I decided to be happy with the loss. If anything, the lack of a tail made getting dressed that much easier. As soon as I was dressed, a pouting Ginger and I walked out of the room to find the Pendragon and Liam conversing over a map.

“Over here might be good. The creatures are low enough level that she shouldn’t have much of a problem.” Pendragon said while pointing at something.

“That spot is not a good idea.” Liam shook his head. “I got reports of a sudden spike in their population. How about here?”

“Sure, if you don’t care that there is no cover. Anything and everything in the area will come charging at our group as soon as we show up.” Pendragon took a second to look over the map. “You said that you wanted to train her to track? If that’s the case then let's go here. The creatures are a bit sparse this time of year. Most of them should also be at a level that she can handle.”

Liam snorted. “Yeah, that will work. And it's not all that far if you can fly over a mountain.”

“One of the builder teams were building a tunnel here,” Pendragon pointed at a spot on the map. At this point, I was close enough to see that he was pointing at a mountain on the map. “Last I checked. While it won't be all pretty or clean, there should be at least a basic hole through the rock.”

“Did you guys figure out where to take us girls on a date?” It wasn’t until after the words were out that I realized I had referred to myself as a girl. When had that started?

“Sure did,” Liam answered while Pendragon looked up at Ginger.

His brow pinched at whatever he saw. “What's wrong?”

I looked over to see her sullen expression as she pointed at my head. “They're gone.” As one, the two men looked at my head. Liam’s eyebrow lifted in a clear question while Pendragon rolled his eyes before pulling Ginger in for a tight hug.

“They didn’t come back when I shifted,” I said in my defense.

“Did you shift into your human form or your Kitsune form?” Pendragon asked.

“What?”

“Your orb says you have three forms, remember?” I had forgotten the guy had gotten a good look at that cursed item. “Did you return to your Kitsune form or human?”

I knew the answer but I acted as if I was trying to remember. After all, Ginger was already upset and I didn’t want to let her know I had done this on purpose, sort of. “Human?”

“That would be why then,” Pendragon announced.

“But why does she get three forms?” Ginger whined. “Both of you have two while I only have one.”

“Actually,” Liam said while his hand rubbed at the back of his neck. “There is a hybrid form I can take. I avoid it because it requires a ton of energy and food.”

Pendragon spoke at the same time. “You do know I can call my wings and claws at any time, right?”

Even I knew their admissions, while well-meaning, were a bad idea. I watched her face crumble as she realized she was the odd one in our group. The only one truly stuck in one form. I felt for her. Truly I did. But what could I do? The only ones that I knew could change her would be the gods, after all, they had changed the rest of us. Maybe I could take her with me when I went to demand to go back to how I had been. Hell, maybe they could give my species and such to her.

But that wouldn’t be for a while and it wasn’t guaranteed. What I needed was something for her to look forward to. Something that would make her happy. With a resigned sigh, I gently pulled on Pendragon’s arm. Not to free her from his grip but so that at least one of her eyes met mine as I spoke. “How about this, after we are done with the training and such, I transform back into a fox for you. Then you can hug and cuddle with my fur all you want.”

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Yeah, it didn’t do much to solve her issue but it should at least serve to distract her. Still, it seemed to have the intended effect. In an instant, her eyes went from dull to full of life and glee. “You promise?” I nodded in answer to her question.

While she was going to use me as a pillow, I was going to use her to get away from the alpha. I mean, what was with the guy having me sleep with him? Yeah, that wasn’t happening again if I could help it. Not that I would tell her that. While she would feel annoyed at being used at first, I suspected that she would likely try and put the two of us together.

With something to look forward to, she pulled out of the hug and bounded toward the door. “What are we waiting for? We have some training to get done!” Pendragon and Liam both chuckled at the sudden shift in her attitude as we all chased after her. Well, I was the one chasing after her. Those two had no issues keeping up with the hyper fox.

No one gave us a second look as we ran through the streets. Which would have been odd if not for the fact that we were not the only ones doing so. As we moved, I found my eyes trying to wander over everyone and everything only to have to force them to focus as the three of them disappeared around a corner or into a crowd.

Finally, we made it out of the town and away from the large quantities of people. Which was great as it meant I no longer had to dodge around as many people. The issue was that it also meant the other three didn’t have to hold back anymore. As one, they picked up their pace.

My pace increased as I tried to keep up. I pushed my body and mana as the world around me blurred yet I still found myself falling behind. All I got for trying was a tight chest and burning muscles.

As the darkness started to take over the world around me, I gave in to the inevitable. My pace slowed until I was no longer moving. Everything around me started to spin as I stood with my hands on my knees. My breaths were ragged and gasping as I tried to not pass out.

Slowly, the world came back into view as I found myself looking at the ground. Which, thankfully, meant that I had somehow managed to stay standing even as my consciousness wavered. Just then, I heard Ginger’s voice as she came toward me “There you are!” My head tilted up to look at her. She looked a bit concerned but that was it. “We thought we lost you.”

We? If they thought they lost me then where were the other two knuckleheads? “Where...” is all I managed to get out before she interrupted me. “They went ahead to make sure that we could get through the tunnel. Now come on.” Her hand grabbed my arm and she took off again. It took everything in me to just keep from falling flat on my face as she moved.

While I knew I wasn’t the fastest person out there, I thought that I could keep up with most people I would ever meet. These three had taken that idea and stomped on it. Even my mana-enhanced speed was useless.

A badly placed foot nearly spelled my doom as it twisted and sent me off to the side. I only managed to keep from going splat against a boulder with a quick burst of fire. Of course, this sent my body flying in the opposite direction. A pulse of fire barely kept me from hitting something brown and blurry on the other side.

At that point, I gave up on trying to run. There was no way I would be able to get my feet under me and up to speed. Instead, I took the more interesting, if terrifying, choice. I used my mana to keep myself aloft.

Honestly, it wasn’t as hard as it sounded. Anything can fly given enough speed. A bullet has no lifting surface yet can travel up to a couple of miles with enough thrust. Missiles take that a step further by having a solid fuel engine on the back of it.

Here I was, being pulled along by a foxy chick hyped up on something. She was kindly providing all the thrust I needed. All I needed to do was keep from smashing into something.

Fire flared around me time and time again. At first, each flare sent me careening in the other direction where I would have to send out yet another burst to stop only to end up in the same position on the other side. Slowly, I found ways to increase my control and decrease the power of each burst.

We passed into some sort of tunnel just as I stabilized my body. While I could see a bit around me, most of my light came from the short stabs of fire I sent into the darkness. Some of which splashed against the rocky walls. I shuddered at the sight. If I had taken even a minute longer to learn to, well not fly, but control my direction I would have been instantly turned into a smear on the wall. Would Ginger have even noticed? Probably not considering that she didn’t seem to notice I was bouncing around back here like a fucking ping-pong ball.

My body slammed into Ginger’s back as the pulsating darkness that was the tunnel gave way to blinding light. My uncontrolled momentum coupled with her not being ready for it, caused the two of us to go tumbling to the ground in a heap. Even with the ground being covered in dirt and grass, it fucking hurt. Of course, it didn’t help that the two guys were laughing their asses off. Fucking assholes.