They cared for her well in the hospital, ensuring that their child was healthy from birth, despite her mixed blood, checking and rechecking her with scans mundane and magical. 

But most of all, they whispered to each other passing thoughts, passing ideas of what they could make of her, and if they could really do what they had planned, when they had started working to conceive... 

In time, the scans came back clear. She was well - suprisingly well, even, with a shocking strength of magic quiescent inside her already and a certain hybrid vigor in her body. 

And so, they decided they decided to give her a chance to grow as kitsune of old did - from a simple animal into something more, in the pristine forests of this world. They guided the magic of her form, and the shape of her forming mind, into something quieter and more ancient, and let her go, under the care of the gardener's of the OTC. 

For there were protections, that the company kept sacred, even when a practice was tradition, and even when the cost was great. 

Every sapient being would have a chance to learn, and live, and earn, they had said, and that this would garner no exception. 

So they made their arrangements - keeping her income in escrow, and leaving her a sealed understanding, of what the world outside the forest was like, so that she could find her way to the more human world, in time. 

But still. 

They nursed her, and kept her close as she grew, and made their final preparations and explanations. 

They each kissed her brow, one last time, and left her to live out this altered life. 

Amber was confused, at first, as all young things are. 

But her mind was bright and her instincts were sharp, and the forest was cool and verdant and bursting to the brim with bushes of berries and fertile fauna for a young fox to prey on, and so she made her due throughout her days. 

And through her nights... 

She slept, of course, nestling into long-since made burrows of oddly-rain resistant earth, and she dreamt. 

She dreamt the dreams of a child of an ever-turning ever-casting ever-awake world. She dreamt the dreams of a powerful mage-to-be, of a fox-spirit growing in her ancestral sacred land, of a sweet child yearning for more little comforts, and of a kitsune kit reaching out to feel the warp and weft of fate. 

She learned much, saw much, in her spinning dreams, and forgot much, of course, for the dreams were but passing shadows slipping through her developing mind. 

But still, she learned much - at first mostly of the best berries and how to find them, the best bunnies and how to hunt them, the rivers and how to swim and bathe in them. In time, she learned of her own magic, lurking inside her, the foxfire that carried within it her own dreams and her own strength, to lure in her prey and make them taste far finer.

It was bright and beautiful, though lonely, at times. 

The foxes she saw in the forest were all old and vast and had a presence to them, and a firm focus to them and a commitment to their destinations that led them away time and time again. 

Still, she played with them, at times, splashing in the river and rolling in the leaves and dirt and each other. 

She even found she could play with her prey, when her magic touched them quite right, letting her share their dreams with their visions. 

She played with cream-coat and frost-fur a lot, in her early years, learning the sensation of their spirits, their routines, instincts and tastes, even, eventually. 

She provided for them, for they were pleasant and warm and helped her focus past the ever-present dreams, of what the far-away flying metal things were, what shone past the horizon in the dark nights, and what marked the ground beneath her paws.

For months, perhaps years, she lived as a vixen queen, her territory well mapped inside her head and poorly upon the dirt of her den, her needs simple to meet and her pleasures eager to access. 

But she was eager for more, and impatient to grow up, and find out what those old foxes were up to. 

She tried following them first, of course, but there was often little too hear aside the little rushes of magic they left behind and the crackling harsh sounds that came from within their ears, even when she wasn't simply outpaced by her older kin. 

Her instincts told her her fire would be of no use too - she was sure from the start they wielded it too, and they meant her no harm, so she would not hunt them as well. 

But still. 

She was curious, and there was more for her to try besides. 

There was more inside her, it turns out, beyond the magic of fire and dreams and delusions and (in time she would learn) destiny. 

There was a fluidity beneath her skin, and so many little things to stretch into. 

At first, her breed simply shifted - her size and color and proportions bending as she leaned into the differences in the forest throughout the seasons, a pelt of white creeping in come winter, when she looked - to hide, perhaps? Her fire always came out calmer, cleaner and deeper, like barely frosted over ice upon clear water, rather then the radiant dream of dawn that made her shine like a gem that she usually called forth. 

She could grow too, but it was - odd, guiding her to stand tall and shed her fur and warp herself still further, to look like those chattering creating people in her dreams. 

She could remember them now, and she knew they talked, like her, but the chorus of their languages hurt her ears, and she wasn't quite able to understand even after all the little snippets she'd heard of the most common tongue. 

She rarely touched that form - it was weak and small and uncoordinated, and swift to get cold against the rain, but touching it brought forth... more. 

