*Pit pat, pit pat* As the young storm gray vixen hopped from branch to branch on her way to the top of a tree, she looked down at the soldiers sparring. The current winner of the spar was a small white vixen with blue spots. Her opponent was a slightly larger than average tod. He had orange fur that morphed and flickered like fire when he was in the sunlight.

As the kit watched, she could tell how the vixen would use her speed and small size to her advantage. The vixen would constantly zip around the larger fox, confusing and disorientating him.

The kit watched closely to the vixen's steps, making mental notes on how she placed her paws so as to not trip herself, but still have high maneuverability. Her eyes flickered from one spot to the next with lightning speed, almost as if she was calculating where to place her paws in those milliseconds between her next maneuver. In a flurry of steps, the swift vixen pounced on the tod when he tried to swipe at her, hitting the spot where the vixen had been.

Pinning the tod to the ground, the vixen stood high on alert for any movement beneath her. The tod just stared at her with a blank expression.

“Stand down! The winner of the spar is Vidya,” the announcer said. He appeared to be older than the two fighters by about four or five years, which was barely a nick on our total lifespan, but it was still a difference.

“Hmmph,” Vidya sniffed, stepping off of her dazed rival. “Give me a real opponent that I can spar with.”

The orange tod shook his head and looked offended. “I’m just as good as you are! You just have some better moves.”

He stalked off into the side of the clearing, sitting in the midst of the bushes to spectate, a fierce expression on his face.

Vidya rolled her eyes. The kit, watching in the trees, giggled. Aarush–the orange tom–was one of her favorites to watch, though not because of his skill. He lightened the mood with his hotheaded, ignorant remarks and various expressions.

As the older foxes moved away to let others spar, the kit leaned forwards, trying to get a better view. She moved her paw, expecting to feel more of the tree branch, but felt nothing but air. Her paw groped the air for a second, but it was useless–her weight carried her off the tree, and she plummeted to the ground.

The wind whipped around her ears. The kit was high up, high enough that if she landed, she would perish. Panic gripped her heart as she realized what was required of her.

I have to spread my wings.

The kit disliked spreading her wings as people always commented on the odd lightning patterns. She was often laughed at and jeered at by the other kits, and even some of the older foxes had told her how weird her wings were. But the ground was approaching with lightning speed.

The kit spread her wings clumsily and glided over the heads of the other foxes, circling once before tumbling head-over-tail onto the ground with an oomph. Her wings lay over her face, and the kit wasn’t sure if she wanted to see what lay behind its protective feathers.

When she had the courage to look up, she saw that most of the other foxes were staring at her with various expressions, from disgust to admiration, both on some of them. That was when the kit realized she was glowing a bright blue and dimmed herself.

The kit blushed with embarrassment, noticing all the eyes on her. Vidya was looking at her curiously, the kit wouldn’t be surprised if she was thinking about sparring her.

“Say, you look like a talented individual, little one. You can control your aura and some affinity already, eh? What's your name?” The announcer asked the kit, smiling kindly.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Oh, umm, my name is Kairos,” the kit said meekly, stumbling over her words. She then proceeded to fold her wings tightly against herself. “I-I’m sorry if I interrupted you guys…”

“No, no, it’s okay,” the announcer reassured. “We hadn’t started the next round yet. Would you like to watch on the sides, so you can get a better view? It might be a little more pleasant than clinging to a tree.”

Kairos beamed. Watching on the sidelines of a fight for apprentices that weren’t in her year was an honor usually only granted to warriors, masters, trainers, or other high-ranking foxes, and also foxes in the same apprentice year as the fighters. Normally, kits as old as Kairos weren’t allowed to watch, because it was feared that they would disrupt the fighters’ concentration.

“Thank you, sir.” Kairos inclined her head, then scurried over to the side of the clearing, eagerly soaking up every detail around her.

“Alright,” the announcer called. “Vidya and Dal shall now duel.”

The fighters stalked onto the stage, circling each other. Kairos watched with rapt attention as Dal pounced on Vidya. The vixen dodged, but a silvery-white blade glanced over her fur and cut slightly into her skin. Kairos sucked in a breath.

Vidya growled slightly at the wound, then advanced at Dal, who wore an emotionless expression. She feinted going for his belly, then switched to a swipe on the side. The silver tod dodged with fluid grace, gray fur rippling in the sun like liquid silver. However, he wasn’t quite fast enough, and one of Vidya’s claws grazed his flank.

Dal whipped around and jumped at Vidya, claws outstretched. Vidya lifted one of her forepaws, and a blue-white barrier flashed between them momentarily, knocking Dal off balance and throwing him across the clearing. He landed perfectly on his feet, three tails swishing.

The two opponents faced each other, both emotionless. Suddenly, Vidya lunged, teeth bared and a white blade in one of her paws. When Dal saw the weapon, his eyes widened.

“Wait!” he cried, but Vidya pounced on him and put her knife to his throat.

“Vidya wins again!” the announcer boomed as the vixen got off her fellow fighter. He lay there, panting, on the ground for a moment.

“Wow!” Kairos cried, accidentally flapping her wings in excitement. As she paused to think about the odd blades that vidya had been using, she wondered how they had appeared. Kairos had thought she saw runes light up on her arm for a moment, but that would require mana.

All kits had learned about mana before they could properly walk, they were constantly taught what it feels like and how to sense their affinity, although kits couldn’t use their affinity yet, they could still sense it.

As Kairos went deep in thought, trying to find her affinity. She followed that small, powerful feeling in her chest, like a tingling sense that she had something there other than a heart. After a tiny bit of searching, she found what she was looking for.

Around her heart area was a glowing, silvery blue aura that spread out and away, following her blood stream. Once Kairos had found the heart of her affinity and mana, it wasn’t hard to find the millions of tiny essence strings flowing through her body.

As she found them, she started to try and circulate them, as she had been taught. As they refused to move, as she knew they would, a different idea came to her mind. What if she tried not to control it, but to give it a little nudge?

Giving her attention back to the essence strings, she tried guiding them instead of pulling or pushing them. Suddenly, the older foxes realized her essence had disappeared from their senses, and lightning was lightly crackling around her. Kairos hurriedly dropped the power, but it was too late–they were all staring at her, again.

Vydia, however, was looking at Kairos. “How did you do that?” she demanded, approaching.

“I-I–um…” Kairos was at a loss for words. She gazed down at herself, finally noticing the little bits of crackling electricity.

“A kit your age shouldn’t be able to do that,” Vydia continued. “Not any kit in history can control their abilities that fast.”

“But I didn’t!” Kairos cried, pinning her ears back defensively. “I don’t know how that happened, it must be someone else!”

But she knew. It was her, she could feel it.

Was it caused by the rotation and movement of her essence? Or by something else?

Was there something wrong with her?

}|{ Aarush's full form minus the wings. }|{

https://i.imgur.com/M6k0Kbe.jpeg [https://i.imgur.com/M6k0Kbe.jpeg]