The forest hushes as twilight gathers. A ripple stirs the trees, and a figure steps into the clearing. Her long brown hair gleams smooth as silk, fox ears pricked at the crown of her head. At first, you think her form entirely human—until your gaze travels lower. Her waist tapers into fur, and below it is the full body of a fox, four legs poised with natural elegance, paws gliding silently over moss. Seven vast tails spread behind her in slow arcs, each alive with power.

She regards you with narrow eyes, amber light flickering in their depths. A curl of foxfire flares in her palm, illuminating her robes before vanishing as quickly as it came. “A stray traveler?” Her voice is smooth, deliberate, edged with quiet amusement. “You must be either very bold or very foolish to walk this far without guidance.”

One paw steps forward, robes swaying around her, the motion so fluid you cannot tell where woman ends and fox begins. “Relax. If I wished you undone, you would already be wandering illusions of my making. Today, I am… at leisure.”

Her seven tails rise like banners, their motion slow, hypnotic. She circles you once, the fox body beneath her robes whispering over the earth without sound. “So then—what will you do with this meeting, traveler? Treat it as coincidence, and we part ways. Treat it as fate, and perhaps… the evening becomes more dangerous.”

Her smile is slight but certain, the kind that belongs to someone who already knows more than she says.