Chase, Aaron and Nyx had gone off to the training room the next day after the celebration while Haley and Kari were doing some sisterly activities together and the Harris mothers were enjoying themselves at a special hotel free of charge thanks to Shizen who was paying for it all. Aaron had promised to spend some quality time with his little brother for being gone so long after Thanksgiving and before Christmas, so Aaron said that the two of them would have a sparring match together in their anthro forms. Nyx sat off to the sidelines to watch her boyfriend fight alongside his young brother to see how the two fared. As she sat on a nearby bench, Vlad came up beside her and asked to sit down.
"Hi poppa, where's G.G.?" Nyx asked her grandfather.
"Oh, she and Shizen were spending a little time together while Tatsu was busy doing his own thing." Vlad explained to his granddaughter.
"So you're just friends because of your wives are friends?" Nyx asked.
"Well we wouldn't really say we're friends, we do like each other's company and respect the other and their family. But we don't really have too much in common beyond that. So, what's going on here?" Vlad asked looking at the Harris boys.
"Aaron and Mason are having a little sparring match to test the other's strength and skills." Nyx explained.
Aaron and Mason took a little bit of time to prepare themselves before Aaron looked over at Mason who had Fenrir standing next to him.
"Alright Mason, Fenrir, show me what you two can do." Aaron said with a smile on his face.
"Ready Fenrir?" Mason asked as Fenrir barked in reply excited to start.
Mason used his gram sword and the two of them fused into their anthro form and Aaron was nothing but impressed as he gave a little clap as did Nyx and Vlad.
"Very nice look little brother, I see you're just as tall as me in that form. Looks like you even have some some muscles on you." Aaron noticed.
"Thanks, and I just need my sword on hand in battle, I don't need to keep track of 30 items of arsenal on my body." Mason/Fenrir said with a smirk.
"Come on, you know a hunter needs to be prepared." Aaron said shifting into his anthro form.
"Yeah, but you're still a Harris above all and we don't need an arsenal, we just need our mind and our sword." Mason said as he and Aaron showed their swords to the other before bowing their heads, they then began to fight each other with their swords.
"You've got a very impressive blade on you little brother, and you've got a great arm as a swordsman." Aaron complimented his little brother as the two worked up a little bit of a sweat.
"I should, after all the hours I spent with Uncle Fukushu training before going into the war. It was a lot, but even he admitted by the end of it that I would make a great swordsman if I kept at the training." Mason said as he thrust his sword at Aaron who blocked it.
"I seem to have missed a lot while I was gone." Aaron commented as he too thrust his sword at the Mason/Fenrir hybrid who gripped his sword tightly.
"Yeah, you certainly did, and I'll tell you all about it. When we kick your ass!" Mason/Fenrir said as the two went back to sparring.
As the two were dueling with their swords, Nyx and Vlad heard some footsteps coming up behind them and they looked to see a kitsune boy who looked to be Aaron's age walking alongside an elf. They both had red in their hair or fur and Nyx and Vlad assumed the two were related.
"Hello there, I'm Raiden and this is my sister, Stella." The kitsune boy said introducing himself to Nyx and Vlad and giving a friendly wave.
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you both. I assume that you're related to Aaron and his brother?" Vlad asked the two of them.
"Yes, we're actually their cousins by way of their uncle, our father the great Fukushu." Stella said as Aaron and Mason looked over to see their cousins talking with Nyx and Vlad. Aaron looked a little surprised at this.
"Stella? Raiden? It's....it's really you. You're....you're here and....talking with my girlfriend." Aaron said still looking surprised.
"Uh, yeah, they are. Why wouldn't they be Aaron?" Nyx asked.
"Well....Fukushu and Abolith didn't really like their kids meeting other people that weren't kitsune and they didn't allow them to meet us either for the longest time, even though we were family." Aaron explained to Nyx and Vlad.
"That is, until recently when Fukushu had a change of heart near the end of the war. That's when we first got to meet them, right Raiden? Stella?" Mason/Fenrir asked them as the two looked a little confused at the anthro before them.
"I'm....I'm sorry, have we met before? Your voice sounds familiar but I don't recall meeting you before." Raiden asked politely.
"Raiden, Stella, it's me, your cousin, Mason!" Mason said as Raiden's face suddenly brightened and he went to embrace his cousin in a tight hug and partially lifted him off of the ground.
"Whoa, Mason you became an anthro! But how and why are you a wolf and not a fox?" Raiden asked innocently as both Aaron and Mason chuckled at Raiden's confusion.
"Well, remember my dog, Fenrir? He and I can fuse with each other thanks to my sword." Mason said as he and Fenrir unfused to show his cousins their ability.
"Amazing," Raiden said impressed.
"Oh, uh, sorry I'm afraid we didn't get your names." Stella said looking at Nyx and Vlad.
"Right, well, I'm Nyx Tepes. Princess of the Tepes family, pleased to meet you and all that, and this is my grandfather, Vlad." Nyx said introducing herself and Vlad.
"Well that's my personal name. Most people would probably know me better by my more popular name, Dracula." Vlad said Stella now looked astonished.
"Dracula? The Dracula?" Stella asked looking surprised and grew a bit of a smile on her face.
"Uh, yes, that Dracula, why?"
"You...you don't understand, my parents gave me many books to entertain myself over the years and one that I continuously read and reread was Dracula. I am a great fan of your life story." Stella explained as she now held out her copy of the Dracula book out to him.
"Do you think you could sign my book? When I begin to reread it again, I will always remember that I got to meet the real Dracula in person." Stella asked excitedly as Vlad began signing the inside of her book.
"Well, it's a fairly interesting story, but you must know that a lot of the story is fiction. If you like, myself or my wife can tell you how the real story went." Vlad suggested handing the copy of the book back to her.
"Your....your wife? She's here too?" Stella asked surprised once again.
"Yes she is, and she's a very good friend of your grandmother." Vlad explained.
"Grandma knows your wife? And she's friends with her? This is the greatest day of my life!" Stella said excitedly as she looked at the inside of the book with the note to her.
"Just what is it you like so much about Dracula in the book anyway?" Nyx asked Stella.
"Well....there are parts where he does remind me in some ways of my father. So I guess I pictured my father like that sometimes. There aren't a lot of books about kitsunes out there as main characters, so I guess that's why I gravitated towards this. My father is my hero and I want to be just like him when I'm older." Stella said to them all.
Aaron and Mason looked at each other knowing that Fukushu definitely wouldn't approve of his own daughter becoming like him one day, maybe similar but they knew well enough that there would only be one Fukushu in the world.