Chapter 2: Chapter 2: The Root of All Evil

“What is going on?”

I uttered the only sentence, the only question, my struggling mind was able to put out.

“I don’t know, Master.”

Monster answered, slightly tilting her head as she leaned over me.

“Who are you?”

It was the second thing I asked, without thinking. I wasn’t capable of any meaningful conversation at that moment.

“I am yours, Master,” the monster replied, calmly, with its voice at odds with its form. It - she, I corrected myself - had some feminine curves despite the fur-covered body standing on her hind legs. Her hands had grasping fingers tipped with sharp claws. Mostly red-ish in colouring, with the yellow highlight of her head and fluffy collar, her hair was almost gleaming, as befitting of the fiery fox motif she had. Her fluffy tail wagged left and right releasing little sparks.

I stared. This situation was ultimately alien to me, all that death, all that fire, it was all like a bad dream I silently prayed to end. It didn’t.

She-monster was however quite comfortable with my gaze and patiently waited, only slightly throwing her red mane around, smiling in the best equivalent of human facial expression the short canine snout could provide.

Her smaller kin, generally looking like the younger, smaller variant of her with different colouration, were however obviously getting bored and wandered around. Two played with the swords they picked up, trying to set the blades’ metal tips ablaze with their powers. They found it obviously amusing as they giggled sillily, others wandered off to the forest where the fires they caused slowly subsided.

A larger one seemed to be content with looking at me, only moving slightly closer. She smelled like burned aromatic wood.

Moments passed. Then something within me finally gave away and forced me to do something.

“Why do you stare at me like that?” I said.

“You created me. I dare say you are the most important person in my life right now,” she replied, in a slightly sultry tone. I still couldn’t get used to the fact that she did have quite a normal, if not even pleasant, human-like voice, but the anthropomorphic canine body. I had a nagging sensation that her voice wasn’t even a sound, and rather this strange feeling reverberating within my brain, her mouth however did move when she spoke though.

The awkward moment was interrupted by her smaller variant.

“For Master!” Mini-monster announced in her annoyingly childish tone and presented me with a pair of boots, only slightly charred on the edges.

Bodies, I realized, they looted the bodies. It was a dire reminder of the events that just transpired.

I suddenly became aware of the gruesome surroundings and all the stench around I somehow ignored it for the short, blissfully dulled moment.

Unable to take any of it anymore, I backpedalled then I jumped on my feet and ran into the woods, ignoring the creatures, burnt vegetation, lashing branches or scorched corpses left in the wake of the monster’s rampage. There were more of them than those whose death I witnessed.

Eventually, I just collapsed on the decaying cobbled road that cut through the forest, unable to move as my foot hurt, bruised from the ordeal of running through the forest, barefoot. I looked around, breathing heavily, and I had no idea where I was, what I should do, and what the hell was going on. My feet were stung and hurt, bleeding from embedded pieces of sharp, tiny rocks, but ironically, it kept me in reality, no matter how insane it was. A subtle reminder this wasn’t a dream.

The forest was silent, tense, for a little while. Perhaps it was afraid, scared of predators stalking around. Or it was just my lack of experience with the wilderness and not being accustomed to waking up in the middle of nowhere. I blame it on the latter. No one could have been prepared for his.

Then a few loud blasts echoed around the woods startling the remaining birds that were too foolish to not flee during the madness that transpired when I woke up here.

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It may be too late for them, as a burning bird crashed down to the ground. Then I heard the giggling.

A smaller version of those vulpine devils appeared carrying the half-chewed chicken, or something very similar to it. It rushed for its prey laying scorched and crashed, picked that up and then offered it to me.

“For Master!” It quipped and smiled, its muzzle covered in blood. Or she, they did all have feminine voices after all.

“I’ll … pass,” I said, and shook a little. I was uncomfortable but helpless. She seemed disappointed by my refusal, and I stayed silent. The monster looked at me, and I looked at the monster, she tore a bit of meat from her catch in another weird moment.

I didn’t have to watch the not-quite-fox gnawing on the bird for too long though as her larger, and significantly more talkative version caught up with us momentarily, tagged with two of the smaller ones. One that brought me the boots. The other one now had a helmet on her head, an ancient Asian looking one that didn’t fit, she probably took it as a trophy from her unfortunate victim.

“I…” Was the only thing I managed to say before I had to admit I was sorely lacking in terms of dealing with a fireball throwing and slightly psychotic anthropomorphic foxes. I didn’t think I could run. I didn’t even know where to, and as unnerving the monsters were, they weren’t hostile.

Another explosion came from the forest - they weren’t hostile to me, at least, as they found other targets to vent their fiery aggression on.

“Hm?” The fiery fox regarded me once again, entirely unperturbed by the fact her kin was rampaging somewhere else, and then pointed out the obvious, “You need clothes and boots, Master.”

For a while, I didn’t respond and had to force myself to carry out the dialogue, to bring my mind away from the flashbacks to the violence.

“And you don’t need clothes?” I asked. It was, a stupid question, however, she was probably willing to accommodate it.

“There are no humans around,” she replied, and added playfully, “and I don’t mind you looking at me.”

“I am human.”

All furry monsters, larger and smaller alike, laughed as though it was the most hilarious joke they ever heard.

“That’s lame. You are Master.” Bigger one said, while her lesser kin seconded with screechy “Master! Master!”

In an attempt to normalize this conversation in this absurd situation, and in a desperate attempt to grasp any resemblance of normality in the situation where common sense failed, I decided to direct it elsewhere.

“What’s your name anyway?” I asked, albeit without any real desire to find the answer.

“I don’t have a name yet. You can give me one,” she replied, in utmost seriousness.

“What about Tama?” I suggested mindlessly. I had no reasons for picking it, no justification, no real thought of why, I just said it. It has soon proven to be a mistake, as it triggered those game-like windows to invade my perception.

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