Beatrix flung the satchel over his back and used his mouth to tighten the straps around his stomach and chest. Inside the satchel was the white leather book and the map. Beatrix studied the map before putting it away, he needed to go north west. The map had a special trick where if he put his paw on the middle of the map, he could move what part of the land it showed, and the map would tell him which way to go, north or south, east or west. 

His first landmark was the Bakunawa Estuary, a massive ocean river that is home to the largest amount of Bakunawa in Sekai. Beatrix found the rising son in the north and went a little bit west of it. His journey was now beginning. 

Beatrix started his journey full of excitement and energy. He trotted and played with the butterflies and dragonflies, he walked briskly with his chest puffed and confidence in his eyes. He had never been so far outside the Kasai skulk territory, he only went out of it once, and only for a moment because the other young kitsunes dared him to. 

He spent a long time staring at bushes with colourful bugs and berries. He found a massive caterpillar, it was at least as long as his front legs and it was as thick as a small apricot. He stared at it with beaming eyes, then a thought popped in his head. 

“Can I eat it?” He thought aloud. He studied the massive brown caterpillar, it was munching with a big mouth on a leaf. He used his right paw to touch the leaf, which was even bigger than the caterpillar, and it rolled off onto the moist ground. It wiggled haphazardly and rolled onto its feet and fled the scene, but not fast enough. Beatrix caught it with his sharp claws and it squeaked and flung its head back. There was ooze dripping out of the holes he made. 

“Gross!” He yelled, flinging the caterpillar off his paw and shaking off the goo. Curiosity got the better of him, and he licked one of his claws. He immediately spat out the disgusting taste and started licking a tree to get the taste out. 

He walked in the general direction of the estuary for a long time, his energetic and lean body was happy to be outside and free. 

Eventually, it became sundown, and Beatrix realized he hadn’t eaten all day, being too busy exploring his surroundings. He didn’t like to hunt in the dark, but if he waited any longer it would only get darker. 

He stuck his nose in the air and breathed in the scent of the forest. The smell of humid air, damp leaves, rotting logs, and mushrooms stuck in the back of his throat. He shifted his head and turned his nose in another direction and took a deep breath. He could smell a rabbit, and once he could smell it, he could hear it. He opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the smell and noise. He walked through a bush and down a small slope, then he spotted it. A brown striped rabbit was eating flowers near the base of a large tree. He crouched with his tail low and slowly crept towards it. He got close enough to hear its heart rate rise. He stayed still. It went back to eating, then Beatrix pounced. Its back fit into his mouth, he crunched his jaws down on its spine. He pinned its pulsing body on the ground and quickly snapped its neck.

The rabbit was delicious, its blood was warm and metallic. He ate every part of it and licked his lips as he finished. He cleaned his paws and cleaned behind his ears. His stomach was full and the sun had vanished. 

He found a burrow near the area where he caught the rabbit. It smelled of stale wolpertinger. He crawled inside and found it very comfortable, the walls were close, it felt like a warm hug.

After two more days of walking, Beatrix was finally at the Bakunawa Estuary. The waves rippled in the wind as he walked along a small beachy shoreline.  He found a nice sunny spot in the sand and sat down to look at his map. The new destination was across the water and on a big island, he was headed to the Central Catoblepas Herd. He studied the map, looking for a bridge or some way to cross the water. 

After some time, he decided there was no way across besides swimming. He went out to the water and placed a paw in it. It was warm and salty, the air around him was as dry as it was humid. He went up to his stomach, his fur was soaked and he began to shiver. A Kasai kitsune is not used to soaking sur, even though they live in the rainforest. He remembered the map, book, and satchel on him and quickly turned around and swam back to shore. He panted as he shook off all the water, making his fur puff. He sat down and pondered how he was going to make it across. 

Once again, he was hungry. He went off of the beach and into the forest to find something to catch. He looked around the forest, he saw small sand birds, and squirrels in the trees. He could not find the scent of any food, but he did smell something interesting. It was a foul odor, stale, musty, rotten and wet. He went toward the smell, not a thought of danger in his mind. 

