An ever-changing idyll of trees and meadows passed by just outside of the carriage's two windows. We were traveling too fast as if I could flee, though there was neither a lock nor bars preventing me from trying it regardless.

I had thought about it dozens of times. With just a little jump I would escape out of the carriage and flee into the underwood, should there be a small forest anywhere nearby. Before they even realized what happened, I would already be gone for good!

But what would I do after that? Hide in the forests like some random bandit? That didn't work out. I still had some meals stored away with my magic, but that didn't mean I would be fine. I would still feel cold whenever I dared to cancel my transformation magic and even if I could somehow defeat both hunger and weather, there was still an unknown number of foes lurking around.

No, I had no chance to. I would let them do their thing for now. Or at least play the good girl until I was saved or at least had found out what it was what they wanted from me.

I had never met the king nor any other noblemen, so I couldn't even guess what all of this was about. There was only one piece of information I could work with: they had identified me as 'Rika the Foxkin' rather than just 'Rika'. So it obviously had to do something with the body Cilia had forced onto me.

Ofris and Sahria had told me about how the fox tribe had been exterminated in a war between the elves and the beastkin, for they had sided with the elves and thus had been considered traitors by the other tribes. But how did that piece of information connect me and the king? I didn't know a single thing about the Foxkin, aside from them having looked just like me.

“What do they want from me?”

Nobody would answer this question of mine. The two guards had just asked me or rather demanded that I would come with them, and the driver of the carriage had failed to say a single word yet.

Now I was alone in this prison, or rather without any human companion to keep me entertained. There was still that little white fox that I had summoned half an hour into the ride, but it was sleeping on my lap without giving a single care about anything surrounding it.

Ever since I had seen the fox the first time, it had been like this: unmoving and soft, making it more of a pillow instead of a living and breathing animal. If it wasn't for it being a magical being I had long since tried to wake it up, even if it meant using force. But the way it was it wouldn't starve to death or die of thirst, ever.

“At least I am not alone…”

Naturally, I would have traded the fox's company with Ofris or Mabel at any given day. With them at my side, I would feel far more secure. Not because they would protect me, but because they would at least know what is going on. I could speak his language due to some weird coincidence or the vixen's manipulating my memory, but there was no way for me to read their letters.

Without them protecting me from the back, the king could easily make me sign some kind of contract without me ever finding out what it is about before it is too late. Or I could accidentally offend him by not knowing the correct etiquette used for speaking to him.

Mabel and especially Ofris had tried to accompany me, he had talked to the men for many minutes, using arguments and even threats, but they simply didn't allow him to get on the carriage with me no matter what he said. In the end, he could only watch me be stolen away.

I would forever remember his eyes when the two guards blocked him from entering the carriage. There had been shock and disbelief hidden in his gaze, but also anger and a deep despair. He had shouted after me, promising to find me in the capital, but obviously he would arrive far too late.

By the time he would be in the castle or palace, these men could already have tricked me, betrayed me, enslaved or even killed me. He wouldn't be able to save anything, no matter how hard he wished to. There wasn't even a way to say whether they would really bring me to their king or not. They could be criminals, too!

No, I couldn't risk that. I wouldn't give them the chance to abuse me! This was my life. How could I accept ending up as a slave or a mere tool for power?!

“I will show them!”

⊱————　❈　————⊰

Two pairs of eyes stared at me in disbelief. The men seemed confused and helpless, but their funny expressions only further encouraged me in doing my thing. So I briefly stared back at them while making sure to show them as much disinterest as possible, before yawning and snuggling against that white fox's fluffy body.

The two men saw nothing but two small foxes, one red-brownish, the other pure white. There was nothing to be seen of the girl they had forced into the carriage the day before. In the night, I still had been with them, playing the good girl, but now? There was only Rika the Fox. And I would show them the most normal and boring fox pup there was!

I couldn't possibly be more disinterested or boring looking than my summon, but I still tried regardless. And using it like this, as a pillow and partner in crime, was only helping me.

My dress was gone. I had just stuffed it into my inventory magic to hide it from their eyes, together with anything I had on me before. So here I was, pretending to sleep on the red, padded seats, while they still tried to guess what had happened.

“She... is gone?”
“No, that can't be,” the other guard decided. “We were driving at full speed before reaching the city. Who would jump from a carriage like that?”
“Then where is she?”
“Maybe she…” He hesitated. “Turned into one of them?”
“Damn it!”
“There was only the white one before,” he continued. “Where else would the red one come from?”
“Are you sure? I never heard of a girl turning into a pet.”
“Magicians can do anything.”
“She is a magician! So that's it!”
“Can't they be a little more stupid?! Please?!”

The carriage suddenly shook as one of them, possibly both, climbed inside. I tried to keep my eyes closed, to at least keep alive that slight shimmer of hope that they might change their mind, but soon enough even that died away.

When one of their hands suddenly touched me, I could no longer pretend. I opened my eyes, fled into the edge of the carriage and stared at them. The man had a stone in his hand, a cursed tool with even more cursed runes on it. I knew exactly what he was trying to do.

“NO!”

He didn't let himself be discouraged by my animal-like behaviors. Instead, he just attacked again, attempting to grab me with his free hand.

Naturally, I shouted at him, half out of panic, half out of despair. I tossed insults and curses at him and even threatened to attack him with magic, but all that left my lips were high-pitched yet cute barks and yelps – sounds that were dangerously close to the 'deactivation code' the vixen had given me for my transformation magic.

“Sorry, my lady.”
「Leave me alone,」 I barked at him, 「I will bite you! If you come any nearer, I will bite you!」

My threats didn't work. He just grabbed me by the scarf, as if I was a cat! I tried to struggle, to bite him or scratch him, and barked at him again and again, but nothing of this helped. He just gave me to his comrade, so that he would receive the scratches both of them deserved.

Naturally, I didn't let myself be hindered by that. I bit him, again and again, or rather I buried my teeth into his scarf and pulled at it. I tried to tear it apart while at the same time doing my best to blind out the voice in the back of my head that screamed at me to stop acting cute.

I was no wild animal. At best, I was a pet. And when the identification stone was placed onto my back, they stole from me even that. I was no longer a pet, but rather a girl that behaved like one.

“It is her.”
“Why is she like this?! She is eating my scarf!”
“Who knows? Maybe Foxkin are like this.”
“We can't present her to his Majesty if she is like this!”
“They can't present me like this…”

It was only a single line, nothing but the word of a guard, but I couldn't help putting all my hope into it. I would stay like this. They couldn't do anything about it! Who cared if they would think of me as crazy? If being crazy brought me back to Ofris, I would be the craziest fox there ever was!

“Let's get going,” my new archenemy decided. “We can think of something on our way there.”
“Are you sure?”
“He has been waiting for nearly a week and I am sure he has been informed of our arrival by now.”
“You are right.”
“Go take that other fox, too. Maybe it will be useful in some way.”
“Yes!”
“Why can't they just be stupid and leave me be!? Why!?”