After a little more thought and discussion with Dawn, Niphru decided that they should probably wait a little while before beginning.  He had been told he had a bit of time, after all, and it might be a good idea to have Morris around to observe the process.

 

Due to this decision, he ended up spending several boring days helping out around the village to pass the time.  When he wasn’t busy with some task or another, he practiced his force magic.  The lake nearby had a large quantity of water, after all, and it was certainly heavy enough.

 

Dawn, however, had somewhat annoyed him by reminding him that he could actually practice his water and earth magic.  He had been ignoring those for the most part, but he did have to admit that it was probably a good idea to have a bit more skill in them.

 

As day after day passed, clear worry began to show across the village, many wondering if the hunters had died, though Brigid, at least, remained unconcerned.  Eventually, one day, there was a clamor toward the gate facing the forest, revealed to be the arrival of Morris and Narath returning, looking significantly worse for the wear.

 

Though they were covered in debris from the forest, Narath was covered in bloody scratches with much of his armor barely hanging on, and Morris looked utterly exhausted, they were obviously successful in their hunt.  The terrifying badger hung from Narath’s hand, seemingly unharmed, but certainly unmoving.

 

While Morris immediately headed off to get some rest, Narath waved for people to relax and remarked, “I know you are all wondering what happened and why we were gone so long.  I’ll explain once everyone quiets down.”

 

A few moments later, the gathered crowd finally fell silent, and Narath began a story of how they had trapped the badger only for it to best them in combat, though they did at least wound it, as it was limping when it ran away.  A second attempt resulted in it digging away when Morris attempted to crush it.  The third attempt also failed, as it was able to tear the earth from its head where Morris was trying to suffocate it, and dodged the strike to its head, suffering a powerful blow to its ribs instead before it managed to flee again.

 

In the end, they had finally prepared an area for a full day, hardening the earth to an absurd degree, as well as preparing a hole and a plug to seal it.  They had to chase it into the area they had prepared, but had eventually managed to knock it partially into the hole and drop the plug over it, Narath slamming it down even as Morris shaped it around the badger’s skull.  To avoid it digging free again, Narath forwent his weapon and instead kneeled on the badger, doing his best to hold back its claws.

 

As he reached this point in his story, Narath gestured toward his badly damaged leg armor and chuckled before he remarked, “Luckily, red armor looks fine when covered in blood.”

 

Several minutes of maintaining the situation had finally led to the beast going unconscious, at which point they effortlessly suffocated it the rest of the way.  At this point, Narath raised his voice and declared, “It is now safe to return to the forest in your normal groups!”

 

Seeing that the story was finished, the crowd began to disperse, and Narath wandered towards the group’s wagons, nodding at Niphru as he passed by.

Because Dawn hadn’t been around, Niphru filled her in through their link, letting her know that Morris was back and that it was safe to return to the forest.  She was somewhat surprised to hear that he had immediately gone to rest, expressing that she had expected him to take over assigning tasks for the village again.

 

As they finished talking, Dawn guessed, “Perhaps he just trusts us to hold things together?”

 

Instead of responding, Niphru simply sent a feeling of approval to her before turning to follow Narath’s trail to the wagons.  Upon reaching them, he was treated to an amusing sight – Narath struggling to pierce the corpse’s skin with a knife, the skin often shifting and sending the knife sliding away, while also resisting direct force when he did manage it.

 

Remembering that the creature had previously actually put effort into avoiding his fire, Niphru asked if he could try to help, and upon receiving Narath’s approval, compressed all of his foxfire into a tiny blade before he slowly moved it against the skin.  After some time, the flames did actually part the flesh, and he slowly extended the cut down the corpse’s back.  Eventually, Narath said he could stop, then reached into the cut, grabbed the spine, and tore the body from the skin with a sickening noise.

 

As Niphru slipped backward away from the scene, Narath began disassembling the corpse, having far more success than his attempts to piece the skin.  While Niphru watched on, the man finally managed to pry an incredibly clear mana stone from within the rib cage.  After tearing it free, he tossed it in his hand a few times and shook his head.

 

“Well, now, that is the most impressive one I’ve seen so far,” he exclaimed with a hint of amazement in his tone.

 

Since Narath returned to removing the bones from the flesh of the corpse, Niphru decided he didn’t have any reason to remain, and instead decided to go help with preparing lunch for the day.

