Tallu smiled awkwardly at her Teacher, who gave her a dark look."Go home, Tallu." He told her.

No one who saw him like this would ever fall for the sheer and seemingly pure beauty of the man. He was physically smaller than most, delicately looking, almost effeminate; his hair was the purest of White, that of a winter fox, and his eyes were deep pools of light reflecting crystalline blue that made him appear to be more. He was More. But Tallu was desperate and faced the killer inside him regardless. She was not afraid, never of River.

"If I finally can take that promotion exam!" She insisted for the n-th time

"You are not ready!" He shouted, and it seemed his civilization seemed to completely desert him. Magic swirling around him in dark tendrils of midnight blue, threateningly daring her to object. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, calming the beast inside him. This time, much calmer, he repeated himself. "You are not ready, Tallu." He told her with a frown on his face.

"River!" She argued against his words once again, her outrage fully laid on display in that one word, desperation in his voice as he signed. The most potent nine-tails alive, head of an ancient winter fox family famous for their magical skill and Power, was visibly despairing with her persistence. "I am already older than most and still on eight tails." She held up all of her Tails for him to count, and suddenly, an Inkstone flew her way. She dodged it by a hair's breadth.

"Idiot!" He hissed, now standing, and she shrugged her shoulders. "Never let anyone know the exact number of your tails."

"You know it either way." She pointed out the obvious, and he gave her a long. Very long. Look. Settling back down on his chair, he asserted himself. Throwing back his long white hair with a dramatic move.

"Alright. I understand you get to take your promotion exam for the Ninth Tail Tallu," he agreed and raised his hand for her to be silent before she celebrated. "I have one condition." He held up a single finger.

"Of course, of course." She agreed excitedly. Cursing herself at the same moment. It was a bad idea to simply agree with another fox's demands, even if they were family.

"You get a Bodyguard." He stated. "Ninetails exams are highly dangerous, and you are anything but a big fighter. So you take a bodyguard with you."

"But no one has ever had Bodyguard for their Ninetales exam...." Tallu whined.

"You will. You are a sorcery fox, a noncombatant, so you have the right to take protection along, and I insist you do." River told her with glee and raised his hand once again when Tallu wanted to object.

"Tallu! The exam to be a Ninetails is a lot more dangerous than those for the other eight tails. Do you know why there are nearly no sorcery Foxes around with nine tails?"

"Cuz you need to study a lot, and most of us are pure souled foxes. Meaning we don't eat souls." She answered, and River put his head into his hands in despair.

"Not wrong, but the other reason is that most sorcery Foxes don't survive the obligatory tasks to gain their Tails. Tallu....making it to eight Tails alive as a sorcery fox is already rare." He told her, but Tallu balled her fists and glared at him in opposition.

"But I want to be a Ninetails!" She argued. "A proper Ninetails. I can never be a Vixen or as pretty as they are, but I least want to be equal to them! I want to be able to fight for myself!"

"Tallu, you are equal to them! You reached eight Tails as a sorcery fox, which is a goddamn miracle."

"Maybe for you, but for everyone else I am a weak fox, a child, and I will stay weak and a child until I get my ninth tail in their eyes," Tallu told him, turning and leaving the argument. A weakling and a child was all she ever would be if she stayed with eight tails. Tucking her tails away, she walked outside and was greeted by one of her fellow skulk foxes.
A gorgeous Vixen. She was beautiful and poised, kissing Tallus's temple for a greeting until she walked away with a lover in each arm. Tall didn't envy the woman for her lovers; she had no need for them, there was only one male she desired, but she did envy her the freedom of being a Ninetails and going about as she wanted.

Among foxes, there were two types. The regular foxes were mostly female Vixens, or in rarer cases, males who were immensely powerful and lived off both males and females and their magical energy and souls. One could also enter a contract with them, and they'd fulfill wishes for the human in exchange for getting their souls. At some point, they stole souls, but that has changed in modern times.

Then there were other foxes, oddities. Some were too weak to make it, some too powerful to grow into their Tails, and they tended to self-destruct. Some foxes specialized in their skills, and some went off jet another path.
Sorcery Foxes were among those oddities and one of the rarest kinds of those with specialization. They specialized in knowledge, using it to create abstract spells suited for their low general power levels. Depending on their domain, they could be terrifying opponents or, like Tallu, noncombatants. Most never made it to their fifth or sixth Tail, though, as they were born with weak inner magic reserves or bodies unable to handle more than the Power they already held.

Tallu was with eight Tails, small, an oddity among oddities, and she knew, but she hadn't worked that hard to stop now at eight. She raised her head and passed through the mirror to the normal, or rather the human world stepping onto the concrete of the city streets, invisible to the naked eye, before slowly appearing in the masses and using them to hide.

Despite being centuries old, she looked like a teenager, maybe sixteen to humans, earning a few weird gazes due to her whitish grey hair; it made most think of a well-done coloring job; in reality, it was her natural hair color.

"A Bodyguard," Tallu muttered and signed. "I won't get around that, do I. Then I just have to make the best of it or cheat them out of it."