The Secret Myths.

[Zaleramancer]

Continued from earlier.

===================

 Jezebel leaned back into her arm chair and sighs. She stares into her crystal glass, swirling it around in her hand. "What to do, what to do." She mummers..

   She knew she had to fulfill her promise, of course, but how could she use this to favor her? "Perhaps I could use it for black mail.. Or mayhaps for whatever reward was sure to be offered." She thought contemplatively. The request itself was simple. That cowardly Mathews wanted a threat to be fulfilled. He had threatened a political rival with the disappearance of his daughter, If that rival did not step down and out of his way.

     "Spineless Imbecile" The vampiress whispered with menace. However, that spineless fool did pay well. "I wonder where he obtained such a sum.."

 Her eyes sparked frighteningly as she realized what she could do. The Red Duchess smiled a like a hunter descending on her prey. She rapidly rose out of her chair. "I'll do as he says, but.. I think I'll keep the girl somewhere safe. That way, when the dust settles, I'll use her to gain status with the winning side." She said victoriously.

  She abruptly returned to her seat and, with a stake of her ringed hand, her young butler appeared. "Bring me that Kitsune, I know she's sulking about." She said languorously  "Tell her that her final errand has arrived" The butler bowed slightly and was gone with a blur. She leaned back to listen to the ethereal songs floating through the background.

 Within seconds he returned, abet at a more stately pace. "Presenting, Takara the Fox." He announced stiffly, and departed after these words left his mouth.

 A red fox entered in a blur of motion, leaping onto the couch across from Jezebel. "What the hell do you want you old hag?" Said a young woman's voice, strangely sounding from the foxes mouth. She sat up like a human would, glaring at the vampire-lady.

 "Now, Now" The Red Duchess murmured "There's no need to get upset."  She with a flick of her hand she pulled a small object from a small table near her chair. "After all", She said with a wicked smile," You want your Hoshi no tama back, don't you?"

 The fox growled angrily, "How dare you even lay your dead filthy hands on it." Takara sighed. A skull-like helmet appeared on her head as the rest of her began to change. Soon she looked like a normal, if annoyed, teenager. Dressed in clothes that wouldn't look out of place anywhere, she seemed to clash with the anachronistic room. Despite her clothing and human form, there was still something of a fox in her. With yellowish eyes, a sly stance and a fox tail, she still screamed otherness.

  "My lady Firstwilde, I apologize for my abrupt behavior." She said in a respectful tone.

      The vampiress merely chuckled darkly, "You only mind yourself because of this." She held up the shining crystalline orb. "A Hoshi no tama, or star ball, holds a portion of your power, and your very soul, inside it. Now tell me", She said "I will return this to you if you do a little.. errand, on my behalf."

      The Kitsune raised an eyebrow in a quizzical gesture. "Errand?"

     "Yes, I require you to kidnap and watch after a person until such a time comes that I give you an order as to what to do with her.."

     "If I swear to do this, will you return what is mine?" Takara said excitedly.

     "A oath of trust is required of course.." She smiled devilishly, that wicked vampiress.

      "Ok, Ok!" She said rapidly, before the lady could change her mind. "I Takara of the Kitsune, do swear to serve you in this errand until such a time comes that you release me from it, In return I expect the immediate return of my Hoshi no tama."

  "Wonderful." She said as she tossed the star ball to the waiting Kitsune. Takara caught it with deft hands, and with a flick of her wrist, if vanished into thin air.  "Now", Takara said." Who is this person, and where can I find them?"

  The Vampiress snapped her fingers, and her butler returned. "Give her the picture and address. Now leave me to my rest please, Fox."

  With a shared bow, the Kitsune and the butler left the room.

 The Red Duchess chuckled and took a sip of her blooded wine.

===========================

[Zaleramancer]

A fox danced through the air.

She leaps from building to building, bouncing off walls of the larger and sidestepping over the roofs of the smaller. As the full moon shone in the distance, The dancing fox continued, light as a feather and as fast as the wind. High over the ground, wrapped in a web of illusion that hid her from mere human eyes, Takara was speeding to fulfill her forced promise. Not that she minded much, humans weren't high on her list of beings to pity. They had, after all, tamed wolves to create the cursed dog. With a snarl at that though, she stopped on a small house overlooking an empty street.

 "The building across.", Her thoughts muttered. That house contained the girl she must kidnap and hold. With a fox-like frown, she considered how this would delay her. Having to look after a human would be difficult, they were really fragile and far to inventive with escapes. However, she had no choice, she had given her vow and could not rescind it now.