 

Around dinner time, Morris finally made an appearance again, and Niphru immediately moved to speak to him, finding Dawn and Viera had beaten him there.  Instead, he listened as Morris said they had done a good job keeping things on track.  After Viera conversed with him about several topics regarding the village, she left to get some rest, and Dawn stepped forward.

 

“Niphru and I have one incredible story for you, Morris,” she exclaimed, shaking her head as she still had trouble believing it herself.

 

As Niphru approached, he began to share what had happened to him, and how confusing it had been.  He described the first massive drain as the link opened, then the crushing power that flowed out toward him.  At this point, Dawn cut in, describing how he couldn’t even sit up without help and needed to rest.  Next, Niphru continued explaining how Dawn had been asleep when he decided to try to reach down the link again.

 

Morris shook his head in disapproval and stated, “Even if she couldn’t have helped, you should have waited and let Dawn know what you were doing, Niphru.  What if something went wrong?  She wouldn’t have even known what happened to you!”

 

To this, Niphru simply remarked, “I didn’t feel any hostility from the beings beyond the link, so I was relatively sure that I’d be fine.  And it did work out in the end, didn’t it?”

 

This failed to satisfy Morris, but Niphru just continued his story, speaking of how the voice he had heard actually belonged to an unknown god that was supposedly an ally of Atryna.  When he got to the part about Inari speaking an oath, however, Morris stopped him.

 

“You mean to say that pulse of magic was from that?  It was easy to feel even deep in the forest!  I was worried there was another mutated beast of immense power nearby.” he exclaimed as he stepped backward, eyes wide.

 

After shaking his head, he then continued, “Well, I guess Narath was right again that it was nothing to worry about…  I am glad about that; the damned badger was bad enough.”

 

Niphru nodded, confirming that the magical pulse had happened right as the being swore the oath that it was being honest and not hiding anything.

 

From there, Niphru expanded, “Inari’s offer to help me was related to me mutating again, and how I’d managed to hold it off by channeling everything into my mana stone.  Apparently, there are two paths I can take, and just naturally evolving might make who I am change.  Inari offered an alternative, and I’ve chosen to take it.”

 

He paused to remember for a moment before continuing, “It said that I will grow larger, become more deeply attached to my ‘spirit crystal’ or mana stone, and my tail will split in two.  Apparently, foxes that follow Inari’s path gain more tails as they become more powerful magically.”

 

Dawn nudged Niphru through their bond, reminding him of the reason they were here, and he nodded before changing his speech, “But we wanted to let you know when I was going to do this so that you could observe if you wanted to.”

 

Hearing this offer from the two of them, Morris froze for a moment, his eyes wide, before he bowed slightly to them.

 

“I am grateful that you extended this offer to me, Niphru, Dawn.  I doubt anyone has seen anything like that before, at least not in this world.  I gladly accept this opportunity.  Is there anything I can do to help you with it?” he formally declared as he stood straight once again and met Niphru’s gaze.

 

Niphru shook his head, responding, “I wasn’t told of anything I needed except my mana stone and to not be disturbed.”

 

With a nod, Morris inquired, “Are you ready to do this now, or did you need more time to prepare?”

 

Feeling left out, Dawn cut in before Niphru and answered, “We had decided together that we just wanted to let you watch, but have been ready for days, so we can do it anytime!”

 

Realizing how he had been leaving Dawn just standing there, Niphru moved to rub his head against her leg as he said, “Dawn is right, I’m ready any time.”

 

Hearing this, Morris gestured to the side and remarked, “We can use the home I’ve been loaned.  It was decided that no one else would live there while we were here, so it will be free of disturbances.”

 

As Morris led the way, Dawn and Niphru followed, somewhat anxious of what was to come, though Niphru at least was also somewhat excited.  While he didn’t know for sure what would happen, he trusted the god that he had spoken with, and it sounded like this would be a positive thing for him.

 

Once they arrived, Morris brought them into the living room and cleared the center of the room for them before stepping aside and stating, “I will stay out of the way over here.  Do whatever you need to do, Niphru.”

 

Nodding, Niphru moved to the center of the cleared space before Dawn approached and hugged him as she murmured, “I hope this works safely, Niphru.”

