Chapter 2
I’m walking in the forest when I see a Fox Yokai with wavy white hair that sparkles like snow. I hide behind a tree and watch her. She sits down in a patch of colorful flowers. I gasp. Is that really Luna? The girl startles at the noise of my gasp and turns around, then I see her blue eyes. I hide my head behind the tree.
“I wish Avi were here. He could help me navigate the forest,” she says to herself. I freeze at the mention of my name. It’s really her. I walk out from behind the tree.
“Luna,”
…
I turn around at my name, startled. A tall Moon elf, a young man is standing behind me. He has freckles and messy ginger hair. His eyes are as green as an emerald. It’s Avi! What a coincidence. I jump up and hug him. He smiles.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were leaving for good!” he says.
I pull away from him. “No, something’s wrong,” I say solemnly.
“What is it?”
“All the humans hate Fox Yokais! They’re imprisoning them and starving them! I don’t know why! They throw rocks at them and they hurt them!” I babble. I start crying.
“What?! That’s terrible!” He pulls me into his arms and strokes my hair, trying to calm me down.
“Please help me deliver this message to my Kingdom. I need to warn them!” I plead.
“Of course I’ll help you! I’ve helped you once before and I’ll do it again!” he exclaims. Avi leads me in the direction of the Kingdom.
We arrive at the edge of my Kingdom. I walk into the main street, a wide street with shops and markets that leads straight to the entrance of the castle. Everyone gasps and looks in awe and amazement as I walk through the crowd. They all form a path for me.
“The Princess has returned!” they yell. Somebody throws a flower at me. I catch it and smile. We arrive at the entrance.
“Halt!” commands a guard.
“Wait a minute,” says the second guard. He walks up to me and sniffs.
“Oh my god… that’s the Princess!” the guard exclaims. They open the gate as fast as possible. I walk into the empty room and through the door that has always led to the throne room. I open the door slowly and step in. My mother, Serena, and my father, Solace, sit on their thrones. My brothers stand in the back. My mother’s eyes widen. She jolts out of her throne, runs over to me and hugs me tightly.
“I’ve missed you so much! Where have you been all these years? Wow, you have grown up so much!” she purrs. Tears water in her eyes making them look glassy. Father walks up to me and hugs me gently.
“Why? Why did you leave us?” he queries. My brothers scurry over. I yap as my eldest brother, Zeke leaps onto me in delight. Damien, my second eldest brother cries and hugs me. I hug them back and smile.
“I have come to warn you about what’s occurring outside of the forest. Many humans hate Fox Yokais now and I don’t know why. They beat them and imprison them in dungeons. I wish I knew why this is happening. I want you to know that you should be careful and also warn the society,” I explain.
“My goodness! What has befallen these humans?” she exclaims. My family has a startled look on their faces.
“You haven't had your empowering ceremony,” says Zeke. The ceremony of empowering is a ritual for a god or goddess to move to the next level of power development. His arms are crossed. My parents look at me and nod their heads in agreement.
“She should have it now,” says my father. My mother agrees.
“It might help me save them,” I say. My mother's eyes widen.
“You mean you will actually go out there?!” she yaps. I nod my head.
My mother sighs, “Do what you must.”
She takes me to the empowering room. She hands me a sparkling crystal orb. Little lights flicker inside of it. The light of the surrounding room dances on the orb’s surface. She motions to the glass circle in the center of the room. I walk into the center of the circle.
“Break it,” She points to the crystal orb I am holding. I drop it on the floor and it shatters. The little lights inside it escape. They swirl and dance around my legs. I start to glow and I rise into the air. The lights start to crash into me. I can feel my hair grow longer and I can feel something happen with my eyes. I feel something sprout out of my back. Pain spreads through my back and I howl, but the pain disappears right away. Suddenly on my chest, a crescent moon inside a glowing sun appears. My right arm glows a sunny bright color in reds and yellows. My left arm glows silver and blue. Patterns and ruin markings appear and travel up my arms and connect to the marking on my chest. The glowing starts to fade and I slowly descend to the floor. My markings disappear as I touch the floor lightly. I feel a bit dizzy and stumble over. My brothers catch me.
“Oh wow. Your eyes grew lighter, and your hair is longer,” Zeke says.
“You have wings!” Damien exclaims. That explains why my mother has wings. She also had an empowering ceremony, and so has my father.
“It’s complete,” my mother smiles. I flutter my white feathery wings. They sparkle like my hair. Avi walks into the room and gasps.
“Wow… You look… different.” His cheeks are pink. My mother turns to him and hisses. Then she turns to me.
“Who is this man? Do you know him? What is he doing in the castle?!” she yowls.
“Mom! It’s ok! He’s my friend!” I reassure her. She calms down and apologizes to Avi. Avi smiles. Mother takes me by the arm and takes me up a flight of stairs. We are going to tell society about what’s happening. We walk through a door and onto a balcony with a horn on it. My mother blows the horn. Everyone gathers below as quickly as possible. My mother flies down with her majestic wings and lands on a pavilion. I haven’t learned to fly yet, so I spread my wings and jump off. I glide down slowly. She announces the news to the civilians and subjects. They all gasp and yowl and cry out. They have fear and anger on their faces.
