When they came to a stop, the castle was not even in sight.

Zu huffed like he ran a million miles. "I'm…. I'm outside the castle…" The boy mumbled in disbelief.

"And I can't wait to show you to my friends!" Neva replied with a smile. "Speaking of which…"

She waved to an upcoming figure. "Ta'ala! We're here!" she shouted, running toward him, as she pulled Zu with her.

Neva left Zu's hand, and reached for the fox, who grabbed her in a big hug.

"Neva! Where were you? I was worried sick!" he asked.

"Don't worry, I'm okay!" Neva chuckled.

Zu looked in awe at this creature. He was tall. Taller than Auraiiya. A big bipedal fox, wearing vest and giant bead. And if that was not enough, he had 3 tails. Three, enormous tails, that could probably each knock a tree with a simple hit.

The fox's attention shifted to the boy. His eyes narrowed. "Nev, who is this?"

Neva looked back at the boy, like she forgot for a second he was there. "Oh, that's Zu. Zu, that's Ta'ala - he’s my friend."

Zu hesitated, but then bowed. "He-Hello, T-Ta'ala-San. M-my name is Zu-Zutenko." He said, stuttering slightly.

Ta'ala looked at him, his glare shifting to a friendlier smile. "Oh? You're quite well mannered." He said, and bowed lightly as well. "Pleasure to meet you."

Zu nodded back. Ta'ala felt trustworthy. Zu didn't know why he got this intuition, but he was sure.

"Well, well.." a voice was heard from above them. "Is that fresh meat?"

the voice was unmistakably female, as she leaped down from the tree. A woman with beastly ears and claws, and dark-grey skin. She wore few belts, from which several bottles filled with different colors of liquid were hanging from. Zu noticed her sharp claws and teeth. She seemed aggressive, but the others didn't seem to be bothered. Neva gave her a grumpy glare.

"He's not food, Ayalinn." She turned to Zu. "Zu, this is Ayalinn. My friend, but also my boss-"

"Yeah, yeah," Ayalinn interrupted her, "I can introduce myself on my own, kiddo." She approached Zu. "Hello there, midget."

In an instant, she transformed. Her ears became sharp elven ears, and her fur and claws retracted back into Vastoari-looking limbs. With her shorter hair and lighter skin, she could easily be mistaken for a sibling of her other form.

"I'm Ayalinn." she said, as she put her hand on his head as she revealed her Sharp teeth with a grin. "A master-class potion maker, a brilliant alchemist, and the best apex predator a tiny dwarf like you will ever get to meet ~"

Zu looked at her, trying to keep his cool. "I'm not that short." 
He replied, annoyed. "You pass me by a head, at most."

"Rude now, are we?" Ayalinn's grin widened. She pushed his head down, Zu barely managed to not fall on his face.

"Yeah, that's a fitting height." Ayalinn chuckled. She removed one of the bottles from her belt with her other hand, and put her thumb close to the cork, ready to open it. "Lemme just pour my shrinking potion on ya~"

Zu started panicking inside his mind. Neva seemed to recognize it, and pulled him away from the elf.

"You're taking it a little too far, boss!" she said in a joking manner. Ayalinn rolled her eyes. "Humpf.. You're overreacting, kiddo. It's not like I was going to hurt him~"

Zu's eye twitched. "You called me 'fresh meat.'"

He barely stopped himself from spouting these words as he spoke.
The elf grinned, "Of course, for my baby pets, you'll be a perfect snack. I won't do you a thing ~"

Just as the boy's instincts started telling him he might need to run for his life, Ta'ala stepped in, and glared at Ayalinn.

"Enough, quit scaring him for laughs." He said before turning to Zu with an apologetic look. "Please forgive my associate. She has a… unique sense of humor." He turned back to Ayalinn with a glare. Ayalinn simply shrugged and rolled her eyes.

Yeah, a bully's sense of humor. Thought Zu to himself, bitterly. He preferred the giant 4-eared fox over the beast-elf woman.

"I can't wait to show you our house!" Neva's excited voice brought Zu back from his rapidly worsening thoughts, "And the market, and Ayalinn's potion lab, and all of her Poyuflé-" "Neva," Ta'ala interrupted her, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Give the poor thing a break. He seems quite overwhelmed already… Perhaps it is the best option to allow him to return back for now."

