Chapter 5

The sound of the wind whistling by was all that she could hear, as she ran full out. Her four legs moved in rhythm as her, full sized, fox form flexed its mighty leg muscles. Trace weaved in and out of the many trees of the thick forest, never slowing – if anything, she was still picking up speed. Like a shining white bullet, her fluffy fur reflected the rays of the moonlight that were able to make it through the thick canopy.

Foxes were naturally nocturnal animals, which was an aspect that she shared, but often fought against. The other night hunters of the forest could feel her presence, and like their prey, they stayed out of sight. Wary of getting caught in her gaze and being hunted themselves.

Trace was going to need to find something to eat at some point. Not sure if it was because of her true form, or if it was something that all demons put up with, but she burned through stored up energy quickly, and needed to eat often to replenish that energy. As Trace rather enjoyed the act of eating anyway, it did not really bother her.

Spotting a small herd of spooked deer in the distance, she slightly adjusted her path, intending to intercept one. Like a lightning bolt, she bit into the deer's back, mid stride, causing it to fall limp as its spine shattered from the sudden perpendicular impact. The sharp teeth on her lower jaw ripped its abdomen open causing blood to gush out as she slowed down.

What she was unaware of, however, was that she was being watched. It was not that they were hiding from her, but that she simply overlooked them. With one large paw pushing down on it, as she tore away chunks of meat with her powerful jaws, she aimed to leave only its bones behind. However, as she took in her first mouthful, her ears perked up as they picked up the sound of movement nearby. With a gory mouthful, she turned her head to spot two people huddled up inside of a hollow spot in a particularly large tree.

It was a woman and a child. The boy could not have been more than two or three years old. He was small, unhealthily skinny, and the poor terrified woman holding him was doing everything that she could to shield him from the monster that stared them down.

With a slurp, she sucked up the strand of stringy deer muscle that was still hanging out from her blood-stained muzzle. Not really sure what to do, she just resumed eating. The two humans could either stay where they were or leave. As long as they did not bother her, it did not really matter. The boy, however, must have been asleep before, as he woke up, and screamed at the sight of a fox the size of a large dire bear.

Stopping again, still in the midst of pulling meat from fresh carcass, she turned to look at them again. The boy was absolutely terrified, as Trace could smell his leaking urine all the way where she was. The woman, however, calmed down once she realized the massive fox did not seem to be interested in them. The woman still held the boy tightly against her bosom, to try and comfort him however.

They were both malnourished, and the woman's bare arms and legs were covered in scars of varying sizes and states of healing. She was a runaway slave from the looks of the iron bands around her ankles. The fox's eyes already had an eerie flow to them, from absorbing the pale moonlight, but they started to actually glow as she focused on the cuffs.

With a clink, they both fell free from her ankles. Looking down, then up, then back down again, the woman was dumbstruck. Tears welled in her eyes, but she wiped them away, smearing them across her filthy dirt-stained face.

Now appeased, the fox-demon resumed eating. Food was still on the top of her current to do list, as usual for the gluttonous fox. The whole process took her no more than a quarter of an hour. The deer, now nothing but scraps of tendon and bone.

Trace shifted back to her humanoid form, to try and stop the boy from crying. If he did not stop, they were likely to be eaten after she left. Nature was a cold hard bitch, that treated all with indifference. Licking the blood off, that stayed stuck to her left hand, she then turned to look at the two again. When she smiled at them though, to try and ease their worries, it only seemed to do the opposite. After tilting her head to the side in confusion, it dawned on her. She was a moron.

Turning around, she retrieved a cloth from nowhere and wiped her face off. After taking out a mirror to double check, she turned back around to face them again. Smiling again, she tried not to show her teeth, as there were still bits of blood and gore stuck to her teeth that she had not dealt with yet. Silent steps carried her over to the two, where she squatted down to be eye level with them, as they were both sitting on the ground.

The boy was shaking uncontrollably, his eyes wide open and locked on the demon before them. The woman, who could not have been much more than sixteen, or seventeen at the most, was only a little better off. Trace was not able to store away food, in the way that she did with everything else, so she could not help them there. Unfortunately for them.

They must have been starving, by the looks of the two. Trace, the nine-tailed fox, was amazed that they had made it so far into the forest. It was not a particularly dangerous woods, but for regular humans like the two of them, just about anything in this world was considered dangerous. The fox had not realized that she was just staring at them, silently, until she had already sat there, squatting, for a few minutes.

"Now how did you two end up so far out here?" She used the local human language, but as they were slaves, they could have been from anywhere. It seemed that she had lucked out, as a flash of recognition appeared on the girl's dirty face. The fox counted her lucky stars, as the only other languages that she had learned were the common demon tongue, used primarily by darkling's, and sylvan, the elven tongue, which was the same everywhere apparently.

The girl opened her mouth to reply, but she was so dehydrated that she could hardly speak, only managing a bare whisper. "I… run… keep… safe…" She hugged the boy tighter as she spoke, or at least she tried to. She was weak. Too weak. Trace was sympathetic, but she could not bring herself to pity them.

With her elbow rested on her knees, she propped her head up on her open palm as she looked at them, eyes aglow. "You won't survive out here long enough to keep him safe. You know that don't you?"

Apparently, she in fact, did not. As her eyes opened wide at Trace's remark, too dehydrated to even cry anymore.

