Ren watched carefully from his spot, wondering how much longer Jae was going to be. He hoped she would come back soon because he was starting to get worried. Suddenly a howl rang miles from behind him. His eyes widened.

“Oh no, that’s Alice. What do I do? I can’t just ignore it…but what if Jae isn’t back by then? She’ll have my head!” Ren debated internally as he looked back and forth from the city to the forest. He worried his lip before calling back to Alice hoping that Jae would be back by the time they got there.

On the other side of the call, Alice blinked in surprise. Ren’s call sounded like it came from the direction of the city. Her eyes widened. Oh goodness, she wouldn’t.

“Minhyun, Yooyoung! Let’s go! I feel Jae has gotten herself into some trouble,” Alice sighed as she rushed towards the direction of Ren’s call. At the mention of their human pack member in danger, the two of them perked up immediately and followed Alice.

~

“YongGuk! What is the deal? Why are you calling a patrol at this hour?” HimChan questioned as the leader entered the office. YongGuk didn’t even bother greeting his second-in-command and immediately geared up for patrolling. He put his safety vest on and checked to make sure his gun was loaded.

“YONGGUK!” HimChan cried in annoyance. He really didn’t like being ignored especially when he was being made to work more. He was just about to leave and now YongGuk wanted to make him to go on patrol as a team? The leader clearly had lost his mind. Before YongGuk could answer, the door was thrown open by an extremely irritated YoungJae with an anxious JongUp and JunHong in tow.

“Really, Hyung? REALLY?! DATE. I was in the middle of a DATE. And you want us to go patrol?! Why?!” YoungJae complained furiously. The oldest member sighed, opening his mouth to answer when DaeHyun burst through the door.

“HELP. PLEASE. I BEG YOU. SOMEONE,” he rasped out as he dragged an extremely reluctant, thrashing female behind him. The exhausted DaeHyun watched in disbelief as the other five members merely stared at him silently and not moving. “…ARE YOU PEOPLE DEAF? HELP ME. I HAD TO DRAG HER ALL THE WAY HERE.”

“Sorry, I’m just confused as to why you didn’t just use a teleportation spell to get here if you were having such difficulties,” YoungJae responded as he put the girl in a giant bubble. DaeHyun glared at the younger member.

“Don’t talk to me,” he huffed.

“Who is she?” JunHong wondered as he tilted his head at the mysterious female, who shied away from JunHong’s stare.

“No clue. She won’t tell me but she was going to steal food or something, so I grabbed her,” DaeHyun grunted out as he flopped over on the couch, nursing his bitten arm.

“Right, so…as I was saying,” HimChan began again. “What exactly have we gathered here for? Because I really would like to go home and sleep…and not work.”

“I feel something unsettling from the East side,” YongGuk answered seriously.

Silence.

“You’re joking.”

“DATE.”

“Do you know how hard it was for me to get this thing here?!”

“I’m hungry…can we do this tomorrow?”

“How old is she?”

YongGuk sighed, “Guys, have I ever made you do something completely unreasonable? I’m serious. I just…I have this really weird feeling and I want to check it out, but I don’t know what it is…”

“We’re going on patrol because you have a feeling? What the hell, Hyung? Have you lost your marbles?!” YoungJae groaned, still fairly ticked that he had to end his date with HaNa before it even started for this.

“Well…we’re all here anyways, so why don’t we just go check it out?” JongUp suggested with a smile in an attempt to prevent any fighting from occurring.

“Let’s go,” HimChan sighed.

“What do we do with her?” JunHong asked, poking the bubble.

“Don’t poke it or it’ll break,” YoungJae warned with a mumble. He was still irritated about the whole incident. The magnae obediently stopped poking it.

“Considering she’s not talking, she’ll be here when we get back,” YongGuk decided, looking the girl over. Despite the fact that she curled herself up defensively, she glared harshly as if warning any of them to come near her.

The six of them geared up and left for the east part of the city.

~

The werewolves that went to gather food returned to find Jihye and Seungho passed out on the ground.

