Fox-kin Story

[Gyrfalcon]

*Gyrfalcon comes in and coughs as his feet send waves of dust flying up. Two months without a single footstep had allowed the dust to settle on the floor- enough so that noticable clouds rose with every step.

 

Gyrfalcon shook his head as he moved to the bulletin board with his announcement in hand. Hopefully, its presence would bring new life to this room.

 

Gyrfalcon held that seed of hope as he carefully stapled teh announcement to the bulletin board and left the room.

 

Hear ye! Hear ye!

A new site has been designed by Steelfox Studios, (that's Gyr, BTW) devoted to a new story series.

The first new story of that series has been completed and awaits the eyes of the public to view it!

Follow the path below to read of magic and gunplay, of the fox-kin and the demon-lord, and the fate of the world hanging in balance...

 

In short, like every other heroic story in creation.

But hey, you haven't read this one yet!

 

the Foxkin story

 

Tell what you like or don't like, a'right?

 

-Gyrfalcon No'Dessu

-Daryl Carnsilion

[Gyrfalcon]

Does *anyone* ever come in here? *coughs at the dust*

[SoaringIcarus]

Icarus wades through drooping cobwebs and his own kicked up dust to find this old post, one uneventful night. He reads carefully, and wanders towards the not-too distant board seeking the fox-kin story.

 

Before he leaves, he unpacks a neon-lit juke box from his bag and lets it thud noisily on the floor, inciting more dusty clouds and causing a swarm of irate bats to screach as they flutter out a nearby window.

 

Perhaps this will attract more people to the Library.

[Gyrfalcon]

(Heh, thanks for coming to take a look, and for the idea to attract more people. )

[Yui-chan]

Both Gyr and Icarus, coughing and waving the dust away from their faces, are caught by surprise as a voice pipes up behind them.

 

"You two are rather noisy, considering that you are in a library." The teasing tone gives lie to the stern words as Yui-chan slips free of the shadows between two huge shelves of books, her ebon cloak swirling around her feet to stir a bit more dust. "I should think your mothers would have taught you better."

 

Gyrfalcon smirks, recovering his suprise a bit faster than the newer Icarus. Yui had always displayed an alarming tendency to like to sneak up on people, so he was a bit more used to it.

 

"I thought this place was abandoned."

 

Laughing, the young woman shook her head, showing glimpses of her golden hair from beneath the cloying darkness of her cowl. "The library is my domain, my ... um... sanctuary. If I am to be found nowhere else in the Pen, it is here, though until a pair of loud and rather nosey men started poking about, it was a well-kept secret." Again, she smiles to soften her words, and sweeps into a low curtsey. "Welcome, and if the dust bunnies bite, then I would recommend you simply bite back."

[Gyrfalcon]

Gyrfalcon bowed slightly, trying not to breath in too much dust and spoil the movement by doubling over and coughing, which would stir up yet *more* dust...

 

“Thank you for letting us intrude on your sanctuary, Yui-chan. I think it will remain quite silent for the most part, affording you the silence you desire.” The half-elf smiled briefly. “As for the dust bunnies biting... if they actually start to do that, I think I’ll be very, very afraid.”

 

Meanwhile...

 

Daryl trotted silently through the shelves of the library in fox form, his small paws sending puffs of dust into the air at every step. Suddenly, he stopped as he was confronted by the strangest sight he had ever seen. The dust ahead of him edied and rippled, then slowly mounded up, smoothing out into the shape of a rabbit. Daryl blinked and twitched his ears in surprised amazement as the dust bunny took a tentative hop. Daryl took a step forward, and the dust filled his nose. With surprising force for a small fox, he sneezed, sending a wave of dust into the air. The dust bunny jumped and spun around to face the werefox. After a moment of inspection, it hopped towards the sneezing fox... and bit his tail. This wouldn’t have concerned Daryl too much, except he saw the dust begin to mound up once again... another dust bunny was forming.

 

Minutes later, Gyrfalcon and Icarus look up from their chat with Yui-chan to see Daryl race by, yipping every other step, a pack of dust bunnies chasing him, intent on biting him for whatever reason dust bunnies bite...

[Canid]

Prospero had found the perfect place to sleep. On the opposite side of the wall, the fireplace in the Cabaret room burned, on this side, it was wonderfully warm, quiet and after a fair bit of sweeping with his tail, free of dust.

 

Prospero had just gone to sleep. A heavy blanket slapped suddenly down on him. Naturally enough, the wolf gasped and in doing so, discovered it was not a blanket but a heavy mass of dust using his warm, clean wall to reverse direction against.

 

Daryl watched in growing despair as the dust-bunnies flew under him and formed a small army against the wall. All of a sudden, they exploded noisilly outward in a fit of course coughing.

 

A snowy white wolf jumped blindly out of the mass.

 

Daryl yelped... dust bunnies were bad enough without dust-wolves.

 

The dust-wolf landed an inch from him and shed a thick layer of itself. It looked darker now....