 A skull like helm appeared on her fox head and her unseen form seemed to blur and change. She took the same form as before, a teenager with a fox tail and animal eyes. As her tail flicked unconsciously, she considered the house. It was a two story affair, with a relatively large yard interrupted by flower beds and a small fountain. The girl sniffed the air, testing for the scent of what she dreaded.

 "No dogs", She said with a sigh of relief. The last this she wanted to deal with were one of those things. In a flash, she all but flew across the street, her feet only touching the asphalt once. She crouched on the top of the small fence of the yard, perfectly balanced. Unseen, she leapt across the yard in two leaping bounds, hoping that her feather weight charm would hold out until she was done. Now on a window still on the second story of the house, she peered in as she glanced about for the human. Luck was shining on her tonight, it seemed. Her first check reveled to her the girls room. Posters of actors and bands layered the walls, and the brown-haired girl was asleep in her bed.

 Takara carefully called on the innate magics of her people and magic crackled as the window unlocked and opened wide. Scampering through, The fox-girl stepped lightly over the the girl. She reached into her jacket, pulling a small bag out and with a flourish reached in to pull out a handful of some sand like substance. She held her hand up and blew, sending the powder into the sleeping girls face. She barely stirred, and seemed to fall even deeper into her slumber. "Sandman's Sand, I have got to thank that witch for it later", Takara mused. With a grin, she lifted the sleeping girl to her shoulders, the girl showed no signs of waking with the magic of the sand holding her into an enspelled sleep.

The fox-girl walked over to the window, glad this girl wasn't any more heavy than she already was, when she heard footsteps in the hall outside. "Veronica, are you awake? I thought I heard someone up here." A man's voice came from outside of the wooden barrier, "You have to remember tonight is a school night!" The door creaked as it opened, reveling a disheveled man in a bath robe and pajamas. He looked at Takara in shock and said, "What the hell?!".

The agile fox backpedaled to the window, as she reached the still, the man sprang into action. He leapt for his seemingly floating daughter, and then was sent flying back as he was back-handed by the fox. "You were warned", Takara said tauntingly, sounding to the poor man like a voice from mid-air. She was gone in a flash, through the window and moving back to the roof of another. The girl she carried vanished to, cloaked in the fox's illusionary magic.

"This whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth," The fox muttered as she leapt over buildings and through streets.

"Damn that bat."

[Zaleramancer]

"C-cooooold!" Takara muttered angrily. "How do humans live like this?!"


"I hate that bat on soooo many levels right now. First she makes me kidnap someone, then I have to go to this freezing cesspool of a city to hide while in human form." Her thoughts resounded with anger. "I can't even use fire to warm up without burning the human."

The fox glanced over to the human on the floor to insure that she was not awakened by the outburst. Consoled by the fact that she had not, The fox girl returned to staring out of the single window of the top floor an abandoned apartment building she temporary refuge in. While considering the scenic brick wall view, Takara leaned against a wall and sighed wearily. After doing several hundred miles in a the space of eight hours while carrying the dead weight of a human girl anyone would be about ready to drop from exhaustion.

Of course, she hadn't come to this near north-eastern city without a reason. A friend of hers lived here, a wizard by the name of Issac. Her fervent hope being that he knew something to do with the girl or if all else failed, turn her into a teacup or something. The aforementioned girl stirred slightly, a sure sign that she would soon wake. The floorboards creaked quietly as Takara strode over to, once again, lift the girl. With a sigh, The fox moved with sudden lighting quickness to leap out of the broken window, scattering a few unfortunate birds nesting there.

In an acrobatic movement that would have made an Olympic gymnast cry with envy, she hit the brick wall of the next wall feet first.  Then, moving rapidly, she used the wall as a springboard and back-flip off of it to land safely on the first apartment buildings roof.  She stood still for a moment, trying to catch her breath. Then after almost sinking to the ground from fatigue, she directed a brief mental curse to the annoying bat and began to move with an easy grace - though no where near her earlier speed.

Once again cloaked in illusions, she when from rooftop to rooftop carrying the girl in her arms. After what seemed to her like hours, Takara slowed to a stop. Glancing across a quiet street, her breath a fog from the cold, The fox saw the top half of a skyscraper. "This is the place, at last." Her thoughts murmured. With a grunt, the Takara made a leap that almost flew, landing on the still of a large window. The glass of the window was suddenly smashed by the boot covered foot of the fox as she hasted to enter the building.

The room was... expensive. That could be the only word to describe it. A living room perhaps? It had lovely abstract paintings upon the walls, and the furniture alone could pay for an entire house. Takara felt a slight rush of kleptomania that was quickly brushed aside by something the new emotion of shock..

That's because all of a sudden, The room started to glow.


"Oh sh-"