Here it is dear readers! The long awaited sixth chapter of The Fox's Path! Sorry it took so long to come out, I'll try to be speedier with my writing! Please enjoy!

 

 

 

 

The Fox's Path (Chapter 6)

by

Elite Shade

 

 

 

 

Lily's tail was going a mile a minute as she and Taylor walked out of the great gates to the neighborhood.

"Okay, I've got the whole day planned out!" Lily said, quickly rounding on Taylor, taking both of Taylor's paws in her own.

"What do you mean?" Taylor asked suspiciously.

"Well, for starters, we're going to get you some new underwear!" Lily said, now holding onto Taylor's right paw as she continued to lead her down the sidewalk.

"Yeah, about that Lil--" Taylor was interrupted by a few catcalls as they were about to walk past a group of male snow leopards, all in purple lettermen's jackets.

"Hey there Lily, who's you cute friend?" the largest one, clearly the leader, said as they walked up.

"Oh, hi Duncan!" Lily said, as Taylor stood frozen to the spot. "This is my new little sister, Taylor! She's moved in with us." she said, her tail casually wagging back and forth. The leader, Duncan, smiled as he stepped foreword, paw extended towards the vixen. His light grey eyes looked directly into hers. They shined a light blue for a moment, causing him to blink in surprise, but he regained his composure.

"Nice to meet you Taylor, I'm Duncan," he said kindly.

Taylor hesitated for only a moment, before shaking his paw.

"Hi," she said, with a slight blush.

"You know Lily, we were just heading out to catch that new movie, Darkness Inside, feel like coming with?" A few of the others rolled their eyes, but said nothing. There was one other who kept looking Taylor up and down, with a wide grin plastered on his face. He was standing in the back, and said nothing.

"Sorry guys, me and Taylor have already got plans today. Maybe some other time?" Lily happily offered as she draped an arm around Taylor's shoulder to pull her close.

"Oh, alright. See you at the game Saturday then?" Duncan asked, a note of disappointment in his voice as he briefly looked to Taylor. She couldn't help but blush some more.

"Are you kidding? Of course we'll be there, Shaun too! None of us would ever miss seeing you go toe to toe with Hiezol High!" She suddenly looked pumped. "I know you'll wipe the floor with them!"

"You better believe it!" the one in the back, who had been staring at Taylor this entire time, said while pumping his fist in a very cliche'd jock manner.

"Save it for the game Benji," Duncan said passively, earning a light chuckle from the rest of the group. The one now known as Benji just blushed, and the faintest growl passed through his lips as he crossed his arms and looked away. Taylor was starting to feel self conscious from Duncan's staring, and was relieved that when he and his friends soon left. She and Lily continued on their way. As they were walking, Taylor started to feel a prickling sensation on the back of her neck, and turned to look behind her, only to see Duncan staring after her, flashing her a smile and a wink. Taylor blushed and whipped her head around, looking straight ahead as she and Lily walked a little while longer in companionable silence.

"So now you start cheating on Shaun, you dirty girl," Lily said, giving Taylor a sidelong glance and smirk.

"WHAT?!" Taylor yelped, blushing furiously. Several passing people stopped to look at her after she screamed, before continuing on their various ways.

"Oh yeah, I caught how you were flirting with Duncan there. I wonder if Shaun is going to have to beat him up as well, for staring at his girl like that?" Lily asked, cracking up into a fit of giggles as she looked at Taylor's face.

"I honestly wasn't flirting! And Shaun didn't beat up that jerk from yesterday! He just... " she trailed off as she saw the look on Lily's face. Taylor decided to just shut up and blush as she continued to walk alongside Lily. After a few blocks of total silence, and with Taylor's face remaining bright red, Lily let out an exasperated sigh.

"Oh geeze! I'm sorry, okay?!" she asked, not sounding entirely sorry.

Taylor was startled by this sudden outburst.

"I-I-I-It's okay Lily."

