Chapter 14

Crawling out of the small tunnel carved into the earth proved harder than Laura expected as her tails barely fit into it, dragging against all the walls. Once outside, the Kitsune tried her best to get the dirt out of her fur, but with the limited success she had with that, she didn't even try with the stains on the formerly white yukata. Looking at the traditional piece of clothing lead to a completely different realization. Taking out the second pair of pants as well as her shirt, Laura held out her backpack to Takeko. "Get in there, and no peeking until I finish changing."

"Ok" Was the only thing the smaller spirit said before climbing into the pack as asked.

After looking around to make sure no perverts were nearby, Laura took off her boots, and pulled up her pants until they hit the base of her tails underneath the yukata. Once that was done, she pulled off her hoodie before untying the belt keeping the garment closed. Trying to take the bathing robe like clothing off, she noticed it getting stuck on her tails. As she looked at them, she noticed that the back of it had been tied closed beneath her tails. Opening the knots keeping the two overlapping pieces of fabric together, the piece of clothing easily slid of.

Putting her shirt on was both easier and more painful than expected, as her ears did not offer much resistance to the fabric, but they were painfully squeezed against her head for a moment. Slipping her hoodie back on was a the easiest part of all this, and as she pulled up it's zipper she turned to the, still closed, backpack. "Okay I'm done, now let's get back down from the mountain."

After letting Takeko out, she stuffed the yukata into the pack before picking it up and began walking through the forest, quickly finding the path again thanks to Takeko's guidance. But when they reached it and could see into the valley beneath the mountain through the trees again, they noticed that the sun was not setting, as Laura had assumed, but rising at the east end of the valley.

"Oh that's not good." the Kitsune muttered before starting to rush down the path.

"Why? So you were away a bit longer than planned, what's the big deal?" Takeko asked as he tried his best to keep up with the larger spirit.

"I told the lady at the bakery I would come back around once I got back, and I was clearly not bringing a tent or something else to sleep in." Laura explained as she continued at the fastest pace she could keep up for a while. "And with how nice she was, I fear she might call emergency services to search for me any moment now." she finished before mumbling so quiet Takeko could barely hear it. "And I hate being late."

"Okay okay." Takeko relented, starting to pant at the effort of keeping up with the foxtailed spirit. "Just remember to hide your new features."

"Ah right." Laura said, slowing down a lot as she focused on creating an illusion to hide her ears and tails, as well as make her eyes appear a bit more normal.

More than an hour later the two of them finally arrived in town, just as the sky began to turn blue as the morning fully arrived. Making her way past the first few blocks of houses, Laura was careful to not look directly at people, trying to conceal the rather poor illusion disguising her eyes. This was probably not actually necessary, as Takeko following her drew more attention than a seemingly normal woman returning from an early morning hike.

A couple minutes later Laura pushed open the door of the Kotamis' bakery, where Akiko had just finished preparing everything for the coming day of business. As she took in how Laura looked, dirt stuck in her hair and covering both her face and hoodie. "Oh what happened to you? Did you spend the night in the mountains?."

"Yes, I took a bit too long getting back down and got a tad lost in the forest in the twilight, luckily I found a small cave, slept in it and now I could really use a hot coffee for my way back to campus." The Kitsune replied, trying to stay as close to the truth as possible without getting called crazy.

"That sounds like you had quite an adventure." Akiko commented as she filled a paper cup with steaming hot coffee for the disguised spirit before her. "You want a roll for breakfast as well?"

"Yes please." Laura said before digging into her backpack to take her portmone out of the remains of her other pair of pants. Paying for both the coffee and the melonebread Akiko had picked for her, the orange haired spirit eagerly took a sip of the hot beverage, before waving goodbye as she left the bakery again.

"Want a bite?" Laura quietly asked Takeko once they were walking down the sidewalk again, holding a piece of the melonebread down for the Tanuki to take. "Don't think you had anything to eat either since that bento yesterday noon."

"Thanks." the little brown furred spirit replied as he grabbed the piece of bread.

"No problem. Now let's get back to Campus so I can hide away in my room and get a better grip on this." Laura said with a pointed look where her tails were hidden, a few strands of fur poking out of the illusion every once in a while for a second.