***
After a fun filled day with Gio, Juniper returned home and unpacked his purchases from the mall. He did a bit more study on the language before setting up his profile on the Nexus network so he would be ready to do his first broadcast at the end of the week. He was wondering if he should call Gio before going to sleep but since it was late he decided to text him instead.
Juniper's communicator vibrated. He opened the message and smiled to himself as he messaged goodnight.
Juniper lay on his bed and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep.
***
A few days passed, some days he went to Ciro's while other days he stayed at home either cultivating his energy or learning. He also decided to look for anything relating to the Shrine he ended up on, its not that he forgot to research but he had been so busy with his new life and having fun meeting people that it didnt seem as important anymore.
One evening after returning home from visiting Ciro, Juniper sat down in front of his communicator and searched for information from Capital stars museum, there he came across pictures of the nine-tailed fox statues they had excavated from the site. At first Juniper was simply looking at the images but then he noticed a familiar face, it was Marshall Demetrius. He was involved in the discovery and excavation process along with several other military personal.
'Maybe it will be a good idea to speak with Demetrius' Juniper thought. He sent a message to the man using the contact list.
"Marshall Demetrius."
The man appeared on the screen within seconds. "Evening."
Juniper replied "I'm sorry for bothering you, Is there any chance we can meet and talk?"
Demetrius paused before replying, "Yes. We can meet.''
He arranged to meet him at the capital stars museum the following morning, Juniper had no other thoughts at this time other than the shrine. On the other hand, Demetrius was thinking that Juniper wanted to date after the notification of pheremone matching.
Demetrius sat there a bit conflicted, he wasnt planning to have a relationship but he wasn't against Juniper as they seemed to be compatible. However, he wasn't prepared to make a decision right now; he would think about it further tomorrow.
Juniper woke up early on the day, His mind was set on finding out more information about the shrine, and who better to ask than Demetrius? As soon as he arrived, he went straight towards the exhibits hall where the figurines were displayed. There he saw Demetrius standing alone looking at one display case. "Hello," he said.
Demetrius looked over his shoulder. "Good morning."
Juniper noticed the man's scent now that he was in close contact, it was a light reassuring scent. The two men stood there awkwardly for a moment until Demetrius broke the silence by saying "Do you know anything about these figurines?" He looked back at one of the exhibits.
"No..." Juniper said shaking his head, "I'm just here because I heard they might have some information about the Shrine on Lysti'ret, you were part of the experdition team there so...''
Demetrius nodded, "Yeah. It was my second expedition to the planet.. was it 20 years ago now? Are you interested in them?"
Juniper explained how he had seen Demetrius in the photographs of the excavation process. "Did you find anything else interesting during your visit?"
Demetrius shook his head, "Nothing, not really.."
Demetrius stared at the ground and thought. "You want to know about the Shrine don't you?"
"If possible." Juniper answered.
Demetrius turned around. "We weren't able to do much investigating on the site. Our exploration was limited to the immediate area of the site, there was nothing left behind except for some relics." Thinking of the file he had on Juniper he continued ''Perhaps you may find something by looking at the relics, unfortunetly from our perspective they are all normal excavated objects.''
Juniper stood there momentarily, "Maybe if I study them, I could learn something."
Demetrius nodded and led the way through the gallery. "Let me show you what we uncovered."
They walked into the main exhibit room. "This is where the most interesting stuff was found. These are fragments of an inscription that was discovered on a plaque." Demetrius pointed to a wall displaying a collection of ancient writing. "As we dug deeper we found the whole plaque underneath, it was buried under soil." He indicated another display case. "And in this case we found a statue at that Shrine"
Juniper was fascinated, and he thought about the nine-tailed fox figurine as they spoke. They were large black stone statues, they were both worn down with time but you could see the overall shape and figure. it was easy to tell it is a fox.
Demetrius showed Juniper the inscriptions written above the base of the statue. "there are symbols carved into the stone however they dont belong to any known language, we havent been able to cannot deceiver them.''
Juniper leaned in closer to read the faded words, he recognised them, they were written in Kanji. It read 'Inari Shrine.'
Juniper knew about the Inari Shrine, it was a place of heritage for Kitsune. He had visited before to pay respects but he had never met another Nine-tailed fox apart from his brother. He did not know his mother or father, his brother had told him that his father would be an ordinary human and his mother was a nine-tailed tax, she was never maternal and would go from one man to another and leave her cubs behind, the chances of a nine-tailed fox being born is very rare. Juniper happened to be picked up by Sena and he knew it was at this Shrine. It was really his birth place.
Demetrius noticed Juniper staring at the inscriptions. "Is something wrong?"
"No, I just..." Juniper said, "..Maybe im meant to be here.''
Demetrius cocked his head. "How do you say?''
Juniper didn't know. "I mean maybe its destiny, back where I'm from people were quite spiritual, they believed in deities and demons. This Shrine was meant for Inari the god who symbolised fox's..'' Juniper paused for a moment, "Maybe Inari sent me here.."
The two men remained silent, Demetrius had no idea what Juniper was talking about. Yet the man was certainly intrigued.