Despite the fading light, and the trees standing much closer together than those in the human world, Laura had little problem seeing everything just as clear as earlier, when she had hiked up the, in comparison at least, very well lit path.
Even so the silence around her kept the Kitsune on edge, as she had expected at least the leaves rustling against each other. To break this ominous silence, Laura turned her head slightly towards Takeko, who was still sitting on her shoulder. "So how does this Inuka look?"
"Gorgeous." Takeko replied, before realizing that wasn't really helpful, nor what Laura had meant. "She got hair as white as the snow, with small icicles scattered through it all. She also has a pair of wolf ears, although those are covered in tiny light blue icicles. Oh and she also has blue eyes."
"Ah well that should be easy enough to spot around here then." she replied while ducking underneath a low hanging branch. As their short conversation died down, the silence seemed to creep back in from the trees surrounding them.
"So how do you know Inuka?" Laura asked to fend of the silence once more.
"Well I hang out in this forest as often as I can get away with, and one day we stumbled across each other." Takeko began to explain. "And after a while of that pattern repeating we did become friends, I even helped her save a human a couple of decades ago who had wandered too deeply into a snowstorm." the Tanuki finished proudly, puffing out his little chest.
"That's … interesting" Laura replied, thinking back to the tale Daiki had told of Yamatanuki's founder.
"How so?" the little spirit inquired. Just as the Kitsune wanted to reply, the sound of a snapping twig behind them caused her to spin around.
Standing there was what looked like a minotaur, half man, half bull, easily standing a head taller than Laura. Opening her mouth to ask who he was, a rag was stuffed in it from behind, while an arm nearly as thick as her legs grabbed her around the waist, pinning her arms against her sides.
With her limited experience controlling her tails, they just flapped around ineffectively, a nuisance to her assailants at most.
"I think this one will please Lord Yo-tsu." Laura could hear a deep voice grunt.
"Yes." another voice rumbled behind her. "At the very least she'll make a fine concubine once broken in."
Before the voices continued their conversation though, a fist struck Laura in the back of the head, and a moment later she was out like a rock.
As she came to her senses again, the Kitsune found herself slumped against a tent pole. Attempting to stand up revealed that her hands had been chained to it, which had just barely allowed her to kneel on the ground. A few strong pulls showed that it was tied down securely enough to not let a prisoner get loose. Looking around the tent, there was nothing beyond herself in it at this time, though luckily seemingly nothing had been done to her except chaining her up, as all her clothes were still in place.
As she could do very little else, Laura passed the time by trying to better understand how to move her tails as she wanted. When she was finally confident in at least telling each tail apart from the rest when they brushed against the tent behind her, a rather welcome surprise came in through the tent's entrance.
Just above the ground, Takeko's head was poking through the gap of the fabric making up the tent. "Ah there you are Laura."
"Man am I glad to see you Takeko." The Kitsune replied excitedly, before catching herself and continuing a bit quieter. "Can you get those chains off of me?" she asked, rattling the chains binding her hands.
"Let me check." the smaller spirit said as he hurried behind his imprisoned companion, climbing up on her tails to get a better look.
"No, there's no lock, or other way to unbind them I can make out." The little spirit said sadly after a couple of moments.
"It's alright I'm sure we can figure something out." Laura offered, trying to cheer both herself and her friend up with only moderate success.
"I'll go and tell Inuka I found you, don't worry I'll be back as soon as I can." Takeko whispered before hushing out of the tent again.
As the fox eared woman waited for the Tanuki to return, she was torn between being angry at him for leaving her behind like this, and worried that he might get caught, after all she wasn't sure she could find her way back to town without the little guy.
Lost in thought as she was, she missed the soft voice trying to talk to her from outside the tent the first time it spoke, while the second she was too surprised to make out what they were saying.
"Who's there?" Laura asked as she turned around as much as she could manage, her ears swiveling towards the voice on instinct.
"Don't worry." The voice replied, sounding as soft as a winter wind disturbing a field of fresh snow. "I'm Inuka, Takeko told me where to find you."
"I'm Laura, where is the little guy?" the Kitsune replied quietly.
"I send him to find your belongings, while I came to help you free yourself." Inuka answered, her voice exuding an air of confidence and calm.
"How?" was the only thing Laura thought of asking.
"I'll teach you how to heat those chainlinks till they bend out of shape easily." came the prompt reply. "Now concentrate, keep your eyes open and do as I say. Turn around until you can see a bit of the chain holding you, preferably a bit away from both yourself and the tent."
turning her head a bit further, Laura could soon spot a bit of the chain hanging a tad away from the tentpole. Pulling her arms away from the pole, she managed to get it a little further away from herself as well.
"Got it."
"Good, now picture a small flame sitting in the middle of it. It can be any flame really, a candle, a campfire or even a woodfire. The important thing is that you can picture it clearly." Inuka continued her explanation. "Once you have that image clear in your mind you need to focus on it, force it to become reality."
"Okay" Laura said doubtfully, but she still did as told, and after a bit, focused on a mental image of a propane torch's flame sitting in the center of the metal ring keeping her hostage. A moment later she felt an unfamiliar tingling in her chest, as she tried to force the flame she pictured into existence. She recoiled back as far as the chains allowed in shock and surprise as a bright blue flame appeared exactly where she had imagined it, just to vanish the moment she lost focus.
"Okay you did it once." Inuka said from outside. "Now try for a smaller, but hotter flame, imagine how it will heat the metal of the chain."
A few seconds later, Laura had managed to conjure another flame, this time without being so surprised that she failed to maintain it immediately. Focusing on the heat of the fire, the flame gave little visual indication of any changes, but the Kitsune could start to feel the heat radiate from the little flame. Slowly the metal of the chain began to change color, until it was a bright, pale yellow, at which point Laura decided to go for it, and with a quick and powerful pull, the chain broke. Leaping forward, she still failed to evade the glowing hot piece of metal completely, as it singed the fur at the tip of her center most tail.
"I did it" Laura whispered through clenched teeth to Inuka as she walked back to where she had stood a moment ago, rubbing some spit over the burn wound to try to cool it.
"Good, luckily this side of the tent faces the forest, so take a step back and I'll cut you a back entrance." the other spirit replied, before an icicle pierced the tent's fabric, making its way down from the top slow enough to give Laura ample time to step out of the way. Once the cut had reached the ground, she stepped through it and came face to face with what looked like a young woman, just as Takeko had described her, wearing a pure white Yukata with small blue and black accents.
"Now come quick, Takeko knows where to meet up with the two of us." Inuka said as she grabbed onto the Kitsune's wrist and began dragging her deeper into the forest. Her snow white skin was slightly cold to the touch, and as she ran, her hair trailed behind her like snow on the wind.
"Thank you." Laura said as they made their way through the tick forest, heading slightly downhill.
"Don't worry about it, I have yet to abandon someone in need, especially those caught between Onyu and Yo-tsu." Was the quick and quiet reply she got from the yuki onna. "Now come the clearing we're headed for is just a few more meters this way."