 

"You bastards!" It bellowed in a voice distinctly familliar.

 

Daryl watched, stunned as Prospero visciously attacked the dust-bunnies, somehow managing to spatter the walls in dust-intestines.

 

As the last dust-bunny was squashed with a sickening squelchy sound, Prospero laughed sinisterly. "Heh-heh-heh-heh-heeeh! Anyone want a dust-pan? Heh-heh-heh-heh-heeeh!" Edited by: Canid at: 11/11/02 7:04:05 pm

[Gyrfalcon]

Daryl made to answer Prospero, but stopped. His eyes went wide and he stared at a point behind Prospero. Prospero looked at the fox carefully and considered his reputation for jokes. “Now, if I hadn’t made sure they were all dead, I’d say that they had just merged together into some supper dust bunny that was intent on payback, but I know that there isn’t... any... super dust... bunny.” A massive shadow had fallen over both the wolf and Daryl, who had reversed his body and was scrabbling for traction in the dust without ever turning his head.

 

Prospero risked a peek over his shoulder, as this prank was just a little elaborate for Daryl. He came face to sternum with the biggest dust bunny he had ever seen. Even Prospero’s great courage and confidence quailed as he began to scrabble himself.

 

Both pairs of feet found traction with instants of each other, and the two took off down the aisle, running as fast as they could, the fox actually managing to keep up with the wolf... or perhaps the wolf was managing to keep up with the fox.

 

Behind them, the gigantic dust bunny blinked its eyes and then... hopped.

 

THUMP. it landed in a blinding cloud of dust, both from itself and the ground. The dust was suddenly sucked into the dust bunny, allowing it to grow a little larger. It hopped again.

 

THUMP., and the process repeated itself. The two normally intrepid Canidae ran for their lives.

[Canid]

"If you ignore the dust, it's not so bad." commented Prospero.

 

A low rumbling sound emanated from the were-fox somewhere near-by.

 

Prospero and Daryl had been sitting in the dust-bunny's stomach for about two minutes. Daryl had thought it quite amazing that dust was capable of fully supporting two fully grown Canids, but unlike Prospero, was unwilling to joke about it just yet.

 

"Hey! I think I found a book!" Prospero called from somewhere in the dust.

 

A book fell on Daryl with a loud clunk.

 

"If you throw another book at me, we'll see what happens when a wolf gets bitten by a were-fox!"

 

Prospero looked in the direction of Daryl's voice. "I didn't throw a-" *CLONK*

 

Two books landed on Daryl, one on Prospero.

 

"I think it's eating..." noted the wolf, looking up and rubbing his shoulders where he had been hit.

 

"Bwunnies! Oh bwunnie-wunnies!" a high-pitched sickeningly sweet voice vibrated in a muffled manner through the dust.

 

Prospero and Daryl tensed as the giant dust-bunny began to move rapidly somewhere.

 

"Bad bwunnie!" shouted the voice suddenly. "Spread out! Come on, I need to put you in your cages."

 

There was silence.

 

"I'll get the broom."

 

The dust-bunny shifted. Daryl and Prospero fell suddenly to the floor and were instantly covered in dozens of books.

 

"Oh bwunnie," came the voice, "not more books. They'll sweep up in there if any more go missing, and then you'll turn into mud like all the other dust-bunnies."

 

Prospero and Daryl sat up simultaneously and stared aghast at their captor. The thought occured to both of them that it must be the most filthy little girl in history. She was about six and had curly golden hair and big blue eyes, but she was covered from head to toe in sticky gray dust.

 

"Ooooh!" she gasped. "Doggies made friends with my bunnies! I'll get you something to wear..." she said, looking concerned now.

 

Prospero and Daryl suddenly realized that all the dust-bunnies had put on matching pink cardigans and hair-bows.

 

There was utter silence and stillness as all the bunnies stood still, in their matching outfits and stared with unspoken menace at the two non-dust creatures.

 

They looked around.... there was no door.

 

 

 

The girl skipped back from somewhere in the dust a moment later with two blue bows and vests. The dust-bunnies slipped without pause into cute hopping and dusty-nose-twitching.

 

The girl attached the hair bows and pulled their paws through the blue vests.

 

"There, you look just like my bunnies now!" squeaked the girl, thrilled.

 

"I wonder what you eat... I'll go look in the kitchen." She skipped back off into the dust. The bunnies all turned to face the Canids in blue. They stood motionless, menacing in their matching pink finery... not one of them twitched a cute little dust-bunny nose.

 

 

 

Prospero hoped mildly that the girl would be back from the kitchen soon. Edited by: Canid at: 11/12/02 7:30:00 pm

[Gyrfalcon]

Prospero eyed Daryl in worry. The werefox was quite literally vibrating in place with pent up rage. Even the dust rabbits, who were normally fearless, had edged back a bit. Prospero was now hoping in a much greater way that the strange girl would come back soon, as he wasn’t sure whether the werefox would literally explode while trying to hold in his anger.

