In a large wooden house, a young fox-eared girl with strange dreams slept in her bed. In her dreams, the town was burning her at the stake again. It was a sadly common dream.

---

Lilith was tied to a large stake in the center of the town, a pyre beneath her. Her parents were on their own stakes behind her. She was terrified, but her struggles did nothing.

“For crimes of witchcraft, Lilith Smit shall be burned,” the mayor said. He was a large man with lizard spikes going along his head and back, then his lizard tail. He was usually a well spoken guy, but this seemed like an annoyance for him. Not a tragedy, just an annoyance. Her being burned in front of her parents was only an annoyance.

He put the torch down against the pyre, attempting to light it up, but Lilith forced the flames to die to nothing using her magic. If she hadn’t been able to do that, she would’ve burned herself alive when she snuck into her parents smithy a long time ago. And thankfully he put the torch close enough to be in her reach.

The mayor stared at the lack of flames. “Huh.”

“Haven frowns upon your actions,” Lilith tried acting, now starting to remember her dream. She figured she’d try a different approach this time. “You should release me before you face her wrath.”

The mayor almost smiled at the joke, before hiding it. “Nice try, witch. That’s just your magic.”

“Yeah!” A tall guy with antlers from the crowd shouted. “We should try something else!” Then, one of his antlers fell off, and he looked down, confused.

And then it started happening to the rest of the crowd. One by one, their bodies fell apart.

“It’s her doing!” Someone screamed. “Kill the witch already!”

The mayor pulled out some flint and steel to light the torch again, but Lilith used her magic to make sure it didn’t light. She was glad no one thought of using a normal weapon on her yet, but she was also terrified at the thought of whatever they had spreading to her.

Just as someone pulled out a weapon, a white tendril of light crept out from behind her, swirled into a spiral in front of her, then opened up to reveal an image of a bright blue potion. She knew it was the cure to whatever they were experiencing, brought to her by the same one that taught her magic in the first place.

She could’ve cured them now, but they had forsaken her the moment they saw her magic. And so, they’d doomed themselves. Instead of curing her, someone ran her through with a sword, before their body dissolved in front of her.

Then, the tendril opened up wider, dragging Lilith into something that wasn’t quite a dream anymore.

---

Lilith stood at the edge of a lake now, a mix of fear and disappointment from her last dream still on her face. All around her were motes of light, and the far edge of the world and its forest curled up until there was a forest surrounding a lake above her too. And right in front of her, right above the nearby lake, was her friend ‘Wispy’, the will-o-wisp.

“The usual dream,” Wispy simply stated. They could see both her dreams and her waking life.

“Mhmm.” Lilith nodded. “Thanks for saving me!” She smiled, though she was still a bit terrified.

“You should’ve worked harder to save yourself,” Wispy said. “Even if you could quench the fire, you couldn’t survive being run through with a spear.”

“I was a bit tied up,” Lilith pointed out, smirking. “And even if I escaped, I wouldn’t want to be without my parents…” Her ears drooped over her head at the thought. “You know, sometimes I wish I never learned magic. Then no one would have any reason to single us out.”

“Then you’d die with the rest of them,” Wispy pointed out.

Lilith wasn’t sure if that would be better or worse. “At least I wouldn’t be alone,” she said.

“You’re not alone,” Wispy said. “I may be an imaginary friend to your parents, but they care about you too. They know you practice magic, but they still care about you just as much.”

“I wish they were around more instead of making armor all day.” Lilith sighed, her fox ears still down.

Wispy paused for a bit before asking, “Would you like to know how you died in your last life? It wasn’t through burning at the stake. In fact, you were quite popular.”

“Really?” One of her ears perked up as she raised an eyebrow.

“Indeed.” Wispy reached out a tendril, which closed into a spiral before uncurling to show an image of her last life, with text below translating and describing everything.

---

A fox eared scuba diver slowly kicked her swim fins as she admired the beautiful corals all around her. She was peering close to one that swayed in the water when she heard “rrrk, rrrk!” from her scuba buddy.