Neva sighed, and smiled at Zu. "Yeah, sorry… I've got all excited.”

She gave him a hug "I'll come to visit again, okay? Then I'll show you more, when you feel ready to explore?" Zu nodded, still unsure how to react to this physical contact. When she finally released him, he gave the trio a little nod and turned back.

#

Neva waved at him as he left. "Don't worry! We'll knock the door next time!!" she called after him, as he disappeared into the woods.

After a few minutes of silence, Ta'ala finally spoke "Neva, dear… Do you think it was the right thing?"

"Don't worry, he simply needed a lil' push, he's not gonna give up," she turned to Ta'ala, a big smile on her face. "I can feel it."

Ta'ala looked at her for a few seconds in slight confusion. "No, I mean -" he paused, then sighed before continuing. "Is it really smart… Letting an uncontracted Vastoari boy, roam his way through the forest back to a place he left for the first time with no protection at all?"

Neva stared at the fox for a few more second in confusion, before the realization finally hit her.

"Oh, by Nyx and the thirteen pillars-"

#

Moments later, Neva and Ta'ala already were scanning the forest in full panic. Trying to find the Vastoari boy, with Ayalinn following behind with a bored expression.

"You can track him through his scent, right?" Neva asked nervously, as she kept using her Magyo and her circle to keep up with the Fox’s mighty leaps.

"Hypothetically." Ta'ala admitted. His eyes faced only forward. "However, I met him only a few minutes. not enough to memorize his scent. Not to mention," He hesitated for a moment, "Something clouded his scent to begin with - making him hard to track regardless."

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind that. More importantly, we should hurry-" Ta'ala froze, hearing a screech. "That's the Startail" he said. Neva completely forgot why they were in the woods today in the first place.

"Well he can wait!" Neva replied, irritated a bit.

Ta'ala tilted his head. "And that is certainly the uncontracted Vastoari's yelp of surprise." He muttered before changing direction, Neva quick to follow.

As they arrived at the location of the Startail Squirrel demon, Neva noted to herself its massive size. As the name implied, the demonic squirrel had a spiky, star-shaped pattern on his back, going all the way to shape his tail from fluffy to spikily dangerous.

A mere few meters away, was Zu – terrified and with his back to a tree.

"Zu-" Neva tried to Warn him, the demon launched to before she could– only to be repelled back.

A strong gust of wind burst through the woods, making everyone stop. Zu stood there, steam slowly rising from his body. In a sudden flash, silver flames erupted around him.

Neva stared in shock at the boy; his body language looked unnatural, almost marionette-like. He paced back and forth, with constant glare at the Startail that was standing back up.

As the Startail prepared to attack again, Zu raised his left hand. With another burst of silvery flames, a huge blade has materialized. Despite the obvious weight, the boy grabbed the hilt with no issue. Zu launched forward, just as the Startail did the same. In a single swing of the silver-blazing blade, the head of the Startail Squirrel Demon was removed from its body. There was no blood. It seemed these flames stopped it from happening.

Zu turned his attention to Neva and Ta'ala, with Ayalinn only now arriving.

with Zu directly facing her, Neva noticed his face. His eyes were empty yet blazing silver, his expressionless face and slight holographic lining around his face.  That outline had odd resemblance to a mask she seen before…

Before Neva could complete the connection in her mind though, Zu collapsed. His blade and silver flames faded away, like they were never there.

"Zu!" Neva called in a panic, as she rushed to catch him.

"What happened?" Zu asked, trying to stand up, and opening his eyes.
Neva noticed the silver fading away from his eyes, replaced again by the familiar brown. “You were almost killed by a giant squirrel beast." Ayalinn noted.
"Yeah, I noticed" Zu replied irritably. He then turned to face Neva.
"Thanks for the save." He added, with a relieved expression.

"Wha- What?" Neva asked, confused. Something was off here. "I mean… You're welcome…?"

Before she could ask him what he meant, Zu then turned to Ta'ala. "Did you duplicate your tales?" he asked with awe, before starting to count them.
 "One, two, four, seven..." he skipped numbers as he counted part of them silently.

Ta'ala rubbed the back of his neck. "Nine, actually. I always had nine." He mentioned casually.

