Kitsune in the Shadows

Chapter 65 – A Coat of Many Colours

“It’s time to get up, sleepy head,” Ava’s voice was soft and gentle, but it was enough to stir me from my sleep, “It looks like we’re going to be stopping soon.”

I opened my eyes to the dark interior of the wagon. The air was damp, but the rain from earlier had thankfully stopped.

“Was that a good nap?” Elwyn asked.

Looking over, I could see that both Joran and Elwyn had put their hoods back on.

Wait! What if-?!

I checked my own hood, but thankfully, it was still pulled over my ears.

“I’ll have to assume that means yes,” Elwyn chuckled, “The guys up front are just looking for a good place to set up camp, so it’s only a short while left now.”

As if on cue, the wagon started to slow before eventually coming to a stop, the axles screeching loudly as it did. It felt like the sound passed through my entire body, starting from the sharp pain in my ears all the way to a tingling in my toes.

“Ah!” Joran covered his ears as I did the same, “Did no one remember to oil this wagon before we left?!”

…

We shared a brief look of understanding before removing our hands as soon as we were certain the wagon had come to a complete stop.

“Guess that’s the first thing I’m doing when we get off this thing,” He said with a defeated voice as he slumped back down on the bench.

“So… what are we doing now?” Ava asked, “Shouldn’t we be getting off? Cause I can hear everyone else moving around out there.”

“No,” Joran answered, “Just wait here, let them all set up their tents and the like. They’ll send someone to call us out when they start going to sleep.”

Really?

…

This… isn’t like the stories at all…

We just… sit in the wagon…

…

The wagon fell into silence for the next while, although I wasn’t quite sure exactly how long it was without the sun in view.

I spent the time listening to the noises just outside the wagon. People shuffling about, many of them complaining about sore joints from the ride. The rustling of fabric as the tents were being set up. Even the light crackle of a flame as it casts large shadows across the inside of our wagon.

“H-Hello, u-um…”

While I was distracted, someone had approached the back of the wagon. He was a fairly short, stout man clutching what looked to be a beret against his chest.

“A-are you o-o-okay with t-the n-night-”

Joran exhaled loudly, spooking the man a little.

“We’re okay with that,” Elwyn stepped in almost immediately, “We’ll be out in a few minutes then.”

“T-thank you,” The man squeaked before immediately scurrying away.

…

“Why did you do that?” Elwyn jabbed Joran in the side, “That’s the merchant we’re escorting, not some random adventurer we’re never going to see again. The poor man was absolutely terrified just from seeing the size of you.”

“I didn’t even do anything.”

“Joran I-”

“Let’s just get out,” Joran interrupted as he started to climb over Elwyn.

“But I just-”

“You know they ain’t gonna move till they see us,” He finally managed to get out of the wagon, landing with a wet splash, “Now come on out, I need to find whatever oil they have on hand.”

Joran offered his hand to Elwyn, which they reluctantly accepted as they climbed out of the wagon. Once Elwyn was on the ground, Joran then offered his hand to Ava.

“Thanks,” Ava said as she was helped out of the wagon.

“Just be careful. This place is a little muddy from all the rain earlier.”

Joran then finally offered his hand to me.

…

…

I just sat there staring for a moment.

“Ms Wolf?” He said, making me refocus.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Ava chimed in, “Just take his hand so he can help you down. It’s a big help with how dark it is.”

…

I didn’t say anything, but I got up and reached out to grab his hand as Ava told me to. But just before I grabbed on, he reached further into the wagon and lifted me up before carefully setting me down on the ground next to Ava.

What was-?!

“Didn’t mean to spook you, just thought it’d be easier to get you out that way,” He quickly checked me over, “Alright, go get yourself a seat by the fire. I’ll go sort out the axles to save our ears for the next two weeks.”

As Joran walked around the side of the wagon, I heard a couple of gasps followed by a few people making their way into their tents, although not everyone did.

