Inside the center of the forbidden zone of the Forest of Calamity, a couple of seconds before Sylvain's hiding spell wears off for the first time two foxes are staring at each other. Neither of them are backing down and when looking at their coat, it shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow. Right at this moment Sylvain's hiding spell wears off and both foxes break their stare off and look in Sylvain's direction.
A aged male voice comes from one of the foxes as it says, "to think there was a human that managed to get to the beast men zone without being detected by me. Impressive to say the least."
"My king, don't try to change the subject," a youthful feminine voice comes from the other fox.
"Sorry, can you remind me of the subject my queen?"
"It is about your daughters my king."
"The failures you birthed or the successes birthed by another?"
"The failures."
"What about them?"
"I was asking if you could rescind your statement made 2 years ago on their birth."
"And why should I do that? The statement was fair. You should be grateful that I haven't kicked them out 2 years ago and let them stay for 5 years. You should be even more grateful that I even gave them a chance to stay longer."
"You know as well as I that they will never accomplish what you told them in their lifetime, no less in 5 years."
"Which is why you should be grateful that they have been allowed to stay for 5 years. If they don't gain complete control over their element in 3 years then then will be banished. If you are so sure that they won't obtain that in their lifetimes then teach them survival skills. I have nothing more to say on the matter."
"But."
"My queen, do you really wish to risk the lives of pure subjects for your kids. You must already know the damage they can cause. Just think about if that power goes out of control. I'm doubtful that I could even stop their destruction. And as time goes on their power will only increase. And with each increase in power, the less control they have. You should already know that I am being very lenient as all other kings have killed them while they were still young."
"Yes my king. I'm sorry for wasting your time." The queen says as she begins to leave.
"If only those children were born as rainbow foxes instead." The king says as the queens body gets out of site.
The queen then heads towards her children. Even though they are only two years old they already act like children at the age of 9. They look different from the other rainbow foxes. Instead of a coat that shimmers with the colors of the rainbow these two have coats with finite color. One has a coat of orange red, while the other has a coat of whitish blue.
The fox with the orange red coat notices their mother enter first and asks, "so how did the talk with the king go."
The fox with the whitish blue coat, although doesn't say anything has her ears pricked, obviously waiting for the news.
"Unfortunately the king says that he will not rescind his decision. If you two wish to stay then you must have complete mastery over your element."
The orange red fox speaks again. "But mother that is impossible. The fire element just won't listen to me. It also feels like it is getting harder to control as I get older."
The whitish blue fox then speaks, "it is the same for me mother. The water element just won't respond."
"Unfortunately there is no other way. Your elemental training will henceforth be canceled. In its place I will prepare you for life outside."
"Okay mother," both foxes say with a slightly pleased tone.
The queen, noticing their pleased tone asks, "Why do you seem happy for leaving?"
The orange red fox says, "Since we will be leaving anyway it is fine to tell you. The other rainbow foxes have been verbally bullying us. It is not to the point of us losing our temper, but it is at the point where we realize that we are not welcome by them."
"Yes mother," the whitish blue fox says, "I am happy to leave this place that doesn't like us. To that end please teach me well so I can survive outside."
The queen laughs and says, "I was worried for nothing. We still have 3 years so in that time I will teach you what I can."
And like that 3 years have passed by quickly for the fox girls. They have been keeping the lessons the queen told them to heart. During this time they have blocked out the verbal bullying from the other foxes and focused on learning. They have been taught how to distinguish between safe and poisonous foods, how to hunt, and how to test for reliable water sources. Even though they have been taught all of this none of this knowledge comes from experience.
Today is the day where they will have to show they have mastered their element or get kicked out to the forbidden zone. The queen then leads them to the king. Luckily the king has made today a private meeting to give his daughters some privacy.
Once the three of them stop walking the king says, "today is the day. Either show me your mastery over your elements or be banished from the forbidden zone."
"Yes my king," the fox sisters say together.
They then begin to draw large amounts of mana to them and try to cover their bodies in their element without getting hurt by it. The orange red fox soon gets surrounded by a fiery aura, while the whitish blue fox gets surrounded by a watery aura. In the beginning everything is fine. Their aura has surrounded their fox bodies and has not hurt them. However a couple seconds later that changes. Their auras begin to escape the foxes control. The fiery aura begins to grow hotter and hotter, while the watery aura begins to grow colder and colder.
The king sees this and merely waves his paw at the two of them. With that simple paw wave a large amount of wind flows through and destroys both the watery and fiery aura in a puff of smoke. Once that smoke is gone the foxes can be seen. The orange red one has burns on her body while the whitish blue has cuts.
