'm sorry but who are you and where are we?" He asked wearily.

"Oh, sorry for forgetting myself. It's nice to meet you young master Kaylus, my name is Maya Argenda[2], and I'm the princess of the Argenda clan, we are currently in one of the guest rooms within our palace."

"It's nice to meet you, however, I don't recall saying my name…" Kaylus looked at Maya with a cautious gaze.

Maya's face briefly went expressionless before she realized what had happened. "AH! I apologize but I've already managed to learn your name from your clothes. I saw it earlier when you collapsed and I caught you in my arms"

With a raised eyebrow Kaylus couldn't help but ask "You were looking through my clothes while I was unconscious?"

"W-what? No! I saw it when your clothes were removed" She said as she hid her face behind her hands.

"So you removed my clothes then?" Kaylus smirked as he decided to continue to tease Maya.

Maya's head seemingly had exploded as her white as-snow face and neck turned red from embarrassment.

"NO!" She yelled out causing the maids hiding behind her to slightly jump up out of fright.

Her entire face was now crimson as she continued to hide behind her hands. "M-my maids changed you. I only saw your clothes…" she said meekly

Kaylus chuckled slightly behind his hand but decided to stop teasing the girl.

"I understand, it's a pleasure to meet you Maya, and thank you for your hospitality while I'm at it" Kaylus replied with a bright smile on his face.

"It's my pleasure. It's the least I could do after you have saved my life."

'It's not like I had much of a choice' Kaylus scoffed in his mind.

'It looks like she has some misunderstanding about the entire situation, but it won't hurt anyone if I let her believe I wanted to save her from the start…' He continued to think before being interrupted.

"I will have someone posted outside your room, so if you feel like you need anything just ask them and they will help you right away. I will go out and let you rest for now." She smiled and started to turn but Kaylus stopped her.

"Actually, I'm curious about a few things, would you mind talking with me for a few minutes and answering a few questions?" He asked as the light shining into the room caused his hair to glisten in the light.

"Of course" She replied shortly and quickly told her attendant to make and bring over some tea and snacks.

"Let's sit down and drink some tea while we chat" She smiled and gestured towards the small table and chairs by the window.

Kaylus nodded and accepted before getting out of the bed and making his way towards the table.

Maya followed promptly behind and the pair sat there for a moment, gazing outside and taking in the beauty of the view.

For a moment all their thoughts and worries had disappeared as they watched petals gently falling off the tree and gently landing atop the water without the slightest disturbance.

Kaylus glanced at Maya. She was completely enthralled by the view so she failed to notice his gaze. As she brushed some stray hair back Kaylus couldn't help but think she looked beautiful.

Which got his mind thinking, she had mentioned that she was "the princess" of some clan. Given how she is dressed and how the room they were in was a mere guest room while so extravagant it made sense for it to be true.

But that brought up the question, what was she doing in the middle of that forest? For a beautiful young woman to be in the middle of a forest at night all alone like that…

"There must have been some kind of reason…" Kaylus unconsciously mumbled out loud causing Maya who didn't hear a word of what he said to look over at him and smile gracefully.

Not long later an attendant brought a fresh set of tea cups and poured some freshly made tea into them. Various pastries, cookies and cakes were also placed on the table by the attendant before they took a slight bow and left the room closing the door behind them.

"I hope the tea is to your liking," she smiled before taking a sip of the steaming cup of tea and then gently placing it down on its saucer.

Kaylus proceeded to take a sip too before smiling contently. "I can say without a doubt that it's the best tea I've had in this life"

'Hehe, technically it's the truth seeing how I only recently started this life' Kaylus chucked to himself.

He took another sip and lowered his cup, as he did that he noticed Mayas fingers fidgeting as if she wanted to ask something but wasn't sure how to bring it up.

Kaylus rightfully believed that she wanted to know what he was curious about so he decided not to waste any more time.

He cleared his throat and proceeded to speak. "I guess first of all I should ask you where we are. I don't remember ever hearing anything about the Argenda clan so I have no clue as to where we are"

"Y-you haven't heard of our clan?" She asked slightly shocked.

"I'm not from the area. Something happened and I ended up in that forest because of it…" Kaylus replied to ease her shock while attempting to be as vague as he can.

"Ah, in that case, I understand. I apologize for being shocked but it is rare to see someone not know of our clan in this area."

"I understand, is there anything you can tell me about your clan?"

"As you could probably guess, we are a fox clan. In fact, we can be considered one of the top clans out there within the lower heaven" Maya said proudly.

"The current clan leader is my mother, in fact, she would like to meet you later herself in order to thank you for saving me."

"I appreciate the thought but she doesn't need to do that. I'm sure she is extremely busy given her position" Kaylus replied as he took a bite of a cookie that was in front of him.

"Oh no, it's fine. She isn't that busy at the moment due to the ongoing tournament" Maya replied but her expression seemed distant as if she had a lot on her mind.

"Tournament? What kind of tournament"

"It's a last-man-standing tournament. Anyone who wants to participate can as long as they fit certain criteria. At the start, there were many fights going on but now the competition is thinning. It should be over in a couple of days and we should have a winner."

"Ah, that's a shame. I would have liked to join it for the fun of it."

"Well, its not too late to join…" Maya trailed off which didn't escape Kaylus.

'Clearly, there is something she wants, should I play along?'

"It sounded like you wanted to say something else at the end of that" Kaylus decided to give her a push forward.

Maya took a deep breath and said "To be honest, the tournament is part of the reason why I was in that forest last night."

"Oh? And what is that reason?"

"I went out in order to meet my friend, I was going to ask them to join the tournament as its important that someone related to me wins. Or rather is important that the current favourite to win the tournament won't."

Nodding his head along Kaylus asked "Hmm, and I take it winning it is somehow important to you and or your clan?"

"You could say that. Although I believe that everyone in my clan other than my mother might be happier if the current favourite to win, wins."

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A/N: Thanks for reading Chapter 2. Make sure to add this novel to your collection if you've enjoyed it! Maya's personality will become more clear as I post more chapters. For now, her appearance is supposed to seem cute and innocent however this may not always be the case, wink wink.

In the upcoming chapters, we will get to meet Mayas mum, join a tournament, and maybe see some face-slapping situations occur all while our foxy little Maya puts her plot into motion. (I have left some tiny hints as to what she may be planning, but all will be clear in the upcoming chapters)

If enough people add this novel to their collection I will be sure to have some art of Maya and her mum posted somewhere for you all to enjoy while the discord is under construction.

[1] Argen from Argentea meaning Silver and da from cauda meaning tail. The name is basically Silver Tail but altered slightly. Meanwhile Maya.