Night blanketed the forest. Keiko looked out the window. In the darkness, she saw the glowing eye sockets of the skulls that hung from Baba Yaga’s fence. Her spine tingled with fear.
A horseman rode to the fence and stopped. Both horse and rider were pitch black, clothes and body alike. The rider looked up at Keiko before riding into the night.
She sat down on her bed, “I’ve seen three riders: one at dawn, one at noon, and one in the night. What do they want with Baba Yaga? I better call Haru.”
Keiko pulled out her phone and started texting.
He replied with great speed, “The riders are servants of Baba Yaga. She might ask you a question about them.”
“What kind of question?” Keiko texted.
“If I had to guess, I’d say she wants you to figure out what their names are. The white rider is Day, the red rider is Sun, and the black rider is Night.”
“Thanks, Haru-kun.”
“No problem, Keiko-chan.”
Elsewhere, deep in the forest, the fox that Keiko helped gazed into the sky. It waited until an hour past midnight, the time it was born ninety nine years ago. When that hour came, the ninety nine years became one hundred.
The fox barked into the air over and over. As it did, its pitch and tone became more human. Soon, words came out of the animal’s mouth.
“Cast, cast, cast, cast, cast, cast, cast, cast…”
It stood upright. The fox’s arms turned to human arms, its body transformed into that of a woman, and its head changed into a woman’s head. Long and luscious black hair coated the head and trailed down her back. The only remaining fox feature was her tail.
“Not bad for my first spell,” she said, “Now I don’t need to worry about humans kicking me out of their cities! I can totally eat hella garbage and no one will stop me!”
Maniacal laughter flowed from the kitsune’s mouth. She looked over her body.
“First, I need to find some new threads. Humans don’t like other humans walking around naked. I’ll need to find something to hide my tail too.”
The kitsune then grabbed her face, “Oh, no! I totally forgot about the girl that helped me! I need to pay her back.”
A smirk crossed her face.
“Well, at least I’m safe now. Forest animals fear humans.”
A low, ominous growl echoed in the darkness. The kitsune turned. Her eyes met a bear stalking towards her. Another noise caught her attention. It was the mewl of baby bears behind her.
“Listen, I’m not going to hurt your children,” the kitsune said as she backed away.
With a vicious roar, the mother bear charged her. She returned to her fox form and jumped into a hole in the ground.
“Ugh! Now I need to wait until that damn bear leaves to pay that girl back!” she said.
Morning came and Keiko found herself outside of Baba Yaga’s hut. There were two pillars made of human bones with a line of rope between them. On the ground was a vat of water and a pile of clothing.
“Today, you’re washing my and Haru’s clothes,” Baba Yaga told her, “I’ll be back at noon to make sure it’s done.”
Keiko asked, “Why am I doing it out here?”
“What do you mean? Would you rather spill water over my house?” the old witch narrowed her eyes.
“No,” she said. “I should rephrase that. Why am I doing it out here when you have a washing machine?”
Baba Yaga replied, “I don’t have one.”
“I saw Haru-kun…”
A cold glare moved from Baba Yaga’s eyes and flowed into Keiko. It was one of the strangest and most terrifying sensations she felt in her entire life. Complete and utter dread filled her.
‘That must have been some sort of spell.’ Keiko thought before speaking, “I’ll do your laundry out here.”
“Good. Don’t give me any more back-talk or I will kill you,” Baba Yaga said.
Keiko nodded as fast as she could. Satisfied, the witch walked into the house. Turning to the laundry, Keiko grabbed a shirt and dunked it in the tank of water.
“Hey, do you, like, need some help with that?” a voice came from nearby.
She looked up. In front of her was a woman with a fox tail. The woman was naked except for two black censor bars floating in front of her chest and groin.
“What the hell?” Keiko jumped back, “Why are you naked?”
The woman replied, “Hey, I’m not naked! I like have these bars. That makes it okay, right?”
“Hang on…are you the fox I helped yesterday?” she said.
“Totally! Today was my hundredth birthday!”
Keiko was shocked, “One hundred years? There’s no way a fox could…”
She shook her head.
“Why am I questioning this?” Keiko said, “My boyfriend’s a witch, I have a pet demon, and one of my friends is a vampire. Kitsune existing shouldn’t be a surprise.”
“So, can I like help you? We can totally chill while we do laundry,” the kitsune said.
She replied, “I could use the help. My name is Mae Keiko.”
“A name…” the kitsune sat down and started on the laundry, “I’m gonna need one of those if I’m gonna pretend to be a human. Could you like, help me with this? I’ll owe you one again.”
Keiko suggested, “You’re a fox that lived a hundred years. Maybe you could call yourself Hisa? It means long-lasting.”
“That’s a great name, sis! We should totally hang more often,” Hisa smiled.
“By the way, how did you get those bars?” she asked.
The kitsune answered, “I used an illusion spell. I just got my magic, so this is about all I can do.”
When noon came, Baba Yaga left the hut. Hisa ran into the bushes and hid. The witch walked to Keiko. All the laundry was on the line between the bone pillars.
Baba Yaga said, “Hmph. So, you somehow passed this task? You must have the speed of two people.”
Keiko decided to keep her mouth shut about Baba Yaga giving her a task that she was certain she would fail.
“Well, I have a new job for you,” the witch stated.
“What is it?”
“Take the laundry inside and put it in the dryer. I don’t want bugs flying on it as it dries.”
Hiding her rage and frustration, Keiko grabbed a bunch of the clothing and carried it inside. As she did, Haru walked beside her.
He said, “I’m sorry about this. Grandmother can be unreasonable.”
Keiko replied, “It’s fine, Haru-kun. Your advice got me out of this.”
“What do you mean?”
“The fox,” she whispered, “that I helped the other day did the laundry with me.”
“How did a fox help you? They don’t have hands,” Haru questioned.
“It kind of had hands,” Keiko sighed, “By the way, do you have an extra pair of clothes about my size?”
He got what she meant, “It was a kitsune, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, and not just that, but a kitsune that talked weird. Now, I know a demon and a kitsune that do that,” a beleaguered smile crossed Keiko’s face.
Ved'ma Story 