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Author's Notes

This story series will contain M/F, M/M, M/F/F, M/M/F, F/F, M/M/M/M/F/F/F/F, and maybe some H as well. Eventually, just about every relationship pairing that can be will be.

This section/chapter is Mostly Clean.

For more information about Kitsune, see the Tails of Power series.

This does touch into Daniel's Further Development too.

If you like the story, fave, vote, and comment.

Mirror, Mirror...

Beauty

Updated March 22nd, 2013

One could say that Elara was anything, but one could not say she wasn't pushy. Yet it was that kind of pushy that was more of a Taking Control of the Situation, so nobody objected to her schemings. That was why she ended up leading me to my apartment - despite the fact she shouldn't have known where it was -, opening the door to let me in (despite the only keys being in my possession), and the mind-boggling revelation that she was a Kitsune.

Chalk up another introduction to a creature that I previously thought to be mythical. A bit of a... *ahem*... "discussion" with her and Shadow... and Harv and Robin had shown up unannounced. Now I was sitting on my couch, nodding somewhat blankly as Harv went over a laundry list of "Things I absolutely had to know" in order to function as a sorcerer. Most of it went over my head, but I was assured that it would make more sense when I reflected back on it later.

"Mainly you'll just have to act normal for a while until we find a suitable duck for you," Harv was saying. Waterfowl? This just kept getting weirder and weirder.

Elara pondered, her eyes glowing slightly. "I'll need his help in a few weeks. Is that still okay?"

Harv opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and shook his head with a grandfatherly chuckle. "You know as well as I do that it wouldn't mean much even if I said no." He returned his attention to me. "Robin will check on you when she can." He paused and glanced at the woman. "Which will be less than she wants to I suspect."

"Which means you'll be keeping me busy to try to keep me away from the new druid," Robin observed.

"I'd say he has a lot to work with his famulus on," Harv said, "but honestly it's more a matter of normalcy. He's going to have enough trouble with curious others poking about as is." He jerked a thumb in Elara's direction.

"I represent that statement," Elara said indignantly.

"Precisely," Harv agreed.

I just blinked a few times. Everything that happened recently... The months of timelock... The throat ripping and dying and complete and utter change in my life and my whole existence... and I was supposed to just act normal?

"Being a druid, you won't be able to just stick around and live your existing life forever," Shadow said, bunting my hand with her head. I realized I had stopped petting the black cat that sat on my lap. She did not take kindly to the fact that I ignored the headbunt either, so she climbed onto my shoulders and curled around the back of my neck, her legs dangling to either side of my shoulders. She licked my ear, making me jump. "We have to find an appropriate way for you to effectively be gone from the world soon. Then when you know enough, you can do like Harv and others and reenter the world in general in various places."

Harv turned to Robin. "That reminds me, do you think we should get a bigger place in Scotland?"

She shook her head. "I like the little cottage. Especially since nobody figures out how we fit in there."

"Places?" I asked.

Shad licked my ear again. "A mage's inner sanctum is not really in the world itself, so it can link to the world anywhere. You can have as many fronts as you want eventually."

I just nodded blankly again.

Harv stood up and took my hand, shaking it. "Well, I'll leave you be now. Just keep going to work, eating, everything you normally do. Try not to attract the attention of other things if you can avoid it. They probably can't hurt you, but they can definitely distract you from being normal."

Elara licked her lips. "It was a very nice distraction though."

"That was in private, so it doesn't count," Robin observed.

"Does that mean I can do it more?"

"Nope. You'd wear him out."

"It would be fun though!"

"No."

"You can join in?"

"Hmmm... Welllll..."

I came back to my senses. "Hey!" They were just teasing me. At least I was pretty sure they weren't serious. I think. Maybe. ... Though given the contemplative looks they both had, maybe not. "Okay, if I'm going to act normal, I need to get back into the normal mindset. That means no orgies and no more distractions. So if you are quite finished lusting over me, you may skidaddle."

Both Robin and Elara jumped and looked surprised. Maybe I was a bit too strong in my outburst. Harv just chuckled though, defusing the awkward silence that lingered for a moment.

"Come, come, girls. It's not like waiting a few more months is going to be a horrible thing. Let the poor lad be."

Robin opened her mouth to protest, but she and Harv both vanished before a word could escape her lips.

