A New World, A New Time IC ||[ Lleona X Numbers] [M for safety]

[Numbers]

He smiled under his mask but knew that she couldn't see it but he could see her tears and knew that the past must be painful for her. He knew there were no words he could use to comfort her, but he would try anyways. He pulled her into a hug, holding her with his arms around her and his tails wrapping around them providing warmth to the both of them.

"Thank you for telling me. By telling me you have shown that you are able to tell me information that I request even when you don't want to and that is something I was looking for. As for your mother, it may not be worth much and it would very be against the tradition of your people, but we can move where her final resting place is to the mansion that will be your new home. Dedicate a garden to her for you to tend and appease her spirit and your soul."

He let go of her before watching her some more. Guiding her back out from where they were as he continued to lead her through the city until they finally got to the edge of the city. Upon arriving at the edge of the city the time of day had reached late evening. "It won't be much longer until it is time to make camp and rest for the night. Slightly father until we reach the camp spot and the location of my horse."

[Lleona]

Ruo nodded and dried her tears with her sleeve, not caring if it got soiled or dirty. Etmere let her go an guided her to their destination. She was quiet the whole way cause she was trying to compose herself. Once she was okay she released a light sigh. Then she began to worry about yui since was gonna try and sneak in later tonight. After walking for a some more minutes, ruo saw the camp spot that he was referring too.

"Ummm... Etmere is it fine after we arrived can i have some time alone for myself?"

She asked meekly. She was not sure if he would agree to her request. The reason she did that so yui can find her easily, if she was with etmere at the time yui sneak in it might cause her more trouble than she need. She was not willing to leave yui at the general household or her mothers maiden house. So she stubbornly suggested for yui to follow her. She regretted it a little bit cause yui might be having a hard time out there. She was the only person she can called as hers aside from rei momo she had no other people. She prayed silently hoping that yui will make it here safely.

[Numbers]

He looked at her and listened to her request. It was a simple one. "Sure, but only after you clean my fur. The camp spot is next to a small pond which is why I left my horse at it since it would allow the horse to eat and drink while I was gone today. After that, you can have some time to yourself. Don't try and run away though. You are mine, young one, and my Kitsune senses will alert me if you try to get too far away from me without my permission."

Some would worry that leaving a woman alone, she might get attacked or captured by bandits, however, his senses would also alert him to other people who got to close to where she and himself were currently at. After all his sense of smell was stronger than that of a dog since as a kitsune, his spirit form was that of a fox. He continued to lead her in the direction that the camp was at and by the time they got to the small pond where his horse was waiting, it was dark out and the stars were overlooking them in the sky. At the campsite was his bedroll and a burnt out campfire.

"The bedroll is mine but tonight you can use it until we get you one for yourself. Let me start the campfire, then you can wash my fur for me. After that I'll start cooking dinner for you and while I do that you can have some time to yourself." He walked over to where the campfire was and proceeded to make some fire appear on top of the palm of his hand. What would normally quickly start burning the skin of one person, lightly danced around on his hand, leaving no scorch marks at all as he used the fire to light the wood in order to bring a warm glow back to the campsite.

After which, he went over to his horse and pulled out some food from a pouch, giving it to the horse to feed it before walking himself over to the pond where he stared at Ruo, waiting for her to follow. As he stood near the pond, the sound of bones cracking, muscles tearing, and skin ripping could be heard coming from Etmere as his form started to shrink and grow to change the shape that he had taken. As his form started to come back together as his nine tailed fox, bones, muscles, and skin could be heard popping together and reforming. As his form shifted as well, the mask that was previously on his face merged into him as his fox head took form and his clothes merged and became his fur.

Once he was standing there as a fox, he opened his mouth but no words came out as the words directly touched the mine of Ruo. "Come. You may want to take off your clothes though in order to make sure that they do not get wet. Do not worry, I will not be looking at you. Not tonight at least." As he finished touching her mind with his words, his mouth closed as he walked into the water and felt it soaking into his fur. Along his tails, the spots that they were dirty before could be seen to still be dirty in his fox form.

[Lleona]

Ruo turned beet red but she wasn't able to protest since she was the cause of it. She took her outer clothes, but leaved her inner garments. At this time there are no underwear garments like the one made in the present. Inner garments here are considered as the underwear. Even if it covers he whole body, the material used for it are light and thin, so one can easily make out the shape of her body and once wet it would be like a see through cloth.

She once again felt embarassed. She folded her outer clothes properly and gently removes her shoe and socks before following inside the pond. As she get inside she felt the cold refreshing water touched her skin. She walked further inside till it was waist deep. She onced again stared at the fox ,her arms crossed in her bosom face slightly flushed red, lips quivering slightly from the cold breeze with eyes slightly teary while shyly looking away.