He walked through thick bushes of berries and sage, the smell made him calm. Soon his paws started to get wet and he was walking on moss and long blades of thick grass. The smell of a bog was starting to overpower the sage. He continued through the bushes until he stopped at a pond. Its water was clear, as it ran into a small stream, and there were small silver fish hiding in bunches of kelp and algae. He got up close to the edge of the pond, but his paws began to sink deep into the moss and dirt. He took a step back and extended his neck to get a good look at the bottom of the pond. 

The middle of the water started to ripple…then bubble…then a green horse head poked out of the pond. He froze as he watched the slimy green horse trot out of the water. It neighed at him as he stared. It had a long sea grass like tail and mane, its eyes were dark and its fur was the green of the algae in the pond. Its hooves were massive and its muscles were taut, it moved closer to Beatrix as he stood still. 

“What are you..?” Beatrix asked in wonder, not directly to the horse. 

It knickered before stating, “I am a who, not a what,” it stared at him before continuing, “My name is Hammish, and I am a kelpie,” Its voice was masculine and young, full of life. 

“Can you swim?” Beatrix asked. He came up close to Hammish to get a smell of him. It was awful and Beatrix had to hold his tongue. 

“Do you think I was drowning in there? Of course I can swim,” Hammish rolled his eyes. He noticed Beatrix scrunch his muzzle at the smell of him. “What’s wrong with you?”

“You smell pretty bad. Have you cleaned yet?” He asked, he shook his head before he sneezed out the smell of the kelpie. 

“Yeah, well you yourself smell like a sweaty, wet dog,” The kelpie knickered. Beatrix took offence to this comment. He thought it should be well known that kitsunes hated dogs, and he had been getting called one ever since he began his training with his skulk. 

At least I don’t have to deal with the other tenderfoots calling me names every day, he thought. 

He stifled his anger and asked a question, “Can you help me get across the estuary?” Hammish looked at him then titered his head in thought. He glared at Beatrix, who was staring back into his eyes, for a long minute. 

“I can, and I will…” He started, “but first you have to go front first dive into my pond,” Hammish raised a daring eyebrow. 

“Why would I have to do that? Can’t you just take me across?” Beatrix asked. Hammish flared his nostrils. 

“I won’t do what you want, until you do what I want!”

Beatrix stared at Hammish with his right ear up and his left ear sideways, Why should I?

They both held a silent staring competition until Hammish started trotting back into the pond. 

“If you’re going to be stubborn I’m leaving,” His hoove touched the water as he started to go in.

“Okay! I’m going in!” He called before Hammish got too deep. He walked to the very edge of the pond, his paws soaking. The water was fairly warm though, so it wasn’t as bad as when his skulk mates pushed him in the river. But the smell coming from Hammish was rancid, and he did not want to go the rest of the journey smelling like rotting mushroom logs. 

He sighed as he stared into the water, the silver fish swam to him and past him, their scales shimmering in the high sunlight. He looked back at Hammish, who once again raised his eyebrow, telling him to hurry up.

Beatrix prepared his jump, his weight on his hind legs and tensing his muscles. Three…Two…One! Beatrix shot himself in the air with his eyes closed, praying he wouldn’t smell too terrible when he came out. With a big splash he landed dead center in the pond, he blew his breath out of his nose as he swam up. The weeds were tangling between his toes and wrapping on his legs. Thankfully he was able to break the weeds from the ground and get to air. His head popped up and he gasped for air, he could hear Hammish laughing. He doggy paddled his way back to land. 

“That was even better than I thought it would be!” Hammish chuckled. Beatrix glared at him as he shook off the water. Hammish trotted over to him and knickered. 

“Now you have to take me across the estuary,” He stared at Hammish. 

“Yeah I guess,” He sighed.

They walked through the bushes and Hammish started to smell even worse, he was getting warm and started smelling like dried kelp. Neither of them spoke to each other, it was a quiet walk. 

They made it to the estuary and Hammish tested the coolness of the water. 

“It’s good. Get on my back and we’ll be across soon,” Beatrix obeyed and climbed onto Hammish’s back as he knelt down to let him on. Hammish got up and started into the water. Once they were up to Hammish’s neck, something transformed. Beatrix turned his head to see that Hammish’s tail turned into a thick fishtail with long powerful fins. The scales were an assortment of greens and blues that shimmered in the light. 

“What’s going on with your tail?” Beatrix shouted over the rushing sound of the waves.

