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Chapter 6: The First Sighting
Anna Lynn Onari was the last of the trio that endured Buzz’s conquest of the town’s youth. This Kitsun’s stature was much shorter than her comrades, standing only two or three inches above five feet. Yellow orbs locked with red, two unique pairs of Kitsun eyes engaged each other once more. Her hair was white as snow, reaching beyond her hips in length. She shared the feline ears as Gail did, but unlike Gail she did not share claw-adorned human hands or a flexible tail. Instead, she obtained whiskers, six divided evenly upon each side around her nose. Though she looked quite awkward with this particular mix of human and cat traits, she possessed higher tuned senses compared to Gail thanks to the whiskers. This also made more sense for Anna: she used them to help her keep focus with her arcane arts. Most Kitsun blessed with whiskers take this path in life since it is exceptionally easier to pick up with them.

Her hand was the source of a now dimming light as Gail returned to their side. “I checked to make sure, and he’s good. What happened this time, Gail?” Anna’s eyes narrowed at the frisky feline girl, assuming she was the cause of Ryo’s injuries.

“Hey! All we were doin’ was coming out here to the hideout, and Big N’ Bulgy decided to try and convert us. Wasn’t me, for once.” Gail rolled her eyes, giving an astonished look to Anna. Gail’s lack of maturity was enough to convince the little mage. “Besides, he’s not the biggest of our worries right now.”

Ryo stood up slowly from where he landed with a little help from Anna. “Oh, Gail. It was just a scare, sheesh! Would you just drop it already? Last thing we need to deal with is rumors about mythical creatures coming about and …..”

“So, they’ve seen a wretch around here too, huh?” Anna’s look turned grim. The sudden interruption caused Ryo to tilt his head in curiosity. Had she seen it too? “It was weird. I woke up last night for no reason at all. I guess it was just a coincidence, but that’s still strange…”. The little girl scanned around the area they were standing. “So, what are we waiting for? Why don’t we show Ryo what we found?”

Gail nodded in agreement, taking Ryo by the hand and bolting deeper into the woods. “W-WHOA! Hey!” Ryo yelped as he was taken by surprise. He could hear Anna chuckle softly as the two left her behind. A minute or so of running later, Gail came to a complete stop, causing Ryo to crash into her from behind. The two took a fall into the grass, helping themselves to a nice supply of greens.

“OW! Hey! Well, we’re here.” Gail pushed Ryo off of her roughly as she got up and looked upward. “There it is…the biggest tree in the forest. Thing’s been hollowed out by who knows what, but it’s really a sight. Look at it, Ryo! It’s perfect!” Standing in front of them was a gigantic tree. Although it was pretty gnarled all around, it had many widespread branches that concealed a good portion of the area around them just by itself. The opening in the front of the tree was large enough for them to enter the trunk of the tree. When they walked in, however, it was much tighter quarters than Ryo had expected.

“Well, this isn’t exactly what I was expecting…” The boy rolled his eyes, walking forward and crunching into a pile of leaves. This pile seemed a lot lighter than he expected.

“Wait, Ryo! Don’t….” Before the full warning could be given to him, the floor gave out as he stepped onto the large pile of leaves. These leaves, along with the sticks used to support them, were apparently keeping a secret from the unaware that Ryo literally stumbled upon. “….step there…that’s where the real entrance is….” The feline girl mumbled in an agitated manner. Gail planted a hand on her head, shaking it in misery as she went down the entrance, using the crude stone ladder she and Anna had built into the wall. “Boys….”

After recovering from the initial shock of the fall, Ryo took a glance around him, realizing what he had just fallen into: a secret underground cavern, sized quite comfortably for at least their small group. This could even be used for long term stays if arranged properly. Stones lay around in random parts of the cave, giving them some decent natural furnishings to start. “Wow….” Ryo gawked as the two stepped inside of the tree. “This…this is amazing, Gail! You’re right, this is the perfect place to hide away and plan to overthrow that Buzz…” A large grin appeared across his face as he looked to her, who in turn also was grinning. Her grin was coupled with rosy red cheeks, which made Ryo chuckle. “Gail, you’re turning into a strawberry on me. I didn’t realize my opinion mattered that much to you.”