“Well, there’s really nothing else for us to do,” Ava wrapped her arm around my shoulder as she guided me towards the fire, “And, If I’m being honest, I am feeling a little tired already… I can see why they told us to get some sleep.”

She guided me over to one of the logs that surrounded the fire, where we both sat down opposite a couple of other people.

Not much at all happened after that. The last few people filtered into their tents as Joran continued complaining about not being able to find any oil. Ava also ended up falling asleep in my lap, so I draped my tail over her to help keep her warm, which she gladly latched onto.

It wasn’t long before I was left with just the sounds of rustling leaves, the crackling fire and Ava’s quiet breathing.

…

…

“You know, I have been absolutely dying to meet you. Well, not in the literal sense, of course. If I was dying, this would be a very different situation.”

What?!

If Ava’s head wasn’t in my lap, I would’ve leapt out of my seat.

Somehow, someone had managed to sit down next to me without me noticing. My eyes were immediately drawn to his outfit. He was wearing a formal suit; however, it somehow was in every colour imaginable all at once, even some colours that didn’t make sense to me. Looking up at his face, his hair was brown… or maybe black… or blonde… every time I focused on it, it seemed to change and shift. Even his voice was the same; I could remember it was a man’s voice, but I couldn’t remember the voice itself, only the words that were said. After getting a good look at him, I was even more surprised that I hadn’t noticed his approach.

How long have you-?

“I was going to wait until a bit later, truly, but I’ve already been waiting twenty years for this. You can understand, can’t you?” It looked like he started to lean back, but he immediately shot forward instead, “I still can’t even believe it. It’s you! It’s really you!”

Twenty-?

Wait, who-?

“The name’s John, with the ‘h’, it’s very important. Spent a while without it, you know, just Jon with no ‘h’, but it just didn’t carry the way it needed to. It just needed that extra… gravitas that such an unassuming letter brings,” As he spoke, he swung his hands around as if trying to exaggerate each and every word, “I’ve also been given many a title, but the one I’m the most proud of is the first John. Of course, there are others, like the first human, the God of Fate, the God of Souls. But the first John, it’s me! It’s all me!”

The God of-?!

“Actually, on that note, being God of Fate in particular. Bit of a rough job if I don’t say so myself,” He just continued to speak, not even giving me the time to think, let alone respond, “You might not understand this part, but I didn’t really ask for it, just one day, ‘Hey, you defied your fate, become the God of Fate’ sort of thing happened. Don’t really know how I did that, you know, the whole defying fate thing; I think it was because I became a God, thus not being able to die, but well, the order is wrong then. But that doesn’t matter. As I was saying, God of Fate, not great. You just know what’s going to happen, always. No matter what. You just know. Do you know what that does to someone?”

“…” I didn’t even try to respond this time, already expecting him to answer his own question.

“It makes them very, very, very, very, very bored! So, they mess around. They try to do things. But no matter what they do, they still know what’s going to happen. My only hobby was playing around with souls; even if I knew the outcome, at least I had to put some effort in. But unfortunately, the God of Death and Goddess of Life really don’t like it when I do. They were really mean the last time I did it too,” He put on an exaggerated frown, “I was left wandering the farthest reaches of the ether, wasn’t even very fun, already knew nothing was going to happen, BUT!”

He shouted so loudly I was amazed no one else had noticed him yet.

“Then something happened. Something I didn’t expect. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?! Something I didn’t know was going to happen just happened. Out there, just beyond my reach, there was a soul. Not a soul like I’d ever seen; the shape was strange, the colour was wrong, but that didn’t matter. Luck just happened to be on my side as it drifted just close enough for me to latch onto, and when I touched it… NOTHING! I saw nothing! It was everything I ever wanted in one oddly shaped package. So I got to work. I wanted to give the soul a body, to let it start doing something, anything. But the soul just didn’t fit! I slowly worked on it; I added parts here and there to make it more similar to what I’m used to and got the perfect kitsune body prepared… well, a mostly kitsune body… it needed a little extra oomph to really make it work. Their resilience to this kind of thing was perfect. It’s hard to put a soul into a body like that, but as soon as the soul is put in, it should be held down tightly. I just knew it was so. And I was right! The soul settled in with all the extra bits I added, and then the body started to grow. Four years to mould the soul, seven whole years of growth and then…” He paused, “I was caught. Got in a bit of trouble with the one I shouldn’t have. In an emergency, I just sent them out into the world while I waited to be sealed. Thankfully, wasn’t sealed for too long; God of Fate is pretty in demand, if you know what I mean, so I got out early. Put together a note, got it to my very precious, unpredictable soul, and now here we are. Interestingly, it seems that the soul has settled even more than before… It’s incredible!”