Elara smiled wistfully and sauntered to me lazily, dropping onto my lap before turning into a normally-shaped fox, albeit with more tails than any sane fox should have. "Are you sure you can't explain away a pet fox and still be 'normal'?"

I patted her head lightly and sighed. "You tempt me horribly, you know that?"

She got a look that was more cheery than seemed possible to exist. "I know!"

I smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. "Which is why I can't have you stick around."

She nodded and flicked an ear. "I'll be honest, it's a good choice. I do hope you'll tarry with me again sometime though." She hopped off my lap and changed back to her human form. "Call if you need me, and be ready for me to need your help in a few weeks or so."

She vanished, leaving me wondering for a moment exactly how I'd call. Then I noticed that she'd left a card on my lap. I tucked it in a pocket before I realized that the pocket would vanish in a few moments anyway, so I took it back out and set it on the counter.

The next few days I worked very hard to get back to "Normal". Even with months away from my job that they knew nothing about, I was able to get back into the swing of things well enough with an excuse about eating some bad food for my small pauses. My team was supportive as always. As paramedics, we had to take care of each other. We saw some tremendously awful things in our line of work, but the fact that we kept so many of them from becoming much worse made it all worth it.

Shad stayed a small black cat for the time being even. In a few weeks, I was almost ready to declare that the whole situation had been some funky dream I had after some bad food and buying a black cat. Other than the fact that I had no cat food or litter box and the cat didn't make a mess or meow at me. That and Robin bringing a loaf of bread over for no apparent reason. But otherwise it was long enough normalcy that I was almost ready to believe it myself.

It was actually a few months before something happened...

* * *

A knock at the door woke me up. I blinked at the clock. Meh, it was far too early for a day sleeper. Hopefully they would just go away. I rolled over and listened carefully. No further knock. Good. I rolled back over and yawned, happily ready to fall back to sleep.

"Sorry," Elara murmured, very close to my ear. I froze in surprise, ready to leap out of bed with a shot of adrenaline from hell, but Shad immediately clamped down on the feeling for my benefit and I relaxed again. I heard the vixen move in surprise. "Sorry again, didn't mean to startle you. I forgot you sleep during the day. You rest, I'll just snooze with you."

I was too drowsy to complain as she pulled back the covers and climbed into bed with me, backing up against my front, her tails draped across my hip as she pulled the blanket back over us. Shadow's calming effect was also indescribably helpful. I was aware of her tugging my arm to curl around her and she clung to it affectionately as I fell back to sleep spooning a seven-tailed Shadow Kitsune vixen.

An ear against my nose woke me up by making me sneeze.

"Afternoon," Elara murmured. "You've got..." She flicked her ear against my nose again, making me sniff. "Well, it's not morning, but it's morning wood," she said with a grin.

I paused in my sniffling to pay better attention to just where I was. In bed. Spooning a Kitsune. Morning wood. The last of those three being slightly damp due to her.

Right.

Normal ended again.

"Much as I'd love to give my hips a tilt and slide you in," she purred, "I can't. I need you to head to work early today."

I yawned and smacked my lips. "You can stop time out there though, so we'd have all the time you wanted."

She giggled. "Even after a few months of normal you've still got your wits about you. Excellent." She rocked her hips a little, tantalizing me, but sighed. "But I really, actually can't," she said with true wistfulness. She spun in my arms and gave my nose a lick, then slipped out of bed.

I lay there for a moment. I was rested enough and a quick glance at the time showed that I was right on schedule to wake up. The alarm went off three seconds after that observation. I slapped it to silence it and climbed out of bed. I admitted that it would have been pleasant to have some fun, but at the same time it was strange to shift back out of normal into weird again. Yet with a black humanoid cat picking clothing from the drawer for me, it didn't feel as strange as I thought it should've.

I took a shower and cleaned up. Straight into work clothing by Elara's request even though I wasn't due on shift until midnight. She sat on the couch with me and briefed me. What she told me of drained the blood from my face in short order.

"Is... is that necessary?" I asked, almost in disbelief at what she was asking.

Elara's ears fell to the sides in distress. "The alternative is much worse." She pulled one of her tails onto her lap and played with it nervously. "Sometimes in life, there is no good choice," she murmured softly. "Then you just have to choose the least-bad." Her eyes squeezed shut for a moment and I barely heard her say, "...even when it's worse for you."

I tilted my head, worried, and touched her shoulder. It snapped her out of her funk and she brightened immediately.