She turned and, seeing the shark, immediately assumed a boxing stance and threw a few warning punches.

The shark, confused by this, quickly swam away.

Her scuba buddy stared in awe for a moment and clapped, or at least tried to.

The fox eared diver turned back with a triumphant smile, only to run her face into a small box jellyfish.

“Lilith!” Her buddy screamed through his regulator.

Lilith’s face immediately started puffing up. She panicked and tried pressing it down with her hands, but the inflammation spread everywhere as fast as it could. Soon, her whole body was red and swollen.

But then, through sheer willpower, Lilith clenched all of her muscles at once, forcing the blood back from the swelling and into her muscles, stopping her from practically exploding as her buddy dragged her towards land.

Meanwhile, her buddy rushed them both up to the surface and then started swimming. “I got you Lilith! Hang on!” He said. “Just a few minutes until we reach the shore!”

“This is… this is nothing Wispy…” Lilith said, blood leaking from her eyes and ears.

“Yeah of course, I’m sure you can handle this.” Wispy dragged her, kicking as fast as he could. It was hard to tell how much time passed, but he seemed to reach the shore in an instant, spurred by adrenaline.

“Help! Help!” Wispy shouted as he picked Lilith up and carried her.

The lifeguard yanked a first aid kit from their tower and climbed down as fast as they could. The antidote for the jellyfish poison would be here in just a few seconds.

But it was not to be. A runaway truck barreled down the beach towards the three. The lifeguard dove out of the way, but Wispy grabbed Lilith and tried to pull her back, only to be crushed under the truck with her.

---

“You’re full of crap,” Lilith struggled not to laugh at the story, waving her hand through the images and text.

“That’s indeed how you got here,” Wispy said. “Mostly.”

“Mostly?” Lilith smirked and raised an eyebrow.

“I may have embellished a few parts to make things more exciting.” The wisp’s tendrils twirled a bit as its ‘face’ looked away. “But you fought for your life, and you had a scuba buddy that risked their life for you.”

“I wish you were real like in that story,” Lilith said. “Not stuck in my dreams.”

“That was part of the agreement.” Wispy seemed to shrug. “Afterwards, you bargained with Haven herself to have me as your teacher. I’d say it was a pretty good deal! Besides, you have others around you.”

“I can’t even speak to those others about the things I like though,” Lilith said. “Not the kids at school, not the teachers, and not even my parents can’t follow what you taught me.”

“That’s not true. You love to talk to your dad about smithing.” Wispy opened a tendril to show the scene near her.

Lilith waved her hand through the scene. “Okay, when he’s not working and shooing me away though.”

“Maybe you should find things that other people will talk to you about then. It doesn’t have to be magic or smithing.”

Lilith paused. What else would she talk about? She was ahead of everyone else in school by a large margin, and the teachers were boring.

“If you’re ahead of everyone, perhaps you should find someone else that’s ahead as well,” Wispy suggested. “However, you shouldn’t give up hope. If you stop looking, then you definitely won’t find anyone else.”

Lilith frowned, looked away, and sighed. She could tell he was right, but it was still frustrating.

“Oh, it’s about time to start the day now,” Wispy realized. “Good luck. I know you at least enjoy your first class.”

The dream faded as Lilith felt her body fill with energy

---

Lilith Smit turned and pushed herself out of bed with both hands and her tail. She took care not to cut her bed with the spikes on her tail again though.

She quickly threw on her school outfit and ran down the stairs and out the house, hoping she wouldn’t be late. She always slept a bit more than usual after all, but it was worth it.

She smiled politely and waved as she ran past a beastgirl with rabbit ears, a beastman hog with large tusks, a beastman chamelion that shifted yellow when he saw her, and so on. Most of the beastmen waved back as she ran past, until it got more crowded. Then she started weaving between people, hopping over rocks, and running across the side of a bridge, until she eventually made it.

It was her first class of the day and also the best, at least in her opinion: martial arts.

“Early again, huh?” A muscular wolfman looked down at her, smirking, but there was something off about him this time. “Always nice to see that. Unfortunate that the other teachers don’t get to.”

