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A Kitsune’s Tale

Nes­tled amidst rolling hills and ver­dant mead­ows, Hikari no Mura, the quaint vil­lage, came alive with the enchant­i­ng pres­ence of kit­sune. The air buzzed with an ethe­re­al ener­gy, car­ry­ing whis­pers of mys­tery and folk­lore. As one approached the vil­lage, a kalei­do­scope of scents, sounds, col­ors, and an ever-chang­ing sky unfold­ed before their sens­es, immers­ing them in a fan­tas­ti­cal realm.

The scents waft­ed through the vil­lage, a delight­ful med­ley of nature’s won­ders. The sweet aro­ma of bloom­ing cher­ry blos­soms min­gled with the earthy scent of moss-cov­ered stones, cre­at­ing a fra­grant tapes­try that embraced the air. Hints of exot­ic spices from bustling mar­ket stalls, where kit­sune arti­sans proud­ly dis­played their vibrant wares, added a tan­ta­liz­ing lay­er to the olfac­to­ry symphony.

Sounds echoed through the wind­ing streets and cozy alley­ways, lend­ing a live­ly atmos­phere to the vil­lage. The soft rustling of leaves as the wind gen­tly whis­pered secrets among the trees pro­vid­ed a sooth­ing backdrop. 

Laugh­ter and cheer­ful chat­ter filled the air, inter­wo­ven with the melodies of stringed instru­ments played by tal­ent­ed kit­sune musi­cians. Occa­sion­al­ly, the dis­tant roar of a water­fall cas­cad­ing down rocky cliffs could be heard, adding a nat­ur­al rhythm to the son­ic tapestry.

As one ven­tured deep­er into the vil­lage, a stun­ning dis­play of col­ors greet­ed their eyes. The tra­di­tion­al kit­sune dwellings, adorned with intri­cate­ly carved wood­en facades, shim­mered in hues of deep crim­son, rich gold, and warm amber. Del­i­cate paper lanterns, sus­pend­ed from eaves, paint­ed the streets with a soft, mes­mer­iz­ing glow, cast­ing ever-chang­ing pat­terns of light and shad­ow. Kit­sune res­i­dents, don­ning vibrant silk kimonos in a kalei­do­scope of col­ors, added a vibrant touch to the already pic­turesque scene.

Above, the sky seemed to mir­ror the mag­i­cal essence of the vil­lage. In the day, the cerulean canopy stretched out like a lim­it­less expanse, adorned with fluffy white clouds that danced in the wind. As twi­light descend­ed, hues of vio­let, indi­go, and rose paint­ed the heav­ens, cre­at­ing a breath­tak­ing back­drop for the noc­tur­nal activ­i­ties of the kit­sune. Stars emerged one by one, twin­kling with an ethe­re­al glow, while the mes­mer­iz­ing dance of the Auro­ra Bore­alis paint­ed the sky with shim­mer­ing rib­bons of green and pur­ple, cap­ti­vat­ing all who gazed upon it.

In this realm, the vil­lage thrived as a haven for kit­sune, exud­ing an air of enchant­ment and charm. Its scents, sounds, col­ors, and ever-chang­ing sky wove togeth­er a mes­mer­iz­ing tapes­try that trans­port­ed vis­i­tors to a realm where mag­ic and folk­lore inter­min­gled, invit­ing them to explore and embrace the won­ders of this whim­si­cal world.

As the sun began to set over the hori­zon, a lone trav­el­er, a brown, cloaked kit­sune, walked the dusty sin­gle road into pass­ing through the vil­lage. He could hear sounds of mer­ri­ment as he approached, cant­i­ng his head and look­ing at the bright­ly lit tav­ern. The door swung open as a young kit­sune girl, with black hair and white tails, walked out, fol­lowed by a kit­sune male, with dark hair and brown tails. Both were dressed in dark cloaks that cov­ered their clothes and faces.

The two stopped on the stoop and talked for a moment before the male gave the female a short kiss on the cheek and then waved good­bye. As she turned and head­ed down the street, the male dis­ap­peared into the tavern.

The kit­sune trav­el­er entered the tav­ern and approached the bar where a large, red furred kit­sune with gold­en eyes stood pol­ish­ing glasses.

“May I help you?”

“I am look­ing for a place to stay and per­haps some food.”

“Are you here alone?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m afraid we don’t have a com­mon area, only pri­vate rooms. Will that work for ya?”

“I would,” the trav­el­er said, tak­ing a seat at the stool. 

“Today’s spe­cial is beef and veg­etable stew.” The bar­tender added.

“That would be per­fect, and a drink please, some­thing not too strong.”

The bar­tender put his hand on the counter. “It’s twen­ty gold for the room and two for the meal, anoth­er three sil­ver for the drink. You’re in luck. You got here just in time for the main attrac­tion. It’s almost time for the dancer to begin.”

The trav­el­er reached into his belt and pulled out twen­ty-five gold coins, set­ting them on the counter. “Please keep the rest.”

The bar­tender nod­ded and grabbed the coins. He picked up a large wood­en key with a wood­en tag and slid it across the counter. “Take the hall on your right to the back and go up the stairs. Your room is at the top of the stairs. You can’t miss it. Do you want your food here brought to your room?”

The trav­el­er looked over to the fire­place, where a few patrons sat talk­ing. “No. I think I will eat at the table over there. Thank you.”

The bar­tender nod­ded, and he picked up his drink and walked over to a table. A few minuteslater,r a young female kit­sune brought a bowl of steam­ing stew and a plate of bread to the table. She set the bowl in front of him and placed a glass of water on the table. A fierce round of applause and cheers filled the tav­ern. He turned to see a scant­i­ly clad kit­sune woman grace­ful­ly flow­ing over the stage. She was mes­mer­iz­ing to look at, her soft pink and white fur shim­mer­ing in the light of the fire. The trav­el­er took a bite of his stew and watched as the dancer began to sway back and forth.

Lyra, the six tailed Kit­sune dancer, danced in front of the fire, mov­ing her soft pink and white tails sen­su­al­ly from side to side. The fire illu­mi­nat­ed her soft fur, mak­ing her shine like a snow fox in the moon­light. As she moved her tails, she spun around the pole, slow­ly let­ting her legs move up and down the post. Her long pris­mat­ic hair cas­cad­ed down her back like a flow­ing riv­er of silk, sway­ing gen­tly in the breeze. She grace­ful­ly danced across the stage, spin­ning and mov­ing like a soft spring breeze. The patrons were entranced by her grace­ful move­ments, watch­ing as she swayed back and forth.

Tasuki,the trav­el­er, fin­ished his meal and watched the dancer. He sipped his drink and smiled as the dancer danced around the pole. The patrons applaud­ed as she danced. She spun around the pole and began to move her hips back and forth, her tails wav­ing in the air. She reached down and untied the knot that held her out­fit togeth­er. With a soft tug, the silken fab­ric fell to the floor, expos­ing her bare fur to the crowd, leav­ing almost noth­ing to his imag­i­na­tion. She was breath­tak­ing. She moved across the stage, swing­ing her hips and bend­ing down, thrust­ing her chest for­ward. The crowd cheered and clapped as she moved around the stage.

Tasu­ki was mes­mer­ized by the dancer’s beau­ty. His eyes fol­lowed her every move­ment. He could­n’t take them off her. She was mag­nif­i­cent. He drank the last of his drink and sat back in his chair, watch­ing the beau­ti­ful kit­sune dance.

Tasu­ki stood up from the table and made his way towards the stage. He stopped in front of the stage and watched the dancer dance. She was like a dream come true. She moved her hips back and forth, thrust­ing her chest out. Her fur glis­tened in the fire­light, glow­ing like a shin­ing star. Her long pris­mat­ic hair flowed behind her like a cur­tain of silk. She was a vision of beau­ty. He was cap­ti­vat­ed by her grace­ful move­ments. He stood there for a moment, watch­ing her dance. Then he reached into his pouch and pulled out a small pouch of gold coins, toss­ing it in the air. The coins rained down around her, cre­at­ing a shim­mer­ing cur­tain of gold. The dancer smiled and blew him a kiss as she picked up the coins. Then she con­tin­ued to dance.

Tasu­ki smiled as he watched her dance. Then he turned around and walked back to his seat. As he sat down, he noticed the bar­maid at the table, col­lect­ing his emp­ty bowl and mug. He looked up at her and smiled. 

The bar­maid smiled and spoke. “I can arrange a meet­ing if you’d like. For a hun­dred gold, I can arrange for her to come to your room for a pri­vate show.”

Tasu­ki looked at her and spoke. “I don’t need her to come to my room. I’m only here for the night. I’m not inter­est­ed in her services.”

The bar­maid smiled and bowed her head. “Suit your­self stranger.”

Tasu­ki nod­ded. “It’s ok.”

The bar­maid nod­ded and picked up his bowl and mug, tak­ing them to the counter.

Tasu­ki watched the dancer for a moment, then drank water in sev­er­al big gulps. A few moments lat­er, a kit­sune female, with sil­ver hair and sil­ver and white fur, came over to the table.

“Are you enjoy­ing the show?”

Tasu­ki turned to look at her and smiled. “Yes, it is quite enjoyable.”

“Would you like to buy me a drink?”

Tasu­ki looked at the kit­sune and smiled. “Actu­al­ly, yes, I think I would”

Tasu­ki reached for a sec­ond coin pouch on his belt. “What would you like?” he asked, pulling out a gold coin from the pouch. “Please, have a seat.”

The bar­maid walked over to the table, pick­ing up the coin.”Two more of the same then?” she asked before turn­ing around and walked back to the bar. “I will be right back with your drinks.”

Tasu­ki nod­ded and smiled. “Thank you.”

The kit­sune female sat down in the chair and looked at Tasu­ki. “I did­n’t catch your name.”

“You may call me Tasuki.”

“Well, I’m Sakara,” the kit­sune female replied.

Sakara sat down in the chair and looked at Tasu­ki. “You seem to be enthralled by Lyra’s danc­ing. Do you know her?”

Tasu­ki looked at Sakara and smiled. “I have nev­er seen her before tonight.”

“She is a very love­ly girl.” Sakara added.

Tasu­ki looked at the kit­sune and smiled. “Yes, she is.”

The bar­maid walked over to the table with a mug in each hand and set them down on the table. She smiled at Sakara. “Your drinks, sir.”

Tasu­ki looked at the bar­maid and smiled. “Thank you.”

“That will be six sil­ver for the drinks, sir.” The bar­maid replied.

Tasu­ki looked at the bar­maid and pulled out his coin pouch and stopped before remov­ing any of the coins. “I believe you have already been paid.”

The bar­maid bowed her head. “I’m sor­ry. I for­got.” She admit­ted with a frown.

Tasu­ki smiled and spoke. “That’s ok.”

The bar­maid turned around and walked back to the bar.

Tasu­ki looked at the mug of ale and took a drink. He sat the mug down on the table and turned back to Sakara.

“Where are you from?” Sakara asked.

Tasu­ki turned to look at the kit­sune. “I am from very far away. I am only here for the night before I con­tin­ue my jour­ney east.”

Sakara looked at Tasu­ki and spoke. “Are you trav­el­ing alone?”

Tasu­ki looked at the kit­sune and smiled. “I am.”

Sakara looked at Tasu­ki and spoke. “Where are you heading?”

“The city. I’m meet­ing an old friend I’ve not seen in sev­er­al years.”

Applause fills the tav­ern and Tasu­ki quick­ly turns to see Lyra bow and dis­ap­pear behind the cur­tains of the stage. “Exquis­ite,” he mur­murs to himself.

Tasu­ki looks at Sakara and smiles. “I was entranced by her dancing.”

“She is very tal­ent­ed. She comes here every night.” Sakara said.

Tasu­ki nods and picks up his mug, tak­ing a sip of ale. “I was impressed. It was a won­der­ful performance.”

Sakara looked at Tasu­ki and smiled. “What do you do for a living?”

“I study mag­ic. I’m some­what accom­plished as a magician.”

“Real­ly? I would love to see your mag­ic,” Sakara said.

Tasu­ki looked at the kit­sune and smiled, bring­ing his hand to the table and cre­at­ing a small dis­play of fire­works half a meter above the table with a small bang, gath­er­ing the atten­tion of near­ly every­one in the tavern.