"Look, I know that this is... new to you. I guess you probably didn't get to joke around like this back at whatever compound you escaped from, but please know that I honestly don't mean anything by it. I'm just playing," Lily said in a softer voice. Taylor stopped blushing as she turned to see Lily give her a smile. She smiled back, and was immediately swept up into a near bone crushing hug from the wolf.
"Although, I suppose I should be setting a better example for my baby sister. You are at a very impressionable age after all," she said after letting Taylor go.

"You know, I'm pretty sure that we're the same age Lily," Taylor said.

"Yeah, I'm using my official big sister powers to veto that," she said, starting to giggle.

"I'm also pretty sure that not only is that not a real thing, but that even if it was, you aren't using it right," Taylor said, also starting to giggle. At the back of her mind, Taylor realized just how girly she sounded as she giggled. She was too caught up in the moment, however, as her and Lily's giggle fit broke down into an outright laughing fit. They finally got their laughter under control just as they got to the crosswalk right across the street from the mall.

"I think we both needed that," Lily said, wiping a tear from her eye, still giggling a little. Taylor said nothing, and just nodded. She didn't trust herself not to burst out laughing again if she opened her mouth right now. They waited, along with a small group of assorted species, for the light to signal them to cross. Once they had, they soon entered the front doors of the mall. Taylor soon remembered what they were here for, and immediately started to blush again. Just as she was about to look for an information kiosk, she felt Lily take her paw before sprinting, with Taylor in tow, up a series of escalators and right into a shop.

Just as Taylor heard the ding-dong from entering the shop, she started to notice her surroundings. Left and right, there were various tailed and un-tailed mannequins, some with heads, some without, all in nothing but different types of bras and panties.

"Uh Lily, I know what you said about how every girl needs her own wardrobe but--" she stopped talking as she saw Lily's face. The look she saw was one of absolute authority. Instinctively, she tucked her tail between her legs, and lowered her head, letting out a slight whine. After a few moments of staring Taylor down, Lily smiled warmly, and pulled her into a hug.

"Taylor, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. I'm going to be right here with you," she said as she held Taylor close, and steered her over to the nearest counter. Behind the counter was a lynx woman, with a beautiful coat of silver fur, in a green blouse and white jeans, who had watched the entire exchange. She smiled at their combined cuteness.

"How may I help you two girls?" she asked as they approached.

"We're here to find my sister here," Lily said while pushing the blushing Taylor foreword, "some new bra and panty sets. It's her first time shopping for these, so she's going to need to get some measurements."

The lynx woman couldn't help but smile at this.

"Alright then, miss," she said while gesturing to Taylor, "if you'll follow me to the changing room, I'll take those measurements for you." She pulled out a roll of measuring tape from beneath the counter, and starting towards the aforementioned changing rooms. Lily had to gently take Taylor's paw, and lead her after the employee. The entire time, Taylor had the biggest blush.

"Don't worry Taylor, like I said, I'll be here with you the entire time," she said reassuringly, gently squeezing Taylor's paw. Taylor stopped blushing as much, even after the three entered the room and Lily asked her to take her shirt off. Taylor gulped and started to comply.

"She's currently wearing hand-me-down underwear, and we're looking to fix that," Lily said as she sat next to Taylor.

"Oh, you don't have to be in here as well miss," the woman said as Taylor slowly started to fumble with the clasp of her bra in the back. Just before Lily offered to get that for her, she managed to unhook it. Very hesitantly, she took the red bra all of the way off. She closed her eyes as she was instructed to hold her arms out a little. After a few moments of feeling the measuring tape be pulled snug across, under, and around her breasts, making her very much aware of their existence, the employee announced that they were finished.

"Alright then hun! I got all of your measurements, and you are a size 34B, so now you can get redressed," she said, smiling as Taylor scrambled to do just that. She fumbled with putting the bra back on for a minute, before managing to hook it. Then she slipped her shirt back on, and quickly stood up. Lily smiled reassuringly as she took her by the paw, and the two followed the lynx woman back out onto the floor.

The store employee swiftly led them to a section of bra and panty sets. "Here you are miss, these are what we have in stock in your size." Taylor looked them all over for a few seconds. Lily having supplied Taylor's waist size, was assisting in searching out what she felt were just the right matching sets.

