(Raina POV)
After my talk with the goddess and a few others, I started clenching my fist, only to feel the communication crystal begin to crack in my hands. Opening my eyes, I looked at the communication crystal that I had pulled out and forgotten about, which had started to break under the pressure of my grip.
The old man next to me also noticed this and chose not to let it go by asking, "Are you alright there, ancestor?"
I was startled momentarily by the Old man speaking up but hid the fact after half a nanosecond, though that also did not go unnoticed by him. "Yes, I am fine, you old geezer. Now, we should go see how your family is doing."
With that, he looked over to see the girl finishing up and walked over.
After dropping the sound barrier I set up, I followed him and put the crystal in my pocket carefully, trying not to break it further.
Arriving near the group that gathered around the kitsune, we could hear the remainder of what she was saying.
"-Make sure that he only receives one of these pills a day. There should be about thirty pills in here, so it should last a month, but don't expect the infection to last this long, as it should go away in about two weeks. However, this infection did set in rather fast compared to what it should have, so make sure that he does not eat any probiotics. Just stick to protein and grains for the next few weeks until the infection clears.
"I will also give you a prescription to help with the cold and to strengthen his immune system for a time; this will only need to be taken once every three days."
After saying this, she handed the mother a scrap of paper. Looking at it, the woman started crying and profusely thanked the little kitsune.
The little fox seemed to be embarrassed by this from the color on her cheeks, though strangely, the expression on her face did not change to match this.
The old geezer then grabbed her attention by speaking up, saying, "Thank you for your aid, doctor-"
The little fox did not catch onto the insinuation for a couple of seconds before she understood and quickly said, "Valaria."
The old geezer then repeated his words from earlier but completed them this time. "Yes, thank you, doctor Valaria."
Hearing her name, I wondered whether her imprinting on the goddess Elinaria had anything to do with it as they sounded similar, but I threw those thoughts to the side and looked back over to her and said, "Alright, Vale. It's time to go. You still have some questions to answer." With that, I grabbed her by the shoulder and walked her out.
While leaving, I heard a sound transmission from that old man. "What happened to her being one of the gods chosen."
Feeling like a little bit of revenge for earlier, I replied with a smile saying through sound transmission back, "The fact that you will have to call her senior in the future." Afterward, I threw up a quick barrier and dragged the little girl back to my house.
The trip back was thankfully uneventful, so I was able to enter the outer courtyard of my house with ease. I did not stop here however, and continued pulling her along until I went through the first building into the inner courtyard beyond, before stopping by a bench next to one of the flower beds.
Once here, I turned to the little fox and said, "You can sit down and wait here. I have someone I need to call real quick."
After saying that, all I got from her was a small nod, which was enough for me, so I walked over to the other side of the courtyard and set up a new sound barrier.
Pulling the cracked communication crystal out of my pocket, I send some Qi inside and activate the formation formed inside.
I then felt the formation inside trying to connect to its other pair for a few minutes before the connection went through. The moment it did, however, I heard a mature and tired voice sound out from the other side of the line asking, "Hello, what is it now?"
He clearly sounded impatient and did not check what crystal he was using, which made me feel like I should give this ignorant brat a lesson.
I did exactly that and asked, "Would you like to stop being the sect master?"
After saying this, I heard the clattering of furniture before the male voice responded, sounding more respectful and much more awake this time. "I am sorry, ancestor. How may I assist you today."
I smiled slightly at that before giving him the instruction I originally planned for by explaining, "Well, that is much better. Now, what I need you to do is to make sure that once a red-haired kistune named Valaria shows up at the sect, you make her a disciple no matter what."
I did not even need to see him to know that he was confused. That was only proven a moment later as he asked, "May I ask why that is, ancestor?"
Smiling a little after hearing this question and guessing his response, I answered, "Because I am adopting her no matter what you or anyone else says."
At that point, I heard something breaking on the other end of the line before a confused and slightly scared voice responded, "I will make sure that senior sister is treated the best that she can be within the sect."
