Graphus PoV
Another two years have passed since the death of the mother fox and I am now eighteen years old.
I had to spend a full year consolidating my hold of the core region while feeding the bottomless twin foxes. Their appetites could depopulate this entire forest if it weren't for most of them having high reproductive rates. Top quality inner region beasts were the only thing they ate and beast kings were their “dessert.”
Despite their fussy nature with food and their bratty attitude he loved them with all his heart. He missed having a family and he always felt guilty about not being able to repay his mentor for the kindness he gave him. Hence when he was done consolidating his hold on the core region by fighting off peak level beast kings from the inner region and when the bratty foxes stomachs started to stabilize he went into wolf mode. He became stern with the Lem and Len and began teaching them the knowledge that the mother fox left and in turn he taught himself as he still didn't have enough time to fully consolidate his knowledge due to constant fighting within the core region.
He especially had to be extra strict with Lem as she was the trickster of the bunch. The moment she mastered the air element she began creating mirages of herself so that she could go “play” with the beasts near the core region which nearly gave me a heart attack. Len was much more docile and obedient towards me and was usually the one who caught Lem out on her tricks. I swear I saw her looking through my beast skins and sniffing it with a look of ecstasy on her face once though I must have been seeing things since the moment I looked again Len looked completely fine.
So far I have noticed that Lem learned by pushing her affinities to the limit through abstract means while Len was much more linear in her thinking. She could solve things logically but anything outside of that logic shocks her system too much while Lem loves things that are outside of said logic. Due to this I have had to switch my teaching style many times to accommodate them both and finally I have been able to make them master their two starting affinities as they are both twin tailed. Their tails represent air as a brighter than usual tail and earth as a green tipped tail which they have fully mastered.
They would have been known as freaks of nature for learning so fast if it weren't for the fact that the knowledge crammed in my head by the mother fox cut down the learning time by hundreds of years. By now the foxes and I are ready to travel the known world as I have grown quite stuffy within the confines of this region and the twins need to learn more about this world. Looking over to the twin foxes, a radiant smile grows on my face as I see they've rapidly grown to the size of their mother at 10 ft high and 5 ft wide with their two tails swishing back and forth rapidly. Lem adorns a crafty look on her face while Len has a stern and deep look in her eyes.
“Girls, it is time we leave this area. You have both grown well and I am proud of you... despite your misgivings, Lem.”
Lem immediately drops her crafty look and pouts with a look of fake outrage.
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“How dare you insult me, papa! I am a good girl.”
Len drops her own look of serious contemplation and cracks her face into a grin.
“C'mon, sis. When was the last time that hurt puppy dog look worked on him?”
Pouting even harder, the look of outrage drops from her face before she looks away with a “hmph”.
“Lets go, girls, before we all start fighting.”
Suddenly, the aura of death and decay sweeps over the core region from the very outer zone of the forest. The twin foxes gag at the smell and wrinkle their nose while I simply scrunch up my eyebrows as I do not smell it as acutely as the foxes which is quite strange. After years of being together I can feel things from their bonds if they feel it strongly enough and their mental defenses slip up or when they willingly show it to me so I can feel their disgust and hatred to the seemingly imaginative smell.
“Ew, what is that smell, papa!”
“Gross!”
Staring at the direction the smell is coming from, I can tell it is slowly getting closer to the inner regions and it will get to the core region in a couple of hours if no one stops it. Rubbing my chin slightly I look over to the foxes with a serious expression on my face.
“I believe it might be a repellent of sorts... the forest does not like whatever it is but until they get to the inner regions I cannot specify what it actually is. I have a hunch that it is a strong monster repellent since it does not affect me but it clearly affects you. Try to think past the smell and decay and tighten your mental defenses and I should be right.”
Nodding the foxes do as he is told and instantly their complexions get better. They circle around me before bumping me with their side several times and rubbing onto him affectionately. Patting them lightly and laughing he slowly untangles himself from them before he goes back to his alert mode.
“Do you feel anything else, girls?”
Looking back at the direction of the smell the foxes rapidly nods.
“Papa, I feel a big sense of danger coming towards us but it felt stronger before I strengthened my internal defenses like you taught us.”
Nodding towards them, I recall a lesson on the soul and their affinities and how they can shut out outside influences. Looks like that came in handy due to the intruders coming towards our domain.
“Listen, girls. Whatever is coming must be weaker than us if they must use whatever they are using to ward off the other beasts. That is not a guarantee however therefore we will wait a few hours until they pass the inner region and then I can test their level of strength. If they are too strong, we will retreat the other way. Understood?”
Putting on a brave face with a bloodthirsty look in their eyes the sisters both nod at the same time as they sit down on their paws and observe their surroundings just as I taught them. Hopefully they won't have to fight what is coming as I do not want to fail the mother fox this early on.