The Festival of the Dead

Chapter 15: Seeds of Doubt

The foxes all fled back to town, all except one that stayed sitting on the beast, head pointed at the princesses. They stayed in their respective spots, continuing to watch each other. Without any apparent hesitation, the fox calmly walked off of the corpse, advancing on the princesses.

"Where do you think the exit is?" Avnas had been looking for a good way through the forest for a while. The trail had gone cold and they weren't sure which trees were broken from the fight and which were just old.

"Can't you just get that dragon-thing to come get us?"

"Peter is a wyvern and I honestly have no idea where he went."

"Any other plans?"

"Oh gee master magician, what do you think we could possibly use to ohh... I don't know... move from here to somewhere else really fast. Some kind of... port, definetly a port of some kind."

"I get it, but I still don't feel very good. If we go somewhere bad, you are not allowed to get pissy when it goes wrong." He readied his magic, thinking of the easiest spell to use in his condition. He decided to just focus on the magic-signature of the monster the fox had chased after. If he hasn't killed it yet then we can finish-up before heading back.

Ok, I understand. The Kitsune had received it's next objective. It continued advancing on the princesses, making sure to keep both alicorns in it's vision.

"Sister, what is it doing?" Luna could guess quite well what the fox was intending to do by it's demeanor alone, she just didn't understand why.

"I'm not sure Luna, but that look would suggest he is after us now, he still looks injured, so we can probably get away if we get a good start."

The Kitsune's ears perked-up at the last statement. Celestia remembered Avnas' parting statement before they left. Darn things are smarter than you would ever believe!

Of course, it speaks Equestrian.

Shabriri dusted himself off after his last attempt at opening a portal, the last one got them closer to town, but still dropped them off about fifteen feet in the air. I can never let Avnas bring his own alchohol again. he thought bitterly.

The sisters hadn't accounted for the small animal being able to hear their plans. After Celestia's comment, the fox had adjusted it's position, blocking their straight-shot back to town. They had tried flying, but lacked the needed take-off time, always being interrupted by the fox attacking one or the other. They tried magic but the fox quickly figured-out how to time their casting to the glow of their horns.

Each of it's attacks seemed just as vicious as the last but the sisters many years with various violent denizens of their world taught them better. It's definetly just trying to cripple. thought Luna as she avoided another swing of claws aimed at the base of her wings. All it wants is a single solid hit on a wing or leg.

"What do you want." Celestia maintained her commonly cool demeanor as well as she could while maneuvering away from attacks. To her surprise, she got an answer.

"Just one." The fox stated in a smooth, soft voice punctuated with clicks as it's teeth hit each other.

"One what!"

"Just one break, Avnas. I can't make these portals very efficent while my head is spinning and it's costing me a lot of energy."

"I'll make it up to you, whatever, just get up and keep going, I can't navigate if the guy teleporting me passes out."

"Sister, when it says just one..."

"I believe it only wants one of us, Luna."

"That is correct." The fox's voice was very odd, it had distinct hints of various voices familiar to the sisters but they had yet to remember the ponies they belonged to. "You." It added while looking at Celestia.

"Why?" The scuffle had ceased, now just tense conversation.

"You have to be the judge of one of your own."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I can only tell you, not the moon-sister."

"Why did you attack both of us then?"

"I didn't, I kept you from fleeing." It was maintaining constant eye-contact with the sisters, switching who it was watching every few seconds.

"What about the others of your kind? They could have easily subdued us without a problem."

"They are going to get the other judges."

"Who are these other judges?"

"The field-worker, the master-magician, the light-flyer, the designed-elite, the sky-dancer, and the laughing-fool. The six currently alive with the most involvement with the prisoner."

"What prisoner?"

The Kitsune shot another look towards Luna. She understood, and backed away, out of earshot.

The fox maintained a soft voice, just in case. "The one you sold, sun-raiser. The one you sold for nothing in return." It clicked it's teeth together, not used to having to talk regularly. "The one you gave-away to someone you didn't even know, someone who fed you lies that you accepted greedily,  someone you trusted only because they to hated the prisoner. Now come, the journey is long but the trip will be short."

She felt a furry body slam into her from behind, apparently not all the foxes had left after all, and slumped forward on to the ground, followed by her sister.

Right before the world turned black, the fox on top of her clicked into her ear, this voice more feminine. "The mad-god awaits his eternity."

Yes, the chapter took a long time. I was only able to reach a computer just long enough to finish this. Might be able to get another chapter by the end of the weekend.