Hehehe. Well, whadaya know, another one-shot AND English assignment!

Now this particular story I wrote for our school's Literary Fair. My teacher really liked it, but it was over the limit of 1500 words. If I could get it below that (or close enough), it could go on. I got it down to 1521 words (from like 1600 something). Guess what? IT DIDN'T GO! I was so upset that day...

Anyways, for those of you who don't know, 'kitsune' means fox in Japanese. So the title is "A Moonlit Fox."

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A Moonlit Kitsune

My heart pounded as I found myself once again racing through the dim forest. My lungs and muscles screamed for oxygen, and my snow-white paws began cracking, but I didn’t dare give in. Giving in to my weakness would only give the other kits another reason to taunt and terrorize me.

I took the chance to glance back. They were catching up to me! I pushed my legs to run faster. This wasn’t going to end unless I could find a safe place to hide. After scanning the small forest clearing, I spotted a rather large berry bush and jumped behind it. Curling up, I closed my eyes, hoping they wouldn’t use their noses to find me. Unfortunately, luck just wasn’t on my side.

“There she is!” I heard one of Rufus’ followers shout. I resisted the urge to cry out and give in to the tempting voice inside my head; instead I ran to the Kohaku River, hoping the fresh water would wash away my scent. Just as I was about to dive into the cool running waters, a powerful claw latched onto my tail and I fell ungracefully on my side.

“Did you really think you could escape form me?” Rufus’ snide voice whispered in my ear and I whimpered. He spun me around roughly, his claws scratching my leg. He smirked at how much fear and pain he could cause me; at how much he was able to control me.

“Please stop,” I pleaded. “I won’t tell the elders, just please stop hurting me!”

“You’d better not,” his blood-red eyes bore into my silver ones, sending a shiver up my spine, “we just wanted to have some fun. But just to make sure you don’t break your promise…” Rufus howled, summoning his other kitsune friends to his side.

All of them were normal; they were already full grown and had developed their traditional red-orange fox fur; they were able to hunt for food on their own and outwit many of the forest creatures; but most of all, they had someone who cared for them, someone to return to in the pack…someone who would protect and love them always.

“Now you’ll pay for ever being born!” Rufus lunged at me and my entire miserable life flashed before me. I shut my eyes, ready to accept my fate in hope that death would provide some salvation for me from this hell.

But nothing happened—no pain, no screaming…nor any cursing. I dared to take a peek from one eyes and gasped. What I saw before me was definitely not what I was expecting to see.

“Jian?!” Rufus’ eyes dilated in fear and surprise.

“That’s Prince Jian to you,” the young kitsune prince growled. Much like a cat, he hissed and his fur bristled up, sending Rufus and his gang cowering.

“This isn’t over!” he cried over his shoulder before bounding away back to our den.

Satisfied, the prince shook his body in an attempt to bring some order back into his appearance. Then he rounded on me. I backed away a few inches and he laughed.

“Don’t worry; I’m not going to hurt you,” he assured me. Even so, I remained where I was, paralyzed.

He circled me, and I couldn’t help but feel very uncomfortable under his close inspection. “You don’t seem hurt. Are you alright?” he asked. I absently nodded, even though I knew it was a lie. He seemed to think so too, because next he said, “Don’t worry; those boys won’t bother you anymore; and if they do, you just tell me, ok?”

Surprised would have been an understatement to describe how I felt then. With no particular answer to his question, I gave him one of my own. “Why did you save me?”

“Because you were in need of some help, and I couldn’t let those boys terrorize a beautiful young vixen like you,” he answered with a smile. His marvelous emerald green eyes sparkled with genuine kindness and concern, and my heart skipped a beat. No one had ever acknowledged my existence, let alone call my beautiful, so hearing those words from the handsome prince certainly sent my heart fluttering.

“Why were those boys chasing you, if I may ask?” he inquired politely. I blushed slightly.

“I-I heard from talk amongst the others of our pack that mating season was fast approaching and…” I left my sentence hanging. No matter how much I wanted to pour out all my troubles, I could not leave the prince with that burden.

“And…?” he urged me to continue. Reluctantly, I did.

