A little fox ran through the bushes and raced towards the fence. It had dug a hole several days ago. The sound of little feet chasing behind it, rocks flying in the air trying to hit the fleeing kit.

"Go around, there's a hole in the fence," yelled one of the chasers.

"Don't worry that fox is not getting away Paul," grinned one of the boys as he raced with two others around to the other side of the fence.

The fox darted out and skidded to a stop when it saw the three boys. It raced back towards the hole to see sharp sticks poking repeatedly. It backed up and was cornered between two sides of the fence. It trembled with fear as its eyes looked everywhere trying to figure a way out.

The boys hurled the rocks they carried. In the confined space, the fox couldn't dodge as well and got hit with two of the large rocks. One against its leg which caused the fox to make a cry of pain, and the other against its head which silenced it. The kit slumped to the ground breathing in a daze.

The remaining two boys ran over with the sharp sticks.

"We got it, Paul. What do you want to do with it?"

"Well Ben, we can cage it but we don't have a cage. So maybe we should just poke holes in it," grinned the sadistic Paul.

The other three boys looked at each other hesitant to kill a living thing even though they were accomplices to capturing it.

"Get away from the fox you bullies!" yelled a scrawny kid, racing up with a little league baseball bat.

He swung at Ben and connected into his gut causing the bigger boy to fall to the ground clutching his stomach. Paul grabbed the other stick from the minion and used the two together to block the bat from hitting him.

"You think you are strong enough to hit me Arthur?" he sneered at the kid with the bat.

Paul pushed the bat away to the side with force causing Arthur to fall. The bully kicked at the scrawny kid and reached for the bat.

"You... are... just... a... weak... boy. You... can't... beat... me!" The bully yelled as he swung the bat repeatedly between words.

Ben looked over with fear as he saw Arthur bleeding and unconscious. "Paul, let's get out of here. We'll get in trouble."

Paul looked down at the beaten boy, watching with satisfaction at the blood coming out of his nose and lips. He dropped the bat and ran with the other boys. He was in the mood to hurt something and he forgot all about the fox now that he beat up his favorite punching bag from school.

The little fox peeked through the hole on the other side of the fence. It saw the other boys run away and smelled the scent of blood. It crawled through and limped closer. It paused every few steps fearing that the boy on the floor would get up and hit it.

The breathing was shallow. The fox knew that the boy was in trouble. It got closer and sensed something inside the boy. It looked back at the hole in the fence wanting to run to safety, but the boy had helped it.

It limped closer and bit its flesh where it was already limping. It raised the paw closer to the boy's lips and let some of its blood drip down into the human's mouth. It waited and let the blood drip. Its bright eyes watched the chest and felt the mana erupt from the boy's heart and started to heal the wounds.

It leaned close and licked the boy's face, the little tongue tasted the blood. The bright eyes gleamed in surprise at the mana-rich blood. It was so powerful that the little fox grew a second tail on the spot and the pain from its leg was gone.

The fox furrowed its brow in concentration and slowly became a little girl with fox ears, the two tails swishing behind her.

She touched the boy's cheek and whispered into his ear, "Thank you for saving me, Arthur. I will repay this debt one day."

Arthur was still unconscious when the little girl turned back into a fox with two tails. It darted to the hole and went through. She peeked one more time at Arthur's form hesitating to leave then she was gone.

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Arthur woke up with the two girls snuggled on each side of him. He didn't move as he stared at the ceiling. He had dreamt about the time Paul and Ben had bullied a little fox. He recollected getting beaten up badly and couldn't move. He remembered that he couldn't open his eyes because the bat had hit them and it hurt to open his eyes. He lay there when the boys had left then something dripped into his mouth.

He remembered a little girl being there and what she said. It didn't make sense because he didn't do anything for the little girl. He had closed his eyes when he felt a warmth spread over his body and he felt drowsy. He remembered opening his eyes a little to see a two-tailed fox crawling through the hole to go away.

He bolted up which woke the two girls from the sudden movement.

"What is it my lord?" asked Dani concerned, her quick mental acuity was faster. Amy yawned first then looked at her boyfriend.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"I... I just remembered something from my past that I had forgotten. I saved a little fox once. I think I saved a young kitsune."

"There are no kitsune around here, at least not to my knowledge. They also have magic abilities so I wouldn't be surprised if they can hide in plain sight," mused the elf.

"I think Kelrick is right. The Doll's Heart is merging with me. It's giving me access to memories that I normally couldn't remember." He touched his chest and got up to go to Amy's vanity.

Arthur stared at his chest and called up the magical sight that he'd been using to peel the layers back. He could see the formerly round crystal but it looked like it was superimposed with his own heart. He blinked a few times when he sensed more than he saw and peeled more layers.

"Ummm... I need something to draw with quick."

Amy grabbed one of her sketchbooks and a pencil and put it in front of Arthur. Both of the women pulled up chairs and watched Arthur draw a ring that had eight equal segments, but only one segment was glowing.

Arthur put the pencil down and looked at the ring. "I think I need to have Kelrick and Vex look at this. This might be the thing my parents said that my savior put in my heart. The thing that allowed me to claim ownership over the labyrinths."

"Don't take a picture of it. Let's leave it as a drawing only. We don't want anyone to know you have it. Let's leave it to the three of us and the two robots," said Amy then tugged the two towards the bathroom.