“Jihye? Jihye, are you okay?” Sungyeol called out as he shook the kappa. Dongwoo went to wake up Seungho up. With a groan, Jihye woke from her forced nap and tried to reorient herself to being awake. “What happened?”

“I…I have no idea. I just suddenly felt really sleepy…it was really weird,” she answered with a shake of her head.

“Kira…Kira is missing,” Hoya reported in a cautious, almost unsure voice. But as the reality sank in, the volume of his voice increased. “Jihye, Kira is missing! How…how is she missing?! She’s on the verge of death! She couldn’t have just gotten up and walked away!”

“Kira’s missing?” Seungho rasped as he began to wake up as well. “That’s impossible…unless whoever made us fall asleep took Kira as well.”

“Who would want her?” Woohyun asked with genuine curiosity.

With a growl, Hoya grabbed Jihye’s neck for the second time that day as he yelled, “How could you let this happen?! She’s dying! Who knows if she’s going to make it or not if she’s out there?!”

“Hoya, I understand you’re upset but what do you want me to do about it? It’s not like I wanted to fall asleep. I’m telling you, Seungho and I fell asleep for unknown reasons. Whoever took her must have-”

“She’s DYING, Jihye! We don’t have time!” he screamed, no longer listening to what anyone was saying.

“Don’t talk to me as if I don’t care. Kira is a good friend of mine, too. Not to mention she’s gotten me at least half of my equipment here, so stop insinuating that I’m just letting her die right now!” Jihye hissed back. He breathed heavily while glaring at Jihye.

“Hoya, stand down,” Sunggyu commanded firmly from his sick bed, waking up from his artificial nap. Despite the crippled form of the leader, the lower ranking werewolf obeyed, releasing Jihye from his grasp. He scoffed in annoyance, turning to leave.

“Fine, I’ll go find her myself…if she’s not dead already,” he snarled.

~

“Are you sure you don’t want to wait for the others to come back before you left?” Jieun wondered warily. “I feel I’m going to be on a werewolf hit list if they find out their little fox is gone.”

“Meh, they’ll figure it out eventually. Besides, this won’t take long. We’ll just get you in, see your half-pint, and get out,” Kira responded flippantly. She led the cautious fae to the east side of the Wall. “The security on this side of the Wall tends to be very loose because this is the part where a lot of the mage messengers travel back and forth between cities. The Wall repels magic, so the mages have to actually open and close this side of the Wall a lot in order to get through. In order to do so, they use these special mirrors as reflectors so the magic that keeps the Wall together never actually gets broken. And I just so happened to swipe one the other day from a mage that was leaving the city. They’re cheap, so he probably just thought he lost it along the way. Problem is that these mirrors don’t work unless they’re activated by magic.”

“Ah, I get it, so you want me to activate the mirror like a mage and use it to get across,” Jieun interrupted, realizing where Kira was going with this plan.

“Exactly, so I can shapeshift into a mage and lead you across, pretending to have found a sick person on my long journey from across the forest. There’s a guard on duty but he has become so used to his routine that he doesn’t check very clearly unless you give him a reason to,” the fox informed as she handed Jieun the mirror for her to power up.

“Okay, but why do you need to go across with me? Isn’t it dangerous for you?” the fae asked in concern for her friend.

Kira laughed, “Because you are the worst liar ever. It’ll be easier and quicker this way.”

“Alright, let’s go then.”

Kira “dressed” herself up into her mage disguise and took the mirror from Jieun. The vixen wrapped a cloth from her disguise around Jieun’s head to hide her face in case they recognize her before moving out. They entered with ease as Kira just lied straight through her teeth to the guard, the male mage not even bothering to look up at their new visitors. She bowed respectfully before dragging Jieun carefully to the other side of the gate. Once they were out of sight range of the mage on duty, Kira grinned slyly at Jieun, fixing the cloth around her head so her face couldn’t be seen.

