Nogitsune Shrine

[Kumoki]

The smile dies unceremoniously upon Shifter's face as she notices the two seriously wounded and at least unconscious figures lying by the shrine's entrance. Fading from sight, the wind kitsune quickly reappears looking over the fallen form of Kiyumi. As she quickly checks for any strands of life still remaining in the forest kitsune's aura, Shifter's nose crinkles as a grimace of distaste crosses his features.

"I smell a dragon."

Shifter already knows that neither of the fallen kitsune were the cause of the undertone of dragon in their scent, but she wouldn't be surprised if some wyrm was the one responsible for their injuries. Indeed, she suspects that is the case due to the type of injuries marring their bodies. Not many creatures sport claws of that size and, more importantly, would be capable of catching a kitsune.

[Liandria]

[The vixen awoke with a shuddered breath. She had not been anticipating the sudden energy surge and her aura flared again. Her squinted eyes dragged slowly from the wind kitsune studying Kiyumi, to her fellow kiko. She let out a low groan as the sun came into view, magnified by the splitting pain in her head. Her vision slightly blurred and her senses swimming she didn't even try to lift herself to her feet. However, she didn't need to feel the difference in her weight to feel the addition to her tail count. Back to the terrible three... Lovely. Kyuuu, who turned on the sun? The tiny fox waited, tapping into the three quickly, prying whatever conversation would be going on beyond her earshot. Yet she need not waste the energy, Shifter cleared up the obvious for her. She responded weakly, still in her position on the ground.]

// The poor dear had her Kitsune orb stolen... and of course, I wasn't about to let the Nogitsune honor be marred by a filthy reptile. However... The girl passed out after attacking it, and I had to run us both back to the safety of the shrine myself.\\

[But she eyed Tenshi quickly and gave her a flash of a sly smirk, a glint of mischief in her visage.]

// Should have been there Kiko... Too bad he got a hit in though... \\

[Kitsune]

A lone demon wolf trots into the kitchen and spots Entei sleeping soundly on the floor among pots and pans. He sniffs around cautiously before approaching the kit and carefully grabs him by the scruff of fur on his neck. Lifting him up, he trots out of the kitchen and into the main hall where he waits for another.

Down in the amphitheater, another demon wolf appears from the shadows and looks around. After confirming the raccoon-dog's location, he trots over to him and grabs him by the collar of his robes. Thankfully, the wolf is large enough to hold most of him up, leaving only his tail to drag on the ground. The cushion he had been sleeping on returns to its original shape on its own, but the tanuki remains asleep. The demon wolf turns away and slinks back into the shadows, reappearing in the main hall next to the wolf carrying Entei. Together, they slip through the front door and trot down the front stair, ignoring everything around them for the most part.

As they leave, other wolves join them as do the Foragers and other dark minions assigned to watch over the shrine. They slip into the shadows of the nearby forest, passing through to a separate dimension before jumping to another where they were told to wait. Soon the procession of leaving demons thins out as the last of them slip into the forest. Without their presence, the shrine seems brighter now. That strange aura of dark energy that surrounded the place comes to an end and things are back to the way they were before Kitsune sent her minions to act as guards.

[Sayuriko]

Kiyumi twitches, sulphur eyes abruptly snapping open, she couldn't quite move entirely yet, but the forest energies drawn towards her from the foilage little aways worked wonders upon the golden vixen. Sniffing, she secured herself upon silver paws, then attempted to regain her capacity, utterly failing of course. With a tiny squeal, she collapsed again, double tails gingerly wrapping themselves around her kitsune structure.

"I'm ... Sorry. Magickal effects."

She hoped they'd understand, her body still struggling with getting upon her paws again. She was disappointed with her mana, emptying almost entirely with one major attack. Of course it dealt a hefty number upon the dragon's frontside, enough to make the creature drop the kitsune ball in pain - the burns would of remained on the dragon for months has it lived. One may underestimate her magick, but although only a two-tailer wields it, her magick is deadly; to everyone, especially herself. If her enemy does now crumple beneath one powerful attack, then she herself is undoubtly doomed because all energy is faithfully placed within that one attack. Hasty, unintelligent perhaps, but oftentimes effective. Sighing, she quite decided her own mental wounds could wait, and with a quick uttering of "Cure." a healing spell was cast upon the spirit fox. She was uncertain if the cure was enough to at least stem the wound, since so little mana was leftover, but she had no time to see since her energy was drained yet again, and she went into an unconscious state.

