***This chapter contains a mixture of graphic content, sweet sadness, and fluff, you have been warned***

 

Pov Nadia:

Seeing my childhood room, I knew that I was dreaming. What will go wrong this time?  Heading downstairs, it hit me. Sitting at the kitchen table, were my parents. In all the chaos that had happened, I never realized that I would never see them again or be able to lean on them for emotional support.

 

“Honey, are you alright? And why do you have fox ears and a tail?”[Mom]

 

Reaching behind me in confusion, I grabbed my tail to discover that indeed I was still a fox girl.  Looking around the room to see if I could find out what was going on, I caught a glimpse of Iris with a serious face making the go ahead gesture.  That was when it hit me, I was given a chance to say my last goodbye to my parents.

 

“I don’t have much time to explain. Just know that this is where we will be able to say our last goodbyes.”

 

Tears started to pour out of my parents' faces while my mom sobbed, “so your death truly happened.

 

With tears of my own, all I could mumble was “yeah.”

 

Rushing over to me, my parents hugged me while we all cried.  After a few minutes, my mom wiped her tears and said, “Soooo, you are a fox girl now.””

 

“Yep” was my deadpan reply.

 

*Kyyaaa* “You are so cute right now. A grumpy face surrounded by fluff is soo hard to resist cuddling, right?” hugging me close to her while looking at my Dad for a reply.

 

Glaring at my Dad with hope that he will disagree, he straight up crushed that hope by jokingly saying, “yeah, it is hard to take that angry fox face seriously. It ends up being cuter instead.”

 

“Dad!”

 

“Yeah, also we won’t have to worry about her attracting a lover, she will be popular with all the pretty ladies.” (They already knew that I was a hopeless lesbian.)

 

*Wawawa* blushing, I furiously shouted  “Mom!”

 

“I am sorry my little kit, you are just so fun to tease.”[Mom]

 

I just deadpanned again and said “Seriously?”

 

Ruffling my hair, she said, “Ok ok, we will stop messing with you.” … Then seriously stated “But we do hope that you find someone for you now that we won’t be able to be there for you.”

 

In a soft voice, I whispered “ok, I will.” … “But it is not like I will suddenly meet her any time soon .”

 

I saw my Mom smirk like she just heard a funny joke.  Tilting my head and looking at my Dad in confusion, I saw that he also had a smirk.

 

“What did I miss?”  I asked in a whiney voice, not noticing my Mom looking towards Iris’ direction and giving a wink and a thumbs up behind my back.

 

“It’s nothing, dear” she said in a soothing voice. “Just remembered a conversation with a friend of your Dad and I.

 

“Really, Who?”

 

“Someone close,” she teased. Figuring in my head that she won’t reveal any more information, I just dropped the confusing subject.

 

Suddenly the background started fading to white.  Seeing that I rushed to my parents to give them one last farewell hug.

 

“I love you,” I cried

 

“We love you too.” [Mom]

 

As the dream world faded away, I whispered, “Thank you, Big Sis.”

 

“You’re welcome, little sis” was the soft reply I heard as my field of vision became completely white.

 

 

 

I woke up with tears in my eyes. “Well,” I said aloud, “I should probably get my shopping over with.”

 

Taking my first steps out of my cabin, I looked around. Looking around the forest, I blurted, “I wonder what all the fuss was about with this forest.”  I was underwhelmed with how normal it seemed, with wildlife and plants I would expect to see.  Then I remembered I had a divinity with darkness, which was probably why I could see clearly right now.

 

Thinking further, and sensing the surroundings using my darkness, I found out that the reason there were animals here despite the teleporting mists was because they only affected sentient creatures. Also, since my powers touched it, I now had a connection with the mist and could control how it acts.

 

‘So that is how I decide who is able to enter. Good to know.”

 

Continuing my trek west towards city V, I realized that being part fox has affected me more than just looks. For once I enjoyed being outdoors and wanted to explore and run around. My focus was short and all over the place with every little distraction and sound, and I had to stop myself from chasing animals or bugs like moths and butterflies multiple times.

 

Exiting the forest took a little longer than I would like to admit. Once I finally made it out, I gasped at the site of the city in front of me.  There were huge skyscrapers of various shapes towering into the sky. There were many bright lights on the buildings.  It was very busy with all hovering cars going by, people walking around, and robots floating doing various tasks and cleaning the streets.  I was overwhelmed, both by its majesty, and … all the people.

 

 

Now that the city was in front of me, I started to get cold feet  and worry and overthink things. I started to hyperventilate a little and curled into a ball for a couple of minutes.  My darkness activated by itself and surrounded me in a dark mist, soothing me down.

 

Once I was calm again, I collected what little courage I had and headed towards the city. Keeping my darkness out and fashioning it as a cloak, I walked to the nearest shopping center.

 

I was lucky that I did not run into anyone on my trip or get stopped for any reason. Entering the mall, I thought, ‘even in the future, some things stay the same.’ The mall had the same layout that you would expect from one, only cleaner with better lighting. It just had more beautiful architecture.

 

 

Some time later:

My shopping went smoothly for the most part.  Of course the store clerks gave me weird looks when I came in dressed in a strange way, however, when I took out my diamond plated debit card (kept in my shadow storage for safe keeping), Their attitude turned right around and I got excellent customer service for all my needs.

 

Exiting with many bags containing my spoils of victory, I made my way to an empty alleyway nearby.  Making sure that no one was around, I stored away my books (very important), food, hair brush,  clothes, and other necessities. The only thing I did not store was my new Intelligent Watch, which is what society uses instead of cell phones. It projects a hard light hologram for the screen when in use (from any position) and can be navigated with eye movement, gestures, voice, and even touching/swiping.  I just knew that I would be up late in bed reading light novels off of it when I got home.

 

Walking out of the alleyway and making my way down the street towards home, I thought ‘well, that was not as bad as I thought.’  Suddenly, the wall to the bank beside me exploded.

 

Stepping on the street, I saw a villain dressed in futuristic armor with bull horns on his head. In his hands was a big duffle bag full of golden credits (small bars used as money now when paper cash failed). “Hahaha, I’m rich!!!” he yelled.

 

 

My watch suddenly beeped with a villain alert. ‘Too late for that,’ I sarcastically thought, ‘me and my big mouth.’  *Sigh* “I should get out of here.

 

Turning around, I saw the crowd of people trying to escape. Some had scrapes and bruises, however, I focused on the blood.  My good sense of smell backfired at this point. Smelling the iron scent, the background noise and my vision suddenly started fading away. I dropped to the ground and curled up with my ears flat and tail floofing up as I hugged it.  Hyperventilating and pulse racing, my mind replayed my memory of when I was drowned in blood. I did not notice my cloak disappearing.

“Little girl, watch out!!!”[???]

 

*Thud* "OOF"...

 

Suddenly I was wrapped in a warm tight hug. Being shaken, I snapped out of my daze a bit. Looking up, I saw a beautiful girl holding me. She had long white hair and was wearing some futuristic samurai armor. If someone told me she was a princess in shining armor, I would believe it. 

 

Still shaken, I hugged her tightly and started bawling my eyes out. Once my energy was out, I just passed out into her arms.