"You're a wonderful soul," she told me. "I don't have long before I need to go on a very long journey. About two years or so left. I'm going to be very lonely on that trip, so I hope I can spend some extra time getting to know you before then."

I nodded with a smile. "I can't make any promises. Heck, I don't even know what's gonna happen tomorrow any given day lately. But I'd like to know you better."

"Hopefully biblically," she said with a wink. I frowned. I'd have to look that one up. Then Shadow explained it to me mentally and my face promptly turned red. She giggled. "Delayed blush reaction. I like it."

I stood up. "Well, I don't like it overall, but if it must happen, then I'll do what I can."

Shadow hugged me. "If a Kitsune says something about mortalkin, they're invariably right." She shivered. "I know this'll be hard for you. I'll always be here for you, you know that."

I smiled and hugged her, then looked at Elara. "I guess I'll be off to work then." She nodded.

My phone rang. It was work. Two people had to leave shift early to get checked out after being assaulted by a drunk who was ODed on something. There was always a spare person, but now they lost two. They could really use my help a little early. I told them to stop by and pick me up, I'd be ready in five.

I actually spent the five minutes waiting downstairs, smelling the cooking from the surrounding neighborhood. It was around dinnertime. I remember when I first moved in and my neighbors got to experience me getting picked up by the paramedic ambulance sometimes. Mostly I walked to work though. Good exercise and I didn't have a car anyway. It took a while before somebody bothered to ask me and find out I was a paramedic.

Nobody could say I was entirely with it at the moment, but my coworkers attributed my distraction to sleepiness. I rehearsed the things Elara had told me in my mind. She couldn't tell me everything, just some key points. Everything else was up to me.

I looked out the window at a young woman approaching a bus stop. My heart skipped a beat. It was just like the Kitsune had described. "Oh, hey, stop there quick," I said, pointing to a nearby fast food restaurant a block later. "I got ready so fast I forgot to use the restroom."

Our driver pulled into the parking lot and found an empty set of parking spaces to occupy so we could leave on short notice. This was my normal team, sans Mike, who had a bloodied nose from the drunk. Until we got back to the station, we traveled as a unit, even just to pick me up. It wouldn't do to get a critical call and have somebody missing.

The timing was unreal. I walked around behind the restaurant, since it was the quickest way to the entrance from there. Between the building and the dumpster, I glanced around, then Shadow assured me nobody would see. I focused furiously and my form shifted, my clothing falling to the ground around me. Shad was quick to gather it up for me as I spread my new crow wings and took off down the road, back toward the bus stop.

I saw the bus pulling up to the stop. I saw the weaving car in the distance. That had to be it. It looked too close. I pulled at the air harder with my wings, closing the distance agonizingly more slowly than the car was. I dipped to the left so I could see as the bus stopped. I wouldn't have time! I had to do something to make it work!

My senses felt so... alive... so strong... It was like things were working in slow motion suddenly, but I was moving normal speed. The air slipped past my feathers as I swung around to come at the bus from the side as the doors swung open, but the car was so very close now.

The young woman smiled as she looked up into the bus. I wasn't sure how I knew that, being behind her, but I knew she was happy. It was a happiness that was about to be shattered.

Even with the time compression and speed I was traveling, I was not going to be able to do anything to consider the situation or assess the case. There was no time. The car was just a few dozen feet behind the bus. A crow... It wouldn't do. But it would get me there.

Her back loomed large in my vision and the glare of the headlights to my left almost blinded me. It was time.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered.

I shifted in midair, my black feathers splitting into thousands more fine black shafts of fur as my body grew instantly. I repositioned my forelegs from their outstretched position to reach forward as they passed her sides. My head shot to the side as I shouldered into her upper back, reaching up with my left paw to cradle her neck.

She yelped as my mass drove her upper body into the bus, her legs clipping the base of the steps and remaining outside. My larger body barely cleared the doorway before the impact behind me and I felt the car clip the end of my tail. I gritted my teeth in pain, working to ignore it and focus on the instant.

Her legs were solidly caught by the car and slammed to the right, catching her hips on the door of the bus. Her body acted like a lever, her head slamming against the left, but my paw on her neck reduced the impact just enough to keep her neck from breaking instantly. I tensed as the car dragged past my tail and then it was gone.