“Alright, get going. It’s always best to do these things as quickly as possible. Especially since you are technically dead to these people. If anyone finds you, it’ll be trouble for you and that human of yours,” the fox informed wisely, not missing a beat and smirking when Jieun pouted indignantly at her teasing. Right as they were about to leave, the two demons froze at the sound of more voices going towards the direction of the guard. It seems there was an argument going on, so all their voices just mashed together in a big ruckus. However, Jieun recognized all their voices, especially one of them.

“That’s…them!” the fae gasped quietly as she looked up to see where they were. Kira pulled her down before she was seen.

The fox hissed at the one-track-minded fae, “Do you want to get caught?! The others don’t know you’re alive, do they?! Aish, seriously, I don’t understand why you’re doing all this. But I’m not one to judge. I’ll distract them by running circles around them while you stay hidden and call out to their leader dude once he’s alone.”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Jieun wondered worriedly as she chewed her lower lip. “What if you get caught?”

“I’ll get out eventually. Trust me. It’s going to take more than a couple of mages to keep me chained up. Besides I’ve heard that group purposefully doesn’t get familiars, so I should be fine and I sure as hell haven’t done anything that would warrant me getting killed. I’ll just start panicking, you know? And they’ll get confused at let me go,” Kira said with confidence. Before Jieun could disagree, she shifted back into her fox humanoid form and threw a rock in their direction.

“Hey, half-pints! Is anyone interested in tacking a fox pelt on their wall of rare demons?” Kira called out with a toothy grin as she swished her tail back and forth at B.A.P right before dashing off. As HimChan reprimanded the gate guard for his carelessness, the other five members began to give chase. Kira was significantly faster than the boys and their dogs. However she didn't bother covering up her scent trail on purpose, so the dogs could follow her away from Jieun. They agreed to split up so they could corner her. The six of them broke into two groups of three once HimChan caught up and ran in opposite directions to see if they could loop around her.

“I thought foxes were extinct around here. How is it that there’s a fox in our city?” JongUp asked the question all six of them were thinking.

“I bet you it’s that damn fox that’s been those recent breaches into the city,” YoungJae scoffed as he commanded his dog to take a different path. “I’m going to take a shortcut and see if I can cut her off.”

“Yah, YoungJae! Get back here!” DaeHyun commanded in an attempt to keep the younger member in line, but YoungJae ignored him completely. “Aish, I swear YongGukkie-hyung is gonna kill him one of these days for not listening.”

“Don’t worry, YoungJae-hyungie may be unpredictable sometimes but he always comes out in the end,” JongUp laughed as the two continued their planned route around the long way to trap Kira.

On the other side, the three of them gave chase directly towards Kira. Without warning, YongGuk’s partner, Tigger, halted and perked his ears up in the opposite direction that Kira was running. YongGuk observed which way Tigger was looking and followed his dog’s eyes to a shadow moving on the side. His eyes widened.

“It can’t be…” he mumbled to himself.

“YongGuk?” HimChan called out from afar.

“Keep going! I’m going to check something out. When you get a hold of the fox, just…throw her out of the city,” the leader commanded, running in the opposite direction as Tigger led the way.

“Throw her out? Yah! She’s responsible for all the…random things happening recently!” HimChan argued but YongGuk was already long gone. “Some days I really want to just bang his head repeatedly on the ground. JunHong, let’s go.”

As HimChan and JunHong gave chase to Kira, YongGuk followed the shadow he saw darting behind the bushes. It finally stopped when YongGuk was a good distance away from the rest of s.

“W-What…it is you. I thought…” YongGuk stuttered for a moment before double checking behind him to make sure that there really was no one there. Tigger went up to greet the one that called out to him while YongGuk continued in a whispered tone, “What are you doing here, Jieun? Everyone thinks you’re dead.”

“I know…and I feel really badly for making Kira run your boys in circles, but I just…wanted to make sure you guys were okay,” she whispered back, staring down at her toes as she scratched the back of Tigger’s ear. “You haven’t had any trouble with any Stymphalian birds, have you? Rumor in the forest is that they were planning to attack your human city to feed their overgrowing population. I…feel bad that you gave up familiars for my safety. So I came back to give you a gift in return for sparing my life.”