Gail’s cheeks seemed to grow brighter thanks to Ryo’s smart remark. It was hinted with appreciation that she was hoping for. “Ah! Well um….” Gail turned away to hide her emotions for a moment, but then decided to toss out a false face. “….I was looking out for the good of the kids, not just you! You’re so selfish sometimes, Ryo. The only reason I haven’t given you a nickname yet is because…..because….well, what kind of nickname can I make out of Ryo? Seriously, I wonder about how you got that sometimes….”

“Welcome to the Liberator’s Quarters, Ryo.” Anna had caught up, stepping down into the new fortress just in time to completely spoil the moment for Ryo and Gail. “I don’t know how long this has been here, but it was probably overgrown and reshaped over long periods of time, probably part of a bigger cave. Just our luck, huh guys?” Another sheepish smile arose from Anna’s lips, confident in her educated assumption.

The other two jumped a bit after noticing how close to each other they were. “Er…Yeah, just our luck! Hah!” Ryo suddenly piped out. He coughed a bit to collect himself before speaking again. “Alright, we’ll need some supplies to get us going, and then we can start our plan to end this Buzz thing once and for all!” Everyone nodded in agreement, and then set off to get the supplies needed.

The rest of that day went rather uneventful, the gang scampering around to grab materials necessary for any secret base. Gail gathered up parchment and writing utensils, Anna grabbed some old chairs and one old lantern, and Ryo managed to find an old unused safe box and lock amongst the clutter within his father’s shed. For a teen’s getaway, it was very well arranged and equipped for the crude additions they brought. They had planned on meeting back at their base right after the girls were let out of the public school in town. That’s when their plotting would start. As the three started to climb out of their base, a very low pitched, almost screeching noise seemed to echo out of the base’s back wall. It was very tightly sealed by fallen rock and debris from ages back, but the sound still seemed to squeeze its way to echo quietly to Ryo’s ears. His eyes glancing back towards the wall, he began to wonder, but then quickly push any unusual ideas to the side. It was late, so it was more than likely coming from aboveground, echoing down.

The sun was already far from setting in the sky, the light fading from the land as the three emerged back into the real world from their tranquil realm. A quick covering of their entrance concealed it to the prying eyes of other curious adventurers or animals. After a moment’s stroll back towards the main road, the forest was awakened by the quick shuffling of leaves in the short distance from them. Ryo was the first to turn around, ready on his guard, with Gail and Anna close behind him. Anna’s hand began to radiate a red aura and the area around them became slightly warmer. The leaves stopped rustling, but the three’s guard did not drop. Each of their nervous eyes slid from right to left, searching for the source of the sound. They didn’t notice anything, so they slowly turned their backs to the disturbance.

Suddenly, a loud screech reeled into the young night’s silence, the volume resonating closer to Ryo’s back. The boy was capable of spinning just fast enough to hold his blade to his chest, which was one of the luckiest reactive motions he had done in his life. The creature that created the noise slammed into the blade, pinning Ryo to the ground. The two Kitsuns spun around as they heard the thud, gawking for a moment at the monster that had their friend.

On top of Ryo was a canine creature, its fangs exposed unwillingly as it seemed that the flesh had decayed from the jawbone. The skin revealed by the patches of missing fur showed to be of an unnatural color: blue with hints of purple melded within it. Drips of saliva paddled onto the boy’s cheek just moments before the beast lashed out with its open maw in attempts to pincer Ryo’s neck. In an act of instinct, Ryo slipped his wooden weapon between his neck and the attacker, thrusting forward with all of his might. The creature continued its assault on the wood not realizing it had missed until it was pushed backwards.

“What…what’s that!?” Anna hesitated, still stepping backward from the foul beast. The other Kitsun acted on her will just as Anna did, only Gail’s instinct was to beat the life out of the wolf with the decaying flesh. Leaping over Ryo’s recovering body, Gail thrust both of her arms out at the creature, claws extended. Unsuspecting, the wolf turned just as the sharp appendages arrived onto its face. The blood curdling yelp that expelled out of its body caused all three of the teens to cover their ears. Making haste in extreme pain, the wolf bolted off into the woods, crying softly.

