Apparently he can't. He does very carefully copy both sets of writing down into a loose-leaf paper with a fountain pen.

...Except, ahhhhh. A fox. Upon observing her standing near the writing he seems to come to a big realization.

He bows and says some things in a more formal register than usual. "Good morning, ------ Fox. -------- Kua is ------- --- ------- --- you."

...She tries to emote moderate confusion, though she does wave a paw -- actually, no, she'll just...

Give her a minute, she's doing art.

stick-figure speech-bubble some-random-imitated-characters; fox, fox thought-bubble same-characters but crossed out, fox thought-bubble English SOME WORDS; stickfigure thoughtbubble SOME WORDS, cross out, questionmark-with-inquisitive-headtilt?

What is 'strength rice rest' supposed to mean?? Is it some sort of joke? It it just nonsense? ...Is that 'rice', instead, 'fertility'? ......He regrets that he does not really understand. (In slightly overwrought formal speech.)

Some other villagers are curious what's going on now and coming over to gawk at a distance. There's a conversation that includes a compound word (something-Fox) several times. She hears, distinctly, the name 'Tamamo'.

...Right.  This is...  Even less comprehensible.

Maybe if she just...

...hm.  Maybe if she does the Three Monkeys?  Is that European?  No, can't be, that's not native -

Um.  Anyway.

She can't really draw monkeys with just her paws...

She might try grawlixes instead.

...Yeah.  That could work.

Human-figure speech-bubble random-characters (not in the same order!)  Arrow from the speech bubble to an intermediate speech bubble filled with nonsense-shapes like ring planets and the @ symbol and suchlike.  Arrow from that to a fox-head's ear.

Fox-head now gets a speech bubble of its own with WHY THIS, because honestly she needs to vent.  Then she draws an arrow from that to the grawlix-bubble, and she draws an arrow from that to the stickfigure.  And then she considers, and tries to be very visibly disrupting the last-mile arrows.

...hang on, what?  Tamamo?  As in Tamamo-no-Mae?

That's Japanese!

Unless it isn't.  Or rather isn't just.  (Or her memory's wrong and it's Chinese, but she doesn't fucking think so.)

That would explain why fox, of all creatures, if she's actually a kitsune...  Or a huli-jing, but she doesn't have Mysterious Liver Cravings.

Considering that there is magic here, maybe she should pick a god and pray.

Buuuuut that might be best saved for later.  Someone who's willingly painting herself the trickster-fox is probably a bad invocation here.  Misunderstandings are, after all, funny according to comedy.  Best not to risk it.

Scroll Guy is still dutifully copying things down but doesn't seem to be any closer to understanding. Some of the kids are inspired to doodle in the dirt too!

...What if Scroll Guy draws a little group of doodle monsters, all spikes and teeth and goop, and makes a point of looking around anxiously and then gesturing at her?

Headshake headshake!  ...Hmm...  Headtilt consideringly...

She adds stink-lines to his drawing, and the fox-face symbol she has been using for herself sniffing at those stench marks and making a yuck face?  ...She will, after a moment, tap the yuckface-notemoji, and make an actual face as best she can.

If it looks like he's following that, she will then add -

-- oh, hey, she could use the trigrams to at least get started, if only she knew which ones were which.  Maybe she could try anyway?  Even if she doesn't have --

...Assuming they replicate here.

Anyway, as she was saying, if he's following that, she will draw him an approximate map - relying on the sunrise-sunset to place a compass rose, as imprecise as that must be - and point out the approximate region of the Stinky Area - though she doesn't want to oversell her confidence, here...  Another considering headtilt.

How to communicate...

...Hmm.

...Okay, she's not, actually, sure if she can communicate this unambiguously.  But she's going to try, anyway.

...She draws a sunrise-sunset cycle.

Then she draws a foxface under that sunrise-sunset cycle.

Then she starts making a tally of the days it's been.

Then - having preserved space to allow her to do exactly thus - she circles the first tally mark, and draws the fox-smells-stinky-yuck, and circles the most recent tally marks, and draws....  Well, a very, artistically lackluster, hut, and some stickfigures, to taste.  Plus a fox.  Can't forget the fox.

(...Dear gods, her poor paws.  She wants her hands back.)

