I grin all the way as I run towards Mom's bedroom. The heavy book in my hands almost slips from my grip, but I'm a Godsblessed fox! My nimbu-… uh, 'nimblesness' is unmatched! Mom herself said that my "Dexterity" has been inc-…

"YAH!"

I slip on the waxed floor and hit the back of my head on the ground.

"Owwww~…" I whine as I roll on the ground pain, holding my head.

"Alissa?" I hear Mom's voice from behind the door.

I sniffle and hold back my tears, then I quickly tie back the sash of my dress before Mom scolds me for being clumsy.

I grab the book and stand up just as the sliding door opens in front of me. Mom looks down at me and her sharp, judging eyes analyze me.

"What happened?" She asks in a gentle tone, but I know she's testing me.

"The book fell," I answer and look down.

"'I let the book fall' is what you should've said."

Nooo, wrong answer…! Actually, the "right answer" was to not slip in the first place.

"I'll increase the intensity of your 'Dexterity' training tomorrow," Mom adds as she turns around. I wince, but luckily she didn't see it.

"Can you read this book for me?" I ask and raise the book towards her.

She stops and glances at it, then continues walking to her bed and answers, "Yes, but go get Allura first. She'll enjoy this story, too."

"Yay!"

I lower the book to the ground, then I run towards Allura's room.

I slam the sliding door, making Ofilia jump in surprise. Allura and she are playing with plushy dolls.

Ofilia greets me with a face full of confusion and surprise, "Oh, Alissa w-… hey!"

I nab Allura.

"Guh!" She moans as I throw her over my shoulder, then I run away.

"Come back!" Ofilia yells and I ignore her, so she immediately starts chasing me.

After getting enough speed, I slide along the waxed floor and perfectly stop right in front of Mom's room.

"Oo~h…" Dad mumbles in wonder.

I run forward, then jump and fall on their super fluffy bed. I make a very confused Allura sit beside me and sit in a formal position.

"There, ready!" I exclaim, too excited to control my voice.

Mom repositions herself to face us, and Dad continues to delicately brush her tail. "Ofilia, take a seat, it's storytime," Mom says and motions to the spot beside me.

"Oh? Oh. Oh…!" Ofilia mumbles repeatedly, then sits beside me and sends me a glare.

I grin towards her, then focus on Mom again. She opens the book and clears her throat.

"The Forest and the Mist have wills of their own. They're entities as old as Creation and as powerful as the elements. Their will is that of nature, yet they're independent of it. Their existence is just simply beyond the comprehension of most foxes.

Their power overflows from time to time, causing chaos and disorder in the Forest. The two different flavors mix in an everlasting storm, but eventually, it reaches a point that it sparks a chain reaction where it all congeals into a single point, giving birth to the Child, the Mistborn.

Their body itself is magical, allowing them to attune themselves to the Mist and the Forest. For them, these two elements are not just their allies, they can control them, mold them, shape them, use them like extra limbs. They delve so deeply into these elements that they don't see the sun until they're already matured.

The Child is relentless and steadfast. When the Goddess of the Moon is high, the Mistborn travels. When the God of the Sun rests, the Mistborn works. There is no time that the Mistborn is unguarded.

They maintain the Order, they keep the Balance, and they crush the Chaos.

They wrap themselves in mist, like a kind mother protecting their child. They arm themselves with vines, like a rigid father raising a warrior.

The Mistborn doesn't hunt, they Harvest what is rightfully theirs. They belong to the Forest and the Forest belongs to them.

The Child does not hide in the Mist, the Mist hides the Child."

The Child who was Born from the Mist and the Forest, by Cobaignon, circa Year After Creation 58,000.

"What's 'circa'?" I ask.

"Means 'approximately,' but it's used only for in historical writing like this one when the exact date is unknown," Mom answers.

I hug my tail and pat it myself. "So, Nocturna was alive around ten thousand years ago?"

"Indeed, but her story only became known throughout the land after her time, when the empire released her records."

"O~h…"

"Now, on to the first chapter."

"Cloth of dew, napkin of the fey, cover my face, hide my identity, shroud me in the mist, but let them see my visage. [Veil of Mist]," Nocturna chanted and cast.