I was a crow again in a heartbeat, my wings gathering air as hard and fast as they could. I backpedaled and did a flip as the car slammed into a telephone pole. The deed was done.

It was all I could do to breathe as I pulled my wings through the air, flying as swiftly as I could back to the restaurant. A minute to the bus stop. A few seconds to save a life that would have been snuffed out in the normal tapestry flow. An eternity back to the garbage bin.

Shadow had my clothing ready for me and I pulled everything on as quickly as I could. It would be hard to explain what I was doing stark naked behind a restaurant, but thankfully nobody came by who would notice. I glanced at my watch. I still had to use the restroom, according to what Elara had told me.

I was more numb than before as I went through the actions in the restroom. I washed my hands thoroughly as always and headed out. Just as I was approaching the ambulance, my radio beeped twice in alert. I listened to the call out and saw my coworkers in the ambulance give each other a startled glance at the proximity of the scene.

They were already in full code as I closed the back door and grabbed the bar to be steady as they drove back swiftly the way we had just come. Our driver signaled as we arrived and we were out of the ambulance in a heartbeat. Now I saw the results of my handiwork.

Her legs were completely mangled and she was bleeding from the head wound she received, but she was alive. I wish I could have saved her completely, but Elara made it clear I couldn't. We had a little trouble convincing Daniel, my friend, to leave her side so we could work on her. He didn't recognize me, but I knew he wouldn't yet. As my team worked, I was on autopilot. I wondered how long I would muse over whether there was any way I could have saved her more.

Police arrived shortly thereafter and two more ambulances as well. The drunkard who had slammed into her managed to wander back to his car. Apparently he was no more than inconvenienced by the crash and had started walking. I glanced up to see him being pulled back to the car as he tried to wander away a second time after discovering it wouldn't start. Angry onlookers and bus riders were actually beating him. The police responded and many of the assailants ended up in handcuffs. I sighed. At least he got a good pummeling, but it was sad that they had to be arrested too.

I kept my attention on my patient as we worked to save her, though I still had to pay heed to the surroundings. That was my job on the team: Situational awareness. I was the spotter. I kept track of the surroundings, the entire scene, and the people there. I checked the best routes for work, kept them clear, and paid attention to the details of everything.

"...like a huge cat or something hit her in the back and knocked her onto the bus," somebody was saying to a police officer.

"I couldn't see very well through the window with the lights reflected from inside, but I could swear a big, black thing ran into her hard from behind and pushed her in," a second person was telling another officer. "After seeing the car, I think it was her guardian angel saving her life. I know it sounds crazy, but i know what I saw."

My eyebrow lifted slightly.

"Big fucking black cat, man! No! It was a bird! Then a cat!" The young man was gesticulating wildly. He had been at the front of the bus and had the best view. The officer leaned backward and took a step away to avoid his flailing hand. "Huge black bird flew at her so fast it was a blur and then it turned into a fucking black lion and tackled her into the bus! Then the car hit and it was gone. Shit, man, wild catbirds gonna fuck things up worse man."

"You need to go see the boy now," the fox at my feet said quietly. She jerked her head over at Daniel who was barely able to stand upright.

I nodded, not responding to the vixen since I doubted anybody else saw her. A few steps brought me to Daniel and I caught his shoulder, making him jump and spin on me in fright.

"Daniel?" I asked. "Damn, I thought it was you. You're covered in blood. Are you okay?"

He stared at me for some time before his face finally relaxed in recognition. I hadn't seen him since he took me out to dinner, but he also didn't know I was a paramedic before. "I'm... I'm okay... I didn't get hit. I got here after she did." He glanced at the young woman we were loading onto a gurney. "That's... that's my girlfriend." His face was pale and he winced in emotional pain. "That's Sandra."

He was further into shock than Elara had led me to believe he would be. My own face likely went slightly pale. "Oh gods," I muttered, glancing over his shoulder to spot and flag down the spotter for one of the other paramedic crews. "You're coming with me," I said, grabbing his hand and checking it over very briefly. Advanced shock indeed! I made a call on my radio to alert dispatch of the situation and the other team hurried over as they heard my report. They ushered him onto his back as their spotter snagged their gurney.

"Buth I'm okay!" Daniel protested, his speech slurred as his body was just shutting down.

"No, you're not," I said firmly. "I came over because you looked wobbly. You're going into shock, so you're going to the hospital too."