Her dreams shifted, a new 'track' of the audio slipping into place alongside her old ears to hear things so much more mutely but so much more - specifically, and a new sense of her sounds, her barks and coos. Her vision changed too - a new meaning to the shapes and colors and things that she saw, a third lense that ran alongside her burgeoning sense of the magic of her woods. 

And so she learned from her dreams anew, as her arts were refined, drowning in language and meaning and hopes and dreams. 

She could guide them, sometimes, now, when she was washed into the rivers of dreams. She could feel the underlying current beneath them, and shift it with her presence, sometimes. They spoke in words and meanings she couldn't comprehend so often, but she could grasp the tide like the drifting embers of her flames, and help them shine.

It did something to her as well, she thought, but the extra ease in her step and lustre in her fur felt so nice that she didn't mind. 

The second tail coming in was - odd, the length just slipping into place one day with little more then a wiggle in her step. Those steps felt even simpler now - every one seemingly counting double for letting her earn her grace, and her magics resonated so well with the two of them connected behind her. 

The other form was closer at hand, now, more insistently available and present. She could feel it leaking, sometimes, in ways that were hard to banish. 

Her claws grew more dextrous and deft and sensitive, the paws always a little fluid beneath her. Her tongue gained a new taste for sweeter, spiced things, and her legs changed into something a little less quadrupedal, when she tried. 

She tried out her human form, in time. It was more matured now, with steadier legs, and a steadier form. The extra paleness of a babe had gone, replaced with a faint peach pink glow in her more filled out limbs, framed by scatterings of deep brown hair along the skin and a draping length down her back.

She shook her head at the images in the water, and changed the color of this odd fur to her own familiar hue. 

Learning to climb, to etch, to craft with her hands was quick, once she put her mind to it. The images in her dreams guided her, and there were a few too many campsites and too many traces for there to not be a chance to see them be created and manipulated, at least enough to guide her hands. 

In the coming spring, a campfire would be her hearth.

It grew on her, a little, especially given the little dug-outs for the larger shapes sprinkled throughout the forest with more of those odd wards. Still staying foxen and small and swift and ready to run helped, and helped her rest. Her magic had a way of bottling up when she stayed small too - ready to transform her again, reshape her mind and body and soul together to get more out of her life. 

The wards were - odd. They were like crystal-glass against the noonday sun - nigh invisible unless she could make the light catch just right upon them, and marvelously fine and solid, still, unlike the little drifting eddies of the world she normally felt. They were tied to the markings and tracings deep in the dirt, she knew, but tracing them out again gave her little but a tingle of direction. Still, it was something, and it was like some of what she'd seen in the camps of elder ones, so she made an effort to track them down and watch, that season. 

She watched a few camps, of course, and learned much, but that was secondary to what happened on one final trip, where her curiousity got the better of her... 

She came to that camp, in a grassy clearing a little outside her own camp, in her more human form, tails lashing out behind her and ears erect and listening to the breeze as she walked and prowled towards them, her skin as bare as ever.

“Mom, why is that girl naked?” 

“Mom.” 

“Mom!”

He jumped and pointed. 

“What are you talking about? We’re in a nice park, not a - “ 

“Oh.” 

The little wave and throaty growl of hello in the tongue of the foxes she gave didn’t exactly help, as they ran towards her. 

The bigger one took out a thin box of glowing lights and started waving it around and pressing her fingers against it, loud sharp harsh stressed hushed words spoken into the box as she turned away and turned the smaller human away. 

She watched, curious and still, ‘til the marble-faced lady came, tall and oddly stiff and still in her senses aside the tightly bound power of her flesh. 

She let out something, a wave of magic that made her skin tingle and her haunches tight, and spoke to her in clipped tongue her greeting back, and more words, more meaningful sounds that she hadn’t learned yet. 

She tilted her head, and spoke what little she could, and offered her tail and a light orb of dancing dreaming flame. 

She did something with it, thatwave of her hand and tremble in-the-world upon her lips -

- And then it was all so dark. 

The hospital was confusing, bright and sharp and full of metal and wards and blinking things and people and colors and strange smell. The people were soft, and kin, their ears out and their noises reassuring as she was left to pace on the bed and still herseff at the touches of the examining ones. 

They bathed her with strange foams and gels, held her still to sink sharp things into her thighs, and then let her go, for a while. 

Later - so much later, when all she had to occupy herself was the pain from the sharp sounds and harsh things and murmurs of words words words - a strange woman came to her, and shared her thoughts with her. 

Oh you poor thing... 

I'm just happy that it doesn't look like you're going to be permanently feral, even if your language exposure was so delayed. I know that the foxes in the old days grew up like this, but to think something like you'd happen, nowadays....

