Looking up, he gasped as the world went funny. Suddenly he found himself looking at a man in a Tengu mask. How he knew it was a Tengu mask, Tanael was unsure. It was just a word that popped into his head. Without warning, the man in the mask took Sly's hand and said to him, "This Kitsune belongs to no one."
"But, I have a license." Tanael cries out as he produces the license.
"You have a license for nothing." Booms the man. "If you want a pet, get a dog or cat."
"Just who the hell do you think you are?" Tanael yells, now totally pissed. "I answered the question, I was given the rightful ownership of that fox."
"Do not test the patience of Inari!" Thundered the man in the Tengu mask.
"Or you'll do what?" Tanael retorted.
"You push me too far," Inari said. "You want to know what happens, then watch and tremble."
Sly was confused about this whole thing. He was trying to fight at the call that said this werewolf was his master at the same time, he felt safe around the human in the Tengu mask. Suddenly, the world looked like a bubble. But that wasn't the only thing that was strange, his master, Tanael, looked rather bloated and orange.
Suddenly he was drawn out of his revelry as Inari boomed out, "I am the God of harvest. You test me and so there fore your punishment is as fit."
Sly watched as green vines began to shoot out Tanael head. Something in his mind said to run to him, to help his master, but Inari had a firm hold on his head. Tanael was now shrinking and turning oranger in colour. But this wasn't the only strange thing that was happening.
The store they were in began to disappear until Sly found himself standing in a field of different fruits and vegetables. Tanael had finished his transformation and now was putting down roots. He looked like a ripe pumpkin. Before Sly could comment on the fate of his master, Inari spoke.
"Little Tanael. You shall be safe here in my gardens. If ever that you should find yourself one day assuming a bipedal form again, know that your punishment shall continue. For it will be in the form of the wolf. But it shall be a bitch in permanent heat. In that form, you shall learn humility as you become the prey of someone you shall call master."
With this said, Inari turned to Sly, who cringed away. Inari merely laid his hand along Sly's forehead and said to him, "You are free little Kitsune. Free to do as you please and go were you want. If you ever need any help, call on me. Though I do have one request."
Sly, who was practically jumping for joy because he had been released from the power of the note, looked at Inari and asked, "What would that be?"
Inari grinned under his mask and said, "Little Kitsune, I have but one request. If you ever need a job of some sort, I ask that you look to me. You would be one of my messengers. Though the job may be difficult, I offer you, like I offer all my messengers, the option of free will and the choice to leave whenever you want."
Sly looked thoughtful, but before he could answer, Inari said, "I don't need an answer right now. Go my little Kitsune and see the world through the eyes of an immortal."
With that, the bubble like appearance of the world broke and Sly found himself back in the locker room of the Junior High. Looking around, he wondered what he should do with his new found freedom. Taking a seat on a bench, he mimicked the statue The Thinker and sat and thought.
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Inari shed his Tengu mask and looked about his garden. Harvest time would soon be here, but these fruits and vegetables would be spared of that. Withdrawing from his pocket, he looked at the note.
It's magic had no affect on him, though he could use his magicks to alter it. Waving his hand over it, he changed it so that the magic contained inside could never subvert another human to the will of another; another words, make one a master and slave.
Seeing that he accomplished that, he breathed on the note and sent it back to the world of mortals and the next waiting person.
The note drifted about before finding its way into the hands of.....