They didn't have time to stick him on scene at the rate he was going, so they loaded him onto the gurney and would stick him en route. Both of them would reach the ICU in full code at this rate, sirens and lights and urgency all together.

I returned to my team. The other team would take care of Daniel, and now the young woman - Sandra - was being loaded onto our coach. I took the wheel as my partners tied in in the back and within moments we were racing along the streets through the twilight, our lights strobing off the surrounding buildings and the sirens of both ambulances in close company fading into a wailing drone that I was far too used to. It was much less common to go full code with a patient. Most of the time we could stabilize them before transport.

I was thankful. Both Shadow and Elara ran interference along the long route to the hospital. Drivers had an inexplicable urge to yield much more gracefully than they normally would. People made intelligent decisions and didn't stand still at the intersection when we came up behind them. It was possibly the cleanest code transport I had ever done.

I worried as I heard the other team call over the radio to the hospital because Daniel had gone under. Our patient wasn't doing much better in all honesty. Only Elara's assurances from before gave me faith that I wouldn't get a signal from my team to drop code, since there is no rush to transport a dead body.

We pulled into the emergency loading dock in tandem and two teams of doctors and nurses met us at the doors. They took over from there, my team having already given the full details on the trip. I felt the release of tension that always came from a patient hand off after a critical run.

Tom, one of my team, excused himself and went to the restroom. The corner of my mouth curled in sympathy as I heard him retching. He handled the stress like a titanium beam in the field, but when the run was over and we were done, the crash always caught him hard. The hospital staff were used to it.

"The guy is your friend, isn't he?" my coworker asked me.

I swallowed hard and nodded.

He looked at me and continued. "The girl we brought is important to him too?"

I nodded again.

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "We have a lot of paperwork and cleaning up to do before we can deploy again. The rest of us will be off shift before we're done. You're here early, so since you know we'll be off-shift, go ahead and take off until your normal shift. That's in some hours anyway. You're not a biohaz. Go check on him when they have him stabilized." He paused. "I'll make sure you're paid extra OT anyway," he said with a wink.

I smiled thankfully. The man was technically my boss, but as a paramedic team, we rarely worried about rank. We were all in it together.

I sat and tried to gather my thoughts as I waited. Shadow and Elara both sat by my legs, though nobody else could see them here. I let the back of my fingers rest on Elara's head, so it wouldn't be obvious, and Shad jumped on my lap. I wasn't sure how long it was, but eventually an arm on my shoulder caught my attention. It was one of the doctors.

"I was told you know the two teens who were brought in," the man said.

"How are they doing?" I asked.

The doctor gave me the details. It was not a good situation at all. They still weren't completely certain the girl would survive. "She was very lucky to have fallen into the bus," he told me. He complimented me on the job my team did and me personally on catching Daniel's falling into shock. I strongly recommended that they be put together in the same room when she came out of surgery and the doctor was already in agreement with me. When I opened my mouth to ask another thing, he interrupted me. "Yes, you can go see the boy. He's asked for you a few times, though he might not remember it."

I nodded and stood, Shadow jumping off my lap, and headed to Daniel's room. The monotonous beep of the monitoring systems were already beginning to wear on my nerves by the time I even reached the chair nearby, but I reminded myself that the beep was comforting. As long as it was stable, it was a good sign. I thought over the things Elara had told me. I couldn't ask her anything here, or I'd look like I was talking to myself. But I knew enough of what was going on.

Soon enough, Daniel stirred. I looked up as he swallowed and started to try to sit up.

"Hey, Daniel, stay still kiddo. You went into full shock. You're gonna be sore for a while at least."

He peered at me for a moment before his face lit in recognition. Then he swallowed again. "How is Sandra?" he asked, barely able to speak.

I grinned and shook my head. "There you go. Always more worried about others than yourself," I said teasingly. "It's a great attribute. Keep it up," I said with a wink. "She's in surgery. Her legs got hit pretty bad. She had good things going for her though."

I could barely choke out the last of that as I still had to live with the fact that this was all a set-up. A machination of a Kitsune. I stood up and paced to try to clear my mind. "She wasn't caught outside the bus," I said, ticking off a finger. "If she had been, she'd be gone in a heartbeat. Whatever made her fall over was tremendously..." I winced, remembering my part in this charade. "...helpful..."