Her dark face became blurry, then it was covered by mist. The enchanted water particles reflected the air, and Nocturna became a man. Her melanistic face lightened; her white irises became brown; her scars became freckles; her fox ears disappear, then human ones grew; her missing flesh became full again; her fangs receded; her black hair became brown; and her burns healed, showing a perfect, unblemished skin. Her few soft features hardened into the face of a human man from the Colored Sands.

No commoner would ever notice anything wrong with her face, but someone with a high "Willpower" would think that her face is "blurry," and a mage with [Sense Mana] high enough would notice the Illusion-flavored mana periodically leaking from her. Both of these would make anyone instantly suspicious of her, but her current enemies weren't trained in magic. No, they were mere thugs, illegal slavers, and grunts that worked for greedy, evil men.

She sniffed her clothes for any traces of blood and found none. If she couldn't notice it, then the humans certainly wouldn't.

She grabbed her small, composite bow by the limb like someone who never fired an arrow before, then dragged her quiver by the straps, as if she could barely be bothered to bring it with her. She listed again all the information about the slavers inside her head one more time, then set off towards their camp.

It took only a few minutes of walking for her to hear a startled guard grab its weapon and get in position behind a bush ahead. She was disguised as a human, who had weaker senses in anything not magical, so she pretended to not notice him.

The mist of the night covered the Low Forest, so while they heard each other, it would take a little longer until they could meet in person. While she walked, she made sure to snap any branches in her way like a child playing a game. It was hardly different from what the humans did, even though they didn't do it consciously, they were simply bad at being quiet.

Nocturna saw the outline of the guard as he stalked closer to her and carelessly walked in front of a light source, the flames of the village behind him. It took her a lot of effort to push the beast inside her from drawing an arrow and killing him instantly. She gained comfort in knowing that this guard wouldn't live to see the dawn.

"Halt! Who goes there?!" The guard finally decided to confront her and jumped from behind the bush. Now he was close enough that they could see the other perfectly.

He was a tall human dressed exactly like her: a colorful mixture of heavy furs, leathers, and cloths wrapped their bodies with such little concern for fashion that it was as if a storm dressed them. Only their eyes were visible from behind their balaclavas and all the bandannas covering their faces.

"Fuck you, let me through," Nocturna responded in a rough, unmistakably male voice. [Veil of Mist] was the perfect disguise.

"What the fuck were you doing out there?" The guard questioned.

Nocturna lifted the bow and quiver. "Chased after a hunter, he dropped his weapons then ran away."

The guard took a few steps towards Nocturna, his eyes glittering with greed. "Shit, this is a beautiful bow. It's no longbow, but I guess it's worth some big coin."

Nocturna gave him a strong shove with the hand holding the quiver and grunted, "I know, you fuck. Let me through or I'll hit you."

The guard laughed and backed off with a shrug. "What's your name, comrade?"

"Ligma," she answered immediately.

"Huh? Ligma?" The guard immediately became suspicious.

"Lick my balls, now fuck off."

The guard facepalmed and chuckled. "Fucking knew it!" Then he let Nocturna enter the burning village without further questions.

The slavers were going through piles of rubble, picking off anything valuable, then throwing the rest to the pile of growing trash. At least they weren't mindlessly destroying anything and everything just for the fun of it. Even the buildings were burned by accident, it seemed, not that any of them were even trying to snuff the fires. But none of that was enough for Nocturna to feel a single shred of mercy for them.

A few metri from the looters, a group of twenty crying werefox youths were stripped bare, then chained together to a log. Young and beautiful women and strong and perhaps cute men were the primary targets of these slavers. Their plight was soon to end, for Nocturna had already started her rescue.

She stopped by the trough where a group of horses were drinking from. These belonged to the slavers' scouts and to the wagon that would take the slaves. She dropped a pebble in it, and the poison immediately started to dissolve.

Then she made her way to the Lord's Hall where most of the slavers were having a party. She slung her bow and quiver on her shoulders, then entered the Hall.

Debauchery and profligacy assaulted her senses.

"What's that, 'debachegy'?" I ask Mom.

"Debauchery. Engaging in too much sex," Mom answers.

"Ooh… and the other?"

"Wasting resources, like eating so sloppily that you let food and drink spill on the floor."