Sakara’s eyes widened as she watched Tasuk­i’s dis­play of mag­ic. “That was amaz­ing! Can you do more?”

Tasu­ki smiled and nod­ded. He made a sec­ond dis­play with a sec­ond bang. Then a third fol­lowed by a fourth with a third bang.

The patrons began to clap and cheer. Tasu­ki turned to see the bar­maid at the counter, smil­ing and clap­ping as well. He smiled and bowed his head.

Tasu­ki looked at Sakara and spoke. “Thank you, that is very kind of you.”

Sakara smiled. “It was tru­ly amaz­ing. I’ve nev­er seen any­thing like that before.”

Tasu­ki nod­ded and took a sip of his drink. He turned and looked at the emp­ty stage, frowning.

Sakara looked at Tasu­ki and spoke. “Is some­thing wrong?”

Tasu­ki looked at the kit­sune and spoke. “No. I was just hop­ing Lyra would come back out.”

Sakara nod­ded. “She usu­al­ly dances once and then leaves.”

Tasu­ki turned his head towards the door as the door opened. He smiled as the dancer entered the tavern.

“Oh, there she is,” Sakara said, point­ing to Lyra.

Tasu­ki nod­ded. “Yes, she is”

Lyra walked over to the bar and talked with the bar­tender for a few minutes.

Sakara turned to Tasu­ki and spoke. “Would you like to meet her?”

Tasu­ki looked at the kit­sune with a frown. “Meet her, yes, hire her, no.”

Sakara frowned and looked at Tasu­ki. “Why not? You enjoyed the show, right?”

“I did enjoy her show, but I’m not inter­est­ed in hir­ing her services.”

“You don’t find her attrac­tive?” Sakara questioned.

Tasu­ki looked at the kit­sune and smiled. “I do find her very attractive.”

Sakara looked at Tasu­ki and spoke. “Well, then, why don’t you buy her a drink?”

Tasu­ki con­sid­ers for a moment and nods. “That is a rather good idea. What would you suggest?”

Sakara smiled. “A drink of whiskey would be good. It’s her favorite.”

Tasu­ki nod­ded. “Ok, I’ll get her one. What about your­self? Would you like anoth­er? Con­sid­er it a thank you for your help.”

Sakara nod­ded. “Sure, I will have anoth­er ale.”

Tasu­ki smiled, nod­ded and walked to the bar and approached Lyra and the bartender.

Lyra smiled as he approached the bar. “Hel­lo stranger, thank you for your applause and the coin.”

Tasu­ki smiled and spoke. “I was hop­ing I could buy you a drink, whiskey perhaps?”

Lyra smiled and nod­ded. “That would be nice, thank you.”

Tasu­ki looked at the bar­tender and spoke. “Two ales and a whisky, please.”

The bar­tender nod­ded and began to pre­pare the drinks.

Tasu­ki turned to Lyra and smiled. “Your show was won­der­ful. You are very talented.”

Lyra smiled and spoke. “Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

“Will you join me at my table?” He motions to the table with Sakara.

“Sure,” she replied, smil­ing and fol­low­ing him to the table.

Sakara smiled as they approached the table. “Hel­lo Lyra.”

“Hi Sakara, what are you doing here?”

“I was chat­ting with Tasu­ki. He was cap­ti­vat­ed by your danc­ing, so I offered to intro­duce you two. He is a magician.”

“A magi­cian?” Lyra asked, look­ing at Tasuki.

“Yes, you should see it. He used mag­ic to make fire­works for me.” Sakara said.

“Fire­works? That sounds like a fun mag­ic trick.” Lyra replied.

“It was very impres­sive. It was like noth­ing I had ever seen before.” Sakara added.

Tasu­ki sat down at the table and smiled. “Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

Lyra sat down next to Tasu­ki and smiled. “Would you mind show­ing me your magic?”

Tasu­ki looked at the kit­sune and smiled. “Of course, I would be hap­py to show you my mag­ic,” he said, repeat­ing his ear­li­er fire­works display.

Lyra watched in amaze­ment as Tasu­ki cre­at­ed a small dis­play of fire­works above the table. “That was very impres­sive. I’ve nev­er seen mag­ic up close before.”

Tasu­ki nod­ded. “Thank you.”

Lyra smiled. “I would love to learn magic.”

“Mag­ic takes a great deal of ded­i­ca­tion, patience, and nat­ur­al tal­ent can be a great aid. While there can be short­cuts, those tend to deal with mak­ing a pact with a super-nat­ur­al pow­er and that comes with its own dan­gers. I am only here for the night and that isn’t enough time for me to teach you.” Tasu­ki says with a frown, shak­ing his head.

Lyra frowns, “I under­stand. Maybe anoth­er time?”

“I am head­ing to the city tomor­row. Why not trav­el with me? If you are ded­i­cat­ed, become my appren­tice,” Tasu­ki suggests.

Lyra looks at Tasu­ki, hes­i­tat­ing. “What would that even entail? How much time would it even take?”

Tasu­ki says, “It will take at least a year, like­ly sev­er­al, and if you are ded­i­cat­ed, it will be worth your time. Mag­ic can take a life­time to mas­ter. It will not be easy.”

“I have my own duties, my own life. I can’t devote that time to you,” Lyra says, look­ing away.

Tasu­ki nods, “Then, I wish you the best, Lyra. It was a plea­sure to meet you.” as he downs his mug of ale and ris­es from the table.

Lyra frowns. “Wait!” she calls out as he turns to leave.

Tasu­ki stops and looks at her with a ques­tion­ing gaze.

Lyra sighs and looks away. “Can you tell me what would be involved in this appren­tice­ship? Would I need mon­ey? Sup­plies? Where would I stay? What would I be doing?”

Tasu­ki nods, return­ing to his seat, his gaze meet­ing hers. “Mon­ey and sup­plies would be help­ful to make you more com­fort­able and per­haps make your stud­ies some­what eas­i­er. Lodg­ings would depend. I would advise your own bedroll and blan­ket, but when we are in any set­tle­ment, we could share a dwelling. I expect to trav­el for a while so study­ing will be slow until we return to my home. As I have pre­vi­ous­ly men­tioned, it would be at least a year and pos­si­bly many more. If you come with me, it may be a very long time before you ever return to Hikari no Mura if you ever do.”

Lyra looks away, her gaze fixed on the emp­ty stage. “I can’t leave my fam­i­ly, my home. I have respon­si­bil­i­ties here.”

“I under­stand. We only just met.” He rais­es a fin­ger and draws a shim­mer­ing rune in the air with his fin­ger. “As I have pre­vi­ous­ly men­tioned, mag­ic takes ded­i­ca­tion. The first step is accept­ing that and doing what is nec­es­sary. Do you want it bad­ly enough? I will be in the room at the top of the stairs until rough­ly sun­rise. After break­fast I will depart, I had no inten­tion of com­ing back this way. You have until then to decide. If you want to come, you know where to find me.” He stands giv­ing a small bow to her as the glow­ing rune fades into nothingness.

Lyra nods and looks at him with a sad smile. “Thank you Tasu­ki, I appre­ci­ate the offer.”

“It was a plea­sure meet­ing you as well, Sakara. I tru­ly must get some rest for my jour­ney in the morn­ing. Good night to you both.”

“Good night Tasu­ki. It was nice to meet you. I nev­er thought I’d get a chance to see mag­ic up close.” says Sakara. 

As Tasu­ki walks down the hall out of sight, Sakara leans clos­er to Lyra, whis­per­ing, “You can’t pos­si­bly be con­sid­er­ing going with him Lyra. You don’t know any­thing about him. He could rob you, hurt you, or worse.”

Lyra looks at Sakara and smiles, “He seems very kind. I feel safe with him.”

Sakara shakes her head, “You know as well as I do that does­n’t mat­ter. You’re a dancer, not a noble or a wiz­ard. You aren’t wealthy or influ­en­tial. He is clear­ly a stranger to this vil­lage. He could be any­one. He could be dangerous.”

Lyra sighs, “I know Sakara. But when will I ever get anoth­er chance? I’ve nev­er seen mag­ic in per­son before I did tonight and he says he could teach me. I could nev­er afford to be tutored or afford entry into the guild of mages. This could be my only chance to learn. I want to learn.”

“But what if you can’t? What if you don’t come back? This is your home. Think of what that would do to your fam­i­ly. How do they even find you if they need you? This isn’t a good idea Lyra, please, I’m beg­ging you to think about it more.” Sakara pleaded.

“I will. I just need to sleep on it. I promise to think about it before I make any deci­sion.” Lyra says, stand­ing up from the table.

***

Over the next hour Lyra wan­dered the vil­lage won­der­ing if she was crazy for even con­sid­er­ing Tasuk­i’s offer. Look­ing up from her walk, she notices she’s stand­ing direct­ly below the win­dow of the room Tasu­ki was stay­ing in. She sighs. “Some­thing brought him here. Some­thing brought me to him. Will I ever for­give myself if I let this chance slip away?” With new­found deter­mi­na­tion, Lyra makes her way towards the back of the tav­ern where Tasuk­i’s room is locat­ed. She reach­es the door and knocks gently.

“Tasu­ki?” Lyra called qui­et­ly through the door.

“Yes?” A muf­fled voice came from the oth­er side of the door.

“It’s me, Lyra.”

“Come in.”

Lyra opens the door and walks inside, clos­ing the door behind her. Tasu­ki is lying in the bed under the bed­sheets, his belong­ings and clothes stacked neat­ly on the chair by the window.

“I did­n’t think you would come,” he said sleepily.

“I thought about what you said, and I’ve decid­ed to accept your offer.” Lyra replies with a smile.

“Are you cer­tain you want this?”

Lyra nods. “Yes, I think it’s worth the risk. I need to tell my fam­i­ly and friends. I’ll be ready tomor­row, but I’m not sure it will be by sun­rise. I need to get a few sup­plies. Could you delay your trip for an hour, maybe two after sunrise?”

“Of course, I can man­age that much of a delay to have com­pa­ny on my jour­ney.” Tasu­ki says with a smile.

“Thank you, Tasu­ki. I appre­ci­ate you being so under­stand­ing.” Lyra says, bow­ing her head.

Tasu­ki chuck­les, “You are wel­come, Lyra. Now go and do as you must do to pre­pare, but I do sug­gest you sleep, we have a long day ahead of us tomor­row. We will need our strength for the journey.”

“Yes, I will, good night Tasu­ki.” Lyra says, turn­ing to leave.

“Good night Lyra.” Tasu­ki replies.

Lyra steps out of the room and clos­es the door behind her.

***

Lyra quick­ly returned to the tav­ern to inform Sakara and the bar­tender of her deci­sion to fol­low Tasu­ki to learn mag­ic. After explain­ing her­self to the pair, she need­ed to explain her inten­tions to her par­ents. They weren’t going to be hap­py, and she knew it. Her moth­er and father were less than impressed with her danc­ing at the tav­ern. She could­n’t imag­ine what they would say about this. She hoped they would at least be rea­son­able and let her make her own decisions.

After find­ing her par­ents, Lyra sat down with them and explained her sit­u­a­tion. They were not hap­py to hear about her plans, but they also under­stood that she felt she had to fol­low her own path in life, and that they need­ed to sup­port her in that. After speak­ing with them for a while, she went to bed with a lot on her mind. She was­n’t sure if she was mak­ing the right deci­sion, but she knew that if she did­n’t try she would always regret it.

She tossed and turned for a while before final­ly falling asleep, exhaust­ed. The next morn­ing Lyra woke ear­ly and start­ed pack­ing a small bag of items she would need to take with her, includ­ing some dried meat and cheese she had saved for a rainy day, and all the coin she had earned from danc­ing, sev­er­al hun­dred gold and some odd sil­ver, enough for maybe a week’s stay at an inn in the city, hope­ful­ly it was enough.

After pack­ing she went down­stairs to speak with her par­ents one last time, let­ting them know that she would be leav­ing Hikari no Mura short­ly. She spent a few min­utes talk­ing with them before head­ing to the tav­ern to meet up with Tasuki.

Once at the tav­ern she opened the door and walked inside to find Tasu­ki sit­ting at a table wait­ing for her.

“Good morn­ing Tasu­ki,” she said with a smile. “I’m ready to go when­ev­er you are.”

