Fox 11

It's been a few weeks since the incident at the training center and we've been back almost every day since. Although at first Levi was annoyed and utterly frustrated with they way things were handled that day once he cooled down he had become attached to Tommy and was by his side every chance he got. I don't think Tommy was too annoyed by him but there were times where he would split into multiple versions of himself to make a break for it.

I never told Alistair and Levi about the raven I saw because I wasn't sure what to make of it. Between the raven and the creature we saw in the forest before I was sure that something was going on but I couldn't figure out what it was. I continued the research, looking up at much as I could about Helion. All accounts painted him as a bad guy who committed the ultimate sin in the magical community.

I knew it wasn't the best idea hiding things from my friends but ever since Alistair taught me to put up mental barriers I had been using it to keep this from a snoopy Levi. I knew he was a little suspicious about what was going on with me because I always seemed so lost in thought now a days.

"Tae..." Alistair called to me snapping out of my thoughts.

"Hmmm?" I hummed looking up from the book I was reading to give him my full attention. He was seated besides me on the bed we've been sharing in nothing but one of Levi's shirts which reached his knees and some boxers. We were supposed to be studying for a test that we had in a few days and it was proving to be a lot more difficult than it should have been.

"What's wrong?" He questioned staring right at me.

"Nothing. Just thinking about how to call to my kitsune spirit. Jason said I'm not entirely attached to it and that I should be able to call on it at will." I lied hoping he'd believe me.

"Well you're still a beginner so I'm sure it's not as easy to do it. Just keep working at it and I'm sure that you'll be fine." Alistair reminded me. "Levi was the same way when he first shifted and look where he's at now."

"I know. I guess that I keep forgetting that. I know it'll take some time still."

"You're doing just fine." Levi walked in and ruffled my hair as he plopped down on the bed besides Alistair.

Levi immediately cozied up to Alistair as he continued to study. It was moments like this when I truly realized how weird our relationship was. I had only met these two about a month ago and here we were sharing a bed and our lives with each other. I had so much faith and trust in them that I left the only family I ever knew to be with them when I found out what I was.

Even when they found out that I was different than a normal freshly turned familiar they didn't treat me any differently. I know I'm powerful, I can feel the raw magic running through my blood and I know that once I really figure things out that I'll be able to do things that no newbie should be able to do. Yet not once have they looked on me with disdain, fear, or disgust.

"Levi can I ask you a question?" I turned towards him.

"Sure. What's up?" He replied as he peeked over Alistair's shoulder to read his book.

"How do you feel about me having two tails and you only having one?" I questioned seriously. He looked up at me instantly with a pensive look on his face. Alistair looked up as well waiting patiently for his answer.

"Honestly I don't really care about it. The fact that you already have two tails when you haven't even known about being a familiar for as long as I have doesn't bother me. To be honest I'm more worried about what that means for you. I'm too curious about why you have two tails to be jealous that I don't." He shrugged.

"So you don't hate me or anything?" I questioned tentatively.

"Hate you?" He laughed. "I don't think I could ever hate you Tae." His smile was wide and bright and immediately all my doubts were nullified and I was content with his answer.

"Well now that we have that out of the way how about we go get something to eat." Levi questioned. "I'm starving!"

"You're always starving lately." Alistair laughed.

"Well it's probably because someone's had us in the training center all week!" He answered glaring my way.

"I can't help that I want to make us stronger." I replied.

"Yeah but I'm pretty sure you're slowly killing me in the process." He flopped back on the bed as he moaned and groaned loudly. I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face as he continued to get louder and began tossing and turning in mock pain. Alistair poked his side a few time as he tried to fight the smile that began to appear on his face.

"Fine! Let's go." I relented when his groaning began to slowly turn into random noise.

"Great! I'm ready! Let's go!" He hopped off the bed, snagged his shoes by the door and rushed out the room. Alistair and I laughed as we followed behind him slipping on our shoes before leaving our apartment.

Levi chatted lively about nothing as we strolled through the yard heading to the Dining Hall. Every little thing caught his attention and it was always entertaining to hear his viewpoints on things. There were still some student who weren't happy with us because of the curfew that was still in effect. Most of them however have moved on and have just accepted that there was no way around the curfew. The mermaid princess and her lackeys still bothered us from time to time but it was nothing that couldn't be ignored.

Things here seem to be as normal as they can get for now. The three of us have settled into a nice routine when it comes to our classes and our extracurricular activities. We learn in the morning, train in the afternoon, do some work after and then relax in our room for the rest of the night until we fall asleep.