We'll take care of you, give you a warm home and language and peers and a chance to refine that magic of yours - well done, by the way. You've gotten the fundamental bloodline workings down pat, even without a teacher out there...

You're going to have to do things pretty differently from how you used to, but I promise it's worth it. You've seen what it's like, I think, from the sound of it, so I think it'll make sense once you start to try.

That seal... 

That'll be coming off in time, though you've worn your way most of the way through it already. 

I just hope you'll be able to adapt to all of this, in time. 

Sorry about the shots - just don't want you getting sick, or spreading anything you've caught. The forest's had enough problems with unprotected sex causing issues already, and not everyone here will have a bloodline like yours to protect them. 

I hope you enjoy being human, too. 

The OTC response team dug up her details soon enough. Her physiology - magical and otherwise - was distinct enough to narrow it down even without calling up the records of the traditionalist plans on file. 

Taking care of her vaccinations was simple enough - nothing had deviated too far, and the programs that had designed them were broad enough to cover simple hybridizations and a touch of spiritualization. 

The logistics going forward, on the other hand...

There were funds, set aside, by her parents and other places besides, and a wide variety of experts available to hire with those. 

A speech therapist competent in the native tongue of the foxes of Arcbright was easy enough to acquire, though one competent to work with one most versed in the tongue of dreams that had grown so far already was a difficult ask. 

Tutors in the magic of her race was simple enough, of course - it was fairly traditional to play more instinctively rather than through words, and the intermingling of lines was something adaptable by a competent teacher, and perhaps a touch of crossover - easily enough arranged. 

And for her schooling...

It wasn't as if alternative arrangements were unheard of - disabilities not simply healable (practically or legally) were common enough that thousands upon thousands had them on Arcbright. An ecosystem of teachers and tutors and schools was in place that could handle most cases well. 

But for a child, with a past like hers, and no connections to the humanoid world...

A different approach would have to be taken.

...After she was returned, for she still had every right to be there, in a sense. Time for arrangements would be required too, for it was known that her kind didn't suffer from a lack of language in the way that humans do, and the path her parents took was rare enough to be ill-catered to, despite what their paperwork suggested.

She was sleeping, tired and small, soon enough, after all the examinations and cleanings and needles, and when she woke up, she was back. 

No cloying scents, no grey walls and odd soft pelts beneath her back, just the earth and her. 

She shivered, a little, oddly cold despite the niceness of the spring day. She dug into her reserves of fruits, and curled into eat, after all that. 

She'd think later about the humans and the big tall foxes. 

She settled back into place quickly enough, after a few more naps then usual, and a few few dreams of the wider world, but a certain restlessness remained in her. 

No one would just come into her territory and take her away and leave her be forever. That was simple enough, and nothing had changed in the smell in the air or magic, beyond the trace of still mage and her workings. 

Still... 

Working to find the meaning in the wards took up more and more of her time - the cycle of bearing fruits was as easy to recall as the position of her paws beneath her, and her hunts were swift and sure, especially when she let her magic trivialize the chase. 

She could tell they were simple, basic, but creating anything with her claws that stuck the working felt almost futile, even in the few patches of ground she found that held it a little better. 

The magic in the world shifted beneath her feet, and her spine stilled, as she felt the presence of another. 

She preens, showing of her crown of sunlight weft of dreams and fire. It glimmered bright and burning upon her brow, but the sparkling lights were oddly easy to watch. Her fur is fawn spun to white-gold, fading out into a flaxen yellow past the light of her circlet. Three sleek tails twine and lash behind her back as she leaned down to methodically scratch into the dirt, magic pouring out into the ground. The earth beneath filling with the weight and wisdom of her soul as the barest base of the ward took shape. 

Ahh... She'd missed performative casting work. She'd never been quite expert enough at it to make herself a one woman-show, and the cadres travelled too much for her taste. Still, she loves to get to make her audiences marvel and stare at it all, and part of that was what made tutoring (and this particular project) worth it, for her. 

It was so good to make people lose themselves in the art of it...

She glanced quickly over her shoulder and repressed a bit of a frown. 

Amber - that was the name the records had, at least, who knows if she'll end up liking it, the poor girl - was watching intently, yes. But she was flinching, too, her ears pulled back and her spine as stiff as a board. She didn't look too too stressed, at least. She was... what, trying to give her space and - her territory, perhaps? 

She shook her head, and barked out a little conciliatory growl. 

Goodness the old tongue tasted odd on her - tongue. 

A few little sunburst sparkles radiated off of her crown, twinkling with her amusement at the quip.