Tasu­ki smiles and nods. “Good morn­ing Lyra, you look very excit­ed to begin this jour­ney,” he said, stand­ing up from his chair and pick­ing up his sack.

“I am. I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she said, her smile beam­ing with excitement.

“Then let us be off.” He said, walk­ing towards the door.

Tasu­ki stepped out­side the tav­ern and wait­ed for Lyra to join him. “Let us make haste. We lost an hour of day­light already. I hope to get to the riv­er by dusk, and the city the fol­low­ing day. That will put us on schedule.”

“Ok.” Lyra said fol­low­ing after him with a big smile on her face.

As they walked out of the vil­lage, Tasu­ki noticed that Lyra was still smiling.

“Are you excit­ed about this Lyra?” He asked.

“Yes, I am.” She said with a nod.

“Are you ready to begin your stud­ies now?”

“Yes, I am ready.” She said with a nod.

Tasu­ki smiled as they walked along the dirt road, “Then to start, tell me every­thing you know about magic.”

“Only that’s very rare. Hard­ly any­one can use it and those that can either don’t know much or guard their knowl­edge care­ful­ly. There is a guild of mages, but their mem­ber­ship is very exclu­sive, only nobles or the rich can afford their ser­vices. Your mag­ic is the only I’ve ever seen first hand, prob­a­bly the only mag­ic any­one in the tav­ern has ever seen. The fire­work dis­play was amaz­ing. I’ve nev­er seen any­thing like it before.”

Tasu­ki nod­ded. “Mag­ic is a pow­er­ful force, but it is also very dan­ger­ous. Those who wield mag­ic need to be very care­ful with how they use it. Mag­ic comes with a cost, and most peo­ple don’t real­ize that until it’s too late.”

Lyra nod­ded, “I understand.”

Tasu­ki slowed his pace and whis­pered to Lyra. “I’m afraid we’ll need to cut our les­son short, we are being followed.”

“Fol­lowed?” Lyra whis­pered back in a ner­vous tone.

Tasu­ki nod­ded. “Some­one is fol­low­ing us. I’m not sure who or why. Just keep your guard up and be ready for anything.”

Lyra nods, “I’ll be ready.”

Tasu­ki nod­ded and con­tin­ued walk­ing down the road.

Lyra fol­lowed after him, keep­ing her guard up just in case.

They con­tin­ued walk­ing down the road until they came upon a fork in the road. Tasu­ki stopped and looked down both roads and behind them. “We shall hide here and see if we can get a bet­ter look at our pur­suer. Fol­low me.”

He moved off the road to a tree at the edge of the woods and motioned for Lyra to fol­low him. He crouched down and crawled under the branch­es of the tree until he was out of sight. Lyra fol­lowed him and crouched down, keep­ing her eyes on the road.

Tasu­ki pulled out a small stone and whis­pered, “Glep­nir” and threw it onto the road.

“What did you just do?” Lyra whispered.

“I enchant­ed the stone to glow once our pur­suer draws near enough.” Tasu­ki answered.

“Oh.” Lyra replied.

“Do you have any idea who might be fol­low­ing us?” Tasu­ki whispered.

Lyra shook her head, “No. I have no idea who might be fol­low­ing us, or why.”

Tasu­ki nod­ded. “Well, we’ll just have to wait and see who it is and what they want.”

Lyra nod­ded in agreement.

It did­n’t take long for their pur­suer to catch up with them. They were both shocked to dis­cov­er that it was Sakara, their friend from the tavern.

Tasu­ki looked at Lyra and spoke. “It seems your friend is fol­low­ing after us.”

“Why would she…” Lyra questioned.

Lyra leapt from behind the tree to con­front Sakara. “What are you doing here?”

Sakara frowned, “I could­n’t just let you leave with­out me. I have to make sure you’re ok. What if some­thing hap­pens to you?”

“I can han­dle myself just fine.” Lyra replied.

“I’m sor­ry, but I’m com­ing with you.” Sakara said.

“No, you’re not.” Lyra said with a frown.

“I’m sor­ry, but I am,” Sakara said with a frown.

Lyra sighed, “Tasu­ki, I’m sor­ry but can Sakara come with us? She is my friend and she is only try­ing to look out for me.”

Tasu­ki con­sid­ered for a moment before nod­ding, “Yes, she can come with us, how­ev­er she will need to con­tribute on our jour­ney, assist with set­ting up camp, with scroung­ing for food, hunt­ing, and any costs incurred.”

“Ok, that’s fair. Thank you, Tasu­ki.” Sakara said.

Tasu­ki nod­ded, “As long as she is will­ing to help then you can join us, but let us get going before we lose any more daylight.”

Tasu­ki stood up from behind the tree and walked back to the road, Lyra and Sakara fol­low­ing after him. “Are you inter­est­ed in learn­ing mag­ic as well, Sakara?” Tasu­ki asked.

Sakara shook her head, “No, I nev­er had any inter­est in books or study­ing and I still don’t. Mag­ic is fas­ci­nat­ing, but I could nev­er ded­i­cate myself to all of that study just to learn to make a light show. That is noth­ing more than a par­lor trick to me. I only want to help Lyra. I’m just hap­py she will be safe.

Tasu­ki nod­ded, “I under­stand. Well, let us keep mov­ing. We need to get to the riv­er and fol­low it north to the city.”

Tasu­ki turned and con­tin­ued down the road with the two kit­sune for sev­er­al more hours. The sun had already set by the time they reached the riv­er and the well-used camp­site they had decid­ed to use for the night. They made a small fire and cooked some of the food they had brought with them, includ­ing the dried meat and cheese Lyra had brought. After fin­ish­ing their meal, they took turns wash­ing up in the river.

Tasu­ki returned to the camp­fire first. He began to unpack his bed roll and arrange it com­fort­ably by the fire, mak­ing him­self a com­fort­able spot to sleep. Lyra returned soon after with an arm­ful of fire­wood and placed it near the fire before sit­ting down on the ground to relax and remove her boots. 

“Where’s Sakara?” Tasu­ki asked.

“She went to get some more water,” Lyra replied.

Tasu­ki nod­ded and con­tin­ued to work on his bedroll.

Lyra removed her cloak and laid it near the fire to dry and then sat down by the fire and removed her boots and socks.

Tasu­ki sat down near the fire and start­ed to unlace his boots. “She has a lot of energy.”

Lyra nod­ded. “She does. She can be a lit­tle intense.”

“She wants to make sure you are safe and I under­stand that.” Tasu­ki said as he pulled his boots off.

“I know. I don’t mind hav­ing her with us as long as she does­n’t get in the way.” Lyra said with a shrug.

“She does­n’t strike me as the type to get in the way,” Tasu­ki said as he leaned back on his bedroll.

“I think she is just wor­ried about me. She knows I can be impul­sive, and she does­n’t want me to get in over my head.” Lyra said with a frown.

Tasu­ki nod­ded. “She seems very pro­tec­tive of you.”

“She is. We’ve known each oth­er for a long time,” Lyra said with a smile.

“Is she a friend?” Tasu­ki asked.

“Yes, she is. We have known each oth­er for years now. She is like a sis­ter to me.” Lyra said with a nod.

“How did you two meet?” Tasu­ki asked.

“My vil­lage has an old leg­end about a drag­on that once was its pro­tec­tor. I was pret­ty young and fool­ish and tried to go out and find it. I want­ed to live an excit­ing life,” she chuck­les for a moment, pick­ing up a stick and toss­ing it into the fire. “I want­ed to learn mag­ic back then too and thought the drag­on could teach me. She found me in the woods and brought me, and we’ve been friends ever since.” 

Tasu­ki leans in close­ly intent­ly, lis­ten­ing, “A drag­on of leg­end you say? I’d love to hear it. Do you remem­ber the leg­end? Would you tell me?”

Lyra nods and begins telling the sto­ry of the drag­on protector.

“It was said that a long time ago, when the world was young, there was a great beast who watched over this land. The great beast was said to be a drag­on. This great beast was the pro­tec­tor of the peo­ple and its exis­tence was a source of hope. Peo­ple often told tales of the beast to their chil­dren to com­fort them in times of hard­ship. The drag­on was said to be wise and strong and had the pow­er to grant wish­es. The peo­ple often believed that the drag­on could grant their wish­es and help them over­come their trou­bles. It is said that if you find the drag­on, you can make a wish. The drag­on will grant the wish, but only if you are wor­thy. Many peo­ple went search­ing for the drag­on. A few even claimed they had found the drag­on and that it had grant­ed their wish­es. They all returned with a smile on their face, but they nev­er explained what they wished for. It is said that if you are tru­ly wor­thy, the drag­on will grant you your wish, but if you aren’t, the drag­on will pun­ish you for your trans­gres­sions. It’s been decades since any­one has even claimed to have even heard of a drag­on. So peo­ple began to doubt the exis­tence of the great beast. Some even said that the drag­on was noth­ing more than a myth. Oth­ers said it was a spir­it or a god of sorts that pro­tect­ed the world from evil. A few even said that the drag­on was actu­al­ly a demon who caused great mis­for­tune to the peo­ple. The drag­on’s exis­tence is a top­ic of debate. Some believe it exists, while oth­ers say it’s noth­ing more than a fairy tale.”

“That is quite fas­ci­nat­ing!” He says, lis­ten­ing very intent­ly to Lyra’s sto­ry. “Did the drag­on of leg­end have a name?”

“There is no name that I remem­ber. Maybe Sakara will know. I remem­ber it was said to be known as the Gold­en Drag­on, but to our vil­lage it is referred to as the Drag­on of Hope.” Lyra said.

“I see. And this drag­on was believed to be real by your peo­ple?” Tasu­ki asked.

“Yes, the Drag­on of Hope was our pro­tec­tor.” Lyra replied.

Tasu­ki nod­ded. “Thank you for shar­ing your sto­ry Lyra, it was very interesting.”

Sakara walked over to Tasu­ki and Lyra. “I’m back. I hope you don’t mind that I filled up all your bot­tles. We are going to need them for the rest of the journey.”

Lyra looks at Sakara and sighs. “Thank you for doing that Sakara.”

“Indeed Sakara. Thank you very much. Lyra was just telling me of the Drag­on of Hope and how you both met. I am quite curi­ous about the leg­end. Do you know if the drag­on had a name?” Tasu­ki asked.

Sakara nod­ded. “Yes, the drag­on of leg­end is said to be called the Gold­en Drag­on. Its name…” She pon­ders for a moment and con­tin­ues, “Star, or some­thing like that. I think.” 

“Tsar­goth” Tasu­ki mut­ters under his breath.

“TSAR! Wait that’s it!” Lyra said excit­ed­ly, “I remem­ber now. It’s Tsar­goth. I know it is. It’s been ages since I heard the sto­ry but I remem­ber now. We always called it the Gold­en Drag­on.”  Lyra’s eyes widen and she turns to Tasu­ki, “How did you know that name?” 

He glances between the two and then into the fire for a moment sigh­ing.  “Let me place a spell of pro­tec­tion on our camp before we con­tin­ue our dis­cus­sion. Just a moment.” He said as he began to draw a large cir­cle around the camp.

“What is that for?” Lyra asked.

“To pro­tect us from things that may cause us harm and pre­vent any­one from out­side from lis­ten­ing in.”

“Like what?” Sakara asked.

“That is best left for me to explain after the pro­tec­tion is in place. I don’t want to say too much more.” Tasu­ki replied, com­plet­ing the cir­cle chant­i­ng a few qui­et words end­ing in an audi­ble snap around them. “We can con­tin­ue now.”

Sakara frowned at Tasu­ki and sat down near the fire, “Ok.”

Tasu­ki nod­ded and turned to Lyra, “Lyra, Tsar­goth, the divin­i­ty, it is my turn to tell you the truth. I am not an ordi­nary kit­sune, in truth, I am not even mor­tal, but a deity in dis­guise. My true form is that of a  gold­en drag­on. I am Tsargoth”

Lyra gasped, and her eyes widened in dis­be­lief. “That can’t be true. You can’t be a drag­on, a god, or any­thing like that.”

“I assure you I am,” Tasu­ki replied. “I nev­er heard of your leg­end before, but I do remem­ber your vil­lage, though it was a very long time ago. If we are to trav­el togeth­er and if you, Lyra, will be learn­ing mag­ic… You both trust­ed me enough to come with me. It is only prop­er that I trust you with mine.”

