Meteor Effect

White Fur 2: Foxes

He makes it out of city limits before he stops and waits for Doc to catch up once again. He looks back as he runs and ends up falling head over heels into the original fox hole.

Placing his paws on the wall he scratches and whimpers, the funs gone. Looking up he shrinks back under the careful scrutiny of the creeper's robotic eye.

"Etho," Doc hisses at the small fox before jumping down and attaching a lead to him then clambering out of the hole.

Naturally, Etho lets out an offended screech and starts trying to get the lead off in every single way he can think of.

Doc sighs, "I know you don't like it but you keep running away. You scared Beef when he couldn't find you."

Pinning his ears back in shame Etho spits the lead out and stops struggling to be free.

"I'll let you go... When we get inside."

Etho glares at Doc annoyed but accepts his fate.

........

After much trial and error, Etho makes it back to being human. Granted he still has his ears and tails but other than that he's back to the normal mask-wearing ninja. He's found that shapeshifting doesn't hurt and is actually really fun. The biggest downside, in his eyes at least, is the fact that he's pretty small in his fox form. To everyone else the downside is the already sneaky man is now twice as stealthy.

It's a few days later when they notice the next problem. He's currently at his base in the upside-down and is still slightly achy. Today he's working with Grian on the main mansion of upside down.

"Etho?" Grian starts, fluttering his feathers nervously, "Your shadow's a fox."

Etho looks down at his shadow which in the soft glow of the lava is slightly fuzzy around the edges and sure enough, there is the silhouette of a fox, "Hu, that's fun."

Grian rolls his eyes, "Yeah. Let's finish this up then head back."

Nodding Etho expertly navigates the complex Redstone of the upside-down. At one point he's almost falling and he uses his tails to balance. After he fixes the issues he floats down using his elytra and the pair start the long walk back to the main hub.

After almost thirty minutes Grian motions for Etho to stop.

"You ok?" Etho asks, growing concerned.

"It's nothing, it's just pretty hard to walk for long periods of time," He explains as he moves his talons awkwardly.

Etho nods sharply and pulls the bird on his back, "You should have said something."

"I didn't want anyone to worry..."

"How, did you get over here before?"

"I normally go over the nether roof."

Etho hums in response, "You have hollow bones?"

"Yeah," Grian chirps softly.

Nodding Etho continues walking. They continue to chat as they slowly make their way down the narrow tunnel.

About halfway to the nether hub, Etho stops. He carefully crouches down allowing Grian to climb off his back.

"Are you ok?" Grian chirps nervously, his feathers ruffle up in concern.

Etho turns and mumbles through his mask with words slurring together, "My jaw started hurting, I'm not sure why," His ears press down against his head, and with tails in between his legs, he looks over at Grian, "Tell no one," and slips his mask down. He pulls his communicator out and uses the mirror function to take a look at his teeth.