“Huh? Eh. What do you mean?” Lilith tilted her head, playing dumb.

“I mean you show up early to my class and late to every other class. And I hear you barely pay attention to the other classes on top of that.”

“Oh! Uh, well.” Lilith paused. As her face paled. She looked at the tiled floor of the dojo, then to the sky, then nervously back to the wolfman. “I, I can explain.” She stared back at him, still nervous.

The man waited. “Yes…? Are you going to explain?”

“They, uh, well…” She looked off to the sky again and heard some birds chirping. ”They’re uh, boring.”

The man sighed, deeply. “Lilith, you have to get those things down too. You can’t just fight everything and expect it to work out. One hunt, you’ll try attacking a jackalope instead of a bunny, and then you’ll get poisoned.”

“What? No.” Lilith shook her head at the absurdity. “I already read all the teaching books.” Then she paled. She'd practically just admitted to a crime.

Both of the wolfman’s eyebrows shot up. “How could you have read all the teaching books? You’d have to impress the other teachers a lot for that, and that’s not at all what I heard.” He blinked, then narrowed his eyes on her. “You didn’t sneak in and take them, did you?”

Lilith stayed frozen. That was exactly what she did.

The wolfman facepalmed. “There’s only one copy of most of those books. You didn’t damage them at least, did you!?”

She shook her head quickly. “No! I was just curious about stuff…”

The wolf man massaged his temples. “So it’s not a matter of you being dumb, you just don’t want to do the work.”

“I mean, uh…” She was silent for a bit. “That’s not right, is it?” She asked herself. It felt wrong. She like doing Wispy's work, but the other teachers were just boring and wrong.

Other students were starting to file in.

“Alright.” He looked between her and the other students. “Since you prefer this class so much, I’ll give you a special lesson.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

For some reason, Lilith got the feeling she might not enjoy this special lesson.

---

Lilith sat down in her next class with countless bruises keeping her wide awake with pain, yet she still struggled to pay attention and not daydream. Her martial arts teacher cared about these classes, and he was kind of cool, so she wanted to try listening at least a little bit now.

Her current teacher was a cute old squirrel lady, and it was fun to imagine she was dancing in front of the board instead of hearing the crazy stuff she was saying. She could also imagine she was trying to catch her tail, or she could put a finger in front of her eyes so it looked like she was patting her head.

This time though, Lilith listened, at least a little bit. They were talking about the various monsters they should hunt during different seasons, and the different prices traders would give for them.

She might’ve mumbled, “but that’s wrong you fnmgmmngh…” a few times. Eventually, her annoyance got the better of her and she raised her hand.

“Yes Lilith?” The teacher asked, surprised.

“Most of those animals are hard to catch outside of season, like Rose Slimes during the summer. So why don’t we just keep some to sell later when the price is higher?”

The teacher frowned with a bit of disgust. “What you’re referring to is called farming. Humans do that. They keep different animals behind fences to kill them whenever they please, and even have them breed in captivity so they can kill their offspring. But many plants and animals can’t be farmed, Rose Slimes being one of them. That’s where we come in.”

“What? No.” Lilith shook her head. “I was suggesting we just keep them alive until they can be sold for a higher price, not farm them or breed them. No one sells off season, so if we did, they’d pay a higher price and we could get better weapons and armor.”

The teacher furrowed her brow. “Maybe, but… That sort of trickery sounds like it could come from a human merchant. I can’t say I like it.”

“Does she hang out with humans?” The other kids started muttering. “Gross.”

Lilith slumped back in her seat. This was why she hated these classes and didn’t trust the town.

---

Once school was out, Lilith walked back with her head hung low.

“Hey!” One of the students ran up to her.

She lifted her head to look at him, her annoyance at the day clear on her face. “What?”

“Y— you know humans, right?” He asked. Now that she got a look at him, he was that one light blond fox kid.

“Nope. I don’t know any humans.” Lilith shook her head and told the truth.

“Wha— !?” He reared his head back. “That’s bullcrap! You were totally spouting human stuff in class!”

