2011

Elias had been walking for days- which was, in and of itself, nothing spectacularly out of the ordinary- but these towns, they were much, much farther apart than he was used to, and the skies had been threatening rain for the last few days.

He knew that the next town was perhaps another day's walk, and with the wind the way it was, there weren't many other travelers.

It was before midday when the rain finally started to come down, and he took to the trees, using what little cover they provided to keep dry as he continued to walk, looking for a place to stop and wait out the storm.

He saw it, finally, an outcropping of rocks, not so much -in- a clearing as the clearing itself. A set of them formed a sort of cave, and Elias set his things down on the dry ground at the very back before going about the creation of a fire- Something which, in the damp, was proving excruciatingly difficult.

After many minutes of fruitlessly striking a flint at his would-be-firewood, he sat back a bit and hunched over, pulling his cloak about himself in an effort to keep warm while he pondered his situation.

Minutes passed, and he looked up- he thought that, amongst the rain and the wind, he heard a rustling- footsteps, but small- An animal, perhaps?

He turned to see, and behind him, his fire sprang to life.

Starting, Elias stared for a moment into the flames, then looked around for the source.

A fox- gray and white, just barely within the light of the fire, stared at him, its purple eyes smiling. It was bigger than a normal fox- big enough to be a dog, and its white markings bring to Elias' mind magic-

The fox nods and pads off, flicking his three tails behind it.

Elias stares for a moment, then whispers.

"Thank You."

***

For my friend Echo; She was working on a story for awhile (and I hope she does again) called the Anachronist, and this is a little Idea I came up with that's mostly non-canon (to my knowledge) involving Elias and the main character, Vaaleron (who appears here in kitsune form)

As well- Uh. Didn't end up nearly as stormy as it was supposed to.

but we can look past that, right?

Vaal does actually have another shoulder, but my scanner was having NONE OF THAT.