Why do there have to be so many frills? she internally thought as she just stood there, blushing, too nervous to move.

"Alright! Let's see what we have here!" Lily said, her tail wagging excitedly as she started to pull several different colors and styles off of the hangars, holding each one up and asking Taylor what she thought. Taylor mumbled her responses, noticing that Lily held onto a few that she had said no to. Those ones were especially frilly. Just as Taylor was about to speak up, Lily happily announced that they had gathered enough to fill out a proper teen vixen's wardrobe. There were even several sports bras in the selection as well. She and the lynx went over to the counter, and rang up the selections.

Taylor may not have been able to read the language written on the counter or the store signs, but she was able to clearly read the numbers being rung up on the register.

Are these things really that expensive! she thought as Lily ran the credit card.

"Lily, are you sure that it's okay to buy all of this for me? I mean--"

"I know for a fact that you already heard me tell Shaun that Mom said it was okay. She and I spoke for a bit this morning about this, it's fine Taylor, really," Lily said simply as the receipt printed out.

"You two are making me wish that I had such a caring big sister growing up!" the lynx woman said happily as she bagged all of Taylor's new underwear.

Taylor blushed as she and Lily thanked the woman and walked out of the store. She looked down at the bags, which were paper, with horizontal pink and white stripes.

"Th-Th-Thanks, Taylor... I do appreciate... um... you helping me... like this..." Lily hugged the blushing vixen.

"It's honestly my pleasure Taylor!" she said excitedly. "Now, onward to the next stop!" she said, once more taking Taylor by the paw and quickly leading her towards another store.

"Where are we going next?"

"Well, now that we got your measurements, since summer's coming up, we gotta get you a swimsuit!" Lily said excitedly as they entered another clothing shop.

Oh no...  she thought.

 

Nearly Thirty Minutes Later... 

 

Taylor was once more blushing, now holding another bag, containing her brand new frilly pink bikini, which had been selected at Lily's insistence.

"Okay! Now that we have gotten that out of the way, what do you say about us hitting up the food court?" Lily asked as she looked at her watch.

"I guess that sounds alright," Taylor said as she realized she was starting to feel hungry.

Please don't let Barry be there today, she silently prayed as they rode down the escalator. When they were halfway down, Taylor and Lily both started to hear screaming. They looked in the direction of where it was coming from, to see several different people sprinting away from some....thing. Taylor didn't know what she was looking at, but just seeing it made her feel sick to her stomach. It was a pale white, and it's body seemed to be made up of various arms and legs, with many different joints. It had a single long neck that ended in a circular mouth with rotating rows of razor sharp teeth. It let out a horrifying screech, and started to make a beeline straight for the escalator Taylor and Lily were currently on. They both screamed as they quickly scrambled up the down escalator.

Then, they heard a shout, and both turned to see a familiar tiger, wielding a katana that was glowing brightly.

"Uncle Ben?" Lily asked aloud to no one in particular as she dragged the now stunned Taylor up after her. Taylor was starting to hyperventilate as she now stumbled up after Lily. Her eyes were looking around wildly and unfocused, until she saw Ben's glowing green sword slice through one of the limbs of the monstrosity. She froze as she heard it screech in pain, and watched as the now severed limb fell with a wet plop to the mall floor, quickly turning black and shriveling. Taylor stared, Lily still trying to pull her along, as the creature turned it's long head towards Ben, just as he let out a roar of pure rage. His sword glowed brighter than before. It screeched in return, and lunged towards him, clumsily. It reached out, and Ben dodged. He sliced his katana twice, cutting off two more limbs. They too started to blacken and shrivel.

From the stumps where it's severed limbs used to be, its skin also started to blacken and shrivel. The more Ben sliced into the beast, the faster the rotting blackness spread. From how the beast thrashed and flailed, it was apparent that it was in great pain. It's mouth shot forward towards Ben, who held his left paw out to it. Just before the beast's gaping maw reached him, a volley of blue flames shot out of his palm and into the creature's mouth. It froze, as though confused, and then dropped to the floor, writhing and screeching in agony. The blackness had spread throughout its hideously misshapen body, and now blue flames were starting to erupt from within. It continued in this fashion, until it let out a final screech, and ceased all movement.

