Traveling to the North

You rise early and do your best to prepare a hearty meal for the day with what supplies you have access to. Curiously, as you don your armor for the days travels, your belt seems to have gone missing. Amber and Vila swear they hadn't seen it either but that isn't saying much, both could lie as well as they could breath. Saddened by your loss but not particularly hindered thanks to the myriad of buckles and straps on your armor, you set off on your newest quest.

The next few days are pretty quiet in terms of smiting or questing. You journey through autumn woods, the scenery undoubtably beautiful but offering little in the way of sustenance. You come across a small town several days in where a trader agrees to supply you with several days worth of food in exchange for de-cursing his family ring, which he sites as the reason for his impotence. You flee from his stories as quickly as polite, goods in tow, and rejoin the girls. You rather want to toss the ring as far from yourself as possible but wearily stow it in your pocket out of some sense of honor.

The nights get cold much faster than you expected and soon the tents you brought with you become a necessity. Snow appears on the road and you begin stuffing your armor with padding to keep the cold metal as far away as possible. The foxgirls huddle together next to the fire, Vila's tails spreading over them like a blanket. Several nights you catch yourself feeling somewhat envious of Amber but stop yourself from saying anything out loud. You start to notice some odd things about Vila as well. Whenever Amber happened to shift so that her breasts or legs were more visible than was proper and you'd catch yourself staring, Vila was staring right along with you just as enraptured. Or maybe more so.

You'd never heard any believable stories of lesbianism in animal folk,{if Pervert > 20} aside from the raunchy ones that kept you up at night,{endif} but you suppose there was nothing too unusual about it.{if Pervert >20}{if Slut > 20}Amber seemed to enjoy the attention though.{if Relationship > 20} You almost felt jealous when she'd bend over seductively for Vila's benefit. She never did that for you...{else} You're tempted to make fun of her like she always did to you whenever you showed any remote interest in anyone... but then she might stop.{endif} {else}Amber seemed uncomfortable with the attention. She could shut you down anytime she wanted, and she often did, but she couldn't seem to bring herself to call Vila out on her perving. Which of course meant that she came down on you twice as hard for seeing what you shouldn't.{endif}{else}{if Slut > 20} Amber seemed to enjoy the attention though.{if Relationship > 20} You almost felt jealous when she'd bend over seductively for Vila's benefit. You grumble to yourself but otherwise kept quiet, wasn't like it was any of your business anyway.{else} You're tempted to make fun of her like she always did to you whenever you showed any remote interest in anyone... but then she might stop.{endif} {else}Amber seemed uncomfortable with the attention and you didn't blame her. Vila's gaze would become downright suggestive in the mornings. You did your best to draw her attention away whenever Amber found herself in an awkward situation.{endif}{endif} Vila would also have an odd gait sometimes, like one of her legs was particularly stiff. There was a lot that mystified you about the sultry fox.

Which isn't to say you didn't learn more in a week than you had in six months with Amber. Vila was more than willing to talk, often in riddles and metaphor, but she revealed more and more about herself and the foxes as she went. You learned that foxfire was not the same as transfiguration and that only female foxes had access to the power source that was foxfire. Males were born as leaders and were expected to be twice as clever (though they never were according to Vila, much to Amber's merriment) as their female counterparts. Females could go wherever they wished and be whomever they chose so long as they had no debt to their skulk or its leader. Amber sobered up at this, looking almost somber. You never did hear much about her family life and it occurs to you that she may have been running from someone when you'd found her. You hadn't recognized the trap you'd freed her from so it probably wasn't human...

Better to let sleeping dogs lie. You'd fine out more when she wanted to tell you.

At long last you arrive at your destination, cresting the ridge of a small mountain to overlook a great snowy valley.

"Here we are." You can barely hear Vila's voice over the whipping wind. She looks down impassively, her still tails giving away her foreboding.

"This is it? I thought there would be a shrine or something?" Amber shivers next to you, her tail wrapped around what little it could cover.

Vila takes a deep breath, moving forward, "No magic can be performed inside the valley, courtesy of its overlords. However-" She abruptly vanished from view. Not as in she fell or stepped behind something, she actually flicked out of existence as she stepped over the ridge. Amber gawks and you hurry forward before hearing her voice emanating from nothing, "that doesn't mean it can't be hidden by magic on the outside."

You step over the ridge and Vila is suddenly visible again but she's not the only one. Overlooking the valley rises a great castle, gothic spires and black stone the likes of which you'd never seen before vaulting into the sky. You gape at the impossible sight. The structure was comparable to the mountain itself. In fact, it almost seemed to grow into and throughout it. You hear Amber gasp behind you as she walks through the veil of magic. The sun almost seems dimmer on this side, though it is still blinding on the snow around you. Peering down into the valley you spy a sizable village settled in the depths of the forest. It was strange, the whole area around the town was completely clear cut and bare. It made a perfect bright circle in the middle of the dark forest.

After a minute of taking it all in, you clear your throat, "So... what defines 'through' for getting rid of the curse? Hopefully you don't have to walk through the giant evil castle?" Vila swallowed, obviously not relishing her path, "That is where the rulers of this land abide. It will be where the nullifying effect will be strongest." Amber huddles up to Vila's tails, sighing when they wrap around her welcomingly, "c-can you not feel the presence of the curse? Maybe you can just walk down the hill and back?" Vila shook her head, "The only way to know is to use foxfire, which of course I cannot use here." She backtracked to the other side of the barrier and held out her hand as though to cast a spell. Nothing.

"I fear I will have to enter the castle itself to stand any real chance of lifting the curse. It was not meant to come off." She sounds bitter but brightens quickly as Amber runs to her for warmth, enveloping her with her arms and tails simultaneously. You feel thoroughly unwanted and begin trudging down the hill. Vila calls after you, "I can go the rest of the way alone, you shouldn't stay here any longer than you have to." You wave her off, your normal manners somewhat deadened by the cold, "It's a days walk back through barren, frozen rock. I want to resupply at that village before we leave." As the foxes catch up to you{if Slut > 25}, Amber looks happy to spend more time with the older kitsune, cozying up to the fluffy tails.{else}, Amber steps away from the older kitsune, eyes on your reaction. Maybe you weren't so unwanted after all.{endif} Vila looks worried but relieved to have company for a while longer, particularly Amber.