A Fox's Family

Part
VI of the American Kitsune Series

By Brandon Varnell

Copyright ©
2016 Brandon Varnell

DEDICATION

I feel like I'm doing dedications every
single book—oh, wait. I am doing these every single book. Never
mind.

The first person I would like to
dedicate this to is my mom, whose helped me with everything outside
of my book. Seriously. Aside from writing, I'm pretty much useless.
Were it not for her letting me live with her after I graduated from
college, who knows what would have happened. I would also like to
thank my dad for supporting my desire to write and giving me advice
when I need it, along with my step-mom and my step-dad. Both of them
have been a really big help.

Following this, I would like thank my
sister and her husband, who will be having a kid this year. I'm
mostly thanking them because I'm gonna be an uncle—and you all
know that uncles are the coolest gig ever. We don't have to be strict
like the parents, and we don't have to spoil the child like
grandparents. All I need to do is thoroughly corrupt their child by
teaching them everything they need to know about geek fandoms: Star
Wars, Naruto, DBZ, Sailor Moon, Cowboy Bebop, and every new anime
that's come out since the old days. It's going to be a blast. My
niece is going to be well on her way to nerdom in no time!

And finally, I am dedicating this story
to my readers. When I first started writing, I was frightened and
uncertain, but thanks to the people who read my stories and told me
that they loved them, I've since gained the courage to try and reach
for the stars.

Without all of you, I would never be
where I am today.

Thank you.

Chapter
1

The
Passage of Time is Transient

As
was per the norm since her daughter’s
disappearance, Camellia found herself sitting on the balcony to her
clan’s
estate in Tampa Bay. Situated on the table next to her was a hot cup
of tea, from which a beautiful fragrance wafted, relaxing her mind,
even as the worry she’d
been feeling for the past three months continued to plague her.

She
looked down at the garden below, expansive and lovely, filled with a
wide variety of well-maintained and beautiful flowers. Even though it
was fall, the flowers continued to bloom, courtesy of her maid’s
prodigious gardening abilities. They were some of the loveliest
blossoms she’d
ever seen, and once upon a time, Camellia would have already been
down there at this early hour, admiring them up close.

Despite
staring straight at them, she did not see the wondrous array of
colorful blossoms and hadn’t
for a while now. Unable to grasp the complexities of multiple
thoughts at once due to the degradation of her mind, Camellia could
only focus on a single subject. Her missing daughter, Lillian.

On
August 4th, Lilian had disappeared from the grounds of this very
mansion, vanishing without a trace. While some worried that she might
have been kidnapped, the general consensus was that she had run away.

Neither
Camellia nor anyone else knew how the young kitsune had managed to
escape without being noticed. Evidence pointed towards excessive use
of her Celestial abilities, which could, in the right circumstances,
render Lilian all but invisible. Since then, Camellia had done little
more than fret.

She
might have had a mind reminiscent to that of a child, but she was
still a mother.

“My
Lady,”
a
voice came from behind her. “You
have not touched your tea. Is it not to your liking?”

“Hmm?”
Camellia
looked down at the tea, blinking. She then looked at the woman
standing by her chair, a female with hair the color of midnight and
three fox-tails waving about behind her. “Ah!
Sorry, sorry. Camellia got lost in thought. Tee-hee!”
After
gently knocking her knuckles against her head, the five-tailed
kitsune took a small sip of her tea. “It’s
very good.”

Her
complimentary words earned a gentle smile from the fox-woman dressed
as a French maid. “I
am glad to see that you still enjoy my tea. For a moment, I was
worried that my skills might have slipped.”

Camellia
felt a small sense of dread well up inside of her at the maid’s
mention of “slipping
skills.”
A
shudder coursed through her body for reasons she couldn’t
understand.

The
shudder went away, as did almost everything else, when a hand covered
in a white glove began petting her on the head.

“Hawa…”

“Still
so easy to please, My Lady.”
The
kitsune maid was nothing if not amused by her mistress’
reaction
towards something as simple as head petting. It reminded her of,
well, it sort of reminded her of a dog, though she would never say
that out loud.

As
the utterly blissed out Camellia enjoyed having her maid’s
fingers scratch behind her ears, a familiar presence appeared before
them, floating just a few feet from the balcony.

“Oh.
It’s
one of my sister’s
Kudagitsune.”

