Her eyes slowly opened, her mind still foggy from the nice and long nap. She yawned, stretching as far as she could, feeling her bones creak pleasurably from the action.

It had been several weeks since she'd come to this place, and it still showed little to no signs of changing. The outside world was still a fiery mess utterly inhospitable to any life. That said, she had learned a few things during her time not spent sleeping.

Firstly, she had no real need for sleep, food, or water. She still wasn't completely certain as to why, since the memories she'd slowly dissected spoke clearly about all beings needing sustenance to survive.

Secondly, the memories. They were... A mess, to put it lightly. She still wasn't truly certain of certain bits and pieces, some parts bleeding through without conscious effort, while others had to be opened through time.

It had taken until today for her to finally pierce together a coherent enough string of information to understand who the memories belonged to. A human, female, of her early 30's.

She had been an average, if not slightly more intelligent woman in a world where the rule of law reigned. Technology had advanced to the point of colonies being built on other planets, and she had been one of the few lucky ones to become a colonist.

Unfortunately, and on this the fox still wasn't 100% certain, it seemed as though the spaceship the woman had been traveling in had met some kind of accident. The memories were blurry, but from what she could put together, the woman had ended up in some sort of wormhole, and that's where the memories ended.

There were obviously a lot more parts to it, many of them completely irrelevant, but the fox still liked trying to understand them, both for the valuable information as well as a way to kill time.

There was another set of memories, but these ones... They were different. If the fox had to take an educated guess, she would say they were racial memories of a sort. They spoke of magic, of evolutions far different and quicker than that of the other memories, and of mana.

The two memories clashed on many points, which confused the technically newborn fox. Still, she had the time and enough intelligence to slowly work through all the difficulties that came from trying to integrate three technically different beings into a coherent whole.

Slowly, the fox got up. She glanced around her nest, trying to find a good spot for what was on the menu today: Magic.

The racial memories promised her that all nine-tailed foxes, herself included, had superb magical capabilities. Thus, she was quite curious.

Alright, that was a lie. She was practically dying to test out her magic, but she'd wanted to finish dissecting all her memories before she did, lest that come back to bite her in the ass later on.

Once she was a sufficient distance away from her little nest, her safe haven in an already quite safe haven, she called the memories she needed to the front of her mind.

Her racial memories differed from the other set mainly in that they were not images and emotions, but rather, they were ingrained knowledge, void of any personal feelings beyond 'pay attention to this' or 'don't do this'.

As she reviewed the information trickling down to her, she began to do what was practically mandatory for any sort of magic: Mana control.

The mana in the Haven, as she called it, wasn't much, but it was still there, and definitely enough for the fox's purposes.

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She could somehow feel her body drawing in mana every moment, slowly taking it in and using it to strengthen herself. It was a painfully slow process, one that would take ages to show any real effect, but she wasn't inspecting the phenomenon for its effects, no.

She wanted inspiration, and she quickly found it. Her body drew in mana, converted it into her mana, and then used it. If she wanted any results, she would have to do the same.

However, she had a problem. She could sense mana once it was within her body, but outside of it... Thankfully, the racial memories came to the rescue.

A training method, one that her racial memories insisted was the one and true method for seeing, controlling and absorbing mana. Three birds with one stone, if you would.

The fox had her doubts about the authenticity of the 'one and only' claim, but she didn't really have anyone to argue with about this, nor any real desire to do so.

She hummed slightly, closing her eyes to concentrate before carefully following the steps laid out by her memories.

First, she laid down onto the floor, feeling only a smidge of regret at not just having remained back at her comfortable bed of moss before curling up into a ball not too dissimilar from that of her sleeping positions.

Still, there were key differences. Her muscles had to be pulled just the right amount to be uncomfortable, her snout had to poke her hip in just the right way that her throat and skin felt stretched, etc.

Finally, she tried to meditate. She had to 'open her soul to the world', as her memories put it. She didn't really have much of a clue as to what exactly she was supposed to be doing, so she tried to wing it.

Needless to say, it didn't go very well.

For the following hours, not that the fox had much of a way to tell the time in this place nor any real reason to, she remained in that same exact position, only getting more and more uncomfortable.

Finally, with an annoyed huff, she forced herself back to her feet, frustrated at the lack of any result whatsoever. Were her memories lying to her? They shouldn't, right?

As she mulled over those questions, she retraced her steps back to her nest, huddling her body within the comfortable moss. Rubbing the soft plants with her equally soft fur was a shamefully pleasurable act, but considering she had no one else to be ashamed for, she cared little.

Sighing contently after a good session that would have seemed almost sexual to any onlookers, the snow-colored fox decided to be stubborn, her regained vigor only bolstering said stubbornness.

So, she tried again, forcing herself into the uncomfortable position from before. She knew and was thankful that it was only necessary for 'seeing' mana for the first, and maybe second, times. Still, that didn't make it any less annoying.

Unfortunately, when she yet again failed to produce results hours later, she was left feeling downtrodden yet again, perhaps even more so than her first failure.

Grumpily, she decided that since she really wasn't in any mood to sleep, she might as well take a walk. Granted, she'd already seen most of what the Haven had to offer, but she had very few other choices.

Getting up from her sprawled position, she forced herself to walk. By now, with several weeks of experience in this body under her proverbial belt, she had very little trouble walking or running, although anything more complicated would likely require more time to gain the necessary finesse to accomplish.

Shaking her head at the unnecessary thoughts, she focused back on the small signs of life spread around the Haven.

Small insects scurried about, eating moss and other insects alike to sustain themselves. A few went as far as to only prey on other insects, but they were the minority, as the amount of insect life was still very small and unable to sustain a sizable hunter population.

Not that the fox could tell much of this. Despite all her memories, she was still very much young. Influenced by another life, yes, but she still lacked true understanding. That would need time.

At one point, curious as to see just why the bugs ate each other, she bit down on a small, butterfly-like bug buzzing around her. She rolled it around in her mouth, crushing it between two teeth before swallowing.

It tasted fine. Nothing really special about it, really. She might as well have eaten air with how bland it tasted.

She was slightly stunned though. In her 'human' memories, she knew that everything had a taste, be it good or not, organic or inorganic. However, she really couldn't feel anything.

She pondered over the issue for a bit before reaching a tentative conclusion. Maybe she simply had no taste buds, or maybe they just worked differently?

She didn't know, and it bothered her quite a bit.

Sighing, she made her way back to her nest, deciding that a nap sounded great as of right there and then. She would continue trying later.