For some reason, I felt like I was about to plummet down the world’s tallest roller coaster.

As I gripped Viela’s hands a little tighter, I tried focusing on the sounds of heavy rainfall still crashing down outside, and the dank, earthy smell of the cave, and the warmth of her hands…

Viela closed her eyes, and the soul bond’s ritual diagram below lit up with her mana. The air around us began to hum and vibrate as if coming alive.

Something impossibly fiery and bright flared up within me, and I felt the same from her. I found myself drawing closer to the fox spirit with each passing second, yet neither of our bodies were moving.

All at once, a sensation of flying through the air made me want to shout, but Viela held my hands tight and kept me steady. Somehow, a part of me was hurtling toward her, faster than I could process. An intoxicating rush of emotions and memories that weren’t my own threatened to overwhelm me, swarming my awareness until I began losing all sense of time and place.

But above all else, one emotion gripped whatever consciousness I had left:

Fear.

***

I was running, faster than I ever had in my life.

I am… my name is… Vivian.

No, I always hated that! I never chose that name for myself! It’s Viela, and the others can shove it for all I care!

No, I need to focus. There’s not a second to waste.

I had heard all the rumors about spirits being forgotten and vanishing without a trace. But they were just rumors. There was no way that could ever happen to me, or any of the other foxes in our village!

Then… why didn’t any of them remember her?

A forest full of impossible colors, the wind rustling through my hair and tickling my fox ears… it was all a blur. I hadn’t taken this path in a long time, yet I knew where I could find her.

The oldest and wisest fox I knew—she was the closest I ever had to a mother. After all the years we spent together, I never did ask why she chose not to live in the village. I always assumed she saw herself as an outcast… just like me.

I didn’t want to rely on her forever, but I never told her that was the reason I stopped coming by. It’s not because I wanted to forget about her!

So you can’t disappear, damn it! You can’t!

My lungs begged me to stop, my legs burned with every panicked step, but I carried on anyway. I fought through the pain until I saw the first glimpse of the forest clearing where she would always be.

I found her kneeling down by her favorite bed of moon lilies, her nine greying tails billowing out behind her. As I gasped to recover my breath, I noticed something was wrong.

Why is she glowing? Why… Why can I see through her?

I started to shout her name, but the words caught in my throat.

Her name, it’s…!

I’ll never forget the look on her face when she noticed me staring at her, like I wasn’t supposed to see what was about to happen.

There was nothing I could do but watch in horror. Her ghostly figure began fading, the uncanny glow around her burned brighter, and then it began.

Piece by piece she faded away, like leaves blowing away in the wind, leaving nothing behind except a pile of empty clothes.

…

I didn’t get any sleep that night—or the next. I told the others what happened, but no one wanted to talk about it. None of them could remember her name either.

She’s gone, and no one can even remember her name!

Was that what they were all afraid to tell me? Was that our unspeakable fate, to live all those years until we faded away to nothing?

…

I forgot how many days had passed. It wasn’t until I had cried all my tears and felt numb to everything that I went back to the place she disappeared.

I couldn’t remember the last thing she had said to me, but her expression… I could see it clearly in my mind.

She was smiling. At the very last moment, she was definitely smiling.

Only then did I realize she wouldn’t have wanted this for me. She might have accepted that fate for herself, but that didn’t mean I had to.

I made a promise to myself that day: I would leave our village and head to the city, and learn the ‘new’ magic the others called taboo, and do whatever it takes.

I won’t be like the others. I’ll do whatever it takes so I won’t be forgotten!

***

A cold sweat covered my whole body. My head felt all fuzzy, like I was just emerging from a vivid dream. But even stronger than that was the feeling of a busty brunette embracing me, holding my body tight against hers.

The rain had slowed to a gentle pitter-patter outside. I was ‘me’ again, back in the cave with Viela, and she was hugging me.

I felt her hands pressing into my back, her chin resting on my shoulder, her hair tickling my neck, her heavy chest pressing through her clothes into mine… For whatever reason, the fox spirit was holding me with the tender touch of one lover to another. I returned her embrace, sliding my hands across the soft skin of her back.

A moment later, all the memories I had just witnessed came flooding back to me.

So that’s why Viela had always been trying so hard, even from the moment she introduced herself…

“Did you see one of my memories, too?” I asked.

She hugged me a little tighter. “Not telling.”

Her voice came out in a whisper, yet it sounded unusually clear. As I wondered why her voice sounded different, I felt something pressing against the back of my shorts, close to my thigh.