She already heard enough of that at school today. If looks could kill, Lilith’s glare certainly would’ve. Every good idea wasn’t ‘human stuff’. “Just because everyone else wants to keep up the ‘beastmen are dumb’ thing doesn’t mean I do. Us foxes used to be known for our wit, did you know that?”

“Huh?” He backed off, then shook his head. “Look, sorry. It’s fine. I don’t care about any of that.” He paused for a moment. “It’s my brother. He came back from his last hunting trip missing some fingers. I know the pattern… hunters come back without fingers, then an arm, then not at all. But maybe, if you know some humans, you could get better armor, or bows, and that wouldn’t have to happen!” His voice was shaking.

Lilit’s mood did a one eighty. He wasn't insulting her, he was seriously asking for help. “Oh… Uh, I’m sorry. I really don’t know any humans. I just said what I thought were good ideas.”

“You really don’t know?” The fox boy looked confused for a moment, but that turned into a look of betrayal. “No. You… you won’t tell me?”

“No, it’s not that I won’t tell you. I really don’t know,” Lilith said. “My parents keep me away from any humans they trade with. I’ve never even met one before.” It was the truth.

But the boy just stood there, confusion and betrayal on his face.

Lilith waited for him to do anything, but eventually waved and started walking off. “Well, I’m sorry.”

---

That was how it started. She'd tried to please her teachers and help that kid out, and all she got was bruises from harder training, cold stares from her teachers, and being yelled at by that kid 'Taro' unless she found new routes back home to avoid him.

She decided to try her idea of keeping some rose slimes alive at home as something fun to counter all of that, using secret magic Wispy taught her to keep them alive without touching them and getting acid burns, but one morning, it just ended with a bunch of tiny red slime balls on her floor. Or, maybe they were eggs? She scooped them up and put a few in her pocket. She wanted to show her new friend that always summarized biology for her, so she ran off to school with them.

…

“Hey Priscilla!” Lilith ran over to Priscilla after class as usual, but this time she looked around to make sure no one else was watching. Once she was close, she revealed the tiny, slimy, transparent spheres to the red haired fox girl. “I think they’re slime eggs! Like bird eggs! For some reason, Rosie and Dosie didn’t make it to the end of summer. I mean, my slimes. But they left these behind!”

“How are those eggs?” Priscilla asked. “Bird eggs are much bigger. That’s way smaller than a slime. Actually, it’s more like poop. Are you sure you’re not holding poop?”

Lilith glared and took her eggs back. “They’re not poop. Slime poop is brown just like every other animal’s. These are rose colored spheres.”

“Okay, but if those are really slimes, then how are they not burning your hands?”

Lilith blinked. She hadn’t thought about that. She put them in her pocket with magic, but she would never risk using magic out of the house, so she was holding them normally now. “They're different maybe? Maybe it's magic related?"

“Huh. Interesting.”

As they talked, they walked across the grass paths before making it to the next room. “Oh, put those away,” Priscilla said. ”Next class is already starting.”

Lilith pocketed her slime eggs.

---

“Hey, Lilith!” Taro managed to catch her after school once again.

“Oh no.” Lilith turned away and pretended she didn’t hear him. He seemed to be starting to leave her alone, but apparently that was just to make her drop her guard.

“Look, I know you don’t want to reveal your human friends, but my bro really needs some better armor. He came back with his best armor shredded, and now he’s trying to go back hunting without a full set. Everyone knows he’s gonna die if he tries that. We have the money, so if you know any traders, tell them to come here!”

Lilith slowly turned her head back to him and just shook it indicating no. She was tired of his endless sob stories.

“Please!” He ran up and grabbed onto her shoulders.

Lilith finally sighed. “I don’t know how many times I’ve told you this, but I don’t have any ‘human friends’. My parents don’t let me see any of the merchants they trade with because they think they’ll give me ‘bad ideas’. If I knew any, I’d help you, but I really, really don’t. I’m sorry.”

With that, she started walking away.

But she turned when she heard him running up again.

“You bitch!” His fist slammed into her face and she flew back and bounced on the grass. “I heard you talking about magic too! You’d only know about that if you had human friends!”

