'Little-rat'

Kou limped through the sewers dejectedly, grumbling to herself. She had left the safe room several days ago, swearing that she wouldn't return until she had improved her control over her affinity. Her mission had been a huge failure, and instead of improvement all she had gained was a scratch on her leg from a stupid rat.
"Stupid rats, stupid sewers," she spat. A sound ahead of her made her stop and bristle. What if it was another rat, or worse? "Show yourself, or I will attack," she called nervously into the tunnels.
The rustling ceased. A footstep--
"RAAAAAT!"
A gray blur flew and tackled Kou to the ground. Shoving them off, she spun around and growled at the fox before her.

The fox was a gray color, very small with brownish markings and a shining gold nub on her forehead. Her paws and tail each had a gray band around them, and on her right forepaw she wore a gleaming blue bracelet.

"Hmm?" the other fox turned around. "Oh! You're not a rat!"
Her face broke into a wide grin. "Hi!! I'm Kepli!! What's your name?? You look like me! I've never seen someone like me before! I thought you were a rat, silly me! Have you heard about grass??"
The little fox was clearly very talkative.
Kou stood defensively, the growl that had been in her throat dying as she tried to process what was going on. When she had been jumped upon she had expected a fierce fight, but now this other fox was just rambling away at a speed Kou could not follow.
"You thought I was a rat?" Kou finally asked, slightly offended. She may only be a young fox, but she most certainly did not think she looked like a sewer rat. She shifted her weight off of her sore leg as she glared at the newcomer. 'Kepli's' surprise attack had only served to make her leg ache even more, making Kou more irritable than normal.
Kepli laughed. "I thought you were a rat when I heard you. You don't look like at all like a rat. That would be ridiculous!" She bounced on her feet a little as she looked at Kou. "So what's your name? I don't think I heard you say it." She cocked her head and smiled inquisitively.
"Errm," Kou looked the other fox over. She seemed harmless enough. "It's Kou. Yours is Kepli, right?" She thought that was the name she had heard during the other's rapid speech. Her mask hid her facial expressions as she regarded the other fox.
"Yup! I'm Kepli!' She seemed very happy that Kou had remembered her name.
"You're talking weird. It sounds like your face is covered." She put her paw on Kou's mask, then quickly retracted it. "It's hard! Why is it hard?" She seemed very startled by Kou's 'hard face.'

Kou blinked in surprise, did Kepli just touch her mask? This other fox was quite bold seeing as the two had only just met. "Hard? Well it's hard because . . . .it's made out of something hard?" Kou didn't understand why the other seemed so surprised, it was a mask after all.
Kepli's eyes grew wide. "Your face is made out of something hard? Why? My face isn't hard." She unnecessarily pushed her paw into her snout. "See?"
"My face?" Realization dawned on Kou. "Nononono, my face is normal like yours." Her tail swished behind her. "It's a mask," she tried to explain.
"What's a mask?" Kepli asked, her eyes even wider with curiosity. Her tail twitched excitedly as she spoke. This fox didn't know what a mask was? "Well . . . . it’s something hard . . and face shaped." Kou explained uncertainly, "and you put it over your face."
Kepli cocked her head, clearly very confused. "Why?"
Kou stared blankly at the other fox; this one was very inquisitive and bold. That was a good question though, "Ummm, it can be to protect yourself or to hide your face I guess." She was getting uncomfortable with all this fox's questions.
