The golden-eyed fox, for she was no longer a kit, was a year old now, ran through the forest at high speeds. She was still small, much smaller than a fully grown fox should be. But she was also much smarter and craftier. Her twin tails fluttered in the wild as she jumped over trees and dodged around bushes. She was fast, faster than any fox normally would be.

She chased her quarry with abandon, for she felt no fear. While she wasn’t the apex predator of this frozen forest, that belonged to the Monkey King, she was high on it’s food-chain. And the rabbit she was chasing knew it.

Eventually, the rabbit slipped up. It went to jump over a root and mistimed it, catching its paw on the wood and tumbling head over heel. That was all the fox needed as she jumped on the poor animal and with one swift motion, crushed its neck in her powerful jaws. Food for the day had been secured, and she now dragged it to her den.

While she was high on the food chain now, her strange powers making her much more deadly than a fox had any right to be, there were still plenty of predators that beat her. Wolves, lions, some monkeys, bears and leopards. Then there were the Spirit Beasts. Fiery Hawks, mice made of ice, deer that had control over the wind. They were usually fairly easy to spot, mutated from regular animals. The fox supposed she was one of these Spirit Beasts too now, though it was hard for her to think of herself as anything but a normal fox.

As she got to her den, a fallen tree that had been hollowed out long ago. It was not the best, but it would do for now. She was still on the move after all. The Monkey King sent monkeys to harass her often, and it seemed like his domain stretched forever. However, with winter set in, the harassment had stopped and it was time to rest and recover.

As she dragged the fat rabbit into her den, the fox heard something. The crunch of snow. Her head shot up and faced the direction of the noise. It could have easily been a deer foraging for fresh grass, or a bit of snow falling from a tree, but it paid dividends to be vigilant.

That is when she saw it. Another monkey. This one was different from the normal kind. It was much like the first one that she and Father had killed. She saw the energy radiating off it, though unlike the flowers of blue, red, yellow, brown, and every other colour she could think of, the energy that came off this monkey was black. It was the first time she had seen such a colour.

Not only was the strange monkey’s aura black, but it also held a wide, manic grin that stretched too far. Blood covered its face as its eyes seemed to droop unnaturally. It’s fur was matted and covered in old, dry blood. The monkey took a step jerking forward as if it were unused to its own body. It breathed heavily as its own skin seemed to hang off it, folds of skin swaying as it moved.

That is when the fox realised it. This wasn’t a monkey. It was something wearing the monkey. Its hand reached out, fingers twisting and cracking unnaturally. They were clearly broken and would have been unusable normally.

The fox was ready to abandon her food, she could always catch another. It was easy these days, as the strange energy inside her built and grew with every passing day. Yet, her instincts screamed at her that this monster didn’t want her food. It wanted her. It wanted to wear her body like it was the monkeys’.

She let out a low growl of warning, her twin tails standing up straight. She had long since gotten used to them, and found them as natural as her first tail. The monkey’s smile seemed to grow even more, causing its lips to split as a second pair of razor-sharp teeth were revealed behind the normal monkey teeth.

Not wasting any more time, the fox summoned an orb of power. They had grown slightly larger and denser since her first time using them. The monkey took this as a signal and lurched forward, leaping from one foot to the other, its upper body flopping about as if only one half could be controlled at a time.

The fox released the orb and it flew towards the monkey. It struck it right in the chest, yet it did not slow the monster at all. The flesh was torn away and the ribs exposed, yet it did not even stumble. The fox panicked and tried to form another orb, yet it was already too late. The thing was upon her, reaching out with a hand.

The golden-eyed fox lept to the side, the orb forming above her. She shot it at the head this time, hoping to deal some damage. It struck right as the monkey turned, landing in the face of the creature. Its skin was blown off, eyes destroyed and visage revealed. A mass of darkness was behind the face, seen through the eyeholes. Something of pure evil that had no true form. It seeped from the eyeholes as smoke, behind inhaled back into the body as the thing simulated breathing.

