Pain. This was the first thing I experienced upon awakening. My eyes snapped open, but a shroud of darkness obscured my vision. I felt my body changing, changing into something powerful, something dark in nature. After what seemed to be an eternity, I felt the changes to my body cease and a feeling of relief overcame me. However, the worst was yet to come. Now that my body had finished undergoing its changes, I felt my mind begin to warp and change. I became more intelligent, calculative, and cold. As this was happening, I felt memories of my life slipping away into the darkness around me and vainly tried to hold onto my name, my parents, anything. It was in vain and I felt the last shreds of my memory vanishing into the darkness around me as I lost consciousness, finally succumbing to the pain that the changes had caused.
“Urg…” I moaned, as I slowly regained consciousness, opening my eyes blearily. I raised my head and attempted to gain my bearings, observing my surroundings curiously. I noted that I was in a clearing surrounded by a dense forest with naught a creature in sight. After making this observation, I attempted to stand, slowly rising onto all fours. I looked around the clearing again, this time spotting a small pool of water. Suddenly becoming aware of my intense thirst, I made my way over to the pool of water and took a drink. After drinking my fill,I realized that I did not know what I looked like. I attempted to recall my appearance, but I found that I could not. Feeling slightly unnerved by this and not having a mirror in the vicinity, I turned back towards the pool of water and gazed at my reflection. Looking back at me was a large fox covered in smooth tan fur. I was wearing a plain white fox mask with elegant, yet simple red markings. Where eye holes would normally be were instead two smoothly drawn dark blots.
Satisfied with what I had seen, I moved to turn away from the pool until I saw something resembling a hilt over my right shoulder. ‘A sword?’ I mused, turning my head slightly and gripping the hilt in my mouth. I turned back towards the pool in order to inspect the weapon, the motion drawing the blade from it’s place on my back. It was indeed sword, but it was quite odd in design. The blade was a dark shade of green and possessed nine hook-like protrusions on the sides. It was a wicked looking weapon that seemed to radiate malice and ill-intent. I decided that it needed a name. After a moment of thought it came to me, ‘Nine Strike…’ a voice in the back of my head whispered. I quickly turned, expecting some creature to be behind me, but no one was there. Chalking it up to a brief moment of paranoia, I mulled over the name I came up with. ‘Nine Strike… it’s perfect’ I thought in no small measure of satisfaction.
I moved to place the sword onto my back until yet another thing caught my eye. It was my tail, or, to be more precise, all nine of my tails. Intrigued by this new development, I turned my head to the side in order to more fully view my them. What I saw intrigued me, each tail was covered in luxurious tan fur with the tip of each tail stained crimson, as if by blood. In addition, the upper portion of each tail was wrapped in what appeared to be bands of green cloth, with a different colored fox mask set onto each.
Curiosity over my appearance finally sated, I came to a startling conclusion. I didn’t have a name. I attempted to recall what my name might have been, but found that I couldn't dredge up the memory. ‘Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to think up a new one.’ I mused. I pondered over it for a moment, until it came to me in a flash of brilliance. ‘Ninetails shall be my name’ I decided.’The perfect name for a nine tailed fox’ I thought, and felt a grin starting to stretch across my face.
That is, until I heard a menacing growl coming from behind me. ‘Crap!’ I swore silently within my mind, cursing myself for letting my guard down. I spun around to face the source of the growl. About ten feet in front of me was a manticore, it had a primal hunger in it’s eyes, with it’s gaze firmly locked onto me. Tensing my body, I prepared myself for an attack, knowing that negotiation wasn’t an option. Suddenly, the manticore lunged forward with lightning speed and brought it’s tail to bear.
Thinking quickly, I dodged to the side, breathing a sigh of relief when I saw the manticore’s tail embedded into the ground where I had been standing but a moment before. I braced myself for another attack, but it never came. Looking over in surprise, I noted that the manticore was having some trouble getting it’s tail out of the ground. ‘Now is my chance to get out of here!’ Was the first thought that entered my mind. However, that thought was quickly crushed down and replaced by a cold, calculative anger. ‘No… this creature dared to attack me and now is the time to strike’ I thought with grim resolve. ‘Its time for you to pay, you filthy animal’ I thought darkly. With this in mind and assured by fact that the manticore was immobilized, I prepared for a counterattack and guided by what can only be called instinct, brought my tail upward into a arch over my head.
As soon as my tail was in position, time seemed to stop and the world appeared gray. By some odd compulsion, I mimicked making a slashing motion with my tail in the direction of the manticore’s immobilized appendage. To my surprise, when I did this, a line of red ink appeared overtop of the manticore’s tail, almost as if I were an artist with the world as my canvas. When I brought my tail back down, time seemed to resume as color flooded back into the world. Then, ‘Shing!’ the manticore’s tail severed from the rest of its body as an invisible blade cut through like a hot knife through butter. The manticore roared in agony and lunged at me, intent on sharing it’s pain. With the haze of battle fogging my mind, I felt a wicked grin appear on my face as I moved slightly to the side and brought Nine Strike to bear.
The blade seemed to glow with malevolence as I swung it towards the manticore’s face, with the blade returning to it’s place on my back as I finished the motion. For a moment, nothing happened and everything was still. Then, with a look of shock, the manticore’s head was suddenly split in two, pouring blood and brain matter onto the ground. ‘Serves it right, it should have known better than to attack me’ I thought in smug satisfaction, crushing down any guilt I might have felt at the act. Gazing at the corpse of my fallen foe, I moved my gaze away from the dead manticore and went to the middle of the clearing to sit down.
Musing over the events of the battle, I pondered where that strange power had come from. ‘It seems to be related to my tails… such a power will be useful in the future’ I mused. ‘I need to think of a name for such a technique, perhaps-’ Before I could sink further into my thoughts however, a low growl came from around the edges of clearing. Jumping to my paws, I observed the newcomers cautiously. A pack of wooden wolves had surrounded the clearing, snarling in hostility. ‘Wooden wolves...perhaps, Timberwolves?’ I thought, quickly coming up with the name. I observed them with slight curiosity, which was quickly overshadowed by annoyance as the timberwolves moved closer towards my position. ‘I'm not in the mood for this’ I thought harshly, before raising myself to full height. ‘Leave!’ I thought, and let loose the most menacing roar I could. While the volume of the roar was intimidating enough on its own, it was how the roar seemed to warp the light spectrum, causing everything to glow a dark crimson that ultimately did the job. The wolves cowered in fear before breaking apart.
Staring in slight bewilderment at the remains of the timberwolves, I let out a sigh.
‘I have lingered here long enough, I need to get out of this blasted forest…’
‘Perhaps I can find a city or town nearby, a map would be useful’
With that in mind, I chose a random direction and set off.