Dani smiled as the three started to have a little bit of a routine of taking a shower in the morning, especially after their marathon activity. She believed even if they didn't, they would have kept the routine.

The three ate a quick breakfast and then sped off to the Camelot Estate. They crossed the gate and saw the skeletons of several building structures coming up. These were the outer buildings close to the gate.

The rest of the drive was clear of obstruction until the makeshift tent city. There didn't seem to be any plans to build in this area and Arthur stroked his chin. "I think we need a building or two here near the gate. Maybe a wall and a hollow castle with ramparts. Just to protect the gate. What do you both think?"

"Octagonal hollow castle with eight lookout or defense towers with an outer wall that is spaced around 100 feet from the castle. This can give us a kill zone if someone ventures through the walls and the people on the ramparts can fire with cover," suggested the elf.

"Where is Jethro anyway? Wasn't he supposed to be running the place in our absence?"

"He's most likely in the Morlock labyrinth."

"Why there?"

"Because he's scouting the area with a few Sentinels to pick a spot for Camelot."

"Someone tell him to focus on the Camelot outside of the labyrinth. I don't want him messing with the tenuous diplomacy that I have with the non-humans that are there. Even though Iluria is favorable, the rest of the Morlocks might not be so happy about being relocated."

"Spoken like a true king, but you forget you have a queen and a consort. The Morlocks are very happy in their new home. Not to mention being able to eat normal food instead of whatever they could hunt for in the sewers and scraps. They also brought back a few of those lizards that Kelrick called basilisk. They had hoods over their heads so that we don't get affected," chimed Valkyrie.

"Did you feed them pizza?"

"Yup, I had Jethro order a lot of pizzas so that when we arrived they had a dungeon pizza party," grinned Danistrae

Arthur laughed as he walked with the two towards the gate. "We'll need to get into our gear. We have to go visit the faeries."

"Right, your new labyrinth. The gatekeeper told you that their queen was waiting for you. We shouldn't keep them waiting my king," grinned Valkyrie.

They entered the Morlock gate and went to the dungeon where they were given a few rooms to use. After they put on their equipment, they dropped by Kelrick and Vex.

Arthur watched as the two robots seemed to be in a deep discussion. "Am I interrupting?"

"Ahh, just the human we were waiting for. Here fill these up," answered Vex as the stocky robot handed him two vials that were normally used to take blood.

The young leader looked at the vials, "With what?"

"Your blood. We want to test a theory," the giant grinned causing the robot's face to expose metallic teeth.

"We have been experimenting with our robotic bodies. While they are sturdy, durable, and quite mobile. Our mana capacity is limited to the crystal which we dare not deplete. We both had magical abilities that relied on mana so we wondered if we could test mixing your blood into the mana-infused liquid to see what it would do," explained Kelrick.

"Can I do this later? I have to go visit the fairies. Maybe after?"

Vex frowned but nodded, "That is acceptable."

"By the way, have either of you seen this before?" Arthur pulled out the page with the drawing of the eight-segment ring.

Kelrick shook his head in the negative.

Vex stared at the drawing and pulled the paper closer. "I've never seen this before but I heard about it. Where did this drawing come from?"

"I drew it."

"Did you see this in a book? I would like to see that book," said the giant as he tilted the drawing in different ways.

"No book. I drew what I saw... in here," the young man tapped his chest.

"You have the Guardian ring inside of you?"

"I am guessing that it was what saved me as a baby. Someone put this in me. Also Kelrick, your suspicion is correct. The Doll's Heart is merging with my heart and that ring."

Vex the robot dropped the drawing in surprise. "Merging? The Guardian ring alone would give you a major wellspring of mana. You add the Doll's Heart to it and I can't even fathom how deep that well is."

The two robots looked at each other and then nodded in silent understanding. "We need a few drops of your blood, some to Vex and some to me," said the elf robot.

Arthur sighed and took out a dagger, "Where do I drop it into?"

Each robot extended an arm, and they both opened a compartment that looked to be a reservoir with fluid in it. "Drop it in here. We want to test your blood before you are fully merged. We might not need a full vial if what Vex suspects is true."

Arthur did as he was told and let three drops fall into each reservoir. The moment the blood diffused into the fluid, there was a surge within the bodies of the robots, and the light shining through their eyes was brighter.

"And this is before he's fully merged," said Vex laughing.

"We could have fought in that mission for three days on this amount of mana," replied the elf robot.

"We'll let you know when this mana dissipates. We don't want to bleed you regularly," laughed the giant.

Arthur rolled his eyes, "Well you two have fun, I will come back to fill you both in about the faeries."

Dani and Valkyrie were looking at the robots' room when Arthur returned to them. "Let's head out of the gate and I'll change the destination to the faery labyrinth."

Once they crossed back to Earth, Valkyrie told her boyfriend what they saw. The two robots have been experimenting and building things that would be a combination of elven and giant knowledge. They were also building weapons for them to use.

Arthur chuckled, "Kelrick was a swordsman and archer, so I suspect he would want those weapons again. What was Vex building for himself?"

"Well, it looked like a large long-handled hammer. It wasn't finished so we'll have to wait until they are done," Dani said with a quirk on her lips.