"Maassssk.." Kepli said, seeming to try out the word. She looked up curiously at Kou. "Do I need a mask?" Kou chuckled despite herself; this fox must be extremely new to the sewers. "I don't think you're the kind of fox who would want a mask. You seem pretty open and a mask might feel odd for you."
"I'm open?" Kepli checked herself. She looked up and shook her head. "I'm not open." She opened her mouth wide. "Ow I oh-eh," she unnecessarily demonstrated. "It's hard to talk with your mouth open." She shook her head annoyedly.
"Umm," Kou watched the other fox, not sure if she should be annoyed or amused. "It's an expression. A nice way of saying you are nice and talk a lot." Time to change the topic. "what are you doing out here in the sewers?"
"Is that what this place is called?" Kepli looked around at the ceiling and the walls. "I always called it 'the stone place.' I've never been anywhere else." She looked at Kou. "Is that not how it's supposed to be?" The fox seemed a bit confused.
Kou stared at the other in horror, this fox really didn't know what the sewers were called? Someone should have told her about the city levels already. "You don't know about the sewers? You've met others down here right? They've told you about the safe room and the elders and stuff right?" Please let this fox know at least something.
To Kou's horror, Kepli shook her head. "No. What's an elder?"
Then the rest of Kou's message hit her. Her eyes opened wide and she began hopping up and down in excitement. "More?! There are others?!?!" Her hopping turned to spinning and jumping as she cried out, "Where?!?! Where?!?! Can I meet them too?!?!"
Kou let out a distressed whine as the other spun and shouted. She already wasn't very good with others, but fate had just dumped this energetic fuzz ball on her. What's worse is that Kou now felt responsible for educating the other one-tail.
"Yeah, I can show you the others," she responded after Kepli quieted some, " you at least know what your affinity and totem are though, right?"
Kepli swished her tail uneasily. "No.. What are those?" It seemed that she thought she had done something wrong.
Kou sighed gently and tried to put on a more welcoming posture; it wasn't Kepli's fault she hadn't been taught these things, so Kou might as well try and be friendly for once. "Your affinity is your power; each of us have one but there are many kinds of affinity. Your totem is an object that helps you focus and increase your power," she did her best to explain.
She began to walk down the tunnel, "I use ink and my totem is Blue here," she revealed the stuffed fish she carried with her.
Kepli followed Kou, curiously sniffing Blue as she caught up. "This is a totem? I don't have one." She seemed a bit nervous now. "I'm supposed to have one, right?"
Kou flinched but resisted the urge to growl as the other fox got too close to her precious totem. "Totems are usually items that you find around the sewers. Some have stones or humans items. I'm sure your totem will come to you." She said, still walking forward. "What about your affinity? Have you found that yet?"
"I don't know..." Kepi hung her head as she walked beside Kou. "I've never met anyone else.. So I don't know.. What's weird. What others don't have that I do." She smiled at Kou. "But I guess maybe now I'll find out!" Kepli bracelet gleamed in the low light as she trotted along beside Kou. It seemed that the fuzz ball did have a thoughtful side after all.
"Hmm, maybe," Kou spared a smile for the other fox, "We should be at the safe room soon." Kou's tail swished behind her as she walked, "Do you . . wanna see my affinity? Maybe it will help you find yours." Kou's earlier vow that she wouldn't return to the safe room until she was more powerful had been broken by Kepli's presence, but that didn't mean she couldn't still practice. Kepli's eyes gleamed with excitement. "Really? Yes! What's your affinity??"