That time I did choke, barely turning it into a cough before I could continue. "She was also lucky that my unit was so close by. We were stopped just down the street because I had to use the restroom. We got the call just as I got back to the ambulance." I took a deep breath with my back to him. Confidence time.

I turned to Daniel and reached into my abilities, taking his hand and doing what I could to will absolute confidence between myself and the boy. "Most of all, she had you. Even before you got there, she knew you were there for her." She did. Because of the dream ability the Kitsune gave them. "You kept her going and you kept her with us to make it this far. She's going to be okay."

His eyes widened. Maybe it was my voice, maybe it was the touch of the power that I was still coming to terms with, but I knew my part was being played properly.

"I've requested that she be put in this room also while you are here," I said. "You two are good for each other. I could tell that just by the way you talked about it even before she became your girlfriend." I lifted my hand and touched the tip of his nose gently with a fingertip, leaning close. "But even when you're discharged, you stick around as much as you can. Though I'm sure you two will be together no matter how far apart you are."

It was a strain to keep up this facade. I nodded to him and turned around before my face could slip. He was still speechless. Good. He was supposed to wonder. "I have to get back to my unit. I'm technically on overtime, but at least we won't get another call. Stay safe, Daniel."

I could feel his gaze on my back as I strode out.

"You did well," Elara said, rubbing against my leg. "It's not over yet though."

Looking down at her, I frowned for just a moment. Then I glanced back up to find myself face to face with a police officer who obviously had his attention on me.

"Excuse me, you're from the paramedic team that was first on the scene, right?"

I nodded.

"If you could come with me, we have some questions for you because of some of the eyewitness reports," he said. He didn't make it sound like a request either. I sighed. Well, more overtime pay.

I spent a good bit of time in a closed room then. They were especially interested that I was the situation observer. Did I see any sign of any large animals at the scene? Did we find fur on her body? Was it normal for people who witnessed horrid accidents like that to all have the same odd stories? The same questions, over and over. I almost couldn't avoid smiling at some points.

Then I had to write it all down. Thank goodness for good memory. But my hand was sore after all the writing. I finally got out long after the young girl was taken to the room.

No sooner did I call my team to pick me up than I was advised that there were yet more questions and more paperwork. The number of people who claimed they saw a huge animal was causing havoc for the police. The paperwork, questions from multiple people, and overall annoying mess took more hours than I really wanted to deal with. Elara seemed happy though. Some hours into all the interrogation, she let me know it was all going to plan.

It was just coming up on five AM when I finally was done. Elara excused herself as I was walking out. Then I paused at a commotion from the two kids' room.

"YOU WILL NEVER TOUCH HER AGAIN!" a man was screaming. "YOU'RE FINE NOW, GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!"

"Keep walking outside," Elara murmured from beside my leg. I hadn't noticed her return.

I swallowed and forced my legs to move, finally stepping out into the brisk morning air. Once I was out of the way of the door, the world stopped at the behest of the Kitsune.

"What is going on in there?" I asked.

"She is going to go into a coma for two years now," Elara said. "Her parents will hate him. He is losing her now."

My eyes widened. "What?! You said they'd be okay!"

"In the long run, they will," she said softly. She was not trying to placate me, nor comfort, nor argue. "But it will be some time."

"That's bullshit," I spat. This was looking very dark.

She shifted to her humanoid vixen form and bowed her head to me. "It hurts. I know. Trust me, nobody will have as deep a pain from this as I shall." She lifted her head and looked me in the eye.

My mouth opened in a silent scream as my consciousness fell into her gaze. Years of work still. A balance to keep. So much good to be done. And at the end of it... Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I reeled as I snapped back into myself. She was... She was going to...

"Without darkness, there can be no light," she murmured. "Without light, there can be no shadows." Then she changed to her feral form. "These are dark times, but he'll be fine. You will too." With that, she vanished, and the world came to life around me again.

Shad kept me up to date on the situation developing inside. I winced at some of the reports he gave. This was nearly as shocking to me as it was to the poor kid. I leaned heavily against the wall beside the door.

I jumped as the door opened. I must have been too focused. Daniel walked out, car keys in his hand.

"Daniel!" I called. He turned around, but his face was a blank. It hurt to see anybody like this. "Daniel, shit, I heard what happened. Are you okay?"

A flash of pain crossed his features. "Do I have any choice?" he asked glumly.