Lyra shook her head. “I still don’t believe it. If it’s true, then why hide your­self? Every­one in the vil­lage would have loved to see the Drag­on of Hope. And why walk? Could you tell me why you wouldn’t just fly to the city or is that a lie too?”

“You’ve got to admit it’s pret­ty hard to believe Tasu­ki.” Sakara added.

“It is not a lie. You said it your­self that every­one in the vil­lage would have loved to see me. I want­ed to see what has become of your vil­lage with­out inter­fer­ing, with­out mak­ing a scene. I have been there before, a very long time ago. Who would ques­tion me like this? I was just a trav­el­ing magi­cian. No one expects oth­er­wise.” Tasu­ki replied.

“Why don’t you show us? Prove it?” Sakara asked.

“I shall, on two con­di­tions. First, You must nev­er reveal my secret to any­one. Not ever. Not  with­out my per­mis­sion. Sec­ond, please do not be afraid. I am rather large in my nat­ur­al form but I am still myself. Do not be afraid.” Tasu­ki said quietly.

Lyra and Sakara look at each oth­er in sur­prise and confusion.

“Do we have a deal?” Tasu­ki asked.

Lyra and Sakara look at Tasu­ki and nod in agreement.

Tasu­ki sighs and ris­es from his bedroll,  and steps to the far side of the camp­fire, fac­ing away from them before remov­ing his cloak and strip­ping com­plete­ly naked.

Sakara gasped as she watched Tasu­ki remove his cloth­ing, cov­er­ing her eyes, not that she could see any­thing as he was fac­ing away from them.

Lyra stared in shock as she watched Tasu­ki undress. He had an ath­let­ic build, and he was mus­cu­lar, but not over­ly so. He was stand­ing in the light of the camp­fire with his back turned to them and his naked rear fac­ing them. His fur was short and soft looking.

Tasu­ki looked back over his shoul­der and smiled. “Ready?”

Lyra nod­ded, unable to take her eyes off of Tasuki.

Tasuk­i’s form began to shim­mer, he grew brighter than the fire, too bright to even look at; They both need­ed to avert their eyes from the inten­si­ty of the light. They felt a sud­den gust of wind and most of the bright­ness had fad­ed. As they both looked at where Tasu­ki was stand­ing, there was now an enor­mous gold­en drag­on, Tsar­goth in his nat­ur­al form, his scales glim­mer­ing in the fire­light. “This is my nat­ur­al form,” his voice boomed.

Lyra and Sakara stared in awe and ter­ror at the enor­mous beast stand­ing before them, its mas­sive body and gold­en scales reflect­ing the fire­light as its cerulean eyes glowed in the dark­ness. “Please do not be afraid. I mean you no harm. I am just show­ing you my true form.”

The two kit­sune looked at each oth­er for a moment and then turned back to Tasu­ki, the drag­on. “This can’t be real.” Lyra stammered.

“It’s… it’s true.” Sakara replied with wide eyes. “How??? WHY?”

Tasuk­i’s eyes nar­rowed. “This is my nat­ur­al form. Who you knew as Tasu­ki was my dis­guise, so I may blend in with mor­tal beings such as yourselves.”

“I’m not afraid. I just nev­er imag­ined some­thing like this. It’s amaz­ing!” Sakara said with wide eyes.

Tsar­goth smiled and looked at Sakara and then turned to Lyra, “Do not be afraid. I have told you that you are safe with me. I promise you are both safe.”

Lyra nod­ded. “I under­stand. It’s just a lit­tle sur­re­al see­ing some­thing like this. I’ve nev­er seen a drag­on before.”

“I hope you are not upset about my decep­tion,” Tsar­goth said in his nat­ur­al form.

Lyra shook her head and frowned. “I under­stand why you did. You did­n’t want any­one to know your secret. You were right the vil­lagers would either be ter­ri­fied or all over you demand­ing wish­es. I’m hap­py that you told us your secret.”

“Me too,” Sakara added, “It makes me feel a lit­tle bet­ter know­ing the truth. I guess I should thank you for telling us.”

Tsar­goth nod­ded. “You are wel­come. I would be lying if I said it was­n’t a lit­tle exciting.”

Lyra frowned. “How do you do it? Become a kit­sune? Can I become a dragon?”

“There is a lot to learn,” Tsar­goth said, “but there are ways that your form could be changed. Such things come with a cost… but should that tru­ly be your desire, it is some­thing I could assist you in exploring.”

“How would you do that?” Lyra asked.

“I am a god,” Tsar­goth said. “Do you recall that I said a short­cut in learn­ing mag­ic was a pact with a super­nat­ur­al being?”

“Yes.” Lyra replied.

“I am one such super­nat­ur­al being. I can cre­ate such a pact with you and impart you with a por­tion of my pow­er… Trans­form you… I must, how­ev­er, strong­ly cau­tion you. This isn’t some­thing I can do right now. I am a god, but as far as gods go I am a young one. I have only recent­ly awok­en into my true pow­er. I have nev­er yet trans­formed any­one in this man­ner. It could harm you.” Tsar­goth warned.

“I’m will­ing to risk it.” Lyra said, nodding.

“Please Lyra. I am not. Give me time before we make the attempt,” he cau­tioned further.

“I will.” Lyra replied with a nod.

“What is this pact you speak of?” Sakara asked.

“It is a pact of sorts between the super­nat­ur­al being and a mor­tal. The pact offers a great deal of pow­er to the mor­tal, but the mor­tal must pro­vide a sac­ri­fice in return. Some sac­ri­fice is expect­ed, such as the loss of your mor­tal life, some is expect­ed in the form of ser­vice and some in the form of pay­ment. If the sac­ri­fice is giv­en will­ing­ly, the pow­er is grant­ed. With­out train­ing such short­cuts to pow­er are excep­tion­al­ly dan­ger­ous and any­one will­ing to make the pact could gain immense pow­er which could eas­i­ly be used for both good or evil. One must choose how they will use it.” Tsar­goth replied.

“How much pow­er would it grant?” Lyra asked.

“That is a dif­fi­cult ques­tion to answer. I have nev­er done so before. And even so, there is still the pact that must be made. You want to become a drag­on? or are you want­i­ng pow­er Lyra?”

“Pow­er.” Lyra replied.

“Then I will need time to con­sid­er the sac­ri­fice I would have offered to me and I would ask we do so at my home, a place where I am more com­fort­able mak­ing the attempt. I do not wish to do any­thing to harm either of you. You must under­stand that you may nev­er return to your vil­lage after this. At least not in the life­time of any that would remem­ber you. This is your choice, but you will leave your lives as they are, your friends, fam­i­lies, your vil­lage, all of it behind you. Are you cer­tain you can live with that? If you are, I would help to cre­ate new lives for both of you. Or we could part ways now.” Tsar­goth said, look­ing at Lyra and Sakara with con­cern in his eyes.

Lyra thought for a moment and looked at Tsar­goth before look­ing back at Sakara. “What do you think, Sakara? Is this some­thing you would want to do?”

“I… I don’t know Lyra. I mean… becom­ing a drag­on sounds amaz­ing, but I’d have to leave my home and every­one I know behind. I’m not sure I can do that.” Sakara said with a frown.

“I under­stand Sakara. If you’re not com­fort­able with this, I will under­stand. You could also make a pact and be grant­ed pow­er, and not nec­es­sar­i­ly the form of a drag­on. Actu­al­ly, chang­ing anoth­er to become more dra­con­ic is some­thing I have accom­plished before. We would need to dis­cuss that, though.” Tsar­goth said.

“What do you mean?” Sakara asked.

“A pact would infuse you with some of my pow­ers, divine pow­ers. Do you leg­ends speak of beings that assist the gods? You would become some­thing more like that. Trans­form­ing anoth­er into some­thing more dra­con­ic is a far more inti­mate act.” Tsar­goth said.

“Inti­mate? What do you mean?” Sakara asked.

“Those I mate with become more drag­on-like over time. It would even­tu­al­ly fade how­ev­er those I’ve mat­ed with con­tin­u­ous­ly have retained their dra­con­ic traits as well as immor­tal­i­ty.” Tsar­goth replied.

“I… I’m not sure I want to do that.” Sakara said, shak­ing her head.

I nev­er said you did, nor did I offer. I am only explain­ing what I have done with oth­ers in the past. They grew horns, scales, wings, talons, even tails. They retained their nor­mal form, but they were far more dra­con­ic in appear­ance. They did not become drag­ons as much as they became some­thing more dra­con­ic. There are ben­e­fits and draw­backs to it. I can explain these in greater detail, but if there is no inter­est, then it is not impor­tant. I only offer to you as an option as my friends, an offer for eter­nal life.” Tsar­goth said.

Sakara frowned and looked away, “I’m sor­ry Tasu­ki, I think I’m just not ready to do that.”

Tsar­goth nod­ded. “I under­stand Sakara. I apol­o­gize if I offend­ed you.”

Sakara shook her head and looked at Tsar­goth. “No, you did­n’t offend me, it’s just a lot to take in. I just need some time to think about it.”

Tsar­goth nod­ded, “Of course, Sakara, take your time. I will not ask again.”

“I do want to make a pact with you, Tsar­goth. Just tell me what I have to do.” Lyra again added.

“I will Lyra, Tasu­ki has busi­ness in the city first. I spoke the truth when I said I was going to meet some­one.” say Tsar­goth. “Sakara?” Tsar­goth asks, keep­ing his voice low. “I hope all of this does­n’t change your opin­ion of me. Will you still be trav­el­ing with us in the morning?”

“I don’t know yet. I’ll need to think about it.” Sakara replied.

“Of course, just please know that you will always have my pro­tec­tion as long as you trav­el with me.”

“Thank you for that. I’ll keep that in mind.” Sakara replied.

“For now, it would be best if I resumed my dis­guise. May I have some space, please?”

The two kit­sune nod­ded, and Tsar­goth smirked at them. “I will need a bit more space then that unless it is your inten­tion to see Tasuk­i’s naked form.”

Lyra and Sakara both blushed and looked away from Tsar­goth return­ing to their seats near the camp­fire. “Oh… Sor­ry.” Lyra stammered.

“Not at all. Please excuse me for a moment.” Tsar­goth said as he closed his eyes and concentrated.

Lyra and Sakara watched in amaze­ment as Tsar­goth’s body shim­mered and shined brighter than the fire before them. The glow­ing mass of light shift­ed and con­tort­ed until the glow­ing form of Tasu­ki, fac­ing away from them, appeared naked where the drag­on once was. He quick­ly dressed his endow­ment only momen­tar­i­ly vis­i­ble as he stepped into his breech­es, before col­lect­ing his cloak and return­ing to his bedroll, toss­ing aside his remain­ing cloth­ing and cov­er­ing him­self. “Excuse the interruption.”

“Don’t wor­ry about it. You need­ed some room to change. I get it. Are you going to tell us why you need to go to the city?” Lyra asked.

Tsar­goth nods. “I am meet­ing a kit­sune friend named Kyn­dal. She is a magi­cian spe­cial­iz­ing in fire mag­ic. I met her dur­ing my trav­els to your world over a hun­dred years ago. She left with me then, much as the both of you are doing now. She had expressed an inter­est in vis­it­ing this realm again as she has been away so very long. I agreed to meet her in the city in about a day so she can return to my domain. Had I not revealed myself, it would have made that a lit­tle more complicated.”

“How long do you intend to stay in the city?” Sakara asked.

“Per­haps a week at most. After that I had intend­ed to return to my domain, that was until I agreed to men­tor Lyra.” Tsar­goth said, look­ing over at Lyra with a smile.

“And you said you’d only teach me for a year?” Lyra asked.

“I said for at least a year, we can change that if you wish. If you are to make a pact how­ev­er it would be far longer. You may not see your world again when we leave for hun­dreds of years. If ever. It is your deci­sion, and a dan­ger­ous one to make. You under­stand this, right?” Tsar­goth asked.

“I under­stand that if I do this I may not see my fam­i­ly or friends again. I am will­ing to take that risk if it means I can learn mag­ic.” Lyra replied.

“We have a long day ahead of us tomor­row. Unless either of you need any­thing fur­ther, I sug­gest we get some sleep.”

Sakara stood up and yawned, stretch­ing. “Ok, I think I’ll head to bed.”

