Inari could barely breathe because of the smoke suffocating her. She needed to get out of here, fast. The hidden Kitsune kingdom Tao was torn apart by an unprovoked human invasion, and the only reason why she's still alive is because the queen fought until her last breath to drive them out of the crumbling remains of the kingdom where one unfortunate little girl was trapped in. They all must be dead by now.

She tried to muster up as much power as she could to cast a shower to try to put the fire out, but all her power wasn't enough. She could only put out the fire of one exit and had to get out through there so rubble wouldn't fall on her.

She looked back one last time at the previously hidden and very lively kingdom, now nothing but a big pile of burning rubble and corpses were seen in that very same place.

She wanted to cry, but she knew she needed to get out of the Kitsune territory before something else happened, like the humans coming back.

She ran and ran until she could not anymore. Her bruises and burns caught up to her, she probably won't make it out alive. And even if she did, it's possible (and very much likely) she won't have nearly as good life as she did in the kingdom.

That doesn't matter right now though, because she is starting to lose consciousness from the blood loss. She sloppily sits on the side of a tree and lets herself fall slowly to the ground.

This is probably where she'll die.

Before losing consciousness completely, she catches a small, humanoid figure. She can't tell what humanoid race it is because her vision is getting blurry, but if it's a human, she has more reasons to think she'll die right now.

***

She was prepared to not open her eyes at all after she lost consciousness, but surprisingly, she did.

She's now on a dilapidated yet warm shack, with apples and a candle on the right of the bed she's resting in.

She won't eat any. She doesn't want to trust someone. She can't trust someone.

She got up, and that reminded her of her bruises, which all have been treated. It's best for her to sleep, but she still wants to make sure that she's safe here.

Slowly but surely, she explores the shack. It seems like it used to be a sort of warehouse for weapons and armor, given the rusty, dust covered weapons around and the empty armor stands. They can't be used as weapons or armor now.

It now seems to be the home of somebody, given the barrels that she assumes were filled with weapons now have vegetables, fruits and other food and cooking related items in them, though they don't seem to be more refined or pricey than bread and fresh meat.

Then she hears the door of the shack open, and light footsteps that, judging by how quiet they are, seem to be from someone her age.

Then a figure peeked over.

"Oh, you're awa-" she didn't care to hear them before shouting.

"Kitsunebi, burn my opponent with all your might!"

...

What was supposed to happen was four ghostly flames (called kitsunebi, or Wil-o-Wisps) would burn the human down, but all that appeared was a bit of smoke. Kitsunebi appear depending on the state of the user's fox tails. And all of them were damaged, so none appeared.

And now she's feeling the consequences of mana loss. She collapses once again.

***

As soon as she opened her eyes, she jolted awake and prepared to fight, even though she was in no state of doing so.

"Woah! Calm down, I don't mean any harm." Said the figure who now is clear is a child of around her age. "If I did, don't you think I would've done something bad to you already? Please, just trust me right now!"

He's right, as much as she hates to admit it, specially from a human, but all she could do right now is accept help.

"... Ugh, alright. I can't believe I am forced to be in this position, and from a human of all races..."

Inari then laid down clumsily on the bed she was sleeping in before waking up, and did a sigh that the kid took as a sign to continue with the treatment.

Now that she had time to evaluate his appearance, he had a black, long and unkept hair, with a dirty face and freckles, though some could just be dirt stuck on his face. His eyes were a very vibrant green.

"You should get a bath sometime, you stink."

"I can hardly keep helping the villagers here and at the same time keep my garden clean and tidy, I don't have time for a bath."

"You fool, if you keep doing that you'll die, either from overworking or from bacteria and dirtyness."

"Then what do you want me to do?"

"Take a shower. I'll make the water if you need it."

"Ah, but you don't need to! I don't need to shower, I'm fine like this."

"Well I'm not. When I recover I'll create some water for you, and in turn, you'll give me some tomatoes."

"Tomatoes?"

"Don't question what I want, be grateful that I even wanted to help. Granted it's because the smell is unbearable, but still."

"Um, okay... Thank you for giving me water...?"

"You need more enthusiasm, but I'll excuse you on this one."

"... Okay."

"By the way, what's your name? I suppose I could keep calling you fool... But I have a feeling I will be forced to be around you for some time."

"Oh! My name's Sozo. And yours?"

She hesitated a little. "... Inari."

***

"She escaped!?" The harpy queen yelled at the men while the wind in the room blew wildly, she could barely hear the voices of the men explaining themselves.

"Please, your highness! She has no way of recovering from this, she'll either end up traumatized for life or die from the injuries."

"I don't care. Do you understand what you just made happen!? Bring me her corpse, and I want to make sure she is dead. If I don't hear good news from you in 5 days, consider yourselves dead men."

"Y-yes, your highness!" They said as they practically ran away from her.

"I can not let one single fox escape. That will surely turn out bad for me until I cut the problem from its root at the start."