Although beasts grow slowly they still aged as did the little tod who slowly began to gain more interest in the world around himself. Unlike his more bloodthirsty kin the boy’s interest was not in the different types of prey in the world that could be hunted; quite fittingly he had a green thumb which greatly contrasted his fellow foxes who never went out their way to farm/garden. With his unique opposable fore-paws it was just as easy for him as any other humanoid to use tools so he regularly could be seen around with a cute little hoe in hand.

He was particularly fond of strawberries so many bushes could be seen growing all around the field of the hero king’s sword. His form of gardening seemed completely in tune with nature itself making it seem as if no one had even touched a blade of grass of the field - though it was not rare to see his little silver body slowly moving through the tall foliage. It almost seemed as if he was always at work in the field.

Of course, as he grew older, he had started having to interact with those around him no matter how quiet a child he was.

From the get go he was on the backfoot when interacting with others since he was obviously quite introverted yet due to his ‘strange’ features he was truly fighting an uphill battle. He was naturally quite the sharp child who had strong instincts; this essentially meant he could more or less tell people's feelings at a glance. Those very same instincts made him realise exactly how little people felt about him despite having never interacted with him.

Just about every mortal looked at him with disgust, kitsune glanced at him with disappointment while other beasts glared at him with mocking. Those mortals clearly looked at him with disgust because he was ‘different’ so he could do literally nothing to fix their disconcerting eyes that always followed him no matter where he went or what he did. Even when he was doing the same job as them, farming, they still looked at him as if he were a monster and often muttered about him possibly ‘breaking’ and murdering them or how pathetic he was.

Still he managed to mostly ignore those mortals since they weren’t too competent themselves so in contrast the glances by his kin were more stinging. They obviously realised pretty quickly that he wasn’t as competent as mother or sister since he had no talent in the [Spiritual Arts] which their race was confident in. On top of that he didn’t even have much interest in meat so hunting was basically pointless pursuit in his mind.

As for the glaring of the other beast races who occasionally came by their territory; these were probably the easiest to ignore. In addition, if they actually voiced their dislike, his older sister would always appear to (literally) beat them up for bullying him. Though the fact he relied on his older sister to get out of trouble did make the prior two more intense he just put all his effort into what he loved hence it hurt far less.

His family were actually very supportive of him finding his own path nonetheless there was quite a lot of guilt weighing him down despite his apparent success.

Certainly he had a lot of success when it came to his field as the amount of flowers around the lake has massively increased while appearing all the brighter. Alexis and the {Grand Shrine Maiden} had even commented that the spiritual energy in his little garden was the highest either had ever seen (obviously that meant far more from his mature mother than adolescent sister).

Often the two couldn’t help cultivate their spirit in his little garden, not that he believed them as he couldn’t actually sense such things himself. Instead he focused on ensuring that his little patch of nature was as wonderful as it could possibly be - this was even if they were to pity him they could look at the beautiful scene. Not only that but he even carefully spent time deciding which plants to choose based on their natural aroma so he could have them produce the best calming  scent possible.

Strangely he had noticed a raven was always watching from the nearby trees that did nothing more than watch over the field. If it were just that he wouldn’t have noticed; many other creatures were attracted by the vivid scene he had crafted.

What caught his attention when it was lined up was just how dark the feathers were on the bird who was always following him. Although he swore the bird was watching silently, his family only found it strange and thought that maybe it was interested in his actions. Afterall the raven was just a mortal bird which was dumber & weaker than even a human.

It was a day like any other where the little fox was walking on his two hind-legs with a hoe in his left fore-paw while swinging a stick in her right. He was never quite sure why, however he couldn't help getting some pleasure from swinging around a well weighted stick. Often doing something which could be said more akin to a dance than randomly swinging a random stick.

Even without practice or training he managed to dance around beautifully with nothing but a bit of wood & a well cared for hoe. Though there were no other sounds than the natural whitenoise of the forest there may as well have been the most beautiful background there was; his delicate yet deliberate movements themselves seemed like the wand of a director guiding it all.

Something about brandishing sticks and similar shaped objects like this just felt right to him.

While expertly dancing through the complicated & uneven ground of the forest he eventually arrived at his little grove once more to look proudly across his hard work. The area was even brighter than it had been before yet what stood out the most would be the plump strawberries that almost seemed to glow a vibrant crimson. There wasn’t an inch of brow soil as far as one could see as even the lake was encircled by bushes made up from bright cerulean leaves which contained fiery ruby flower heads. A dignified scent making the best use of the forest's natural aroma wafted out from his alluringly majestic holt.

Upon previewing his grove though he noticed an item silently resting upon a patch of grass which made his ears curiously twitch. He instantly observed it to be exactly where his older sister usually sat; this made him believe it was likely one of the books she regularly enjoyed reading while taking in nature energy. Despite what one may think from her excitable-tomboyish personality she was actually very interested in motherhood & romance hence regularly could be found reading such books.

As her little brother the tod obviously didn’t realise anything like that so instead was more focused on making up for his siblings ditzy nature.

“She really needs to take better care of these books since she will be the one who cries when it rains or a mortal beast uses it as litter and it gets ruined.” <Baby Tod>

Despite his (quite fair) complaints the boy still placed his hoe aside in order to walk up and retrieve the book however upon which his furry little face showed confusion. The reason for his confusion was that the book within his fuzzy mits was certainly not like any of the others his sister usually read. Instead, boldly written in clear black cursive upon the white background, was the title of the book which was “The Art of Blades”. Seeing this strange title made him furrow his brow with clear confusion before opening it up to see what it was actually about. At first he thought it was an adult book that his sister was reading due to her romance flicks sometimes falling into a more indecent mould; soon he discovered he was completely incorrect about that. Compared to what he thought it was he instantly felt this was far more interesting than some perverted novel about copulation.

It took no time at all for his attention to fully be taken in by the novel as he read it page after page and before he had even realised it the morning was long gone. By that time he had actually managed to read it from cover to blurb despite having quite the hefty amount of content hidden deep inside of it; catching a certain bird by surprise.

Nonetheless the boy had managed to read the entire book even if the bird clearly couldn’t have comprehended the complex content of what he read…

“Huh… Quite the light read thought I wish my sister would have told me about it earlier; maybe she has something a little more advanced than this.” <Baby Tod>

The poor little raven couldn’t help spit up some blood upon hearing that yet the fox didn’t notice as he was still too interested in the content of the book.

Unfortunately he didn’t have one of the ‘blades’ mentioned within so he could only use the stick he brought and so broke out into one of his dances again. Once again his movements were graceful yet now they are far sharper with clear intention compared to prior where it was akin to action without purpose other than the act itself. His stick glanced across a drooping flower head to lift it up and have pollen spread out on the gentle wind generated; however when a leaf got in his way it was promptly cut in half by the very same stick.

Around his ‘blade’ was a faint golden gleam that sparkled beautifully behind his elegant movements that soon came to a close with him lowering the stick to rest on his shoulder.

“Not as impressive as the [Spiritual Arts] but I should be able to defend myself against wild beasts with this now…” <Baby Tod>

What the tod didn’t realise is that the lowest level of [Spiritual Arts] he saw were those of his older sister who herself was a genius. Even when comparing her to those of their uncontested family Alexis was at the very least in the middle in terms of accomplishments - that is if you include all the adults as well. Hearing those words nearly destroyed the mind of the raven who quivered in fear while thinking that maybe her mistress had underestimated these foxes just like the rest of the world had.