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The thing spoke, its voice husky and undecipherable. The fox couldn’t tell if it was speaking to her or itself. Either way, the words made her skin crawl and her fur stand up on end. The fluff of white on her head reacted particularly badly, standing up straight. It seemed to drag out its words as if it was struggling to say them.

The fox yipped back at it, forming another energy ball as it seemed to stand still and speak, striking it in the face again. It took the blow again, this time bone began to chip away and its face cracked. More skin was torn away, and more black mass could be seen under the shell.

Leaping back to avoid another strike, the fox was now on the defensive. The thing inhabiting the monkey seemed to have grown tired of whatever game it was playing and began to attack viscously. Arms swung in wild arcs at the fox, its claws lengthening with black miasma. One, twice, three times the fox managed to dodge, unable to form another orb.

Then the claw struck. It was only a nick, barely a scratch on the cheek of the fox as she jumped backwards. Yet, it was enough. Black smoke seeped from the wound as it slowly began to grow in size. The fox panicked and ran further away from the monster, gaining distance. The wound was very slow to grow, but it kept doing so. From a small scratch to an open wound. The black smoke ripped open the wound more and more.

The thing laughed at her, still shambling towards her. It was taking pleasure in the hunt, in the kill. Much like the golden-eyed fox used to take pleasure in hunting and playing with mice, this monster was taking pleasure in hunting and playing with her. This made her angry. Really angry. The angriest she had ever been.

She had been angry and upset when Mother died and Father abandoned her. Yet, on an instinctual level, she understood that this was the way of the world. To fight and die, to expel the strange and protect the familiar. It is how things should work. Yet, this shadow monster was outside that realm. It shouldn’t exist, yet for whatever reason, it did. The energy within stirred at this revelation. It came to her call a little easier, and a little faster.

The orb formed as the energy flushed her body. The energy inside her fought against the invading darkness. The gold pushed it back while the silver acted as a barrier to prevent it from going any further. It strained her to use the energy to protect against the scratch and attack, but she was not willing to get anywhere close to the monster. It was too dangerous to even think of attacking in melee.

The ball of energy launched forward, striking the monster in the shoulder. It stumbled this time, and the fox realised that attacking centre mass was not the smartest idea. That she should attack the more fragile parts. So she did. One moment running away, the next attacking at the knees, arms, shoulders, and feet of the thing.

It took some time and used up a lot of energy. But just as she was starting to run out of the strange energy inside her, the beast finally took another energy ball to the face and its smile faltered. It began to dissipate, the smoke no longer going back into its mouth but instead being pulled away by the wind.

The monkey fell to one knee, the other long since ruined from the constant barrage of attacks. An arm reached out as if to grab her, though she was much too far away. It spoke in it’s strange, rasping language that the fox did not understand. Then, it fell into the snow, it’s entire body turning to smoke, the corpse of the monkey going with it. All that was left behind was a single orb of pure blackness.

Much like a year ago, when the golden-eyed fox was a kit, the core called to her much like the flower did. Luckily, this time she was much stronger, so she didn’t just run towards it like a fool. But the pull was still too strong to ignore. No matter how much her eyes screamed at her that the orb was filled with dark energy, that it was evil, her core called to her to consume the tiny orb.

Advancing slowly and looking around, she picked the orb up in her mouth and swallowed it whole. It should have sunk into her stomach and sat there, yet instead, it turned to liquid the moment she swallowed and seeped into her body. The foxes' energy reserves were immediately filled and overflowed. That barrier that seemed to hold back her energies from expanding even further burst open, and then hit another. There seemed to always be another.

Though she could not see it, her entire face was now covered in pure white fur. It was quite the spectacle. A red fox with a white head and three tails. A new one had split from her left tail, and even though reason would tell you both tails would be smaller than the right tail, they were all the same size and fluffiness. Reason did not always work when dealing with spirit beasts.

Both tired and full of energy, the golden-eyed fox returned to her kill. She was starving now, much more hungry than when she first started. She didn’t know why, but she felt like she could consume an entire family of rabbits. There were many more important things to worry about now that the threat was dealt with. Like eating. She could think about what happened later.