It's body then collapsed in upon itself, as though it were a hideous balloon that had deflated. The fires had all gone out, and the black rot had stopped spreading. Ben panted and held his sword up, saying 'Hasul!', causing the light in it to go out. He sheathed it, and wiped some sweat from his brow. He then looked around, until his eyes landed on Taylor and Lily, the latter of whom had both of her arms securely wrapped around Taylor while standing in front of her, trying to shield her. Without a word, Ben ran and leapt straight up to the railing on the second floor, stepping off right in front of the two.

"Girls! Are you okay?!" he said, slightly panicked. He quickly peeled Lily off of Taylor and started to look them both over for any sign of bruises or cuts.

"Answer me!" he said authoritatively.

"W-W-We're fine Uncle Ben," Lily said, unable to take her eyes off the dead creature. Several more people, all wearing strange green cloaks, had shown up and were now surrounding the creature. Some were directing civilians away from it, while others were checking for any wounded. Ben finished looking the two over, and pulled them both into a bone crushing hug.

"Good! I'm so sorry you two had to see that." he said as he then started to guide them to a nearby bench. Taylor was in a daze as she sat down. She snapped out of it as she felt Lily pull her into a hug.

"It's okay now Taylor, it's over," Lily slowly started to gently stroke Taylor's head fur. They both sat when instructed to by Ben.

"Stay here. I'm going to discuss some things with the guild members," he said while motioning to the green cloaked figures, a small number of whom were chanting with their arms extended to the dead creature, "and then I'm driving you both home." Lily and Taylor both just nodded, and sat there on the mall bench, awaiting for Ben to return. He had jumped back down over the railing, landing lightly on his feet, as he went to the one green cloaked guild member who appeared to be directing the rest. He spoke with him, a German Shepard, for a brief moment, before the guild member nodded to him, and turned back to the task at hand. Ben casually jumped back up to the second floor to collect the girls.

"Alright you two, let's head on home," he said, smiling reassuringly at them. Lily held Taylor by the paw, pulling her close as they followed him to another set of escalators, away from the creature. He led them out of the mall to his car. They loaded the bags into the trunk and climbed into the backseat and buckled up. Being Taylor's first time riding in a car as a vixen, she had a little confusion about what to do with her tail, but decided to just sit with it folded over her lap, like Lily did with hers, and how Ben did with his.

He started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. Taylor saw a number of other vehicles pull in, some of which reminded her of news vans. Out of these climbed various reporters who she figured were covering what just happened in the mall. It was a relatively short drive back home, as there was a little traffic to deal with, but otherwise uneventful. Lily, Taylor, and Ben said nothing the entire time. Once more, Taylor found herself being led by the paw by Lily, this time through the front door. The moment the wolf and the vixen crossed the threshold, they were pulled into another bone crushing hug by Laura.

"Oh, thank the gods you are both alright! I was worried sick!" she said as she started to inspect them for signs of any harm, interspersed with giving them more hugs. She finally released them and instructed that the two sit on the couch while she makes them something to calm their nerves. The two complied as Ben followed his sister and started to explain what had happened. The two girls just sat in silence for a moment, before Taylor finally broke the building tension.

"Lily, was that one of the monsters you guys mentioned?" she asked. Lily took a moment before replying.

"Yeah... it was," she said, taking a breath before continuing. "That particular species is called an Abomination... for obvious reasons."
Taylor thought that over for a moment before nodding.

"That makes sense. I take it that there are a lot more different monsters then?" she asked with a note of fear creeping into her voice.

"Yeah, there are actually quite a lot of different species," Shaun said as he walked into the room, and sat between the two. He started to look Lily over, despite her protests of being fine. As he was doing this, Taylor thought that he seemed a little off. It was when he had finished with Lily and started to inspect her that Taylor noticed how much paler he looked, as well as how much his paws were shaking. Without thinking, she pulled him into a hug herself.