“I shall retire as well.” Tsar­goth said stand­ing up and turn­ing his back to them as he undid his bedroll and crawled into it.

Lyra got up from her seat by the camp­fire and put out the fire with a buck­et of water from the riv­er, and then picked up her bedroll and crawled into it next to Tasuki’s.

Sakara took a step towards the camp­fire and turned around to find that Tsar­goth had already curled up in his bedroll and closed his eyes, he was fac­ing away from them but she could still see his sleep­ing form from where she stood.

She sighed and stepped away from the camp­site, sit­ting down against a near­by tree and leaned against it.

She thought to her­self for a while before lay­ing down against the tree and clos­ing her eyes, she soon drift­ed off to sleep.

***

Tsar­goth opened his eyes and sat up, and looked around at his sur­round­ings, he had slept the night through and it was just before dawn.

He rose to his feet and stretched before walk­ing over to the camp­fire. It sur­prised him to find that Lyra was no longer sleep­ing next to him, but Sakara was. He smiled to him­self. “I sup­pose she decid­ed to stay after all.” He thought to him­self. He then turned to Lyra’s bedroll and noticed she was no longer there, either. “Where in the world could she be?” He thought to himself.

He looked around the camp­site for a moment before catch­ing sight of Lyra stand­ing on the oppo­site bank of the riv­er, star­ing into the distance.

Tsar­goth watched Lyra for a few moments before step­ping away from the camp­site and approach­ing her. “Good morn­ing Lyra,” he said quietly.

Lyra turned to face him and smiled. “Good morn­ing Tasuki.”

“Are you ready to get going?” Tsar­goth asked.

Lyra nod­ded and smiled. “Yes, I’m ready to get going.”

Tsar­goth nod­ded and turned to walk back to the camp­site. Lyra fol­lowed after him. “We need to wake Sakara. We need to get mov­ing soon. It’s going to be a long day.”

Lyra nod­ded and head­ed back to the camp­site with Tsar­goth. “Sakara.” She said, shak­ing the sleep­ing kitsune.

“Ugh…” Sakara mum­bled in her sleep.

Lyra frowned and shook Sakara hard­er. “Sakara.”

Sakara’s eyes shot open and she jumped up, “What! What’s going on?” She looked around at her sur­round­ings for a moment before real­iz­ing where she was. “Oh. Sor­ry.” She said with a yawn.

“It’s ok Sakara. We need to get mov­ing.” Tsar­goth said.

“Ok. Just give me a moment.” Sakara replied as she got to her feet.

Tsar­goth nod­ded and returned to the campsite.

Lyra wait­ed for Sakara to get up and pack her bedroll before they fol­lowed Tsar­goth back to the road.

Tsar­goth led them down the road in silence. The three kit­sune were still pro­cess­ing all the infor­ma­tion they had been giv­en the pre­vi­ous evening. After sev­er­al min­utes, Tsar­goth spoke. “Are both of you alright? You are both very quiet.”

“I’m just try­ing to process every­thing Tasu­ki. It’s a lot to take in.” Lyra said with a frown.

“I’m fine. I was just think­ing about some of the things you told us last night.” Sakara said.

“Any­thing in par­tic­u­lar?” Lyra asked.

“It’s just a lot to take in. You’re a god. I’m trav­el­ing with my best friend and a god” Sakara said, shak­ing her head.

Tsar­goth nod­ded, “I under­stand. Would you both have rather I did not tell you?”

“No, no, I’m glad you did. It was just a lot to take in. It still is. I guess I’m just try­ing to work out all the details of how I fit into your life now.” Sakara said with a shrug.

“There are no expec­ta­tions Sakara. I have not made any plans beyond teach­ing Lyra to use mag­ic. You want­ed to be sure Lyra was safe. You can both still do that. You don’t have to be involved any fur­ther than that. I am not forc­ing either of you to do any­thing that you are not com­fort­able with.” Tsar­goth said.

“I know and I’m still here because I want to be.” Sakara replied

.

“Thank you Sakara. I am glad you are here. You will have my pro­tec­tion for as long as we are together.” 

Tsar­goth said, look­ing at Sakara and Lyra with a smile. “I think it would be a good time for your les­son Lyra,” 

Tsar­goth said, stop­ping for a moment. “You can join in if you wish as well Sakara.”

“I’m good.” Sakara said.

Lyra nod­ded, “Ok, I’ll learn.”

“As you wish Sakara, “He said dip­ping his head to her. “Alright Lyra, this is a med­i­ta­tive exer­cise. One of the things you will need to mas­ter for mag­ic is being able to stay calm and keep your mind focused regard­less of cir­cum­stances. With mag­ic a mis­spo­ken word or bad tim­ing can lead to dis­as­ter. Med­i­ta­tion can help you to keep your mind focused. Here is what I’d like you to do. Stand still and ground your­self. Focus on the sen­sa­tions your body is feel­ing, the weight of your body on your feet and the pres­sure on the ground. In a moment I want you to start walk­ing and pay­ing atten­tion to the sen­sa­tions you feel while doing so. lift­ing and plac­ing your feet and how your weight shifts as you move. Feel the sen­sa­tions of your feet touch­ing the ground with each step. Lis­ten to the sounds around you, the smells, the things you see. Ful­ly take in every­thing around you. If your mind starts to wan­der, bring your­self back to focus­ing on your foot­steps. Keep try­ing to do this until we next stop and rest.”

Lyra nod­ded and stood still with her eyes closed. She took a deep breath and held it for a moment before slow­ly exhal­ing and focus­ing on her sens­es. She con­cen­trat­ed on the sen­sa­tion of her feet touch­ing the ground with each step, lis­ten­ing to the sound of her breath­ing as she exhaled. The sound of the wind blow­ing through the trees around her, the smell of the earth and the riv­er, the feel of the sun on her face and the grass under her feet. 

Tsar­goth smiled and con­tin­ued his jour­ney keep­ing a clos­er eye on Lyra dur­ing her med­i­ta­tive exer­cise. He noticed that she seemed to be strug­gling at first, but once she start­ed con­cen­trat­ing on her foot­steps she became more relaxed and focused.

They walked for sev­er­al more hours before see­ing an increas­ing num­ber of farms as they walked and see­ing the city off in the distance. 

“We are near­ly there.” Tsar­goth said. “And please remem­ber, call me Tasu­ki while we are there.”

“Ok, Tasu­ki.” Lyra said with a nod.

“Tasu­ki,” Sakara said, “Would it be pos­si­ble for us to take a bath at the inn? We’ve been on the road for a cou­ple days now. We both need a wash.”

“An excel­lent idea, Sakara. I think I would rather enjoy that as well. There are pub­lic baths in the city but I think I can arrange for a pri­vate bath so we can talk if you’d both pre­fer. It will be more expen­sive but I think it’s worth it for our first night.” He said.

“That would be great Tasu­ki, thanks.” Lyra said with a smile. “How long has it been since you’ve seen your friend, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“About three months for myself, and I think about three or so years for her. Time flows dif­fer­ent­ly on this realm than my own.” Tsar­goth replied.

“What’s it like where you come from?” Lyra asked.

“My realm is called Sol Mahi­na. It is a place of end­less beau­ty and life. There are many dif­fer­ent bio­mes and habi­tats. There are forests, jun­gles, arc­tic regions, and deserts. It is a ver­i­ta­ble par­adise.” Tsar­goth said.

“It sounds love­ly,” Lyra said with a smile.

“It is love­ly. But I also enjoy trav­el­ing. I find it is rather fas­ci­nat­ing to see dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ments and crea­tures, but I have less time for that now. This jour­ney will like­ly be my last for some time now… I have too many respon­si­bil­i­ties to go off and trav­el. The only rea­son I could even spend the time here is because of the dif­fer­ent flow of time. If I spend two weeks here, a lit­tle more than a day will have passed in my home. So I can take time off.” He said.

“Oh, I see.” Lyra said with a nod.

“You men­tioned a home before,” Sakara said, “what do you mean by that? Your home? Or your realm?”

“Ah, my home is my realm. It is a demi-plane, a pock­et realm cre­at­ed by myself for fam­i­ly and my most devote fol­low­ers. Not that I have many, not yet. I have only awok­en into my true pow­er recent­ly. It is a rather small place at the moment. It is most­ly the palace I am a god of. I have a small vil­lage on it and a few others.”

“Oh,” Sakara said.

“Well, as a god, could you cre­ate more places like that? I mean a place with an end­less sup­ply of food and water for example?”

“I am a god of fer­til­i­ty, fam­i­ly, and life. About every type of crop of fruit grows there that you can imag­ine, The water is fresh and clean. I do not know if I would call it an end­less sup­ply but it’s more than enough for every­one there at the moment. And as my pow­er grows the abun­dance would as well and there would be even more. As for cre­at­ing oth­er places like that, I could per­haps but it is a very tax­ing process. I would need far more fol­low­ers before I could attempt to cre­ate anoth­er such place. But that is not a con­cern for now.” Tsar­goth replied.

“You’ve men­tioned your fol­low­ers and not hav­ing many right now. Do you mind explain­ing a lit­tle about what you mean?” Sakara asked.

“As a deity, I have a num­ber of fol­low­ers, peo­ple who are devot­ed to me and seek to help me achieve my goals. I am in charge of pro­vid­ing them with what they need to live and pros­per and I make sure their needs are met. If they need more food and I have too much food I give it to them, if they need more homes I pro­vide it, and so on and so forth. My fol­low­ers and the offer­ings they make help to fuel my pow­er. The more pow­er­ful I become the more peo­ple I can help which in turn helps to gath­er more fol­low­ers.” He replied.

“Oh, I see. Are you plan­ning to get more fol­low­ers then?” Sakara asked.

“I am hope­ful. My jour­ney through life has not always been an easy one but I see now it was a nec­es­sary one. I will do every­thing in my pow­er to ensure that no one needs ever be with­out fam­i­ly unless they choose to be. I do not know yet how I can accom­plish this. I know I will need help but that is my wish and I will need to gain more pow­er to do so.” He replied.

“You said you are a god of fer­til­i­ty, what does that mean?” Sakara asked.

“I am the god of fer­til­i­ty, my realm is filled with life and boun­ti­ful resources. There is noth­ing the peo­ple there lack. It is a par­adise.” He said.

“Can you cre­ate life?” Sakara asked.

“I can and have sired many chil­dren, I can help plants to grow and life around me to thrive and be fruit­ful. But to cre­ate a life from noth­ing… I have done so only once and it was also a tax­ing process. I have giv­en life to a gryphon like being. Her name is Sele­na, She’s in my realm right now. She is my eyes and ears there. Through her I can stay informed of the hap­pen­ings in my realm which is allow­ing me this time away. As I said, this will like­ly be my last such jour­ney until I have grown far stronger.” Tsar­goth said.

“So, what exact­ly do you expect from your fol­low­ers? Like what does one of your fol­low­ers need to do?” Lyra asked.

“That depends. There are those who would choose to wor­ship me, and pray to me. Oth­ers that make offer­ings. A few, most­ly my mates and fam­i­ly who active­ly work with me to achieve my goals, like the friend I am going to meet. They pro­vide assis­tance, help in achiev­ing my goals, and assist in my realm. Oth­ers who are my fam­i­ly and pro­vide me with com­fort, love, and support.”

“What do you mean by mates?” Lyra asked.

“I view love as an end­less resource, if I have a lit can­dle, and I share the fire of that can­dle to light yours mine does not dim or extin­guish. You can then share your can­dle with anoth­er or I could again share mine. With each can­dle the light would grow brighter. Love is the same. I share my love with oth­ers as I would share my can­dle light and have found many mates in my life­time most of which reside in my realm.”

“You view love as an end­less resource? How do you view sex then?” Sakara asked.

Tsar­goth chuck­led for a moment before sigh­ing. “Love is not just sex. I do not lim­it love to the act of sex. I find that to be a rather sim­ple way of express­ing love and affec­tion. The act of love is some­thing that is expressed in many ways, many ways that have mean­ing and pur­pose. But yes I do very much enjoy sex and love being a father. It is my divine duty. I must repro­duce. I am a god of fer­til­i­ty, love, and fam­i­ly after all. All of these things tie in with mating.”

“Ok, I think I’m ready to stop and rest for a bit,” Lyra said as they reached the edge of the city.

