2. Catching Firefox, Chapter 1

The entrance hall was flooded with blood. Everything was turning red. At least that’s how it seemed to me. No one else was in the room. Just me, kneeling before the lifeless body of my father. When I looked at his face, somehow it felt like I didn’t even know this person. And that wasn’t just because his skin was turning to a ghost-like white. Poor old man, I felt like I never actually got the chance to really know him. I really felt sorry about it. And before I knew it, tears were running down my cheeks.

“You wouldn’t believe what just happened,” I heard Cassandra’s voice say. “Oh,” she then said and looked at all the blood and at me sitting in it.

“Your situation seems worse.”

“It is pretty much the worst situation ever,” I said.

“I am sorry to say this but we have to leave,” she said as she walked towards me.

“I just lost my father,” was all I could say. She looked at me for a while as serious as never before.

“Parents actually. Let me tell you what I saw.” I could tell it wasn’t sarcasm this time.

We will now commence with Cassandra’s story. It is a dark-bitter fantastic story, which will make your hair stand on end. As Cassandra Coin was separated from the young master during their flight, she headed home, for the same obvious reasons as the young master. Her home was the house of the Coins, her family’s name was indeed Coin and I am not even trying to make an allusion here. That would never occur to me. I am trying to narrate this story as sincere as possible. Anyhow, as she entered her beloved home, no one was there. Not in a way that no one was residing there, but it just so happened that no one was present at that very moment. Still she could hear the St. Matthew Passion by JS Bach playing on her father’s old record player when she entered. After she found out that nobody was home, she entered the garden. There she encountered something astounding. A little fox was sitting there, its brown eyes staring at her.

“What are you doing here?” she exclaimed. As this was somewhat of a rhetorical question, she didn’t expect the fox to actually answer her. But to her amazement the fox did indeed answer her.

“I have been looking for you,” it explained.

“First wolves, now foxes! What is going on? This clearly isn’t as fun as a trip to the petting zoo,” were Cassandra’s witty words. The shape of the fox then slowly began to change and it grew into the form of an adult human man. Astonished by this sudden change Cassandra wasn’t able to speak for quite a while.

“You have already made contact with the wolves. It means you are in grave danger and there is only one way to save you. I just happen to know what you have to do. I am here to help you. Since I am actually a very powerful fox-spirit,” the human-turned fox said. To Cassandra it seemed as if he was talking a bit longer, but she was summarizing it in such a fashion.

“We have to help our friend then,” she exclaimed. “I believe the wolf was following him,” she added. The fox quickly agreed and they left the house together. Thus Cassandra and this mighty mythological being were setting off to save our young master. This quick brown fox you see, was capable of shapeshifting between his fox and human form whenever he pleased to, so in order to accelerate his movements he turned into his fox form as he was running. But Cassandra was very displeased with this as she wasn’t such a fast runner, hence he had to slow down a little. Also the idea of carrying her on his back was quickly discarded as the body of a fox is not big enough to carry such a weight. However, as they managed to arrive at the mansion, an abominable sight was presented to them. Cassandra was able to spot several wolves roaming around the surrounding area. But the truly harrowing sight was found in the gardens in front of the mansion. Severed body parts of what used to be the young master’s dear mother. Cassandra was able to tell because she found her head lying on the steps leading to the entrance of the mansion. The entrance gate was utterly destroyed. Shaken and horrified she dared enter this harrowing mansion. There she found the young master, sitting in a pool of blood and for a moment it seemed as if he was responsible for those horrid deeds.

“It is all this crazy werewolf’s fault!” I shouted and I don’t know why I felt the need to explain myself.

“I believe you. We just need to hurry because we are surrounded by werewolves,” Cassandra said.

“I can’t believe I just lost my parents. I feel like I never even knew them really,” I said. As I was getting up I saw someone else entering the room. An Asian man with clothes that resembled those of a Ninja. At least that was what it looked like to me. They were unfamiliar clothes.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked immediately, as a broken door didn’t mean that just anyone could enter the house now.

“I am the Firefox. A powerful fox-spirit called a Kitsune, to put it in terms you might understand. I came here all the way from Japan,” he answered.

“He said he’ll be able to help us,” Cassandra added. It was hard to imagine that this guy could help us. I was convinced that he was joking.

“So tell us. What do we have to do to escape from the werewolves?” I asked. After an awkwardly long pause the fox-spirit began to talk again.

“I am not sure actually. I have something to confess to you. I am not actually that powerful a spirit. But I know where we have to go to get help. Supernatural help that is,” he said.

“Are you serious?” I said. I still was convinced that he was joking.

“What is all this commotion?” I suddenly heard a voice behind me saying. It was the voice of my faithful but obnoxious butler. Who else could it possibly have been? He came down the stairs with a look of shock on his face and wasn’t pleasantly surprised when he saw the mess in the entrance hall.

“As you can see my parents are dead,” I tried to explain to him.

“I can see it alright. Do those creatures outside of our house have something to do with this?” he asked. I nodded.

“Who else? It’s not like I could have done this, right?” I said.

“It’s amazing how easy you can draw suspicion to yourself without even noticing it,” the Firefox remarked.

“Shut up!” I snapped back.

“You better tell us what to do now,” Cassandra demanded.

“Well, we have to reach the Hut of the Fox deep in the woods surrounding this town before dusk. Because when night falls, these werewolves increase their power. And who knows what else might happen at night,” he calmly explained.

“You should know. You’re the one with the spiritual powers, not us,” I pointed out.

“Yes about those powers…” he began after a sigh.

“Yeah, I really don’t care anymore. Let’s better get moving.”