She focused down into the warding and the steadiness of her movements - no need to give her more reason to fuss...

She paused, relaxing a little at it, before sending back a little confused whining noise. 

One tail whipped out gently to erase her work, brushing away the marked dirt and lingering magic before she pressed in again, starting at the outwards little lines. 

She goes through the motions, the little dance of the seal of the basic structure, settling down the ripples, then beckoned her close. Trying to just freehand something like that wasn't going to work too well if she couldn't see it properly, and practice like that...

Her hairs bristled a little at the thought. 

She was pretty big, and she radiated a soft power, but...

Her claws stilled in the earth, and she settled and watched. 

She's here to show me something. 

She set herself up on her haunches and watched.

Tracing out the ward demarcation again and again is simple enough. It was relaxing, almost, and something that she'd done before many a time - though not too often in this shape. She kept it clean, and smooth, and lit her work well, each step deliberate and slow. 

Amber seemed to mostly follow the flow of it, if not the execution and what she was supposed to do with the control so... 

She talks, a little, small soft words coming out of her throat, thinking back to the long ago lessons in her heritage. They were a little stiff, still, but explaining it and using her control of focus and attention to help her listen would hopefully be enough to catch her interest, and share it with her. 

To think that she needs to teach a feral one of the old ways...

She just sort of goes on, her magic working and twining and twisting and sinking and dragging and drifting on things that she can't quite see yet, her words babbling on and on and on. She shifts enough to show her work, but there's just so much... 

Despite herself, there's a little smile on her maw as she tries to follow the start again, seeing where it all falls apart. She listens to soft words and little gestures and little brushes her tails make against her workings. 

In time, the nervousness creeps back in a little, and her breathing labours, from the noise and the strain and tiredness.

She bows her head a little, and cancels her magic. 

She's catching onto the manipulations well, even if she's pretty distant from the style this came from. Still, the language barrier is... awkward. She hopes that the other hirelings will be able to work that out, a little better. 

When she departs, she sends her crown up into the sky, flicks up at it with her tail, and beckons her, before turning away and slinking off into the forest. Hopefully she can understand a signal to meet again - if not... 

There's options. 

She sighs a little as her body unfolds back into her human form. She'd almost forgotten what it was like to go all the way back to her base.

She smiles, a little cheery, already planning to schedule some time somewhere like here for her husband. He always had so much fun with her when she got all preeny and showy, and this really helped with that. 

Maybe he'll be tempted to get back to primal things too...~

She snickered a little. 

Coming back home after the lesson is... odd. Her fur still bristles, her pace still slips into a hackle-raised prowl, and her steps are still softer then normal, despite the warmth of the golden fox, and her kindness. She's from such a different world... 

She shakes her head, and saunters off back. 

She must eat, then perhaps... 

It may be time to practice yet more. 

Her fur mats with the soft juice of her saved berries as she bites into it, gorging in on them for a good long while. 

She whines lightly, and rolls softly up against the dirt. She shakes it off with a harsh little breath, then settles, taking a look around at her home, the same as it was before, still. 

There's a faint purple glimmer in the air, just outside her den, and a light clink of something metallic plopping down against the packed dirt.

Her head tilts up a little questioningly, and her tails swish out behind her. She peeks her head out at it, looking intently at the little item they've decided to deliver. 

It's a little metal sphere, with a mesh of material along the surface, alongside a handful of blinking lights. It's faintly magical, too. There's a tightly wound enchantment that vaguely reminds her of the 'power' part of a ward on it, it seems, and probably a few more complicated things threaded into the body of it. There might even be something - bound into the shell loosely? 

It chimes softly, lighting up a soft green as it starts playing back something the older fox said. 

She prowls over to it reluctantly, and noses against it, smelling it and seeing if it does anything at her attention. 

The volume adjusts a little as she draws closer - it's hard to tell if it's just part of the 'wake up' or if it's actively downshifting to make it more comfortable for her ears. 

It doesn't smell like much of anything, in the mundane world - just the faint tang of the grey-things that humans like to make things out, and the lingering scent of finger oils and the dirt in landed on. Magically, it's a little sharper, like thunder and thunder-struck air, rustling leaves and solar cycles. 

There's a little - fuzz, and a spark, gently playing against her snout from the staticy metal. 

She jumps back reflexively, and feels the little download into her mind play out, like in that white and clean place. 

A - schedule and a dial, and an image of how it's meant to be used. 

She blinks a little at it, and the dissipating little bubble of dreams it leaves behind. 

She... 

She whines, and goes hunt, this time. 

There's time. 

When she comes back the final time, it's dusk. 