“It is good we are here then.” He says with a smile. “Let’s find a pleas­ant inn where we can get that bath, a com­fort­able room, and a good meal.”

Sakara nod­ded and the three kit­sune walked into the city, look­ing for an inn.

“Excuse me sir, are there any inns near­by?” Tasu­ki asked a ran­dom passerby.

The man looked at the three kit­sune for a moment before shrug­ging, “Sure, fol­low me.” He said before lead­ing them to the inn he worked at.

The man led them into the inn and showed them to a table in the cor­ner and a wait­er was quick to greet them.

“Wel­come to The Red Fox. My name is Alrick. I will be your wait­er today. Can I get you start­ed with some­thing to drink?”

“A pot of tea would be nice.  We would also like to stay for the night.” He looks to Saku­ra and Lyra, “Will we all share a room or would the both of you want some­thing for yourselves?”

“We’ll share a room,” Sakara said with a nod.

“Do you have a room with three beds?” Tsar­goth asked the waiter.

“Two beds would be fine. I could share a bed with Lyra,” Sakara said.

Tsar­goth nods and cor­rects him­self. “One room with two beds then please. And the pot of tea. We would also like a pri­vate bath.” Tsar­goth removed his belt pouch and placed a sin­gle odd­ly shaped sil­very coin on the table, a mithril crown, the wait­er’s eyes went wide in dis­be­lief as he hes­i­tant­ly picked up the exceed­ing­ly rare coin. “This should be suf­fi­cient to cov­er the expens­es for our stay. Do you not agree?”

“I‑I will go see what I can arrange for you right away.” The wait­er said leav­ing the three kit­sune at the table.

“How much is that worth?” Lyra asked.

“That coin would be worth about five hun­dred gold” He whis­pers to Lyra.

“What?!” Lyra whis­pered back in disbelief.

“It can be nice to indulge one­self every now and then. Besides it would help with the pros­per­i­ty of the inn and the city. With all we asked for any­way the cost would be well over a hun­dred gold any­way.” Tasu­ki replied.

Lyra nod­ded and frowned, “I’m just sur­prised how much it is worth.”

“That’s a lot of mon­ey,” Sakara said look­ing at Tasu­ki. “Isn’t that a lit­tle much? For one night?”

“It assures our needs will be met for the night and that the bath should be quite lux­u­ri­ous.” he leans in clos­er, rais­ing his arms around them to draw them in clos­er keep­ing his voice very hushed. “I am a drag­on after all. The coin is lit­tle more than a grain of sand com­pared to a dessert.” He says with a wink.

Alrick returned a few moments lat­er.  “I have arranged for you to use the pri­vate bath. It should be ready short­ly. Shall I bring the tea to your table now or would you like it brought to your room or the bath? Your room is also ready when­ev­er you would like to see it.”

“I think, our rooms first so we can leave our things then the bath and we can have our tea there. Do you agree?” He asks Lyra and Sakara.

“Yes,” they both say with a nod.

“Yes, that sounds good. We’ll need about five min­utes to get ready for our bath after we are shown to our room please.” Tasu­ki says to the waiter.

“If you are ready now sir I can show you to your room.” He motioned for the three of them to follow.

Tasu­ki fol­lowed the wait­er up the stairs to the sec­ond floor and down a hall­way to the last room on the left. The wait­er opened the door to show them a rather nice room with two large beds, a dress­er and a van­i­ty, hand­ing Tsar­goth the key.

“This should be fine. We’ll just need a few min­utes to get set­tled and then we would like to take our bath.” Tasu­ki said as he closed the door.

“I’ll wait out­side the door for you so you can get set­tled.” The wait­er said.

“Thank you,” Tasu­ki replied.

Lyra and Sakara both set down their back­packs on the bed near­est the win­dow and sat down.

Tsar­goth shuf­fled through his bag for a change of clothes before turn­ing to Lyra and Sakara, “Are you both ready?”

“Yes,” Sakara said.

“Yes,” Lyra replied.

With a nod Tsar­goth opened the door and turned to the wait­er. “Please show us to our bath and have the tea brought to us there.”

“Yes sir.” The wait­er replied with a nod and led them to the back of the inn and down a hall to a door that had a bath drawn on it. “This is the bath sir.”

“Thank you,” Tasu­ki replied as he walked into the room and start­ed undressing.

Lyra and Sakara stood there for a moment before fol­low­ing Tasu­ki and start­ing to undress themselves.

Tsar­goth eyes trailed over Lyra and Sakara with a small gulp. He set his cloth­ing  down next to theirs before step­ping into the bath. He low­ered him­self into the water and sat down and sighed, relax­ing in the warm water. “Please come in.” He motioned for them to join him.

Lyra and Sakara quick­ly fol­lowed Tsar­goth into the bath and sat down on either side of him. “This is real­ly nice,” Lyra said with a sigh.

“It is very nice indeed,” Tsar­goth said with a smile. He made a quick ges­ture with his hands and there was an audi­ble snap with a momen­tary crack­le of what felt like a sta­t­ic shock. “No one can lis­ten in on us now. We can talk freely.” He said in a low­er tone of voice.

“What did you do?” Sakara asked.

“I have ward­ed this room to pre­vent any form of intru­sion.” He replied.

“Oh,” Sakara said.

“This is won­der­ful. Thank you for the bath, Tasu­ki,” Lyra said with a smile.

“You’re wel­come Lyra, I am glad you are enjoy­ing it. And please for­give me ear­li­er for star­ing. You are both very love­ly.” He replied with a smile.

“Oh, that’s ok. It’s nice to know you like what you see.” Lyra said with a giggle.

“I do like what I see, but I must apol­o­gize if it was uncom­fort­able for you.” He replied.

“Not at all. You’re very hand­some.” Lyra said with a smile.

Sakara smiled at her friend. “Yeah, you’re very hand­some. It’s nice to know you find us attractive.”

“I do not know how com­fort­able you are with naked­ness. As a drag­on I nev­er wear any cloth­ing and it is quite com­fort­able for me to go with­out any sort of cov­er­ings.” He said.

“I’m ok with being naked as long as it’s just with you, and if you’re com­fort­able with it.” Lyra replied.

“I am very com­fort­able with it,” Tsar­goth said with a nod. “I am very much a phys­i­cal being, I pre­fer to use my body to con­vey my feel­ings and emo­tions. If I do not wish to be touched I will indi­cate so but I do not mind being touched by you. I would be lying to say I said I would­n’t enjoy the warmth of your body against mine.” He said with a smile.

“I see,” Lyra said with a smile, “I don’t mind touch­ing you if you don’t mind either.”

“I do not mind at all,” he replied.

Lyra smiled and leaned against him, rest­ing her head on his shoul­der and clos­ing her eyes.

Tsar­goth wrapped his arms around Lyra and held her, enjoy­ing the warmth of her body as they relaxed togeth­er in the bath.

Sakara watched them for a moment before look­ing away, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, tak­ing a few moments to calm her nerves before slow­ly open­ing them again and look­ing back at Lyra and Tsargoth.

Lyra sighed con­tent­ed­ly and turned her head to face Sakara, “Hey, are you alright?” She asked quietly.

Sakara nod­ded. “Yeah, I’m alright,” she said with a nod, “It’s just a lot to take in. I’m try­ing to fig­ure out how I fit in with the two of you.”

“If our touch­ing makes you uncom­fort­able Sakara we can stop but you are quite wel­come to come clos­er. I would very much like it if you were.” Tsar­goth said.

“It’s ok,” Sakara said, shak­ing her head. “I don’t mind you touch­ing each oth­er, or touch­ing me. I just need some time to adjust. I’m still try­ing to fig­ure out how I fit into your life now. I mean, you’re a god.”

“I under­stand Sakara. This is a big change for you. I con­sid­er you a friend first. If you would like a dif­fer­ent rela­tion­ship, a clos­er friend­ship, or a more dis­tant one I would be com­fort­able with what­ev­er the both of you decide. I care for all my friends very deeply and you already know my views on love. It is not lim­it­ed to one type of affec­tion. I have many types of love, fam­i­ly, roman­tic love, sex­u­al love. I do not see such things as mutu­al­ly exclu­sive. I could be your friend, your lover, your father. It does not mat­ter to me. I would hope we could be close friends regard­less of the type of rela­tion­ship you choose.” Tsar­goth said.

“You’re not upset that I don’t want to become your mate?” Sakara asked.

“I am not upset in the least. I would be hap­py if you did, but I do not expect it. I would hope to be able to keep you as a friend regard­less.” Tsar­goth replied.

Sakara smiled at Tsar­goth, “I think I’d like that too,” she said as she reached out and placed a hand on his shoul­der and smiled at him.

“I am glad Sakara,” Tsar­goth said with a smile. He looked down at Lyra who was still lean­ing against his shoul­der. “Are you ok Lyra?”

Lyra nod­ded and smiled, “Yes. I’m just try­ing to relax and clear my mind. It’s been a long cou­ple of days.”

“I under­stand Lyra. Would you like me to give you a mas­sage?” He asked.

Lyra’s eyes went wide and her heart start­ed rac­ing, “You would do that for me?”

“It would be my plea­sure, but only if you want me to.” Tsar­goth said.

“I’d love to have you mas­sage me.” She said with a smile.

Tsar­goth nod­ded and rose to his feet, stand­ing in the bath, his male­ness already stiff from the prox­im­i­ty to the love­ly naked ladies in the bath. He took a breath to com­pose him­self and turned to Lyra and knelt down behind her plac­ing his hands on either shoul­der and begin­ning to gen­tly rub them.

Lyra sighed and relaxed as Tsar­goth rubbed her shoul­ders, enjoy­ing the feel­ing of his hands on her.

“I hope this feels good. If you need me to stop or adjust please tell me.” Tsar­goth said.

“It feels won­der­ful. Please don’t stop.” Lyra replied with a smile.

“You have a love­ly smile Lyra. It is quite charm­ing,” Tsar­goth said.

Lyra’s face flushed at his words, “Thank you.”

“I’m not doing this for your beau­ty, though you are love­ly and I do like what I see. I am doing this to relax you and help you to heal. I see it as a great hon­or to do so.” Tsar­goth said as he con­tin­ued rub­bing her shoul­ders. “This may be anoth­er good time for a med­i­ta­tive exer­cise. Close your eyes and focus on the sen­sa­tions while tak­ing con­trolled breaths.”

Lyra nod­ded and closed her eyes and Tsar­goth con­tin­ued his massage.

Tsar­goth con­tin­ued his mas­sage, con­cen­trat­ing on help­ing Lyra relax and ease the ten­sion in her shoul­ders. He worked his way down her back slow­ly, gen­tly work­ing out the kinks in her muscles.

Tsar­goth smiled as he worked down her back, he was enjoy­ing the feel­ing of her soft fur and the curves of her body. His breath­ing grew heav­ier and he had to work to calm him­self down as his desires were grow­ing. He found him­self want­i­ng to know what it would be like to be with Lyra in the more inti­mate sense of the word.

He focused on his breath­ing and the feel­ing of her soft fur under his hands. He began to focus on the dif­fer­ences between his own fur and Lyra’s as he worked down her back.

He sighed and con­tin­ued his mas­sage for a while before tak­ing a deep breath and speak­ing again, “You can open your eyes now Lyra.”

“Thanks,” Lyra said with a smile.

“You’re quite wel­come,” Tsar­goth replied with a smile of his own. “How do you feel?”

“Much bet­ter, Thank you,” Lyra replied.

“You’re very wel­come.” Tsar­goth said with a nod. “Would you like a mas­sage Sakara?”

“Sure,” Sakara replied, “Thank you.”

Tsar­goth nod­ded and repeat­ed his ear­li­er actions, kneel­ing behind Sakara and start­ing to mas­sage her shoulders.

Sakara closed her eyes and relaxed as Tsar­goth worked on her shoul­ders, enjoy­ing the feel­ing of his strong hands on her shoulders.

“I hope this feels good. If you need me to stop or adjust please tell me.” Tsar­goth said.

“It feels won­der­ful,” Sakara replied with a smile.

“You have the most love­ly eyes Sakara and I can feel the strength in you when I touch you,” Tsar­goth said.

Sakara blushed and looked away, “Thank you,” she said quietly.