“It changes whenever I need to swim, pretty cool yeah?” Hammish fluttered his tail in the sun. 

They continued through the waves, Beatrix getting splashed occasionally. When they made it to land the sun was almost ready to start setting.

“Thank you,” Beatrix called, Hammish was already leaving back into the water. 

The land was soft and the grass was dewy. The sun shone just over the horizon of mountains. The wind blew into the trees, different trees. He was no longer in the jungle, but in some kind of birch tree forest. The leaves clapped and the trees creaked as he walked through the woods. Red squirrels and chickadee birds swarmed the area, animals were everywhere making all kinds of noises. 

He took out his map and saw the direction, north, towards the rising moon. He walked for quite some time until he found a clearing. It was a nice field of dandelions and clover, the sight was beautiful in the night stars. He laid down and gazed up into the clear sky, the pitch black darkness of the world allowed him to see every star and every planet. Far in the darkness he saw the Earth, the human planet. 

He took off his satchel and placed it next to him in the grass. He rested his head on his paws and began to sleep. 

He was deep in sleep, and his dreams were full of kindness and peace. He dreamt of his mother in the skulk camp. He could feel her seven warm tails curling into him and pressing him close to his mothers stomach. He listened intently as he heard her speak. 

“God gave us our home here, a beautiful place full of starry nights and warm days.” She whispered. She cuddled into him, nuzzling his cheek. “You see, when God made us and our friends, he also made the humans. We were at peace for a while, but God felt something off, he knew something was wrong…we didn’t belong together,” He curled and rolled into his side, his back pressed against his mothers stomach. “God said the humans would not take kindly to our powers, he said if we stayed, the future would hold too much blood and disorder,” She took a breath. “There was one kitsune picked by God to help him create the world you are laying on right now. He is called the Kasai Tengoku, he and his eleven siblings are the caretakers of our world, Sekai.” She placed her arm around Beatrix as he started to drift to sleep. “One day, you will meet them all. But you will be more alive than anyone ever was, when you see them.”

Beatrix’s mind went black as he went into a deep slumber, his dream left him with warm and fuzzy feelings, remembering his mother and her stories. 

Beatrix awoke to the sound of clomping hooves, they sounded like they were running right at him. He opened his eyes and rolled over to see what was happening. 

“Oh wow, oh wow, wow, oh my!” Beatrix yelled as he jumped up from the grass. He quickly threw his satchel over his back and started running. Chasing after him was a massive catoblepas, its massive back legs had cloven hooves that kicked up pounds of dirt as it ran. Beatrix could feel the ground shake as the beast got closer. Crap! If I was fully grown I could outrun this guy! Beatrix cursed himself and his adolescent body. HE sprinted as fast as he could, his legs could barely keep up and he could feel his head becoming dizzy. He was about to faint. 

“Stop running!” The beast called, its voice was deep and gritty. Beatrix looked back to see the beast right at his tail. He yelped as he tripped over his own legs. This is it! I’m never going to see my mother again! He scrunched his eyes shut tight as he waited for his demise. He stayed still with his eyes closed, but nothing was happening, all he heard was a great deal of raspy panting. 

“Kid…Get up…” The catoblepas gasped. Beatrix opened one eye slowly, then the other. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The map told him he was going to the Central Catoblepas Herd…but he had never actually seen a catoblepas before. It stood tall above him, massive muscles all over its body, broad shoulders, big grizzly muzzle, deep purple eyes, big bison horns. 

They both stared at each other for a moment before the beast sat down and lowered its head. Beatrix stood up, his head was still fuzzy from the exhaustion. He saw the catoblepas had dragon feet in the front, and bison hooves in the back. It also had a big curly mane around its sharp toothed half bison, half dragon head. Its neck was slightly too long compared to its body, but its neck was thick with all kinds of muscles bulging out and veins pulsing. 

“You need to come with me to the herd,” The beast stated. It got up and turned around to face a trail at the edge of the clearing. Beatrix got up and padded along beside him. 

In no time at all, they were standing in front of the tree arch entrance of the herds camp. The trees were tangled together and bound with strong bendy baby tree branches. Carved inside the trees were more beautiful gems, the same ones he found in the river. Beatrix stood in awe of the place he was about to enter. Berhane was already leading him inside. 

“Come on, I need to introduce you to our leaders,”