"It's mostly rituals, lots of candles, moonlight and hope. I can show you tomorrow, if you want."

"Do you have a place to sleep? My bed is big enough for two, and definitely more comfortable than the forest."

Pet pet pet.

"It's a lot warmer in here than out there, if nothing else... If you don't mind? I don't like to impose. I am warm and snuggly, kitsune sisters love sleeping in a big pile..."

"I'd love to. But going to bed would mean letting go, and I'm not sure I want to do that. You're so fluffy!"

Pet pet pet.

Ok. She can do this.

She lets go, then gestures to follow and starts walking to her bedroom.

This witch has been a lovely first find. She gets to relax in a house, with nobody yelling or looking for her, and be petted and snuggled. Both comfy and charging!

Her tail, squished between the two of them once settled in the bed, is an incredibly comfy, soft, warm blanket. She yawns deeply, showing fangs.

She removes most of her clothes, then gets into bed and removes her pants while under the covers.

She starts absentmindedly petting the tail, taking care to avoid the base.

"Good night Weiss!"

She blows the bedside candle off.

She shed most of her outer layers for a thin linen shorts and nightshirt at some point when Selena wasn't looking in her direction. Magic? Probably.

Snugggggggle...

"'Night, s'lene..."

The very tip of her tail curls around her hand.

Selena wakes up slowly, as the first rays of the sun enter through the window.

During the night she must have gotten closer to Weiss, cause her tail is now tightly squished between them.

Then she notices that all the squishing caused... a predictable reaction.

Oh no. No no no no no.

She moves veeeery slowly, trying incredibly hard to not rouse Weiss.

Please please please, don't wake up now.

As soon as she's far enough she rolls out of bed and fumbles on the floor for her pants.

Zzzzz...

"Whuzz... Hrm?"

Weiss rolls over, grabbing at the empty spot. 

"Humu... Apples... Chicken... Mmm..."

Zzzzz...

Cute!

She quietly gets to the kitchen and starts grabbing ingredients: flour, water, apples, butter...

She wakes up more fully when kitchen noises start happening. They have a different character than walking around or fumbling on the floor, and aren't as easily filtered out.

She takes a minute to get changed properly into a sort of white sundress, rather than sticking with the illusion-clothes method. The maintenance on those kind of adds up.

"Selena? Good morning... That was comfy. Thanks, I needed that."

"I slept very well too, your tail is really comfortable to lean on..."

She is using a rolling pin on the table, and there's a bowl of cut apples to the side.

"Hehe... Foxes make the best pillows, don't you know?"

She holds out her tail and wiggles the white tip.

"I'd love to brush it more, but it will have to wait, I'd make it completely white with all the flour!"

"Fair enough~" She singsongs. "I'd like to contribute to chores while I'm a guest. 'Cause I'm up now, and want to do something, and I'm stronger than I look. Anything need hauling, or the like?"

"You can keep me company and give moral support as I bake, how about that?"

There is wood to be chopped in the back but she can deal with it herself later.

And besides, it would mean not being able to ogle watch respectfully the fluffy tail.

"Hmm, if you insist?"

She sits at the table. "How about I tell you a story?"

She thinks for a moment... She's kind of having trouble thinking of a good one, actually? It needs to be a good show too, not just the words...

"Have you ever heard of a Wendigo? Be thankful such cursed beasts are rare to the point of near myth... There are old places in the world, cursed places, where magic has pooled in festering rot. Nobody knows why these places form, but they are found where horrible tragedy and ruin once struck. The pain, anguish, and resentment of ages, trapped and slowly fading... These places can be purified, with effort, but it is very dangerous, for the cursed beasts that lurk there are mighty and cunning, some as intelligent as you or I. The most dangerous foe is the smart one..."

An illusion takes shape as she speaks, of a tall beast, skeletal but with menacing corded black muscle, an empty ribcage, a bird-skull head and diseased claws and hateful red eyes.

She weaves a tail of adventure, with plentiful more illusions in a slightly-cartoonish style. Running from the Wendigo, then witnessing its attacks on innocents and fighting it, chasing it away. Slaying it, but knowing it would return just from the foul taint in the air, and then travelling to a great lizard-kin wizard who might know how to end such a thing permanently, dodging trouble on the road from suspiciously bandit-like 'merchants' to beastfolk packs intent on kidnapping her to a wild blizzard that made the whole region impassable, knowing all the while that the Wendigo was recuperating and covering its tracks... Recruiting allies and falling into a cunning trap where the Wendigo was sparing one village if it would help hunt others... It all finishes up in a dramatic confrontation with help from two other kitsunes and a brave human boy who, terrified out of his mind, willingly acted as bait. The beast was chased down, cornered, and slain by fire and claw and an array of specially enchanted crystals to ensure its permanent end, the cursed site that birthed it set up with a shrine and slowly purified. One of the kitsunes fell in love and married the brave lad in the aftermath!

"Spooky! Those illusions are very good, you could get a girl to leave her house - convinced that her goddess has sent her a sign!"

And the pie is now in the oven!

"Today is the beginning of harvest season. I'm going to do my own 'harvest', and spend the day in the forest looking for healing herbs. Do you want to come with?"

Whaaat? Just 'spooky' is all the reaction she gets? She thought it was good!

"...Sure. I guess."

"Something's wrong?"

"It's fine. I'm just being stupid." She's definitely pouting inside, going by how her ears droop.

"Would you like a hug? Some more brushing while the pie is cooking?"

"Well, if you don't mind. And I'm definitely going to help out how I can, for pie..."

"Of course I don't! Do you still have the brush in your tail? I still don't get how it just... stays there!"

"I appreciate the thought! Honestly what I feel I need the most is... company. That's why I preferred you to stay here while I baked. Of course there are always things to do in and around the house but someone to share quiet existence with is something precious."

"How it stays there is: Magic. It's my Tail of Holding!" Wagwagwag.