Commission for Kami
Features my vulpine bard, Flux.
Contains omnoms.
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The forest was steeped in mist. Morning had come and gone, and the sun had failed to burn the obscuring moisture from the air. A quiet guardian of the woods had left his home for the moment, and now walked along the edge of a broad river.
He froze, hooded head twisting toward the sound of hooves pounding the peaty sod. A party of men drove a fox along with their horses, as well as arrows from mounted archers.
The bipedal fox ran, one paw firmly holding the hat upon his head, the other clutched firmly to a flute, diving over roots and weaving through the trees.
The whole commotion headed right toward the robed figure. Once the fox had passed alongside, the figure stepped away from the river, into the mounted party's path, holding out his arms. Fairly human hands rested at the ends of each sleeve, all he showed of himself. "Hold! What has this Animal done to you?"
The leader of the company held up a gloved hand, drawing the party to an unsteady halt. "This Animal, as you call it, is a beast." He lowered his glove to point beyond the cloaked figure.
Unfortunately, one of the bowmen took that as a sign to let loose an arrow, right at the guardian.
A fairly human hand grasped the arrow from the air, and before the men's eyes began to change, visibly turning a metallic yellow, scales forming. The newly formed claw snapped the arrow in half between its fingers and thumb, as the figure's other claw pulled away the cloak in one smooth motion.
The discarded cloak continued to block the men's view for another moment, before it fell aside, revealing the growing and shifting form of what was no longer fairly human.
The leader of the company's horse reared up, and he twisted the reigns. "Homewards, men! It is the Gold shifter of the Woods!" As rapidly as they had come, the men rode away, hoofbeats fading along with them.
The Gold shifter sighed, rubbing his claw along the bridge of his draconic snout. "Ugh... humans have such unimaginative names for things." He turned, looking down at the fox.
Now that he was not running, the dragon could get a better look at him. He seemed to be a sort of travelling minstrel from his attire and flute, and across his muzzle he wore a pair of spectacles seemingly hewn from a church's stained glass. The fox panted heavily, looking up at the golden dragon through the blue-tinted glass. "They have such unimaginative everything for everything. But usually they're good for a few farthings."
"Are you hurt?" The dragon walked around the fox, examining him further.
"Merely winded, I assure you." The fox brushed off his trousers with his free paw, before meeting the golden gaze he drew upon himself. "Might I inquire as to who has rescued me? Or is it just Gold Shifter?"
"I need a name no more than the trees need names." The dragon said somberly, "though I suppose you have a name, fox..."
"A description rather than a name, eh?" The fox chuckled, and scratched his chin with the end of his flute. "Well, I shan't be happy calling you 'dragon'. The name I go by is Flux, as it seems to be my most common state."
The golden dragon used a claw to scoop up his discarded cloak. "Come, then, Flux." He tucked the cloak in under his wing and began to walk away from the river. "It is many leagues out of the forest, and it will be dark soon."
"Well, I'm not going back to town." Flux protested, starting to follow.
"I am well aware of that." The dragon rumbled, "You are going to my home, to stay the night. In the morning I will send you on your way."
The fox moved a bit quicker as they approached a low cliff. "Oh, I see. Is it far to your home?"
A golden claw pressed down on what looked to be a fallen log, and magic shimmered along the nearby cliff face, revealing a cave opening. "Not far at all."
Flux looked on in awe as the dragon ducked his head down, sliding into the cave smoothly. The fox was barely short enough to walk through without ducking himself. He followed once the golden tail had passed.
Carefully, the dragon lit a hanging lantern, setting aglow the magical sphere within with a burst of energy exhaled from his lungs.
Flux sat down on a mound of gold, "Might I play a tune for my savior?"
The golden looked back at the minstrel fox. "Feel free."
The fox smiled, and began to play his flute. The music filled the cavern, certain notes reverberating off the walls, other tinnily resonating with the treasure the pair sat upon.
The dragon found that his eyes were getting heavy, and laid his head down against his foreleg, settling in atop his gold as the fox continued to play.
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The dragon awoke to a strange sensation. Heat was unevenly balanced between his fore and hind portions, and his wings felt pinned in place. He slowly opened his eyes, looking around the low light of his chamber. His hoard was in order, the lantern still burned with his magic, the fox was still here, wrapped around his middle...
The golden dragon rubbed his eyes, and looked down.
Flux gulped firmly around the dragon's middle. The fox was no longer wearing the stained glass spectacles, and his eyes glowed brightly. Further than that, instead of one simple brush, the dragon saw many tails writhing around.
Confused, the dragon writhed and attempted to pull away, but he made no progress against the clenching pulls coming from the fox.
The many-tailed fox simply chuckled around his waist as the motions caused him to be dragged along the hoard, displacing the golden treasure with his body and the contained hindlegs and tail.
Growing more desperate as the continual ripples and swallows drew the bases of his wings out of sight, and the advancing maw neared his shoulders, the dragon twisted his neck around, opening his maw wide and releasing a concentrated jet of pure magic. What he expected was for the fox to be burnt, even cut open, from his breath.
Instead, Flux slowly licked along the dragon's chestplates, eyes growing brighter after the magical impact. He reached forward with two of his many tails, the pair of fluffy appendages grasping the golden's claws, and pressing them together over his crested head.
The dragon grunted and tried to resist, but his claws were successfully bound together, and he could feel the fox's tongue teasing at the base of his neck, before another swallow yanked him deeper. Morbidly he craned his chin down to look at the fox's stomach.
The vulpine's middle showed nary a bulge nor distortion when the dragon looked. He growled in confusion, and writhed, kicking his hindclaws. He was rewarded with a momentary vision of his mightly claws pressing out the furry flesh of the fox's stomach, before another powerful gulp made his neck unable to bend enough to see.
That wet tongue was slathering along the underside of the dragon's mighty jaw now, and he could feel the fox's palate lift from the back of his neck in anticipation to work over his crest. The golden dragon twisted his head in that moment of slack, trying to ram his crest against the fox's jaws, to halt the process.
The fox responded by wrapping his tongue all the way around the dragon's snout, yanking him back against the lower jaw and pulling him deeper in the same motion. The fox's jaws crept into his vision, surrounding his view of his forelegs and the cavern walls.
The dragon squirmed, afraid his every motion was now futile, as the traitorous fox reached out and pressed the end of the dragon's snout in beyond his jaws with a paw, before his tails shoved firmly down on the bound foreclaws. Swallows rung out all around his head as the fox drew him deeper eagerly, and his view of the world shrank further and further, more and more replaced with a view of warm, wet flesh, and beyond, darkness.
The last of the light vanished when the tongue slathered over his foreclaws, and the tails of the fox left his wrists. A long, low gulp rippled over him and echoed through the cave. He found himself curling up snugly within the wet flesh all around him, with a modicum more of freedom to move.
"Oooh... struggle all you want, guardian, but you're staying." Flux's voice echoed from all around, as great forms pressed in against the dragon. Soon he realized they must have been the fox's paws, but the scale seemed wrong. He pressed out against the walls. "oooh~ you are a fighter, aren't you?" The fox grasped the dragon's extremities and pressed them inward, forcing the golden back into a curl. "Now, I think you need a bit of a lullaby..."
The dragon attempted to thrash again, but his limbs were feeling weaker by the moment. A tingle was sinking into his scales, and he feared what it meant.
And then, all around him, that peaceful flute melody began again, resonating all around him. The fleshy walls kneaded and clenched almost in time with the music. The golden shuddered, trying to fight his sleepiness, but it was no use.
The dragon drifted off, lost to a trick from the fox he saved.
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