 

“Inari didn’t mention anything about a risk of it not working, and seemed to be certain,” Niphru responded, tilting his head, surprised that she was worried now when she hadn’t been before.

 

Dawn simply shook her head and stood back, anxiety clear over their bond.  Not wanting to wait any further, Niphru used his magic to open the pouch at the front of his harness and removed the nearly fist-sized mana stone from within.  Compared to before, it was even closer to a sphere, and could almost be fully seen through.

 

After setting it on the floor in front of himself, Niphru paused and reached down the link to Inari, seeking its attention.  A moment later, a feeling of calm radiated through the link.  All it took was a mention that he was ready, and Inari began to explain the steps he needed to follow.

 

Even at the start, however, he ran into difficulties.  Apparently, his illusions and foxfire were just projections of his spirit, and he had to use his spirit itself, rather than projections of it.  Fortunately, Inari clearly had a great deal of experience teaching his path, as it only took about half an hour for Niphru to figure out how to interact with his spirit directly.

 

The next several steps all involved interacting with his spirit crystal, and had rather blatant results.  First off, with a loud screech, the stone squished itself into a perfect sphere, while also shrinking about a quarter.  Afterward, his foxfire was sucked into it with irresistible force, momentarily torn from his control, becoming tiny specks of light barely visible through the somewhat cloudy surface.

 

Despite his panic at the total loss of his power, Niphru tried to stay calm and continued following the instructions he was given.  There was a sudden lurch, a snap, and next thing he knew, his chin bounced off the floor.  As he moved to stand, there was a sharp pain all across his body, and he stumbled, feeling as his body grew.

 

Meanwhile, directly in front of him, his mana stone cracked before practically imploding, shrinking down to the size of a fingernail.  After he finished panicking, he realized it was now crystal-clear, with no cracks or imperfections, and had four glimmers of foxfire slowly dancing within it.

 

Niphru didn’t even notice, but when he looked back, he found that his tail had split at some point, both of the tails now gently swaying behind him.  A mere thought summoned a ball of foxfire, and it moved without any conscious effort, unlike before, when he had to put at least a little focus into it.

 

A closer look at the tiny gem before him showed that there were now three bright lights, and a dim ember floating within, making it even more apparent that they were representations of his power.  He reached down with his force magic, lifting the sphere off the ground.  With a few thoughts, he effortlessly caused his foxfire to flicker in and out of existence around the room.

 

Switching over to an illusion, he found that it was also nearly instinctive, barely requiring any attention at all, even when he made the most complex thing he could think of.  Shaking his head, he remarked, “I’m done, according to Inari.”

 

Before he could say anything else, Dawn was sliding the last step between them on her knees, hands grabbing his spirit crystal as she held it just in front of her and hugged him with her other arm.

 

Even as Dawn was saying something he could vaguely make out was about the crystal, he shuddered, feeling intense feedback through the gem.  Somehow, he could feel that his spirit was in her hands, and that she held power over him.  Even with his trust in Dawn, Niphru couldn’t help but shiver, an instinctive need to retrieve the object at all costs slamming into him.

 

Dawn squeaked and fell to her rear, feeling the intense rush of the feeling through their bond, and quickly cupped the crystal in both hands, holding it out to him, letting him grab it and rapidly stuff it back into his pouch.

 

Once he had it secured again, Niphru took several breaths to calm down, somewhat panicked at his own actions and thoughts.  He had no idea what he would have done if anyone else had touched it, and had no desire to find out.

 

As he was trying to relax, Dawn immediately cried out, “I’m sorry, Niphru, I didn’t mean to hurt you!  It was just so pretty I had to see it!”

 

Still too worked up to speak properly, he reassured her that she didn’t actually hurt him via their bond and rubbed his head against her to show her that he didn’t hold it against her.

 

Seeing this, Morris relaxed as well, having tensed up at Niphru’s sudden change in demeanor.  After shaking his head, he remarked, “Well now, that was quite a situation, wasn’t it?  I wanted to see your mana stone with how much it had changed, but obviously that isn’t an option with how you just reacted to Dawn.  Are you feeling better now?”

 

“I think so…” Niphru quietly stated, uncertainty still clear in his tone as he continued, “I don’t think I want anyone to ever touch that again.”