Phillip's head was swimming, still wondering if this was a dream. But if this WAS real, if he WAS going to be adopted, he wasn't going to miss the chance. But which one to go with?
Something about the one creature in this circle he hadn't heard about, the two tailed fox... A "Kitsune," caught his curiosity. It said something about having magic powers, which sounded cool, and unlike the fairy, he wouldn’t have to be smaller (he’d had enough of the kids at school bullying him for being a “runt”). It’d also be less likely to scare his old friends than if he showed up as a dragon, wolf, or vampire.
“I want to join the fox’s family,” Phillip said, pointing at the kit.
The little orange fox smiled. “You’re not gonna regret this, new little brother!”
The vampire girl shrugged. “Suit yourself, then.” Shadows seemed to wrap around her, covering her completely. When they faded, a tiny bat left in the girl’s place fluttered out the open window of Phillip’s bedroom.
The fairy fluttered after her, turning back to Phillip before she left. “If you’re sure. Have fun out there, prank lots of people!”
“Well, don’t come crying to us if you wanna see what it’s like to REALLY be free,” the wolf pup said, leaping out the window.
“Ditto,” the baby dragon said with a flick of her tail.
“Though it saddens me that you won’t be joining us, I pray that you will have a good life, in the end.” The angel nodded, before flickering out in a golden flash.
The little fox shook Phillip’s hand. “Nice to have you, Phillip! I’m Arata, by the way.” The fox looked around the room. “Anything you want to bring with you? I’ll give some time to grab what you need.”
“Thanks…” Phillip nodded. He hopped off his bed, and ran to the closet, where he picked up a suitcase, which he began to load up with clothes.
“Uh, hey!” The fox spoke up, “unless you just really like one of your shirts or something, I don’t think you’re gonna need to pack many clothes. They might not fit when this is done.”
Phillip blinked. “Why not?”
“Because, when you join our family, you’re gonna be a fox too! You ever seen a fox wearing clothes?”
“Yeah,” Phillip said, “Floyd Fox from the TV show wears a shirt and gloves.”
“That’s not what I… Eh… never mind. Bring what you like.”
Phillip followed up by packing his toothbrush and toothpaste, a book of bedtime stories, a plastic brachiosaurus figure, and finally, a picture of him and his friends from the neighborhood.
“Okay, I’m ready to go!” Phillip said, hoisting up his suitcase.
“Great!” Arata waved his hands, and in a puff of smoke, a scroll appeared in front of him in the air, which he reached out and grabbed.
“What’s that?” Phillip asked.
“This enchanted scroll will make sure all the human legal mumbo jumbo is taken care of. It’s basically your certificate of adoption.” He set the scroll on Phillip’s bed, and grabbed his new little brother’s hand. There was a puff of smoke, and suddenly, where the fox had stood, was another human boy, looking around twelve, wearing jeans and a T-Shirt with an image of fox ears on the front.
“We should get going.”
The two stepped out of Phillip’s room and made their way quietly down the stairs. When they reached the bottom, they found themselves in the kitchen, where his foster mother was sitting at the table, with more than a few empty bottles beside her.
She glared up at the two boys. “Who are you? How’d you get in here?” She said in a slurred voice. Phillip recoiled slightly, while Arata just shrugged, and handed her the scroll.
“We’re adopting Phillip. See? Everything’s in order.”
Phillip caught a brief peek at the scroll, and saw that it was completely blank. He worried what Jenna would say to that. Would she try to stop him from leaving?
Jenna’s eyes seemed to glaze over as she looked up and down the blank piece of paper. “Yeah, it all checks out. You can take him and go.”
Phillip was surprised by how easy it had been. The two stepped outside into the cool night air, the moon and stars shining above them. Arata dropped something on the ground in front of them, and it burst into a circle of green flame.
Phillip jumped back with a gasp.
Arata chuckled. “Heh, I guess I should have warned you… then again, our family doesn’t usually DO warnings.”
A large, red archway slowly rose out from the circle, and through it, Phillip saw a forest he’d never seen before, in the middle of the day. The fire quickly died down, and Arata, in a puff of smoke, went back to his two-tailed fox form, gesturing toward the arch.
“Pretty cool, huh? Portals are the only way to travel.” He stepped through the gate, and into the forest on the other side. “What’cha waitin’ for? The day’s still young!”
Phillip inched cautiously toward the portal, then took a deep breath, and leapt through the arch, closing his eyes when he suddenly saw the sun shining brightly above him. He turned around, and saw the arch behind him sinking back into the ground as the ring of flames reappeared around it.
“W-wait! How do we go back?” Phillip stammered.
“Go back? Bro, this place is your new home. You said yourself when you made that wish, that nobody back there loved you. Why would you WANT to go back?”
“I had friends there, down the street.” Phillip shook his head. “I don’t want to never see them again!”
The fox scratched his chin. “Oh… Well, you’ll be able to make lots of friends over here.”
“But I’ll miss Will and Patty back home. I didn’t get to say goodbye to them!”
Arata sighed. “It’d be tricky, since it’s night here when its day there, and day here when it’s night there, but we might be able to let you go back for visits.” His frown suddenly flipped. “Then again, ‘tricky’ is practically our family’s middle name, as you guys say.”
“So I can go back and see them later?”
“Sure thing! But first, we need to get back to the house. Your new mom and dad’ll be waiting for you! Follow me!”
Arata practically leapt down a subtle path on the forest floor, and Phillip followed behind him as best as he could, slowly dragging his suitcase with him. After a long walk, with Arata frequently looking back over his shoulder to make sure Phillip didn’t fall behind, they reached a large house, surrounded by an equally large courtyard with high walls decorated with images of all sorts of strange and fantastic creatures. The iron gates were cast in the image of a fox, its eyes made from rubies and its nine tails forming the bars. The gems gleamed as the two approached and the gates opened on their own.