 

“A bow. She tied a bow into my fur. And she put me in a jacket. She put Me Into A JACKET!” Daryl growled, ending in a scream. The dust bunnies drifted back a little more, and even Prospero edged away a little, hoping that he’d be hit with a little less blood when Daryl inevitably went critical.

 

The girl choose that moment to bustle out and she stared at the wildly vibrating werefox with concern. “Is foxy-woxy sick?” she said, picking him up by the scruff of his neck. Daryl hung there in complete and abject humiliation, blurring slightly from his ever-increasing rage.

 

“Poor foxy-woxy! I guess I’ll have to put you to bed.” The girl cooed. Putting Daryl to bed apparently involved taking the horrible coat off of him... and instead putting him in one of those old-fashioned one-piece baby suits. The little girl glanced at the baby rocker in worry often, as it vibrated constantly.

 

Prospero whined softly and eyed any potential cover, but saw that the dust bunnies had monopolized it all and were glaring at him balefully from under cover. However, Prospero’s noise had reminded the girl that she had another guest.

 

“Here’s dinner, doggy! Eat up now!” the girl said, beaming at Prospero as she set a plate down in front of him.

 

A plate holding a dust steak.

 

OOC: No, Daryl isn’t going to spontaneously combust or explode. But if the girl leaves the room again, he *is* going to go on a killing spree. *grins*

[Canid]

Prospero looked distastefully at the dust steak, restraining himself from the instinctive sniff he wanted to take. He looked up at the little girl.

 

"What's wrong doggy?"

 

Prospero looked at the bunnies.

 

"No, it's alright, they've eaten already, the steak is all yours!" The girl said, an expression of sudden happy understanding on her face.

 

Prospero stood by the crib and leaned on it to calm the vibration.

 

The little girl yawned and lay down on the ground, falling asleep. The crib shook more violently.

 

The dust of the bunnies began to swirl and become dark and Prospero could swear that their eyes turned red...

 

or pink....

 

 

 

The bunnies stopped and turned back to a dusty white as the rectangle of floor on which the girl slept peacefully began to sink. From below, something coughed.

 

Canid leapt elegantly up through the hole in the floor and looked around, surmising quickly what things had mounted to.

 

She moved directly over to the crib.

 

"No need for aggittation Daryl, I'll have this mess cleaned up in a jiffy." She said in a dissarming (both in tone and magic) voice, gently removing the bow and vest from him with her mouth and paws and tucking them under the crib.

 

Upon hearing the word "cleaning," the bunnies turned jet black and their pink cardigans and bows looked more than ever like millitary uniforms, they advanced rapidly, snarling at the wolf.

 

Canid howled, the sound laced with magic and a wind swept up. The air exploded in dust and for a second, it was like they were back in the dust-bunny's stomach, then everything dissapeared through the hole in the ground and the small empty room shone with the first real cleanliness it had possesed for years.

 

"The walls aren't real..." Canid commented, looking about them with interest, "but we'll take my way anyway if you don't mind. Take off that bow Prospero, it doesn't add anything to your appearance."

 

Prospero grumpilly ripped the bow and vest off with his paws and with Daryl, followed Canid down the hole in the floor, jumping off the platform on which the now clean dust-bunny collector was sleeping.

 

The three Canids watched as the platform rose back up and then inhaled their surroundings.

 

They were in, they realized, a den. Glowing fungi grew from the sides and damp but decorative rugs lay in neat rows on the ground, but it was a den.

 

"How did you find us?" asked Prospero, smelling the rugs with fascination.

 

"It is hard to ignore thoughts that loud."

 

"Where ARE we?" Daryl demanded, breaking a glowing fungi from the wall.

 

"My den. Below the Library at the moment, but it runs through the walls. You can get anywhere in the Pen from here."

[Gyrfalcon]

Daryl peered around and craned his head to let his improvised lamp illuminate Canid’s den. “Mph-mmrr-mph!” he commented. Canid smiled at his comment.

 

“Thank you Daryl- it is nice and cozy, and it isn’t subjected to the strange things that happen up above... at least, normally.”

 

Prospero founds his favorite rug (from those few times Canid let him into her private sanctum) and stretched out on it with a luxurious sigh- no dust bunnies, no dust steaks, no strange little girls intent on dressing him up. As far as Prospero was concerned, this was the closest thing to heaven that he’s experienced in a long time.

 

Daryl meanwhile trotted around the room, taking in the new scents and inspecting it thoroughly. Finally, he put the chunk of luminous moss down in an out of the way place, trotted over to Prospero, and crawled onto his back and started kneading himself a bed.

 

Prospero turned his head and stared at Daryl. “What the heck are you doing?” he asked. Daryl just gave him a big foxy grin and curled up. “Taking a nap, now go to sleep.” The fox said before falling into a deep sleep, his tail tucked over his face. With a grumble, Prospero thought about shrugging the fox off of him, but decided to take a short nap first.

 

Canid stared at her two sudden guests and wondered at their ability to fall asleep so quickly.