Hearing his response, I nodded in confirmation and closed the line, storing the crystal back in my storage necklace.
Dropping the barrier since it was no longer needed, I walked back over to the cute little girl sitting on the bench looking all over the courtyard.
Once I was next to her, I sat down and quietly pulled out a brush from my spatial storage. Setting it on my lap I then activated the truth formation on the house and started asking her how she came here.
The confusion on her face was apparent, and I was about to explain my reasoning when she started to tell me again how she had ended up in the village.
Now that I had a lead, I began tracing the questions back until she reached the point where she ended up in this world. It was clear to me at this point that she did not even notice that she said something she should not have said, letting me confirm some of my new theories on how kitsunes worked.
With that finished I then asked her inquisitively, "Vale, do you know that a kitsune can imprint on two different people?"
She then tilted her head to the side in that same questioning manner from earlier, clearly confused by what I asked, and asked me back, "Like how certain animals do?"
I nodded at that and then clarified, explaining, "Indeed, though, unlike them, they can imprint on two people, and depending on the imprint, there is something very specific that they need to do."
She seemed to be slightly more wary of me after those words left my lips and backed up from me slightly as she asked, "Like what?"
I decided that this was the time to expose what I had done and explained, "Well, I am sorry I did not know this when I did it, but the way for a kitsune to imprint on their parent is to have the person touch them between their ears."
Soon, what I said seemed to dawn on her as she started to freak out, so I chose this moment to explain a little more of her situation to her as I continued saying, "And you also seem to have already imprinted on someone else in the same manner."
She seemed to calm down slightly at that but was still freaking out a little, so I said, "Don't worry. I will make sure to correct my mistake starting now."
When I said that, she looked at me in confusion.
I could not help but grin at her little confused look and use some wind Qi to spin her to the side slightly. I then grabbed her tail and started to brush it with the brush I had laid on my lap earlier.
When I did this, she at first jolted in surprise at what I did and tried to grab her tail before stopping purring as I started to brush it. She even seemed to melt into a puddle for a brief moment before yelping in pain as I hit a knot in her tail.
I could not let such a disgrace go, so I scolded her lightly, saying, "Well, I am sorry, dear, but who told you not to take proper care of your hair or tail?"
I saw that she tried to protest what I said, but I struck another knot before she could say anything, causing her to yelp out in pain again.
This happened a few times as she kept trying to say something, but I always stopped her by hitting another knot.
Eventually, she stopped protesting, which I was glad about as I started to run out of knots to detangle.
This entire time, I was weaving something in the background that she did not seem to notice, but someone else did as my link to Stephanie lit up briefly with the feeling of both approval and mischief coming through.
Not saying anything and just smiling, I continued as the little girl's purring seemed to get louder as time went on.
(Elder Xei's POV)
Flying through the sky at a faster speed now, I could not help but feel happier knowing that the return trip would not take as long. Mainly because I would not have to watch the talisman constantly, and we could go faster now because of that.
I could not wait to get back to the sect and the closed-door cultivation that I had planned. Or at least that is what I was thinking until I got a call from the sect master.
When I pulled out the communication crystal and opened the line, I could hear the sect master's voice come through with a grave undertone, saying, "There has been a change of plans. You have to stop by the forbidden village and pick up a kitsune girl named Valaria on your way back to the sect."
"That's strange. I have a kitsune with us who has the same name, and we just passed over the forbidden village, and no one stopped us or said anything to us at all." I reported back to the sect elder.
The Sect Master did not seem too happy about that and asked with exasperation and even a bit of fear in his voice, "Please tell me that your senile old brain did not just lose a kitsune over the forbidden village because you did not take into account that she could not handle the speed you were flying at?"
"What are you talking about? Everything is fine. She is right-" I started to say while turning around only to see the two disciples I brought with me laying flat against the back of the Windstrider, clutching on to it for dear life. And right behind them where Vale was, is nothing but the back of the Windstider and open air. "Oh s**t." Was all I could say in response to seeing that.