'Gods damn it all…'

With a sigh, she stood up and turned around, to walk away. However, she felt a hand wrap around her bare ankle as she did. Looking down, the girl held a shaky grip. Trace would not even need to bother with it, just taking a step would be enough to break her grip. It was the look in the girl's eyes that held her there.

Cold golden eyes looked down at the girl, directly into her eyes. She was terrified by Trace in truth, but she was more scared of her child dying. That gave her all the courage that she needed to look the demon before her in the eyes.

However, "I'm not actually leaving, so you can let go." The look in her eyes softened, and her voice was kind. After the human vice was released, she immediately disappeared with a whoosh. She was going to come back. But staying there was not going to feed the two.

Using her experience from having survived off of wild growing fruits and vegetables, she rounded up a bundle of asparagus as well as a bunch of red and black berries. It was not much, but it would do. Eating too much too quickly when you were starving was generally a bad idea anyway. More likely to vomit it all back up than keep it down.

When Trace returned, she found the two huddled up, inside the tree again. The look in the girl's eyes when she noticed the fox's return, broke Trace's heart. They apparently thought that she had just left them there. Standing where the boy could not see her, she kept an eye out while the two of them ate. Arms crossed, she leaned her back against the tree as she looked down at the ground, apparently in thought.

"I know you don't have anywhere to go, but I can't take you where I'm going." Turning only her head, to look at the mother as she fed her son, she continued after a sigh, "not all of my kind are as nice to humans as I."

The girl shook her head, and the smile that she had been showing, since her son started eating, remained. "Can't… thank enough… already…"

'Well fuck me sideways… Now I have to help you…'

Trace was massaging her forehead as she went over what she could remember about the area, as she had completely forgotten to buy a map before she left town.

'We're bound to pass by a village somewhere, they could maybe stay there?'

'No, they won't be of any help. I would just be dropping a burden onto them.'

Distrust of humans was keeping her stuck.

Another sigh.

There were times that Trace felt like that was all she ever did. She had a different sigh for every situation, was what it felt like to her anyway. The calling was always held on New Year's Eve, so she had time to spare. But was she up for babysitting duty, until she got them somewhere safe? Hard pass! Trace knew all too well that she had not the patience for such a chore. Test her patience too much on the matter, and it was possible that she would finally curb her curiosity on the delicacies of long pig, the other, other, white meat.

The human child quieted finally, having fallen back to sleep after finishing eating. He was exhausted.

Yet another sigh.

"Do you think you can walk far?" In truth, Trace already knew the unfortunate answer to that question. No.

"yes!" She looked up too quickly, waking the boy with her movement. She was enthusiastic, despite her clumsy state. But all too often ignorance was mistaken for courage. It was unlikely that she could make it a few days, much less the month it would take to get to her destination at a human's pace, and the only place that Trace could actually feel safe. Ever-frost. Her home. Her burrow.

"Foolishness... don't lie…" Trace had not meant to alarm the girl, but she looked dejected. Devastated even.

Trace clenched her jaw, in response to the sigh that she felt fighting its way out.

'I swear to Luna, I will never live this down if anyone sees me doing this…'

"I could give the two of you a ride. It'll be a lot faster, and I give you my word, I won't let either of you fall off." She had to look away. Trace could not let them see her blushing. Not a chance.

Not hearing a reply, she peaked through her hair, parting it a little with one of her claw-like fingernails. The girl had put her son down, and then gotten on her hands and knees; her forehead practically planted into the ground.

The fox-demon was completely dumbfounded. That was a life's first that she was wholly unprepared for. Pitchforks and torches? Par for the course. Begging, with all pride left to the wayside? What was one to say to that?

The fox lost.

"Get some rest. Let the food digest, and then we'll get going…"

She had completely lost.

It took the two of them a little while to adjust to it at first. Trace had enchanted a long coil of rope, which she gave a few temporary enchantments after dropping a single drop of her blood onto it. With the two fastened to her, they were not going anywhere. Then, after casting a spell onto the two passengers, she blasted off, without thinking about it.

After initially scaring the living daylights out of them, they understood that they did not feel uncomfortable, and, despite the ludicrous speed they were moving, and maneuvering, they barely felt the insane changes of acceleration. A sonic boom trailed after them, as they blasted through the forest, though.

The girl passenger was not sure at first, if she was hallucinating or not. From start to present, the whole interaction was just too surreal. A giant, beautifully terrifying, many-tailed fox-demon appeared, that was the color of moonlight, and blood, from the night's catch. At first, she thought for sure that they, her son, and herself, were next. An after-dinner snack.

Even now, as they quickly decelerated after leaving the tree line, they were still moving along at an, otherwise, frightening speed. The fastest of racehorses could not even be compared.

Lita, the girl, was not sure at first, but when she looked behind them, as they sped out of the forest, her delusion was confirmed to have been reality. The trees and branches that, normally, intruded constantly, had literally moved themselves out of their way. Like a secret pathway, only usable by their savior.

Secretly, Trace was enjoying showing off. Which was beginning to take its toll, as warned by her grumbling stomach. It was chow time again, but she had to let the two of them down before that. They had covered another five-hundred or so miles, since leaving the forest. Humans would find a thick forest like that as a hindrance, and either cut a path or go around. Trace, however, was able to ask the forest for a path for her to run down, and it gave her one.

The forest acted as a sound dampener, and blocked out most of the thunderclaps, following her breaking the sound barrier. Open plains, however, did no such thing. Because of that, she had slowed her pace considerably.