- Vaeril -

Before Vaeril even opened his eyes he could smell the earth around him, together with the leaves and feathers and grass which were his bed. He yawned and stretched out his four legs, as he got up and opened his eyes. It was dark inside the den, but he couldn’t care less as he soon headed outside. The scent of the morning filled his snoot, the dew still covered the fresh grass as the sun hadn’t yet risen behind the trees of the forest, and he licked some of it to quench his morning thirst. All the sounds of the forest was completely normal, nothing he could hear raised any worry.
  The feeling of grass and moss was soft under his paws as he walked over to the glade not too far away from his den, and there he laid down to rest upon a large stone. He closed his eyes, but he was fully aware of what was going on around him. It didn’t take long before he could hear them, the little kits coming out from their families’ dens, to gather in the glade to play. As the leader of the pack it was his responsibility to guard the young ones.
  As the morning sun rose the area came to life, as the adult kitsune came out of their dens and others came back from their nightly hunt. The kits made excited yelps at their parents, and Vaeril opened his eyes to see them in the corners of his eyes, but his gaze soon turned to those who came back from the hunt. It took him but moments to see the hunt hadn’t been great, many of those who returned had nothing and it made him worry. A night of hunting could be bad, but lately had it been too many nights of this.
  One of the kitsune that had returned was a black male with nine tails, and as he came up to Vaeril he dropped a wild rabbit on the ground in front of him. This was the kitsune with lowest rank in the pack, the one who had to give up his food for the leader. None would say a thing if Vaeril took it and left, but he knew he couldn’t just take it, as the pack was lacking food. So he jumped down from his place on the stone, and picked up the rabbit and walked over to a female with kits and left it in front of her instead. Right now that was the best he could do for the pack. The female took the rabbit and left with her kits, and Vaeril turned to the black one again. With a bark he told him to come with him before he walked away.
  They left the glade behind them and with it the rest of the pack. Away from the others, behind the trees, Vaeril changed his shape to a man, still with nine tails and large ears on his head. He turned around to meet a man taller than himself, with shoulder long black hair, tails and large black ears on his head as well. They were both dressed in nothing but their naked skin, but the dark man had tattoos made with black ink on his body. Vaeril could see drawings of kitsune, forests and places he hadn’t seen since he was very young.
  “What is this one called?” he asked with a voice which sounded like he wasn’t used to talking.
  The kitsune in front of him went down on one knee. “This one calls himself Zephyr, my prince.”
  Vaeril snorted. “Get up! I’m not a prince, so don’t call your lord that.”
  Zephyr got back up on his feet, and nodded with a smirk on his lips. “As you wish, my prince. You may call yourself a lord, but I’ve traveled this island, and you are the only golden one I’ve ever heard of.”
  Vaeril stepped closer to Zephyr, stood on his toes to be as tall as he could be, and grabbed his chin harshly. He stared into Zephyr’s eyes, and met deep golden eyes. “Don’t talk back to your lord like that.”
  “I don’t care, you can’t do anything to me. And now that you have seen me, you can’t unsee me.”
  Vaeril snorted as he let him go, but didn’t say anything.
  Hundreds of years ago there had been a time were black kitsune were killed as little pups, as they weren’t considered pure. They had relatives from other kinds, and were simply killed to keep the blood of their people clean. Something that didn’t matter now, as the kitsune was a dying kind. But he also knew what Zephyr meant, as he knew this one lived by the grace of his golden eyes. A trait one only had if they were related to the royal family. As Vaeril himself was with his golden fur.
  “Tell me about the hunt”, he commanded instead.
  “It’s the rain, nothing grows like it should, and the rabbits are few. If it keeps raining like this we should move. I don’t think we can keep living like this, we are going to starve sooner than later. The clouds are strange and I have a hunch it’s magic. Prince or not, my lord, but you have to do something.” Zephyr looked concerned, as he didn’t know what more to tell him.
  Vaeril snorted again and was silent for a moment as he was thinking through what he could do right now. It was how their pack had been living for as long as he could remember, overcoming one problem at the time. It was surviving, not thriving.
  “At nightfall we will go west to the Elven villages, and you will come with me”, Vaeril finally said, before he turned back into the large golden fox-like shape.
  As he walked back to the glade, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about what Zephyr had told him, but it still saddened him to be reminded of the fact that he was the last of his family. The only golden kitsune who was still living.