[Isa_Undine]

Isa felt the shadow minions take Entei, and watched as another took Tanuki-san away to the forest. She wondered about Taniruya, wether or not she was still being gaurded as it seemed the shadow minions were leaving. She sighed. Guess I get to do my laundry by myself after all... Picking up the bar of soap and shirt that she had accidently given the illusionary Entei piece of bread, she dutifully got back to work cleaning her kimono.

[Kumoki]

Whatever response Shifter would have had for Liandra dies in her throat as her attention is drawn towards Kitsune's minions leaving the shrine en masse. Incapable of doing anything more than stare at the unexpected sight, she watches as they all march off.

After staring at the silent forest they receded into for a long moment the wind kitsune finally regains just enough presence of mind to voice her question. "What in the hells just happened?"

[Kitsune]

Thrilled to finally have made it to the shrine, Kitsune swoops down from the clouds and lands in the grass near a tree. She folds her wings and gently sets her cargo (the two male kitsune that had wandered to her forest earlier) down in front of her, keeping a wary eye on the ocean kitsune in particular. She had left him bound by the roots and vines the entire time and for the first time, she considers releasing him. First thing first, however.

With expert precision, she grips the enchanted ring on Ieyasu's finger between her sharp claws and pulls it off, freeing him from the form-locking magic. Again, she does not wait to see him return to his normal male appearance. With that job done, she turns back to Alyosha and slices the vines apart, freeing him from their hold. Now that Ieyasu isn't so defenseless, he can surely fend for himself.

Exhausted and too weary to walk back to the shrine to speak with anyone at the moment, the winged demon resigns next to the tree and keeps to herself. She stretches her large body out and spreads her feathered wings flat in the grass to her sides. "This form will be the death of me. I just know it." She heaves a sigh and shuts her eyes, panting in a futile attempt to cool off.

((Dunno what you can do about Taniruya, Isa. I can't take her now.))

[Akina]

Akina set out the last of her laundry to dry.
"There," she wiped her brow with the edge of her shirt. "Chores done and time to head off and search for Kitsune. Alright I'll see you later Tanu-" The young silver vixen spun in circles for a moment trying to figure out where the old raccoon dog had left to.
"Odd, most people would take a longer rest than that if they were in Tanuki's position. Wonder what's going on?"
Closing her eyes for a moment, the forest fox relaxed her body and tried using her sharp senses of hearing and smell to pick up any abnormalities. Though she heard nothing, her nose did pick up something familiar.
"That smell... no... there's more than one... who are they? The last one especially, is hard to place."
Curiosity taking over, Akina shifted into her full fox form and sped off like a bullet towards the not-so-new scents.

[Shifter]

With the wind kitsune's interest in the departure of Kitsune's minions waning, she returns her attention to Kiyumi. She has already noticed that the spirit kitsune's troubles are more from energy loss than injuries, so returning her to the land of the waking should not be too much trouble with their difference in spiritual abilities.

Quickly deciding that the poor vixen has been unconscious long enough, she projects a tenth of her accumulated spiritual strength away from her aura in a small globe of chi while wincing slightly from the uncomfortable strain of giving up a piece of her strength. As a six tail she is well aware of how far that much power could go for a young adult kitsune while still not becoming overwhelming.

Mentally manuvering the released portion of her acquired life force next to the kiko's aura before said energy can fall apart, Shifter calmly watches for the inevitable result once the kiko's instincts involving a free meal within easy reach take over. Unlike Tenshi she wasn't in mind to risk the kiko attempting to forcibly drain away even more energy by accident before fully waking up.