“You must go now and help our people with your friends,” says my mother. I nod. She whistles loudly. Suddenly, I hear the flapping of wings. A white dragon with colorful eyes and white halo feathers lands right next to me. “Take Ovirus with you,” she says. I climb onto Ovirus’s back. Ovirus takes off and heads in the direction of the edge of the forest.
We are flying, and I tell Ovirus to land near a village. I jump off of Ovirus and tell him to go back to the kingdom. I see a grey figure and realize that it’s Agartha. I pull the hood of my cloak over my head so no one can see my ears. I walk over to Agartha and tap her shoulder. She turns around quickly as if about to attack.
“Shhhhh, it’s just me,” I reassure her.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re alright!” she says.
We sneak to the dungeon of this village and knock out the guards easily. Everything is going smoothly. I unlock some cells and Agartha unlocks the rest that contain Yokais. They purr and chatter and they all escape through the back door, which was unguarded at the time. We leave this village and go to the next village. Player and Nora will meet us there. We arrive at the village. This is a big village, so the dungeon must be big. That means more Fox Yokais may be imprisoned there. We free the ones in this village successfully without getting caught. I keep my hood on and don’t reveal anything about my empowering ceremony yet. I felt stronger after the ceremony. We go from village to village and free the Yokais. The day ends slowly, but we have only been to five villages today. We’ll go to more tomorrow.
At night, we set up a camp not far from our next destination, one of the biggest villages we know about, Silkflower. Silkflower is named after its most popular plant. Silkflowers constantly produce silk, so the village has a constant supply of silk. I summon a tent that will fit all four of us. I pull off my cloak and reveal my new look. They gasp. I spread my wings to their full wing length, which is slightly bigger than my height. I am shorter than most people, but that is just the anatomy of female Fox Yokais. They are usually smaller than male Yokais, but they are faster and more agile. That’s an advantage.
“Wow! I was wondering what was up with your back!” exclaims Player.
“I noticed something was off with you,” Agartha states. Nora just looks at me in awe, her mouth agape. We proceed to go to sleep without dinner. We have nothing to eat anyways.
I wake to find everyone asleep.
“Guys! Wake up! We have to go!” I pester my sleeping friends. They wake slowly as I pack everything up into my magical storage, which I can open to see what’s in it. I put my cloak on and pull the hood over my head.
“I hope no one notices I’m a fox,” I say.
“Just flatten your ears and no one will tell,” Nora suggests.
“What about my tail and wings? Everyone will see my wings for sure! Maybe I can curl my tail and no one will notice?” I panic. Agartha blinks at me. I can tell she’s thinking hard because she has this look on her face. Her eyebrows are furrowed and she’s squinting.
“I don’t think there is anything we can do. We will just have to hope no one really takes notice of it,” Agartha says. I let out a whimper of fear. What if everyone finds out? What if they try and hurt me again? All sorts of thoughts and ideas float through my head about what can happen. I’ll just have to hope things turn out okay.
We head into the village. I hide my wings and tail as best as I can. Some people stare at me, but they turn back to their chatter. The village is bustling with activity. Shops and stands are everywhere. People go about their business. They haven’t noticed anything strange about me yet. Good, let’s hope it stays that way. We head towards the dungeon. I know where it is because there is always a fresh scent trail of another Fox. Every Fox has a unique scent, but they still smell like a Fox. I open the door and slip in while nobody is watching. I can always use my magic to unlock the door. Agartha follows me. There are no guards. That’s odd. Where are the guards? There is always a guard waiting. I open as many cells as I can and Agartha unlocks the rest. I stay behind to make sure they all escape. I hear the front door slam open and I hear many yells.
“Who goes there?!”
I flatten my ears. I've frozen again. Agartha runs out the back. I growl. I’ll be fine. I can fight them. I just had my empowering ceremony. I attack the first soldier. He knocks me back. I don’t have much physical strength. I try to blast them, but my attack comes out weak. What? I just had my empowering ceremony! How is this not working? Can I still not control my powers? They may have gotten stronger, but I guess I cannot control them yet. I thrash and jump at the soldiers, but they are all stronger than me. One throws me to the floor and pins me down. He holds my arms behind my back. I thrash but don’t move anywhere. I howl, yap, and scream. Another guard puts something around my neck, something metal. It’s tight, but it doesn’t choke me. They pull me up and I kick one of them. I stumble back into the cold stone wall. I try using my magic. I try again, and again, and again. Nothing happens. Where are my friends? Even though I can’t control the strength of my magic, I should still be able to use it. I cry out. The soldiers grab me and throw me into a cell. I cry out again. They lock the cell and I claw at the bars. The soldier that threw me in snears.
“That’s what you get…”
The soldiers leave, leaving me alone in the dark, cold dungeon. I curl up and cry. I close my eyes and open them again after a long while.

Nobody’s here…
Nobody came for me…
Where are my friends?

I am alone…

Will I ever see the light again?