Kitsune of the Blue Sun

[Keeno POV]

Rafaela was sweating buckets as her trembling got worse and was just short of hyperventilating. Kay hugged her tightly to try and help calm her down, which seemed to work slightly, though color didn’t return to her completely.

“Is that thing somehow related to the Dead Zone?” I asked while tilting my head again. “I doubt it’ll pose much of a problem if we just kill it.”

Rafaela stared at me with an incredulous look.

“Yo-you can’t kill a dragon! They’re immortal, invincible creatures that will destroy a whole country if they make em mad! Everything’ll burn to ash…people will be taken…eaten…”

It seemed that Rafaela had some trauma regarding dragons which would make the next revelations a bit harder to explain. This is where Freya asked a question.

“Is that how the thing that lives here is? The dragons we’ve met haven’t been like that at all…well, they have their quirks, but they don’t kill indiscriminately.”

Rafaela looked at us like we were crazy, but the clear trepidation she was feeling seemed to calm down a little. I decided to try and broach the subject like it wasn’t a big thing to try and smooth this over as much as possible.

“Sure, we can be temperamental, but I don’t think we’ve destroyed a country for a long time. At least not in several hundred or more years.”

“Wha? Y-you’re a dragon!? I thought you were a kitsune!?”

“Half dragon. My kitsune side comes out more. That aside, I think we need to figure out what to do today. I’d like to get the lay of the land, but now I’m thinking I need to stay here with Kay and try to help her get used to being a Valkyrie. Can I ask you to take Pram and Freya around town Rafaela?”

“I can do that, but go back. What do you mean you’re half dragon!? That’s a big deal!”

“Is it? I am who I am and nothings gonna change it, so there’s no need to get hung up on it.”

I internally sighed in relief at this. Rafaela seemed too confused to be scared of this fact, though I’d have to think of something else once she finally parsed everything. For now though, it was imperative that we actually started getting things done.

“Get ready Kay.” I said as I stoop up, stretching. “The two of us have a long day ahead.”

Kay, who had started to doze again, hopped up as if she wasn’t just about to fall asleep again and rocketed herself into me, her tail waving back in forth fast enough to leave several afterimages. The two of us left the house and made our way to a more secluded part of the dilapidated area.

[Pram POV]

Rafaela stared at the door for several minutes before heaving a big sigh. Turning to us with a serious look, she spoke.

“Is she really part dragon? Like, really really?”

The two of us nodded instantly.

“*Sigh*I have so many complicated feelings about this.”

I looked at Freya, asking her with my eyes what we should do. She looked at Rafaela and asked her a question.

“We’ve met several dragons to, so maybe we can clear up some things for you. Maybe it’ll help sort thing out?”

Jumping onto Freya’s line of thinking I asked; “Tell us what you’ve heard about them and we’ll debunk those notions if we can.”

She looked hesitant but nodded eventually.

“Everyone here is told that dragons are arrogant, hateful, lust-fueled beasts that are prone to violence. They’ll kidnap any woman they see and either eat them or do unspeakable things to them before eating them. They’ll burn a city or village on a whim and then nap in the smoldering ruins.”

““…””

Freya and I looked at one another again.

“Hmm. Ignoring the kidnapping and eating parts, I’d say of the dragons we know, the one most prone to violence is Keeno.” Freya started.

“Her mum Fafnir is probably second then Eblana.” I continued.

“Loughshinny and Volundr seemed like the least violent ones. We haven’t met the other two so we can’t really say.” Freya followed.

“As for lust-fueled, again I’d say Keeno is at the top, but that only applies to Amaterasu. We don’t really know, but we can probably say the same about Emma and Fafnir.”

“It’s safe to say you only need to think about that if you are romantically involved with a dragon. At least from what we’ve seen and can guess.” Freya concluded.

“…So what I’m hearing is that the one that matches all these qualities the most is Keeno?”

“Pretty much.” I said nonchalantly.

She had a complicated expression on her face as she stood up.

“Well, let’s go. I’m gonna need to think about all this, so might as well show you around while I do that.”

She acted like all of what we said, but we could tell it was bothering her quite a lot. We got ready and a few moments later we left the house. Whether out of habit or some other reasoning, Rafaela carefully eased the door shut and, once it was, very slowly let go of the doorknob as if it would shatter if she moved too fast. Once she was done, she took the lead, ignoring mine and Freya’s confused stares. Taking the lead, she led us through the winding pathways to the town proper.

“This town is split in roughly two parts. This side is where most lower grade items and other niche things like remedies for rashes, medicines, and the like. If you really try and look, you can even find small shops that claim to read your future or are able to let you speak with dead loved ones, though all of them are just frauds that want your money.”

The way she said this last part gave the feeling that she had fallen for one or both of these tricks before.

“The other part of town, and one I highly advise not going to, is the shadier part. That side of town a lot of people deal in curses, poisons, and a lot of people over there either will try and kidnap you for some weird ritual or to test their concoctions. I’ve had to rescue Kay more than once from that side of town when she wandered over therefor one reason or another.”

As Rafaela spoke, we passed by some small looking shops, all of which had several varieties of herbs and roots hanging from ropes in front of the windows. We could see a few people milling about, haggling with shopkeepers, or tending to their own cauldrons. As we passed through, Freya and I received weary looks and a few shops even outright slammed the window shutters closed as we passed.

“I’m not sure about other places in Tamist, but the people in this town don’t really like outsiders. I mean, look where Kay and I live, and we’ve been here for at least six years now, though there are a few townspeople that have started to warm up to me. I-”

Rafaela was then interrupted by a gruff voice that came from a small gap between two wooden buildings.

“Well, I’ll be. If it isn’t the little birdie. Finally decided to show yer face after skipping work for a few weeks? Though you’d finally run, or was it that mutt of yours? Tell me, it finally croak?”

We turned to look at the source of the voice and found a tall man, whose head was as bare as stone and reflected the light of the morning sun. He was missing several teeth and though it was covered by a thick herbal scent, you could tell he was clearly an alcoholic.

“And who are these two strangers with ya, eh? Never took you for the kind to drop one pet and find another so soon, though at least these two er decent to look at. I specially like the wolf, those eyes, they make me feel things. As I’m the generous sort, I’ll let you walk yer pets today, but you’d better show yer face at the shop tomorra, oh, and I’ll be keepen yer pay from the days you wernt here and then some. And, bring them two too, I’d like to see what they can do.”

With a disgusting chortle, the bald man walked further into the small alley before completely disappearing.

Chaos Realm:

Luna: I wanna gut that guy. Reminds me of that one golden mongrel, though obviously less shiny.

Atmos: Yeah! I’ll start baking some cakes, Payto, don’t stop us.

Mm? …Sure…zzzzz

Luna: Atmos, we need a few thousand cakes before he wakes up again.

Atmos: On it, boss!