She sat up, stunned. This wasn't martial arts class, she had her back turned, and he put way too much force into that punch. This could actually be dangerous, so she shrank back and guarded herself when he ran up to her again.

“He’s gonna die!” He started punching her repeatedly, aiming for her face and hitting her arms that were in the way. “He’s gonna die and you don’t even care! You could save him, but you don’t care! Just tell me!”

She rolled out of the way to avoid more punches and got up, though now her arms were thoroughly bruised. “Why won’t you listen!? I can’t do anything!”

“Bullshit!” He ran up to her and swung again.

This time, Lilith caught the fist as she dodged.

“Transmute,” she whispered.

Taro’s body lunged as he missed, and he had trouble getting his balance back, but suddenly his hand was heating up to metal melting temperatures from the inside.

“AAAAAaaaa!” He screamed and pulled back his hand.

Now that he was distracted, Lilith grabbed his neck. She was about to do the same thing, but hesitated, then realized what she was about to do and stepped back, horrified.

She looked back up at the pitiful kid crying and holding his hand, her eyes wide. “I don’t. Fucking. Know. Okay? And if you get near me again, I’ll kill you.”

She stepped back, then started walking away as Taro started crying. She felt guilty as she left, and said in a much smaller voice, “...I wish I could meet some.”

---

Lilith came back home shaking and covered in bruises.

“Lilith? What happened!? Those don’t look like they’re from training!” Her mother, a fox beastgirl like her, came rushing over.

Lilith had been keeping the reason behind the whole Taro issue a secret for a while. She was used to keeping secrets thanks to Wispy's teachings, especially magic, but she finally let up.

“It was Taro. He wanted me to help his brother and kept saying I knew humans and that I could get him armor because I knew magic. But I don’t know any humans! I never did!”

Her mother hugged her. “Lilith, oh Lilith, I told you to keep your magic a secret.”

“I did!” Lilith cried, pushing back. “I only told Priscilla, but I guess Taro was listening in. He’s a creep!”

Her mom frowned. “We can’t let this happen again. I’m going to have a talk with his parents, okay? That should put a stop to this.”

“Eh—” Lilith paled, realizing something.

Her mom narrowed her eyes. “What is it this time?”

“I might’ve used a bit of my magic when fighting him.”

Her mom paled. “You didn’t kill him, did you?”

“What!? No, of course not! I would never!”

“Well… wait, shit.”

“Huh? What’s wrong?” Lilith paled completely. Her mother never swore.

“Shit shit shit shit, Shit!” Her mom held her head in her hands. “Those stupid bastards already stop us from making the same armor humans do because it’s ‘not natural’, and then they just buy human armor. If they know about you, that might be the last ‘not natural’ straw!”

“What bastards?” Lilith repeated.

“The whole damn village!” her mom practically yelled. “But mainly the mayor. You know everyone here hates magic and ‘unnatural’ things.”

“I’m ‘unnatural’?” Lilith asked.

Her mom shook her head. “No, you were born with magic. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Lilith slowly shied back. She never saw her mom this worried before.

“What do we do…?” Her mom asked to herself.

“Uh,” Lilith spoke up. “T-- Taro wanted armor from the humans. Maybe if I meet with some and get them for him, it’ll all be okay?”

“Lilith, armor won’t…” She stopped, then looked really sad for some reason. “Right, the humans. Okay Lilith, you’re going to meet the humans.” Suddenly, she picked Lilith up and hugged her.

Lilith tilted her head. She was happy to meet humans, but why was her mother so sad?

---

Next morning, after Wispy taught her some healing magic to help deal with her bruises, Lilith didn’t go to school. Instead, her mom came in early, grabbed her hand, and rushed her out to meet with the human traders along with her dad.

There was only one trading carriage now which seemed to be filled with oil and lanterns. It was approaching winter, so their demand would be rising.

Her mother leaned against the carriage and started explaining things to Lilith. For some reason, her voice was shaky, but Lilith was still distracted by the new information. “They put it on the stand there so people will see the best items.” She pointed. “Best ones are in the center, and lesser or niche goods are on the side.”