“Gift? What gi-”

His eyes widened in shock as Jieun pulled him down by his collar and kissed him fully on the lips. He had no idea what to do and just sat frozen the whole time as Jieun kissed him. YongGuk was so out of it that he didn’t even noticed Jieun’s wings sprouting out behind her. The two of them glowed for a moment as they kissed. As Jieun pulled away, the glow dimmed until they were once again surrounded by semi-darkness behind the bushes. Jieun’s wings disappeared by the time YongGuk pulled himself back into the present, completely confused as to what had just happened.

“I have granted you the ability to speak and to understand your canine companion into your language, so you can work more smoothly with your partner. It’s difficult to—YongGuk? Are you okay?” Jieun questioned in concern, clueless as to why YongGuk was suddenly so flustered, blubbering words she couldn’t understand. She shook his shoulder lightly, breaking him out of his trance. He covered his mouth and blushed profusely as his cheeks and ears turned into the color of a tomato.

“Why…why did you-”

“Master? Are you okay? You look concerned…should I make her go away?” Tigger said to YongGuk before growling at Jieun. The mage’s jaw dropped.

“You just…did you just…TALK TO ME?!” YongGuk marveled in complete awe, though he was also a little creeped out.

“That’s what I just said…” Jieun pouted, feeling ignored.

“Wow, so you just…wow…that’s…amazing. Um…thank you, Jieun…but why did you come all the way back here to do that?” he wondered in confusion. “You’re risking a lot by doing all this…”

“Because I’m worried. The Stymphalian birds know of the Wall. They aren’t completely stupid. Yet they seem more adamant about expanding their numbers even if it means attacking the city. There might be a spy of some sort in the city, and no one was aware,” she explained seriously. Then she began mumbling while playing with her fingers, “I also just…wanted to see you again. …I’ve missed you.”

The two of them stole glances at each other for a bit before finally sharing a look. They smiled gently at one another. The moment was lost when YongGuk realized that he needed to get her out before anyone else finds her.

“Come on. I need to get you out before anyone else sees you,” he whispered.

“Wait! Kira’s still being chased by the rest of the boys! I can’t leave without her,” she argued, but YongGuk shook his head.

“I told them to throw her out if they catch her. If not, I’m sure she’ll get out on her own somehow. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure she goes on the other side of the barrier after I get you out,” he promised as he led her away.

~

“I think she went this way,” HimChan called out as his dog went one direction.

“But…Brownie says she went this way…” JongUp disagreed based on the direction his own dog was going.

“She couldn’t have gone two ways at once…”

Kira snickered from the top of a tree hanging over the two mages who couldn’t figure out which way she went. She had sent out her fox fires in different direction to confuse the dogs and watched them run in circles. Swiftly and silently, she jumped out of the tree and in the opposite direction back towards the Wall so she could get out. She figured the half-pint with Jieun will let her out safely, which means she needed to find her own way out. Security at the gate they just came in would have increased since they were found out. But there was no way that they could spread the news that quickly to strengthen the whole forcefield, which means she needed to just find another part of the Wall and break it apart enough for her to jump through.

Silently, she crept towards the Wall where no one was standing and fired a blast of fire at the Wall. To her surprise, the fire extinguished into thin air before it could reach the Wall. When she moved forward to check what had gone wrong, she ran into a barrier of some sort. Her eyes widened as she felt around for a way out only to realize that she was trapped in an invisible enclosure of some sort. She blasted another ball of flames at her containment, but the fire disappeared just like before.

“I had a feeling you might try to escape around the Wall near the entrance that you came,” she heard from behind her. Kira whipped around to find one of the mages smirking victoriously at her. “To outwit a fox, you must think like a fox. You may be faster than us, but you aren’t fast enough to get to the other side of the Wall. You couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to try to break through where you came from. So I set up traps all along the Wall for about 2 kilometers both ways.”

While she was glaring at him the whole time he was speaking, Kira’s menacing stare became a mischievous grin.