"You both have failed to control your element. As such you both are henceforth banished from the forbidden zone in the Forest of Calamity. If you are seen here again expect your death."
With those as his final words he leaves the area. This is to give them time to say goodbye to their mother. While the king is leaving the queen goes to her daughters. She first tends their wounds.
"It looks like we will have to leave," the orange red fox says.
"At least you don't have to leave the Forest of Calamity. I suggest that you stay in the beast men zone and."
"Don't try to use our elements unless we wish to die. Yes mother, you've said that so many times over the past 3 years."
"Yes I have said that many times. Well while I can't do much for you take this bag. It should have a couple months worth of food if rationed properly despite its size. It may be hard to live without the support of the clan, but I'm sure you two can do it. Do your best to help each other."
"We'll be leaving then mother."
The two foxes then leave. Once they are out of sight the king comes back.
"Tell me honestly my king. What do you think their chances are of surviving?"
"Very minuscule especially with the winter months coming. The demonic beasts are very strong and they don't have any combat experience. Even if they do live, their own power will go out of control and kill them. If lucky they can probably live another 5 years."
"I hope you are wrong."
Then we head back to the fox sisters. They have just arrived at the boundary between the forbidden zone and beast man zone. They stop and look back as if to burn this scene they will never again see into their memory. After a short while they then enter the beast man zone. This is the first time they have ever excited their home. As such they begin to wander around aimlessly. However that wandering was horrible as they had encountered a bear type demonic beast.
They at first tried to fight it, but they failed horribly. They may know all the theories on fighting, but they had no fighting experience. The bear on the other side survived by killing and had been through many life or death battles. They were horribly outmatched and tried to run away when their attacks couldn't even penetrate its fur. The bear however wouldn't let them get away so easily and chased after them. Luck was on their side though as they were able to escape. They did suffer some wounds from the fight though.
"Sister, I don't think we will be able to get our food through fighting," the whitish blue fox said.
"Yeah who knew the demonic beasts were this tough. I couldn't even penetrate his fur. We can't even use our elements as it would hurt us instead. I guess the only thing we could do is collect edible plants. It should be safer and easier."
"Yeah and we also have mothers' gifts so we should be fine for a little while."
Even though they had decided to subsist off of edible plants the other demonic beasts wouldn't let them. If they ever even saw another demonic beast it would attack them. As such they had to continuously run away in order to survive and because they were running away they weren't able to stop and pick any edible plants. Even if they were able to stop and pick up something, it would almost always be inedible. To make matters worse for them because of all the running they had to eat more to keep their stamina up. This made the food that was supposed to last a couple of months run thin in a matter of days.
"Here is the last bit of food left," the orange red fox said as she splits it with her sister.
"Thanks," she replies.
This was one of the brief moments of respite they had from being chased by demonic beasts. Their food was now all gone and they had no way of getting more. Before they could finish their food they were spotted by a demonic beast. They immediately run away like they have been doing, but this demonic beast is persistent with chasing them. It even had a similar speed to them so they couldn't get out of its sight. Normally they would have been faster, but they were weighed down by hunger. Both foxes thought that this would be were they died, yet they kept running, not willing to die.
The demonic beast was getting closer to them and was almost able to attack them, but then it suddenly backed off. It seemed as if it was frightened by something and immediately ran away as fast as it could. The two foxes who thought they were dead immediately began rejoicing at escaping death. After the high of escaping death had calmed down they once again realized how hungry they were. It was at this moment that they smelled a very appetizing smell. The smell of cooked food.
"Sister, do you smell that?" The whitish blue fox asked, with drool coming from its mouth.
"Yes. Should we go."
"Of course we go."
The foxes then began following their noses and soon cake before a tree with a hole underneath it. The hole was small enough for both of them to barely fit through and they unhesitatingly went down it. The small hole then opened up into a massive cavern that had many items they had never seen before. Although they were curious about the items they decided to first find the food. Walking down a path that seemed to be carved out they found themselves in another room that was practically filled with cooked meat. They immediately began eating and once they had gone through half of it they were satisfied.
"Sister, do you think we did something bad?" The orange red fox asked.
"Why do you ask?" The whitish blue fox said, still reveling in its full belly.
"Because that meat was from the demonic beasts. Whatever is living here is strong enough to kill them with ease looking at this amount. Which means it could also kill us with ease."
"Maybe we should leave before it gets back." The whitish fox said nervously.
However before they could leave they heard the sound of something walking towards them.