After Dawn and Amilya had left, the fox returo his den to try to rest. As he curled up, he found his thoughts spinniween all the things he had learhrough the link, with the words that lio cepts. He shifted restlessly for a time before he could finally calm his mind and fall asleep.

  Waking up near dawn, he immediately raced off towards the human vilge, arriving at the hill he’d been waiting on, but didn’t see any of the children outside yet. Since he didn’t see any of the huma, he decided to run off to the fields to the other side and sna some mice.

  With the help of his illusion, he found it far easier to catch the mice, as they wouldn’t even notice him until he had caught them. After catg aing two of them, he headed back to the hill. The children still hadn’t shown up, so he sat down to wait.

  After a while of waiting, the gates finally opehe children ing out to py. Along with them was the human with the bird on his shoulder, who headed straight towards him along with Dawn.

  Unnerved by the strange human, he whined and backed up a bit as they approached. Dawn tinued forward to scratch his head while the other human stepped bad sat down. As he reected his link with Dawn, she poi the other human, naming him as Morris; the hawk she named as Kel.

  Dawled onto the ground beside him, petting his head as they began going over ideas and words again. Morris asked something and Dawn tra into cepts as best as she could; Morris was questioning if they had a link so soon, normally it took much longer. As she respoo Morris, she stopped petting him and he gently grabbed her hand and whined until she resumed scratg.

  She stopped a moment in thought, thehrough the link that he needed a name like everyone else, along with ahought that at the moment he was ‘little nipper’ currently.

  He sat thinking for a while, a name was something he had never sidered before, he was himself and that was good enough for him. But iing with humans was hard when everyone had a him. Dawn called him little nipper, and he didn’t want to pletely ignore her name for him, but it didn’t feel right. After some more thought, he decided to keep nip and add a sighing sound of phru giving him Niphru, which he then spoke with his illusion.

  Dawn grabbed him and squeezed him to her chest as Morris cpped and Kel screeched. Daw him down and smiled, sending gratutions through their link, scratg behind his ears again.

  Shortly afterward, Dawn had to go bato the vilge for what was called school, a pce where she had to go to learn. Before leaving, she made sure to expin that yes or a nod meant acceptand no or a shake meant denial.

  Following his example from the night before, she asked, “Niphru at dawn?”

  Niphru nodded his head and replied through his illusion, “Yes!”

  Kel hopped back up to Morris’ shoulder and they all left to return to the vilge together as Niphru turned and headed back to the forest. A moment ter he yelped in pain, having fotten to disect his link from Dawn, causing it to snap from the distance.

  Niphru headed back to his dee the pain at the end, he was tent with having learned so much for the day. Upon arriving he curled up in his home befoing to sleep, his mind reviewing what he had learned until it faded into slumber.

  Upon waking up in the evening, he decided to go check out the other foxes he had seehe pond along the edge of the forest again. Heading towards the trail of smashed trees, he ate a few berries from bushes along the way as a snack.

  As he headed dowrail, he heard a sudden loud hoot that startled him, a massive owl flying overhead and nding on a tree as it gazed at him before looking away. Someooked, he then used his illusion to hide himself before tinuing.

  Arriving at the pond, he spotted the illusion in the same pce as before, seeing e fox present, glowing red antlers and quills on its back, with bones of two smaller foxes ying on the ground nearby. Shocked by the sight, he decided to get the humans attention about it, once he knew how to describe it tomorrow.

  He ran back to his den, troubled by what he had seen, and y down to rest until dawn. As he waited for sleep, he practiced more with his illusions, trying to make them more realistitil he finally fell asleep.

  Waking up in the m, he remembered that st time he was early. This time Niphru decided to hunt for a bit of breakfast before heading to the vilge, a into the forest. After a while, he smelled a rabbit in its burrow and dug in, uhing the rabbit and attag it.

  While normally he was able to catch rabbits unharmed, this time it kicked him fiercely in the side as he tried to kill it, staggering him even as he tched onto its head and began shaking. As it stopped moving, he moved his foxfire to cover the bruised flesh and began to feast.

  Once he finished eating, he headed towards the human vilge, hoping he wouldn’t be too early as he was st time. Upon arriving, he saw the children already out and about, Dawn and Morris sitting on the hill waiting for him. He quickly ran up, jumping into Dawn’s p and grabbing her hand for a moment until she started scratg his .

  After attag his link to Dawn again, the first thing he did was form an illusion of the beast the hunters had helped him defeat. He then pushed a questioning feeling through the link, waiting for a response. Upon hearing it was called a mowisted, or tainted, he then shifted the illusion to one of the fox he had seen, including the skeletons within it. Morris looked shocked for a moment as Dawn spoke with him using words Niphru didn’t know yet.

  Niphru then shifted the illusion to the path of shattered trees, moving through it to the pond, including the fox there. Morris watched carefully, then stood up, holding his arm out as Kel desded from the skies. After fog on Kel for a moment, Morris tossed him into the air again, and sat back down.

  Meanwhile, Dawn resumed teag Niphru, teag more abstract cepts today. After several dozen cycles, Morris stood back up, reag into the air to catch Kel and shift him to his shoulder. He then spoke with Dawn again and headed towards the forest alone.

  Dawn turned back to Niphru before speaking, “He thanks you for sharing monster location. He hunts it now.”

  Niphru felt slightly flicted about that, as it was a fellow fox. Oher hand, he had seen how it had massively ged, and what fox would eat its own kits? In the end, he decided it was the right choice even if it resulted in the death of the other fox, as it was indeed a monster.

  Fag Dawn, Niphru responded, “Sad, fused, gd. F.”

  Dawn grabbed him and held him close to her, petting his head as she sent a f feeling through their link. After a few moments, he spoke up agaiioning, “Learn more?”

  Dawn smiled, letting go of him but tinuing to pet his head. They then began again, switg baore crete subjects, this time reted to humans and their vilge. Among the things he learned was that humans were scared of allowing animals heir homes due to the risk of them being monsters. One of the few exceptions were mages who often raised animals until they became Awakened like himself or Kel.