“I must say I am impressed. But the joke’s on you, half-pint, because there is nothing you could possibly arrest me for,” she cackled with a sideways glance. “After all, I haven’t done anything to warrant an arrest, am I right?”

It was YoungJae’s turn to glare at her. “What are you talking about, Fox?”

“I mean, sure, I’ve broken into the Wall many times but do you have some sort of rule against demons coming in and out without harming anyone? I may have stole a few things here and there, but they were all from trash that you humans toss everywhere anyways, so I could hardly call that a crime. Yes, I led a group of vampires into the cow farm but none of the cows died nor were they poisoned in any way. It’s my job to help demons in need since you stupid humans keep expanding your territory into our space. But I have yet to hurt anyone or damage their livelihood in any way. And even if I did, you have no proof. Are we not all innocent until proven guilty?” she reasoned with a crooked smile, revealing all her misdemeanors without shame.

“…who are you?” he questioned suspiciously, realizing that this demon had planned her every move once she stepped foot into the city. “I thought foxes were extinct from this area after the War. From what I heard, the demons killed off all the foxes for being traitors to the demon species because they were relaying information for humans as well as demons.”

The brief flare of anger that sparked through her eyes did not go unnoticed to YoungJae.

He continued curiously, “Am I wrong? Foxes were used as spies for the demons…but then they…”

She looked away from him and stared at the ground. YoungJae started piecing together everything that he understood. When a revelation hit him, his eyes widened in disbelief.

“You…you were one of the spies, weren’t you? That would explain how you’ve managed to escape us all this time. We didn’t even know foxes still exist around here,” he stated more to himself than to her.

“That’s because they don’t,” she scoffed bitterly. “…I’m the only fox in this area.”

“How could you have possibly survived all this time? Foxes might be solitary creatures but they’re one of the weaker demons in the food chain,” YoungJae wondered.

“Well, it shouldn’t be too surprising since that spy you’re talking about survived the War, right?” she answered angrily. “What? Are you going to call me a traitor, too? I did it to survive. It’s hard being a ‘weaker demon.’ Besides, you would just be a hypocrite if you were to call me a traitor.”

“What?”

“Nothing, pretend I didn’t say anything. Just throw me out of here already. You have no right to keep me contained like this,” she huffed, getting tired of talking to the mage.

However, YoungJae had other plans. This demon had information. She knew a lot of things, so many interesting things, that he couldn’t even begin to know from the library that he visits daily. He had long exhausted the information from their resources.

Perhaps it was time he learned from another source.

With a devious smirk, he reached into his pocket and thumbed the metallic collar he had kept with him all this time.

“No right to keep you contained, huh?”

Snap.

Silence.

She looked up at him with eyes of disbelief.

“What…what did you just do?”

“Keeping you contained, Fox,” YoungJae laughed ecstatically and slightly maniacally. “It’s nice to meet you. My name is YoungJae. I’m a mage who specializes in containment spells. But I suppose you could just call me…Master, if you’d like.”

Kira’s breathing became faster and heavier as she tried to pull the collar off of her neck.

“No…no, no, no, no, no! This can’t be happening! Get this thing off of me, you ing ! I AM NOT YOUR DOG AND I SURE AS HELL AM NOT GOING TO DO AS YOU SAY!” she screamed rebelliously as she glared menacingly at him.

“Oh no?” he grinned evilly. With a smug laugh, he slipped the matching metallic wristband over his right hand. YoungJae first pointed at Kira and then pointed downwards. “Sit.”

Kira yelped in surprise as her body moved on its own and slammed her on the ground. She froze from the shock of everything that was happening.

It couldn’t be true.

They don’t chase demons for familiars.

These mages don’t chase demons for familiars.

She should have just been thrown out without a hitch.

“Shall I introduce myself again?” he mocked as he bent down to her level. His eyes mimicked the smile on his face.

She didn’t want to believe she just became a familiar.

=====================================================================

Just fyi, JongUp’s dog is named Brownie because it’s a German Shepherd and it’s brown…not because of Madame Jung’s Brownie. XD He’s not the most creative.

Well, just hit the fan. :D

~Kira :3