"In the long run? No. But damn..." I put my arm around his shoulder consolingly, though some was to console myself. I shook my head and grinned a little. "Kid, you're the strongest and smartest guy I know. Trust me, I went through a hard time myself recently."

Hard time indeed. I had a sudden flashback to the sensation of Shadow's jaws closing on my throat, the life being ripped from my body by her fangs. "Almost killed me, it was that bad. I know what it is to have sudden, shocking change." I hoped I was convincing enough. This was the solid truth. I looked up as two more people approached.

"Daniel?" the man asked. "Oh, hi. You're one of Daniel's friends. You took care of them both last night." That must be Daniel's father.

"Yes, sir," I said with a curt nod. "Keep an eye on him." I talked as I guided the befuddled youth to their car. "Shock is serious business, so don't hesitate to call us if something happens."

His father nodded and took the car keys from the boy's limp grasp, unlocking the vehicle. I opened the back door for Daniel, but before he could get in, I patted his shoulder to give him pause.

"You take care of yourself, kiddo. These are dark times, but I know you'll get through them." An odd thought came to mind and I grinned. "A little fox told me so," I said with a wink.

His voice was featureless as he automatically corrected my phrase while getting into the car. "Little bird."

I shrugged and still grinned. "If you say so." Elara was definitely a fox. I was the only one who had been a bird in this. Then I sighed to myself and looked at him seriously. Her parting words of wisdom needed to be passed on. "Just remember: Without darkness, there can be no light. Without light, there can be no shadows."

His face showed nothing. I don't know if he even heard me. I closed the door and stepped back as his father started the car, then I waved before they drove off.

"Are you going to be okay?" Shadow asked, leaping up to my shoulder in a small feline form.

"Do I have a choice?" I asked wryly.

"Touche," she replied. "Kitsune..." She sighed. "Kitsune are weird. But unless you're dealing with a Dark Kitsune, you can assume good will come of it."

"And with dark ones?"

"You'll find them very obvious, and not at all good," Shad said sagely.

I was shocked again by the turns my life - or existence, if I wasn't actually alive - was taking. From relatively-normal to seemingly-insane in this short a time. There were always stories of peoples' lives being turned upside down, but that was by things like job loss or divorce, or falling off a cliff. Even the most unique disease or the most unlikely event I could imagine couldn't live up to the change this was.

Shad changed to a female humanoid form and slipped her arms around me carefully. "The world isn't all a pretty place," she murmured, licking my ear softly. "But it does have its good parts."

"It's hard to believe this has any good," I said dejectedly.

"Keep talking to me out loud and somebody might take pity on you and buy you coffee," Shad said with a smirk.

"Or get me committed," I muttered under my breath.

Shadow slinked around in front of me, catching my gaze with her ebony-framed golden eyes. "You've been through a lot. I almost killed you when I first met you. Your whole future is up in the air and your past contributes nearly nothing to what your future will bring."

She looked down and touched the side of my throat gently. "I'm completely out of my norm too. Nothing like this ever before, not even that I've heard of offhand. I'll admit, I'm scared. This could be the end of you, or the end of me, or both." Bright eyes lifted again to find mine. "But I wouldn't give this up for anything. The dark and the bad is there, but the light is so warm and the end result is good so far."

"You have a lot of faith in things," I said, looking down.

She shook her head, her touch slipping beneath my chin to bring it up. "I don't have faith in the future," she said with a smile. "I -make- that future, and you will too. Elara knows what she's doing. It's her work to make a future as good as she knows how. I won't pretend to know all the deepest parts of Kitsune magic, but I do know they know what they're doing."

I gazed into her eyes again, drinking in their wide expression in the dim twilight of the new day. She was right. We would have to make a future, and this was just part of getting to it.

"Well, I've done Elara's bidding," I said with a sigh.

"Just in time for the sunrise."

I turned to watch the bright orange ball of flame begin to peek over the horizon. A low cloud cover would obstruct it when it went much higher, but here it beamed its light beneath the clouds. The pockets and poofs of cloud vapor left shadows though, painting a scene which I had not seen rivaled in years.

Elara was right. The night had to come before the sunrise. Without darkness, there was no light. After all, what would light be good for if there was no dark for it to vanquish? But had the clouds not been present, there would be no luminescent scene. Without light, there were no shadows.

It was complicated. It hurt, even as the glare of the rising sun burned my eyes for a moment now. But the end result was worth it.

It was beauty.

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