If other saw her appearance they might not be able to control themselves by the imagery that ruo created. With the moonlight shinning on her head she almost seemed like a painting. Ruo sighed inwardly, woman from this time are so fragile just from this and she already felt cold, in her time this wouldn't amount to much. Ruo was really clueless at the scene she created, fortunately for her etmere's people and the other people are far from her and wouldn't be able to intrude where one might actually see her.

[Numbers]

"Come child. The sooner you clean my fur, the sooner we can move on to my cooking and to you doing whatever it is that you had plans to do. However, I would suggest staying by the fire after this and forgoing your alone time. After all, the fire will help to dry you and if you stay wet and cold you'll quickly get sick. Of which, if you get sick before we get to home, this is going to be a rough trip for you since it will be hard for me to take care of you while on horseback all day." His tails gently moved left and right, making small waves in the water as they moved back and forth.

When he smelled her presence getting closer, one his tails moved to greet her, his dry fur on part of the tail brushing against the side of her face like it was telling her to come closer, while the wet part of his tail brushed against her arms, making them wet as well. As he waited for her, the wind started to pick up and the amulet that was around his neck made small chime sounds as the wind moved the bells that were inside of the amulet. It was a gift from his old mentor to him. The amulet served as a form of protection and helped to keep the demon that was inside of him locked up and caged.

Among the non-human races, everyone knows that not all Kitsune had nine tails. It was considered to be that the more tails a kitsune had up to a maximum of nine, the more powerful they were considered to be. Among the kitsune culture though it was known that a kitsune with nine tails was considered to be possessed by a demon due to the raw dangerous power that came with unlocking the ninth tail. Among the human world though, nine tails were simply a rumor, a warning, an omen. For in the stories about the Kitsune, it was said that all nine tailed kitsunes were actually nine tailed demons that would destroy whole cities in hours. Of course, the story was built on truth from when Kitsunes didn't police themselves in their kingdom, but an event like that or even seeing a nine-tailed kitsune was extremely rare in the human world. It was often considered that if you knew a nine-tailed Kitsune or had some kind of connection to one, it was a sign of large amounts of power, but also an omen of destruction. It was one of the reasons why so many generals were trying to vie for his power. He was curious if this human had heard the stories that most kids were told, about the nine tailed demons.

[Lleona]

"I'm alright.... I can handle this cold. I really need some time to catch up with everything."

Ruo explained. Indirectly rejecting his offer. How can she accept it? She need to meet up with her attendant yui. She put her mind at the matter in hand just nodded and gently took one of the tails gently. She submerged it under water and started cleaning the tail by softly running her hand through his fur, disregarding the feeling of having his other tail wrapped around her, after all he looks like a very cute fox, albeit a fox with nine tails. The former owner of this body has no knowledge about any information pertaining to other kind other than human. But the current her has some idea, the problem is that idea is from her world, she has no clue if it's applicable to this world.

From what she read before in books, A nine tailed fox maybe a harbringer of fortune or misfortune. Some illustrate that nine tailed fox are demon made to tempt humans some says it's a protector of the forest and what not. But she doesn't know what part of the stories she read before can be used to relate to er situation. She continued her ministration with his tail, changing it to the other tail when she was done with finally cleaning all nine of the tails.

"I'm kinda curious..... Why do you have so much tail?"

Deciding that mulling about it was useless, she won't be able to reach any conclusion unless she asked. She placed her hand on top of his body and started cleaning it while softly murmuring about the softness of his fur.

[Numbers]

He smiled internally at her question. "The answer is quite simple really. Among my kind power is everything, the more power you possess the higher your position in life. My people can only receive up to a maximum of nine tails which represents the most powerful among her kind. The Kings and Queens, the Arch-Bishop and the holiest priestess. Suffice to say, people of my power are known to either enforce the laws of our people or change the way our people live. I was not content with the way our people were being ruled and so I rebelled, broke the law and killed someone of high ranking. The punishment for such a thing is death. No matter the law you break among my people, the punishment is death, in order to keep everyone in line. Instead, I chose exile, another law broken. Now my people sending out hunters, squads of soldiers whose only purpose is to hunt those who have been exiled. Normally though they choose to hunt other Kitsune since the power I possess is equal to at least a squad of hunters, sometimes more." He felt her move from washing his tails to washing his main coat of fur on his body.

"Thankfully, I have other mercenaries who serve me, work under me, my group adds much more power to my already existing amount, making me even more dangerous for the hunters to come after. Some of my other mercenaries are kitsune, some are ogres, and some are many different races, including one human who I rescued as a small child and raised to be like me, an assassin who will be able to assist me in my jobs."