…

I just couldn’t process everything that had just been said.

He’s a God?… But he’s here…

The note…

Souls?…

Twenty years… how?…

What is-?

“This is so exciting! I don’t even know what you’re going to say next! I don’t know how you are going to react!”

Can no one else hear him?

Can no one else see him?

I glanced around the campsite and saw Joran leaning up against one of the wagons, but he didn’t seem to react at all.

“Hmm…” John turned to see what I was looking at, “Oh, don’t worry about that. They’ll only notice me if they’re supposed to notice me. Same with anything you say to me. Now, tell me, who are you? What are you? What do you know? What are you going to do? Not whatever you’ve learned since you opened your eyes here, I already know all of that. What I want to know is where your soul came from,” He pointed at me, “Did you know that one day, the fate of lots of people in Haelmor got fuzzy? I decided to leave you a note just as a test, and as soon as I did, I was completely cut off from Haelmor. I just don’t know what’s going to happen there anymore. Can you believe it! It’s great! And you’ve already done so much! There was a Baron who was set to start a gambling racket before using the money to climb his status all the way to becoming a Count, but then it just didn’t happen! Everything I knew changed just because you existed.”

…

Who… am I?…

What do I… remember?…

Even just trying to think about it gave me a piercing headache.

… I…

“… don’t remember…” I muttered.

I didn’t really want to say anything… but with everything this man had just told me…

“You don’t know! I didn’t know that! I didn’t know that you didn’t know! I just know that you’re something special because I don’t know if you are,” He threw his body back before snapping back to how he was, “Although… I am a little disappointed… There should still be something in that head of yours, though; maybe I could get the God of Memories to do me a favour… The promise of your memories is such a good bargaining chip too; it would finally let him win that argument with the God of Knowledge as to who knows more… But no! There’s no fun in me doing that! I want to see what you’re going to do all by yourself from now on. I can’t even guess what you’re going to do. I mean, who knew you would be taken in by those twin Goddesses ‘cause I definitely didn’t!”

He then suddenly stood up, his coat blinding a little me as it caught the light from the fire and dyed the surroundings in all manner of colours.

“I just can’t wait to see what you’re going to do. Honestly speaking, if you just led an ordinary life, maybe started a family, grew old, then… died…” He locked up for a moment as he said that, “Actually, please don’t die. I don’t know what would happen to your soul if you did. Also, I really wouldn’t like the God of Death to find you… but you can’t really control that… How about this? When you’re about to die, slip me a note. I’ll come pick your soul up. Good? Good. I’ll hold you to that then, but for now, I’m going to leave you be. The council up there really doesn’t like it when I walk around down here. They can’t do anything to stop me, but they get a little difficult to deal with when I ask for favours later on.”

Before waiting for my response, he stepped over the log I was sitting on, but as I turned to look for him, he was already gone. Not even just physically, as when I thought back to what he had said, all I could remember were the words themselves, no voice, no face. The only other thing I could remember about him was his coat.

What… was that?…

It was like he held a conversation entirely by himself. I barely managed to get two words in. He just showed up, said what he wanted to say and left… yet…

…

Where… did I come from?

Who… was I?

…

What did he mean?

He just… found my soul?

…

That night, I was just left with too many questions that buzzed around inside my head, all seemingly with no way of being answered.