“It is the truth Sakara, I hope you know that,” Tsar­goth replied.

Sakara turned and looked back at Tsar­goth and smiled, “Thank you Tasuki.”

Tsar­goth nod­ded and con­tin­ued his mas­sage for a while before he spoke again. “I hope I was help­ful to the both of you,” Tsar­goth said as he returned to his seat in the bath.

“You were very help­ful,” Lyra said with a smile.

“Yes, thank you,” Sakara said with a smile of her own.

“I am hap­py to hear that. It was my plea­sure to be able to help.” Tsar­goth said with a nod.

“I should prob­a­bly fin­ish bathing now,” Lyra said.

“Yes, that would be wise,” Tsar­goth said with a nod.

“Can I ask you to give us some time alone? We’ll be out in a few min­utes,” Sakara asked.

“Of course,” Tsar­goth said as he rose to his feet and dried him­self off, dress­ing him­self in his fresh clothes and grab­bing cloth­ing and leav­ing the room.

Sakara and Lyra quick­ly bathed and dressed them­selves, fol­low­ing Tsar­goth out of the room a short while later.

Tsar­goth looked at Sakara and Lyra with a smile as they returned to their shared room. “I trust you both are refreshed. Are you ready for a meal?”

“I could use a meal,” Sakara said with a nod.

“I’m hun­gry as well,” Lyra said with a nod.

“Excel­lent, Shall we go to the com­mon area or would you rather eat pri­vate­ly here. I trust you under­stand cer­tain top­ics could not be dis­cussed in the com­mon area.” Tsar­goth asked.

“I think I’d pre­fer to eat pri­vate­ly,” Sakara said with a frown.

“Pri­vate­ly is fine with me,” Lyra said with a nod.

“What would each of you like to eat and drink? I remem­ber you like whiskey Lyra and I remem­ber you liked ale Sakara but if you would like some­thing else… I would love it if you both indulged with me tonight.” He says with a smile.

“I’m ok with whiskey, “Lyra said with a nod.

“Me too,” Sakara said with a nod.

“Then whiskey it is for you both,” He says with a smile. “And what about to eat?”

“I’d like some stew please,” Lyra said.

“I think I would like to try some stew as well, Tasu­ki.” Sakara said with a smile.

He bowed and made his way down the stairs ask­ing for a bot­tle of their finest whiskey, three glass­es, and a bowl of stew to be brought to their room. 

“I’ll have the stew brought up to you right away.” Alrick said with a smile, hand­ing Tsar­goth the bot­tle and three glasses.

Tsar­goth nod­ded and car­ried the bot­tle and glass­es up the stairs to their room and opened the door and looked in. Sakara and Lyra were sit­ting on the bed. “Our food will be brought up to you short­ly.” He said set­ting the bot­tle and glass­es on the night­stand next to the bed and pour­ing the whiskey and hand­ing them each a glass. “This should help with the chill from the bath.”

Lyra took her glass and took a small sip of the whiskey and it burned her tongue. “I like it,” she said with a smile.

“I don’t have much expe­ri­ence with whiskey but I think it’s nice.” Sakara said, tak­ing a sip from her own glass.

Tsar­goth took his own glass and took a long sip and smiled. “It is good.” He says set­ting his glass down. “I usu­al­ly do not like drink­ing. It has lit­tle if any effect on me. But I find it helps me fit in bet­ter when disguised.” 

He said look­ing over at Lyra with a smile.

Lyra nod­ded, “I can under­stand that. I usu­al­ly don’t drink much either.”

“Do you know how to cook?” Sakara asked.

“I do.” Tsar­goth replied.

“Oh, do you cook?” Lyra asked.

Tsar­goth nod­ded. “I can cook sev­er­al dish­es. I am not par­tic­u­lar­ly good at it though. I have always been more inter­est­ed in mak­ing oth­ers feel good rather than myself. I do very much enjoy things that are sweet. Cakes, cook­ies and things of that sort.”

“Real­ly? You look more like the type who would enjoy some­thing savory.” Sakara said with a smirk.

“What exact­ly do you mean by that Sakara?” He asks with a frown.

“I mean, I can’t pic­ture you enjoy­ing sweets like cook­ies.” Sakara said.

“I don’t see what is wrong with lik­ing sweets,” Lyra said with a frown. 

Just then there is a gen­tle knock on the door. “I believe our food has arrived,” Tsar­goth says as he opens the door.

There is a large bowl of stew, a loaf of fresh baked bread, a plate of but­ter, and a small pitch­er of cream, along with three small­er bowls and uten­sils on a tray. “Hel­lo,” Tsar­goth says to the waiter.

“Good evening sir,” the wait­er replies, “Here is your meal sir.”

“Thank you,” Tsar­goth replies, col­lect­ing the tray from him.

The wait­er bows and leaves the room.

Tsar­goth sets the tray down on the bed between Sakara and Lyra. “Enjoy,” he says as he sits down at the foot of the bed and takes his own bowl of stew and pours it into a bowl and begins eating.

Lyra takes a small bite of her stew and looks at Tsar­goth. “Do you mind if I ask you something?”

Tsar­goth fin­ish­es swal­low­ing down his cur­rent mouth­ful of food and quick­ly ward­ing the room again.

“Ask me what you’d like Lyra, I will do my best to answer.” Tsar­goth says with a nod.

“Ok, as a drag­on are you always naked?” Lyra asked.

“I am. While cloth­ing can be a way of express­ing one­self it is more often some­thing to offer pro­tec­tion from the ele­ments and to pro­tect one’s mod­esty. As a drag­on my scales are more than suf­fi­cient for this. I do not wear cloth­ing unless it is nec­es­sary for dis­guise.” Tsar­goth replies.

“That makes sense,” Lyra said with a nod.

“Was there any­thing else you would like to ask me?” He asks.

“How many mates do you have? I mean do you have many? Like how many?” Lyra asked.

“Sev­er­al dozen being truth­ful. Some are child­hood friends, my sis­ters, my broth­ers, sev­er­al of my grown chil­dren, and many oth­ers I have met in my trav­els, Oh… and Sele­na of course, the gryphon I men­tioned. Not all of them are drag­ons. Kyn­dal, the friend I have come here to meet has mat­ed with me on occa­sion as well.” He replied.

“What’s it like?” Sakara asked.

Tsar­goth looked over at Sakara and smiled. “What is what like?”

“Mat­ing,” Sakara said blushing.

Tsar­goth looked Sakara in the eyes and took a breath, “It’s an extreme­ly inti­mate and plea­sur­able expe­ri­ence. It’s open­ing one­self up to some­one show­ing them com­plete trust and shar­ing one’s body with anoth­er with noth­ing to hide behind. It strength­ens exist­ing bonds bring­ing those that share the expe­ri­ence clos­er togeth­er. It’s some­thing to be cher­ished.” He replied.

Sakara’s blush deep­ened as she nod­ded. “I see, I think I’d like to hear more about it.”

Tsar­goth nod­ded and took anoth­er deep breath and smiled. “I am very much a phys­i­cal being and I enjoy using my body to express my feel­ings and emo­tions. I am very much a lust­ful being and when mat­ing I will often be the dom­i­nant part­ner in the bed­room. I take great plea­sure in explor­ing my part­ner’s body, tast­ing every inch of them. I find it to be quite reward­ing to see my part­ner’s reac­tion to my touch, their gasps, their moans, their sighs, the look in their eyes as I plea­sure them. I adore the sight of a lovers’ body being brought to cli­max and see­ing the look of ecsta­sy on their face as I take them to heights of plea­sure they nev­er thought pos­si­ble. I take great pride in being able to bring such plea­sure to my part­ner. And the best part is, no mat­ter how many times we make love, the next time we do it is as new and fresh as the first time we ever did.” He says with a wink.

Sakara blushed and looked down at her food, “I see,” she said quietly.

Tsar­goth took a sip of his whiskey and turned to Lyra to see her reac­tion to what he had just said.

Lyra was star­ing at him, her jaw dropped open and her eyes were wide. “Tasu­ki… it sounds like you are very good at that.” She said with a grin.

“I am,” he said with a smile.

“Do you think you’d like to share with me some­time?” Lyra asked.

Tsar­goth looked at Lyra and nod­ded. “I would be very much hon­ored to share with you Lyra.”

Lyra’s face flushed, “I see. I think I would like that. ”

Sakara looked over at the two kit­sune with a frown. “Hey Tasu­ki,” she said, “Can I talk to you about something?”

Tsar­goth turned and looked at Sakara and nod­ded, “Yes Sakara, What would you like to talk about?”

“It’s about you and Lyra, and I need to talk to you about it in pri­vate,” Sakara said with a frown.

Lyra frowned and looked between Sakara and Tsar­goth. “What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain every­thing lat­er Lyra,” Sakara said with a frown.

“Alright,” Lyra said with a nod.

Tsar­goth rose to his feet, “Come,” he said, lead­ing Sakara to the bath­room. “Is there some­thing both­er­ing you? You seem upset.” He asks, clos­ing the door behind them.

“I am a lit­tle upset. I’m jeal­ous,” Sakara said with a frown.

“Jeal­ous?” He asked with a frown. “I am not sure I under­stand. Are you upset because you are not her mate?”

Sakara shook her head. “No, I’m upset because you want to mate with her.”

“I see,” Tsar­goth said with a nod. “Is it because I am a dragon?”

“Yes, I mean no, I don’t know.” Sakara said with a frown.

“Are you in love with her?” He asked.

Sakara sighed, “I’m not sure, I don’t know what love is.”

“Love is many things,” He replied. “It can be a warm and gen­tle thing or it can be a burn­ing flame. It can be some­thing that dri­ves us for­ward or it can be some­thing that dri­ves us back. Love is many things and some­times love is not some­thing you real­ize you are feel­ing until you are told or you are shown. It is not always easy to explain.” He replied.

Sakara nod­ded, “I know I’m not the only one that cares about her and wants to keep her safe but I feel like she does­n’t need me to pro­tect her. I feel like if any­thing she’s pro­tect­ing me.” Sakara said with a frown.

Tsar­goth nod­ded, “It is a dif­fi­cult thing to come to terms with when you care about anoth­er. When you are wor­ried that they will get hurt you feel pow­er­less to pre­vent it. I can assure you that Lyra would not like to see you get hurt either. She cares for you just as much as you care for her.” He says with a smile.

“I know that but she can take care of her­self and she’s stronger than me and I’m scared that she won’t need me any­more. I know it’s sil­ly but I still wor­ry about it.” Sakara said with a frown.

“I under­stand Sakara. I would not wor­ry about Lyra if I were you. She has a very good heart and she cares deeply for you.” Tsar­goth says with a smile. “If you are still wor­ried about it, Sakara, do not fret. I will keep you and Lyra safe, I will not allow any­thing to hap­pen to either of you.” He says with a nod.

“Ok,” Sakara said with a nod, “Thank you Tasuki.”

“You are wel­come, Sakara.” He says with a smile. “Have you ever told her of your feelings?”

“No,” Sakara said with a frown. “I’m scared she might reject me and I don’t know how to say it with­out sound­ing like a fool.

Tsar­goth nod­ded and smiled, “I can help you with that if you like.”

“What do you mean?” Sakara asked.

“You are ask­ing a god of love how to tell some­one that you love them. There is no greater duty for me than to spread love through all of cre­ation. I would glad­ly help you express your love to Lyra should you wish for it.” He said with a smile.

“You would do that?” Sakara asked.

“Of course, it would be my plea­sure to help.” He replied.

“Then please do.” Sakara said with a nod.

“Then tell me what you would say to Lyra if you were to admit your feel­ings for her.” He asked.

“I would say I love her,” Sakara said with a frown.

Tsar­goth nod­ded and took a deep breath, “It is not so dif­fi­cult to admit your love. Tell me, is there any­thing else you would add to that?” He asked.

“No,” Sakara said with a frown.

“That is alright Sakara,” Tsar­goth said with a smile. “But, I think it would be more mean­ing­ful if you explained. Tell her about the moment you start­ed to real­ize your feel­ings. What it is that draws you to her. Tell her your hopes as to what you wish for her. Be hon­est.” Tsar­goth replied.

“Ok,” Sakara said with a nod.

“I believe this will help you.” He said with a nod.

Sakara nod­ded and the two of them returned to the room where Lyra was wait­ing for them.