"Plofliglachy!" Allura exclaims in her cutesy voice and smiles.

"Close," Mom says in a gentle tone and pats her head.

The slavers couldn't take everything back, so they'd drink and eat all they could before the Lord responded and drove them out. There didn't seem to be anyone obviously Wicked among them, but the few werefox women and the poor man that were being used by the slavers certainly weren't happy with their new positions as prostitutes.

Nocturna felt pity for them. If she were a little faster, perhaps they could've retained their dignity, but tragedies make people desperate. These were humble villagers who wanted to secure their safety by readily submitting to their new temporary masters.

Nocturna moved on towards the barrels of fermented Chapefruit. She grabbed a used mug on the floor along the way and discreetly dropped a pebble of poison inside it, then dove the mug inside the barrel to scoop some drink while making sure the pebble fell to the bottom of the barrel.

After she emptied her mug down her throat, she swallowed a pill she prepared beforehand, the antidote.

She looked around to see if anyone had noticed her, but the slavers were too absorbed in their pleasure to suspect her. She made her way towards the tables and started eating while she waited.

A cry finally came from outside as someone noticed the horses dying, one-by-one. The rookie guard that had been put on watch burst into the Lord's Hall and saw something even more horrifying: every slaver was dead, their eyes white and foam bubbling from their mouths. All except for one.

The slaves cowered behind the single man standing in the middle of the Hall. He had given them an antidote a mere minute before the slavers all started convulsing until they died, so they trusted this kind human man as one would trust a Humanoid God.

"WHAT HAPPENED HERE?!" The rookie guard bellowed, then he paid attention to Nocturna, who was freeing the slaves, and it dawned on him. "TRAITOR! POISON! TRAITOR! ALAR-…"

His screams were cut short by an arrow that pierced his brain through his eye and instantly killed him. He had served his purpose, so Nocturna wasted no time in killing him.

The rest of the rookies swarmed the Hall, only to fall by arrows, one-by-one. Terrified by seeing the increasing pile of corpses at the entrance of the Hall, the few remaining men retreated and created a rough line in front of the building.

Before any of the slavers got the idea to use the chained slaves as hostages, Nocturna decided to act.

A light flashed inside the building, then a huge, pure black fox leaped out of it and crashed into the spears of the rookies. The fox's hide was strong, but not enough to stop a spear, and so her neck and flank were pierced. But she was a magical fox, not a real one, so she closed her own wounds instantly by spending her mana.

The slavers knew very well not to fight aggressively against the werefoxes when they transformed, but these were rookies, the veterans were already dead, so they fought back with vengeance.

She crushed two men as she landed, then bit off the head of another. Spears rained over her body and her mana drained, but she had MP to spare!

She ferociously raked, crushed, and slammed her way out of the encirclement, then stood between the last three rookies and the chained slaves.

Her black fur had a sheen of red from her own and the slavers' blood, her white fangs dripped blood and had pieces of flesh stuck between them, and her white irises stared at them with rage. She growled, frightening the men. She looked like a ghostly butcher that came to reap their souls, and she herself wouldn't disagree.

Her body glowed and she became humanoid again. This time she didn't have [Veil of Mist] to disguise her, which allowed the men to clearly see small bits of her dark skin. They'd heard of her before, and now they'd only confirmed her identity.

A rookie didn't believe his eyes and stuttered a question, "W-who are y-you?!"

Nocturna turned to him and her murderous gaze frightened him to his core, making him piss himself and freeze. Fortunately for him, his fear would be his salvation.

Nocturna's arms blurred and low whistle resounded through the air, then one of the rookies fell to the floor with an arrow poking from out of his eye. The two remaining men yelped in fear and hid behind their shields.

"I am Nocturna, the Mistborn," she responded, now with her usual husky female voice.

True to her name, the mist thickened, making her disappear from the sight of the rookies.

The rookie who pissed his pants yelped again and cried, his legs completely frozen from terror. Every single one of his comrades had died by the hands of that butcher. Every wound he had given her had simply disappeared due to her seemingly endless pool of mana. What could a looter like him do against the infamous Mistborn? What could a single boy like him do against the true child of the Misty Forest?