So the kitsune saw monsters a few days wandering up north, downriver? And is obviously foreign of some kind. Or at least having fun tricking them into thinking that. Or possibly is lying about all this or some other sort of elaborate deception. They'll have to be wary; Kitsunes are often helpful, but sometimes extremely nasty.

...Anyway, alright. Good to know. An old granny type brings out a plate of roasted pork and rice with soy sauce for her. She sets it down unhesitatingly, ignoring the slightly wary comments from everyone else.

...Oh, goodness, she wasn't really expecting this... (Inasmuch as a fox can have a very surprised face, this one is doing that!)  ...She'll have to do something nice for this sometime.  ...You know, when she has things like "hands" and "actual language knowledge".  And, hopefully, magic powers.  ...She really needs to put that further on the front burner; if she's going to be a fox for long periods of time it would behoove her to be a fox who can move things with her mind.

...She's not putting the old lady out by partaking, she hopes, but she can't even ask.  She can only be given this gift, and hope that they won't come to regret it.

...She hopes that they know enough about cats to know that rubbing up against someone's legs like this is cat for "we're friends", as long as she's correctly informed about that herself.

Yep, that seems to be recognized as a friendly gesture. Mrs. Grandma Type is now telling a rambly story about... Well, only maybe one word in ten is recognizable, maybe about her children? But it's a comforting sort of background noise.

(Scroll Guy is pacing, frowning in thought. Many of the other villagers are returning to work, farming, weaving, collecting wood- There's never a shortage of it!)

...She just parks herself there and listens anyway, no matter that she can hardly understand a word.  You have to be kind to the little old ladies.  You just gotta.

The story seems to have a happy ending! The old lady looks like she's considering petting her a couple of times, but apparently decides against it.

...Scroll Guy comes back with a sketch on his paper of various concepts they've been trying to communicate with character labels next to them- Days, wandering, the emotions of happiness and disgust, and the different languages.

Then, expressed via a fairly lengthy and halting sketch-and-label routine: English letters and this guy (distinguished by his square hat) scratching his head. Local characters and Scroll Guy nodding in understanding.

Wandering many days: Dozens and dozens of scrolls on a shelf, and then more and more shelves, and three guys with fancier hats.

Two possible outcomes, uncertain which: Fancy Hat looks at the letters and scratches his head, and Fancy Hat looks at the letters and nods in understanding.

Her fur is very soft.  She wouldn't mind.  She was chronically touchstarved in her old life.

And then, The Return Of Scrolls Guy.

...Considering headtilt!  Decisive nod.

...She is going to introduce him to the question mark, gods help her.  She points at the confused-square-hat-guy picture, then draws her own; square-hat-guy, AEIOU, and a couple of question marks above his head.  (Well, a little above, a little to the left.)

Yep, they can agree that this strange marking means confusion, at least.

...Snow - leaf - sun - leaf is a year. Here is something that happened before and after. Here are characters for big and small. Here are some numbers, one through twelve, and then it switches to a decimal system. Twenty thirty etc. Hundred, two hundred etc.

Then he writes out a short passage in Roman Alphabet-style letters, if slightly weird ones- 'Empire ea Tirra - Dominet u Natura ea Printa u Militar'

And under that in the local characters, 'very big village, three thousand years before'.

(When the numbers come up, she reciprocates with 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, 100, 1,000...)

She tilts her head at the not-Latin, consideringly.

...Now how the hell did that get here?

She shakes her head, but then does the headtilt again.

She then tries: Latin?!

...Yes, the exclamation point is entirely superfluous here, but dammit, she's earned an interrobang!

Then she adds more, mostly in native characters except where the words simply aren't available.  (...She hopes this guy knows what a comma is.  It will help him, immensely, to get even hints of distinctions.)

Fox no before 'Empire ea Tirra'.  Fox before, no 'Empire ea Tirra'.

Fox no 'Latin'.  Fox yes 'English'.  'English' '2,000' year after fox 'Latin'.  Fox very ??? 'Latin?' (before after) day after 'English'.  'English' very yes before.  Very big village village yes 'English'.  No village yes 'Latin' 0 year before fox.  [speech-bubble containing a random character] ??? very yes before.  'Latin' very small.

Fox no 'ea Empire'.  Fox ??? 'ea Tirra'.  Fox very very very wander small before!  Fox wander? thirty days before, fox wander? zero days, fox ??? wander very very very very years!