The
wraith-like fox-spirit with the pipe-like body couldn’t
have belonged to anyone but the maid’s
elder sister. The scroll, ghostly and translucent, much like the
creature carrying it, told them as much. Kotohime was the only Pnevma
clan vassal who still used scrolls to deliver messages.

Most
kitsune made do with simple envelopes these days.

After
the fox-spirit dropped the scroll on the table and vanished back into
its ethereal existence, the three-tailed maid unfurled the object and
read its contents. Her eyes widening in a mixture of surprise and
delight, she rolled the scroll back up, and then looked at the woman
she served with a warm smile etched upon her fetching lips.

“My
Lady, it appears Kotohime has found your daughter.”

“My
daughter?”
It
took Camellia a second or two to get out of the blissful state that
her maid’s
head petting had put her in. It took another second for her to hear
the words spoken, and then one more to process them. “H-hawa!
You mean she found Lilian?!”

“Yes.
According to my sister’s
report, Lady Lilian is currently living in Phoenix, Arizona.”

“I
can’t
believe it…
my
daughter’s
finally been found…”
Tears
leaked from Camellia’s
carnelian eyes, and a smile so joyous and bright it put the sun to
shame appeared on her lovely face. “Camellia…
Camellia
needs to tell Iris that her sister has finally been found!”

Camellia
scrambled out of her chair, stood up—

“H-hawa!!”

—And
then promptly spilled to the floor when she tripped over her own five
tails.

“M-My
Lady!”
A
very worried maid knelt next to Camellia, who pushed herself into a
seated position. “A-are
you alright?”

Like
every fall she’d
taken this past century, Camellia took this latest one with good
humor. “Ah.
Don’t
worry. Don’t
worry.”
She
looked down at her chest. “Camellia’s
breasts broke her fall.”

The
maid felt a small drop of sweat trail down the right side of her
face.

“R-right…

***

“A
strong body is a necessary component to becoming a balanced warrior.
It doesn’t
matter how good your technique is, or how fast you can throw a punch,
if you lack the strength needed to harm your opponent. A thousand
punches at the speed of light will mean absolutely nothing if each
punch has all the power of a fly. There are ways around this, of
course, such as using weapons, but that’s
not always a viable option. You can’t
carry a sword or a knife everywhere you go, after all.”

While
Kiara spoke of warriors and swords and the necessity of being
physically fit, Kevin Swift grunted and whimpered as he did push-ups.
Doing a couple of push-ups normally wouldn’t
be too much of a problem for him, but several extenuating factors
were currently making this exercise exceedingly difficult.

Kiara
was making him do 200 hundred of them.

She
was also standing on his back while he did them.

And
there was a floorboard covered in nails directly underneath him.

Kevin
stared at the spiky floorboard, his eyes wide and his pupils dilated.
Sweat dripped off his nose, splashing against a nail, making it
glisten brightly and bringing a stark reminder of what would happen
should his arms give out.

His
arms shook from having exerted them so much. It felt like his triceps
and chest were being ripped to shreds from the inside out,
contracting and expanding painfully each time he completed a push-up.
The only reason he hadn’t
fallen flat on his face yet was because he feared being impaled by
the hundreds of tiny nails.

He
was really beginning to regret asking Kiara to help train him.

“
Please
make me into a man!
”

His
words were met with an awkward silence. Sitting behind her desk,
staring at him with unusually wide eyes, Kiara F. Kuyo looked like
someone had just blindsided her. The moment soon passed, however, and
the woman gave him a feral grin that caused chills to run down his
spine.

“
I
could make you into a man if you want me to, but I don
’
t
think your mate would appreciate me taking away her chance to steal
your chastity.
”

Kevin
gave the woman a vacant stare for several seconds, the time it took
for him to realize what she
’
d
said and why.

His
eyes promptly widened.

“
Ah!
”
He
squeaked like a rat trapped by a cat
—
or
a small fox kit trapped by a great dane.
“
T-that
’
s
not what I meant!
”

“
Ho?
”
Kiara
’
s
eyes glinted with an animalistic viscosity.
“
Then
what did you mean, boya?
”

“
I-I
m-m-m-meant that I wanted you to make me s-stronger!
”

“
Stronger,
eh?
”
Kiara
rubbed her chin and studied Kevin, who did his best not to look away,
even though his face was about ready to explode.
“
Tell
me, boya, why do you want to become stronger?
”