While her mom was explaining random human things, her dad leaned towards the cashier, pulled out a large bag of gold, and placed it on the stand.

“I— I don’t have anything that expensive here William.”

“You see my daughter there right? She has magic,” he said. “I don’t know why, but I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how hard it is just making sure she’s not tried as a witch around here.”

“I, I see…” He eyed the bag of gold. “Just making sure… what exactly is it you want from me?”

“You’ve always been one of the more honest merchants.” He clenched his teeth, steeling himself for what he was about to say next. “I want you to take half of that and use it to pay for her enrollment in one of your human mage schools, as well as any other fees. Once she gets a human degree, she can have a human job, and live in human society, right?”

“If all goes well, yeah, but…” The merchant frowned. They both knew beastmen faced just as much discrimination in human society as humans in beastman society.

“I don’t care if she gets a few mean looks. It’s better than what she’ll get here.”

“I guess.”

“So, you take the cash, give her a ride, and enroll her at the nearest school.”

“What if she gets rejected?” the merchant asked.

“Reje—?” William looked dumbfounded. “She won’t get rejected. I’ve seen the mages that come here.”

“Huh. You’re that sure?”

“I am. If she does get rejected, it’s because the person in charge of the test saw her ears and tail and failed her automatically, so make sure she doesn’t show those.”

“Got it.” The merchant nodded.

“Now, I wish I didn’t have to say this, but this is my daughter. So when I go over there myself and check the enrollment, she better be on that list. If I find she was dumped somewhere or sold as a slave, I’ll murder everyone involved.”

The merchant paled.

“Do we have a deal?”

The merchant looked over at the bag of gold, then to Lilith’s dad, and nodded.

---

“So,” Lilith’s mom continued. “If you want to be a good trader, you have to exaggerate the value of things a lot when people ask for a price. It could be ten times the minimum price you’d accept! If you start higher like that, anyone buying will be happy they haggled down to such a comparatively low price.”

“Cool!” Lilith stared back in awe. “Wait though, didn’t you not want me to know about human stuff like… yesterday?”

“Um, that is…”

“Lilac,” Lilith’s dad patted her mom on the shoulder and nodded. Her mom then turned back to Lilith.

She put her hands on Lilith’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, but you’re being held back here, and hurt too.” She traced a finger softly over a bruise on Lilith’s face. “You want to study magic, right? You want to try out all your weird ideas? I saw those slimes in your room.”

Lilith blushed. Surprisingly though, her mom only smiled that sad smile that she was starting to hate already.

“We’ve been saving up money for a while, for more than replacing equipment. It should be enough to send you to a human school. You’ll be able to reach your full potential there, and you won’t have to deal with… this.” She poked the bruise.

“Ow!” Lilith held her hand over the bruise. “Huh? I’m going away with the humans?”

“Just… for now.” Her mom looked away. “Oh, school there has breaks, so it shouldn’t be too long before you can come back. In the meantime, you can always write us letters.”

“Oh. Okay… Wait, no.” Lilith started tearing up. She had a strong feeling that this wouldn’t be temporary. “That's means you’re, you’re leaving me? I'll only see you on breaks?”

“Oh, no, come here.” Lilac hugged her again for a moment.

“Are you really leaving?” Lilith asked after the hug, a few tears falling out.

“We have to stay behind and smooth things over with the town, and there’s not enough room in that cart for four. But we’ll be rooting for you.”

“But…” Lilith cried.

Her mother hugged her one last time before gently pushing her to the cart, where the guy welcomed her in.

With the deal made, Lilith’s parents walked back. Once they got far enough away, her mother started fully crying. It was likely Lilith wouldn't even have the time to travel all the way back, so they might not see her for years. But at least she would be safe and not held back. “I don’t know where you got all that money William… but thank you.”

William Smit had a dark look on his face. “That was all the money for backup tools once ours break, and more.”

“More?” Lilac looked up.

“We shouldn’t smooth things over. We should leave as soon as we can.”