((Blech, I know I forgot to post with the alternate account. *grumbles about not being able to delete posts in this forum* XP))

[Sayuriko]

(( Isn't Liandria already awake? o_o -re-reads her post in confusion- Yeaaaah ... ... -blinks- ))

[Ieyasu]

As Kitsune removed the ring, Ieyasu stared at her with an expression of dawning realisation. So that old hag *was* able to remove that f***ing ring! Before she could speak however, an odd tingling feeling washed over her again. She was shifting back...

Once again Ieyasu was a male youko. And this time, he wasn't formlocked. With a small growl, he shifted into his small, white fox form, disentangling himself from the clothes that now lay on the ground. He flicked his tail from side to side, small sparks of electrical energy leaping from his fur. Both the shapeshifted void and Alyosha then received a venomous glare from the young thunder fox.

Ieyasu spun around, turning away from the both of them and headed inside. He intended to seek the peace and quiet of the amphitheatre, where there would be no huge demon dogs, stinking geomancers and probably few other kitsune to bother him.

[Kumoki]

As Shifter watches Ieyasu pass by in his natural form a single thought passes through her mind despire her emotionally controlled expression. 'What in the hells?'

By now the wind kitsune was completely confused. While she would have only been mildly curious as to how the youth had managed to escape the effects of the form locking artifact had that incident occured alone, seeing this along with the departure of Kitsune's minions within the same day leads she to suspect that the events are related and that the void is up to something. 'But the only answer that makes sense is...'

Now worried that Kitsune is about to attempt something of a likely permanent nature, the silver vixen looks at her 'sister' nervously. "Suppose we should hold off on the reason we came here and figure out what Kitsune has planned, Tenshi-san?"

[Tenshi]

(( apologies. stressed ))

[.Gently removing her paw from her fellow kiko, Tenshi takes a slow breath, quite drained from the energy transfer, as well as the fact that she now only had half her spiritual energy. Trying not to appear so much less energized, she turns to Shifter, nodding with narrowed eyes at his comment about the dragon scent. A small smirk crosses her face as she recieves Liandria's message, and she looks down at the tiny fox with shimmering orbs.]

'You did well, my kiko. Couldn't have done better myself. ..rest now.'

However, she too follow's the wind fox's gaze to Kitsune's minions, and then to Ieyasu, now male once again. Almost as confused as Shifter seemed, she nods towards her again, backing away from Lia.]

"Yes, I'm sure these two will be fine now... What is happening?? ...."

[.She cocks her head curiously, staring at the forest where the Thunder fox had just emerged from, and then to Shifter again. Silently, she thought to herself while waiting to follow his lead.]

[Kumoki]

((No need to freak out about your computer problems. We all have had schedule conflicts.))

Not realizing that Kitsune is resting nearby, Shifter thinks of the most likely place she would be able to find the void. "I am planning on visiting her forest to find out. Do you wish to come along, or would you rather help those two into the shrine proper while I find out the story?" Briefly looking at the exhausted vixens, the wind kitsune waits for Tenshi's response.

[Tenshi]

[.The white vixen hesitates a moment in thought, looking from the forest to the two golden foxes beneath her. After a few moments of silence, she snaps playfully at the exhaused kiko, and turns to the wind fox to speak.]

"With the amount of energy I gave Liandria, she'll be fine to get herself into the Shrine in a bit. There's little I can do for them now, and I am quite curious of the strange happenings with Kitsune. As long as it wouldn't disturb you any, if I...drained a portion of the forest near the Shrine to regain my lost spiritual energy, I'd be glad to accompany you. I can control it enough now so that I won't touch your soul, nor your spiritual energy source."

[.She smiles again, happy that she could say that with confidence. It would be terrible to accidentally drain a friend of their energy, and she had done that before in her younger years.
Before in her travels to the kyubi's lair, she had teleported a good portion of the way, but as Shifter had not mentioned using this form of travel, she looked about, wondering as to which way they had to begin. But, in a second realization, she grinned, and relaxed, realzing she wasn't on her own this time--like usual. It would be somewhat of a relief to be with someone older than she--someone she could trustingly follow, rather than struggle through things on her own, learning the hard way more than was necissary.]