This morning when I awoke, I was shrouded in pillows.
I was nestled in a tangle of sheets, a cozy down comforter, and a mountain of colorful pastel pillows. With a smothering pile of soft cotton fabric in my face, I felt dizzyingly asphyxiated in my own warm breath. Fumbling slightly and still half-asleep, I subconsciously shoved away one oversized pillow after another. Eventually, I poked a small tunnel to escape this avalanche of pure unadulterated fuwafuwa fluffiness.
The frigid morning air hit my face like a brick. My eyes watered as they snapped straight open from the shock.
—So snipin’ cold!
I mentally swore as I dove deeper back into this seductively luxurious paradise of a nest. I rubbed my drowsy eyes with my hands. Already, I was regretting the fact that I had poked a hole in this insulating fortress of pillows. Frankly, I was very tempted to snuggle back underneath the covers against the warmth of this bed’s natural radiator. Another fifteen minute snooze sounded like an especially enticing notion, and I welcomed the idea of slipping back to dreamland.
However, by this point, I was already hopelessly awake.
More sleep would be impossible for me.
My pale green eyes slowly came into focus as they adjusted to the dim light of this room. My eyes wandered to the cascading lace curtains on the far wall. Meanwhile, my large nonhuman ears twitched slightly. The pointed tufts of fur on my head were very sensitive, and in fact my hearing was better than my eyesight. For this reason, I could tell that the window shutters were slightly ajar. I heard a faint breeze gliding into the bedroom before I realized there was a subtle sway to the curtains too.
Had Susy forgotten to shut the window last night?
Surely this was the cause of the frigid ambient room temperature.
Streaks of transparent light slipped in between the cracks of the drapery. The outer floral blackout curtain blocked most of the light of the rising sun. Yet from the intensity of the residual glow and the reek of sweet morning dew still damp in the air, I judged the time to be not long after dawn.
I spread my arms in a long stretch and arched my back on the mattress, my eyes turned sleepily towards the ceiling. I was too reluctant to get out of bed so expediently. Technically, according to my societal education, my proper behavior should have been to get up to close the window immediately as soon as I realized it had been left open. However, this puffy cloud-like mattress was an exceedingly dangerous honey trap.
Another five more minutes in bed wasn’t going to do any harm.
The fog in my memory was gradually starting to disperse. Soon, clarity returned to my thoughts.
—Oh, that’s right. This is the last time I’ll be waking up in this bed.
The realization was subdued, and it only increased my reluctance to get out from underneath the blankets.
I liked this bed a lot. It was ridiculously oversized and far too large for any pair of occupants, but this had been my room for many many years. It was inevitable that a certain degree of attachment would develop after all this time. Human beings spend at least a third of their time sleeping, so for a typical lifespan of eighty years, twenty-six years are spent asleep. If time spent attempting to fall asleep is also counted, there is an additional seven years, leading to a grand total of thirty-three years spent underneath cozy covers.
After all this time, it was natural for bodily scents and unique odors to soak irreversibly into the wooden floorboards and the bindings of painted plaster. For any beastkin, these unforgettable smells were impossible to mistake, and we felt them intensely at the very core of our existence. These odors were an inseparable and indelible entity imprinted on our souls.
No human would be able to understand how vividly beastkind experience the smell of home.
Similarly speaking, a beastkin’s sense of homesickness and separation anxiety was a hundredfold more sentimental.
+ + +
Eventually, I found the willpower to move my arms and legs.
When I sat up and rotated halfway to the side, I felt a firm tug on my rear end, preventing me from moving any further.
I paused for a second, and then heaved a sigh. Somehow, I already suspected what was the issue.
Flicking my ashen grey ears with slight displeasure as I turned to face backwards, my gaze fell upon the figure of a sleeping girl curled up only a few inches beside me. She was fast asleep with a bright smile on her face, and her wild dirty-brown bangs crisscrossed in front of her forehead. There was a faint speckle of freckles on the bridge of her nose and her mouth was slightly agape. A very flattering long sliver of drool hung from the corner of her mouth.
In between her arms, the girl seemed to be clutching a voluminous plush cushion. It was exceedingly soft and sleek, with a texture incomparable to the second-rate plush toys that can be found in the flagship teddiebear store at the regional capital. This girl’s father was a very wealthy man, so there was no way he’d settle on something as cheap as conventional store-bought goods. His daughter’s most unredeemable quality was that she was way too obsessed with stuffed animals.
Incidentally speaking, that was my tail.
—Please don’t drool all over it.
I gently tugged on my long fluffy extension with a frown. However, it failed to budge even the slightest.
Somehow, it always seemed to turn out this way. No matter how I tried to position myself the night before to keep my tail out of her reach, she always managed to pounce on it one way or another. Sometimes I wondered if she possessed a special cheat ability enabling her to swim through this sea of rainbow-colored plush pillows like a dolphin, because sometimes I’d wake up with her cuddling figure curled against my left side when I distinctly remembered that she went to bed on my right. We’ve been sleeping together for many years, and I still didn’t understand how it was possible for her to flip from opposite sides of bed without disturbing the massive mountain of fluff in between. If it were me, every time I tried to reposition myself, I always seemed to knock half a dozen pillows off the mattress.
I sighed once more and set myself to slowly extricating the fibers of my faded silver tail from her tight grasp.
+ + +
My name is Kiel Kitsune, and I’m a foxkin.
Although my family name is registered as Kitsune, I actually don’t have a last name. Beastkin aren’t given one by custom, so instead we’re referred to by the traditional word for our specific breed.
My owner is Susella vi Telleste. We’ve been together ever since we were both very small.
She’s the daughter of a rich merchant. Recently, she was betrothed to the third prince of the royal family. This was a big deal as you might imagine, and we’ve been barraged by non-stop congratulations and continuous fanfare. Frankly, it has been a little overwhelming. Last night, she was very restless and paced in circles around the room, unable to sleep.
After all, it's finally the special date circled in bright red on the calendar.
Today was the day that we would say goodbye to Edlehemn, our childhood home.
Although everything had been packed already, Susy couldn’t stop fretting. My owner was only a seventeen-year-old girl, and she had never lived away from home. Both of us knew that the Royal Capital was a strange land very different from ours. In fact, it might as well have been a different country. People often romanticize living in the largest city in the world, but it’s often not so dazzling to be plunged straight into the heart of it.
It was natural to feel anxious about going to live with a fiancé whom you’ve never met, far away from friends and family.
Actually, I was anxious too, although I did not express it so clearly. However, as long as the two of us were together, I felt determined to tackle any challenge that might be thrown at us.
I gave Susy's hand a tight squeeze after I finished untangling myself. With her arms now vacant, she shifted in her sleep and abruptly seized a different unsuspecting pillow to cling to tightly. Soon, she was curled around a body pillow the color of faded tangerines. This entire time, she didn't stir from her slumber even the slightest.
I was now free from her unconscious encirclement.
It was time for my day to begin.
∎