"Well, I'm not very good yet, but I use ink." She summoned a small bit of ink from the vial she stored in Blue, "I mostly use it to mark things and toss it in other's eyes to stall and blind them." She shot the ink against the wall focusing as best she could. The ink took a rough form like the bracelet around Kepli. "I'm not very good at this, but can you tell what I tried to draw?"
Kepli sniffed as she looked at Kou's art. "It looks like..." She trailed off, obviously thinking. "It looks like... A Clang." Then she blinked as an idea came to her mind. She held up her right forepaw and with it her bracelet. "Is it.. This?" The bracelet glittered brightly, despite the dim light in the sewers.
"Yeah! I'm glad you got it," Kou admitted, "I only recently managed to start making simple shapes with my ink. It was just splatters before." Kou turned her attention to the bracelet as she continued her walking, "That caught my eye earlier; it's very pretty."
"It caught your eye?!?!" Kepli halted, staring at Kou in horror. "B-but your eyes look fine..." Now she seemed confused. Kou looked back at the younger fox wearily, "My eyes are fine, it was just another expression." She wasn't sure if she had enough patience for this one. "We are almost at the safe room," she said, "just keep following me."
"Oh ok." She trotted behind Kou at a steady pace. Once again, her bracelet sparkled with every step Kepli took. She looked down at it as she walked. It seemed to gleam anywhere, against all odds.
"Alright, it's just through here," Kou informed Kepli. She ducked into the tunnel and came out into the safe room, turning to watch Kepli enter behind her. "This is where most of us come to rest and regain energy."
Kepli looked around at the room, seeming to try to remember every detail at once. Then she turned to face Kou questioningly. "But.. There's no one here." She cocked her head.
"Well it’s still active hours," Kou explained, "This room is usually empty while everyone is out exploring and practicing their powers." She smiled a little at the other, "Do you want to wait here for others to show up? Then you can see some other affinities. We can try and figure yours out while we wait."
The gray fox's ears perked up. "Really?? Yay!! We can find my affinity AND meet others when we're done!!" She began turning in happy circles.
Kou chuckled a little at the other's show of excitement. "Alright then, now to figure out your affinity," she thought for a few moments, "You seem really happy and bouncy so maybe your affinity is happy too? Have you ever felt connected to wind or water?" She wasn't sure if this would work, but maybe listing affinities would help the other figure hers out.
"Not water." Kepli shook her head quickly. "I don't like icky water. Icky water is icky." She looked at the ceiling. "I don't know about air..." She faced Kou excitedly. "Maybe that's it!!" She seemed very excited, as if she had already been confirmed to be an air Aeniama.
"Alright then," Kou nodded, "maybe you can try and make some air move, just an easy little breeze." Kepli did seem rather excited about the air, maybe that really was her affinity? Only one way to find out.
Kepli stopped spinning and focused. She seemed to be trying her hardest to make the air move. But not even a wisp of air changed position.
Kou watched, but nothing seemed to be happening. "Maybe another affinity? There's electricity, ice, paper, and ink like mine too?" This fox had to have some affinity, but the list was so long!
Kepli seemed hopeful about ink. She narrowed her eyes, trying to make the black liquid appear. But nothing happened. "Not ink.." she mumbled. She seemed very depressed that she did not have the same affinity as Kou.
Noticing the other's disappointment, Kou gave a small smile, "That's fine, it would be boring if we all had the same affinities, that's why there are so many." She tried to think of more options, "Maybe you have plant life, illusion, sound, or light?" Kou was beginning to run low on options. "Or maybe you have fire . . . . . . On second thought, you don't have fire, we're not even going to try." Kou was not letting a fire user anywhere near her. "Do you want to try any of those?" Her bracelet did gleam quite a lot. Maybe her affinity was light.
Kepli was about to respond when they heard a skittering of tiny paws. They turned to see that a filthy black sewer rat had scurried into the safe room. It was very large, its fur covered in trash.
A growl began to rise in Kou's throat, and she tensed for battle. She turned and saw Kepli was not getting ready to fight it. Kou was stunned. What was she doing?! She was just glaring angrily at it.
But then Kepli squeaked at the rat.
Before Kou could process what was going on, the rat sat back on it's haunches and tittered an annoyed reply. Kepli responded by arching her back and hissing in the unnerving way rats do. She bared her teeth and hissed again.
The rat seemed to take a second thought. It turned and scurried away back through the door.
Kou stared at the other fox, confounded. After she finally found her voice again she managed to ask, "What was that?" She sniffed at the other from a distance, "are you secretly half rat or something?" That would have explained some things, but Kou doubted that was the case.
"N-no..." Kepli looked at her tail. " She looked at her paws. "I-I don't think so..." She looked up at Kou. "A-am I?' she asked nervously.
Kou laughed a little at the other's concern. "No, I really doubt it, but those were some funny noises that you--" She cut off as she realized: Noises! Might as well check and see if she was right about Kepli's affinity. "On second thought, you may be. Try and make those sounds again."
The little fox shifted her weight nervously and repeated the same squeaks she had made earlier. It sounded almost exactly like a rat. She averted her eyes nervously. "Am I a rat?"
Kou tried hard to hide her amusement while she pretended to give the question serious thought, "Hmmmmmm, maybe. Can you make any other sounds?" She was fairly certain of the other's affinity now, but might as well have some fun teasing her.
Kepli seemed a bit confused by this question and raised her head. "Uh.."
She blinked and seemed to get an idea. She went perfectly still. Her eyes seemed far away as she spoke..