"Do you smell that?" Levi tilted his head up to the air, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "It smells so delicious..."

"It smells like pizza." I replied after taking a deep breath.

"That's because it is pizza. Just our regular pizza from Earth." Alistair replied.

"Yeah but it smells so good, like pizza times ten." Levi moaned lowly.

"Huh?" I questioned. "It smells good but not pizza times ten."

"I want it." He growled lowly.

"Whoa..." Alistair stopped walking and turned to look at him. Turning around I took a closer look at him as well. His eyes were glowing a striking purple and his canines had lengthened past his lips. He looked like he was shifting into his fox but he hadn't actually done it yet.

"What's wrong with you?" I questioned.

"I don't...know." He growled out as he pushed some fallen strands out his face. He braced himself against the wall and took deep breaths. "I feel like my senses have been heightened even more and there's this slow burn working it's way through my body. I want to shift and run wild but I also want to eat everything in that cafeteria."

"Alistair?" I questioned hoping he'd know something. He stood there staring down at Levi completely unfazed by what was happening. "Alistair? Are you paying attention? Do you know what's going on?"

"Not at all." He replied with a straight face before turning to me. "We should probably find someone who knows something about what's going on."

He reached down and threw Levi's arm around his shoulder and with his tiny frame he managed to hoist him up. Levi put a lot of his weight on Alistair and I rushed forward to help him carry our friend to the infirmary.

His breathing was labored as we hauled him through the corridors looking for a nurse's office or something. We were blindly walking around with no real sense of where we were headed. Our minds weren't clear and the longer it took to find someone to help him the more frenzied things began to become. This place was large enough to get lost several times over and the last time we were at the infirmary Jason had escorted us back to our room. We should have paid attention but our minds were clearly on other things at the time.

"Hey can you tell us where the infirmary is from here?" I questioned one girl who caught sight of Levi and simply scurried away. "Well that wasn't helpful at all."

"My eyes!" Levi wailed.

"What's wrong with your eyes?" Alistair panicked. It seemed like that severity of the situation had finally hit him and he realized that everything wasn't going to be alright if we didn't figure this out.

"They...They burn." He whimpered as he pulled his arm from around my neck to begin rubbing his eyes. He pushed Alistair away as he stumbled towards the wall all the while pawing at his eyes as if there was something in them that he couldn't quite get out. The simple rubbing turned more brutal before he was lightly scratching at his eyes. "Just stop it!" He shouted.

Several classmates scurried past us shooting us worried glances or confused ones. I bent down beside him and reached out my hand to help him but stopped short when he snarled at me before he went back to scratching his eyes.

"Levi you've gotta stop this. I don't know what's wrong with you but we're just trying to help."Alistair pleaded with him.

"Well looks likes my favorite annoying kit isn't feeling too well." Turning around I spotted Tommy on the other side of the hallway, leaning against a wall with a lit cigarette in his mouth. He didn't look even a little bit worried about Levi.

"I don't think you're supposed to smoke inside." Alistair chided him.

"Whatever." He grumbled as he took a long drag of the cigarette.

"I'm going to tell Jason." I smirked as his cheeks instantly pinked and he pulled the cigarette from his mouth, tossed it on the floor and stepped on it.

"Snitch..."

"So can you tell us what's wrong with Levi?" I snapped.

"Let's get him to the infirmary first and then we can talk." He replied as he pushed off the wall and strode towards Levi who began to growl at him. Tommy paid him no never mind as he reached down and ran his hand soothingly through Levi's disheveled hair. "It'll be alright."

With one hand he hoisted Levi up before wrapping one arm around his waist and pulling one of Levi's arms around his neck to better support him. With the two of us trailing behind him Tommy turned around and maneuvered through the vast school until we were standing right outside of the infirmary.

Looking down at Levi as he laid writhing in the bed with his arms gently tied down worried me. The medical staff had been busy bustling around since we came in. Tommy had ordered him tied down and made them bring in things to cool him down.

"Alright, tell us what's going on with him." Alistair demanded.

"He's gaining a new ability." Tommy replied without missing a beat.

"Wh-What do you mean?" I questioned nervously.

"It's a little too early to tell what new ability he's getting but his body is definitely changing right now. We usually don't see this in freshly bonded familiars. It's only been about a year or so that you've been bonded together, correct?" He questioned.