Nothing. He could do nothing! And when he heard the death cry of his last companion, he dropped his weapons and ran. Through coincidence or strong survival instinct, he, fortunately, chose to run south, exactly towards where Nocturna wanted him to go: the Colored Sands.

Suddenly feeling very tired, Nocturna let out a sigh of relief and drank an MP potion she herself brewed. Not because it was more potent than the usual, but because it had a good deal of fermented Chapefruit in it, and was brewed in a way that the medicinal properties of the potion didn't ruin the taste.

With her heart calming down and her MP steadily rising, Nocturna made her way to the chained slaves as the werefoxes inside the Hall gingerly stepped outside.

Nocturna wordlessly got a key chain from a dead slaver and released all of the remaining youths, then started to walk away.

None of them are hurt or tired. They can all turn into a fox and run to the nearest village after dawn.

"Wait!" A young male voice cried out.

Nocturna stopped, then glanced at the naked boy calling for her and continued walking away, a bit faster this time.

"Please, wait!" The boy cried again.

Nocturna increased her pace, then she heard the boy yelp as he slipped in the blood and smiled to herself.

"I SAID WAIT!" The boy yelled with all of his strength.

Nocturna glanced at him again and saw that most of the boy's body had become painted red with blood, and now he crawled towards her creepily at a frightening speed like a Godsdamned Prowler!

She almost yelped in surprise, then turned forward again and started jogging.

"TAKE ME WITH YOU!" The boy bellowed with all his power.

That made Nocturna freeze, and she almost slipped on the blood, too.

How disgraceful of me. Being startled by a boy.

She turned around and stood still until the creepy crawler caught up to her.

He's very odd, though.

The boy stood up and Nocturna presumed that he was about to mature by the length of his dangling, bloodied penis. "Take me with you," he repeated. His voice was surprisingly firm, a testament to his determination.

"Why?" Nocturna stoically asked.

The boy bit his lip, making Nocturna feel like patting his head, but she resisted the temptation. His dark hair had a sheen of purple like most of his clan, and he seemed to be as well taken care of as the women, making Nocturna believe that he was the son of an important person of this village.

"I can fight," the boy responded after a second of hesitation.

"How many slavers did you kill?" Nocturna asked, still stoic.

The boy's shoulder dropped and his face warped into a scowl. "None," he bitterly answered, but his determination didn't seem to waver.

"You can't fight," Nocturna responded.

He rose his head again and his purple eyes stared deeply into hers. "Then teach me!" He demanded.

"No," Nocturna stated, then ran away.

"I won't quit! I'll chase you until you teach me!" The boy yelled and darted behind her.

Nocturna scoffed and increased her pace, but then she coughed as she saw the boy gaining on her.

Her body glowed and she turned into a huge, black fox, which almost doubled her running speed. She felt mana coming from behind her, then she heard another fox chasing after her.

How persistent.

She sped up to the max and left the boy behind, but whenever she stopped to rest, he would quickly catch up.

Dawn came and cleared the mist, making it easier for him to track her, but he still never caught a glimpse of the huge black fox that he chased so obsessively.

Nocturna started to feel amused by the situation. She dove into a thick part of the Forest, then started slowly covering her tracks more and more while observing him through [Sense Presence]. The boy predictably started slowing down to make sure that he didn't lose her tracks, but he still chased after her with impressive speed.

No [Sense Presence], but good [Tracking]. Also good "Endurance" and "Willpower"; he's been chasing after me for a few hours.

The boy was making a lot of noise, though, and then it finally happened: a monster came to attack him.

Nocturna groaned and stopped in her tracks, then turned around and dashed towards the boy to observe. If her [Sense Presence] wasn't wrong, and it never was, a Buveursang was making its way towards him.

The boy noticed the monster, hard not to when the monkey-like beast likes to shriek to disorient their prey, and turned to face it, which allowed Nocturna to stalk behind him. She didn't return to humanoid form because she was still bloodied with the slavers' blood, and that would just bring the Buveursang into a rage.

She observed the boy's back and admired his beautiful dark and purple fur. He was barely bigger than the average dog, which meant that he had one or two points into [Fox Transformation].

He stared towards the source of the ear-bleeding shrieking, his body tense and his tail low. He slowly rose his lips and let out a growl in warning.

The Buveursang stopped its shrieks for a second to listen to the fox, but deemed it a weak pup and burst out from the treetops.

