The child stayed. It stayed and looked while I was... bathed. Bathed! Like a cub! I was not a cub. Hadn't been a cub for a hundred years. This was undignified and wrong. And when his raspy tongue finally stopped flattening my fur, the humans... had multiplied. And I was immediately on my feet, hissing at the second intruder, fur standing up and growing bigger. She was taller and... most likely the mother of the first child. And she was actually loud. She was very loud, how did I miss her? It was an embarrassment. And she was just as unthreatened as the daughter was and it was frustrating, so I leashed o- I tried to leash out. Aura was still suffocating any foreign magic. Nothing happened. I yelped when he knocked me over with his head. And started licking me. Again. Just... knocked me over and flattened my belly fur. I felt miserable.
And mothered. And then... the bigger human came and simply... took him away.
She walked over and grabbed his belly and lifted him off. Just like that. And held him in front of her face.
"Be nice to him. You are distressing him," and actually put a finger on his nose.
The fox looked ashamed. He looked bloody ashamed.
Not that he let up any spiritual pressure, I was still firmly fixed to the floor, but... she could hold him. Like that. And didn't the slightest bit of backlash.
"Now behave," she said. And put him down again.
And he sat down next to me, tail curled around his feet, looking for all the world apologetic.
I just laid there, without much chance to move.
Until the small one came for me. She came closer and reached her hands out for me and I closed my eyes and-
"Maziiiiin...!," a whiney voice said.
When I looked again, the hands of this... handsy little human were on Mazin. Going through his fur. And flattening his ears to his skull. And actually pulling at his hair and... that couldn't feel good. And yet there he was, letting it happen.
It already looked painful.
But going around her legs actually made her forget about me, and while I still couldn't move all too well, he had let up... and now he distracted the tiny human.
That was... alright. Maybe he... was... going to help me. That would be good. Very good, even.
... even if he apparently liked to interact with humans.
This would be a problem.
When the bigger human stepped in between me and the tinier one, I went into defensive position and growled.
"... you're new here, aren't you?," the big one frowned at me, hands in her sides.
"But Mazin adopted you already, didn't he?," she went down to crouch, but didn't reach out her hand, so... so I accepted for now. She... didn't make any noises.
Unlike the other one. Which made a lot.
And I flattened my ears, looking over to that one. It apparently 'played' with 'Mazin'.
"You will be lots of trouble, won't you?," she said in a low voice, then huffed, "As long as you don't bite anyone, you can stay. But take care, alright?"
I hissed at her. My fur rose again.
But... fine, I could accept her instinct to wish to protect her offspring. I could.
Now it was only time to look what... apparently Mazin... was doing with the child.
Not much.
They were... trying to catch each other?
And running away sometimes?
It sometimes even grabbed his tail with its grubby hands.
It was unsightly. And undignified.
And, most of all, very very silly, he was for a fact a lot faster than that child.
There was no question who would catch whom, but he still... lost a lot. And rolled over the floor. And got his belly rubbed.
It was really, really strange to see that.
And the child also... laughed a lot. Which was loud and more than unpleasant. Unpleasant enough to flatten my ears again and press myself to the floor, protecting my poor ears.
It was a little torturous, but I kept laying there. All the while.
A long while.
Until the child apparently was too exhausted... or maybe she saw the raccoon that trotted out of the house.
She certainly did run towards him.
And then... the old Kitsune came to me.
"I see you are not yet able to withstand such a simple disturbance," he said, licking his fur.
"And why would I want to," I hissed back.
And he laid down next to me.