"Yeah." Alistair replied.

"Usually the familiars don't receive new gifts until their second or third year as a familiar. However, the three of you have a unique relationship that we have yet to truly understand. I'll stay here with you three until he recovers and I'll call Jason, he knows a lot more about this then I do."

"How long do you think this will take?" I questioned.

"Maybe a couple hours, maybe a couple of days. Everyone is different." He shrugged as he plopped down in the seat besides the bed.

"Why is this happening to us?" I groaned.

"To be honest I don't know but I'm sure everything will fall into place eventually." He answered as he leaned back in the chair and propped his feet up on the edge of the bed.

"How can you be so sure?" Alistair questioned as he dabbed Levi's forehead with a wet cloth.

"I'm not but isn't that what you're supposed to tell people?" He shrugged as he tilted his head back and closed his eyes.

"I don't think it counts if you don't mean it." I muttered.

"Well I'm not that good with consoling people. I leave that up to my better half and speaking of the love of my life..."He trailed off with a smirk.

"Stop telling the children lies." Jason grumbled as he walked through the door.

"It's not a lie if it's the truth." Tommy smiled brightly.

"What's going on?" Jason asked as he leaned over and felt his forehead and then his cheeks.

"Tommy said that he's gaining a new ability. He was craving pizza one minute and then the next he was complaining about his eyes burning. They had to tie him down because he started to scratch at his eyes." Alistair explained.

"Hmmm..." He hummed as he stepped back to look over Levi who had stopped squirming as much. "I can't be positive as to what his new ability is but it's clear that it has to do with his eyes. It'll probably connect with the ability that he already has to read minds. I'll have to do some research to find out. You'll be here for a little while so it's fine. I'll order that they give him something to help with the pain while we wait this out."

"Thanks." He nodded his head and walked out of the room.

It was clear that Tommy was already completely asleep as I climbed over his legs to get into the bed besides Levi. He was still shaking every once in a while and he was sweating profusely but he was at least calm enough to lay beside. He peeked his eyes open to look at me and all I saw was a bright purple glow. In his eyes alone I could see all the pain that he was going through and I didn't even have to hear him to know that he was begging me to make it stop.

"It'll be alright Levi. We won't let anything happen to you." I tried to soothe him just as a nurse walked in tapping away at one of those magical tablets they all carried around. It emitted a soft yellow light as she held it over Levi and slowly his eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep.

"What'd you do to him?" Alistair questioned as he climbed into the bed on the other side of Levi.

"It's just a small spell to help ease his pain and have him fall asleep." She explained as she tapped away. "We'll be back in thirty minutes to see how he's progressing.

"How long do you think it'll take him to gain his new ability?" I questioned.

"His case is a unique one. He seems to be gaining his ability quite quickly which is why his body is under a lot of stress and its extremely painful for him. Usually a familiar would slowly gain his or her new ability until the final stage which would be mildly uncomfortable. It seems like all three stages hit him back to back and he's already in the final stage of the process. We will continue to monitor him but at this point we're not entirely sure when he'll be back to normal."

"Thank you." Alistair whispered as he buried his face into Levi's side.

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"So class sucked without you there to make everyone uncomfortable with your casual nudity." I groaned as I dumped my bag on the side table besides Levi's bed. Alistair tossed his on the edge of the bed as he climbed in beside Levi. He had been sleep most of the time but he tried to wake up when we came back from our classes. With a pained grunt he sat up in the bed to talk to us.

"Sorry I couldn't be there." He smiled not looking sorry in the least bit.

"It's fine, we survived. How are you feeling?" I questioned ignoring his positive attitude about skipping class.

"Much better actually. My body is still sore and my eyesight's a bit hazy but I'm good."

"Hazy?" Alistair questioned. "Did you talk to the doctor's about that?"

"Of course I did." He sighed.

"What did they say?"

"That it was just a side-effect of what was happening with me." He replied.

"You've been in here four days already and nothing has really changed." I sighed.

"I know but it has been a nice break from class and all the training you've been putting me through." He laughed.

"I'll have you know that the training is what's helping your body cope with the sudden changes. The nurse said that all the working out we've been doing has been good for you." I replied before sticking my tongue out at him.

"Sure, that's what they want me to think." He quipped as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Now, now, children. Don't start fighting or else I'll have to discipline you." Tommy smirked as he walked into the room.

"Somehow I feel like that might be against the rules." I deadpanned.

