Anise of course quickly surveyed the table. She had only briefly given most of the people nearby some thought appearance-wise. Her mind was mostly on everything in the Hall. The lights, the food, the staff. As she turned to address everyone, she was eating something she had grabbed. That was when one of the students spoke up, introducing herself and a few others.
”Yes nice to meet you Sel-ACK!” Anise was taking a bite of a danish and unfortunately began choking on it when she noticed the flicking tail and the healing provided by one of the companions nearby for the large ears she had. How had she missed that! They were clearly so obvious. ”Selena! You wouldn’t happen to be a Kitsune would you?” She reached over the table to get a better look.
The pages of the books she read might have been blank now, but her own mind wasn’t. The same long ears and tail she had seen before! But those recollections were always written more like a monster legend, or a fairy tale. To think she might be able to learn from the source! ”You have to tell me about your history! I want to hear your side of what happened.”
Selena was still smiling after talking with Lorelei. When she was startled by the purple one named Anise who started talking to her but suddenly choked on her food. A concerned look came on her face as she half stood up. But sat back down once she asked if she was a kitsune. Suddenly standing up and leaning over the table to get a closer look at her.
Involuntarily, Selena pulled back. Her ears flicked down and her tail wrapped once again around herself for comfort. Her face was growing red at the intense focus on her. ”I...um... “ she didn’t have a chance to answer as Anise then asked for her history, and what happened. Clearly flustered, she was confused. Did she mean her personal history...did she know who she was? She couldn’t know…
She must of meant her people’s history… but where to start… that would take a long time. ”I um… Yes… I a Kitsune.” She started off. ”Do you… mean all history? How we started? My side? “ She glanced at the table, ”What mean...my side?” She felt so overwhelmed she was getting quite confused.
Anise was trying to find something to write with. She had her tome, but no real implement to actually write anything. Still, as she searched for something, she looked back at Selena, her eyes wide with excitement and smiling quite brightly. ”Yes! Your side. I’ve only seen a few mentions of what happened from my time reading, but many books say contradictory things, especially in relation to the group it is written about. I’ve had some claim that my kind is an ill omen! Clearly that is not the case as presently none of us are being struck down by the gods. So obviously there were some things written about the Kitsune that are inaccurate, yes?”
Without a proper writing utensil, she took the back of her fork and dipped it in a gravy boat, and wrote it on a scrap of paper she managed to pull from the books she kept with her. She looked back at her, eagerly awaiting her response. It amazed her that no one else seemed to have the slightest bit of interest in her presence. It was a historic day to hear that members from such a unique group were, in fact, still alive.
Selena watched with her head cocked to the side as Anise searched for something. She tried to listen to her, but she spoke so quickly it was hard to follow. She watched as she took a fork and dipped the back of it into the gravy boat. Selena had a hard time using utensils… but she knew it wasn’t something you wrote with… She was going to say something about that but when she looked at Anise who was clearly ready for her answer.
She lifted her right hand to her mouth as if she was about to bite her nails.. But she didn’t. ”Um… “ She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the words that she did hear. After figuring out what she meant generally, she sighed. Opening her eyes as she pulled her own tail into her arms. ”We...were hunted...and killed. Because Humans were scared...scared of Kitsune magic. Because not same as humans. And greedy for our weapons...and our...our fur.” She shuddered at the thought of her ancestors being hunted for that last reason.
She couldn’t just say they left the continent… she didn’t want them to find out about her home. ”So we ran...hid in forest, and mountains…lived as normal foxes. To avoid hunters. Lived in hiding, Still hide. But we used to it now.” .She said. Not knowing if that was going to be enough for her. She fiddled with the fork next to her empty plate still. Still not wanting to fill her plate, till she watched how others did it… and putting off the fact she still doesn’t use these strange utensils very well at all still.
They ran into the forests and hid as foxes? Well that is most certainly an interesting idea. Though if her readings were correct, then they would be quite large for foxes. And even then, many foxes were hunted already without also being seen as evil and deadly (a common theme Anise noticed). Which meant that trappers and hunters would still be after them in some sense. This led to a whole slew of other questions
”I see! How did you avoid other trappers or hunters who merely sought fox fur, Oh! And how did your people pass down their culture? Did you speak orally? Do you have any writings from before you hid in the woods? Does your family live in fox dens or burrows? Oh and I haven’t even begun to get into just how Kitsune magic works!”
By this point she had given up on the fork, having forgotten about it in her excitement. She would need to transpose this later. She also had shut out the majority of the group for the time being, being completely enthralled and enraptured by what she felt would be a most harrowing of tales.
Selena suddenly realized she opened a bunch of questions with what little she said. She grew more nervous by the second. But she didn’t have much time to even think when Anise suddenly asked one question after another. On one hand she would have loved to answer some of those questions. But the sudden rapid fire of complex and very detailed subjects that would take forever to answer caused Selena to wrap her tail tighter around herself as her ears folded down once again. She rubbed and wrung her hands together. and started to look down.
She didn’t know what to say, she didn’t want to be rude, but she felt embarrassed with all the questions. Especially when she couldn’t answer some of them truthfully. Some of this stuff she hasn’t even told Finn!
Her eyes darted around the table as she struggled to talk. ”I… Um. We stayed… she started to feel overwhelmed with all the noises as people got louder.