“What’s going on?” Lyra asked with a frown.

“We just had a few things to dis­cuss,” Tsar­goth replied as he sat down on the bed next to Lyra.

“Was it impor­tant?” Lyra asked.

“It was some­thing that need­ed to be dis­cussed.” Sakara replied with a nod.

Tsar­goth poured more whiskey into the glass and hand­ed it to Sakara. “Here Sakara, I think you should drink some more.”

“Thanks,” Sakara said with a nod as she took the glass and took a sip of the whiskey.

“Would you pre­fer to talk alone with Lyra, Sakara?” He asked.

“I think I’d rather talk with both of you togeth­er,” Sakara replied.

Lyra smiled at Sakara and scoot­ed clos­er to her and wrapped her arm around her shoul­der. “You’re very cute when you’re drunk.” She said with a giggle.

Tsar­goth laughed, “I think Sakara is fine, but you do look rather cute. It is a good look on you.” He said with a smile.

“Real­ly?” Lyra asked.

Tsar­goth nod­ded, “Yes, it suits you.”

Lyra blushed and looked down at her hands, “Thank you.” She said quietly. 

“Please go on Sakara, I do real­ly think you need to do this. Trust me.” He says with a smile.

Sakara looked over at Tsar­goth and took a deep breath, “Ok.” She said qui­et­ly. She took a sip of her whiskey and start­ed speak­ing. “I’ve been in love with Lyra for as long as I can remem­ber. I’ve been her friend since we were small kits and I’ve always felt the same about her. I’ve watched her grow up. I’ve seen her blos­som into a beau­ti­ful young woman and I’ve always admired her and longed for her to be mine. I nev­er thought I’d ever be able to tell her how I felt but when you came to the vil­lage Tasu­ki, and took her away I had thought I’d nev­er see her again. I could­n’t bear to be with­out her. Now with all this talk of mat­ing. I know if I did­n’t say any­thing now it would be too late.” She grabs Lyra’s hand and kneels before her. “I love you so much Lyra. I just nev­er knew how to tell you.”

Lyra looked at Sakara in sur­prise, “Are you sure Sakara? You’re drunk and you don’t know what you’re say­ing.” She said, her heart racing.

Tsar­goth smiled and took a sip of his whiskey, “Go on Sakara.” He said quietly.

“I’m sure Lyra. I’m sure I’ve known for a long time. I just nev­er want­ed to ruin what we had by telling you how I felt.” Sakara said.

Lyra looked at Sakara and shook her head, “But, how could you pos­si­bly love me?” Lyra asked.

“You’re beau­ti­ful,” Sakara said. “You’re brave and strong. You’re smart and clever. You’re every­thing I’ve ever want­ed in a mate.”

“I’m not all of that though Sakara. I’m not brave and strong. I’m weak and help­less,” Lyra said with a frown.

Tsar­goth frowned at Lyra. “What are you talk­ing about?” He asked.

“I’m weak. I’m a cow­ard. I’m too scared to do any­thing,” Lyra said.

“Lyra, that is not true,” Sakara said with a frown. “You’re not weak and you’re not a coward.”

“I am. I can’t do any­thing.” Lyra said with a frown.

“A cow­ard would not have gone on this jour­ney with my Lyra, nor would a weak­ling. You are a brave and strong woman Lyra.” Tsar­goth said.

“I don’t feel brave or strong,” Lyra said with a frown.

“Lyra, it is very clear that you do not know what brav­ery is. I do not think it is pos­si­ble for any­one to be brave all of the time. I think it is pos­si­ble to be brave for some­one you love. I think you are brave for Sakara and Sakara is brave for you.” He says with a nod.

“You think so?” Lyra asked with a frown.

“I am very sure. There is some­thing else that I am sure of. There is some­thing you are afraid of Lyra and I do not know what that is. If you would like to talk about it I would be hap­py to lis­ten.” He said with a smile.

“I’m not sure if I’m ready for that Tasu­ki. I don’t know if I can,” Lyra said with a frown. 

“If not me, could you per­haps tell Sakara?” Tsar­goth asked, plac­ing his hand on her shoul­der. “You will not be judged for your thoughts or feel­ings Lyra. I am here to help and clear­ly Sakara is as well. ”

“I guess I could. It’s just some­thing that I’ve kept secret for so long and I don’t know if I can tell any­one. I don’t know if I could look them in the eye,” Lyra said.

“Then why not start with me?” Sakara asked.

“I sup­pose so,” Lyra said with a frown.

“Go on Lyra, it will be ok.” Tsar­goth said with a smile.

“Alright,” Lyra said with a nod. “I’m afraid. I’m afraid I’ll be alone. All I have are my looks and my danc­ing and my looks won’t last for­ev­er and what will I ever amount to danc­ing. I’m use­less and soon­er or lat­er peo­ple will see that. I’ve dreamed of mag­ic and being able to wave my hand and make flow­ers bloom, of using mag­ic to lift impos­si­bly heavy things like a fall­en tree from a road. To be able to pro­tect peo­ple. To be strong and not afraid any­more. I’ve want­ed mag­ic since I was a kit and want­ed to make my wish to the Drag­on of Hope so they could give me mag­ic but that nev­er happened.”

“But it did, Lyra, if you think about it.” Tsar­goth says with a smile.

“What do you mean?” Lyra asked with a frown.

“Did­n’t you tell me your wish?” Tsar­goth asked with a smile.

“I did,” Lyra said with a frown.

“And as the Drag­on of Hope from your leg­ends, I deem you wor­thy.  I ask you also to think about what you have already accom­plished. You have nev­er giv­en up on your wish. You have tak­en the steps your­self to real­ize it. Mag­ic is a force of one’s will and you have demon­strat­ed how strong your will is. I said you must be deter­mined. It’s very clear you are! I am cer­tain you will become an excep­tion­al magi­cian. You have great poten­tial.” Tsar­goth said with a nod.

“But I don’t have mag­ic,” Lyra said.

“Not yet but you will. You’ve already tak­en sev­er­al steps along the path. You will have the mag­ic you dream of. You will have the pow­er to pro­tect your­self and to pro­tect the peo­ple you love.” Tsar­goth said.

“You need not be afraid, Lyra. You are tru­ly a mag­nif­i­cent being. I admire you great­ly for the ded­i­ca­tion you’ve shown. I under­stand you are afraid. It is under­stand­able that you feel this way. It is not easy to take the steps you have tak­en but I know you can do it. You are strong and you are brave. You can do this Lyra.” He said with a smile.

“You think so?” Lyra asked.

“He’s right Lyra. You are strong and you are brave and you can do this.” Sakara said with a nod.

Lyra took a deep breath and let it out, “I’m try­ing.” She said with a nod.

“I know you are Lyra,” Sakara said with a nod.

“I know you can do this Lyra,” Tsar­goth said with a smile.

Sakara squeezes Lyra’s hand. “And you are so far from use­less. I love you so much. You are smart and beau­ti­ful and you have a big heart and I would fol­low you to the end of the world.” Sakara said with a smile.

Tsar­goth places his oth­er hand and Sakara’s shoul­der and his hands begin to glow fill­ing Lyra and Sakara with con­fi­dence. “In my name and through the pow­er I love I bless you both Lyra and Sakara. May your union for­ev­er be strong and lov­ing.” He says as he clos­es his eyes and speaks his next words with the pow­er of his will. “May the bless­ings of your union be made known to all and may you always be safe in the knowl­edge of the love you share and the love you bring to one anoth­er. In my name, by the pow­er of my love, I bless you and wish you hap­pi­ness and peace. “He opens his eyes and smiles at Sakara and Lyra.

Lyra smiled at Sakara and nod­ded. “Thank you Sakara. I feel much bet­ter.” She said with a nod.

“I feel bet­ter too Tasu­ki,” Sakara said with a nod.

Tsar­goth smiles warm­ly as he takes a step back from the two of them releas­ing their shoulders.

Lyra looked over at Sakara and leaned clos­er to her and placed a soft kiss on Sakara’s lips, wrap­ping her arms around her and pulling her into a tight hug.

Sakara closed her eyes and returned to Lyra’s embrace.

“I love you Sakara,” Lyra whispered.

“I love you too Lyra,” Sakara said with a smile.

Lyra nuz­zled against Sakara’s cheek. “I’m sor­ry I did­n’t notice soon­er. I’m sor­ry I made you wait. I’m sor­ry I did­n’t love you as I should. I’ve been so scared.” Lyra said with a frown.

“It’s alright. You did­n’t know. You could­n’t have known. I kept it hid­den because I did­n’t know how to tell you,” Sakara said with a nod.

“I still should have. I should have trust­ed you. I’m so sor­ry Sakara,” Lyra said.

“Don’t apol­o­gize Lyra. I’m just so hap­py you know now.” Sakara said with a smile.

Lyra smiled and kissed Sakara soft­ly and held her tight­ly, “I love you Sakara.”

“I love you too Lyra,” Sakara said with a smile.

Lyra looked at Sakara and frowned, “I don’t want to be apart from you again Sakara.” She said,

“I don’t want to be away from you either, Lyra.” Sakara replied.

Tsar­goth sat down next to Lyra and placed his hand on her shoul­der, “You will not be.” He said with a smile.

“You promise?” Lyra asked with a frown.

“I offer you both this now. When I am done here tomor­row, I can take you both with me to my realm. Togeth­er you may both build your lives there in love, peace and har­mo­ny.” He said with a smile.

“You mean that? You would take us with you?” Lyra asked.

“I would be hon­ored to have you both with me,” he replied.

Lyra smiled at Sakara and nod­ded. “We’d like that.” She said with a smile.

“Won­der­ful,” Tsar­goth said with a smile.

Lyra sighed, “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it’s real.” She said with an enor­mous grin.

“What can’t you believe?” Tsar­goth asked.

“That I can be with her, that she loves me and that I will be learn­ing mag­ic,” Lyra said, bounc­ing from her seat on the bed.

Sakara smiled at Lyra, “There’s noth­ing in the world more won­der­ful than to see you this happy.”

Lyra beamed at Sakara and leaped into her arms, hug­ging her tight­ly, “I love you so much Sakara!”

“I love you too Lyra,” Sakara said with a smile.

Lyra grinned and kissed Sakara soft­ly and pas­sion­ate­ly, pulling her close and press­ing her body against hers.

Tsar­goth smiled at the two and took a deep breath. “You both are very love­ly togeth­er.” He said. “Per­haps it would be best if I arranged anoth­er room for myself tonight. You both have a great deal to talk about and I feel I might just get in the way.” He added.

“That’s a good idea, thank you Tasu­ki,” Sakara said with a nod.

“Yes, I would like that,” Lyra said with a nod.

Tsar­goth nod­ded and smiled. “I will leave my thing here and see the both of you in the morn­ing.” He said as he rose to his feet, grab­bing his coin pouch and leav­ing the room.

Lyra sighed and rest­ed her head on Sakara’s shoul­der. “I still can’t believe it,” she said with a sigh.

Sakara looked down at Lyra and smiled. “Believe what?” She asked.

“That we’re mates now,” Lyra said with a smile.

“We’re not mates yet Lyra,” Sakara said with a smirk.

“But we will be,” Lyra said with a smile, tight­ly embrac­ing Sakara and kiss­ing her passionately.

Sakara closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Lyra, kiss­ing her back with equal passion.

***

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Tsargoth Runeclaw

Hi, I’m Tsargoth, you can call me Tsar. I suppose if you’re here you’re likely wondering at least a little bit about who I am. I’m an otherkin dragon that’s been around for quite a while now. I’m not overly active in any online communities anymore but I was around twenty or so years ago. Life seems to get pretty busy and I’ve grown more private than I have been in my youth. I’m also more than a little bit of a nerd having taken to computers growing up. Nowadays that isn’t all that strange but when I was growing up… Well the 80286 was still rather new and PCs in the home were far from common. My belief that I am otherkin is something I don’t usually discuss outside of online friends. At work and around the neighborhood I’m a pretty ordinary and apparently boring guy, like I said I’m pretty private. Here though is my space. A place where I can open up even if just a little bit about things that interest me, about some of my creations and idea, maybe the occasional story and a bit of art, toys I’ve collected or have recently seen, video games I’m playing or looking forward to… Just a place where at least a little of who I am can peek out. Read More

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