Phillip’s mouth was agape. “Cool! Your house has an automatic door!”
“That’s one way to put it,” Arata said, stepping through.
Inside the courtyard walls was a quiet garden with a little fountain that steadily poured water into a bamboo stalk, that would dip down when filled up, then fall back with a soft, hollow thud. They walked down a stone path from the gate to the house. A fox statue stood on either side at the halfway point. Phillip thought they were pretty neat, but didn’t stop to take a closer look, wanting to meet the rest of his new family as soon as possible, so he walked right on by.
Phillip suddenly felt something fluffy wrap around him, and lift him into the air! “Ahhh!”
“Gotcha!” A male voice called. Phillip looked upward and behind him to see another red-furred fox on their hind legs, this one about the size of an adult human, with four bushy tails swishing behind him. “Well, unless Arata’s just decided to kidnap random children off the street, you must be Phillip!”
“Who’re you?” Phillip stammered, only just barely noticing that the two fox statues had vanished.
“I’m your new father,” The fox smiled, and hugged Phillip tight. The warm fur felt incredibly comfortable.
“And you can call me ‘mother’ or ‘mom’ or whatever else you like,” said another, four-tailed fox, her fur a pale gray color. She wrapped her arms around Phillip as the male fox passed him to her. “Oh, so easily startled! You’re gonna have a long way to go. But don’t worry, we’ll make a proper Kitsune out of you soon enough.” She kissed him on the forehead.
Phillip caught his breath. “Thanks for adopting me.”
“Oh you’re welcome Phillip,” his new father said. “Now, let’s get you and Arata inside, so we can make you a member of the family properly!”
His new mother grabbed his suitcase, and his new father carried Phillip through the doors to the house, which, like the gates, opened on their own as soon as the foxes got close. Inside, Phillip saw all sorts of shiny decorations; pretty polished white vases, scrolls on the walls, with paintings of pink-leaved trees and dancing foxes, and a lot of statues made from a lot of different things, some metal, some stone, and so on.
“Are those more foxes pretending to be statues?” Phillip asked?
“Not today,” his new mother said. “Now, Arata? Would you please gather the rest of the family to welcome our newest child?”
“Got it!” The young fox grinned, and ran further in. Phillip could faintly hear Arata shouting. “Come on! He’s here!”
The two adult foxes brought Phillip into a big room, with cushions piled all around, and a gold statue of a nine tailed fox in the center, which they set him under.
“Say, why do you guys have so many tails?” Phillip asked, as he was sat down.
His mother smiled. “Oh, we kitsune start with one tail, and grow more tails the older we get. Every one hundred years, we grow another one, until we reach nine. And with each new tail, we gain more magical abilities, as well.”
“Wait…” Phillip did a quick bit of mental math. “That means you’re both three-hundred! And Arata’s one-hundred!”
“Yep,” his father chuckled. “And you’re gonna have a nice, long life too.”
Phillip was beaming. He’d always wanted to live to a hundred. “Cool!”
More multi-tailed foxes, (and a couple of little one-tailed kits) began to enter the room and take seats on the cushions around them, including a pair of nine-tailed foxes, one male, one female, that carried themselves with dignity and poise, their fur gleaming like gold and silver. Lastly, Arata arrived, grinning as he took a front row seat.
Phillip’s new father spoke. “We could like to thank all of you for taking your time to help welcome the newest member of the Kazura family. Kari and I had wanted to take in another child for so long, and the stars have finally aligned! I’d like you to meet Phillip, and watch as we make him one of us in body and soul!”
The other foxes, and Phillip watched as his adoptive parents turned to the statues, and said a quiet prayer to it in unison. Then the couple each stood on either side of Phillip, as gentle balls of flame appeared at the tip of each of their tails. Their tails circled around Phillip, leaving him in a world of warm softness. He could feel a strange sensation inside of him, and he became a little itchy, but somehow, in spite of it, he knew his new parents had everything under control.
He soon felt more warm, soft fur all around him, rubbing against the fur from the eight tails surrounding him. It started on his chest, and spread over his stomach an back, then down his arms and legs. He wiggle his toes as they curled down slightly, little claws growing from their ends while the flesh on the balls of his feet became thicker, taking a leathery texture. His ankles shifted slightly, making walking on those pads much more comfortable than setting his whole foot down like before. Similar pads formed on his palms as fur spread over them, with more little claws poking out of his fingertips. The sounds in the room got louder as his ears stretched wider, and moved up the sides of his head, taking a pointed triangular shape. His tongue rubbed against his teeth, feeling as they pressed into sharper fangs, while his jaw was pulled forward like putty, becoming a snout. His nose felt cold and wet, as it turned black. Finally, he felt something… magical inside him, pressing out through his back. It stretched and wiggled out as a thin tail, which quickly sprouted soft, thick fur.
His parents tails parted, allowing him to see once again, and the foxes around him let out cheers, or adoring cries of “aww.” Looking down, Phillip could see his new snout, his black nose, and the orange fur. Bringing up his hands, he could see his arms covered in the same orange fur, stopping close to his hands, with “gloves” of black fur taking its place, the same pattern appearing on his legs. Looking back, he could see his new tail swishing excitedly behind him, orange with a little tip of white at the end.
Arata leapt from his seat and ran to Phillip. “Congratulations little bro! I’m gonna love showing you around!” He hugged Phillip tight, his new mother and father following suit.
“Welcome home, Phillip.” His father said.