The two Kitsuns huddled around Ryo, looking him over for any damages. “I’m fine, I’m fine.” Ryo spoke softly to reassure the friends, dusting his slacks off from the impact dirt. He didn’t realize that the wolf had done a number on his clothes, a nice streak of torn cloth flapping in the wind across his chest. Before Anna could bark up her concern, Ryo started scanning the area in careful concern “I….I guess that was a wretch, huh…?”

“Yeah…but it looked like a wolf…Nothing like what I heard from everywhere.” Anna prodded her fingers together, attempting to contemplate a logical conclusion to all of the madness. “At least we know that we can take them on, right?” Anna’s attempt at reassurance was not well responded to, her half smile quickly disappearing.

“Didn’t they say that these guys go in packs….?” Gail kept her claws out and a vicious glare across her eyes as she scanned with Ryo, her ears wavering. The barely noticeable tail was now curling over itself, a common Kitsun anger trait. “We should get out of here before I have to beat their entire family to a …!”

“Enough! Let’s just go, guys!” Ryo was already a few steps ahead of the girls, heading back towards the town. During their stroll, Ryo’s vision picked up a glimmer out of the corner of his eye. His arm tensed up and he froze for a moment, which seemed to scare the green shining orbs away. Before Gail’s newly calmed nerves could voice her concern, Ryo shook his head to get the stalking eyes out of his head. Anna was dropped off first at her home, then Ryo delivered Gail to the bakery. It was just about time for Ms. Pensey to close up, so Gail typically waited to walk with her grandmother. Ryo’s head hung, he hadn’t spoken at all since the encounter. As the boy turned away Gail planted her warm hand onto his shoulder. Ryo rubbed her hand softly before walking away from it, allowing it to gloss down his tattered shirt. Gail stood there, worried and confused as to what was going on in his mind. Ryo knew exactly what went wrong: he had failed to protect as his father would had done for him. It was a gut shot for him, and with the addition of the green eyes following him once more, he braced himself for a night filled with terror.

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Time seemed to be melting away as they rode, the wagon now passing through a thicket of woods that the path was worn into. The cool orange rays of light seeped beyond the tree branches, tickling the cloth cover of the caravan as Ryo collected himself.“You just…get that feeling that no matter what you do, it’s not good enough for yourself? I guess I’m vulnerable to that. I can’t stand not being able to do what my mind has set for me to do.” Ryo shook his head after muttering out of his story in a monotone voice.

“Listen…boy. Sorry about ..well, you know, actin’ the way I was before about you making stuff up. I’ve met a few folks from the Tornwind incident and compared to them, you took that very well for someone your age. Most people …” Regis paused, attempting to choke up the courage to pass on his sights to reassure Ryo. “Most people don’t live past being attacked by even one of those. Either you got really lucky or you really knew what you were doing. Don’t beat yourself up, Ryo. If you weren’t there, think about what would’ve happened to your lady friends.” Upon taking the trader’s advice, the muddled teen received some comfort, but not nearly enough to halt his self destructive mindset. “You’re a good kid, Ryo. And that’s a big compliment coming from an established trader such as me. As far as I can tell, I’m a hardass when it comes to liking people. If you start growing attached to your customers, your money starts slipping right out from under ya!”

A few moments of silence overcame them both after Regis’ failed attempt at healing Ryo’s emotional scars. “Listen, Ryo. You don’t have to say anymore. You’ve done more than your share of story telling for now. And for the record…I believe you slightly more than before. So just….rest up. We should be getting to the Region Master’s keep just at nightfall. There’s a nice inn just a stone throw away from it. I’ll get us both a room to stay there.”

“No, Mr. Regis. I think you need to hear the rest of the story.” Ryo suddenly erupted from his lips in a more vicious tone. “I don’t know what you think happened in Memera, or if you even know. I need to tell somebody before everyone just shrugs it off and thinks nothing of it.” Turning his head away from Regis, Ryo continued to recite.