"We're okay, really. Neither of us got so much as a scratch," Taylor said. The two pulled apart and looked at each other. They smiled briefly, and waited for Lily to make kissing noises, or something else that was inappropriate. Not hearing anything, they turned to see her smiling gently at them, before frowning.

"Really? I would like at the very least a little credit," she said in a huff as she crossed her arms. "I know when to cut it out."
Shaun smiled at her and reached over to ruffle her hair.

"Maybe my baby sister is growing up after all," he said with a smirk, and all three broke out laughing. Lily squirmed to get away from Shaun's paw, and accidentally kicked over the pink and white bags, spilling out most of Taylor's new bras and panties, especially the frilly blue pair with a white bow in the center.

They all stopped laughing as Shaun and Taylor blushed while looking at each other, before they broke down laughing even harder, with Lily laughing the hardest. Taylor, still giggling, started to shovel her new underwear back into the bag. Shaun reached down to help, but then blushed even more as he thought better of it. It took the trio a few moments of clutching their sides, but eventually they were able to calm back down.

"Whoo," Taylor said as she wiped away a tear, her cheeks hurting a little from laughing so hard, "I think that we all needed that." The twins nodded in agreement. Just then, Laura walked back in carrying a silver tray with three tall glasses of what Taylor correctly guessed was pink lemonade.

"Thanks Laura," she said, smiling up at the motherly wolf, who in turn beamed down at the three of them.

"It's no problem sweetie," she said, rubbing Taylor's headfur as well. "Now, I want you two to just sit here and relax, and I'll see to putting your new clothes away." Laura gathered up the bags, winking to Taylor. Shaun just rolled his eyes at this. After Laura left, Ben poked his head through from the kitchen.

"Just to let you three know, I'm already getting started on whipping up my famous barbecue ribs. I was planning on doing so for a surprise later in the week, but now seems as good a time as any," he said smiling before pulling his head back through.

Wow! This is one really close family, Taylor thought as memories of her life back on earth trickled to the forefront of her mind. Memories of a mostly empty house, with relatives that spent more time angry and not speaking to one another than getting along. These thoughts were starting to bring down Taylor's mood, and Lily quickly noticed the change in body language.

"Wow, Shaun! You're getting ribs and you got to see Taylor's new panties, today is turning out to be a great day for you," Lily said. Taylor and Shaun both froze in place, blushing like mad. Lily smiled, happy both for getting to tease Taylor and Shaun again, as well as for helping Taylor focus on something else as opposed to what had been bringing her down. Taylor and Shaun said nothing as they quickly finished off their glasses.

As they got up and moved towards the kitchen per Ben's call that lunch was indeed served, Taylor couldn't help but think about her new underwear. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't help but start to picture herself dressed in them. This made her blush even more when she and Shaun made eye contact, before quickly looking away. Just as they were about to start in on their plates, Laura returned from upstairs, thanked Ben for cooking, and proceeded to pour each of them another glass of pink lemonade. Taylor wondered to herself how Ben had been able to barbecue the ribs so quickly, but just wrote it off as him probably using his magic. After lunch, the three returned to the living room and happily chatted amongst themselves before Lily turned on the tv. She flipped through various channels before finding a local news station.

"Once more, we are reporting that a full grown Abomination had indeed appeared inside the Moon Crest Mall earlier today. While there were no fatalities or major injures, there was a significant amount of damage to various shops. The creature--" Lily flipped past that after seeing the color start to drain from Shaun's face. She turned the channel to something that looked like some sort of singing competition, with a female green dragon performing. Seeing Shaun calm down a little, Lily snickered to herself, and quietly threw something bright pink at him. Caught off guard, he held it up, and now it was Taylor going white in the face, as she realized that he was holding her new bikini. He blushed as he realized what he was holding, and quickly handed it to Taylor, who snatched it and stuffed both the top and bottoms into the pockets of her jeans. Lily was howling with laughter at this point.

"LILY!!!" Taylor and Shaun shouted at the laughing wolf.

 

 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes this chapter! I hope that you enjoyed reading this newest installment!