Of all the times this fox chose to be a pervert…

“Okay Viela,” I sighed. “You can stop rubbing your tail on my butt now.”

She gently loosened her grip and stepped back.

“Beryl…”

I did a double take when I saw her hair. Viela didn’t look like a fox spirit anymore; she was just a gorgeous brunette right now without her two fox ears overhead. She didn’t have her big fluffy tail behind her, either.

Wait. If it wasn’t her tail I felt…

Oh God.

Slowly, I reached a hand down to my butt—

“Why do I have a freaking tail back here?!” I screamed.

Viela blushed and rubbed my shoulder. “That’s because… you’re a beautiful foxy now.”

“Wh-Wh-What!? You never told me this was a part of our soul bond! Why didn’t you—mmf!”

She closed the distance and planted a hot kiss on my lips. That moment of panic melted away to a new rush of euphoria, and I felt my body relax again.

“We made history today,” Viela said, gently holding my shoulders. “You’re the first human ever to soul bond with a spirit. I didn’t even know this would happen.”

“Oh,” was all I could manage to say. “I guess that makes sense…”

My body trembled when I grabbed my new tail with one hand, pulling it around the side to my front. Oh my God, it really was my own fox tail—a big, fluffy mass of pitch-black fur with a white tip that almost reached to my breast. I found myself sighing with pleasure after I started running my fingers through the thick fur of my tail, stroking it gently.

…Why does my fur feel a little rougher than Viela’s?

I nearly jumped at the sudden sound of a boot scraping against the stone floor behind me. I turned around to face the cave room’s ‘hallway’ and spotted three heads poking out from the rocky wall, watching us. Alice, Titania, Freya, and even Freya’s two snow leopard cubs below were all getting a curious eyeful.

Well, this is awkward…

I let go of my tail and cleared my throat. “So, as you can all see, the ritual was a success! Yeah, this was all according to plan. Totally.”

Silence. Painful, awkward silence.

“Guys? Why is no one saying anything?”

Freya bit her lip. “The foxes are multiplying…”

Titania anxiously rubbed the back of her neck. “Uh, I think that new look kinda suits you, Beryl!”

“What is that supposed to mean?!”

Alice tried to speak, but she was trembling too hard and couldn’t get the words out. Instead, she nervously approached me, one awkward step at a time.

“B-Beryl, you… you’re… you’re so cute~♡!”

She leapt forward and threw her arms around me, giggling and squealing with joy. As bewildered as I was, her joy was utterly infectious; I found myself smiling and hugging her back.

After a minute, Alice pulled away and stared at me a little harder. “Beryl, um, can I just—I mean, it’s only for a second…!”

Without waiting for my answer, she reached a hand for my head and started patting my black hair.

I went to stop her, but I shuddered when she touched something that shouldn’t have been there. I sent two hands over my head to check.

“I even have fox ears up here?!” I almost shouted. “I guess it only makes sense, but still!”

Viela smiled like she was waiting for me to notice. “Do you want to see?”

She cast a quick spell, and a tall vertical mirror materialized on the tip of her finger. I stared at my reflection and the two dark, fluffy fox ears resting over my head. I ran a finger along each ear, quivering when I reached their furry tips.

Why do these ears have to be so sensitive to the touch…?

At first, I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to react to my new foxy features. After Viela’s mirror spell vanished, I went back to petting my tail one more time.

On second thought, maybe this would be perfect living as a foxy. I grew closer to Viela today, and my ears did look kind of cute on me, and I even had a fluffy tail I could touch any time I wanted…!

“Wait, no! I can’t stay like this!” I said. “How am I supposed to go back to the city now? And the Magic Academy? Everyone’s going to think I’m some kind of rogue fox spirit! We can change back, right?”

“Of course!” Viela laughed. “It’s easy. Here…”

She rubbed a hand over her head, stroking her smooth head of hair and the distinct lack of fluffy ears up above.

“Yeah, it feels like something’s missing,” she shrugged.

With a blur of light, her two brown fox ears rematerialized over her head, complete with that unmistakable fluffy tail behind her.

“Oh!” I gasped. “So this is like a new transformation for us! Alright, how do I do that?”

She looked at me like I just asked how to blink. “You just… shift.”

“What do you mean, ‘shift?’”

Viela scratched her cheek with a nervous smile. “Okay, um, we can figure this out!”

Oh, shit. Oh, shit.

Somehow, I just knew I might be stuck as a fox girl… for the rest of my life.