He tucked his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket and leaned against the wall observing us for a second or two before he turned his attention towards Levi. He pushed off the wall, walked over to the bed, and poked Levi's cheek before speaking.

"Are you sure you were sick? You seem perfectly fine to me." He questioned.

"Yeah, the terrible burning behind my eyeballs could have just been a mistake maybe you should ask the Doctor's about that." Levi replied in a sarcastic tone as he rolled his eyes.

"Tommy stop harassing Levi." Jason sighed as he walked through the door.

"Why? It's so fun." Tommy replied with a shrug of his shoulders as he reached out and pulled Jason into his side. Jason blushed instantly as he tried to get away from Tommy who simply paid him no mind and held him close.

"Yeah, you just wait til I get bett-" Levi began his sure to be witty remark but was cut short when he grasped his head in pain.

"What's wrong?" I questioned.

"My head...My head hurts bad." He groaned as he closed his eyes and laid back in the bed.

"Call the nurse." Tommy spoke up as he finally released Jason from his hold who instantly ran from the room to alert the nurse of Levi's change. "How bad is it?"

"It's like a deep pulsing behind my eyes." He groaned.

The nurse from the first day rushed into the room with her tablet in hand and went straight to his bedside. She held the tablet over his body starting at his feet and working his way up. It beeped once and she set down the tablet and pulled out a mini flashlight.

"I need you to open your eyes." She instructed him.

"But it hurts." Levi whined.

'Levi do as she says. She's only trying to help.' Alistair instructed him.

"I need you to do it so I can make sure of some things." She explained as she held the flashlight in front of his eyes waiting patiently for him to comply. Levi's eyes fluttered a bit before he slowly opened them. His pupils were a deep violet color as he stared ahead blankly.

"I...I can't see. I can't see any of you!" His panicked voice echoed in the completely quiet room.

"Take a deep breath before you answer me. Can you see anything at all?" The nurse was calm and collected as she questioned him.

"All I can see are faint colors." He replied after letting out a deep breath.

"Can you turn towards me and tell me what you see?" She questioned once more.

"Green. You're the green glowing light..." He answered.

"What does that mean?" I cut in before the nurse could say anything else.

"It seems that his new ability has finally come in. He is able to see and with much practice he will be able to read auras. We do have a few other familiars with that ability so if you would like I could set you up with one of our more seasoned aura readers so that you can start working on your new ability." She replied as she picked up her tablet and typed something.

"Auras?" Levi questioned.

"Yes, each and every person has an aura whether they are magical beings or not. Your eyes should be adjusting soon enough so that you'll be able to see each person as well as their auras." She replied.

"Yeah, I can see you guys a little better now although it's still a blur." He agreed.

"What does a green aura mean?" I questioned.

"People with green auras are natural healers and usually become doctors or nurses." Jason replied.

"You can read auras?" Alistair questioned.

"I can't see auras but I do know what each of them mean. Well the basic ones at least." He explained.

"What's my aura?" I questioned excitedly as I bounced on the bed besides him. He turned his head towards me as he squinted and then opened his eyes wide trying to get a better picture of me.

"Orange. There's a lot of orange with little flicks of purple, almost like a flame." He answered.

"Orange means uplifting and inspiring and it tends to be people of great power. The purple is more or less your spiritual side which is your kitsune spirit which we've already seen manifested once or twice with the purple flames." Jason explained.

"This is so fun. Do Alistair next!" I cheered excitedly. Levi closed his eyes and massaged them a little bit before turning towards Alistair. When he opened his eyes he stared at Alistair for a minute or two before he tilted his head to the side a little in confusion.

"Yours isn't really a light as much as it's a shadow. It's like a dark, smoky gray that's simply surrounding you." He answered.

The three of us looked up at Jason waiting for him to explain what that meant. He had a pained look on his face as he looked over at Tommy who had a serious expression on his face. We waited patiently for him to say something but he only opened his mouth and closed it once or twice before he really spoke up.

"That gray smoky color means  dark thoughts, dark depressing thoughts, and a dark personality." Jason answered solemnly.

"Alistair? Dark? That can't be right..." I replied.

"I can only tell you what I know." Jason answered as he kept his eyes on my friend.

Turning to face Alistair I noticed the cold, vacant look in his eyes and his face now void of all color. It was clear from the look on his face that for whatever reason Alistair was worried about this. But not because he couldn't explain why his aura was a dark gray but because he probably could. I wasn't sure which one should scare me more.

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