The little orb still blinks against the night a vibrant unnatural green, innocently glinting on the floor. 

There's clearly so much to learn but.... 

A flick of her tail picks up the little bead - it's oddly small, for something so significant. It nestles on her fur nicely enough, and she can do the little manuever she saw in seconds, if she wants. 

Her eyes go somewhere a little different. 

The ward lines, on the floor, so solid after all this time. She has a start, but... 

She ought to be able to do more. Make things like this, too, and be able to do better then this, at making them gifts. 

They're probably supposed to be gifts. 

The thought doesn't help her restless energy as much as she'd like. 

As for why not...

There's nothing so clear, there, but she feels tight and tired and tense and like it's not time, yet. 

She spends some time, bouncing between that, and the thoughts before, prowling in place, 'til one of the appointed times comes. 

Past the faint crackle of ward interference, a soft lullaby plays. 

The song is light and soft, choral and calm, reciting a legend of how a kitsune goddess made the first foxes of arcbright dream with each of her tails, with soft hums and lingering notes that slip into yawns. 

She perks up, curious, and listens in, relaxing, just a little, following along with the tune. 

She lays down, a little while after, then presses it up into her ear. Pressing into into place as she was told to hear it clearer.

Soon enough, she drifts off into a dreamless weary sleep to the warmth of the singer's voices, a yawn on her lips and a sigh in her chest. 

She woke, changed once more. 

The words she hears when she listens to the speaker are... odd. She'd heard it so so much in the dreams she'd been part of, but this was... different. Another stage, another step, another thing that pressed into her mind. Her thoughts reshaped, a little, to accommodate the texture of them. It made listening to it more like listening to the rustling of the wind, and less like a cacophany of motion and noise. 

It is... nice enough to keep, at least, though she drops it out of her ear quick enough upon waking. The lessonswere much the same - she'd skip one, sometime, but for now.... 

Her time is free, and the golden fox seemed kind enough. 

A week passed soon enough, and the shining star in the sky lit her way. 

She was hungry, so she brought a carcass of rabbit with her in her mouth. The path was short enough that it wasn't too awkward to carry, thankfully. 

When she arrives at the clearing, she places it down, and glances up at the older fox. She pants, a little, and waits anticipatorily for her to begin. 

Oh dear... 

She just - brought that with her, didn't she. The blood is fresh enough - though her she could see the little places her fur was slightly matted with maroon flecks of it, and it was probably safe enough but... 

She glances away awkwardly, down at her paws. 

Her circle was set up already, this time. Showing the workings being created helps, of course, but something stable and showy would be useful too. The reports said that she was 'independently motivated' and studied the creation on her own, so drilling into that again probably wouldn't be too encouraging for the poor thing. 

She pouted as best she could, with this face, and trotted over to her. 

Slow and steady... 

She whined up at her, soft and confused. 

What was she coming here for...?

She stepped back, a little. 

It's okay. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm just here to help you learn. 

She hopes she'd see it in her tone, at least, but for now...

She noses gently at the corpse, repressing a little flinch down her spine at how warm it still was, and pushed it aside. 

With a little sweep of her tails, she gestured her forward. 

Come here, there's more to show you. 

A smile crept back into her eyes. 

...Okay. 

She stepped in, and followed the flow of her tails and steps and words, leaning into the little protective brushes of her pale fur against her side. 

The ward itself smelled almost... fruity, a gentle mix of earthiness and sharp smells unfamiliar smells along each 'pane' in the circle, fading into the complicated distant gradient of smells more like air and freshly flowing water. She sniffed it deeply, and strode through one that smelled like lightning-struck sand, feeling a little tingly wash along her skin. 

It was interesting, even if the babble and gestures and pointing didn't mean too to much for her, save for when she stretched her soul into the structure to try to do something with it.

Awwww...!

She's trying so hard. Her control of her magic is pretty great for her age too, even if she doesn't know too much what to do with it. It's designed for this, though, so she guides her through the little intakes and release valves and functions. 

She'll learn, in time, especially once she starts picking up the language. 

That'll be so much nicer, to get to meet her and talk to her and get to call her a name, properly, this time. 

But for now... 

She'll just take the time to enjoy the cute kid and how nice it is to have an audience that doesn't find the flaming-edges to each of her clumps of fur tacky. 

The time passes swiftly enough. There's a salute, the same charge, the same goodbye, the same swift scamper into the trees. 

She's... not too sure what to think of it, but she's so odd about the rabbit that...

She thinks she'll just leave it, for now. The fruits are plentiful and all the time sniffing has made her hungry. 

She bounds off back home, with a bit of eagerness in her step.