As he spoke every 3 tales wrapped around each other to form a single combine tail – until they looked like 3 again.

"That's so awesome!" Zu said in excitement, as Neva approached him. "Zu?"

"Hm?"

"Are you sure you're alright? After all, you've just been attacked..."  Neva asked nervously.

Zu looked at her, a little confused. "Well, yeah, I guess." He replied, "After all, you saved me." He added with a smile.

Neva bit her lip in hidden frustration. But she'll look into it another time. For now, Zu have been through enough for a day.

"I'm sorry Zu," Neva apologized, "I should've accompanied you instead of letting you go on your own."

Now it was Zu's turn to be nervous. "Well, true, I guess… But it's my fault too for having absolutely no sense of direction." he laughed nervously.

"Well, you both do have a point." Ayalinn intervened. She clearly meant to continue, but Ta'ala interrupted her before she could.

"Well then," the big fox said, "I presume it's decided. Neva, please accompany young Zutenko back to where you first found him, while me and Ayalinn" he eyed the elven woman while mentioning her name, "will take the remains of the Startail back home to gather the required materials."

Neva nodded. "Let's go, Zu." She nudged him to get his attention, as she led him. "Okay," he said. "By the way, what's a 'Poyuflé'?"

Shortly after they arrived at the secret entrance to the spring garden, Neva was ready to depart. "Are you sure you know the way back in?" she asked. Zu shrugged in response. "Well, as far as I remember, it's quite straight forward. Literally."

Neva smiled. He looked a lot more comfortable around her that their first meeting only a few hours ago.

"Oh, and in case you want to reach us –" she pulled out a small piece of parchment and started searching "Oh, uh…" she laughed nervously, "do you happen to have a quill on you?" Zu shook his head, but handed her the pencil he had in his pouch, and she proceeded to scribble something on the parchment and fold it. "That's the name of our home, when you feel ready to visit." Neva said, with a wide smile. She hugged him again.

"Do come visit though. I'm serious." She whispered to his ear, before departing.

#

Zu entered back to the spring garden as the sun began to set, and wasted no time making his way back to the castle. Until he heard a familiar voice shouting his name, and stopped.

"Uh, Hilliya-" Zu started, before being interrupted by the angry girl walking towards him.

"Where have you been?" Hilliya demanded to know, "We looked everywhere for you! We were Super-Duper worried!" she added with visible frustration. Zu couldn’t help but notice a bit of tears in her eyes as she shouted.

Zu wasn't very often verbally attacked.  With the sight of Hilliya admitting she was worried sick about him took him by surprise. From that surprise, he didn't manage to say anything but an "Umm…"

Hilliya glared at him, before taking a deep breath. "We'll discuss this later, I guess..." she muttered, before pulling a familiar object from her sleeve. "Regardless, I did find your mask here."

Zu pulled gently his Kitsune Mask out of her hand, staring at it in a thoughtful expression.

"Well?" Hilliya asked, curiosity and worry sliding into her voice, "Aren't you going to put it back on?"

Zu thought for a moment, before a grin spread across his face. "No, I don't think I would."

Hilliya stared at him, dumbstruck. "Eh?" was all she managed to say.

"Well," Zu began, rubbing the back of his neck. "In these 8 years, since I've… Arrived, I've always been with this mask on. It made me feel safe, but…"

He took a deep breath, and made eye contact with Hilliya. "It hurt others... and in the long run, it hurt me too."

"This mask did a lot for me, that's for sure.” He continued. “But it also held me back, separated me from the world around me… I don't want to hide behind my own mask anymore. It's still part of me, but…" he switched his grasp from the mask to its tying string, and made a tie to wear it around his neck. "I won't hide from the people who love me anymore." He finished with a smile.

Hilliya still looking at him, still silent.

"So," Zu said, trying to break the silence. "It's starting to get dark out here, we probably should get in."

Hilliya nodded, and they started to make their way to the castle.

"Have Auraiiya-Sama returned yet?" Zu asked with curiosity.

"Oh," Hilliya replied with surprise, "she did, but went out again."

"Hm? Why though?"

"Well, guess who was missing all day." She replied with a sarcastic tone.

"Oh…"

"She thought you were kidnapped, y'know. She went to torture potential suspects."

Zu gulped, and instinctively reached for his mask to put it back on.