(A young Kitsune)

I’m currently wandering around the forest around our home. Master seems worried about anyone trying to invade our home, but we’d just beat anyone who tries. I wonder why he wants to know about who’s around the area? Oh, another bushy tail! That makes seven creatures so far! He he, I bet if I find the most creatures, I’ll be praised! I’m working hard to remain undetected by them as well. Master said not to be found, and not even the bushy tails can find me! I wonder what an encampment of bushy tails would look like though?

I look around to see if I can spot any more. There seem to be two types of bushy tails, ones with long tails and ones with small tails. There are big ones and small ones. Some are on the trees and some stay on the ground. I’m gathering so much information, I bet master will surely be impressed! Oh, those bushy tails went into holes! Discovery! I constantly check the sky to check the time I have left. The five of us are only going to be out for a short time, but I want to do the best and find out the most for master! I won’t lose!

(Inari)

The lethargy I felt earlier has drained a bit. There really aren’t many avenues I have to gain strength, is there? I know that facing invasion forces and defeating them would help me grow, but that requires me to be invaded. I think I’m getting a tiny benefit from the little fairy that’s still sleeping, but that’s still only one fairy. I hope that when we begin preparing the area for the rest of the fairies she wants to bring, that it requires a big area. The more space needed means the more I can potentially gain. I’d even like to have a sort of second entrance to my dungeon as well. This one will be monitored by several Kitsune to prevent anyone locating it.

As I’m considering this the small fairy begins to stir.

“Wha!” The fairy shouts in surprise as she leaps into the air to ‘escape’ the Kitsune that she’s been using as a bed. She even used the tail as a blanket.

“Greetings, it seems that you’ve awoken,” I say to the startled fairy.

The Kitsune seems to have fallen asleep or just deems this not worth the effort of dealing with since there’s no threat to it or the fairy. Hm… it could also be the fact that the fairy and I are having a conversation. It seems the fairy is still startled as she looks around to where my voice came from. She seems to be a bit of a scatterbrain.

“Yo-you’re the dungeon right?” The fairy shakily asks, finally locking her eyes on Inari.

“That is correct, I am the dungeon Inari,” Inari politely said, trying to relieve the fairy of her nervousness. “May I know your name?”

“Um, I’m Meadow Everglade.” Meadow managed to say. After a moment of thought, she then asked, “is this where we will be staying?”

Inari responded with, “I plan to expand further as well as have you advise me on the proper housing for you and those you plan to bring.” Inari was well aware that a dark and scary cave isn’t the most ideal place anyone would want to live. “It’ll take some time, but I will ensure you and those you wish to bring shall have a proper home.”

Meadow was very excited by this. “We should have plenty of plants!” she exclaimed with glee.Within her mind were visions of her forest home. ”Like trees and sunflowers and and…” She continued for quite some time, naming various plants that I haven’t seen before. I begin to wonder if half the plants she named could survive in a different climate. Although this is a dungeon, and my magic should be able to compensate for that. The idea of having gathering spots in my dungeon later on crossed my mind.

I’ll save that thought for later as the Kitsune that went scouting returned. It seems that bunnies and squirrels are the locals in this area. It seems that there’s mostly forest area in the near surroundings, so that first group definitely had some way of detecting me. I don’t know how exactly they are able to do this, but I do know that this represents a great deal of danger. They didn’t seem able to map out the dungeon, but they were able to at least plan out the level of difficulty of my dungeon. This lack of information is quite limiting on my ability to act here. What if they’re able to detect that I’ve grown stronger? Wouldn't that mean that I’m in greater danger from my recent growth? The monster that appeared after them was also able to see through the illusion. I doubt it would be so easy now that Yuna’s grown stronger, but I recall it mentioning that there were more of them around. I’m at a state where I have to grow stronger to overcome the current troubles, but may lead to troubles I can’t overcome later.

Why can’t this be easier? I mean Kitsune have the power to mimic the appearance of humans, so gathering intel on what is understood about dungeons as well as knowing what dangers I’d face. But there isn’t anyone around nearby! That in and of itself wouldn’t be a problem if my enemies didn’t have my location the moment I was born! At least there doesn’t seem to be anyone responding to my growth. That or they have quite a distance between me and there home base. Well, I have a lot to worry about and not much I can truly prepare to deal with it.

I need to relax a bit. My plan of appearing as a weaker dungeon isn’t ruined yet. There are just some things I don’t know, that’s all. For now, let’s just think on what Meadow wants, that sounds easier. How to grow flowers. Hmm, I don’t think I know how to create plants. Aren’t there also plant monsters as well? Perhaps I’ll learn how to make them after figuring out plants. The quickest way to learn would be to use seeds. I don’t know how to get the seeds from flowers… It seems the best way to resolve this is to ask Meadow… Wouldn’t she know something about how my dungeon was found!

Currently, she’s sleeping so I guess I should focus on something else to take up some time. What can I do? Hmm… What is there… Oh, I could try that avatar thing again!

Insufficient power for avatar.

It didn’t work. So I can’t shape myself like before until I’ve grown quite stronger then. Now how can I get around that? I don’t want to just create a body to use, that might be very limiting as well as have various unknown dangers. I know I don’t want to fight a civil war in the dungeon against myself. I might be able to create an illusionary body by concentrating magical power, but the connection to myself would be bad outside of my dungeon.

Name Inari Rank e Health 500 Health recovery 10 per hr Mana 500 Mana recovery 50 per hr Title Creator of Kitsune, Molder of souls, Friend of fae