“I wanted to watch the festival. I have never seen it because I was always kept busy with watching the newborn kits or preparing meals.” He gave me a sympathetic look and helped me to my feet.

“I see. Well then, I would like you to attend the festival. I’ll make sure everything is ready so no one will have an excuse not to let you come. Is that alright?”

I blushed furiously. “Oh n-no, you don’t have to go through all that trouble, Prince Jian. I don’t mind not going,” I tried to discourage him.

“Nonsense. It is my wish that you attend. You don’t have to appear all formal,” he smiled. “By the way, what is your name?”

“Oh, forgive me. My name is Lucia,” I introduced myself and bowed my head. His eyes seemed to widen for some odd reason and I cocked my head slightly in confusion.

“Prince Jian!” cries came from the direction of our den.

“I must finish preparing for the festival. It begins tomorrow when the sun is directly overhead,” he informed me and with that bounded swiftly back to the pack.

Does he really think me beautiful? I asked myself and peered at my reflection in the river. My silver ears and silver eyes were covered with dirt; my silver-tipped tail was a treasure trove of leaves and twigs. My heart sank. I was as ugly as can be. The other foxes shunned me because my fur contained a silver color; they thought me to be some sort of demon come to devour them all. I tried to fight back the tears as I returned to our den.

It seemed the prince did keep his promise. Almost everyone was busy with preparations for the mating festival. Mothers were scurrying about trying to prepare their kits to mate. It seemed there was nothing for me to do, but somehow the elder kitsune had found some job to keep me busy.

Preparations were complete long before the festival was scheduled to begin, yet I was still cleaning the dens and preparing excess food. Anxious to begin the festival, the elders allowed them to begin early. Actually, everyone gathered around was actually waiting for the Prince to come out, for he was now of age to find a mate.

Prince Jian was the last to appear, and all the remained, mate-less vixen crowded around. Well, most of them stood back for the two most popular vixens, Gabryel and Lin, to try their charm on the prince.

Gabryel and Lin paced sensuously around him, sticking their tails in the air and sweet-talking him.

“Hello, Prince Jian,” Gabryel and Lin whispered alluringly.

“Good evening, ladies.” The sun had set not too long ago and the moon now bathed our forest in its milky warmth.

The girls continued to circle him and brush against him, trying to win him over, but Prince Jian seemed bored and uninterested. He scanned the crowd around him, searching for someone.

“Where is she?” he asked and the two vixens stopped circling him.

“Where is who, my dear prince?” Lin asked.

“Lucia; where is Lucia?”

“Oh, you mean that piece of trash? She is where she always is during the mating festivals: in the den preparing our meals.”

Angered, the prince walked steadily over and stopped in front of me.

“I’m sorry. I thought I could give you the chance to come today,” he hung his head in shame.

“Th-that’s alright,” I blushed. “You’d better get back to the festival; your mate is waiting.”

“”I cannot return because the young vixen who I wish to become my mate is not present at the festivities,” he replied. I gazed up into his brilliant emerald eyes.

“What do you mean? Everyone is there to see you.”

“Come with me and I will show you.”

“Jian, why have you brought that filth here?” Gabryel questioned as we entered, tossing her snout in the air, irritated.

“Elders, I have chosen my mate,” he said.

“Who, then, have you chosen?” Lin asked.

“She is standing beside me,” he gazed down at me with loving eyes. My heart fluttered. Did he mean me? “Lucia, would you become my mate?”

It all felt too much like a dream; the fact that he looked like a god as the moon bathed him in its glow didn’t help either; but I didn’t want to let this one chance for happiness slip out of my fingers.

I nodded my head, sending small teardrops to the ground.

“What?! How can you choose that worthless piece of trash over me?” Gabryel cried.

“Because she has done nothing wrong for all of you to treat her as such. You have all shunned her just because she was different, because she was special in her own way! And that’s what I fell in love with,” Jian turned to me. Against all the protests of our kin, we completed the ceremony with a kiss of our snouts.

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Well, did you guys like it? Or not? Tell me!

Oh, I wrote this last December during my Winter Break. Yeah, I was bored.