“...rest now, little one. Rest your head and sleep.
The night will hold you in its arms, and safely you will keep.”

Kou blinked. Where had she heard that voice before? It seemed.. familiar.. "Where did you hear that?" Kou questioned uncertainly, when she had asked Kepli to make more sounds this was not what she had expected. And Kepli's stillness, so far from her normal bouncy self, was slightly unsettling.
Kepli's eyes still seemed unfocused, as if she was seeing worlds far away. "...Spirit sang it to me..." Her bracelet sparkled.
"Spirit?" a shiver ran down Kou's back as she watched the other. Her eyes were unsettling and the stillness was nothing like the Kepli that Kou had met in the tunnels. "Did you see this . . . . Spirit?"
Kelpi blinked, and all at once, her eyes were as lively as before. "Yes! He used to come and visit me!" Her eyes clouded. "But then he stopped... I don't know why he stopped... I wish he hadn't..." She looked up at Kou, eyes sparkling again. "But then I met you, and I had a friend again! So everything was ok!" She squeezed her eyes shut and smiled in obvious happiness.
"Oh . . . . " Not sure how to respond, Kou tried her best to shrug the experience off. Kepli was acting normal again, so that was good. Kou could try and figure out why the voice sounded familiar later; she certainly didn't remember meeting a 'Spirit' with the voice, so it must be from somewhere else. "Well, I don't think you're a rat," she informed Kepli with her most serious voice.
Kepli's ears instantly perked up again. "I'm not?? Yay!!" She got p and spun a little before sitting back down. "Now we can find out what my affinity is! Maybe it's ice!" She seemed very eager to continue the research.
Kou couldn't hold back the small laugh. "I don't think your affinity is ice." she said. "How about you try a different one." She could just tell her, but it would be so much more rewarding for Kepli to find her own affinity, she decided.
Kepli looked a little bit ashamed as she said, "But I don't know what lightning or paper are..." She looked at Kou sadly. "Well," Kou coaxed, "Do you want to try plants or sound?" She tried not to be too obvious, but waiting for this fox to catch on was taxing. "Maybe one of those are your affinity?" Kepli swished her tail. "But Spirit said that plants don't grow without sunlight. Doesn't that mean there wouldn't be any plants here?" She looked at the ceiling and said, "Spirit said there wasn't a sun in here." She faced Kou with confusion.
"No, there's no . . . . sun down here," She admitted. "I don't know much about plants, but I think that a plant affinity's energy can replace the energy that the light gives, so small plants can grow here." Kou's tailed twitched; 'Spirit' had been mentioned again. "Any other affinity?" She asked, trying to avoid the subject any more.
"I-I don't know what lightning is." The little gray fox hung her head in shame.
Forget being subtle. "Well that leaves sound on our list right?" Kou could only wait for this dense fox for so long, "So how about you try and use sound."
"B-but everyone makes sound." She sounded a little confused.
She raised her head to look at Kou. "How is that an affinity?" Kou nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard her own voice.
"Yeah, everyone makes a sound, so quit making my sounds please." It was not natural to hear her own voice talking to her, but at least this was progress. "Mimicking noises and making loud noises are some things that sound users can do."
Kepli's ears pricked up. Her tail lashed back and forth in excitement. "Maybe I'm sound!!" She stood up and began hopping up and down.
"Hmmmm, maybe," Kou said, torn between relief and amusement. "So try some stuff out, make some noise."
Kepli pawed the ground. She shifted her weight uneasily. Then she reared back her head and howled. It was obvious that she was trying to howl quietly.
Kou froze. Kepli had perfectly imitated Elder Ebru's howl.
"That's great," Kou said when Kepli was finally done. "Careful when you use that one though, everyone else may show up thinking you're Elder Ebru." She paused in thought for a moment. "Have you heard that howl before?"
Kepli nodded. "That's Monster. That's the sound that made Spirit go away, the last time I saw him." She hung her head. "He said he had to go, and he left. I hid until Monster passed."
Kou held back her choked laugh. "Oh? Did you see this 'monster'? Because he must have been so scary," Sure the elders could look intimidating, but she would hardly describe them as monsters. This 'Spirit' on the other hand, seemed questionable.
Kepli seemed to think Ebru was completely and absolutely terrifying. "Y-yes. He walked right past where I was hiding." She shivered. "He almost saw me."
A short bark of laughter escaped Kou's mouth, "That was just Ebru you silly rat, you don't need to be scared of him." She cuffed the other good naturedly. "He's an elder, and only a seven tailed one at that."
Kepli flinched a little at the cuff, but seeing Kou’s playful face, ignored it. But then the gray fox looked confused. "B-but Spirit didn't like him..."
"Well, I don't know this 'Spirit' fellow, but maybe he isn't liked by the elders for some reason." She replied. She couldn't think of a reason for someone to avoid the elders, but who knew. "Can you describe 'Spirit'?"
She looked up at Kou. "Well... At first I thought he would be mean and scary, like the rats, so I hid. But he heard me."
Her eyes sparkled. "He came over and found me, and at first it looked like he was going to hit me. But later he said that was just a demonstration."
Kepli cocked her head, lost in memories. "He came over and looked at me and sniffed me. Then he seemed upset and said 'Not fire.' I don't know what he meant by that." She hung her head in shame. "I don't know what I did wrong, but I did something."
Her tail swished. "My bracelet kept shaking, and I asked him why. He said that it was because he found me. He said it was good that he found me."