(It should be noted that the 'parenthetical' in the above text is actually "Alicia circles them in an attempt to indicate 'present'".)

...She'll just do...  One more thing, too.

Fox very ????

Fox before wander? no fox.  Fox before wander?, human.  Fox before, no human very yes yes wander?.

??? wander? ?

........No, there's really nothing coherent he can confidently get out of this. It's guesses upon guesses upon uncertainty.

"I -----------, ------ Fox, no understand. You are not of the Empire of Tirra? Village give fox more words?" He illustrates 'words' by pointing to several different characters and making an all-encompassing hand motion.

The questions get a nodding fox!  ...The "no understand" gets a frustrated, but - resigned, perhaps - fox noise.  'Fox understand you no understand.  Fox ??? more words, yes.  Fox ??? = fox no word, fox maybe no word.  Fox understand of words of 'Latin?' more.  Fox no understand 'Latin', no understand 'Latin?'.  Fox understand 'English'.  'English' after 'Latin', fox no understand of 'Latin?' after 'English'.  Fox no understand of -'

...Hm.

She doesn't understand how this came to be.

'Fox no understand of fox understand of 'Latin?' + you.  Fox wander very very very very much.  Fox wander more wander ??? fox understand.  Fox ? of the understand.  Very very very big wander = no understand.  Very very very big wander no = understand.  Fox understand.  Fox no understand of fox understand.'

'Fox ???', she taps it, '= Two big ??? one.  One small ??? two.  You understand?'

"...No understand. Apology." (Given context, the meaning of that one word she's heard him say a lot is probably 'apology', anyway.)

Pacing pacing.

"...You do not understand why you yes understand Tirra? I do not understand that. Tamamo ---- --------- ---." And he shrugs.

Nodding nodding nodding at the question - and then, Tamamo.

She yips at him.

'Fox understand of 'Tamamo',' she writes, claws digging sharply in emphasis.  'Fox understand of 'Tamamo' before fox wander of 'Tirra'.  Fox no understand of you understand 'Tamamo'.  'Tamamo' of fox much yes of 'Tamamo' of 'Tirra'.  'Tamamo' of fox no -'

'Fox no words.'

'Fox word of - fox yes of fox?  Fox no of human?  Words of?'

He takes a step back at the yip.

"...Tamamo is a ----. ---- are not human, or foxes. They are very [something she's only seen on a talisman]... Words... Not enough."

...A long sigh. "We wander, find person who has 'magic'* of yes yes words many words. -Ah, 'magic' is-" 

He scrolls through his scroll, finds something, and then waves and chants. There is a little pulse of light.

"That is 'magic'."

*new word

...Many things she could try to say go through her head, but she decides against them.

'Fox understand, Tamamo no of fox of fox.  Tamamo of fox fox fox.  Tamamo of fox human.  ...Fox no words of ???, fox big words of of.'

...Anyway.

'Magic.  Magic of many words many yes.  Fox wander, ??? you no wander, you of village?  Fox no of village.  Fox wander.  Village no less of no fox.  ...You -' she gestures, and pantomimes writing, '?  Of fox?  Fox many no of village of less of of fox.  ...Village big of you wander of fox?'

".......I write and a big child wander give write to not here village."

She nods.  'Yes.'  Better plan.

It's really nice to have a solid plan formed to deal.with the confusing trickster spirit!! ...He'll just go and get started on that, then.

....Oh, that old lady has found a hairbrush from somewhere and seems to be asking if she'd like to be brushed.

...She would be so offended at being called a trickster spirit if she was reading his mind right now.  But she isn't, so she isn't.  (On the other hand, she is definitely very confusing!)

...As for the brushing...  Yes, actually, she would like that pretty please, how would little old lady like to do this?  (...She'll just.  Try and get her paws clean, really quick, in case this process involves laps.)

(...Gods, she really needs to do something nice for this woman.  She just doesn't know what the heck she could possibly do.  Unless there are different instincts than the fox ones with something to say about this?  ...She doesn't think that's very likely, though.  She hasn't figured out any magic things yet.)

The process Miss Grandma has in mind does seem to involve her lap. ...Well, it sort of seems like having her tail touched with hands might be a bit... Personal? Brushing is fine, anyway. Her tail is somewhat sleeker, longer, and thinner than other foxes' tails, but it's still eminently brushable. And prehensile, if she hasn't notice that before.