The monster used its long and thin arm to fling itself forward; its monkey face warped into an angry scowl, threateningly showing its long, blood-sucking fangs; its dark, furred body was unnaturally thin, signifying that it was starving; its short and thick legs was a signal that it still had some strength left; and its long, menacing feet claws were aimed directly at the boy.

"KAAAAAAAA!" The monster shrieked as it flew.

A moment before the monster grabbed the boy, he rolled to the side with great "Speed," and the monster's claws sunk into the soft earth.

The boy pounced on the Buveursang's back and bit his neck, then started to wildly shake the monster in an attempt to break its spine.

Impressive, but not enough.

The Buveursang stretched its long arms backward and wrapped its strong fingers around the fox's neck, then strangled him.

A battle of "Endurance" started, but the boy had been running as a fox for hours, and against a starving, but rested, monster, he had an immense disadvantage.

The boy lost strength in his limbs and slowed his shaking, allowing the Buveursang to lift him off the ground. It twisted its flexible arms even more, then threw him against a tree.

The boy hit the hard bark right on, then slumped on the ground, too exhausted to continue the fight. His body glowed, and the naked, bloodied boy reappeared.

The Buveursang immediately smelled the blood, then went into a berserker rage. "KAAA! KAAA! KAAA!" It shrieked so loudly that the boy felt sick and almost puked.

The monster used its arms to swing its body, then launched himself towards the boy.

He raised his arms weakly to protect himself, but no attack came. He saw a large shadow passed by him, then he heard a crunch, and the monster was silenced.

He lowered his arms and saw the frighteningly large black fox in front of him chewing on the crunched head of the Buveursang.

She flung the monster's body towards him and swallowed its brain matter, then turned back into humanoid and pulled out a small knife from her [Item Box]. "Alright, boy. If you want to follow me that much, then start by making your own clothes." She threw the knife at his feet and sat down on the grass, then remained silent while staring at him.

The boy, suddenly reminded of his nakedness and that he was in front of a woman, shyly covered his penis with his hands.

"I've seen bigger," she said. Her face was still covered in multiple pieces of cloth, making it hard for the boy to discern her expression, but her tone was of clear displeasure. "If you don't want to freeze, you'll do what I say."

The boy hesitated for a moment, then slowly nodded and removed his hands covering his penis, then he grabbed the skinning knife and went to work immediately. He didn't need much encouragement because just a short while after his battle ending, he was already starting to feel the coldness spreading to every extremity of his body.

Nocturna let her gaze wander as she thought about what to do. On a whim, she had endangered the boy, bringing him too far from his village and tiring him out. At least for a short while, she'll have to take care of him.

The boy noticed her gaze, and Nocturna quickly learned that the boy sported a decent size and girth in his love tool. She immediately turned away and sighed.

The mating season can't come soon enough…

"Mating season?" I ask as Mom finishes the chapter and closes the book.

Dad suddenly freezes as he sands Mom's nails and gives her a concerned look. Ofilia looks away, trying to hide her embarrassed face.

If they're embarrassed, then it must be related to sex.

Mom's tone is perfectly neutral and calm as she explains, "It's the time of the year that animal foxes 'mate' and create babies."

"Oh, sex."

Mom nods. "Yes."

"Why does she want it?"

"Because she mates with the male foxes for pleasure."

I tilt my head and Allura copies. "With an animal fox?"

Mom nods twice and the corner of her mouth twitches. She's trying to hold back a smile. "Lonely werefoxes do that because they don't have a partner for sex."

"Do they get pregnant?"

"Preganhant!" Allura exclaims. I'm sure she has no idea what we're talking about.

Mom shakes her head. "No, they can't. They do it only for pleasure."

Dad suddenly frowns and says in a very serious tone, "And neither should you, ever. Animal foxes can be very aggressive during mating, so it's dangerous for you if you don't know what you're doing."

"Okay!" I answer and nod.

Dad sighs and continues sanding down Mom's nails.

"It's time to sleep," she says with a grin that makes me want to pinch her cheeks.

Allura immediately pouts and complains while I grumble and let Ofilia drag me. Resisting will only make things worse, but that doesn't mean that I'll go to bed while smiling.