Kepli looked at Kou. "I called him Spirit. He said I could call him that if I wanted to. And I wanted to, so I did!" She smiled.
Kou listened to the story with pricked ears. It sounded more like a story you would tell young foxes before bed than reality. "That's . . . . odd," she told Kepli after the story was over. "He was probably hoping you had a fire affinity, but who on earth could he be?"
"He's Spirit!" Kepli happily replied.
Kou groaned, this fox was almost too much for her. "Yeah sure." She thought about saying more but the patter of feet made her look to the tunnel entrance. The first of the sleep-time crowd was trickling in. "Here are the others, little-rat."
"Hnnh?!" Kepli spun around as fast as she could to see other Aeniama. She for once was silent as she seemed way too excited to be able to speak.
"Just watch for now," she warned Kepli, the last thing these tired foxes needed was a hyper Kepli jumping around. They trailed in lazily, some moving to their regular spots to sleep, and some sitting in groups, discussing the day’s events. "Do you see how different they each are? There are one tails and two tails of all colors, but we all have the same goal," she explained quietly.
With obvious diffficulty, Kepli sat down and forced herself to keep still. "They're all different..."She responds, watching them. She turned and looked at Kou as she said with wonder, "What goal?"
"The top," Kou's eyes glittered, "Everyone down here is trying to get to the top of the White Tower. We'll be treated like gods up there!" She looked over at Kepli, raw excitement in her eyes. "No more living in the sewers and struggling to survive, if we make it up there we'll be the most powerful ones there are."
The younger fox's eyes were filled with awe, wondering what such a grand place was like. Then she looked at Kou with confusion. "Why don't you just go there right now?"
That simple question shattered the happy dream Kou was in and caused her to scowl at the air in front of her, "because the stupid humans won't respect us until we have nine tails." She sighed. "It's also too dangerous for us to travel higher before we get more powerful, understand?"
"Oh." Kepli was confused and very disappointed. She cocked her head and said, "What's a human?" "Um, I've never met a human before," Kou admitted, "but from what I've gathered they are big ugly hairless monsters that walk on two legs."
Kepli shivered in disgust. "Ewww. Why don't they have fur? That's weird." She shakes her head.
Kou laughed a little at her reaction. "And you thought Elder Ebru was a monster. At least he has fur and walks on four legs like any respectable creature should." Most of the foxes around them were settling down and falling asleep at this point.
The gray fox nodded seriously. "But he's still scary." She suddenly seemed to get a horrible thought in her mind and quickly turned towards Kou with her eyes wide in fear. "I-is M-Monster here?" she whispered. She swung her head around, looking for any sign of him.
"Ebru?" Kou questioned. "No, he's not here. The youngest and least powerful of us normally come here. The elders are powerful and don't need the safe room." She laid down, tired of standing while answering questions all day, "As I said Little-rat, no reason to be scared of that old fox."
The other fox seemed to calm down a little. "O-oh. Ok." She curled up in a ball. "I wonder why Spirit doesn't like him..." she mumbled, her voice muffled by her tail.
"No clue," Kou mumbled back as she set to work cleaning her fur from the sewer muck. "Maybe you can find him and ask him again someday." She suppressed a yawn and looked around at the mounds of fur curled in the room. Some were cuddled together, but others slept alone in the far corners.
"Maybe..." Kepli's reply trailed off as she fell asleep. It seemed that she had triedto resist sleep but just couldn't. Her breathing became quiet as she drifted into sleep.
Kou watched Kepli drift off into sleep. That's what she got for being such a reckless ball of energy. She sighed in contentment as she watched the other breathe; she would probably leave the safe room before Kepli ever woke up. There were other foxes that Kepli needed to meet, and Kou was certain she would be fine on her own from now on. "Good luck, Little-rat."
Kou was herself drifting into sleep. She began to have dreams of faraway towers...
And was woken by a growl. She quickly looked to see a shadow just fleeing the safe room. But it was too fast to see what it was.
Kou was tired… Maybe it was just a dream...
Her ears flicked uncomfortably as she tried to go back to sleep, but her mind was not satisfied without knowing for sure she, and her little-rat, though she would never admit that out loud, were safe.
She stepped to the tunnel entrance and glanced back and forth trying to locate any sign of the shadow she had seen. Maybe it had just been a dream.
There seemed to be no sign that anyone had been there recently. Maybe it was just a dream after all. She turned and went back into the safe room.
When she got back to her spot in the safe room, she saw that Kepli was half-awake, blinking drowsily. "S..Spirit?" she mumbled sleepily.
"Shhhh," Kou tried to coax her back to sleep. No point in the little-rat waking up now. Kepli remained half awake however, much to Kou's dismay. Reluctantly, Kou lay down right next to Kepli and draped her tail over the other as a blanket. Someone had done this for her before and it was comforting, maybe it would help Kepli fall back asleep? In a final move to soothe the little-rat Kou began to chant. She may not be as talented as a sound affinity, but she hoped this would do the trick.

“...rest now, little one. Rest your head and sleep.
The night will hold you in its arms, and safely you will keep.”

"Rest little-rat."

"Hnn..." Kepli's eyes slowly closed and her breathing became slow and quiet again.
Kou quietly sighed in relief. She was asleep.

Kou smiled at the other fox. "Goodnight Little-rat."