Xenia was just sitting at her desk, starting to write in her diary, when her lovely day, now night, went sideways.

It was dark out, the sky now a blue so dark it was nearly black. Before she walked into her home, she had craned her neck back to see the silver stars dotting the void canvas and the Mother’s Heart hanging full in the night sky, simply marveling. She had seen this same sky countless times, and every time she let herself fall out of normal thoughts and into wonder.

Her fireplace was going out, only a few embers glowing red, making her little cabin a very shadowed vision. And then there was a shape flying through the window she kept open for air circulation.

She startled from her desk, eyes wide.

A fox trotted up to her.

“What on Earth was that? If you wanted to come in, you didn’t have to fly through, my goodness. And where is your mother?! Surely you’re too young to be wandering off alone like this.”

She sighed and stood up, slipping on slippers and grabbing a lantern, lighting it with a match. She stepped out onto her porch, where the fox sat, looking as impatient as a fox could be.

“Alright then, what is it?”

“The fox shot off, and Xenia stumbled to keep up. Jade Foxes were so hyper, really.

Her grogginess started to fade when she stepped over the border of her section of the Forest.

“What is going on?” She asked. The fox vanished into the shadows for a moment before coming back into the circle of light cast by the lantern. She frowned when it returned with a blood-soaked glove in it’s mouth.

“Which direction?” The fox moved one way sharply before returning to her. She nodded and kicked off her slippers. “If you could, please return these to my home and grab my boots. I’ll start heading over.” She stacked the slippers to make it easier for the fox to grab with its mouth and it sped into the darkness towards her home.

Xenia walked about seven minutes before the fox returned, boots flying behind it as it carried them by the laces.

“Thank you,” she murmured. “Lead the way, my friend.”

They ran, and by the end of it she was panting. She glanced up at the stars and winced at how far they had moved. An hour, at least.

The fox chittered and Xenia followed it.

They got to one of the larger trees, and slumped against it was a man.

It was hard to tell much about him. It was far too dark and Xenia didn’t feel like messing with her eyeballs to see more than she needed to at the moment. All she could really tell was that he was muscular and maybe a few inches taller than her.

Oh, and that he was also bleeding out.

“Oh dear,” she sighed. “Alright, sir.” She grabbed him by the shoulders, finding straps from what looked like armor, and dragged him away from the tree.

Once he was far enough away, the fox dived into a hole at the base of the tree’s roots. She blinked, then laughed.

“I was wondering why you bothered to call for a save! Blocking your doorway, was he?”

She heard a huff and she giggled.

She hummed and set her lantern down on the ground next to the poor guy’s head.

Dark skin was caked in dirt and soot and blood, dark curls matted and quite frankly disgusting. One earlobe was torn wide open, and saw that his other ear was pierced. What a way to lose an earring.

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She moved the lamp down his body. He was wearing shattered armor which surprisingly didn’t include a chest or back plate on his upper torso, only pieces that plated over his arms.

Odd.

But ultimately not important, the gaping wound in his side was.

She whistled as she felt for his pulse. Sluggish, and far too weak, but there.

“Now, how are you alive, my good sir?” She mused. She glanced up at the fox, who was poking it’s head out of it’s hole. “May I ask a favor?”

A tilted head to the side.

She pulled out a lock of hair that Iskra always made her carry around in her pocket. “In the town nearby my house, please look for this person, and lead her to me. I’ll need her help if you don’t want this one bleeding all over your lawn.”

A grumble, but the fox sniffed at her hand and sprinted off.

“Alright then, sir, in the meantime, we gotta get you up.” She sat down to pull on her boots, then sent Magic into her hands, clearing off any bacteria or debris on them. “Sorry ahead of time.” She pushed the tips of her fingers into the wound, sending Magic out to get a feel for what she was working with. The guy wheezed out painfully.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry.” Quite a few organs were in bad shape, between them being jostled from whatever attack he had gone through and because of the blood loss.

She shucked off the jacket she had pulled on before she left and pressed it to the wound. The bleeding was slowing down anyways, probably because he was running out. He must have potent blood, if he was still kicking after this grievous injury.

She pressed her left hand over his chest, right where his heart would be, and started to pulse her Magic rhythmically, in time with her own heart. Then she slowed it down.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

“Mmhmm, just like that, slow and steady,” she said cheerfully. With her other hand, she took off the makeshift bandage and started to work on coagulating his blood, ruby red becoming dark and viscous under the influence of her Magic.

Eyelids fluttered open, and she caught a hint of dull red, like dying embers in a cooling fire. She blinked. Red eyes? That was important, wasn’t it? But she couldn’t quite remember…

Well, if she couldn’t remember than it wasn’t too important. Probably.

Then the poor man’s eyes rolled backwards and yeah, that tracked.

She sighed and started to stand him up, throwing one of his arms over her shoulders.

“Oi, you’re heavy,” she wheezed.

She started to stumble in the direction of her house when the hair on the back of her neck prickled.

She glanced behind her, smiled. It wasn’t malicious, just someone being a little curious.

She blew a kiss, then continued onwards.

----------------------------------------

Xenia heard Iskra before she saw here. The way the Forest silenced in anticipation for whatever came next was a tell-tale sign.

Iskra prowled out of the shadows, golden eyes glowing amber in the rapidly fading lantern light.

The Jade Fox was balanced on her shoulder and jumped off yip before it scampered into its hole. Iskra shuddered like she just had a huge weight released from her, despite the fact that the fox cub probably weighed nothing to her.

“Xenia,” she whispered, “what in the Hells?” Her eyes darted back and forth at every little sound.

“I’m sorry for calling you here so late,” Xenia murmured back, “I have a job, I suppose, and I need you to help carry him back.”

Iskra sputtered. “A job?! From who, the fuckin’ fox?”

“Yes. You know I’ll never turn down a person in need.” It was a policy that was the basis for Hestia’s charter.

“It was a fox! This guy didn’t ask for help!”

“Of course he didn’t, he’s incapacitated in the middle of the woods.”

“Xenia!”

“Iskra!” She returned. “The logistics of this aren’t that important.

“We are in the scariest woods on the Continent at shit o’ clock in the morning which makes it infinitely creepier.”

Xenia sighed. “The faster we get back to my place, the faster you can get out of the Forest. So, help me out?”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go, put him on my back.”

Iskra took a knee, hands stretched out behind her, and together the two women managed to get the man’s arms around her shoulders and his legs hooked in Iskra’s arms.

The two started to walk, Xenia managing to coax the flame in her lantern a little bit brighter. Iskra continued to look around frantically, stress lines starting to form on her face.

In an attempt to distract her, Xenia asked “can you smell what Bloodline he is? I think it’s one that uses a Fire Form.”

“No shit.” Iskra muttered. She pressed her nose into the man’s wrist and sniffed, then coughed. “Ugh, Akuma. Smokey bastards. Urgh.” She sneezed.

“Hm.” She tapped a finger against her lips. “Do they have red eyes? His were rather pretty.”

Iskra stopped dead in her tracks.

“Red eyes?” She hissed. “Red eyes?! Are you telling me you’re bringing the fucking Tengu home?!”

“The Tengu?” Xenia blinked. “She died a half century ago, I thought.”

“Not the Monster, you bleeding idiot, her son! The Half-Tengu but everyone calls him The Tengu ‘cos the only thing the man doesn’t have is her mask!” She was approaching hyperventilation territory. “Oh, we’re so fucked. The Akuma are going to think we kidnapped their heir. Oh fuck me. And it smells like a Volkodlak got him.” Her eyes were wild. “Xenia, what are we going to do?”