The Theif

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"You make me miserable, you disgusting fox." Feng muttered under her breath, hands placed on the ground in anguish as it trying to curse the path on which she knelt.

The five-tailed creature in front of her belted out high-pitched laughter. The creature had taken the form of a young man with a narrow face and slim and angular eyebrows, lending a cunning aura to his otherwise unintimidating frame. The tossed a small gold coin between his many tails, before it landed in his hand and fizzled away in a short-lived show of sparks that lit up their faces darkened by night.

He grinned wide, looking down on Feng. "Oh my, I am veeeeeery sorry about that coin on yours. I have no idea where it could have gone."

"Give me my coin, you Yako!" She screamed at the their, rising and putting her face just a few inches before his, as if trying to intimidate him into compliance. The glint in the thief's eyes changed. No more mischief could be seen in them.

"What did you just call me?"

"Yako."

The theif barely left a second of time to prepare for the first strike. Smoke billowed from his fingertips, and as fire quickly swallowed his body, an Inari Fox lept from the cloud of flames, front paws pinned together and outstretched as if reaching out to grab Feng's soul. With his momentum, he was able to throw Feng against the earth and pin her down, just as the smoke from his transformation made its way into the sky. An aggrieved cry rang out, through a disembodied voice that echoed throughout the open farmland.

"I am no malicious Yako! I am a good Inari Fox! I am merciful! For what you have done, a life of inconvenience and misfortune is punishment far short of what is deserved! The life of a kitsune is worth much more than food on a dinner table for one evening, and yet, you have reduced it to just that!"

As if connected, they both recalled that fateful night. An arrow aimed towards its target. A quiet thump as the body of a two-tailed fox collapsed and fell onto the grass. The heart of the fox had been pierced, and she was dead before she connected with the ground. The thief, whose little sister lay dead before him, watched as Feng picked up her catch, removed the arrow, and took her away. He could only watch.

Feng was now in that position, helpless. But instead of delivering the final blow, the thief transformed back into a man and slipped out a scarlet passport with a golden kitsune inscribed onto it. He disappeared in a show of sparks.

The thief sat alone in a den decorated with trinkets new and old, but no comfort would be brought to him by his home. In front of him, there were two objects of note.

The coin, and the arrow.

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