Chapter 10: The First Kumari

Less than an hour later, the boat docked. The deck was almost entirely concealed by long grassy plants that lined the forest's edge, hiding almost completely where the forest ended and the waters began.

Bae could no longer see the castle in the distance and she couldn't determine how she felt about it. Was she scared to be so far from home? Or completely exhilarated at the adventure waiting before her? Prince Armel hadn't left her side throughout the duration of their voyage and was now escorting Bae off the ship. Kael didn't look overly impressed that she had spent the last forty minutes talking to the Cankurian prince but had refrained from saying anything.

She could feel an urgency that she couldn't explain. It was as if the magic that had been surrounding her all day was screaming at her, demanding attention. Everyone else around her, perhaps excluding the delegates from Dixia Muxue, seemed completely oblivious to the influence of the magic around them. She'd noticed it intensify as they'd made their way across the lake and now as they disembarked, its pull was so strong that she almost wanted to run, abandoning all of them there on the deck so she could go find it.

That's when she saw it. Just within the line of the trees was a silver fox. Its green eyes were focused solely on the Kumari. Bae was almost certain that the others couldn't see it. If they could, they would never be able to ignore it the way they were. The Prince beside her was trying to engage Bae in conversation but his words were lost to her. As she stared at the fox, Bae's mind returned to a story the late Kumari had once told her about the creation of the realm. She'd always thought it was just a story, folklore passed down through the generations to explain the inexplicable.

‘In the beginning there was nothing but water. The Silver Fox lived in the sky above the water. He was fascinated with the waters beneath the sky and so he went down to the world of water. Upon reaching the water's surface the Silver Fox made a little round island on which he stayed.

Over the next five nights the Silver Fox increased the size of the island, first towards the east, then to the north, then to the west, before finally the south. The Silver Fox made trees and springs before creating animals by simply willing them into existence.

The animals were not the same as they are today, however. Like the Ren today, they could speak. The first of the animals to be created was a female fox. He hoped that she would be his mate. She quickly agreed to be his love and they married under a clear blue sky. As she vowed to be his, rain fell from the cloudless heavens.

The Silver Fox and his Kitsune bride were happy for several years but in time the Kitsune grew bored and wanted to take a new lover. The Silver Fox relented and so she took her second husband. But again, she was not satisfied and so she took a third, a fourth, a fifth, sixth until finally with the seventh the Kitsune was content.

The Silver Fox never once resented the Kitsune's other lovers. The eight foxes lived together in perfect harmony, had litter upon litter of baby kitsune and watched their children have children until they filled the realm. The kitsune and her seven mates grew old together and then one by one the mates grew too old and left this world for the one above until only the Kitsune was left.

Alone the Kitsune curled up and mourned her lost mates, especially the Silver Fox, the one that had created her. Death didn't come easily to the Kitsune. When death failed to take her, she allowed her body to dissolve and twist, wrapping in upon itself until it was no more.

All that was left was pure magic. The magic of the Kitsune.

Then one sunny day a young fox girl stumbled upon the magic of the Kitsune. The girl was unlike any other that the Kitsune had met and so she decided that she would devote her life in servitude to the little fox girl.

She was the first of the Kumari line.'

The fox before her called to Bae, its magic singing through the air, beckoning her to follow it. Its face turned as if to say, ‘are you coming?'